When I died in my first playthrough, I started a new game in the same map. My first character (Stump?) died with half of the small shack built on that little ridge near the rebel hideout outside of The Hub. So when I was running around as my second character, I was surprised to see the unfinished shack was still there. I eventually built up funds and resources to finish it and it became our workshop outside of town.
We eventually moved to Stack after it got taken over by the Shek, but would periodically stop during trips to The Hub. It was almost like a monument/memorial to my first Kenshi character who died before getting to have any adventures.
It's wild that I have over 1500 hours in this game and I've barely used any mods other than the compressed graphics one. I used the recruit prisoners mod for one playthrough but never used it after that. There are a still a couple game starts that I've never done.
I just like exploring and living out little stories in the world. Even after having seen most of the map and getting to the Ashlands, I'm still finding new stuff that I hadn't fully seen and new little areas I missed.
I don't know when Kenshi 2 is coming out but I still have a ton of stuff that I can do in the game to pass the time.
When the Dust Bandits are so excited to get to the inner gate so they can harass you, they run past right past you and don't notice the outer gate closing behind them.
Cowardice Wins Out: A Tale of Two Kenshi Playthroughs
I was going through drafts on my website when I found something I wrote when I started playing Kenshi in 2020. I was less than a week in and still figuring things out. I couldn't find a time to post it and forgot about it but I figure that this was the place to share it. It is interesting to see my thoughts on the game when I probably was still in single digit hours played and only knew about the area around The Hub.
If you felt that kenshirambling was heavy on the Kenshi and light on the rambling, this might be the thing for you.
After having it on my wish list for some time, I finally decided to play Kenshi. For those who don't know Kenshi is a nonlinear RPG set in a post-apocalyptic world where you have the freedom to do almost anything. The problem is that you start out but are extremely EXTREMELY weak so it takes time to build up. I remember it being described as you're not the hero or the main character, you're just a guy trying to make it. I always loved games like The Elder Scrolls series where you didn't have to play the main narrative and could just go your own way. This game takes that concept but removes all story lines. The world unfolds and you have very little control off it. You can get stronger, you can recruit allies, you can eventually build an army and a small city of your own but it will not happen overnight and your plans can easily be derailed.
Something about that appealed to me and after watching a couple people play the game with wildly different outcomes, I was very intrigued. It is not the most graphically stunning game (far from it), I'm at a point where I'm more interested in unique experiences and good game play over it looking pretty. I guess creating your own narrative and weaving your own story grabbed the writer in me.
Playthrough 1
I created a character from the Scorchlander race. Scorchlanders were described as being lone wolf types who didn’t do well with religion or organization and tended to do their own thing (like drink). After finalizing things, I ended up being spawned at the starting city known as The Hub. Very early on, I tried to figure out the controls and read the tutorials. Once I got the hang of things, I set out to make some money and figure out what I wanted to do.
After some trial and error, I managed to get enough money to be able to purchase building materials which were needed to build a house. In the game, you could either purchase a house in a city or find a spot in the wasteland to build your own. And seeing as I didn’t have the funds to buy any of the houses in The Hub, I opted to take my materials and find a nice spot to build a house and begin my tale.
I eventually settled on a hill off on its own, but where I could see the walls of The Hub in the distance. I opened the construction tab and after rotating the blueprint the way I wanted, I began building my new home.
It was then that I learned that to build a house, you needed more than one set of building materials. Apparently, I needed five to build a full house and I’d only had one. So instead of building a fully formed home, I only built the ramp and the front door…
I told myself that while it wasn’t ideal, it was a start. I’d made it through Day 1 unscathed and with time, I would finish the house and start building my guy up.
What I didn’t know is that by just building part of my home, I’d established myself as a new settlement which put me on the radar of multiple factions.
The next day, I received a notification that ‘Prayer Day was coming’. I just assumed it was a holiday and ignored it as I went about my errands and collecting scraps to sell. Imagine my surprise when I returned home to some random guy and his armed guards greeting me ‘blessings, brother’.
It turned out that prayer day was a tradition of The Holy Nation, a fiercely religious faction, where they went to settlements and got them to pray. The man urged me to pray to his god. I initially obliged, but as the conversation went on, my character’s options became more agitated. As I said, his race were not keen on religion. Eventually, the option to slap this man appeared and continued to show up as a choice. After holding off and things not changing, I gave it and chose it.
The armed guards stepped in and immediately beat me up to the point I was on the ground looking like Yamcha from DBZ.
As I watched the man stand over me and then walk around my home, I decided on my first goal in the game. I was going to work my way up, get stronger, and get revenge on this Holy Nation guy. Once I got up, I was going to heal and put my plan into action.
Only I didn’t get up.
