How to be a successful hermit

[LonerNoob]

Well, basically I've tried doing my own thing countless times, but I can't seem to get any more than a house and a farm when completely alone, and a house, a farm, and a palisade when getting some help.

So I've been wondering what have I been doing wrong. Do I lack patience, or should I have idk, looked more for curios/rabbits/whatever?

While I do know the game to an extent, I can't seem to do well on my own. So yeah, hoping to know what I'm doing wrong, or what you all do when hermiting, as reference.

[krikke93]

Okay, I've hermited for more than a full year ingame and managed to get pretty good, so I'll be nice and drop a tiny guide in here.

First off, never ever leave even one criminal scent anywhere until you're "safe", meaning strong enough to defend yourself and your camp.

Knowing that, you start off by building a camp, "safe" from raiders or other threats.
Find a place with at lease some nodes (preferable clay for brickwall and more, water is also useful for later). If you're fast in building all that I'm about to say, you can't be bothered building next to a lake/river, it'll be useful.
When you've found a nice location, first thing you'll need is a house and claim over it.
Next thing you'll need is a palisade. Get this as fast as you can, because this will make you safe from most of HnH's population. Also, people that can bash palisades by hand/sledgehammer will probably never try to break into your camp, unless you did something wrong. Also be sure the whole palisade is claimed so it doesn't decay.

When you have a camp established, start making (trade) relationships with your neighbourhood, but be careful! Haven and Hearth has a nasty community, so always be careful when approaching other players.
If you see a large village, you better stay away from it until you think you can try talking to them (just incase they're hostile).

You will need a village claim in your camp as fast as possible too.
Why? This gives you access to trading from distance with other players (and this will boost your progress ALOT). It also makes your village safe from being claimed by another village claim, as village claims cannot overlap each other. As long as this claim and your personal claim stays here, you will never lose your settlement.

While you're working on the village claim you might want to start thinking about setting up a mine. Try to find a cave or build a minehole and start digging for ores. Metals will give you alot of advantages in.. uhm.. everything! You'll also need Iron for a brickwall later on.

When you have your house, village claim, mine, farm and all the other basic needs, you should think about getting a brickwall. This cannot be bashed by hand or sledgehammer, only with a ram, so you're even more safe!! Get a brickwall by getting iron and ALOT of bricks!

Last but not least, when you're done with all the above, you can start focussing on quality, skills, attributes, food and all the other things you need for your character!
Having all of this will give you alot more time for curios and all. This is the moment where your character should be boosting all his levels up in the sky.
Don't forget to keep gathering curios throughout all these tasks though! You'll just be alot more busy.

I hope this tiny guide will help you in your future hermit life! Enjoy it!!

[LonerNoob]

Thanks! It should help a lot, I was quite lost on which order I'd get things ^^'.

[puppetlance]

Also when being a Hermit, Make sure you have an Alt anyone should have an Alt in the game but make sure you have one as Youre going to have to do everything your self obviously so that means getting super high stats can be challenging for just one person. Make an alt that can be used for hunting/foraging or other things that your main char doesnt have such as.
If youre going out to collect curos but youre worried about food make an alt so you can make it fish.

[LonerNoob]

Also when being a Hermit, Make sure you have an Alt anyone should have an Alt in the game but make sure you have one as Youre going to have to do everything your self obviously so that means getting super high stats can be challenging for just one person. Make an alt that can be used for hunting/foraging or other things that your main char doesnt have such as.
If youre going out to collect curos but youre worried about food make an alt so you can make it fish.

Alright, good point! Making alts is indeed something I lack a little as a hermit

I usually try to do active things on my main, such as foraging and other stuff that don't involve waiting, so I guess I'll make one alt for everything, too ^^'.

[Thijssnl]

Although you wont be able to compete with major faction's players hermitting often earns you a lot more LP, FEPs etc than being in a small group or village, since you get everything you produce for yourself

[Cranny]

One thing I think is very important is to get a key alt, so you never ever need to go out yr settlement with your pali gate key on yr toon and once you get this alt look at the Enders minimap to see any white dot near before opening the gate.

When I used to be a hermit I also felt I was being slow and an old player gave me some advice that was very good to me, it was this:
Once you get yr VIdol, make a trading alt with no HF and focus on one or two sellable items. You should travel to other people idols, never they come to you so nobody gets tempted on your settlement by knowing you are alone and weak, or choose stablished and well known traders that will not steal from you, even if they pay less.

What I did at that time was first collect blueberries and chantrelles and some time later pearls, to be able to buy the stuff I needed. After I had my basic set up and my wall built, I made wallgrade wrought iron and bricks. Each time my toon was killed I only lost a little LP on exploring (now also need some survival) and later on I lost too the tsacks, but nothing hard to replace or a bunch of LP.

Good luck!.

[TeckXKnight]

Although you wont be able to compete with major faction's players hermitting often earns you a lot more LP, FEPs etc than being in a small group or village, since you get everything you produce for yourself :D

Thijssnl I think you're too accommodating to leeches. Even if their quality rises, they are not valuable.

[LonerNoob]

One thing I think is very important is to get a key alt, so you never ever need to go out yr settlement with your pali gate key on yr toon and once you get this alt look at the Enders minimap to see any white dot near before opening the gate.

When I used to be a hermit I also felt I was being slow and an old player gave me some advice that was very good to me, it was this:
Once you get yr VIdol, make a trading alt with no HF and focus on one or two sellable items. You should travel to other people idols, never they come to you so nobody gets tempted on your settlement by knowing you are alone and weak, or choose stablished and well known traders that will not steal from you, even if they pay less.

What I did at that time was first collect blueberries and chantrelles and some time later pearls, to be able to buy the stuff I needed. After I had my basic set up and my wall built, I made wallgrade wrought iron and bricks. Each time my toon was killed I only lost a little LP on exploring (now also need some survival) and later on I lost too the tsacks, but nothing hard to replace or a bunch of LP.

Good luck!.

Thanks! I always make key alts, but the trading alt tip is indeed something I'll need later on

I've already found a decent enough location, which is relatively close to a clay node, and despite being near a river, it's not on its edge, but rather on the end, so it shouldn't attract too many griefers.

Sadly, though, my current island has no swamp/mountain whatsoever, so I'll need a boat before getting good curios ^^'.

But yeah, once it's up and running there'll be no need to worry about that anymore, specially since I don't need to walk for several minutes to get to water, despite not being next to the water either. ^^'.

I don't know the clay node's quality due to lack of survival, but as long as it's a node I don't really care

[Eemerald]

I only really hermitted in world 4 and the system then was quite different. But i think the basics have been mentioned and it seems youre already doing them. A lot of the time some things depend greatly on having good quality resources, which as a hermit are rarely at your disposal. Luckily at this stage in the game there are many traders who will sell and craft some very high q items to help with that. So as long as you are able to increase the skills and attributes, things like silk, farming, trees etc can be easily maintained at a decent quality if someone has the patience for it.
Many hermits stick to improving nature based skills are just mine on an alt for general tools and curios etc, or focus on mining and just do the necessary nature things. Eitherway can be profitable for hermits.

Last world i was buying chantrelles, blueberries, perch and cavebulbs frequently, which are pretty easy for new players and hermits to get hold of for new gear.

Good luck. Ensure ure trading with good players on the forums. Dont trust randoms easily. And when taking in new platers, if you do decide on it, be careful to check who they are on the forums and whether they would fit in with you.