I know it's been years and you probably won't enough know this comment exists but thank you.... I love 4x games and these kinda games but I have a bit of a learning disability and I can't really learn from text. I'm more of an odditory visual learner and these videos really do it for me... the passion and intelligence you bring to the game really shines thought. Thank you!!! I was a bit intimated at first but your vids gave me the confidence to be the scavenger that I am... I really can't wait to enjoy this game because of your work thanks again.
My favorite early base location is actually at the NE side of the mountain west of the Hub, it's between the hub, or roughly Halfway between the bar outside the Hub and the hiver village to the west. It's got quite a bit of everything. It's obviously very close to the hive village and the Hub, but Squinn and Shack are close as well. It also get huge bouts of wind, so wind turbines can power everything most of the time, and with sufficient batteries keeps running in low wind. The groups that attack your base are pretty well staggered in competency as well, so knowing the enemies gives you great opportunities to have your troops battle appropriate enemies.
My base was between that hive village and Squinn, SW side of your base. Easy access to easy mobs south and beak thing supply to the north. Only hungry mobs as the early base raids that I can easily deal with (or run to Squinn quickly). Plenty of resources. I hired some mercs, then trapped the first batch of Shek tribute collectors as my early base defense in the first week, then I established 6 mounted crossbows on day 7. After that, it is SimCity for me.
That last recommendation is a good one. I've been all over that area in my current playthrough but wasn't thinking of base building at the time. It's perfect!
My personal favourite spot is Shem Desert - the one with lakes on it. This is more of a mid game location, perhaps, due to relatively significant presence of giraffes - you will need something like 30 in various combat to fend them off, which is honestly not too high - bring polearms, I'd say. You need to be able to deal with beak things before you settle there, but on the flipside, beak things are not as dangerous as some people claim, unless you startle the nests - and there are no nests in this area. On the flip-side - giraffes are a wonderful training animals, and if you get lucky, they can be used as a limb removal service, if you want some bionic legs and arms. Shem itself is rather flat, with surprisingly good amount of water, good quantities of ores as well. The only downside is arid soil, BUT it is good enough to produce hemp and wheatstraw, though at slower rate. Hemp can be used for both cloth and drugs for money making. Speaking of this - you can sell drugs to nearby Flats Lagoon, with massive profit. Catun is close if you need reasonable weapons. Black Desert City is also not that far away if you need some robotics and very high quality weapons. Shark is close as well, and so is one of the waystations. Just slightly further away, you have Squin. So Shem is a pretty nice central location - yet it is distant enough so you won't be bothered by any major faction - no prayer days, no Shek stealing your food, not Empire taxes. Raids for the most part are only made of starving bandits and dust bandits, occasionally ninjas trying to steal your food.
If you want a unique spot to build a base that has no tax where Shek, UC and HN won't bother you with really good resources. try the the "High Bonefields", the north east part of the mountain. You can just block the small entrances and you will have a large section of the mountain itself. Your only problems are slavers and band of bones but they mostly die on beak things and bone dogs on the way to your base. Forget walls, you can even block most entrances with buildings. Also don't worry too much about getting a really flat land. You can use "-" , "=" and "[", "]" to adjust how elevated and straight your building is.
Can't say I've even been out that way, had to pull up the biome map and look. I will take a look down that way. I feel like I never get a visit from the tax man though. And you aren't wrong about using the proper commands to even out the buildings, I'm just OCD a bit about flat areas :)
@@TobelPlays Welcome to the club I'm OCD about that too but yea, commands make it possible. Best part about that area is you don't need much building material to get you started and you can own a large area probably about 4x - 8x bigger than the hub cheap by blocking out entrances and exits. It has everything you need inside, 100 copper, 100 stone, 100 iron, 100 fertility and 60 water, 100 arid and 10% green. Hydroponics pretty much complete all the missing things you could ever want. It is also close to Catun.
@@sonic55193 im relatively new to the game so maybe im just blind but i cant seem to find where your talking about any way you can be more specific on the location please.
Thanks very much! Trying to find a good location and I'm definitely a new player. This was very helpful. The place by the swamp and the last one by the river seem especially nice. Well played!
