| Stats Affected: | [Slightly affects muscle definition] Description: This is your ability to swim faster and further without drowning. |
| -Max swim speed | |
| Ways to Train: | |
| -Swimming around in water | |
| -Athletics- | |
Swimming is one of Kenshi's in-game stats. While increases in a character's Athletics stat has more universal benefits, an increase in a character's swimming stat can help in evading certain enemies by escaping through large bodies of liquid. Despite the in-game description, characters cannot drown in water and can therefore swim indefinitely.
Skeletons can improve their swimming stat despite not needing it because they do not swim. Animals can continue attacking while in shallow water.
| Racial Experience Multipliers | |
|---|---|
| Negative Multiplier: There are no races which have negative experience multipliers for this stat. |
Positive Multiplier: -Alpha Fishman -Fishman |
| All multipliers are either 0.8x or 1.2x unless marked otherwise. | |
Swim Speed[]
A character's max Swim Speed is determined by their race and excluding Skeletons, can only be reached at level 100. Skeletons have a locked "swim" speed of 30 (their swim speed is double their walk speed) units which never increases.
To find the swim speed (in units) of a character you can enter the following:
All prosthetic limbs have a negative effect on your swimming level.
Swim Speed Multipliers[]
- 0.5 — Sheks
- 1.0 — Humans, Hivers, Garru, Bonedogs and many other animals
- 1.1 - Black Gorillo
- 1.5 — Bulls & Beakthings
Ways to Train[]
Swimming around in water[]
Swimming in water is time consuming but water can easily be found in the following regions:
Swimming off the coast in most places is also safe, however in a couple regions the bodies of water are Acid and will be damaging to characters which are not Hive or Skeleton. When swimming in Acid, Weather protections do not apply.
You can double your XP gain by carrying another character while swimming. Please note that you will not gain STR when swimming.
Speed[]
The following table shows the maximum swim speed for an unencumbered character of a certain race at milestone levels. These numbers on the left are in Kenshi units per second. 1 Kenshi unit is 0.1 meters. The value on the right is the Mph in game. To get the miles per hour value from units, simply multiply them by 0.2237. Round to nearest whole number to get the value shown in-game.
| Level | (0.5) Shek | (1.0) Hivers, Humans and many animals | (1.1) Black Gorillo | (1.5) Beak Things and Bulls | (Non-swimmers) Skeletons and other non-swimmers | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Units | Mph | Units | Mph | Units | Mph | Units | Mph | Units | Mph | |
| 0 | 6 | 1.3422 | 6 | 1.3422 | 6 | 1.3422 | 6 | 1.3422 | 30 | 6.711 |
| 10 | 7.9 | 1.76723 | 9.8 | 2.19226 | 10.18 | 2.277266 | 11.7 | 2.61729 | 30 | 6.711 |
| 20 | 9.8 | 2.19226 | 13.6 | 3.04232 | 14.36 | 3.212332 | 17.4 | 3.89238 | 30 | 6.711 |
| 30 | 11.7 | 2.61729 | 17.4 | 3.89238 | 18.54 | 4.147398 | 23.1 | 5.16747 | 30 | 6.711 |
| 40 | 13.6 | 3.04232 | 21.2 | 4.74244 | 22.72 | 5.082464 | 28.8 | 6.44256 | 30 | 6.711 |
| 50 | 15.5 | 3.46735 | 25 | 5.5925 | 26.9 | 6.01753 | 34.5 | 7.71765 | 30 | 6.711 |
| 60 | 17.4 | 3.89238 | 28.8 | 6.44256 | 31.08 | 6.952596 | 40.2 | 8.99274 | 30 | 6.711 |
| 70 | 19.3 | 4.31741 | 32.6 | 7.29262 | 35.26 | 7.887662 | 45.9 | 10.26783 | 30 | 6.711 |
| 80 | 21.2 | 4.74244 | 36.4 | 8.14268 | 39.44 | 8.822728 | 51.6 | 11.54292 | 30 | 6.711 |
| 90 | 23.1 | 5.16747 | 40.2 | 8.99274 | 43.62 | 9.757794 | 57.3 | 12.81801 | 30 | 6.711 |
| 100 | 25 | 5.5925 | 44 | 9.8428 | 47.8 | 10.69286 | 63 | 14.0931 | 30 | 6.711 |
Trivia[]
- Sheks have the lowest swim speed multiplier of any race in Kenshi. It is so low that even with max level swimming they are still slower than Skeletons/other non-swimmers.
- Bulls and Beakthings are the fastest swimmers in Kenshi. Although Raptors have an insane 4x swim speed mult and Fishmen have a 5x swim speed mult, they are "non-swimmers", so they only go 6.711 mph at all levels under water.
- Swimming (Is not stated anywhere in game but discovered through testing) levels up twice as fast when carrying another character. This may be due to the fact that while swimming you do not gain strength xp for being encumbered. Please note that you do not gain bonus xp for being encumbered when swimming, it's only for carrying another unit.