Hive

The Hive, also known as Hivers, are a Race of stick-like humanoids who are meant to collaborate under a collective mind, ruled by a Hive Queen and her princes. Hive characters are separated into many subspecies with their own unique appearance. The majority of the Hivers care for little else other than the Hive's happiness and survival and are willing to give their lives for the Hive as a whole. Hivers hatch from eggs, the only member of society able to reproduce is the queen via parthenogenesis. New queens can be made by having the queen’s eggs fertilized by another hiver.

The longer a Hiver is separated from their Hive, the more their bond with it will weaken, giving way to an increased sense of will and a lack of purpose, although many of them will instead die. Once the bond breaks completely, Hiver characters cannot return and are considered "Hiveless" or "Lost Ones", as they are no longer connected to their Queen's pheromones.

The Hiveless have complete free will and individuality, although they will feel purposeless and depressed, now that they have independence. Many would still wish to find a master to give meaning and guidance to their life. As a result, they are very often times found as serfs.

Those Hiveless who have separated from the Hive and joined in the societies such as United Cities are known to frequently commit crimes, such as the crimes of scamming and theft.

Princes that are still connected to their Hive will become distressed at the presence of a Hiveless in their vicinity, and if possible, alert any nearby Hive Drone if the Lost One refuses to leave.

There are currently two existing hive minds: Western Hive and Southern Hive. Both of these hives are led by a Hive Queen.

Depictions of the playable subspecies of Hivers.

Concept art for the Hive.

Western Hive

The Western Hive is the friendliest Hive faction. Western Hive can be found in many zones of Kenshi, often in Trade Caravans. This faction is home to hivers who are of these races:

• Hive Prince
• Hive Soldier Drone
• Hive Worker Drone
• Hive Queen

Southern Hive

The Southern Hive is a violent faction. They can originally only be found in the southeastern quarter of Kenshi but depending on World States created by the player, they can invade new areas. This faction is home to hivers who are of these races:

• Southern Hive Prince
• Southern Hive Soldier Drone
• Southern Hive Worker Drone
• (Southern) Hive Queen

Fogmen

When hivers are separated from their hive, they can become corrupted and turned into Fogmen. Fogmen are insane, cannibalistic, and numerous. Players should be careful when Fogmen are nearby.

Although the name would imply that they originated from Fog Islands, it is possible for Fogmen to spawn outside of those regions (e.g. Vain, Royal Valley), indicating that the "Fog" is not necessarily the condition for them to turn. Both Western Hive and Southern Hivers can turn into Fogmen if their respective queens are taken out.

This faction is home to hivers who are of these races:

• Deadhive Prince
• Deadhive Soldier
• Deadhive Worker

Play Style

Hivers can be bandaged using First Aid Kits through the Field Medic skill like all organic races. They can use Beds and Camp Beds to quickly recover their organic health. Hivers typically have lower limb health than characters of other races, meaning that loss of limbs is highly likely. On top of that, when you lose a limb, between 6 to 30 blood (The amount is random and not influenced by stats) is lost instantly along with a large amount of bleeding. It is important to take care as losing multiple limbs in a short period of time could result in a bloodloss KO leading to death via bloodloss if you do not have a replacement on hand or bandage fast enough. Lost limbs will need to be replaced with Robot Limbs, which are healed with Skeleton Repair Kits like Skeleton characters.

All playable Hive characters gain experience at a higher rate for Toughness. The subraces have experience multipliers for other stats as well, meaning that some combat styles will train faster than others.

Players should ensure their Hiver characters have adequate armour protection, primarily because of their low health bars compared to other races. Soldier Drones cannot wear any equipment in the "HEAD" slot, and the other subraces have specific limitations on that slot as well. All Hive subraces are restricted regarding the "SHIRT" slot since they are unable to wear regular shirts. Hiver shirts are inferior to normal ones as they lack arm protection, and do not have their own variant of Dark Leather Shirt. Hive characters are also unable to wear equipment in the "BOOTS" slot since they have no feet; this has resulted in Hive Prisoner Shackles existing to be equipped in the "ARMOR" slot.