Interesting that your first recommended location is in the exact same spot I built my base without looking at any guides. Must be a really good spot lol
Grey desert! I found great success building inbetween the Black desert and Waystation to the east. Lot's of flat land too. Good spare limbs and some early advanced science books/blue prints are easily accessible because the black desert is so close. Frequent cloud ninja attacks that can easily be dispatched by running to the waystation, as the shinobi guards are a LOT stronger than them. Which also means lot's of money thanks to all the katana/ninja clothes drops. There's lot's of stone, copper and iron. Very tight on water and no fertile land though. You can buy food and supplies from the 2 traders inside the Waystation though. Aside from the cloud ninja's there's really no threats at all. And because the Waystation is owned by the Tech hunters, you'll even get patched up should you go down near them. I can't think of an easier place to first set up a base.
Newb here! Some questions: ~ Is it possible/efficient to build multiple bases with differing specialties? Like a base for farming, a base for mining, a base to collect those resources and put them up for trade, etc. Also, what would the limitations be? ~ When building a base for the first time, how high of combat stats do you recommend for a defender squad consisting of 10 members? Does it depend on the location (stronger raiders)? ~ Is it possible to raid/destroy/conquer NPC towns/villages/strongholds? I have a vendetta against holy nation. They put my first character in a beat-up lock-up loop all because she was a woman. It increased my toughness, lockpicking and stealth, yes, but THEY KILLED MY DOG
- It is possible, although it might not be the most efficient in terms of security and micromanagement. However, if you are developed enough, you could conceivably have the guards necessary to defend multiple bases (there are mods that put your recruit limit at 256 people). - It does depend on the position; settling in the Holy Nation territory for example, I sent my main fighting squad away to explore in my Let's Play and relied on the local Holy Nation forces to protect me (or I ran away when I had to fight). If you have no local friendly patrols, you need to have either an escape plan, a decent fighting force, or a mercenary company defending your base (can be hired in towns). - That I don't know. Some people have mentioned different factions claiming cities and buildings, but I have no idea if you can suddenly claim say Stack or something. Also, I'm with you! DOWN WITH OKRAN!
Hoooo boy. I still have a long way to go before I can start wrecking holy nation outposts then, if you still relied on them to protect your fighters when you already had a base. Thanks!
One note and reason why small specialty bases are decent, you can abondon them and without much to worry about getting stolen or destoyed. So you dont need to leave a copper mine, or cotton field guarded just bring armored troops to clear out the bandits to use it, next time you return. As long as your PC is decent it wont effect load speeds, btw.
I generally build my base around the iron/copper node if there is good enough % of stone in the vicinity, I start by hauling enough materials to build manual building material and iron bar production, and then build industrial factory on one spot, that way I don't need to haul anything anywhere. I make the buildings surround the "mining area" in a circle and fill them with turrets(these buildings contain smithies, beds and general item storages), have a road to farming area a little bit farther away and wall in the whole complex. I love storm houses for this purpose as you can place ton of crossbow turrets into them. My first base is located on the hill exactly in between ruined outpost and your recommended base location at 11 minute mark (I'd call the location a neck of sorts), I have no copper inside the base so I have few guys mining it outside the walls if I need it. Building in it has been a pain(but the base is complete) and I'm considering new base location just to make pathings more effective and enable me to customize the base more as I don't have space to work with, its really ugly.. When I started I had manual labour stone/iron production elsewhere but it was run over by holy nation + band of bones + bandits nearly instantly, as it was still considered outpost nobody raided my new location for a very very long time. So if you are a starting guy and managed to make some cash and have building materials, build some random storm houses to distance of your base to lure in raiders so your real base is safe till you are ready to fight them(feels like a cheat). I started my outpost when I only had 5 guys on my team which propably was a mistake.. I also had 0 combat skills on anyone and little food or weapons/armour.
