NPC houses and your base
Town NPCs move in only when there is a free room that passes the game's housing check. This page lists that check as the game code runs it, then gives ideas for the base around the rooms.
What a room needs
The game's own hint says it plainly: (In order for a room to be considered a home, it needs to have a door, a chair, a table, and a light source. Make sure the house has walls as well.)
The room must enclose at least 60 tiles of open space and fewer than 750. The cheapest room that passes has a 
Wooden Door, a 
Wooden Chair, a 
Wooden Table or a 
Work Bench (the game counts a work bench as a table), a 
Torch, and a back wall such as 
Wood Wall. A 
Wood Platform set into the wall or floor counts as a door too.
When the check fails
The housing check tells you why a room fails. These are the game's own messages:
This room is too small. This room is too big. This room is missing a wall. This room has no space to stand in!
Watch for this one: Natural walls in this room need replacing! The check accepts only walls the game marks as house walls, so the natural walls of a cave fail. Replace them with walls you placed yourself.
Where to put each NPC
A house that passes the check is not the end. Each town NPC likes and dislikes some zones and some neighbours, and that changes their prices. Plan the town with the NPC happiness planner, which uses the game's own rules.
Laying out a base
A simple layout that works: stack the rooms in a tower and join them with platforms, which you can drop through, so one shaft reaches every floor. Keep your crafting stations in one room next to your chests, so every recipe is a short walk away.
One of the videos below builds its starter houses underground, right where you mine. That works well, as long as you replace the natural cave walls with your own.
Where to go next
Set up pylons between towns in the pylon town guide.
Videos this guide uses
Each creator made their own video; watch them for the full walk-through. Our text is our own, and every number on this page comes from the game data of version 1.4.5.8.
The players load from YouTube only when you press Play.
