The Cerberus Solo Base Design (2022) (2024)

Welcome back to the channel.

Today I’m showing you a variation of a popular footprint used by some other solo builders. While some of them are certainly great, in comparison, this base cleverly retains most of the features while being more simple and cheaper.

Introducing the Cerberus.

A feature-packed solo base meant for players who want the latest and greatest without the complexity of using multi TC, floor stacking, or wide gaps.

The base retains internal and external peek-downs despite it being a single TC. Not to forget about the roof; it is also heavily protected thanks to three ankle-biter roof peeks and turrets.

Of course, you can always take the fight to players from the roof battlements or from the 360-degree shooting floor.

And that’s not to mention if raiders find themselves in any major part of the base, they’ll have to deal with numerous auto-turrets. Thanks to three external respawns and custom gatehouses, you also have multiple opportunities to flank raiders or play compound.

Of course, there’s more to a base than just defenses. This variation remains very comfortable for minimalist solo players considering the compactness of the footprint and has the potential for you to really maximize the space as you see fit.

And, of course, the base can be realistically progressed in stages and starts being defendable before it’s even finished. When compared to those other designs, this base has a very respectable upkeep considering it is only one TC for the main base.

It certainly won’t be winning any awards in terms of raid cost, but it still puts up a decent fight and is on par with other bases in this same price range.

Before we jump into the tour, I’d like to thank a long-time supporter of the channel and today’s sponsor.

Tour

Approaching the compound, we see one of the three roof-disconnectable external TCs that is connected to a custom gatehouse.

Each external TC houses a bed and locker for you to respawn into flank players.

The gatehouse provides excellent visibility to check for door campers or engage players on both sides of the walls.

Entering the compound, we are visible to multiple peek-down angles.

Heading into the base through one of the three identical entrances brings us into the inner corridor below the peek downs.

This has lots of room for boxes or other deployables while being protected by three auto-turrets.

Going up this ladder brings you up into the second-floor living space.

You can really customize this area to your liking.

Heading down into the core, we find our main battery and one of the storage variations. In addition to the TC, you can fit a dropbox and furnace into this compartment. The TC holds enough upkeep for over 2 and a half days.

Heading out of the core, we’ll make our way to the third floor, which has a bed respawn point and inner peek-downs.

The shooting floor also doubles as our external peek-downs, which are protected by auto-turrets.

Three ankle-bitter roof-peeks give you numerous angles to fight players that might be on top of your base. These ladder hatches provide quick access to the inner peek-down corridor. This center jump-up is your roof access.

Above each ankle bitter is an auto turret pod.

Roof battlements provide great visibility over the surrounding terrain.

And that’s the tour- let’s jump into the build.

Starter

Start by claiming the area with a starter unit.

It only has a single, double door, so you should be trying to get out of this stage as early as possible.

For now, place the TC like so with a furnace next to it. This will eventually get closed off with a window frame.

For now, furnish the interior as you see fit.

Extended Starter

For the next stage, we’ll make the base more secure and give us more room for storage.

Start by building a furnace jump up. One of the sides will be our entrance, and the other will eventually become our access to the third floor.

Above the core jump-up, make a half-height shelf to put boxes on.

In the jump up on the left, you can put a workbench and a small box.

When sealing the roof, leave the workbench triangle wood to soft side out later.

Use a temporary roof ramp to gain access to your new entrance.

Using a triangle roof eliminates a potential door camper hiding spot.

Internal Peekdowns

Next, we’ll build the corridor shell around the base, which will give us our internal peeks and some early game windows. Start by placing a frame on the foundation then these triangles.

Remove the twig and then machete the foundation under the roof ramp.

Repeat this on the other two sides. Once done, lay out these foundations.

Next, we’ll build the shell. Each side gets entrance into the base.

Use a furnace below the second-floor entrance to let you jump up to it.

Outside of the shell, you have to build this floating floor for the external peek-downs since you won’t be able to build it after this stage.

Soft side the triangle ceiling out and build your inner peeks.

These triangle corners need to stay wood to soft side out later.

On the socket closest to you, place a half wall followed by a window frame. Next to it, build another, then a single door frame. Repeat this all the way around.

Then, occupy the frames. Build a half-height roof access jump up in the center, with the entrance side directly above the opening that leads to the 2nd floor.

On the roof, put a temporary floor to place the windows and door frame.

With the inner peeks completely enclosed, you can utilize the space with deployables or boxes.

Remember to not leave anything valuable in here, though, as there isn’t an airlock yet.

Progression Upgrades

Once you acquire the resources, replace the workbench with a tier 2, then start swapping out garage doors starting from the core outward.

Next, remove all your deployables in the core and finalize the TC compartment with a dropbox, window, and reinforced glass.

Now would also be a good time to upgrade it to sheet metal. Use a half-height shelve in the jump up, with a frame in front of the TC compartment window.

For the deployables in the core, you can prioritize storage or include a large battery.

Your first shotgun trap fits perfectly in this corner to protect the dropdown.

Another good spot is on the shelf above the core jump-up chute.

Replace the wooden doors on the shell and occupy the windows with glass and or embrasures.

