To say the world is flooded with RPGs would be a gross understatement. There are games for every player and every taste, featuring almost every setting, mechanic, and cast of characters imaginable. Yet even amongst this horde of roleplaying games, Kenshi stands out. A post-apocalyptic, steampunk RPG that takes its cues as much from Mad Max as it does from Dune, nothing plays quite like Kenshi.
A sandbox RPG in the purest sense, Kenshi lets players engage with the world however they want. They can be a wandering warrior, miner, bandit leader, slave, assassin, farmer, shepard, trader, or just about anything else the player can think of. Whether building a city or traveling from oasis to oasis with nothing more than a rucksack and a sword, Kenshi is full of possibility. That makes knowing where to start all the more important.
5 Choose The Wanderer Beginning
During character creation the player must choose between thirteen Beginnings (aka game starts). Any character can eventually grow to be just about anything regardless of how they start, but different beginnings put the player in very different positions at the start of the game, affecting the starting currency, equipment, skills, and even number of party members. Some choices make the game much harder in the beginning than others, and some are just more complicated.
The best Beginning for a new player is the Wanderer. Starting alone in the Hub, a town of Holy Nation Outlaws within the Border Zone, the Wanderer starts with a 1 in all of their skills. Fortunately, the Hub is a great jumping off point for adventure.
4 Understand Your Surroundings
The presence of copper and iron nodes in the vicinity of the Hub is another excellent benefit to choosing the Wanderer Beginning. It is of paramount importance to understand one's environment, observing the surroundings and understanding what they offer in terms of resources, trade and base-building opportunities, and (most importantly) potential threats. The player should explore the city's surroundings, mine whatever copper and iron deposits they can find, and retreat to the safety of the city if threatened.
Like other cities, the Hub contains a number of purchasable buildings, intact and damaged alike. Buying property within the city may be costly, but it has a distinct advantage over setting up an outpost in the middle of nowhere: relative safety. If bandits or other dangers come knocking, the player has the Hub's high walls and city guards to help defend them. The advantage of this safety is a major consideration in the early game and should not be given up lightly. Buying a house and building a research bench inside lets the player quickly gain access to some needed technologies that will make later bases much safer and more useful.
3 Consider Equipment
The Wanderer begins the game with minimal equipment: a Rag Loincloth, an Iron Club of unknown quality, and 1,000 Cats (Kenshi's currency). With so little money, most purchases at the beginning of the game are out of reach, but there are still a few essentials to which the player has access
Buying food and a first-aid kit is mandatory if the Wanderer is going to live to see the end of the week. Skeletons require repair kits instead of first-aid kits, but every other race requires food and first-aid. The next essential purchase is a good backpack. Starting storage is rather limited, and the player will quickly load their character up with stolen or scavenged goods, copper, and other items, making extra carrying capacity vitally important. Upgrading weapons is an open-world gaming trope that will never get old. Getting a jitte, wakizashi, or staff is a good early weapon purchase until the character has trained enough to be able to handle something larger and more lethal.
2 Make Some Money
Buying food and medicine will deplete the Wanderer's limited starting funds, so the player's focus should now shift to making more money. There are a number of ways to make Cats in Kenshi, but some are more reliable and less dangerous than others and thus are preferable for those still learning the ropes of the wasteland.
Here are some of the most common ways to make money, as well as their downsides:
- Mining: Mine copper or iron from nearby deposits. Mining is easy, free, and incredibly safe, as long as the player keeps an eye out for bandits and other roving dangers.
- Thievery: Steal from shops and sell to the thieves' guild. Thievery can be highly profitable, but becoming a thief risks the character's reputation with the locals, to say nothing of imprisonment.
- Hunting: Kill local wildlife and sell whatever can be looted from their remains. Hunting is, in short, too dangerous for a brand-new character; best stick to other methods in the early game.
- Bounty hunting: Track down wanted criminals, knock them unconscious, and bring them back to the law for a reward. Bounty hunting is, if anything, even more dangerous than hunting, and is best reserved for more experienced characters.
A number of other options exist, including farming and crafting at a settlement of the player's own making, but building and securing a functional and profitable settlement is a long and costly undertaking, putting it outside the scope of the early-game. When first starting off, mining is easily the safest and therefore best method to make some money while developing skills and planning for the mid-game.
1 Survive Combat
For new players and new characters alike, getting into fights first thing is a bad idea, even with a good med-kit. Being a cool nomad, wandering the desert doesn't mean the world of Kenshi will be any less merciless. In fact, Kenshi specializes in devouring newcomers and leaving their bones to dry in the desert sun.
The art of surviving combat begins before combat even starts. Observe the surroundings, looking for anything nearby that might be dangerous. Roving bandits and wolves are common culprits. Running away is the best course of action until the character's skills have developed enough to handle themselves in a fight. If running isn't an option, hiding or waiting for the danger to pass are viable alternatives. Until the character has some training and equipment, entering into combat is the last resort.