$29.99Kenshi A world that owes you nothing
Build a squad of nobodies in a vast post-apocalyptic sandbox, then decide what they become: traders, thieves, builders or warlords.
Is Kenshi worth it?
Kenshi is worth it if…
- you like open-ended sandboxes where you set your own goals
- you like squad tactics, base building, crafting, and stealth side by side
- you like hard starts where losing teaches you how to survive
- you like replaying new lives: trader, thief, farmer, rebel, warlord
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From punching bag to warlord
You start weak, and the world knows it. Hungry bandits knock you flat, guards finish them off, and you crawl back to town to sell what fell off the corpses. That is the actual career ladder.
Train by doing: mine copper, haul it to a shop, sneak around bars, lose fights and get up again. Your squad grows stronger in stats and tougher in appearance, until the gang that once mugged you starts avoiding eye contact. Recruit drifters, escaped slaves, and skeletons with names and lives of their own, and keep pushing toward farmer, merchant, rebel, or city-razer.
Limbs break, blood draws trouble
Fights leave marks here. A wounded leg makes a character limp and slow the whole squad, a wounded arm forces a sword into one hand or out of it entirely. Lose too much blood and you pass out in the sand, which tends to attract predators.
You carry your bleeding friends home and hope you make it in time. Really bad injuries mean amputation and robotic replacements, plus stats dragged down by gear, weight, hunger, and pain. There is no scaling to save you: shops stock what they stock, and most things are stronger than you at first. Patch people up, or lose them.
Buy a shack, raise a fortress
When the desert beats you enough times, you buy walls. Purchase a run-down building in town, repair it, and use it as a bolt-hole or a shop front. Later you stake out land and build a full base: research new technology, set up crafting for weapons and armor, upgrade defenses, and put your people to work.
Your settlers can run production on their own once you set their jobs, hauling ore and food while you are off scouting ruins. Or they sit in a loop moving the same iron bar in and out of a box while you watch, which is also part of the charm. A dry business plan for a very damp world.
A world that keeps moving without you
There is no chosen one and no main quest. You pick a side or pick nobody: aid a faction, rob it, free its slaves, or end up in chains yourself. The simulation keeps turning either way.
Get grabbed by slavers and you work the mines until you pick a lock or starve. Get caught by cannibals and you are dinner. These are not cutscenes, just what happens when you lose in the wrong postcode. With 870 square kilometers, no magic, swords next to ancient tech, and no leveling to meet you halfway, every trip out is a bet. Sometimes the bet eats you.
