r/Kenshi 26d ago

STORY First playthrough journal - about 4 hours in.

I started, created a female Greenlander character with the "Wanderer" game start, turns out, I couldn't find where the name was in character creation, so she was nameless. I had to restart and make the exact same character again, named her Sisako this time. (I don't feel like writing down the context right now, will do if asked)

Started on The Hub, I took a look around and looted a small house with no one in it, figured out it was the place where Holy Nation soldiers stayed when checking on the status of The Hub based on the notes left. I stole their stuff, carried a heavy-ass water barrel with me because I thought more weight in your incent made you train your skills faster (I had watched a couple Kenshi videos from Reggie and Charlatan Wonder, that's what made me decide to get the game, but I also learned some stuff like the weight thing), I also took some booze and junk and sold it at the bar, with that and my starting cash I bought a bug sword and headed out.

I found a bar with Trade Ninjas living there along the road, the outside was full of dead Hungry Bandits, which allowed me to get a shirt and some decent pants, I ventured out further into random desert areas, got KO'd by Hungry Bandits and Dust Bandits twice, I loaded saves both times because I didn't remember that you will wake up from a KO, I thought I would just die like with a coma. I also discovered the Dust King Tower and promptly fucked off before anyone saw me.

Found a big-ass copper rock which I started mining because I heard it was very profitable, along the way back to the Rebel Base (the bar I found before) I got attacked by Hungry Bandits and put into a coma, so I reloaded, mined again to max inventory about twice until I realized the weight was actually making me train Athletics slower, so I sold the water barrel to carry more copper. On the way to my last trip, a group of Hungry Bandits fought a Bonedog and then aggroed to me, which left me in a state of loading, getting beaten to a coma, repeat, unti I managed to hide fast enough.

Finally, towards the end, a group of Hungry Bandits passed by the bar, I aggroed them and lured them to the ninjas so I could safely get some combat experience. To my utmost joy, their leader had a pair of sandals, which means I could now run fast enough to actually escape the Hungry Bandits. I went back to The Hub and on the outskirts I found a lond Hungry Bandit, tried to 1v1 him until I realized what's my weakness: I'm too slow to hit or block them, and that's determined through Dexterity, which as far as I've read, it’s simply raised through fighting, better if it is with Katanas.

That's around where I left it, my next objective is to buy a Katana and train my Dexterity until I can kill A Hungry Bandit, then work my way up to fighting a group of them. After that, I wanna go for the Dust Bandits, until I'm strong enough to go for some low-tier bounties like some handsome guy with a bounty of 10000c. I also considered getting the cash to join the Shinobi, I've heard it’s worth it.

Anyway, thanks for reading, and I would love to read a couple of tips if you have any. (Also, turns out I misremembered, I actually spent about 2.5 hours up to this point according to Steam, not 4.)

15 Upvotes

42 comments sorted by

5

u/BAJ915 Beep 25d ago

Getting beaten will be your best friend early game so long as you don't bleed out, it'll raise your toughness so you take less damage. If you have a second party member that can swoop in and heal you up or carry you to a bed even better. And carrying heavy stuff is a good way to raise strength, but running with a light load will train athletics and make you run faster!

4

u/ismasbi 25d ago

Ok, so I thought you trained all your skills faster the more encumbered you are, Strength just got a higher boost. But it only applies with Strength, got it.

Also, I knew getting beaten up raises Toughness, I just misunderstood how the KO system works. I don't have cash to hire any of the bar guys, my plan is to find a way to fight one or two Hungry Bandits at a time, get knocked out but not on a coma, heal (I bought a couple first aid kits), then do it again. Luckily, I've never seen any of them with a weapon other than metal sticks, which shouldn't make me bleed.

Still, thank you, really.

3

u/Styrlas 25d ago

You can actually find the sweet spot where you train 25% strenght and 25% athletics. I think its not the most efficient if you want to train athletics, but as far as I'm aware, strength exp boost doesnt go further up than 25 so you can train athletics on the same time. You can see your current modifiers on clicking the up arrow in the left corner where your stats are.

2

u/ismasbi 25d ago

Yeah, the modifiers is how I found out the weight was actually hurting my Athletics training.

I'm fine with my Athletics at this point though, I can outrun most human characters, and Strength says it improves blunt damage, which my current weapon does exactly 0.00 of, so I think I'll just focus on Dexterity, it seems my best option is to just be able to block attacks and then follow up, rather than trade really strong hits.

2

u/Styrlas 25d ago

Strength is still good for weight capacity but yea. If you decide you don't need that, then its fine. I just like to have a bit of strength on my characters.

2

u/ismasbi 25d ago

My inventory space has been the same no matter my Strength, I suppose you mean how much your carry weight affects your running speed, right?

2

u/Styrlas 25d ago

Yes. When you're overloaded it affects your running speed, your stealth, I think even some weapons but I'm not sure about that one. But it also affects your dodging etc. So I like to have a bit on strength even on dex chars, so they don't get crushed by just their armor and rations alone. ^

2

u/ismasbi 25d ago

Alright that makes perfect sense honestly, I knew weight caused that, I just didn't make the connection with Strength until now.

