Going Medieval Enemy Pathfinding, Exploited

Q: How do raiders decide where to go in Going Medieval?

Raiders path toward the easiest reachable target inside your settlement along the shortest valid route. If a door is passable, they walk through it; if every route in is sealed, they stop pathing and start demolishing the nearest wall or door blocking them. Defence design is therefore about controlling which path counts as valid — leave exactly one open route (a bait door into a trap corridor) and the AI commits to it.

Q: Will raiders attack my walls and doors in Going Medieval?

Yes — when no valid walking path into your base exists, raiders switch to attacking the structures in their way. Weapons carry different building-damage ratings (the game's own tooltips grade building damage as low, moderate, high, or severe), so demolition speed varies by what the raiders carry. A fully sealed base is not safe; it just changes the raid from a pathing problem into a repair bill at a spot you didn't choose.

Q: What is a bait door in Going Medieval?

A bait door is a single passable door — not forbidden, not blocked — placed at the inner end of your killbox corridor. Because raiders take the shortest valid path to a reachable target, the open door makes your trap corridor that path, and the AI walks in willingly. Every other entrance must be forbidden during the raid; if even one side door stays passable, raiders may split toward whichever route is shortest.

Q: Can animals open doors or climb ladders in Going Medieval?

No on doors: wild animals cannot open doors, so simply getting every settler indoors neutralises most animal aggression events. On ladders, the only wild animal able to climb is the polecat — every other animal is stopped by a ladder-only entrance. Human raiders are a different matter: treat stairs and normal entrances as fully usable by them.

Q: Do the old raider AI exploits still work after Going Medieval 1.0?

Two famous ones were fixed in the 1.0 update: raiders no longer freeze in place when they try to attack unfinished or foundation-phase buildings, and raiders who win a raid no longer stand idle in your settlement forever — they now leave. The core pathing rules the bait-door and funnel techniques rely on are untouched, so corridor-based defence still works exactly as designed.

Every raid in Going Medieval is two fights: the one your archers have with the raiders, and the one the raider AI has with your floor plan. The second fight is decided before the horn sounds, because the pathfinding rules are deterministic enough to build around. Raiders take the shortest valid path to something they can reach — and you decide what "valid" means with doors, forbidden markers, and corridors. This guide lays out the pathing rules as the community has verified them, the techniques those rules enable (bait doors, funnels, lockdowns), the limits where the AI stops cooperating, and the exploits the 1.0 patch quietly removed. No myths, no magic invincibility tricks — just the mechanics.

The Pathing Rules, Verified

Everything exploitable about raider AI follows from one behaviour: enemies route to a reachable target along the cheapest open route, and they only become demolition crews when no such route exists. The community-tested rules:

Situation the AI Finds	What Raiders Do	How You Exploit It
An open path into the base exists	Walk it, even if it is long and trapped	Make your killbox corridor the only open path (bait door)
Several open paths exist	Split toward whichever is shortest for each raider	Forbid every door except the bait door when the horn sounds
All routes sealed (doors forbidden or walled)	Stop pathing; attack the nearest wall or door in the way	Never fully seal — or seal deliberately and defend the breach point
Target unreachable at any cost	Demolition continues until a path opens or the raid ends	Double-wall the segments nearest the usual spawn edges
Wild animal aggression event	Animals cannot open doors	Get everyone indoors; archers shoot over the walls
Ladder-only entrance	Only polecats among wild animals can use ladders	Ladder access makes animal-proof food stores and pet-free zones

The raider's entire decision tree. Defence design is the art of making the YES branch lead exactly where your crossbows are waiting.

The Techniques the Rules Enable

None of these are glitches — they are defence designs that fall out of the pathing rules above. The full construction details (funnel angles, trap counts, embrasure placement) are in our killbox design guide; here is what each technique does to the AI and where it fails:

Technique	AI Rule It Exploits	Execution	Failure Mode
Bait door	Raiders take the shortest valid path	One passable door at the trap corridor's inner end; all other doors forbidden during raids	A side door left passable splits the raid; a blocked bait path flips raiders to demolition
Funnel + trap corridor	Valid path is walked regardless of danger	Walls angle all approach routes into one trapped channel	Gaps between funnel walls and terrain let raiders slip around
Forbidden-door lockdown	Forbidden doors are not valid paths	Forbid exterior doors to pull settlers inside and control the one open route	Lockdown with no bait at all = raiders start breaking walls instead
Door tanking	Demolition targets the structure in the way	A closed door in the corridor mouth buys volley time while raiders break it	Weapons with high building damage shred doors fast — buy seconds, not minutes
Indoor lockdown vs. animals	Animals cannot open doors	Everyone inside, archers fire over walls until the event ends	A settler caught outside is defenceless; mind farmers and hunters
Ladder-gated storage	Only polecats use ladders among wild animals	Ladder-only access to food stores keeps wildlife out	Most pets can't use ladders either — feed animals elsewhere

