how to start?

[Garrow]

Just got the game and i have no idea how to start, i watched a few guides and i understand its a sandbox, my final goal is gonna be to build my own town.

Just curious what direction i should go in in the early game? I heard building right away is dangerous and you should mine rocks and sell them, but what do i do after that?

[Just about elbow deep]

I typically buy a small shack in the hub, hire some help and have them farm copper for basically the entire time i play for steady revenue. Make some bandits angry and kite them to gate guards for some quick gear and then hire some more help, usually 3-4 people. Then i start working on my "town". You likely aren't gonna be able to make a town in the way you envision it, it's more like a getaway. After that it's really up to you, play it by ear. Then you have mods to fill the gaps, mostly.

[Bomb Bloke]

Because (most) enemies aren't allowed to intentionally kill... or to steal anything that isn't food... and getting beat up makes you tougher... there's no problem building nearly immediately, so long as you aren't in the swamp or something. Worst comes to worst, all your peeps get knocked out, the enemies just walk away, eventually someone struggles up again, and you can make with the medkits.

However, beat downs may make individual characters unable to get up without assistance, so your first goal should be to gain a few extra team members to reduce the chance of a total wipe. Most cities have at least a couple you can pay to join you, usually costing about 6000 for someone who has a little skill, or 3000 for someone who doesn't. One time fees, unless they're a merc. Some folks will even join for free. Mouse over anyone you find to see if they're willing to talk.

As you build you'll be heavily reliant on nearby towns for supplies you can't make yourself. Towns have vendors that magically spawn in all sorts of useful kit, such as food, medkits, and books. You need books for research (which unlocks building structures), and you'll be buying a lot of them in the beginning.

Note that vendors themselves don't spawn back in, unlike their inventories, and the local supply of bandits, and animals, and... so on. They're well protected, but if they do die then you can consider them gone. Nonetheless, leading bandits to their massively overpowered guards is a great way to make some early cash, as you then don't need to carry the loot too far in order to sell it.

Exploring further afield you'll find more towns, meaning more people to recruit, and so you'll be able to run more work stations back at your base. Eventually you'll be able to mine, process, build, forge, and produce your own food, at which point you'll probably have your own ideas about what to do next.

Edit:

Just for giggles I'm going to show off my first base.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2840077174

Just down the hill from Hub, there are no "dangerous" enemies to worry about here, so I've seen no need for walls thus far.

Out in the desert there's plenty of wind, so there's no need for fuel, either - the power's free.

The "empty"-looking lit area represents about a dozen farm plots. Surprising how much grows "well enough" on "arid" land.

[Cellar_Cat]

Kenshi AI isn't really set up to attack bases themselves so base raids are very optional. If you can't fight them yet you can just wait out of sight but nearby. You'll see them talking to the air for a bit, then they run out of dialogue and "attack" the empty base—but finding nobody they will just run around inside it for a bit, break some doors if they're locked, then leave. I think some kinds might steal food but that seems to be about all they know how to take.

[bombed]

It really all depends on you, you can make almost anything work. I think there are some maps on the wiki that will show you what faction(s) will interact with your base where ever you settle. You don't need to be near a city, though being able to take things you make to town to sell makes money. The cities and forts are where most raids come from.

I would suggest having more than 5-6 people to make a base. If you have all humans you can go to okran's pride with no worries and make a very easy base. The holy nation aren't the best allies, but they can get you started as long as you don't have any robot parts or robots.

Shem can also be really nice for starting out, but there is no one to help you.

Swap bases are nice because the rain waters the crops for you.

[muffins]

Originally posted by Garrow:

Just got the game and i have no idea how to start, i watched a few guides and i understand its a sandbox, my final goal is gonna be to build my own town.

Just curious what direction i should go in in the early game? I heard building right away is dangerous and you should mine rocks and sell them, but what do i do after that?

The "Empire Citizen" is a good start for new players. Lots of cities, shops, guards and buildings you can buy. You can base yourself in an Empire city as you learn the game, do research and advance your crafting. Before you start your own town you'll want lots of technology unlocked (walls, harpoons, farming, crafting, power etc) and 10-20 people with attack/defence stats in the high 20's to low 30's so you can defend yourself (higher in harder areas).
If you want to make lots of money very quickly do the standard Wanderer in Hub start, get enough money together to hire some mercs from waystations or Shek/Holy Nation cities, then go straight to Shark in the swamps to buy all the drugs you can carry, then go directly east to Flats Lagoon to sell for mad profits. Repeat until your money, squad size and character skills are to your liking. Once you get a large squad of people (10+ maybe) with skills around 25+ you can just about make the trip without mercs.

[Bomb Bloke]

Originally posted by Garrow:

LOL i did the scenario with you get 5-6 people who start with materials to build a base
i left off in the swamps, i was passing through there to get to the border zone but i saved and figured when i got back on i would try to build a base in the swamps

should i go for the border zone and base there? Do i have to be near a main city?

You don't "have" to do anything, but I do suggest finding a place where you can safely get to a Bar (again, because food + medkits + books). You'll recognise such buildings because they literally have "Bar" written on them.

My forays into the swamp led to the guy I sent being partially eaten alive Only reason he survived was because he'd already managed to get a few bandages on before the knock out, plus there were so many different enemies in the area that they ended up distracting each other instead of finishing him off. And even then I probably wouldn't've been able to grab him if his rescuer hadn't led in a couple dozen more Dust Bandits to fight the monsters... I won't be sending any more solo adventurers there.

[bunny de fluff]

Swamp is good for hashish (hemp) research.

