[590][WiP] The Miniature Builders' Guidebook.

[WiP]: Work in progress.

This Guidebook was created aiming to be a helpful resource for builders to refer to.

Any claims that this Guidebook or parts of this Guidebook was made solely by the player, without any acknowledgement of the original creators, will be heavily criticized upon and reported to KAG Staff.

Please ask for permission and acknowledge the original creator, when taking from this Guidebook.

Typed and created by: soulrealm
Contributions received from the following players: killatron46

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Sections:​

1. Main Purposes of a Builder
2. Offensive Building
3. Structural Bases
4. Workshops
5. Pathfinding
6. Catapult
7. Traps
8. Collapsing
9. Clan War

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Main Purposes of a Builder​

Provide efficient structures whereby team-mates can refuge.
Provide defense or blockage to prevent or hinder the enemy from gaining ground and assaulting your team.
Enable counterattacks or assaults upon the enemy.
Provide appropriate workshops located in appropriate locations to support and aid team-mates.
To create a pathway that is more easily accessible for team-mates and less accessible for enemies.

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Offensive Building​

Spoiler

Offensive building is most effective with a quick-witted and wise builder.

Seal
Sealing off enemy exits and entrances is always a good idea and should be done as soon as or before you invade enemy towers.

Overhangs
Overhangs are essential in building offensively, especially overhangs that do not give way from just 1 bomb.
Overhangs are also easier targets for the bombs of knights, so consider placing doors and putting a wall for your overhang.
Offensive Overhangs do not necessarily need to let your teammates back in, but having a team friendly entrance would be advantageous in some circumstances.
Overhangs that are hard to collapse from the outside, but easy to collapse from the inside yet still cheap and efficient are extremely effective in offensive building.
Also take into account the height and shelter of your overhang and take into account the ability of enemy knights to throw bombs on top of your overhang, not only collapsing it, but killing players on top of it as well.

Sometimes, overhangs are completely useless, as an enemy tower in front of it is extremely high and allow enemies to parachute directly onto your overhang. Consider simply making a 1 or 2 block overhang in this case and building a higher tower than your opponent. Make sure you back wall it and pay attention to enemy builders.

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Structural Bases​

Spoiler

Bases are one of the important things for a tower.
If you don't have a base, it can't be called a tower.

You need to consider time, endurance, expansion, accessibility, resources and positioning of any tower base.

Time
Build time efficient towers, that are yet effective but still only use a little time to complete.

Endurance
Your tower needs to be able to endure enemy damage, whether it may be from builders, bombs or catapults.

Expansion
You need to a tower that is easily expandable to become stronger and higher to serve as a bigger obstacle for your enemies and a better refuge for your team.
Consider things such as overhangs, collapsibles, bomb chutes or small spike pits and places for workshops.

Accessibility
Towers need to be accessible for your teammates yet inaccessible for enemies. Consider the easiest way for your teammates to go through yet extremely hard for enemies to cross.
The construction of tall towers without doors results in the slow descent or death of teammates when trying to get down. Consider building a door at around 7-9 blocks high to prevent fall damage or stun when jumping out of the tower.

Resources
Always take resources into account when building. Placing useless or very costly blocks may be used more effectively elsewhere, such as instead of using the resources of one big bad tower to create two small good towers.

Positioning
Positioning of towers is extremely important. Towers under a hill are extremely useless. Towers on top of hills are extremely effective. Team towers that are too close together render the tower behind it useless. Towers that are too far, enable enemies to gain ground and build towers where your team could've built one. You can also build your towers on bedrock, providing a strong foundation for your tower, obstructing enemy digging.

Another Good Guide on Structural Bases...
Guro's Guide to Structure Auto-Critique

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Workshops​

Spoiler

The simple workshops are Quarters, Bomb Shop, Arrow Shop and Siege Workshop. But have you ever considered about where you should put them to help your team as best as you can?

Accessibility
Workshops should always be more accessible to your team than for your enemy.
After all, you didn't build the workshop for your enemies to use did you?
By placing your workshop inside behind a tower or above ground that enemies can't reach, you can successfully eliminate a lot of the disadvantages that workshops bring you.

Protection
Protecting workshops is one of the other needs of a workshops. Enemy archers often have fun damaging your workshops, getting free money as well as making your team lack refuge and supplies.
One of the most easiest protections is simply some stone overhead or a simple shack when its on the ground.
Consider placing your workshop in a taller shack.

Tent Workshop Standard Rules - that I advise you to follow
Who said there is no particularly better way to build tent workshops?
Well here's a fact: THERE IS!
Tent workshops are the workshops which are immediately accessible by your teammates as soon as they respawn at the tent and are the basic need for any team.
The tent itself is usually a non-build area, that is, you cannot place blocks upon it. However, by placing a quarters here, you are using inaccessible space effectively.
Placing bomb shops in location which are extremely accessible to team mates yet inaccessible to enemies is one of the most advantageous way to prevent spawn killing.
If you don't want your base to be spammed with bombs and utterly destroyed, place your bomb shop in front of the tent, over a spike pit or above ground on trap bridges.
Arrow workshops are generally not taken into account, however, to save space, they are usually placed above or behind more important workshops.
Siege workshops, perhaps the most valuable among all 4, require gold to create, and most of the time, gold is scarce or hard to access. Therefore, they must be protected from any damage. By placing them inside a spike pit shack or just a shack, you can protect your siege workshop from enemy damage, and usually it stays alive for the whole game, especially when bomb jumpers invade your base.

