Originally, my grand scheme involved making some sort of fancy video of this starting guide for Kenshi. You know, with dramatic music and slow motion shots of my characters getting their limbs hacked off. But, TBH, the motivation for that whole video editing saga just… wasn’t there. So, you get the next best thing a good old fashioned written guide, packed with Kenshi tips.
This is probably going to be a bit messier than my usual polished posts – just pretend you don’t notice, okay? We’re all friends here. Don’t forget to pick some of the best mods for Kenshi you should use every playthrough.
So, these are the Kenshi tips that might just keep you alive a little longer.
Combat & Training: Learning to Not Die
Fighting in Kenshi is… an experience. You’ll get beaten. A lot. But that’s how you learn! Here are some Kenshi tips to make the pain a little more productive.
- Martial Arts Training – The Weird Way
So, you want to be a kung fu master in the wastes? Here’s a Kenshi tip that sounds backward but trust me. Get your would be martial artist kitted out in the heaviest armor you can find. Samurai Armor, Samurai Legplates – the stuff that screams “I can’t move in this.” Why? Because it tanks your martial arts skill, making it harder to actually hurt anyone. This means you can pick fights with weaker enemies, like starving bandits, and get a ton of practice in (both hitting and getting hit) without your opponent croaking too fast. Your skill goes up, their teeth stay in (mostly). - Melee Attack – How to Actually Hit Stuff
This one’s obvious but grindy. Fight people. Preferably ones that don’t kill you in one hit. Light armor helps you swing more, which helps you learn faster. Avoid high defense early on it makes you too good at turtling and not good enough at swinging. Pro tip: training dummies only go to level 15. After that, it’s live targets or nothing. - Melee Defense – Become the Wall
Get into fights, block hits, wear armor. That’s it. Defense goes up when you’re getting attacked, not when you’re attacking. So don’t be shy let them come to you. Fogmen are ideal for this. They love to swarm and kind of suck individually. Think of them as mobile XP dispensers. - Controlled Sparring – Ethical-ish Torture
Capture someone durable like a Dust Bandit boss and don’t kill them. Patch them up, stick them in a cage, and let your squad take turns sparring with them. Bonus if it’s a skeleton. They don’t bleed out, and they bounce back fast. Is it cruel? Yes. Is it effective? Also yes.
Movement & Survival: Getting Around Without Becoming Meat
Moving through Kenshi’s world is dangerous. These Kenshi tips should help you leg it effectively.
- Athletics Enhancement – Run, Forrest, Run! Want to train strength? Load your people up like pack mules and make them run. Iron, copper, dead bodies… whatever’s heavy. For athletics, lighten the load and just keep them running. Strong and fast is better than just one or the other. This is a classic Kenshi tip for new players.
- Stealth Practice – Be the Ninja You Wish to See Sneaking is your friend. A very good friend. To get that stealth skill up, just sneak. Sneak around towns. Sneak near groups that want to kill you (but not too near, eh?). Even if you get spotted your skill keeps climbing as long as you’re in that sneaky stance and moving. It’s a vital Kenshi tip for avoiding unwanted attention.
- Avoiding Overencumbrance – Don’t Be a Loot Goblin (Too Much) I know, I know, that rusty sword looks valuable. But watch your carry weight. If you’re over encumbered, you’re slow. And slow in Kenshi often means dead. It’s a simple Kenshi tip, but crucial. You can’t outrun a Skimmer if you’re waddling.
Base Building & Management: Your Slice of (Relative) Hell
So you want to know when to build a base in Kenshi? Patience. It’s a big step. When you do, here are some Kenshi tips for your new home.
Safe Base Locations – Location, Location, Location! If you’re thinking of settling down, don’t just plonk your first shack anywhere. Some areas are way, way meaner than others. Consider regions like near the Hub or Squin for your early attempts at building a base. These spots offer a bit more safety and easier access to basic resources. It’s a good Kenshi tip to not make your first home in Gut. Just saying.