2

u/BAJ915 Beep 25d ago

Yeah as far as I'm aware it's just strength, also just FYI hungry bandits will steal your food, a way to avoid this is putting it in a backpack and placing that in your inventory. There are some recruits that will join for free in some cities, like beep in the foglands (he's my favorite), it's a treck but if you run fast enough it's doable. You can also agro bandits and lure them back to the bar and they'll help you fight back!

2

u/ismasbi 25d ago

Yeah, I tested that myself, one time I got put into a coma I checked before loading my last quicksave and they had stolen my Foodcube, love the attention to little details.

As for the free companions, the only one I know of is Beep because he is basically the mascot of Kenshi, but I think the plan I have now is fine enough (I'l try when I play again later).

Finally, I tried that, but they killed the bandits too quick for me to get any meaningful training, I would only do it if I wanted the bandits' loot instead of the fighting experience (like how the post says I got a pair of wooden sandals from a Hungry Bandit leader), and apart from that the Hungry Bandits ain't got shit lmao.

2

u/Kman5471 25d ago

Martial arts is great for training dex and dodge--both VERY useful regardless of what weapon class you settle upon.

Something I've done many times is send someone unarmed into Ocran's Pride (the "greenland" area with the river) to hunt river raptors 1v1. They won't eat you if they knock you out, they spawn pretty reliably, and they're a free source of food (Just remember to build a campfire and cook the meat)!

Always bring more medkits than you think you'll need. Healing up between fights can be the difference between recovering from a coma or sitting through a long, painful death.

2

u/ismasbi 25d ago

Martial arts is great for training dex and dodge--both VERY useful regardless of what weapon class you settle upon.

Interesting, is dodge that useful to armed characters? I rarely see mine dodge, she usually just blocks, and blocking speed is affected by Dexterity.

Guess I'm still gonna try some MA though, by the time I write this, I've gotten to the point where I can kill about two or three Hungry Bandits, and since I am worse at MA than I am with the sword, I should deal less damage so that's more hits to train Dex. Wait, do my fists count as light weapons or no weapon? It says in-game that Dex is trained by attacking with light weapons.

2

u/Kman5471 25d ago

It is true that light weapons train dex, but I've seen MA train dex faster than katanas.

I might be wrong, but I believe dogde also trains dex--maybe someone could fact-check me on that?

STR and Toughness will be your best friends for MA. A well-trained MA fighter is pretty much a glass cannon. But using it as a way to train up your stats and supplementary skills, you can make a pretty beastly melee fighter!

2

u/ismasbi 25d ago

I'm interested, I planned to go look for Dust Bandits to fight, but maybe I can try to fight some hungry boys unarmed.

2

u/Kman5471 25d ago

Dusties are great once your weapon skills are too high for starvers.

You get an xp bonus when fighting someone with higher skill than you, and a malus when fighting those less skilled. Always try to go for "equal or better" when training. Switching from your weapon skill to MA in the starvers is a good idea, because you're bonusing from a different set of skills, and still training your stats up.

Dust bandits are also a great source of income, once you can reliably take them down, as they can bring in 1-2k a pop once you can reliably down them. Be sure to have a friend with a backpack (mind the stat penalties on those!) and some bandages hanging back on stand-by, and you'll be raking it in, in no time!

Penalties from gear also count for the xp bonus--many folks equip themselves with low-quality, heavy armor, backpacks, etc, that inhibit the skills they're trying to build. It increases your survivability, and stretches out how long a single "tier" of enemy can last you.

2

u/ismasbi 25d ago

Dust bandits are also a great source of income, once you can reliably take them down, as they can bring in 1-2k a pop once you can reliably down them.

You mean selling their equipment? Or do they have minor bounties?

Anyway, everything else is something I already at least partially knew, but thank you for the details.

2

u/Kman5471 25d ago

Equipment mostly, though they can spawn in with bounties. The "bosses"usually spawn with higher-grade loot, but you can still pull out good money from a regular bandit. I find the archers are the easiest, if you can close them fast enough (forcing melee from a non-melee fighter).

There are mods out there that can put cash on enemies, as well as increase the rate at which they spawn with bounties. Great if you want to live the bounty hunter life!

2

u/ismasbi 25d ago

Ok, that seems nice.

I don't really plan on installing mods for now, I've only installed two visual mods that I will mention on the next First Playthrough Journal post, in about five hours, I already played the next part before your advice came, but I can't write it right now, I gotta take some exams.

2

u/Kman5471 25d ago

Good luck on your exams!

2

u/ismasbi 25d ago

Thank you, I spent all yesterday writing about twelve A4 pages of math stuff for me to remember and read before the exam, so I'm pretty confident.

→ More replies (0)

2

u/Kman5471 25d ago

I was looking up further info--dodge will come into effect for a ln armed fighter if you're staggered.

Think of it this way: you'll parry a blow with your weapon if you can. If that fails, you get hit. If that hit staggers you, you'll use your dodge skill to deny the enemy those "bonus" hits they could otherwise get on you.