All playable Hivers are capable of consuming Raw Meat and all but Hive Princes can eat Foul Raw Meat. This means that they can easily find food as long as there is fauna nearby. Hivers are immune to Acid, meaning they do not need to worry about Acid Ground, acidic bodies of water, and Acid Rain. They are still harmed or hindered by other Weather Effects, and players should be aware that there is no way to fully protect Soldier Drones from Gas or burning.

Hive merchants in Hive Villages dislike Hiveless characters and will refuse to sell them goods. Players should use a character of another race to trade with these merchants. This does not apply for Hive Caravans, which wander many regions, as they might even follow and harass Hiver player characters in order to trade.

Due to religious and other reasons, The Holy Nation views Hivers as an impure race. Holy Nation military will attack and then arrest hivers that approach their cities alone but can usually be pacified with a Human escort. Any captured hivers will generally be sent to Rebirth where they will toil away for the rest of their life under their newfound masters (similar to their life in the Hive).

Workers and Princes gain experience at a higher rate for Stealth and Thievery (as well as Lockpicking for Princes). This likely means they have a tendency for committing crimes of thefts as evidenced by the United Weekly Series, where they tend to be seen as impoverished and criminal elements.

Hivers all have a 60 relative chance to be hit in their stomach, and 140 relative chance for their chest which results in most KOs coming from chest injuries.

Lore

The sixth volume in The Guiding Light Series refers to Hivers. This book shows how hivers are viewed by Okranites, who refer to them as "insect fiends."

The first and fifth volume in United Weekly Series refers to Hivers. The first one is an empire perspective on an increase of Hiver citizens in the United Cities which views them negatively as criminal and impoverished elements. The fifth volume is a story of empire traders visiting Hive Villages, and getting harassed.

Disdain against Hivers is commonplace in Kenshi, as a result of shunning the Hivers' organization, status, tendencies and race. The justification and policies to deal with them differs from faction to factions.

The Holy Nation considers Hivers to be darkened, beastly and dangerous influences born to a life of misery that will bring down their society. In order to purge their influence and enforce the holy doctrine, only Hivers with Human escorts are tolerated, those without an escort found in holy lands are systematically imprisoned and sent to Rebirth for further judgement. Needless to say, they do not trade with them either.

Shek Kingdom detests Hivers for their feeble physical build and lack of martial prowess, and often times harass them for this. For this reason, some haughty Shek warriors will refuse to be recruited by a Hiver, and it is likely as a result of this that no Hivers are found as citizens in their country, as Sheks there in general probably do not sell housing to them. Despite their inhospitality towards Hivers, the Hiver Trade Caravans are allowed to come inside their cities to pay tribute.

The United Cities in general, but especially the Nobles, loath Hiver immigrants for being impoverished, low-class, and ostensibly a contributor to increasing crime-rates inside UC. Although they do welcome them on one condition as Hiver immigrants can be easily exploited to be made as decent slaves and servants, to the point that a Worker Drone is around 4x more prevalent than a Human to be an Empire Peasant. However, a xenophobic group who can be found inside UC called the United Heroes League are unhappy with them, seeing them as both repulsive and competitors in the workforce, and often target them for harassment and violence. (Please note that the United Heroes League is a bandit faction and not actually affiliated with the United Cities. If attacked the guards will assist you in defeating the League.)

Lastly, Western Hive itself hates individualist Hivers, seeing them as traitors to the queen and defective. They absolutely refuse to have any deals with the "Hiveless".

Regardless of which group they belong to, a commonly held belief between the denizens of Kenshi and all (non-Hive) factions above is that the Hivers have a tendency to be dirty, greedy, stealing and scamming. Given that Hiver Trade Caravans have an event where they make a ridiculously high mark-up of Lantern of Radiance (and claiming it's a discount), and the fact that the source for their 'cargo' are suspicious at best, the better experience gain in the stats with regards to Thievery (which suggests they are good at doing and have a tendency of doing these stuff) alongside the fact that there is an entire shady gambling group made up solely of Hivers in Swamp, these beliefs are at least partially true.