Automated Production – Let the Machines Do the Work Once your base is up, think about getting some machines to automate production. You know, like bleeding out in a ditch. Or training. This Kenshi tip will save you so much time. If you are going to farm a lot, you’ll want automated wells and grain silos eventually.
Research Prioritization – Knowledge is Power (and Better Walls) Build a research bench. Seriously. It’s how you unlock all the good stuff. Prioritize research that makes your base safer and your production lines smoother. Better walls, stronger gates, improved weapons – all start here. Knowing how to research in Kenshi is fundamental.
Tribute rounds – Hide Your Snacks Here’s a Kenshi tip that’ll save you from starvation: when those lovely faction tribute collectors show up (Holy Nation patrols, random bandits demanding “taxes,” etc.), they’ll happily raid your food storage containers. But here’s the trick – they won’t touch food that’s in your characters’ inventories. So when you see trouble approaching, have someone quickly grab all the food from your containers and stuff it in backpacks. It’s like hiding cookies from your siblings, except your siblings have swords and bad attitudes.
Companions & Animals: Friends in a Friendless World
You’re not entirely alone out there. Or you don’t have to be.
- Bonedogs – Good Boys, Fragile Boys Bonedogs! They can hit like a truck, which is great. The downside? They can’t wear armor. So, use them with care. Don’t let your furry missile get swarmed. And if you’re wondering how to feed bonedog Kenshi style, they’ll eat raw meat off the ground if they’re hungry enough, or from backpacks if you have that AI setting.
- Skeletons – Hardy, but High Maintenance Skeletons are awesome. No food needed, immune to nasty weather. Perfect for exploring those charmingly toxic regions. However, healing them requires repair kits, and those are pricier than bandages. So, trade offs.
- Mercenaries – Expensive Friends Who Actually Help Don’t have a squad yet but need to venture into scary places? Hire some mercenaries from bars! They’ll cost you around 2000+ cats per day (ouch, I know), but they’re worth it for early exploration. Think of them as very expensive training wheels. They can tank hits while you figure out how combat actually works, and they won’t judge you when you inevitably get everyone’s limbs chopped off. Just remember they’re temporary – pay stops, they leave. But hey, at least they don’t eat your food like bonedogs do.
Inventory & Equipment: What to Carry, What to Wear
Looking good is secondary to not dying. Usually.
- Backpack Management – Carry More, Fight… Worse? Backpacks are essential for hauling loot. But be warned, some of the bigger ones can seriously mess with your combat skills. It’s a Kenshi tip to find a backpack that gives you decent space without turning you into a sitting duck.
- Weapon Selection – Pointy End Towards Enemy Choose weapons that fit your character’s skills and what you’re fighting. Lighter weapons attack faster. Heavier ones do more damage but might make you slow if your strength isn’t up to par. Common sense Kenshi tip, but easy to overlook when that shiny new plank looks so cool.
Controls & Interface
Kenshi has a lot going on with its interface. Here are a few button combos and tricks that I found super handy, and you might too. These Kenshi tips can be real game changers.
- Right-clicking an item snags one from a container. Shift+Right Click? Takes the whole stack. You’re welcome.
- If you use your middle mouse button for camera rotation (like any sane person 😉), Q and E become a bit redundant. I rebind Q and E to game speed controls. Maybe Q for NORMAL speed and E for FASTEST. If your wrists are shot from years of goblin-like desk posture, this is a good ergonomic Kenshi tip. You could also bind them to jobs like Medic or Rescue.
- The character portraits in your squad list are tied to number keys (1-9). Tap once to select, double tap to center the camera on them. Double clicking the portrait does the same.
- Space Bar is pause. We all know that. But did you know you can pause while looting, managing inventory, or even trading? Gives you all the time in the world, no nasty surprises from off screen.
- Starting a new game while already in a world can sometimes reuse that same world state. You might stumble upon your old bases from a different save! It’s awesome, but can sometimes lead to weird technical issues. Just a heads up.
