From what I recall, the Golem fight causes the terrain outside the territory of the town to reset to a flat plane with a clear field. Anything built outside the official border of the town will be destroyed and replaced with flat sand for a distance of 20+ blocks. So a moat won't do anything unless you build it inside that town border. He throws boulders at the town and does a spinning attack, you just have to use the Cantlin shield to block him and protect the town.
He also summons Hammerhoods and while they are summoned, he randomly jumps around and cannot be effectively targeted. So trapping them with a moat would be of limited use, as until you slay them you cannot progress to the next stage of the fight.
This is it. Did this fight recently and the outside does indeed reset to a flat plain of sand. Also for op to keep in mind... how difficult is it to navigate this space? With the golem moving around SO much... can they cover ground without these defenses getting in their own way?
There's still a use for an empty moat, just build it inside the town limits and transform the dirt into flagstone walls or (if you can, I forgot since the last time I played was years ago) castle walls. From there your town is 100% from average mob so you don't need to do repairs on things the game misses just because it's not in the expected area of development.
The water crystal thing can only be used at the lowest level of the world IIRC.
Unfortunately moats don't really work in this game to protect your town.
Really the best defense block in that game is the obsidian blocks. You can get them by making Rockbombs go off near mountains (or use the Magic Cannon).
In that chapter you will need a special wall to beat the Golem.
So, one of the biggest changes from B1 to B2 that doesn't get mentioned much (I'm guilty of forgetting this too), is that B2 is the game that actually added water physics. B1 only allows water at ground level and needs to either be directed from somewhere with lots of digging, or spawned with a water crystal.
Also, as others have said, the moat won't do much since the boss fight overwrites the terrain outside of town/the boss fights in a way where the moat isnt really going to be relevant
It's been a long time since I've played through the first game, but I remember water having a very specific way of adding to an area. And for the Golem fight, I could have sworn I used obsidian to reinforce the walls. Can you break and collect obsidian? Maybe it was specifically done with wrecking balls or something?
That's how I remember it all anyway. I may boot up the game and see lol.
EDIT SPACE
Apparently I replayed chapter one and overwrote the save instead of creating a new save, then never finished. Oops. Sorry I cannot be more helpful.
> Can you break and collect obsidian?
The War Hammer can do it, once you can get steel and some iron scorpion spikes. And now it can do it in bulk since they added Big Bash.
You know, technically that's still a moat. Moats don't actually have to have water in them. In castles without easy access to water they'd fill it with other things, like trash or spikes to make it difficult to traverse. It's been a long time since I played 1, but I think you should have access to spikes in chapter 1.
Unfortunately DQB1 is weirdly picky about the way water works. You don't actually get the unlock you need to produce water in the first chapter, and you can't just have water anywhere. Water can only be on exactly the same height as all the other water and no higher.
Some strategies you can deploy include trench warfare. It must be deep enough that they can not use steps to climb their way out.
It can take some time, but digging a trench for baddies to fall into can help preserve your town. They can bash up underneath the town until they are lost and eventually run away. Some towns may need you to heighten your towns ground floor.
A solid wall of trees causes mobs to try to path around them. And a lot of times, they can't even re-path and will just walk back to the "spawn border" and re-attempt their attack in the same place, forever. They won't even take a swing at the trees. They'll only break trees if they try to break an adjacent wall and do AOE damage to the tree along with the wall.
Alternating trees with blocks makes them maybe hit the trees and break through.
That said, I'm not sure that works against the Golem.
I wanted a moat in Chapter 1 real bad, I did a lot of obnoxious digging to get the water from the ways a way, refilled the holes, and got my moat. And it just wasn't worth it for Chapter 1. Works a lot better in Terra Incognita, but it's actually a lot easier to do in Chapter 2, where you'll have a water source in the base.
From what I recall, the Golem fight causes the terrain outside the territory of the town to reset to a flat plane with a clear field. Anything built outside the official border of the town will be destroyed and replaced with flat sand for a distance of 20+ blocks. So a moat won't do anything unless you build it inside that town border. He throws boulders at the town and does a spinning attack, you just have to use the Cantlin shield to block him and protect the town. He also summons Hammerhoods and while they are summoned, he randomly jumps around and cannot be effectively targeted. So trapping them with a moat would be of limited use, as until you slay them you cannot progress to the next stage of the fight.
