Guard tower

The Guard Tower will employ and house one Guard to protect your colony. The new Guard will need a bed in a house in order to spawn. However, once they are hired at the Guard Tower, that becomes their new residence and the bed in the house will open up for another new citizen (child or recruit). Colonists like feeling safe, so building Guard Towers close to colonists’ work and homes can improve their happiness. Additionally, if you place Guard Towers near your colony border and level them up, your border will expand.

The Guard will patrol a set distance around their tower, which is based on their tower’s level.

Tower Level Max Patrol Distance
1 80 blocks
2 110 blocks
3 140 blocks
4 170 blocks
5 200 blocks

Guard tower

Block icon for the Guard tower building

Workers:


Recipe:

guardtower

Research: No research is required for this building.

Guard tower GUI

Main tab of the Guard tower it's GUI

The first tab of the GUI is the main interface.

  • Header:
    • Building Name: Shows the name of the building, including the level of the building.
    • Pencil: Allows you to rename the building. The level of the building will always be listed after the name.
    • Assigned Workers: Tells you the worker assigned to this building.
  • Controls:
    • Manage Workers: Lets you change which worker is assigned to work at this hut. There can only be one worker at each hut. Note: this only works if you have turned the worker hiring mode in the Town Hall block to manual, otherwise your citizens will be hired automatically.
    • Recall Worker: Recalls the worker at this building to their hut block. You might use it if they are stuck somewhere, you want to see what they have, or want to give them something directly.
    • Build Options: Lets you create a build, upgrade, or repair build order for this hut. To learn more about the building system, please visit the Builder page.
  • Request system:
    • Pickup Priority: You can set the priority that a Courier will visit this hut and pick up items (when the worker at this hut issues a request), or you can tell Couriers to never visit this hut to pick up items. (For the pickup priority, 10 is the highest.)
    • Request Pickup Now: You can click this button in order to tell any available Courier to come and pick up all the items from the building.
  • Footer:
    • Info Button: Some huts have an in-game guide. Press the ? button to access it.
    • Inventory: Here you can access the hut block’s storage, where the worker at this hut takes and deposits materials. They will also use any racks that were placed in the hut when it was built or upgraded, so be sure to check those as well!
    • Chest Icon: Click this button to see all the items in the hut’s storage (including the hut block’s inventory and any racks that came with the hut). Clicking the ? button next to an item’s count will highlight the storage container it’s in.
Stock tab of the Guard tower it's GUI

The second tab of the GUI is the minimum stock.

Use this button to tell the Guard tower to keep a minimum stock on hand. Set items will be displayed above the button.

Guard tool tab of the Guard tower it's GUI

The third tab of the GUI is the selection tools.

Click the Obtain Tools button to get the Guard Scepter. Right-clicking on a block with the Guard Scepter will set it as a guard spot or a patrol point.

Hostiles list tab of the Guard tower it's GUI

The fourth tab of the GUI is the hostiles.

You can tell the Guard which mobs to attack and which ones to ignore. All hostile mobs are set to on by default.

There are also two controls on the page:

  • The black box at the top is a search field.
  • Reset to default allows you to reset everything to on.
Settings tab of the Guard tower it's GUI

The fifth tab of the GUI is the settings.

  • Task: This is where you can choose if you want the Guard to patrol, follow, or guard.

    • Patrol: The guard will patrol an area you designate in Patrol Settings.

    • Guard: You can set one area for the Guard to stay in. When you click “Set Target”, you will be taken to the Selection Tools tab, where you can get the the Guard Scepter and designate the guard location.

    • Follow: The guard will follow you around as your personal bodyguard, protecting you or fighting alongside you. They will even go outside the colony when following! You can designate how they follow you in Follow Settings.

    • Patrol Mine: The Guard will patrol the level of a Mine. You must also assign that level in the Mine GUI.

  • Retreat on low health: Here you can choose if the Guard will attempt to retreat when they have low health.

  • Hire Trainee: If there is a vacancy at this tower, a new Knight or Archer can be hired from the respective training facility (Archery for Archers and Combat Academy for Knights) instead of an unemployed colonist. This setting only matters if Assign Colonists to Jobs is turned to Automatic in the Town Hall GUI.

  • Patrol Mode: This is where you can choose how you want the Guard to patrol.

    • Automatic: The Guard will patrol from hut to hut and back to their tower. They will only patrol huts within the patrol range of their tower.

    • Manual: You can set the patrol route when you click on Set Positions. You will be taken to the Selection Tools tab, where you can get the the Guard Scepter and designate patrol positions for the Guard to patrol between. To delete patrol positions, simply get a new Guard Scepter and click a new patrol position. The old ones should disappear.

  • Follow Mode: This is where you can choose how you want the Guard to follow you. If you choose Loose Grouping, the Guard will stay close to you, but not as close as if you choose Tight Grouping.


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