Weather & Environment
- Acid Rain – Spicy Sky Water Acid rain melts you. Slowly. Get indoors or under cover when it hits. Hivers are immune (lucky jerks), but everyone else will watch their health tick down. Silver lining? It also melts your enemies. Sometimes you can use this tactically, but mostly you’ll just curse and run for shelter.
- Sandstorms – Nature’s Blindfold Can’t see jack in sandstorms. Perfect time for sneaky stuff or getting completely lost. Your characters move slower and can’t spot enemies until they’re practically kissing. Plan accordingly, or don’t plan and enjoy the surprise beatings.
- Weather vs. Races – Some Get Lucky Different races handle weather differently. Skeletons don’t care about most environmental hazards (show-offs). Hivers laugh at acid rain. Humans? Well, we suffer through everything like always. Factor this in when choosing your squad composition.
Attributes: Your Core Stats
You’ve got four main attributes in Kenshi. Each grows differently, and some need more babysitting than others if you want to, you know, live.
Strength
Trader’s backpacks – the big ones that stack trade goods – are your best friends for strength training. How to get strong in Kenshi? Load one of these bags with iron or Generator Cores (fill both backpack and your inventory). Get that encumbrance over 90%, then just send your character on a long walk. Or, if that’s too risky, have them haul water from a well to a water tank as a job. Decent strength, surprisingly fast! This is a key Kenshi tip for carrying better gear.
Toughness
This one’s simple, if brutal. Let your characters take a beating. Controlled damage, mind you. Don’t go throwing them at a Leviathan on day one. Engaging in fights where they’re likely to get hit, but not outright murdered, is the path to a higher toughness score. The higher your toughness, the longer you can stay conscious when taking big hits. Limbs can fly off, and you might still be standing if you’re tough enough! But if your head, chest, or stomach take too much negative damage, it’s nap time (coma). Pay attention to the KO point on your character’s toughness tooltip.
Dexterity
Dexterity is key for faster attacks and all sorts of useful stuff. A good way to get this up is to engage in some fisticuffs with disarmed prisoners. No weapons. Alternatively, using turrets (actual combat turrets, not those training dummy ones) will also boost your dexterity. Every little bit helps when you’re trying to survive in Kenshi.
Perception
This one’s a bit trickier to train deliberately, but it’s crucial for not getting ambushed by every pack of hungry bandits in the wasteland. Perception affects how far you can spot enemies, your crossbow accuracy, and general battlefield awareness. The main way to level it is through combat – specifically, being in fights where you’re actively looking for targets and threats. Crossbow training is excellent for this since you’re constantly acquiring targets. Higher perception means you’ll spot that Beak Thing stalking you before it turns you into lunch. Just kidding, you won’t miss so often with high perception, bur Beak Thing will eat you anyways.
Skills: So Many things to Get Good at
Kenshi has a ton of skills. Here are my methods for leveling some of them. These Kenshi tips focus on specific skills.
- HEAVY WEAPONS: These can wreck groups, but you need serious strength. If your character swings a big chopper like it’s made of lead, they need more strength. Quick math: weapon’s Blunt damage x 40. That’s roughly the strength needed. Even Ruka, the Shek recruit in Squin who starts with a Plank, often isn’t strong enough for it initially! kek
- THIEVERY SKILLS: Being a slave or prisoner is actually a viable Kenshi tip for training certain skills. Stealth, thievery, assassination, lockpicking – you can work on these with fewer consequences if caught (just run back to your cage!). You might even gain Labouring skill if you’re an ‘Obedient Slave’. Work by day, pick pockets and locks by night. All good practice for your eventual grand escape!
