Kenshi – Guide for New Players

Are you one of the new players of Kenshi? If you want to get more familiar with the game mechanics and how things work in Kenshi, this guide is for you.

Movement

• If you want to move your whole group or parts of your group you can click and drag a box around the desired characters. Then simply right-click where you want them to go or who you want them to attack.
• If there is an enemy that is chasing you with a slow attack speed, simply allow them to catch up and start an attack then run ahead of them before the attack hits you.
• Have other characters bodyguard your main character so you don’t need to use the follow button. Simply hold down right-click and use a bodyguard, this will place them into the bodyguard job role.

Jobs

Jobs are almost a necessity when forming large groups on Kenshi. To make a character do a job simply hold shift and then right-click the desired job. I will now list some important jobs.

• Engineer-very useful so I don’t have to craft the items I place.
• Medic-I won’t have to heal my NPC after fights.
• Splint rigger? Robotics fall into the same category as medics.
• Any Turret mount is very useful in base defense and if done correctly can fend off whole waves of enemies by itself.
• Farmers-Most basic job but you need to feed your npc somehow.

Bases

• Don’t use level one walls even hungry bandits can walk through them
• There is no category for upgraded walls, you simply click the arrow next to the name to switch its grade
• Make sure to have turrets on your walls near the gate in an A shape where your gate is at the top of the A. This is so enemies will funnel into the A shape while your turrets fire down on them from above while they try and a break-in.
• Get a farm established or any means of production so you can start selling products and making money.
• Build your base near an allied city so you can trade with them and get allied reinforcements.

Spawn

• When spawning is not one thing and one thing only, You’re weaker than everything around you.
• Start mining as it will increase your strength while holding the ore in your inventory, to see the ore left click on it while mining to pop up the product page.
• Camp out in a city for a while, no one will judge survival is all that matters
• Make sure you save your game constantly as one wrong move will leave you killed, enslaved, being eaten alive, having your skin peeled off, or many other things.
• Get an npc straight away, there are many free npc in cities such as the hub or waystations, if you cannot find a free npc most go for 2-6k cats.
• Train your athletic skill so you can outrun enemies.
• If you’re feeling brave you can try and fight bandits near a city gate so the guards will save you if it gets too hairy.
• Buy food as soon as possible (unless your a skeleton), hungry, malnourished, and starving have negative stat effects making it a damper on your character.
• Scavenge battlefields for weapons and gear to equip and sell.
• Always be cautious and wary you never know when your race might get you killed (or gender).

Companion

Some easy companions to get are Logan, Rane, Ruka, Burn, Crumblejon, Chung, Ells, Espher, Hartmut, Hobbs, Miu, Shryke, and of course BEEP.

Possibly the greatest determined companion in all of Kenshi. Beep will find you in Mongrel when you enter a town, he will tell you how he was exiled from the hive. However, it didn’t bother him because he is strong and ready to work for you. Also, he doesn’t understand the concept of money lol. Also never let beep die if he does reload a save.