Rosewood — classic easy start

Small southern town with police, fire, clinic, grocery, and nearby prison/outskirts. Good for learning stealth, doors, and basic looting without constant multi-block swarms—under default-style population, not as a promise of “empty streets forever.”

• Strengths: Compact layout; emergency services close together; strong beginner teaching ground.
• Trade-offs: Less industrial loot in town; long-term gear often means driving out (Muldraugh, March Ridge, etc.).
• Vehicles / water: Station lots and gas areas can yield cars; water is scarcer than riverside towns—plan bottles and rain collectors. Vehicles are never guaranteed.

Riverside — easy loot + river

Riverfront town with police, large school, shops, and gated residential options. Often the best “still friendly but not empty of content” pick among the always-available four.

• Strengths: Fishing access on the river; diverse POIs; many profession spawn houses.
• Trade-offs: Downtown and trailer/motel pockets can be busier than residential edges.
• Related: fishing guide, base location ideas.

Muldraugh — central map hub

Original mid-map town on the north–south corridor: housing, highway, warehouses, and industrial sites (including logging/warehouse belts north of town). Best when you want room to expand and short trips to other regions.

• Strengths: Central logistics; tools and industrial containers; many spawn cells.
• Trade-offs: Main-street noise and groups are easier to trigger than in Rosewood.
• Related: sledgehammer locations.

West Point — hard classic town

Denser commercial town with strong loot density (including a dedicated gun shop and larger police facilities than the smaller towns). Higher immediate pressure under the same population multiplier.

• Strengths: Fast access to guns, hardware, and large retail if you survive the entry.
• Trade-offs: Mistakes snowball quickly; bad for first-ever runs.
• Related: gun locations, locked gun shop entry.

West Point is strong for early guns, but it is not the only firearm source on the map—other towns and Louisville also have police, military, or shop loot depending on the area.

Echo Creek, Ekron, Fallas Lake — Sandbox rural / small towns

Build 42 map expansions with vanilla starts, but Sandbox only on the New Game menu. Expect fewer dense blocks than West Point; exact zombie pressure still follows your population settings and POI heat.

• Echo Creek: Rural / farm-country start; good for quieter early days and outdoor skills once you leave the houses.
• Ekron: Compact crossroads-style town; useful bridge between rural south-west and other B42 towns.
• Fallas Lake: Small lake-side settlement; fewer major commercial strips than the classic four.

March Ridge & Valley Station — Sandbox mid-tier options

• March Ridge: Planned / apartment-heavy area south of Muldraugh—often denser vertical living and military-adjacent flavor than open farm towns.
• Valley Station: Northeast corridor toward Louisville with large commercial anchors (mall area). Strong loot potential, higher risk than Rosewood-style starts under the same settings.

Brandenburg & Irvington — Sandbox large / hard towns

• Brandenburg: Substantial western town; treat like a high-pressure urban start, not a beginner Rosewood clone.
• Irvington: Far southwest; includes raceway / industrial-flavored POIs. Comparable in intent to “hard town” runs—do not assume fixed “40+ zombies at the gas station” every seed.

Louisville — late-game city, not a vanilla spawn

Louisville is part of the playable map, but Build 42.19 does not offer it as a New Game starting town. Plan to reach it after you have weapons, a vehicle, and an exit plan. For challenge runs, use custom spawn definitions or workshop tools—not “enable Louisville in Custom Sandbox” as if it were a listed region.