- THIEVERY (JUST STEALING): Trying to yoink stuff from a shop? Once guards spot you, they’ll stare you down for a bit. Break line of sight to steal safely. And remember, there’s a few second window after stealing where you can still get caught (shown above your thief’s name). Items in containers have a percentage chance for failure based on skill. Items just lying out on tables or shelves? No percentage check. So, the easiest Kenshi tip for leveling Thievery is to nab loose items. Traveling with a buddy? One distracts the shopkeeper, the other “browses.” A bit of an exploit: stolen items can be laundered by putting them in their proper storage container (e.g., stolen Fabric in a Fabric Chest). Take it out, and it’s clean! Get a house in town with weapon/armor storage, and you can… well, you get the idea. Sell it back to the guy you stole it from.
- LABOURING: Mining nodes hold 5 ores. You need to manually take them, or automate it with a job and nearby ore storage. When I first played, figuring out how to mine in Kenshi and pick up the ore was a mystery. Also, for nighttime work, you need light sources, or your workers get a massive darkness penalty. Standing torches work. Hiver lantern belts are even better. Light helps crossbow users too.
- CROSSBOWS: Giving one unit a crossbow is a great Kenshi tip for ranged support. Ammo is the main challenge. No quivers, but Trade Backpacks can stack bolts up to 9 deep, so you’re set for a while. Novice crossbow users will hit friendlies. A lot. Don’t worry, their precision shooting skill goes up when they do. Kenshi logic! If your crossbowmen are too eager, set them to ‘Hold Position’. Slow things like River Raptors are great target practice.
- MARTIAL ARTS: This can make a character a beast, and it’s the only combat skill that learns new attacks as you level. Downside? Training is tough. Most enemies have weapons and armor. And punching armor with bare fists can hurt you if your toughness is low. Dodge skill also mainly comes from martial arts training. I found Skinner’s Roam (south end of Holy Nation turf) is decent for early martial arts. Lots of starving bandits. They do mostly blunt damage and just want your food (unequip your food backpack if you go down). No real threat of enslavement or being eaten by local wildlife there. Stay in the flat southern bit, and Holy Nation patrols usually leave you alone. There’s a Tech Hunter Waystation west of there for bed rest.
General Tricks: Making Life Easier
Some miscellaneous Kenshi tips and job management ideas.
- HOUSING: How to buy a house in Kenshi? Find a ruined building in a city, click on it, and you’ll see a sale price. Buying houses in cities means no raids on your home base while you’re inside city walls. Nice and safe-ish.
- BONEDOG FOOD: For those with a Bonedog pet (especially the Guy With A Dog start). They eat a LOT and can be picky if you don’t have a backpack for them. They will eat RAW meat off the ground if hungry. With a backpack and “Share Food” / “Feed Animals” AI toggled, they’ll eat most food from nearby allies’ packs.
- BED QUALITY: Camp beds = x4 recovery. Proper beds = x8 recovery. Choose wisely.
- RACES: Your starting race matters. Hivers get wide skill bonuses, acid immunity, but brittle limbs and can’t wear some armor. Skeletons are immune to acid, no food needed, but no helmets/boots and need expensive repair kits. Shek are tough warriors but lack non-combat skill bonuses. Humans (Greenlanders, Scorchlanders) are decent all-rounders for crafting and farming. Pros and cons for all. You can always recruit other races later.
- Price Shopping Prices vary wildly between settlements. That Fabric selling for 89 cats in one town might fetch 180 in another. Keep mental notes (or actual notes if you’re organized) about who pays what. Tech Hunters love robotics parts, Shek pay well for weapons, and everyone needs food.
- Trade Routes Once you know the price differences, you can set up profitable trade routes. Buy cheap in one place, sell expensive in another. It’s not glamorous, but it beats getting your face caved in by bandits for pocket change. Pack animals like Garru make this much easier with their massive carry capacity.
- What’s Actually Worth Trading Not all loot is created equal. Ancient Science Books, AI Cores, and quality weapons/armor are always worth hauling around. Rusty junk? Maybe leave it unless you’re desperate. Your back will thank you.
- BOUNTIES: How to turn in bounties in Kenshi? First, check a target’s bounty by clicking them (look for a cat amount above their name). Note which faction wants them; don’t drag a Holy Nation outlaw to a Shek city expecting payment.