My character slowly bled out and died right there, outside of my half-finished little house on a hill. I guess it was my fault for not remembering that my character wasn't a big hero character, he was just some guy.
And anyone can kill some guy.
Eventually, the game prompted me to start a new game. I decided to be smarter the second time around.
Playthrough 2
For my second character, I went for someone from a race called Greenlanders. They are relatively weak but show aptitude for cooking, farming, and crafting. In the end, he came out looking like a sickly Tom Hardy with pale green hair. In my haste to make the character, I forgot to rename him and was stuck with the name the game provided him with.
Peace.
I decided it worked since he couldn’t fight worth a damn and once again found myself in The Hub.
After how my first guy died, I resolved to last more than two days. I made up my mind that this guy was going to be less a fighter and more of a scavenger. If I was mining or just out in the world and saw a gang of bandits coming my way? I’d immediately run or hide. No exceptions. My last guy could kind of fight and got killed. Peace had no fighting skills whatsoever. His fight or flight was locked firmly in flight mode for the foreseeable future.
One benefit of running and hiding is that my athletics and stealth stats got boosted significantly. Peace basically became the Usain Bolt of the wasteland mixed with Sam Fisher.
My first guy used his strength, but this guy would have to be resourceful and clever. Instead of trying to fight bandit gangs, I’d follow them at night and swoop in to clean up if they had run ins with other factions or wild animals. If I got caught off guard by a gang, I’d run to a nearby city and let the guards handle them. Afterwards, I’d pick up the scraps. Slowly but surely, I not only managed to keep myself from harm but I also managed to make enough money to buy a small house in The Hub to call my own.
One of my more surprising interactions came when I was wandering westward in search of new cities and outposts. You have to get fairly close before they show up on the map and I was curious to see what was out that way. I’m running up a path and once I get to the top, I find myself at the edge of a camp belonging to the Dust Bandits. Twelve to twenty bandits just sitting round campfires. They don’t immediately attack me and have dialogue options so I approach them. Outside of one guy challenging me to a fight, they leave me be. I walk through the camp with out incident, but as I’m about to go about my way, one of them calls out to me.
“You.”
There’s no dialogue in the game. The text appears over the character’s head. I continued walking. He stood up and said “Give me all of your stuff.”
I continued walking. He started to run after me.
I took off running.
As I ran, I looked back and noticed that none of the other members were following us and it was just him. For a second, I thought that I might be able to take care of him once I got him far enough away from the rest of the gang.
Suddenly, the rest of the gang jumped up and tore after us. I knew that probably wouldn’t happen and continued running.
Like I said before, Peace is fast so there was no chance this guy was going to catch me. I made my way back east to The Hub and my house. When I looked back, the rest of the gang had fallen far into the distance but my predator was still hot on my trail. I paused so I could check his stats. How tough could this guy be.
It was then that I noticed the name of this character. Dust Boss. He was the boss of that small camp and his stats were nothing to sneeze at. I decided to get back to The Hub and let the guards deal with him. I run all the way to The Hub and make it to the gates only to realize that The Hub doesn’t have guards like that. It’s basically a bombed-out city with nothing but a bar and a couple houses.
I try to run to my house, but unlocking the door takes so long that he manages to catch up to me before I can open it. I decide that I should try to stand my ground and fight.
I immediately regret it as he absolutely wrecks me. I go back to my tried-and-true method of running away. After running around the town, I remember that the barkeep has bodyguards and maybe they will stop him from attacking me if I enter. I run into the bar and immediately head for the roof. As I run up the stairs, I see Dust Boss enter and the guards rush him.
I made my character heal up on the roof and wait it out then peeked back downstairs to see what was happening. The Dust Boss was taking on not only the bodyguards but a few of the mercenaries that were usually sitting in the bar. As tough as the Dust Boss was, it was four on one and he was simply outmatched. I watched as he crumbled to the floor and was promptly picked up, carried outside, and dropped on the street.
Now in other cities, guards would usually appear and carry him off to jail but I’d just learned that The Hub doesn’t have guards or a jail. I then decided that I’d at least get his stuff. I left the bar, picked him up off of the street, and took him back to my home. I looted his gear which was much better than mine (he was a high-level gang boss) and then tried to figure out what to do with him.
I initially thought about just killing him, but that wasn’t an option (he was already slowly dying). I had the options to heal him, pick him up, or throw him out of my home. I decided that I didn’t want to leave him slowly bleeding out in or outside of my home so I carried him to a spot just outside of the city gate and healed him with a spare medkit. Even though he was no longer marked as dying, he was still in critical condition and was slowly regaining all of his health. Ever curious to see what would happen when he woke up, I just waited at the gate and watched over him. His condition got better, but he didn’t get up.