Workshop Shields
The use of empty workshops as shields for archers or catapults against arrows can prove as good cheap temporary shields.

The Workshop Dilemma
Making the wrong workshop doesn't always spell doom to your team.
A simple solution is to make another empty workshop, and holding [E] upon it, then walking over to your incorrect workshop, will allow you to change it to whatever workshop you want.

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Pathfinding​

Spoiler

Pathfinding, the art of …

You may think that pathfinding is the easiest. But have you ever consider how to create a path that's accessible to your team and not to your enemy yet very fast?

Ladders
The most common block used for pathfinding is ladders. Ladders are cheap are very efficient, enabling players to add an additional 3 blocks to their upwards direction. However, spamming ladders along a wall may seem fast, but in actually fact, this causes the slowing down of movement for any who cross them.
Consider using ladders with 1 space between each when climbing a wall. This enables a fast ascent for everyone.
Ladders with 2 spaces and 3 spaces are even faster, however at 4 spaces, although you can still climb them by holding your up [W] key, you'll need a vaulting start, whether it is from a ladder, a block or a bridge.

Bridges Horizontally
People often spam bridges when attempt to cross a hole, pit. This method, although is very fast and team friendly, uses a whole heap of wood at once.
Additionally, team mates still on the bridge wall fall to their doom as soon as the bridge is tipped by an enemy.
To prevent this, consider putting gaps between bridges, whether it be 1 bridge 1 gap or 2 bridges 1 gap or et cetera, this will make it safer for teammates to cross bridges, as well as saving resources.
However, here comes the dilemma.
Bridges with gaps are normally filled with stone back wall. This provides a sturdy block position for enemy builder to place stone walls in. They can easily place blocks there, without destroying your bridges, and successfully make your trap or the hole useless.
This can be countered using spikes, placed beneath and between bridges, although at the cost of stone.
Another known method is using the 2 bridges 1 gap or 3 bridges 1 gap rule.
However, this does not stop them placing blocks beneath your bridge.
To counteract this, you can place spikes underneath your bridges and workshop tiles where you can't place your spikes.
You may also want to consider placing workshop tiles above your trap.
This will delay the enemy builder, and with a good team, should be enough time for reinforcements to arrive or for the enemy to take a pounding.
Another good method of counteracting the destruction of team bridges to neutral bridges involves the activation of bridges. This is, the enemy will activate or tip the bridge and cause it to drop. Not only can't enemy builders destroy dropped bridges, they can also fall in the pit/hole and kill themselves.

Bridges Vertically
Bridges can be placed vertically on walls to allow for epic vaulting.
However, noobs might just jump on top of your bridge instead of vaulting and beg you for a ladder.

Simplest vertical bridge ascension:
- Single bridge placed on flat ground, allows for 6 blocks high (or less) vaulting.
- Can be combined with a team bridge at the 6 blocks mark for effective tower entrance.

Secondary vertical bridge ascension:
- Single bridge placed every second block, allows for bridge jumping vertically (usually slow).

Et cetera:
- Single bridge on flat, second bridge 4 blocks above it, allows for vaulting 4 blocks above the second bridge. Can be used continuously for continuous effect.
- Newbie's 6 blocks vault, bridge placed 1 block above flat, another bridge placed on it. Ground in front usually flat. Newbie jump 2 blocks high maximum, lands on first bridge, automatic vault up if [W] is held.

One Way
One way entrances or exits are sometimes used. However these things aren't handing unless placed directly above a spike trap. Consider putting team safe spike traps inside your one way entrance.

One way entrances can also be used to trap your opponents and kill them in the process.

Another Good Guide on Pathfinding...
Terry's Tutorial

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Catapult​

Spoiler

Catapults
In some servers, you get 10 or more gold to start with at the start of each game. In this case, you can simply put down blocks of gold and collect more from the tent until you have 30 gold, mine it, then create a siege workshop before the break-time has even finished.
From this workshop, the creation of a catapult can massacre crowds of enemies...

Catapult Bunkers
Catapult bunkers are not only good defense from enemies, but also incredible enhancements that allow your catapult to do maximum damage.
Catapult bunkers are especially useful if positioned correctly, such that it scrapes the ground level, destroying everything in its way.
Using this method clears the battlefield for you team, enabling them to more safely charge at the enemy.
Archers must be extremely accurate to hit the catapult, and some bunkers are even impermeable to arrows.
Knights that charge at the bunker will get utterly destroyed by rocks and bomb jumpers killed instantly when they land on the ground in front of a bunker.

Here is an example below. There are better bunkers out there, you just need to find them, but this is relatively good already.
Also, disregard the spike trap. It was made in a hurry.