Although this is not referenced by gameplay mechanics, western hive people are mostly vegetarian, mainly living on cacti and other plant based foods due to their lesser hunting skills and superior farming/gathering skills. Their high-in-cactus diet, means that they are able to produce a kind of super hemp by using their manure as both a fertilizer and additive during it’s fermentation process. Bug juice (known as ‘nutrients’ to the hivers) is an extremely potent and addictive substance known throughout the world.

Trivia

• Hivers are born from the Queen's dispenser unit.
• Only Western Soldier and Worker drones can eat Human Teeth.
• Both Western Hive and Southern Hive racial proportion set in FCS would suggest there is 1 Prince for every 20 Workers and 20 Soldiers.
• Hive Princes are found disproportionately common among the denizens of Kenshi, occupying several positions at multiple areas despite being the rarest of Hiver breeds. This could be explained by their much higher mental faculty and survivability. Examples include:
  • Only Hive Princes: Cloud Ninjas, Swamp Ninjas, Grayflayers, Stone Rats.
  • Disproportionately common for Hive Princes: Shinobi Thieves, United Cities, Rebirth Slaves, Blackshifters, Mongrel, Tech Hunters, Anti-Slavers.
  • Lost Princes in particular tend to be found way too common when compared to Lost Drones in everywhere except for Dreg.
• Hive Soldier Drones, contrary to their description suggestion, are never found in Mercenary Guild, but they are often found in similar positions such as:
  • Guards/Military: Tech Hunters, Manhunters, Free Traders, Traders Guild, United Cities, Mongrel, Blackshifters, Rebel Swordsmen.
  • Bandits: Rebel Farmers, Yabuta Outlaws, Scavengers, Western Hive (Hive Bandits)
  • Other: Empire Peasants, Rebirth Slaves, Shinobi Thieves
• Hivers love fish.
  • Hive Traders have an unusually high proportion number of fish inside their inventory for trading, indicative that they catch fish (presumably the river in Vain) for eating.
  • When talking about King Gurgler in Bonefields, Hivers will be specifically interested in whether King Gurgler is made of fish.
  • Deadcat fish sellers will especially try to get the attention of Hivers. They can say "Hivers love fish!" and a Hiver in the player's squad can reply "It's true, we do love fish" or "I do love fish".
  • Lost Hivers will remark that The Queen's eyes are "beautiful like fish".
• Hivers seem to enjoy acid rain, Hivers in Deadlands will remark their comfortability with the rain there.
  • Hivers are also one of the few humanoids that are completely immune to acid.
  • Vain's river is acidic.
• Some dialogues suggest that Western Hivers are at least occasionally conflated with Fogmen. Either that, or there is a possibility that Hivers may occasionally turn into Fogmen.
  • Bar drunks in The Dancing Skeleton would conflate them.
  • The Holy Nation patrols will mention "cannibalism" as one of the few things the darkened races are culpable of.
    • Fogmen can cannibalize on their own if one is put on a Fogpole, and HN is aware and does combat the Fogmen.
• Western Hive is heavily hinted to do plenty of farming and mining despite lacking visible farms and mines inside their Hive Villages
  • They have Hemp, Riceweed, Wheatstraw (crops) Iron Plates, Spring Steel, Steel Bars, Armour Plating, Building Materials, Electrical Components (mining) inside their Hive Traders.
  • They have caravans that carry large quantity of crops like Wheatstraw, Cactus, Hemp, Cotton (crops) and Iron Plates, Building Materials, Electric Components (mining)
  • Hive Worker Drones have +20% skill in farming and labouring.
• Normally, hivers do not have a concept of individual names, but the Hiveless do, and are said to "choose their names based on the first thing they see", resulting names like Beep, Eyegore, Finch, Ray, and Silvershade,
• Separated Hivers often times feel depressed and wish to find new masters to give meaning to their life, and usually sell themselves out for less money than others.
  • This could serve as an explanation for why Hivers tend to be only found in large quantities as Empire Peasants or Rebirth Slaves, as without masters for guidance they tend to die off on their own.
    • Hive Worker Drones in particular are 40x more likely than any other Hivers to be Slaves, they also have the highest price of any organic race.