I put my first base down on that big plateau he featured in the second example. I was only sort-of looking for a place when I found the small settlement on the hill. I thought, “This ruin has a lot of building material. That’s weird.” Then I panned around and saw the plateau and my eyes widened with delight. I built two sheds and a camp fire to lay claim to it. The raids were rough. When the bread ninjas attacked I just grabbed my food and went back to the Hub until they left. But now shit is awesome. It has so much land and I have a huge number of turrets with a three-gate defense setup. On the topic, one review I read to try and help my girlfriend said that plateau was the very best spot in the game.
Started in Okrans in the spot you suggested. Started a small base. Awhile later a Holy Nation patrol walked by one of my squad members, said something and ran off. Next thing you know, im being raided by the Holy nation, lol. They dont like Shek :) Also got raided by some ninja. Not an easy start even if i wasnt Shek.
The Holy Nation is a bad place to be if you're non-human. They are incredibly racist and hate anyone that's not a human so it's no surprise that they'd attack a non-human settlement trying to set up in their holy lands. I'd love to have seen some varied locations across the map that avoid Holy Nation territory for the non humans
Thanks for making this guide. Im a new player and Im going to have a go at making my first ever base at the location you showed at 8:45 Ive downloaded the Slopeless mod to help out with building on hills. Im planning to use that cliff to the north as one side and then wall off the other 3 sides to create a huge square space that extends partly into the swamp. The only bad thing about this location I could see is the low veg and wheat yield? Ive had a base in Squin for a while, I have over 20 players and have done quite a lot of research - here goes ...
East of the Holy Farm that's north of Bad Teeth there is a Holy Mine Ruin that has the stone mine that makes building supplies. It's backed by small cliffs and has two iron nods with a 3rd next to the road. You can build a wall north to south of the cliff edges next to the road blocking the mine inside with enough area to still build a base. It's arid so cactus and hemp should be good. But no copper, you could always buy that when needed. Have one of your guys mine the building supplies till you have enough to build the wall, I stood inside the mine ruin with no threats. I don't know how aggressive the AI is in that area yet since I just found it recently but the free building supplies is worth it, it just needs one person to work it.
Pretty funny i find this, i pretty mutch found the spot at 8:45 and made my first base there - and can recom it, the Raids are Handable and the Raptors that try to eat your farms are a neat source of Animal Skin :)
Building a base near the cannibals in the north is probably one of the best places to build in the game. You only have to worry about cannibals, and it's very easy to train combat up against them since they wear no armor and have low stats. Just don't go unprepared and you won't be eaten alive. Besides that there's plenty of water, fertility, iron, copper, everything. Only downside is because it's far from the center of the map, you have to walk a long way to get to the opposite side.
last base location looks nice. now that i played better setup understand it all i wish i built there lol. but i can always move or do it next playthrough
"This is my favorite spot in the game, especially for new players. This is Okram's Pride." Me seeing how nice that spot is :D Me seeing the -100 Holy Nation rep D: Me remembering the "Son of a Captain" start I picked 100 hours ago :[]
Just set up in Venge with a mostly skeleton squad. Not kidding, if you mostly don't need to eat and can hide your burnable bois you have just about the safest place in Kenshi. I've had raids be burned up and the weak thralls aren't much trouble.
@@TobelPlays it's really fun, gets a bit op but I like to do the 5 nobodies start and go somewhere dangerous. One of my favorites moments was getting a shit ton of experience fighting reapers with my five guys at the beginning of my game. I was fighting like 3 and they were kicking my ass, but my dedicated medic was able to fully heal up all the cutting damage. Also skeleton repair kits become extremely efficient at high levels of robotics. Of course wear and tear damage can get brutal, though Hive villages are good for that
the area you showed at 6:00 I was actually considering building there. There was also a little plateau not far from there, close to one of the ruins. However it's pretty small, but would be very defensible. Also can you explain how to tilt etc when building?