While I watched, a group of Dust Bandits came our way. I hid and watched to see if they’d help a fellow member. They just walked right by him. Later a gang of Hungry Bandits came and one poked at him with a stick before moving on. But for the most part he was left untouched.
As I was waiting, I began hearing a fight nearby so I went to see what it was only to see a large group of armored men beating up a lone Hungry Bandit. After he crumpled, one stepped over him and began shackling his hands and feet.
Slavemongers, footmen for the Slave Traders faction.
As I watched, I wondered what would happen if they found the defeated Dust Boss outside of town. I went back and waited. After what seemed like forever, they arrived at the gate before stopping over the once proud gang boss. One stood over him and said ‘You belong to ME’ before healing him and shackling him. I watched as he then threw DB over his shoulder and proceeded to head towards the gate. I rushed inside and found a good vantage point so I could watch as the once mighty boss was carried shackled through town and off to god only knows.
What I liked is that none of that was ‘supposed’ to happen in the grand scheme of the game. It was just the logical conclusion. The Dust Boss was supposed to chase me down with his gang but I was too fast. The bodyguards are supposed to protect the bar. The Slavemongers are supposed to snatch people up. It’s just how I played it that worked out for me. If I’d run to a different city, the guards would have attacked him and taken him to jail so I wouldn’t have been able to get his loot. If I’d tried to fight outside of the city and lost, the Slavemongers might have scooped me up. It just happened to fall into place.
Trying to be a hard-ass in my first playthrough got me killed by the bodyguards of a low-level Holy Nation scrub. Being cautious and resourceful in my second playthrough allowed me to indirectly take down a mid-level Dust Bandit boss and basically ruin his life. The man went from leading a twenty-man group to being carried off in chains. Each character had their own story and none of it was supposed to happen. I made it happen.
Perhaps it’s just the writer in me, but being able to create your own story and narrative is really fun.
One final thing I wasn’t expecting was when I was running around doing some collecting and remarked, “Oh hey, this is around where I died the first game.”
And, not too much later, I came across an unfinished house sitting on a hill. There was no body so who knows what happened to my first guy, but I liked the idea of there being a slight connection. I made a note of its location and after saving money up, I finished building the house but left it as a public building. Like a little monument to that first character.
I like the idea that even if my second character is killed, the world will keep going and change with each new playthrough. My house will still be there. If I end up building my own settlement, it will still be there. The story will continue on even after my different characters die.
I think that’s kind of cool and I’m pretty excited to see what else I can do in the wasteland.
We shall see.
Playthrough 2 Update
A day after writing this and letting it sit, I started playing again when something strange/funny happened. I was in The Hub and figuring out how what to do when a guy runs through the gates. He makes a beeline directly at me. I start to run because I have no idea what’s going on. He says ‘You, come here’. I’m running when I see there’s the option to talk to him so I stop and talk to him.
His name read Dust Boss. I can’t say for sure it was the same guy, but what are the chances a completely different Dust Boss would run up on me?
Anyway, he tells me to give him my money or he’ll beat me up. I say no. He calls me a bitch and draws his sword. I run into the bar again, he chases me but doesn’t even make it inside as the guards meet him at the door. They dispatch him in the street and leave him. Fortunately, he isn’t dying this time. Just really messed up.
I loot all of his stuff which is the exact same gear as before. I then carry him to the edge of town, drop him outside, and wait to see what happens when he wakes up.
He wakes up and plays dead for a minute before getting up and bolting off into the wasteland. I didn’t follow him but I wondered if he was going to come back a third time. It would be funny if it started a cycle of him coming to get me, getting wrecked, losing all of his gear, and running back to his camp to get more gear. Unfortunately, I ended up running past their camp later in the game and the guy with the Dust Boss tag was a completely different guy so I think it is unlikely.
I did notice the rest of the gang let me run by without incident so there is that.
While being chased by a Swamp Ninja, we ran past some Red Sabres who attacked the Swamp Ninja before chasing after them (and us). It was while taking this picture that I realized that Swamp Ninjas wear cargo pants. I never noticed it until now.
A large part of this current playthrough was spent doing the Hound Check-In event in order to get to 100 relations with the Hounds. In between check-ins, I would go to Squin or Catun.
After completing a check-in, I went into Shark to find it damn near empty.
I thought it was some sort of issue where they all ran outside of the city but when I checked the map to fight, the population had dropped by 30 people. All of the patrolling Hounds seemingly died. Sadly, this included the Iron Hound who I never found.
I have no clue what happened but I guess it was some combination of Swamp Ninjas, Red Sabres, and Blood Spiders that did them all in. I'd never come back to such a drastic drop before. Something similar happened at the Slave Markets south of the swamp but not to this level.