Reality check: two genuine exploits are dead. Since the 1.0 update, raiders used to freeze in place when ordered to attack unfinished or foundation-phase buildings — players laid dummy blueprints as raid-stoppers — and raiders who won a raid used to stand idle in your settlement forever. Both are fixed: the AI now ignores the foundation bait and victorious raiders leave. If an old guide promises a raid that never fights, it's describing a patched bug, not a mechanic.

Why Range Is a Pathfinding Stat

Once raiders commit to your corridor, the only question left is how long they spend inside it under fire — and that is set by engagement range, not by how angry your archers are. Using the verified weapon numbers from our killbox guide: crossbows reach 25m while bows reach 18m, which means crossbowmen open up roughly seven corridor tiles earlier. Over a long funnel that head start is worth entire extra volleys before the first raider reaches a trap:

Weapon (Good Quality)	Max Range	Attack Duration	Pathfinding Role in the Corridor
Short Bow	18m	5.4s	Engages late; only useful on long corridors
Longbow	18m	5.4s	High volume of fire once raiders close the distance
Crossbow	25m	9.45s	Opens fire ~7 tiles earlier — punishes the walk-in
Heavy Crossbow	25m	10.35s	Deletes priority targets while they are still funneling

Horizontal bar chart of Going Medieval ranged weapon engagement ranges: Short Bow 18 metres, Longbow 18 metres, Crossbow 25 metres, Heavy Crossbow 25 metres, showing crossbows engage raiders about 7 corridor tiles earlier than bows — Engagement range is corridor time. The 25m crossbows start shooting about seven tiles before the 18m bows can — free volleys, paid for by the raider's own pathfinding.

The design read: corridor length should match your weapons' reach. A short corridor wastes crossbows (they reload slowly and want maximum walk-in time), while a long corridor wastes short bows (raiders arrive before the archers contribute). Put the long-range crossbows behind the embrasures, the bows deeper where survivors arrive, and let the pathfinding bring targets to each in turn. Cover and firing positions are covered in the raid defense strategy guide.

One last discipline note: watch the raid before you trust the design. When raiders spawn, trace the route they actually take against the one you intended — spawn edges differ per raid, and a funnel built for the south approach does nothing for a raid arriving from the east. The colonies that beat above-weight raids are the ones that treat the pathing rules as a hypothesis and re-verify them every single horn.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do raiders decide where to go in Going Medieval?

Raiders path toward the easiest reachable target along the shortest valid route. A passable door is walked through; a fully sealed base flips them to demolishing the nearest wall or door in the way. Defence design is the art of controlling which path counts as valid — one bait door into a trap corridor, everything else forbidden.

Will raiders attack my walls and doors in Going Medieval?

Yes, whenever no valid walking path in exists. Weapons carry different building-damage ratings — the game's tooltips grade building damage from low up to severe — so demolition speed depends on what the raiders carry. A sealed base doesn't stop a raid; it moves the fight to a breach point you didn't choose.

What is a bait door in Going Medieval?

A single passable door at the inner end of your killbox corridor. Because raiders take the shortest valid path to a reachable target, the open door makes your trap corridor that path, and the AI commits to it. Every other entrance must be forbidden during the raid or raiders may split toward whichever route is shortest.

Can animals open doors or climb ladders in Going Medieval?

Animals cannot open doors, so getting every settler indoors neutralises most animal aggression events. The polecat is the only wild animal that uses ladders, so a ladder-only entrance animal-proofs a food store. Human raiders are another matter — treat stairs and normal entrances as fully usable by them.

Do the old raider AI exploits still work after Going Medieval 1.0?

No — the 1.0 update fixed both famous ones: raiders no longer freeze when attacking unfinished or foundation-phase buildings, and victorious raiders now leave instead of standing idle forever. The core pathing rules behind bait doors and funnels are untouched, so corridor defence still works exactly as designed.

Related Guides

Last updated: July 19, 2026. Building-damage grades are the game's own qualitative tooltip categories. Pathing behaviour may shift with updates — re-verify against live raids.