Before watching this video i tried to establish my first base right near the crab area and had to abandon it because of the crabs, relocated right at the same position you were showing on the river base also before seeing this
I did find the 3rd one by myself and my base is there but closer to canyon for avoiding walls BUT end being to much hill and give a lot of problems. Abandoned that base today and searching for some simple and flat place with no too mortal enemy's
Oh man, iam on my first playthrough. Started with the character who is with -100 rep with HN from the begining lol. My party is pretty strong now and i managed to wipe out 3 Holy mines, thinking of building my base in that HN "bread basket", but last time i visited it, had to fight 3 parties of paladins lol. By the way, found a decent place for a base. Fret/water 100, has stone, iron and copper is 100m away from each other, flat ground. One can build a very nice tight base if they chose to. Its just outside the fog islands, south west from the Mongrel and directly east from the Hive village(the one next to the sea), the spot is on the road, next to the giant mental thing. The only downside is the view..
That is a problem with Kenshi... every construction project, even a long time ago, they would build level, even on a hillside, whether that meant building up a foundation, or leveling the ground itself. I don't like leaning buildings either. Made my base a little west of the HUB... I looked at that area on the map, (last one) but didn't know anything about it... figured it'd be good for vegetables, so I was thinking about starting a vegetable farm there.
Hi, Can anybody advice, what have I do with the tones of hash in The Hook? I had a deal with shinobies in Clownsteady, but some day they should have some misunderstandings with locals, because one day when I arrived to Clownsteady with two garrus full of shit, there were not any thieves in their tower. For what reason the price level at local traders is 400% and chance to sell is "NO!". Is it possible to raise up the chance to sell hash at local stores? If it is impossible to sell some illegal staff to usual traders, what is the reason to display the price multiplier, what were the motives of developers?
Made my first base in the shrieking forrest that was by a big tree and was "easily" defendable if the local bandits weren't hostile to me. Shame since all the resources except copper were abundant. Despite being high leveled (6 colonists with at least 60 melee skill each) every 10-15 minutes another squad of shrieking bandits would break down the gates and bother me, which made building hard. Probably gonna move base to the leviathan coast since i prospected it and it has decent everything, dont really care about trading and just want an out of the way place to live in thats kinda interesting.
I found out that you don't even need iron mine near you if you get raided by bandits a lot. With all the iron-based loot they drop, you end up with more iron than you can use.
I made my base near that swamp close to the hub were those hive people live and I’m making weed there it seemed like an okay spot for farming I only get attacked by hungry bandits so it’s not that bad if you have 8 people
How do you keep everyone well fed? I have a couple of squads doing manual labor but they always run out of food. Is there a way to automate a courier to deliver food to other squads?
@@sonic55193 I made a food store but my characters keep putting their food in there automatically so it's really difficult to bring any on expeditions, am I missing something?
@@brianhelt9125 Turn off the Job while going on expedition. That will stop your character from ditching items. Also turn on the sharing of food, so only one guy or pack animal carry the food and other's will just eat what he carries when in close proximity.
You can actually build your base right next to a city. My favorite location is right next to squin. I can sell my copper easily and buy anything I want. I can also use the guards in Squin to defend my base. I have properties in Squin to serve as food storage to avoid paying taxes or raids by bandits early on.
I had to move far away from holy nation territory. They kept attacking my settlement. I was able to fend them off but it they attacked me almost daily and their bodies piled up so high that we could dispose of them all before another unit dropped by or we got attacked by river raptors
I just started again in a valley I found years ago near Clownsteady. Its the one between the town and the huge crater. Reason I like it is because it has fertile lands for rice farms (100) and most other stuff grows decent there as well. Plenty iron and copper not too far away. The two towns and the waystation nearby can provide you with some 15 people to start off with and a good place to sell stuff. Every now and then you will get attacked by a weak party of slave hunters which is great for leveling your fighters . Only had to build a house with some turrets on top to kill the raptors eating my crops and have not seem them since. Finally, to the east and north there are quite a few ruins to explore. I remember from when I played earlier I would to go up to the crater to hunt Gutters for skins and meat but my men are too weak still in this play to do that. The one downside I can think of is the taxman coming round every week but that is the UC for you.. Hope this helps
@@TobelPlays Do they attack if your team has bugs, sheks etc.? I'm thinking about starting a base in the valley area you're showing here, but my main character is a hiver and I have sheks etc. (edit: what about females as well?)