[Amogus]

I would say go to BAST. Why bast? Cuz free loot, its a battle zone where the UC, Holy nation, fight each other so you can make tons of money just by selling all the weapons on all the body. In addition there are also cannibals and outlaw peasants who also roam around attacking and getting themselves killed so more weapons and armor loot to sell.. there is also a bar in the settlement called Drip.. to sell all the cool drip you looted.. I also recommend setting base up there too, it will be a little hard if all your bands of weapons looters are too low level. However it is imo an excellent place to build a base because there are a lot of good iron and rock mine locations, fertile lands for farming, the place is also Hella windy so one wind generator get max power out put all the time . I got a base set up near drip in the valley, so if there are something I truly can't handle like a legion of cannibals I run all my ladies up into drip and since drip is entirely occupied by UC soldiers it make defending Hella easy. Once they all dead loot body and sell them to drip bar owner for some more sweet cash.

One time a slaver group was going to attack my settlement, but I can't defend against that many, but fortunately a group of randomly roaming cannibals also roamed into my settlement, I ran all my people out of towns watched the two kill each others and then come out loot their bodies even sold a few of them into slavery, also in the middle of the two fighting a small group of outlaw farmers showed up too it was a battle of three ways in my little village or "my outpost".

[GLOAM]

do not mine，instead set population settings up to max and either loot battlefields or participate in beatdowns

[TheLuckyAce]

Run around, fight, get beaten, collect stuff, sell stuff, recruite people... buy a house, do some research... after a while you will have a steady supply in money and food from your fighting/hunting squad while you have one or more people research or do some labor work (mine copper etc.) so that you can buy building mats, find a nice spot and setup a Base with some Tech like Defensive's and stuff right at the start.

I spent the complete gametime I have played so far with running around and beating lowtier enemy's for Skills and collecting me a nice 10 people + 1 research noname guy without weapons. Now I start to have most T1 Techs and will move to T2, when this is done I will staff up the Resarch Squad to 6 people and start my first Base.

[Cuddle_Rat]

Do what I did, wander around hopelessly like an NPC until you get beaten up, and then acquire an overdeveloped sense of vengeance, you know, like Batman. Upon reaching this point you'll realize the game is about making the world burn right along with you.

[=]

My usual start is the 'Lone Wanderer'. I start out by mining the copper node next to the 'Rebel Outpost' bar to the north of the Hub. This will get you decent starting money and will help with your strength training. Over time I recruit the randoms who appear in the Hub and in Squin (SW of the Hub) who I also use to mine until I have about 8-9 people. I also suggest paying the 10k to ally with the Shinobi in the hub as it will give you a 50% discount on some decent starting weapons and thieves backpacks, plus you can use their beds and training equipment for free.
I will then look for packs of starving bandits/dust bandits to beat me up to increase you combat stats a bit (up to about 10-15 on everyone) and then make sure that everyone has at least athletics 20 (just run around a lot) .
Athletics 20 should mean that you can outrun fogmen so you can then move to great money making area that is the town of Mongrel, NE of the Hub in the centre of the fog islands. It is a dangerous trip, fogmen are very dangerous this early on and if they knock you down they will eat you, don't even think about fighting them at this stage. The reason why Mongrel is so good is that you can mine 3 iron nodes almost literally at the town gates, more than close enough so that the guards can save you and you will be making enough money that you can equip mid game gear on your guys thanks to the good shops in town. I also buy a house and start researching the tech that you will need to build your base, I will get everything that doesn't require ancient tech (which you mostly need to loot from ancient structures which is a mid-late game activty).

After that I will start doing easy bounties (the dust king is a decent introduction), running drugs from the Swamp to Flats Lagoon or just exploring and increasing my combat skills.

I usually build a base in Shem; it has good resource nodes, it has arid fertility so you can grow basic food, once you research hydroponics fertility stops being an issue anyway, and it is in a central location. Make sure that you can deal with groups of 2-3 beakthings before heading there though. For base defence, a level 2 wall and gate with 4 mounted crossbows covering the gate can deal with low level bandit raids and wandering beakthings without any difficulty. I recruit a small squad to man the defences and just leave them there to protect my workers when my main combat squad is out in the world.

After that it is time to remove the United Cities and Holy Nation from the map...

[Bandy]

Everyone just starting Kenshi and watched vids/guides thinks you have to mine. You don't.

Just play the game rather than follow somebody else's idea of how to play the game.
Until you get your sandals firmly on the sand, perhaps learn what loot is worth carrying, then loot as much as you can carry and sell. Role play as much as your imagination allows, write your own story from your struggles, enjoy the struggle and rewards, have fun.

[=]

You don't need to mine but it is definitely the fastest and most reliable way to make money early game, certainly if you don't know the games mechanics well.

[tebow baggins]

4 chars- have one guy as a tank in armor on block and taunt, have 1 guy in offense clothing and crossbow at range on hold and training Martial Arts, another offense char with melee wep, and dedicated 1 medic on passive, block.

after they train enough you just put them all to offense with one medic. the job list window always reads from top to bottom as the above job is more priority than the one below it- so order does matter when it comes to finer details of player AI. Use shift click on the tabs like medic to assign it as a permanent work order (that can be deleted)

If only have 2 chars than put 1 char in safe space with first aid, and put him on hold/passive, Then your other char loses a fight, then your medic runs out and heals him. every fight lost gives training.

If only have 1 char, only lose fights to bandits that dont have cutting/bleeding weps, only fight vs bats, and buy some first aid from bars ASAP.