Kenshi Guide: Understanding the Game’s Core Mechanics

My original grand plan was to make some elaborate video out of this Kenshi beginner's guide. You know, dramatic music and slow-motion footage of my characters getting their legs chopped off.

But the motivation for that whole video epic just… wasn't there. So here's the next best thing: a good old-fashioned written guide packed with Kenshi tips.

Combat and Training: Learning How Not to Die

Fighting in Kenshi is… an experience. You will get beaten up. A lot. But that's how you learn! Here are some Kenshi tips to make the pain at least a little productive.

• Training Martial Arts the strange way. Want to become a wasteland kung fu master? Here's a tip that sounds ridiculous, but trust me. Put your future fighter in the heaviest armor you can find. Samurai Armour, Samurai Legplates, anything that makes movement impossible. Why? Because it cuts your Martial Arts skill to nothing, making it harder to actually hurt anyone. That means you can fight weak enemies, such as Hungry Bandits, and get plenty of practice, both hitting and getting hit, without your opponent dying too quickly. Your skill improves, and their teeth stay in place (mostly).
• Melee Attack : how to actually hit things. Simple, but tedious. Fight people. Preferably people who won't kill you in one swing. Light armor helps you attack more often, which means learning faster. Avoid high defense early on: it'll make you too good at defending without ever learning to swing a sword properly. Pro tip: training dummies only take you to level 15. After that, it's live targets or nothing.
• Melee Defense : become a wall. Get into fights, block attacks, wear armor. That's it. Defense improves when you're being attacked, rather than when you're attacking. So don't be shy: let them come to you.
• Controlled sparring : ethical torture. Capture someone tough, such as a Dust Bandit leader, without killing them. Patch them up, put them in a cage, and let your squad take turns practicing on them.

By the way, if limbs start coming off during fights, don't worry. There are shops selling robotic limbs where you can get replacements. Sometimes they're even better than the original body parts.

Movement and Survival: How to Travel Without Becoming Lunch

Traveling through Kenshi's world is dangerous. These tips should help you make a quick getaway.

• Training Athletics : run, Forrest, run! Want to train Strength? Load your people up like pack mules and make them run. Iron, copper, bodies, anything heavy. For Athletics, do the opposite: lighten their load and keep them running. Being both strong and fast is better than being just one of those.
• Train Stealth : become a ninja. To improve Stealth, just sneak. Sneak through towns. Sneak near groups who want to kill you (but not too close, all right?). Even if you're spotted, the skill keeps improving while you're moving in sneak mode.
• Avoid overloading : don't get too greedy with loot. I know, I know, that rusty sword looks valuable. But watch your weight. Overloading makes you slow, and in Kenshi, slow often means dead. A simple tip, but an essential one. You won't outrun a Skimmer while waddling like a duck.
  

Base Building and Resource Management

So you want to know when to build a base in Kenshi? Be patient. It's a major step. When you're ready, here are some tips for your new home.

Safe base locations : location is everything! If you're thinking of settling down, don't plant your first shack just anywhere. Some regions are much, much more dangerous than others. Look near the Hub or Squin for your first attempts at building. They're quieter, and basic resources are easier to get.

Automation: let the machines do the work. Once your base is established, think about machinery. If you're planning a lot of farming, you'll eventually need automatic wells and grain storage.

Research priorities: knowledge is power (and sturdy walls). Build a research bench. It's the only way to unlock the good stuff. Start with things that make the base safer and production easier. Strong walls, powerful gates, better weapons: it all starts here.

Dodging tribute collectors: hide your snacks. Here's a tip that can save you from starvation: when those lovely tribute collectors arrive, whether Holy Nation patrols, bandits demanding taxes, or anyone else, they'll happily clear out your food containers. But there's a trick: they don't touch food in character inventories.

So when you see trouble on the horizon, quickly transfer all food from containers into backpacks. It's like hiding cookies from your siblings, except your siblings have swords and terrible tempers.

Companions and Animals: Friends in a World Without Friends

You're not entirely alone out there. Or you don't have to be. Kenshi has plenty of unique recruits and other characters.

