Metal Shop Front

Build it once strangers start turning up at your counter with guns. The game sells it as bulletproof, and that one word is the whole difference from the wooden shop front. The trade itself works the same way: your offer on the inside, theirs on the outside, done when both sides accept.

The price is modest. It takes 250 metal fragments and a Level 1 workbench with nothing to research, so a group with a furnace running can afford it on the first evening.

Think of a base by a road that sees traffic all night. A geared player who spots a shopkeeper's head in a wooden window may decide a shot is cheaper than a deal. Behind metal he has to trade or walk on. Bulletproof says nothing about explosives, though, so don't count on it to stop a raid.

Plenty of shops pair it with a vending machine. The machine handles the everyday sales while you are offline, the counter takes the odd deal that needs haggling face to face.