Catapult Shower
Catapult showering, otherwise known as catapult spamming, most of the time is a really effective method of destroying your enemies.
From a high vantage point, a catapult can relentlessly kill enemies and destroy enemy towers, however, at the sometimes high, cost of stone.

Catapult Throwing
The art of catapult throwing can never be left out. Charging up your catapult to the desired power, then picking it up and throwing it into the air, can not only serve as a preemptive strike, but as a method of increasing the range of your catapult. But be careful not to throw your catapult off your tower!
Note: Does not work in Single Player.

Catapult Gliding
Did you know? That you can use a catapult to land safely on the ground? Simply throw your catapult off your tower, wait for a bit and jump off, hitting [E] twice in quick succession to climb into your catapult and land safely on the ground!
Try this out in Sandbox! Experiment until you master this!

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Traps​

Spoiler: Traps

Small Spike Traps
Spike traps in clan wars are often unnecessary and therefore left out. Considering spike traps take up a sufficient amount of time to doom your team, try to tend to not build spike traps in clan wars.

If you do build spike traps, however, choose to build small ones, such as:
image pending...
This spike trap is extremely effective when undamaged. It renders a knight inside completely unable to escape, as long as the trap is undamaged. It is effective, yet cheap to make in resources and time.
Your TOWER should be ON THE LEFT.
The bridge on the left instead of right prevents knights from slashing jumping out of the spike trap.
When attempting to tap the bridge as a knight, you fall back down and die from a spike.
If you lean to the left or right when descending into the trap, you will get shredded at the bottom if you miss the spike on the side.

However, spike traps do not always kill, and the enemies inside might choose to wait for their builder or suicide to save time. Enemies also tend to try to avoid such spike traps.

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Collapsing​

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Clan War​

Spoiler

Clan wars are not often large-scaled, but small-scale, usually less than a 8 v 8, and in this case, you must build very efficient towers that take resources, speed and effect into account.
Big towers that take massive lengths of time are not suitable.
Consider nominating a specific, effective and efficient tower that allows for gaining of ground without using up much resources compared to how effective it is.

The Key
The key to being THE offensive builder is to be quick-witted. Responding to situations quickly and appropriately allow for an offensive builder to slaughter hordes of enemies or hinder them until reinforcements arrive.

Rules
Coming up with a few rules that clan war builders should follow...
1. Always build time and resource efficient tower, main purpose of those towers: to block enemies and prevent loss of ground.
2. Always travel with knights, sheltering behind towers and providing workshops off the ground when waiting for a chance to invade the enemy tower.
3. Always provide bombs and arrows to teammates and be resource gathering effective (collect enemy loot and gather resources while moving toward the front).
4. Always block off enemy exits and build effective overhangs together with collapsibles to obstruct enemy builders.
5. Never be too offensive, always take lives into account, but be daring during crucial moments of the game, whereby you can gain heaps of ground or destroy/invade an enemy tower.

Additonal good strategies for clan wars:
Wider spaced BC's Above Ground Pits

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To be done: Collapsibles, Spike Traps, Other, etc.
Additional: Pictures

Feel free to suggest additional information to be added, your name will be mentioned at the top for any contributions.

And don't forget to comment. Or criticize. Or like. Or follow me. :3

 

Tofie, that's a strategy builder's use accompanying a trench. I'm surprised about the cata gliding though. Good work. I like the overall layout. Its pretty rad.

 

Woah, this was a really well made guide :D

 

Ive read half of it very helpful i cant wait to read the rest!

 

This is a very nice, detailed guide! Great job, soul!

 

Nice guide but, placing spikes between your bridges might stop enemy builders from placing stone blocks in between your bridges, what's to stop the enemy builders to destroy the spikes and thus in turn placing stone in between?

 

What do you have to prevent that then? The purpose is to hinder. If you don't want to use spikes, then use workshop tiles.

Or you can be a dumbass and use something else. Not constructive at all makes me angry.

 

Are you trying to make this an all around builder guide? If so you might want to include:
Jumping out of a catapult will provide more range then regularly jumping off the same perch
Don't forget that collapses will always leer one way ( I think it's right) so adjust accordingly
Nice wip guide

 

The only thing in this guide not covered everywhere else was the catapult gliding thing. Neat trick.

 

That was killatron's, who got it from where-ever (I forgot where he got it from, you can ask him if you're curious).

 

Strathos showed me that one. :p

 

Please add 1 or 2 pics to every section and give good examples, I didn´t read anything because I couldn´t find a picture

 

I can't read, I'm 8. Please use pictures Soulrealm.

 

Just here to point out one of my biggest pet peeves, since i didn't see it mentioned, although I may have missed it. Placing teambridges at 4 or 5 blocks above ground level allows them to be broken EASILY by enemy knights.

Also,placing them three high above dirt allows them to be broken easily after the knights dig through the dirt to remove a ground level, changing them from 3 high to 4 high.

I always put three high bridges over top of a stone block at the front of my towers, it's practically knight proof, although it can be broken if the enemy knights are lagging and keep spamming slash, but hardly anyone can pull this off regularly, if they start trying, just drop blocks on them.

 

This is awesome! Gonna help me alot. Thanks. :D <3