• Bonedogs : good boys, but fragile. Bonedogs! They hit like trucks, which is great. The downside? They can't wear armor. Use them carefully, and don't let them get stuck in a crowd. They'll eat raw meat off the ground when hungry, or from backpacks if the AI setting is enabled, so I suggest keeping it well hidden.
• Skeletons : tough, but expensive to maintain. Skeletons are great. They don't need food and don't care about the weather. Perfect for walking through toxic areas. But repair kits cost more than bandages. Everything has its tradeoffs.
• Mercenaries : expensive friends who actually help. No squad, but you need to venture somewhere nasty? Hire mercenaries in bars! They cost from 2000 Cats a day (expensive, I know), but they're worth it for early expeditions. They can take hits while you figure out how combat works, and they won't judge you when everyone's legs get chopped off. Remember, they're temporary: when the money runs out, they leave. At least they don't steal food like Bonedogs.

Inventory and Equipment

Looking cool is secondary. The main thing is not dropping dead somewhere in the Swamp.

• Backpack management : carry more, fight… worse? Backpacks carry loot, but remember that big bags can seriously reduce combat skills. My advice: find a backpack with decent capacity that doesn't turn you into a lumbering log. You can buy them in Squin.
• Choosing weapons : poke enemies with the sharp end. Choose weapons that fit your character's skills and the enemies you're facing. Light weapons hit faster. Heavy ones hit harder, but slow you down if your Strength is too low. Obvious advice, but easy to forget when you see a shiny new "Plank."

Armor works on the same principle: light armor gives speed and stealth, while heavy armor keeps you alive in a meat grinder.

Controls and Interface

Kenshi has a lot going on. Here are a few controls and tricks I've found particularly useful. These tips can make the game much easier.

• Right-click takes one item from a container. Shift+right-click? Takes the whole stack. You're welcome.
• If you rotate the camera with the middle mouse button (like a normal person 😉), you don't really need Q and E. I've rebound them to game speed: Q for normal, E for fastest. If years at a computer have wrecked your wrists, this tip helps. You can also bind them to jobs such as Medic or Rescue.
• Character portraits are linked to number keys (1-9). Press once to select; twice to jump the camera to them. Double-clicking a portrait does the same thing.
• Space pauses the game. But did you know you can pause while looting, sorting inventory, or trading? It gives you plenty of time, and nobody can attack you from behind.
• If you start a new game while already in the world, it can carry over that same world. You might encounter your old bases from another save! It's amusing, but can sometimes cause bugs. Just keep it in mind.

Weather in Kenshi

• Acid rain : toxic water from the sky. It melts you. Slowly. Go inside or find a roof. Hive Drones are immune (lucky bastards), while everyone else watches their health disappear. On the plus side, it melts enemies too. Sometimes you can exploit that, but mostly you'll be swearing and looking for shelter.
• Sandstorms : nature's blind spot. Perfect for sneaking or getting completely lost. Characters slow down and can't see enemies until they're right on top of them. Plan ahead, or don't and enjoy the surprises.

Different races react differently. Skeletons ignore most hazards. Drones laugh at acid rain. Humans? Well, we suffer everywhere as usual. Keep that in mind when assembling your gang.

Attributes: Your Core Stats

You have four main attributes in Kenshi. Each improves differently, and some need closer attention if you want to stay alive.

Strength

Trader's Backpacks, the big ones that stack goods, are your best friends for Strength training. How do you become a Kenshi bodybuilder? Fill one with iron or Generator Cores, and fill both the backpack and your own inventory. Get your encumbrance above 90%, then send the character on a long walk. Or, if that's dangerous, assign them to carry water from a well to a tank. Strength increases surprisingly quickly!

Toughness

This is simple, although brutal. Let your characters get beaten up. Just keep it controlled. Don't throw them at a Leviathan on day one. Pick fights where you'll get beaten but not killed outright: that's the route to high Toughness. The tougher you are, the longer you stay conscious after heavy hits.

You can even lose a limb and stay standing if you're tough enough! But if your head, chest, or stomach goes far enough below zero, that's it: coma. Check the knockout threshold in the Toughness tooltip.

