Spoilers: Early game
Base Defense: Why a Safe Area Still Gets Attacked
Distinguish ordinary spawns, portal storms, and other assaults in Abiotic Factor, then prepare a base without assuming one upgrade stops every threat.
Identify the event
| What you observed | Likely check to make | What not to assume |
|---|---|---|
| Creatures return during an overnight power loss | Check bench power and its home area | A bench visible in the room was necessarily active |
| A portal-storm announcement | Inspect whether Portal Suppression Field is installed and the bench is powered | Every kind of raid is a portal storm |
| Soldiers or another non-portal assault | Prepare for the announced threat and inspect approach routes | Portal suppression should block it |
| The event ends but something still attacks | Look for surviving enemies before repairing | The ending message killed all attackers |
Portal storms differ from other raids. The end message indicates that spawning has finished, not necessarily that every enemy is dead.
Do a perimeter check before returning to routine crafting.
What should you do after the afternoon warning?
Watch for the warning at 4 PM before a night attack. Treat it as preparation time, not a reason to start a long supply trip without checking your base. Some attacks begin without the usual messages, so keep defenses ready between warnings.
- Confirm the Crafting Bench and essential equipment are powered.
- Check charged backup batteries before outlets turn off. A full Makeshift Battery alone is slightly short of a default night for one device; use the overnight wiring guide.
- Leave a route out of the workspace and access to supplies. Do not seal yourself behind your own storage.
- Inspect the approach from which enemies actually arrived during previous attacks. Place defenses around observed routes instead of copying a room layout from a different base.
- Keep recovery supplies accessible so a damaged station does not prevent you from reaching everything needed to repair it.
Build a first powered defense: a Chopinator approach
For an entrance used by taller enemies, a Chopinator is a concrete starting option. Craft one at a Crafting Bench with 4 Metal Scrap + 1 Metal Pipe + 1 Energy Brick + 1 Oil. It requires power and can hurt players as well as enemies.
Set up the approach so that the blades intercept enemies without blocking your escape:
- Identify the approach enemies actually use. Put the Chopinator there with its blade area clear of your normal workstation path.
- Keep the bench, food and repair supplies behind that approach, not touching the blades. Maintain a separate usable exit; do not make walking through your trap the only way out.
- Connect power and verify the blades operate before depending on it. If it must run overnight, treat it as an additional powered device: the two-battery/one-bench example does not also cover this trap.
- Keep a handheld weapon ready for enemies the blades miss. Short Pests and Peccaries can pass beneath them; a Pest may be hit while jumping, but that is not reliable floor-level coverage.
- After the encounter, remove remaining threats and disconnect power before approaching the blades to work. Inspect durability and repair with Metal Scrap: a fully damaged Chopinator stops operating rather than immediately disappearing.
| Failure during your first defense | Change to test next |
|---|---|
| Short creatures reach the bench | Handle the low approach separately; another high blade is not proof of coverage |
| Blades stop during the night | Check charge and total load before adding another trap |
| Trap is present but no longer spins | Distinguish durability failure from power loss |
| You cannot reach supplies safely | Move the access path, not just the enemy-facing defense |
A portal that appears inside the workspace can bypass an entrance defense. Pair this setup with the event checks above; it is not a substitute for understanding where a raid spawns.
Prepare a defensible workspace
Keep the base easy to repair during an attack:
- Keep an exit clear of storage.
- Avoid grouping all critical equipment beside an entrance.
- Make the bench and its wiring reachable for inspection.
- Check overnight power for any equipment you depend on.
A layout should remain usable when a single point fails.
Why portal suppression is not enough
Portal Suppression Field does not prevent non-portal assaults such as Order attacks or Exor patrols. If those enemies arrive, it does not by itself prove the upgrade is broken.
For ordinary spawning and workstation problems, use the Crafting Bench guide.
After an attack
Inspect surviving enemies, damaged objects, and disconnected or depleted power separately. Fix the observed failure before spending resources on a full rebuild.
In what order should you recover?
First deal with surviving threats and confirm you can move safely. Next restore the bench’s supply and inspect the equipment you depend on. Then repair damaged defenses and replace consumed resources. Finally, record where attackers approached and what failed first; that observation should drive the next layout change.
If power was the first failure, extra barriers alone will not restore the bench. If enemies arrived during a non-portal assault, reinstalling portal suppression alone will not address that event. Change the part that failed rather than treating every damaged base as the same problem.
Can you simply leave the base to avoid a raid?
Do not treat leaving as deleting an event. Attacks can be delayed while players are far from the selected bench, then start when a player returns within a bench’s radius. A quiet night away can therefore leave a problem waiting for your return.
In multiplayer, other players’ positions and nearby benches also matter. If you plan to return with valuable materials, keep your entry and recovery path usable.
