Kenshi: Best Starting Locations/ Lore Discussion

I miss being able to play games on my PC, if it weren't for hard drive space I'd love to get on and stream a game of Kenshi. I was enjoying my last playthrough where I was editing and uploading the previous streams to YouTube.

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I Love This Game

I'm an avid fan of Kenshi, and I've recommended it to so many people over the years since I discovered it. There's just something magical about the game itself, and it has garnered an extremely loyal cult following over the years.

Most people may not be interested in a game of this nature because there is a pretty large learning curve that - I'm sure - has left many scorn players strewn across the lands of Kenshi who quit and never returned to give it enough of a chance to learn about it.

Kenshi is the sort of game that openly says, "I don't like you,"

Kenshi is the game equivalent of the drill sergeant from Full Metal Jacket. It doesn't let up on the abuse, because it wants to make sure you're ready to get far into a playthrough. I'm sure most people think that the starting zone is tough, but you ain't seen anything yet. In this post, I'll talk about some easy areas, before descending into the depths of this game.

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The Map

Nowhere in Kenshi is particularly safe, but I'll go through a couple of places that - to my knowledge - are some good locations to settle down and make a base.

Creating a base is usually my first goal when starting a new playthrough, however, everywhere you decide to settle comes with a slew of challenges based on the territory and nearby factions.

I'll list three locations that I think are easy places to start one up. The best thing about having a base is resource gathering, such as iron, copper, and farming. Iron and copper sell for a decent price, and farming means that you won't have to pay extortionate prices for food from vendors throughout the world.

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The Border Zone - this area is one of the starting points for the easy beginning, and you'll spawn in a dilapidated town called The Hub. It's a good place to settle down, and while you do have to pay taxes to live here, you'll rarely get raided by anyone other than starving bandits, or dust bandits.

Starving bandits - are the lowest of the low in the game, as their name suggests. They attack in swarms and are so weak that they don't pose much of a threat to you, and in fact, are a good way to boost your combat skills. Losing to them will result in your food being robbed, but armed only with sticks means that they don't have much of a chance of chopping your limbs off.

Dust Bandits - these are a bit tougher, and they have armour and large swords known as "horse choppers." There have been many fights with these guys that left my characters crawling back to town without legs, it's rough.

The Border Zone is a bit annoying due to the fact that you'll have constant challengers coming to your gate, but also for the fact that you have to pay some pretty large sums of money to operate here, and failure to pay results in an invasion.

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The Stenn Desert - this place is very hard to settle due to the Shek, who are Humans that have undergone some mutation that has completely transformed their appearance. Their entire culture changed too, making them a warrior race who only respected strength above all else. Shek want to die honorably in battle, and if they lose their horns are cut as a way to disgrace them publicly.

If you settle in their land you'll get a visit from "The Band of Bones."

The Band of Bones - these guys are a group of Shek warriors who will occasionally drop by to call you trespassers and say that weaklings don't belong in The Stenn Desert, and you'll need to prove yourself in battle.

During the fight, you won't win, but if you finally manage to they'll respect you more and will seem pleased to share their territory with strong warriors. However, the fun doesn't end there, because at this point they'll still raid your base, but now it'll be to test the strength of their own fighters.

They don't rob you, and even heal you up after a fight, so when encountering this group it's nice to know you have less of a chance of bleeding out in the sand.

All in all, The Stenn Desert is a good place to settle, and it grants access to plenty of cool areas to loot. Sometimes you might get a call from slavers, who if you lose against them will take your unconscious people to their nearest slave auction.

While The Stenn Desert is particularly Arid, there are some options for crops to grow here, and since you're not paying tax for your base you can grow your stash of Cats, and potentially boost up your combat skills.

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Okrans Pride - this has to be the best place to farm in the game, it's the Holy Nation territory, which are pretty backward religious zealots who have a pretty large mobilized force that they aren't afraid of throwing at non-believers, or anyone they deem worthy of death.

They believe in a deity known as Okran, who saved the world from the evils of Narko. Okay, this requires a little bit of backstory.

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There were two empires previous to this game. Essentially, the First Empire was a time of peace and technological progress, especially with the invention of artificial life who are the robots in the game known as skeletons. They created a giant version of the skeletons for defense, and work, but feared them so the Humans lured them into a massive pit and filled it with concrete, this event is known as Obedience. The skeletons saw the price of obedience and revolted against the Humans committing genocide and then they became guilty.

To make up for their actions Catlon, and TinFist - who are skeleton folk heroes - banded everyone together to rebuild and aid Humanity in the region now known as The Ashlands, they formed the Second Empire as a way to make up for what they had done.

While this empire was forming, a small cult formed, in an attempt to stop their dangerous practices, the Second Empire launched attacks against them, but rather than wipe them out, they allowed them to live. This caused the cult to have a hatred of Skeletons, which then became doctrine in their belief system.

They formed The Holy Nation, had a ban on all things technology, and even believe that a female deity known as Narko tried to tempt men into using science and technology and straying away from the light of Okran.

Because of Narko - whoever she was - the Holy Nation now see all women as objects to be tamed, lest they too become followers of Narko. They hate the Shek, and Hivers, seeing them as fit for nothing but slavery or death, and they kill Skeletons on sight.

While the Holy Nation, and many other factions started to form in the world, the Second Empire fell by some catastrophe and the land was carved up into nation states.

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The Holy Nation - When settling their land, you'd better have your copy of their bible in your inventory, because every few days is "Prayer Day" and they take that very seriously and expect all in their land to do the same.

Not showing up, or participating will result in being swarmed by some pretty tough armies, and they'll harass you at every turn and most likely will enslave your people for the trouble.

The catch is, if you answer the call to prayer day as anyone other than a Human Male, it'll be the same result as if you'd not shown up at all. If they see Shek, Hivers, or Skeletons in your base they'll attack on-site, and if they see women they'll make sure to make comments about them.