Dexterity

Dexterity determines attack speed and plenty of other useful things. Using katanas is a good way to improve it. Firing turrets also gives Dexterity a great boost. Every little bit matters when you're trying to survive in Kenshi.

Perception

This one is harder to train deliberately, but it's important if you don't want every pack of Hungry Bandits catching you off guard. Perception affects crossbow accuracy and general combat awareness. Crossbow practice is excellent here because you're constantly aiming at targets.

With high Perception, you'll spot a Beak Thing before it turns you into lunch. Just kidding: you'll simply miss less often, and the Beak Thing will eat you anyway.

Skills in Kenshi

Kenshi has a mountain of skills. Here's how I train some of them. These tips help with specific abilities.

• HEAVY WEAPONS: They demolish crowds, but you need enormous Strength. If your character swings a huge cleaver as though it is made of lead, they are not strong enough. Quick math: the weapon's blunt damage x 40. That is roughly how much Strength you need. Even Ruka, the recruit in Squin who starts with a Plank, is not strong enough for it at first!
• THIEVING SKILLS: Being a slave or prisoner is actually a useful Kenshi training tip. Stealth, Thievery, Assassination, Lockpicking: you can train them all with minimal consequences (caught? Just run back into the cage!). You can even improve Laboring as an "Obedient Slave." Work during the day, pick pockets and locks at night. Excellent preparation for the great escape!
• THIEVERY: Trying to swipe something from a shop? Guards who can see you will watch you like hawks. Move out of sight to steal safely. And remember, there's a window of a few seconds after a theft when you can still be caught (text appears above the thief's head). Items in containers have a percentage failure chance. Items just lying on tables? No check. So the easiest training tip is to grab things lying out in the open. Traveling with a companion? One distracts the trader while the other "looks around." A little trick: you can "launder" stolen items by putting them in the right container, such as stolen fabric in a fabric chest. Take it out, and it's clean! Buy a house in a town with a weapons and armor shop, and you can… well, you get the idea. Sell it back to the person you stole it from.
• LABORING: Ore deposits hold 5 units. You need to collect them manually or automate the process with mining and nearby ore storage. When I first started, figuring out how to mine and collect ore was a quest in itself. You also need light for nighttime work, or you'll suffer a darkness penalty. Torches work. Hive Lanterns of Radiance are even better. Light helps crossbow users too.
• CROSSBOWS: Giving one character a crossbow is a great way to provide cover. The main problem is bolts. There are no quivers, but Trader's Backpacks stack bolts in groups of 9, so they'll last a while. Beginners will hit their own people. Often. Don't worry: that trains Precision Shooting. Kenshi logic! If your shooters are too eager, set them to "Hold." Slow creatures such as River Raptors make ideal practice targets.
• MARTIAL ARTS: These can turn a character into a monster, and it's the only skill that unlocks new attacks as you level. The downsides? It's hard to train. Almost every enemy has swords and armor, and punching metal hurts if your Toughness is low. Dodge also improves mainly through unarmed combat. I've found the southern Holy Nation lands a decent starting point. There are plenty of Hungry Bandits. They use blunt weapons and only want food (remove your food backpack if you go down). They won't enslave or eat you there. Stay in the southern part of the plains, and Holy Nation patrols usually leave you alone. There's a Tech Hunter Waystation to the west where you can recover.

General Tips: Making Life Easier

Various useful Kenshi tips for managing loot.