The only Hounds left are the seven in the HQ with Big Grim but they never leave the building to patrol because there's no one to replace them. So now, it's just the Blackshifters and a couple Swampers guarding the city. To make things worse, groups of Blood Spiders seemed to keep showing up and nearly killing the people who were still guarding. Even the casino vendor was banged up.
Luckily, it doesn't seem like they attack the main shopkeepers so all of them are unharmed but there are significantly less people guarding the city. I think Shark might be cooked in the long run.
Update. After returning briefly, I came across the casino vendor dead outside. All of the Blackshifters guarding the bar seem to have vanished so I guess no one was there to protect him. Cold world.
Went to check in on the remaining Hounds at the HQ and Big Grim was all bloody with her arm hanging off.
I don't know what happened but I healed her up. The other Hounds were fine so I guess they didn't help her. I try closing the door to the HQ because they don't seem to leave but someone keeps opening it. Either way, it's probably only matter of time.
In his second fight since joining the group, he managed to get ganged up on by three Red Sabres. They managed to get a rhythm where they kept staggering him and next thing I know, his arm flew off. Luckily, we had a couple robotic ones to spare but what a rough start.
Buddy just can't catch a break. While fighting Red Sabres outside of the base, a ridiculous number of Blood Spiders showed up. Before I even registered they were there, Silvershade got dropped. Turned out they took out his leg.
I had a replacement but it was at our house in Catun so we had to make the trek from the Swamp. On the way, we ran into a Swamp Ninja patrol outside of the Slave Market who chased us into a second patrol that almost left the area. We had to fight two groups of Swamp Ninjas while a random Elder Beak Thing ran through the place because it was running away from something. Also, the remaining guards watched the ninjas get on the turrets and didn't do anything.
Anyway, we made it to Catun and I was able to give Silvershade a brand new Scout leg.
He's much faster but this guy has had a rough time.
The Hounds actually showed up before the raid this time. I was prepared to take back what I said about them but it turns out the Red Sabre groups got into a fight on the way over and the raid leader lost her leg.
So the only reason the Hounds got there before the raid this time was because the raiders were literally slowed down to a crawl.
I thought by putting prisoners in cages, they'd be safe from blood spiders. I guess not.
Poor guy was actually unconscious when the blood spider started eating him and woke up 1/3rd of the way through. I'd never seen what happens so I just let it happen out of morbid curiosity and watching him slowly wither away was pretty brutal. He didn't pass out until his hunger was at 10 or 15 and then died at 0.
Will probably move the cages inside of the base.
What's wild is that there were two wounded Red Sabres on the ground outside of the cages and the spider ignored both of them to get to the guy inside. It came back for another guy who was caged, ignoring the two of them again. I ended up shooting it because I didn't need to see what happened again.
Got hit by a Red Sabre attack followed by a Red Sabre Raid. Here, we can see one of the few survivors walking away. We tend to let survivors leave peacefully because they'll probably end up as Blood Spider food if they aren't killed by Swamp Ninjas.
A large part of this current playthrough was spent doing the Hound Check-In event in order to get to 100 relations with the Hounds. In between check-ins, I would go to Squin or Catun.
After completing a check-in, I went into Shark to find it damn near empty.
I thought it was some sort of issue where they all ran outside of the city but when I checked the map to fight, the population had dropped by 30 people. All of the patrolling Hounds seemingly died. Sadly, this included the Iron Hound who I never found.
I have no clue what happened but I guess it was some combination of Swamp Ninjas, Red Sabres, and Blood Spiders that did them all in. I'd never come back to such a drastic drop before. Something similar happened at the Slave Markets south of the swamp but not to this level.
The only Hounds left are the seven in the HQ with Big Grim but they never leave the building to patrol because there's no one to replace them. So now, it's just the Blackshifters and a couple Swampers guarding the city. To make things worse, groups of Blood Spiders seemed to keep showing up and nearly killing the people who were still guarding. Even the casino vendor was banged up.
Luckily, it doesn't seem like they attack the main shopkeepers so all of them are unharmed but there are significantly less people guarding the city. I think Shark might be cooked in the long run.
Update. After returning briefly, I came across the casino vendor dead outside. All of the Blackshifters guarding the bar seem to have vanished so I guess no one was there to protect him. Cold world.
Most played game two years in a row. To be fair, I never noticed the rewinds before this so it probably was high all those years too.
Also, it was only as I was putting the pictures up that I realized I spent the same percentage of time playing Kenshi both years.
I feel like I should say that some of those 239 sessions in 2023 were less than 10 minutes because I was trying to get some nice shots or double checking something.
After finding the Steam rewind or whatever it's called, I realized that I haven't played Kenshi since last summer. I genuinely thought it'd only been six months. No wonder I was rusty.
Looking at the chart, I start around spring or summer every year so I'm right on schedule.
