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Players who are interested in growing and Crafting Items for trading should find this Guide to Building an Outpost helpful. Player Outposts can be built just outside of towns or deep in the wilderness.

Starting an Outpost

Different regions in Kenshi offer very different resources and dangers. Before starting an Outpost, players should consider what they want to build and where they want to build it.

Territory

Be careful of whose territory and what animals are nearby(Ex: Beak Things in Vain)

Territory: will tax collectors come bug you (UC)

Even ruins can trigger base visits from the controlling faction (ex: Tiny Settlement).

Dangers: will raids from Hostile Factions and Fauna occur here(Ex: Dust bandit extortion)

If players are planning on Armour Smithing with Leather, they should pick a location near animals like Beak Things and Gorillos.

Prospecting

Find nearby resources with Prospecting.

Resources: copper, iron mines, Environment for farming.

Power: Can wind generators be used in this area? Or will you need to research biofuel?

Research

The player will only be able to build a couple of things before needing to research additional Technologies. If the player decide to start their outpost before doing any research, the only building they will be able to Construct for shelter will be a Small Shack.

Alternatively, players can purchase a cheap building in a town and research the necessary tech before starting.

After building a Research Bench, characters can work at the bench to research. In order to build a Level 2 Research Bench, characters must research Small House and then Tech Level 2. Studying these Technologies will cost 8 Books. In order to determine how best to spend Research Artifacts, it is recommended that players research Tech Levels before spending Research Artifacts.

Build Mode

In order to start construction, choose the building and then click to place it. Confirm placement by clicking 'confirm.' The building will change colors from blue (too close to a town) --> red (unable to place) --> green (OK to place), indicating location suitability.

Link to Construction page

Managing an Outpost

OutpostNaming

How to name an outpost.

Players can rename their outpost to whatever they want. Renaming an outpost affects the map marker and the Event notifications.

Types of Buildings

In build mode, buildings are split into these categories:

Jobs

Players who want their outpost to function without constant micromanaging should make use of the Jobs system. These are the categories which jobs fall under:

  • First Aid: this includes the Medic and Robotics jobs. They can be added through the medic button or when clicking to heal a character. These jobs remain active even when Jobs has been deselected for that character.
  • Work: this includes all jobs where a character is using a machine or farm.
  • Auto-Haul: when characters have these jobs active, they will carry items to the related Storage building. Characters take these items from either their inventory or the building which generates it.
  • Collection: players can give characters the job of finding dead bodies in order to bring them to a Corpse Furnace as well as the job of looting the bodies of fallen Animals.

Visitors From Other Factions

Trade Caravans

These traveling merchants provide the player with chances to buy and sell goods while not having to venture to a city. Hive traders are a common visitor in the Border Zone and often have a large amount of food, materials, and plants to sell. They can facilitate starting or expanding farms but at potentially inflated prices.

Tax Collectors

Certain factions will send out squads to collect from player outposts. The player can avoid conflict by responding a certain way to these squads. If the player chooses to go against this faction, they might be immediately attacked or the squad will retreat with the promise of returning with an army.

Base Raids

Certain fauna and factions may raid the player's base, these attacks are all listed in Base Assault.

Hostile factions may antagonize the player while the player is inside their territory.

Animals also pose a threat, potentially attacking the player or eating crops.

Tips

  • Insulate your base from the world. Rampaging fauna and factions have a much harder time doing damage if your base is behind a wall.
  • Access to resources is important. If you can't sustain your population then you must have access to traders or to scavenge resources nearby.

Recommended Start Areas

These are some areas where other players have already started their bases.

Howler Maze

  • Fertile land (Green and some Arid) and good Copper and Iron resources
  • Endless source of meat from Crabs (dangerous for weak characters), however no Animal Skin
  • Gut is a short travel to the southwest, for all you Beak Thing needs (Animal Skin and eggs)
  • Easy trading access with UC/Traders Guild
  • Black Scratch (Tech Hunters) is fairly close, although shortest route is through Gut or via swimming
  • Acid rain is infrequent enough to be easily managed

Few patrols from major Factions, although some (including caravans) still visit. Reavers and sometimes Slave Hunter/Trader raids do happen. Crab Raiders can also come to visit, including to help you host a tournament. Good point to start thinking of moving here is when fights in areas like The Hub become easy, with base locations here lasting into end game.

Okran's Pride

  • Fertile Land and good Stone/Iron Resources (Copper deposits sparse and of low quality)
  • Good Source of Raptors for Animal Skin and Meat
  • Roving Paladin, High-Paladin, and Inquisitor squads do an excellent job keeping Holy Nation territory safe, killing wild animals and bandits. As such, Okran's Pride is a safe early building location for the new or the nervous.
  • No taxes (I have never been taxed in Okran's Pride) but, in exchange, you must participate in Prayer Day once a week. If you miss it, you'll be in trouble.

The downside of building in Holy Nation territory, is that if you have any character that isn't a Greenlander man, you can expect some degree of discrimination at the hands of the Holy Nation populace. Women and Scorchlanders tend to be treated rather condescendingly and have less persuasive power, but non-humans are in for a bad time. If a Paladin spots a non-human outside of your base, un-escorted by a Greenlander, they will be attacked on sight. If a Paladin spots non-humans in your outpost, they will request that you surrender these party members to the service of Okran. You may avoid this by giving your humans (particularly every Greenlander man) a copy of The Holy Flame. You may then assure the inquisitive Paladin that these non-human "beasts" are slaves to glorious Okran. They will then leave you alone. Skeletons will always be killed on sight, keep them out of the Holy Nation.

Fishman Island

  • Best soil for farming (Green and Swamp), continuous rain (seldom acidic)
  • 2 spots with all resources at hand (copper, iron, stone, water)
  • Fishmen hordes can be tricky to deal with but a potential good asset for training

Going to the island is a bit tricky (proximity of the Bonefields harboring spiders and Beak Things as well as The Southern Hives) but once there, you need to wall up and then you will have relative safety. Once you found a way to deal with the locals, it's a smooth ride to have a small plot of land evolve to full fledged powerhouse.

Leviathan Coast

  • Fertile land (Green and some Arid)
  • Mass amounts of fauna including the deadly yet beautiful Leviathans
  • Great quality stone and iron deposits, however copper deposits are sparse and medium quality.
  • Zone is quite far away from all starting areas and very inaccessible to all but mid-end level characters.
  • Beware as you are subject to Cannibal raids wherever you are in the zone.

Once you are here, you have to worry about Cannibal raids and, depending on your affiliated faction, raids from the Holy Nation. Besides these, however, you will also be sought out by the Hiver caravans to the south in Dreg. It is hard living, but very bountiful if you can get a base up and running.

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