• HOUSING: How do you buy a house in Kenshi? Find a ruined building in a town, click it, and you'll see the price. Owning a town house means raids won't attack you while you're inside the walls.
• BONEDOG FOOD: For anyone with a dog, especially on the "A Guy with a Dog" start. They eat A LOT and can be fussy without a backpack. They'll eat RAW meat off the ground if necessary. With a backpack and "Share Food" / "Feed Animals" enabled in AI settings, they'll devour almost any food from allies' bags.
• BED QUALITY: Bedrolls give x4 healing. Proper beds give x8. Choose wisely.
• RACES: Your starting race matters. Hive Drones get bonuses to many skills and acid immunity, but have fragile limbs and limited armor options. Skeletons ignore acid and food, but can't wear helmets or boots, and repair kits cost a fortune. Shek are powerful warriors, but hopeless at peaceful skills. Humans (Greenlanders and Scorchlanders) are solid all-rounders in crafting and farming. Everyone has advantages. You can always recruit other races later.
• PRICE COMPARISONS: Settlement prices vary wildly. Fabric costing 89 Cats in one place might sell for 180 elsewhere. Remember, or write down, who pays more for what.
• TRADE ROUTES: Once you know the price differences, you can start a business. Buy low, sell high. Not especially entertaining, but better than bandits hitting you over the head for pennies. Pack animals such as Garru, with their enormous inventories, can make you rich.
• WHAT'S ACTUALLY WORTH CARRYING: Not all loot is equally useful. Ancient Science Books, AI Cores, and good armor or weapons are always valuable. Rusty junk? Leave it unless you're desperate. Your back will thank you.
• BOUNTIES: How do you turn in criminals in Kenshi? First, check the bounty by clicking the character (look for the amount above their name). See which faction wants them: don't drag a Holy Nation enemy to the Shek expecting payment.
• NOTORIETY: If you pick up a bounty yourself, hover over the status above your character's name. More than 10,000 Cats? You're now "notorious." That bounty never expires on its own. You'll have to surrender or pay it off.
• FOLLOW VS. BODYGUARD: "Follow" is temporary unless you hold Shift. "Bodyguard" is a job. Followers only defend themselves; bodyguards defend their target as well. I find Follow easier for large groups: everyone follows the slowest member.
• COOKING: Campfires are free to build. With Jobs enabled, characters cook raw meat automatically. Skeletons, of course, don't eat. Everyone else needs food in their bag or nearby.
• MEDIC JOBS: Rescue and Medic buttons are on the control panel. Shift-clicking makes them permanent jobs. I give everyone Medic/Robotics and assign one specialist to Rescue, carrying beaten-up characters to beds.
• CONTAINER TRICK: If ore storage is full, the worker stops. Just empty it manually with Shift-click and drop everything on the ground or into your inventory. Work will resume!
• RESEARCH: your research benches share inventory, jobs, and progress. An advanced bench gives access to its own technologies and basic workbenches.
• STORAGE TIPS: Stagger your storage containers, for example iron, then Building Materials, then iron again, so workers don't run in circles.

Factions: Who to Befriend and Who to Fear

Kenshi is crawling with factions. The big three are the Shek Kingdom, Holy Nation, and United Cities.

• The Shek Kingdom: the most tolerant. My buddies with enormous swords. They may grumble if there's no Shek in your squad, but usually leave you alone unless you steal or attack.
• The Holy Nation: xenophobes and religious fanatics. They attack all nonhumans (you specifically need human Greenlanders or Scorchlanders) and anyone with robotic limbs. They may beat you, imprison you, or enslave you. Lovely people.
• The United Cities: everything revolves around class. They love slavery. Manhunters will try to enslave anyone, regardless of race, if you look poor or weak. Wear decent gear and be ready to run or fight.
• The Shinobi Thieves: a thieves' guild present in many towns. Membership costs 10,000 Cats. They let you use beds and training dummies, and buy stolen goods. A useful tip: join early if you plan to steal.

You can steal a faction uniform to pass as one of them. But wear an enemy uniform in the wrong town, and welcome to jail, or worse. You can repair faction relations and get back into their good books, although it sometimes takes time and effort.

