Building houses is for chumps, and by mid game I expect to be permanently on the move, but early game I do keep an eye out for certain things:
#0: Any solar car that runs. Solar cars are more or less silent, and even if it’s lost half of its panels, that’s generally plenty to periodically travel from one town to the next searching for book supplies, to the nearest river, or just somewhere safely out of town. Cars keep you dry, provide light if needed, and seats are about as comfortable as beds. The storage is great too, and they save me time later on, since as soon as my early game reading binge is over I’m generally searching out one of these bad boys anyway to turn into a mobile base.
#1: Mansions: Normal zombies only means it’s fairly easy to clear the whole place even early on, and has the potential to spawn a lot of useful stuff, like katanas and even atomic lighting if you’re lucky. Slightly random whether they’re suitable or not, but if they have a library and an indoor pool they’re solid long term base material, especially since they tend to turn up near forests for easy hunting/foraging. Being out in the woods, they’re also highly insulated from hordes, if you’re playing with them.
#2: Schools: If you don’t mind slaughtering hundreds of child zombies (and why would you?) these are only slightly more risky than mansions and almost as good. Funnels are common for water supply, and books and food are all over the place (not HEALTHY food, mind you…). A quick nap is plenty enough to remove all the morale penalty, and after that you can sit around and read. While not as remote as Mansions, they’re frequently on the outskirts, making them another safe choice with hordes.
#3: Roadside Stops: While they don’t have much in the way of books, the service stops on the side of the road typically have toilets with 500 water each - effectively unlimited considering how long I’ll be staying there, and with almost no enemy presence.
#4: RVs: It doesn’t even need wheels, so long as an RV has a good supply of water in the tank it’s a perfectly viable early game shelter, and any battery remaining can go towards supplementing that or cooking up dinner. Luxury RVs include solar panels already installed, so they’re almost perfect.
#5: Magma vents: Jesus may be your co-pilot, but Satan is my nightlight. Infinite cooking, infinite dim light for reading, and you can train most zombie threats over the lava to soften them up, or straight up kill them, before they reach you. Roof very much optional, since the vent will help keep you warm even in cold weather.
#6: Stone House with a pond: These are pretty rare, but consistently contain a katana. The previous owners don’t appear to believe in curtains, which can make security an issue with hordes. My current game was lucky enough to find one spawned on the outskirts of a town next to a pair of turrets for infinite light.
#7: Shopping Trolley. 200 storage with no encumbrance, safety from spitters, and you can easily use it as a portable shrub to kill enemies in perfect safety - keep it facing a pursuer, let them step onto it, hit them a few times then move one more space and they’ll be constantly climbing over the trolley and never actually hitting you. Many of my more successful games involve just living out in the open, my worldly goods stashed in my trolley until I find somewhere more permanent (at which point the trolley is made foldable and deployed whenever I move more than five steps from my car-base).