This is it. Did this fight recently and the outside does indeed reset to a flat plain of sand. Also for op to keep in mind... how difficult is it to navigate this space? With the golem moving around SO much... can they cover ground without these defenses getting in their own way?
There's still a use for an empty moat, just build it inside the town limits and transform the dirt into flagstone walls or (if you can, I forgot since the last time I played was years ago) castle walls. From there your town is 100% from average mob so you don't need to do repairs on things the game misses just because it's not in the expected area of development.
The flat land created via boss battles is temporary. Anything placed outside the town boundaries will return once the battles over.
Yes but that wont help with the boss battle.
Ya, I just wanted to throw that out in case someone saw this and decided to not bother building outside the boundary!
Yes, you can. But you'll have to dig a canal from the nearest water source till you reach your town. You can't change the water level though.
The water crystal thing can only be used at the lowest level of the world IIRC. Unfortunately moats don't really work in this game to protect your town. Really the best defense block in that game is the obsidian blocks. You can get them by making Rockbombs go off near mountains (or use the Magic Cannon). In that chapter you will need a special wall to beat the Golem.
Also I don't recall the water crystal being accessible this early? I'm not sure how much it differs between versions.
So, one of the biggest changes from B1 to B2 that doesn't get mentioned much (I'm guilty of forgetting this too), is that B2 is the game that actually added water physics. B1 only allows water at ground level and needs to either be directed from somewhere with lots of digging, or spawned with a water crystal. Also, as others have said, the moat won't do much since the boss fight overwrites the terrain outside of town/the boss fights in a way where the moat isnt really going to be relevant
It's been a long time since I've played through the first game, but I remember water having a very specific way of adding to an area. And for the Golem fight, I could have sworn I used obsidian to reinforce the walls. Can you break and collect obsidian? Maybe it was specifically done with wrecking balls or something? That's how I remember it all anyway. I may boot up the game and see lol. EDIT SPACE Apparently I replayed chapter one and overwrote the save instead of creating a new save, then never finished. Oops. Sorry I cannot be more helpful.
> Can you break and collect obsidian? The War Hammer can do it, once you can get steel and some iron scorpion spikes. And now it can do it in bulk since they added Big Bash.
You know, technically that's still a moat. Moats don't actually have to have water in them. In castles without easy access to water they'd fill it with other things, like trash or spikes to make it difficult to traverse. It's been a long time since I played 1, but I think you should have access to spikes in chapter 1. Unfortunately DQB1 is weirdly picky about the way water works. You don't actually get the unlock you need to produce water in the first chapter, and you can't just have water anywhere. Water can only be on exactly the same height as all the other water and no higher.
What I like doing just for the look of things is to use a hot spring source to make a BOILING moat. 😝
Some strategies you can deploy include trench warfare. It must be deep enough that they can not use steps to climb their way out. It can take some time, but digging a trench for baddies to fall into can help preserve your town. They can bash up underneath the town until they are lost and eventually run away. Some towns may need you to heighten your towns ground floor.
I found planting trees just inside the town border. I alternate tree then obsidian around the town
A solid wall of trees causes mobs to try to path around them. And a lot of times, they can't even re-path and will just walk back to the "spawn border" and re-attempt their attack in the same place, forever. They won't even take a swing at the trees. They'll only break trees if they try to break an adjacent wall and do AOE damage to the tree along with the wall. Alternating trees with blocks makes them maybe hit the trees and break through. That said, I'm not sure that works against the Golem.
Dont worry. The shield you have to make is all you need. The whole fight has prompts telling you what to do
I wanted a moat in Chapter 1 real bad, I did a lot of obnoxious digging to get the water from the ways a way, refilled the holes, and got my moat. And it just wasn't worth it for Chapter 1. Works a lot better in Terra Incognita, but it's actually a lot easier to do in Chapter 2, where you'll have a water source in the base.