Getting Started: Your First Steps in Kenshi

For a complete beginner wondering what to do on day one in Kenshi, here are some quick tips:

1. Choose the easy "Wanderer" start. It gives freedom and hurts less. Start alone or with a companion, but try to assemble a small team quickly. There's safety in numbers (sometimes).
2. Mine copper or iron. Find a deposit near a town, such as the one outside the Hub, work it, and sell the ore to earn Cats. Use that money to hire your first companion at a bar. Loot everything from defeated enemies.
3. Train your skills. As I said, carry heavy things and run. Fight. Get beaten up. That's how you grow. Some people recommend bad armor to artificially lower your stats: you gain experience against strong enemies faster that way.
4. Use your surroundings. Lure enemies to town gates, and the guards will help. Always keep one character out of the fight so they can heal everyone if the rest are knocked out.
5. Stealth and survival. Train Stealth. Avoid Fogmen territory: if you're unconscious, they'll eat you. No joke.
6. Don't rush to build a base. Wait until your team is stronger and you've researched some technology. Use houses in NPC towns for early research and storage. Put a bench there and learn the basics before building in the wilderness.
7. Hold ALT to see items on the ground. Red labels mean theft (and a bounty if you're caught). Use the pause and speed hotkeys (Space, F1-F3).
8. Experiment. Try different starts and playstyles.
9. Accept failure. Kenshi is harsh. You will mess up. Learn from it. That's the most important Kenshi tip of all.
10. Combat and equipment. Choose weapons you think look cool (I love heavy options such as Planks and the Falling Sun). Everything works if you train. Make sure crossbow users don't shoot their own people! If you lose a limb, robotic replacements exist. They're an important part of Kenshi.
11. Importing your game. If everything is bugged or you want to reset the world without losing your people, use Import in the main menu. It fixes plenty of problems.
12. Select everyone. Press ` or ~ to select the whole squad.
13. Repairing buildings. If you own the building, select a character and right-click the damaged house. If you have Building Materials, they'll patch it up.

More Kenshi Tips

A little more wisdom before we finish.

• Save constantly: F5 is your best friend. Seriously. Save. Often. Especially before doing something stupid. And in Kenshi, almost anything counts as stupid. This isn't just advice: it's a survival mantra.
• Watch enemy behavior. It gives you an advantage. Set ambushes or simply recognize when it's time to leave. Paying attention matters.
• Use the world's hazards. A crowd of Hungry Bandits chasing you? Lure them into lovely acid rain if you're a Hiver. Or to town gates where the guards are itching for a fight. Let nature, or other nasty people, do the work for you.

If you're stuck and need more serious help, you can use console commands to escape impossible situations or simply experiment.

Does Kenshi Have Multiplayer?

Everyone eventually asks: can you drag a friend into this post-apocalypse? The developer's official answer is roughly "no, and stop asking." The engine was built for a single-player game, and there is absolutely no networking code.

But we are fans, and fans always find a way to do something the developer never even considered. There is a working 16-player mod that synchronizes combat, construction, and NPCs.

In Case You Still Have Questions

How do you hide the interface (HUD) in Kenshi?

To hide the interface, press F7. This removes all menus and character names, perfect for clean screenshots or simply admiring the world without clutter.

How do you take screenshots in Kenshi?

You can use the built-in function on F8, or use Steam or OBS instead.

How do you free stuck characters?

Use "Reset squad positions" when loading the game, or have another character pick up and move the stuck one.

What do you do with books in Kenshi?

Books are used for research. Put them into a research bench to unlock new technologies, blueprints, and recipes. Every book advances your faction from primitive crafting toward advanced robotics. You can sell them for Cats, but knowledge matters more than money in the long run.

Where can I find research books?

The most reliable option is buying them at bookshops in major towns such as the Hub, World's End, or Flats Lagoon. You can also find them by looting ancient laboratories, ruins, or enemy corpses. Sometimes books appear as rare loot or in caches. Trading with Nomad caravans can occasionally pay off too.

Can you eat cactus?

Cactus is an inedible ingredient used to make food and Cactus Rum. You can't eat it raw in Kenshi. It must be cooked into Chewsticks or Dustwiches at a stove.

Can you take over a town?

You can't permanently capture and control existing towns in vanilla. You can temporarily defeat all the defenders, but the original faction eventually takes the town back. The best way to own territory is to build your own outpost from scratch, customizing it completely.

Do characters need sleep?

No, Kenshi characters don't need sleep. They can work around the clock without rest. They do need food to avoid starving, though. Unconscious characters recover faster in beds, but that isn't the same as voluntary sleep or needing it.