    • If proportion of homeless spawns are anything to consider, Worker Drones have the highest mortality rate of any subraces, as despite being found as Lost Hivers and Lost Dornes, they are only found to be slightly more than Lost Princes in places such as Border Zone. This would suggest they have death rates over 96%.
  • Only the Ronins with 'Brave' personality are more ambitious and will sell themselves out with as much money as others.
• Hivers can be considered to be extremely unhygienic.
  • Dialogue in game suggests that the huts in the hive villages are at least partially (if not completely) made of Hiver vomit.
  • Worker Drones and Soldier Drones can eat Foul Raw Meat and Human Teeth, suggesting that they sometimes have it as part of their diet. This would place them similar to Animals.
    • Tech Hunter in World's End will remark that Hivers don't seem to even know how to eat any "real food" that could be digested for typical people.
    • As a result, it's not surprising that they both have -20% of Cooking skill.
      • They still have foodstuff sold in their caravans, which could be presumed to be made by Hive Princes who don't have cooking skill penalty.
  • Empire Peasants are Hiver-majority destitutes that seem to live on nothing but the bare minimum of food (i.e. Foul Raw Meat scavenged from Skimmers) and standard of living.
  • Nobles would in particular remark of Hiver races with disgust.
• Dialogue from Hivers of Western Hive when being healed implicate that when a Hiver is missing a limb or severely injured the community will dispose of the Hiver into the crematory.
  • This fits well with the racial description of them being expendable.
  • Other dialogues would also suggest that those that are considered to be mentally defected will also be disposed of.
• Many Hivers have a tendency to be greedy in sole pursuit of wealth, the examples include:
  • Hive Trader Caravans will scam the players as well as others by selling a high mark-up of Lantern of Radiance.
  • Thievery is likely a common practice by Hivers given their increased Thievery skills, the suspiciously-specific denial of goods being stolen by Hive Traders, the large proportion of Hivers inside thief factions such as Shinobi Thieves and Scavengers, as well as the mentioning of Hivers spiking crime rates in United Cities.
    • Pearl Cup, Pearl Urn, Pearl Vase, Ceramic Bowl and Cups that occasionally spawn in Hive Traders could quite easily be seen as stolen items as no shops would sell them.
  • Blackshifters are mentioned to still have "that greedy goddamn hiver mindset." and engage in gambling and loansharking. They also have a Secret Drug Farm.
  • Yamdu as a Hive Prince only cares about generating profits.
  • It is hinted that Hivers at least do some level of smuggling given the presence of Hemp and Hashish inside their Hive Trader vendors.
  • This likely caused the xenophobia and racism against Hivers from The Holy Nation and United Weeklies who see them as unwelcome and dangerous elements of their society.
• Deadhive could be a reference to how the Hivers "die" in their racial description. Although unlike the typical definition of dead (i.e. Not alive), Deadhive could be where Hivers become (un)dead due to their zombie-esque nature.
• Hivers have no anatomical sex and in character creation have their gender setting locked to " - " but are generally referred to as male by members of other races. This has no mechanical effect in practice, as the only faction that behaves differently based on characters' gender is also automatically hostile to Hivers.
  • Beep has dialogue suggesting that he at least does not consider himself female, but also that he has minimal understanding of what "female" is.
  • Yamdu would be perplexed if a female character objects to being called "Sir".
• Hivers screams seem to almost always include "G", such as "GAHH!" or "Greee!"
• Southern Hive characters are not properly implemented for play and are frequently treated as being human.
• Hivers in general, though especially the Worker Drones, act exceptionally childish compared to other races.
• "No-Hive" is a term given by non-defected Hivers that can be applied to every race, including the defected Hivers themselves, but "Hiveless" refers more commonly to the Hivers that have defected from the Hive.
• Beep is a Hiver!