Building in a fight: field barricades

The raptors are coming from two sides and your back is to the water. Drop a Field Barricade, and for the next little while the ground behind it is yours.

How it works

The Field Barricade is sharpened stakes lashed to a log: a wall built for a fight, not a home.

Craft one anywhere and place it like any other building piece. Once it's down:

• Creatures pressing against it can't walk or charge through — their own steering stops them at the wall.
• A creature pushing on it wears it down over time, so a barricade under heavy pressure can fall before its time runs out.
• It falls apart on its own after 25 s, whether or not anything ever leaned on it.
• You can have 3 standing at once. Place one more and your oldest comes down to make room.

A field barricade is never saved with the world. It's a quick fix for right now, not a piece of your home. Someone else's land and the village's safe ground are still off limits, but a visitor who can't build anywhere else may still drop one (see Level sync and parties).

What you can do about it

• Pick the chokepoint, not just a spot. A bridge, a doorway, a gap between rocks — one barricade across the narrow way does more than three scattered in the open.
• Carry the materials, not the piece. Stick and fibre are common and light, so it costs almost nothing to keep enough for two or three barricades in your satchel before a hard fight.
• Use it to buy time, not to wall yourself in. It's gone for good after 25 s, so plan to finish the fight, heal up or fall back while it holds — not to lean on it forever.

Where next

Field barricades are one piece among many: see Building and waterworks for everything else you can build. For what you're likely holding the line against, read Combat and elements, and for a longer stand against real pressure, Survival worlds and Level sync and parties.