- INFAMOUS: If you get a bounty, hover over the status above your character’s name to see how high it is. Over 10,000 cats? You’re infamous. That bounty never expires. Only way out is turning yourself in or paying it off.
- FOLLOW VS BODYGUARD: ‘Follow’ is temporary (unless shift is held). ‘Bodyguard’ is a job. Followers mostly protect themselves. Bodyguards protect their charge and themselves. I find ‘Follow’ easier for big groups – everyone follows the slowest unit.
- COOKING: Campfires need no materials to build. With ‘Jobs’ on, characters automatically cook raw meat. Skeletons, of course, don’t eat. Others need food in inventory or access to it.
- HEALER JOBS: ‘Rescue’ and ‘Medic’ buttons are on the HUD. Shift+click them to make them jobs. I give everyone Medic/Robotics jobs. One dedicated Rescuer to haul downed folks to beds.
- CONTAINER MAX WORKAROUND: If storage for a resource (like a mine) is full, your worker stops. Manually grab items by selecting the mine/farm, then Shift+Left Click and drag the stack to your inventory or the ground. Work continues!
- RESEARCH: Research benches share inventories, jobs, and progress if you own them. A higher level bench shares its tech access with basic benches.
- STORAGE TRICKS: Stagger storage containers (e.g., iron plates, then building materials, then iron plates again) to stop workers getting stuck in pickup/dropoff loops.
Factions: Who to Friend, Who to Fear
Kenshi is crawling with factions. The big three are the Shek Kingdom, The Holy Nation, and the United Cities.
- Shek Kingdom: Most tolerant. My buddies with huge swords. Might grumble if you don’t have a Shek in your squad, but usually passive unless you steal or attack.
- The Holy Nation: Xenophobic religious nuts. Attack anyone not human (Greenlander/Scorchlander human, specifically) or anyone with prosthetics. They’ll fight, arrest, or enslave. Fun guys.
- United Cities: More classist. Big on slavery. Manhunters will try to enslave anyone, any race, if you look poor or weak. Wear decent clothes and be ready to run or fight.
- SHINOBI THIEVES: General thievery guild found in many cities. Pay 10,000 cats for membership. Lets you use their beds, training stuff, and fence stolen/smuggled goods. A good early Kenshi tip is to join them if you plan on a life of crime.
Disguises? You can steal faction uniforms to blend in. But wear an enemy uniform in the wrong town, and you’re asking for jail time or worse.
Starting Out: Your First Steps into Hell
For the absolute beginner wondering what to do in Kenshi on day one, here are some quick Kenshi tips:
- Basic Character Start: Choose an easy start like “The Wanderer.” It gives you freedom and isn’t too brutal. Start solo or with one pal, but try to recruit a small team early. Safety in numbers (sometimes).
- Earn Money and Recruit: mine copper or iron is a classic opener. Find a deposit near town (like that one near Hub), hack away, sell the ore. Use that cash to hire your first buddy from a bar. Loot everything from downed enemies.
- Train Your Skills: We’ve covered this, but carry heavy stuff and run. Fight. Get beaten up. It’s how you learn. Some say use low quality armor to artificially lower your combat stats for faster XP against tougher foes – a more advanced Kenshi tip there.
- Use the Environment: Lure bad guys to town gates; guards will help. Always have one person who can play doctor if others get knocked out.
- Stealth and Survival: Train stealth. Avoid Fogmen areas if you’re downed; they will eat you. No joke.
- Don’t Rush Base Building: Wait until your team is skilled and you’ve done some research. Use houses in NPC towns for early research and storage. Build a bench in that bought house to research basic stuff before building your base.
- General Gameplay: Press ALT to see items on the ground. Red items mean stealing (and bounties if seen). Use hotkeys for pause and game speed (Space, F1-F3).
- Experiment: Try different starts, different ways to play.
- Embrace Failure: Kenshi is harsh. You will fail. Learn from it. That’s the biggest Kenshi tip of all.
