4

The Tequendama Falls Nightmare Mansion

Let's start this entry by tipping our metaphorical hats to the mad genius who deemed it a great idea to take a French mansion designed in the esteemed "clearly fucking haunted" architectural style and stick it next to a steep precipice in the ass end of rural Colombia. Without him, the world would never have seen La Casa del Salto del Tequendama, possibly the world's only mansion that sounds like it's putting a curse on you.

It spent its teenage years bullying the Amityville Horror and Psycho houses for not being scary enough.

Did the place start its existence as a creepy hotel? Absolutely. Is its location reputedly a suicide hotspot that dates way back to when the conquistadors first came farting about the place? Sure, why not! Did the building inevitably go the way of the Overlook Hotel, falling out of favor and into disrepair before finally becoming abandoned? Yep! Did some doomed organization attempt to turn the place into a museum of caverns, of all things, a few years ago? Oh yes. That last step is a particularly important one, because it means that the horror movie that inevitably resulted from disturbing the slumbering building has probably played out by now, and the demogoblin that dragged all the visitors down the basement levels should have eaten its fill of man-flesh, so it can be bargained with.

YouTube
Oh, and did I mention the place is located by a damn waterfall?

3

The SS Ayrfield

Let's say you're one of those overly specific villains who can only function in a very particular environment or situation. No, not quite Calendar Man level -- if you're that far gone, the only headquarters you're going to need are the ER and your familiar cell at Arkham Asylum. I'm talking Mega Man villains, or maybe even Pokemon: vast power, only within the confines of very specific elements. Like if you were somehow both grass and water type.

I'm not necessarily saying that I have anything to accommodate such ridiculously limiting bullshittery. However, if that's the way you really want to go, I might just casually nod my head toward SS Ayrfield.

Atlas Obscura
It's like Noah's Ark, but for trees.

A century or so ago, this massive-ass coal freighter was abandoned in the Homebush Bay, which was then contaminated with toxic waste because fuck you, just because it's a ship doesn't mean that it can't get a Joker-style origin story. Eventually, the bay got less toxic, and nature started eyeing the ship. Stuff took root and started growing, and before you knew it, two things long neglected by man had formed an unholy union that you just know can start whipping spiked vines at your enemies as soon as you reach the captain's cabin and find the flute that commands this naval jungle.

And here's the thing: By settling in and learning to control SS Ayrfield, you don't gain just one ship: You'll have an entire navy. The Ayrfield has three compatriots rusting away at the bay. The Heroic, the Mortlake Bank, and the Karangi are just waiting for the right megalomaniac to control them. And if for some reason it turns out that the ships are just dormant wrecks instead of toxin-infused haunted ships waiting to take their revenge, well, you still have the high ground. You can just do that annoying Metal Gear enemy thing where you jump around from place to place (or, in this case, deck to deck) as the elderly, monovisioned, inexplicably snake-themed mercenary chasing you rapidly finds out that his limited depth perception isn't worth jack shit in a combined jungle/marine environment.

The Telegraph
And if you want to expand beyond Homebush Bay, there's roughly a hundred wrecks laying around nearby.

2

Shicheng Underwater City

Here's why. Oh shit, son! You knew this was coming: a straight-up water level!

As video games have taught us, there is no protagonist in the world who doesn't loathe water with the wrath of a thousand supernovas, including those who actually live in water. Makes shooting and punching too difficult, plus all that goddamned electrified seaweed keeps tasing them in the dick. So unless your nemesis is Aquaman (in which case, just take your game to the Gobi Desert or whatever, and fire missiles at the guy as he impotently shakes his fist atop the tsunami that can never quite reach your lair), why not ruin their day (and even worse, their hair) by setting up shop in the Shicheng Underwater City?

BBC
Mer-henchmen and trained killer whales sold separately.

Sure, underwater supervillainy is not everyone's cup of tea, but consider the facts: The name of the place literally translates to "Lion City," so your base would have the most badass address imaginable ("Yeah, you can just send the bill to the Lion City at the bottom of a motherfucking lake"). If that's not enough, Shicheng is also colloquially known as Atlantis of the East, which should be more than prestigious enough to show that bastard Baron Barren and his billion-dollar mansion who the real prime time player is. Furthermore, Shicheng never went down because of a natural disaster. The Chinese government deliberately sank it in 1959. Sure, they say it's because of a dam they're building, but we've seen movies -- we know how these things work. The Lion City clearly hosts at least three ancient superweapons and/or demonic warrior-kings for you to find and enslave.

BBC
And failing that, there's a whole bunch of creepy statues you can convert to harpoon deathtraps.

1

The Charleroi Power Plant

Quick: Are there multiple heroes coming after you? Is at least one of them carrying an unwieldy, large sword? Do the majority of them sport spiky $200 haircuts that have no business looking that good after the swathes of your underlings they've cut through? Holy crap, did they just summon some sort of elder god to breathe abyss flame at your favorite general?

You know what? Fuck it. If they want to go full Final Fantasy, we'll give them Final Fantasy. What you need is a huge, ominous tower they need to climb as you prepare.

Abandoned Abandoned
Few things are more ominous than the classic "nuclear sludge could leak out of me at any second" shape.

Yeah, fine. Good. That'll do. Once they're inside, they should probably have to navigate some diabolically complex yet beautiful corridors and platforms. I wonder if this tower has any?

Hypebeast
Spoiler: Hell yes it does.