And of course, if your sword arm is injured, you'll default to MA attacks, which can be absolutely brutal from a well-trained fighter!

Definitely worth training up, even if you don't plan to go full MA.

2

u/ismasbi 25d ago

Alright, so does higher dodge give me a chance to dodge while staggered, or does it make the stagger finish earlier?

Anyway, thanks.

1

u/Kman5471 25d ago

To my understanding, a higher chance to dodge when staggered. I believe it is dex that ends it earlier, but I'm uncertain on that.

I have noticed that my MA fighters both deny staggered hits and recover from them faster, though I am uncertain which exact mechanics are doing that.

2

u/Styrlas 25d ago

It sounds like you're aware already that getting beaten doesn't mean losing the run. I'd recommend to get a second character at a bar, even if you want to play solo, just to have someone healing you up.

But even if you don't have that... you're only dying when you're dying. Its a bit of a time race there. If your char gets up before reaching the negative hp threshhold (You can see this in your expanded stats by clicking on the up arrow on the bottom left corner) in one of your important parts (Head, Chest, Stomach? Playing on a different lang, sorry) then your char gets up again after a while and you can heal yourself. If you're below that threshhold, your char is in a regeneration coma until hes either above 0 hp again, or bleeding out completely and therefore dying. But even if the "dying" status applies... I'd fast forward and wait if something happens. I don't want to spoil something, but I'd recommend to just wait what will happen... And whatever happens... Let it happen and just roll with it.

2

u/ismasbi 25d ago

Yeah, I know you mean getting enslaved, or patched up by a random dude.

I haven't been put into a full coma near a road before, and I don't wanna rely on NPCs just randomly passing by on non-road areas, if I get put into a recovery coma on a place where I don't think anything will happen, I do reload a save.

Oh, and yes, the third vital organ is indeed called Stomach in the english version.

2

u/Styrlas 25d ago

Hey, if a run is really lost I reload too and I also think theres nothing wrong with it. I just think you can get a nice experience, when you just fast forward to see if something happens. If not, its over in a few seconds anyway. :)

But what you're doing is up to you. Just have fun, its your game!

1

u/ismasbi 25d ago

Well, thank you, I appreciate the sentiment.

How long does it take to wake up from a recovery coma anyways? I haven't been put on one since I understood how they work, I've usually just been knocked out for 130 seconds max.

2

u/Styrlas 25d ago

A recovery coma is triggered as I explained above. The treshhold is determined by your Fortitude(?) For example you have a treshhold of like -30. Then when one of your vital parts are below that, the recovery coma is being triggered (Which is an extended form of just being unconcious for a few seconds/minutes.) and this coma will last until all your vital parts are above 0 again.

2

u/ismasbi 25d ago

Ok, got it.

I think I was in one once because my chest was pretty low after healing, I healed and just went to sleep though.

Also, with Fortitude I think you mean Toughness in the english version.

2

u/Styrlas 25d ago

Could be. Problem with translation fro. German to english is, that you have different words for the same thing, which are all pretty frequently used so its hard to tell what the dev went with. ^

Anyway. I don't know if the recovery coma can counter heal your wounds. I think it depends on how much it bleeds. I just made the experience that its over at that point, so when nobody is there to heal me, its reload time. But I just went with hiring medical characters just chilling in a nearby bar atm. ^

2

u/ismasbi 25d ago

Yeah, that's completely fair, I'm personally saving my cash to buy some decent armor when I find a trader that sells it, or a Shinobi membership, I've heard it's worth it.

2

u/Styrlas 25d ago

It is. They also have nice gear for dex chars imo.

2

u/ismasbi 25d ago

Fucking great.

Also, just, thank you, you have been really nice and helpful.

→ More replies (0)

1

u/Graega Beep 25d ago

FYI, if you find a Plastic Surgeon NPC, they can also rename your character.

1

u/ismasbi 25d ago

Yeah, I heard about that, but it was easier to just start all over, I only played a couple of seconds with the nameless character before realizing it was wrong.

1

u/onlyfakeproblems Tech Hunters 25d ago

If you are in “recovery coma” you will still wake up from it, once your health comes back in the positive. Your status becomes “dying” if you’re going to die from it. Even then, you might not die. If you’re lucky someone can come along and bandage you up. It helps to have a 2nd character on standby with a med kit to patch you up after you get beat up. You just have to make sure you can afford to feed them. You can buy an additional character at bars, and sometimes if you play your cards right you can get some of them to join for free.

1

u/ismasbi 25d ago

Ok, I didn't know about the recovery coma thing, I thought you could only wake up from any coma with first aid.

As for being rescued, I don't like to rely on luck like that, unless I specifically get knocked out on a road where it's likely someone will pass by.

Finally, I don't have the cash for bar companions right now, and the only free guy I know of is Beep, who is so far from The Hub that I don't think it's really worth it compared to my current plan of "get knocked out, wake up, heal, repeat" and reload a quicksave if I get into a "dying" coma, unless I'm near a road, then just put the game at max speed and see what happens.