Faction benefits?

[BoltHarrier]

Any reason to ally yourself with any faction? Ive been counting the prayer days, but it doesnt look like I get anything other than the occasional ration pack and the ever so rare 'church backup'

[Incunabulum]

Allied factions will send dudes to help out with settlement attacks. Usually a day after its over. You get access to some hidden merchants.

[wordwaster]

thieves guild is the one everyone should join. you get access to a fence, the beds and training gear in their tower, and the plastic surgeon. and most importantly, it won't make an enemy out of anyone else.

flotsam ninjas will give you a note that let's you recruit any band of flotsam ninjas as bodyguards for free. bands of shek will also join you if you ask them.

shek will let you recruit seto, antislavers will let you recruit bo.

the united cities will not tax allied bases and samurai patrols will occasionally escort you around the desert.

generically: allied troops will aid you in battle and heal you. some will send reinforcements if the attacker is someone they are hostile to. but the reinforcements will only get there on time if they have a base relatively close by.

there isn't too much more to it, other than player preference.

[Raymond]

There is none. Purge everyone and honor the goddess.

[BoltHarrier]

Honestly ive noticed something different than what youve all said. I recently got to 50% faction standing with the holy kingdom. Now I have an almost permanent group of paladins inside my base at all times. They only leave to head back to the nearby city before instantly heading back.

[Mavrah]

Originally posted by wordwaster:

thieves guild is the one everyone should join. you get access to a fence, the beds and training gear in their tower, and the plastic surgeon. and most importantly, it won't make an enemy out of anyone else.

flotsam ninjas will give you a note that let's you recruit any band of flotsam ninjas as bodyguards for free. bands of shek will also join you if you ask them.

shek will let you recruit seto, antislavers will let you recruit bo.

the united cities will not tax allied bases and samurai patrols will occasionally escort you around the desert.

Yep.
The Rebel Farmers will also lend you roving bands as bodyguards if you ally with them.
Antislavers will also give you skeleton repair kits for free if they see you missing a limb and will give you short-term bodyguards for free. (whenever the contract was over they immediately saw the same character still missing an arm and gave her ANOTHER repair kit and resumed bodyguarding her)
There are a few unique recruits, like Seto, some hiver in Trader HQ, Big Bo and Old Grey, most with some other special requirements.
Supposedly being an ally of the UC-TG-ST grants you immunity from slavery, unless it's convenient to enslave you anyway.

Crab Raiders will let you buy specialty equipment. Skin Bandits give you blueprints for the peeler and flesh-based clothing. Skeleton Bandits might do something. The Reavers are broken and unfinished, so I don't think you can join them.

[Tenebris]

Originally posted by Mavrah:

Originally posted by wordwaster:

thieves guild is the one everyone should join. you get access to a fence, the beds and training gear in their tower, and the plastic surgeon. and most importantly, it won't make an enemy out of anyone else.

flotsam ninjas will give you a note that let's you recruit any band of flotsam ninjas as bodyguards for free. bands of shek will also join you if you ask them.

shek will let you recruit seto, antislavers will let you recruit bo.

the united cities will not tax allied bases and samurai patrols will occasionally escort you around the desert.

Yep.
The Rebel Farmers will also lend you roving bands as bodyguards if you ally with them.
Antislavers will also give you skeleton repair kits for free if they see you missing a limb and will give you short-term bodyguards for free. (whenever the contract was over they immediately saw the same character still missing an arm and gave her ANOTHER repair kit and resumed bodyguarding her)
There are a few unique recruits, like Seto, some hiver in Trader HQ, Big Bo and Old Grey, most with some other special requirements.
Supposedly being an ally of the UC-TG-ST grants you immunity from slavery, unless it's convenient to enslave you anyway.

Crab Raiders will let you buy specialty equipment. Skin Bandits give you blueprints for the peeler and flesh-based clothing. Skeleton Bandits might do something. The Reavers are broken and unfinished, so I don't think you can join them.

Not just that, if you complete "The Crab Tournament" (by having a base near Crab raider lands when they have under 50 relations with you, and fighting 4 battles), you get to buy Crabs like other animals like Goats or Bonedogs, AND doing this not only gives you +200 relations with the Crab raiders, but also doesn't affect your other relations. If you want to be allies with the CR, but also want to be allies with someone else near then that they don't like, you just ally with the other people, place a good base down near CR towns, and wait for the 4 attacks to happen, then you have 2 allies who hate each other, there might be some bugs (obviously, this is Kenshi after all), but this should work without fail.