Underneath the roof access jump up, you can put a flame trap and a large box in front of it. You will have to pick these up later to place the ladder hatch in the opening that leads to the 2nd floor.

If the workbench is preventing you from getting up or down, try picking it up and placing it closer to you, but still as close as you can to the left wall.

External Defenses

Next, we’ll build some external defenses. Start by upgrading the outer foundations to sheet metal. Then, build a high visibility airlock on all three sides.

Next, we’ll build the external peek-downs and shooting floor. Outfit the windows with vertical embrasures. Garage doors go above where the ladder hatches will eventually be.

Remember to put a siren light at half height to use the ankle-biter roof peeks.

Above the double door frames, place full-height walls. Then, place a stone frame at the same height as the horizontal embrasure.

As you get the ladder hatches, soft side the wood floors out in the corners and place them. On the roof, cap the auto turret pods off with a ceiling. Then, place triangle roofs at half-height.

If you’re having difficulty placing it, temporarily occupy the top wall socket. From the shooting floor, you can place the rest of the roofs through the floor.

Upgrades

Throughout the wipe, upgrade these building blocks to their final build grade as you acquire the resources for it.

When you upgrade these window frames, remember to rotate them.

Final Furnishings

Feel free to furnish the inner corridor however you see fit- for me, I like to include a computer station, mixing table, and oil refinery.

As a reminder, your results may vary depending on the terrain.

Of course, you’ll want to replace the workbench with a tier 3.

For this one, you will have to place the workbench first, the ladder hatch second, then the flame trap and large box.

Locker goes against this back wall next to the second-floor entrance.

Make sure you can still walk in and out of the door smoothly.

On the third floor, inners, a bed, and a locker go up against the walls of the center jump-up. Each airlock section gets a flame trap in the corner with either a sofa, repair bench, or research table.

Final Upgrades

If you find any armored doors, you can swap the second-floor door with it-though you should know that it’s totally optional since it only increases the raid cost if going through doors as the cheapest advertised raid cost is from a different raid path.

Besides that, definitely upgrade the back two triangles, including the foundations of the core, to high-quality metal, and replace the window with an armored one.

The TC compartment window and half-height shelf in front of it should be upgraded to sheet metal.

Electricity

The strongest place to put the main turret battery circuit is in this high-quality metal corner in the core with a garage door.

If you would prefer more box loot storage, you have the option of moving the large battery into a compartment like this on the roof.

While it means the battery is theoretically cheaper to break, it’s a worthy alternative since it will almost guarantee your auto-turrets stay online since it’s out of the pummel zone- of course, unless it’s specifically targeted.

Regardless of whichever you do, the windmill will go on top of the base, in the center triangle. Simply build a couple of temporary twig floors, place the windmill and then remove the twig.

Solar panels go above each auto turret pod.

In the description, there’s a blueprint that shows how to wire a basic electrical system.

External Structures

Since the base is a single TC, these external structures will only be providing overlapping privileges for grief protection. Because of this, you can really use whatever custom gatehouse and external TC you want, so long as the privilege covers the highest part of the base.

But if you want the one I recommend for this base, follow these steps.

As a reminder, it’s always a good rule of thumb to try and get these established sooner rather than later to avoid getting TC griefed.

Getting your external structures established early means you can also start refining resources with large furnaces to expedite completing the base.

Anyways, to start- follow this build order outside of each entrance.

Everything will be built in its final build grade.

On the gatehouse side, build a sheet metal double door frame.

At the external, put your doors, TC, and other deployables. Place the locker up against the back wall and then a bed in front of it.

Close the garage door and place a small box as far left as you can.

This box should contain extra high walls and meds. Outfit the gatehouse with doors and embrasures.

Don’t forget to put an extra triangle foundation in front of the double door and test to make sure your disconnectable works as intended.

Compound

Once the external TCs and custom gatehouses are established, enclose the compound with high wooden walls. Start on one of the corners of a gatehouse and clip it about 1/4th of the way into it.

Try to keep the high wall straight and in line with the edge of the gatehouse. For the gatehouse next to it, repeat the same process.

With the single door sides, don’t clip it too far in as it will prevent you from going through the doorway.

Make sure to use the free look frequently to gauge placement distance.

Use twig squares to help place a single metal barricade on top of each gatehouse.

Line yourself up with the squares to place large furnaces. Optional mixing tables or other deployables can go in the compound; just be smart about what you’re leaving unprotected.

I didn’t include it in the video, but I highly recommend you include auto-turrets in the compound to protect against grubs or raiders.

You’ll need to wire these on a separate circuit from the main battery.

Since these are generally lower acuity turrets, I would just wire them with a small battery from the closest external and power them from a solar panel above each.

And with that, the base is complete.

While the base is certainly nothing crazy, it’s pretty much a jack of all trades and should hopefully be perfect for the minimalist solo players out there.

Of course, if you see something you dislike, I encourage you to tinker with the design to fit your playstyle.

Whatever you decide, I hope you enjoyed the video. Consider subscribing for future content, and I’ll see you guys next time.

Thanks for watching.