- Combat and Equipment: Pick weapons you think look cool (I love swinging with heavy stuff like planks or falling sun). All types can work if you train. Watch for friendly fire with crossbows! If you lose a limb, robotic ones are available. This is a major part of Kenshi. Knowing how to attack in Kenshi is more than just right clicking on enemy (but it works too); it’s about positioning, skills, and gear.
- Importing Game: If things get really buggy or you want to reset world states without losing your characters, you can import your game, there is an option in the main menu. It can fix many issues.
- Selecting all members of your squad: USE ` or ~ button to select all characters in the squad
- Repairing Buildings:If it’s yours, select a character, right click the damaged building, and if you have building materials, they’ll patch it up.
Character Name Generator For Kenshi
Looking for the perfect Kenshi name? Pick a race, choose a gender, or use your own nickname to create a custom, lore-friendly name that fits right into the world. Great for roleplay or just starting your next adventure.
Additional Kenshi Tips
A few more nuggets of wisdom before I send you off.
- Save Frequently – F5 is Your Best Friend Seriously. Save your game. Often. Especially before doing something stupid. Which, in Kenshi, is most things. This isn’t just a Kenshi tip; it’s a life mantra for this game.
- Observe Enemy Patterns – Know Your Foe Watch how enemies move and act. It can give you a huge edge. Plan ambushes, or just know when to run away. A little observation goes a long way.
- Utilize Environmental Hazards – Turn a Problem into a Solution Got a pack of hungry bandits chasing you? Why not lead them into a nice, friendly acid rain storm? Or perhaps towards a town whose guards are itching for a fight. Let the environment (or other angry people) do some work for you.
Kenshi is a journey. A brutal, frustrating, but ultimately incredibly rewarding one. These Kenshi tips are just starting points. If you wondering how to make Kenshi run better check out my list of kenshi mods for better performance.
The best stories are the ones you make yourself, usually involving a lost limb and a desperate escape. I’m going to update this tips in the future, as soon as I finish my current playthrough!. Now go out there and try not to die too often or use some cheats/console commands if you are too lazy to struggle. GLHF!
To hide the HUD in Kenshi, press F7. This toggles the user interface off, including menus and character names, making it ideal for capturing clean screenshots or enjoying an immersive, cinematic view.
For capturing screenshots, you can use the game’s built-in screenshot function by pressing F8, or utilize external tools like Steam’s screenshot feature or OBS.
To get characters unstuck in Kenshi, use “Reset Squad Positions” from the in-game options, or have another one of your characters pick them up and put them down.
Books serve several important purposes in Kenshi. You can research them at a Research Bench to unlock new technologies, blueprints, and crafting recipes. Each book contains specific knowledge that advances your faction’s capabilities – from basic crafting to advanced robotics and weapons manufacturing. You can also sell books to traders for cats (the game’s currency), though keeping them for research is usually more valuable long-term.
The most reliable method is purchasing them from Book Shops found in major cities like The Hub, World’s End, and Flats Lagoon. You can also find books by looting Ancient Labs, ruins, and defeated enemies. Some books are rare drops from certain enemy types or hidden in specific locations. Trading with nomad caravans occasionally yields books as well.
Cactus is an inedible raw ingredient used in the crafting of Food & Cactus Rum. You cannot eat raw cactus directly in Kenshi. Instead, cactus must be processed into food items like chewsticks or dustwiches at cooking stations, or used to make Cactus Rum. The cacti can be used as ingredients for dustwiches or chewsticks.
You cannot permanently capture and control existing cities in Kenshi. However, you can temporarily occupy them through combat, though the original faction will eventually reclaim them. Your best option for controlling territory is building your own outpost or base from scratch, which you can fully customize and defend.
No, characters in Kenshi don’t have a sleep requirement. They can operate continuously without rest. However, they do need food to maintain their health and avoid starvation. Unconscious characters will recover over time when safe, but this isn’t the same as voluntary sleep.
