Conan Exiles Thralls Guide: Taming, Professions & Best Thralls

Thralls are the heart of Conan Exiles — human NPCs who work your crafting stations, guard your base, and follow you into combat. The classic image is the Wheel of Pain: knock an NPC out with a truncheon, drag them to the wheel, feed them gruel, and wait for them to break. But since the Age of Heroes and the 2026 follower updates, that's only one of several ways to get them — you can also rescue, hire, buy, or recruit them through companion quests. This guide covers the full system: how to capture and tame, how tiers and named thralls work, which professions matter, and the follower commands that control your army.

Here's what you'll learn:

• The complete capture-and-tame process (truncheon → Wheel of Pain → gruel)
• How thrall tiers (T1–T4) and named thralls work
• The 2026 ways to get followers without the wheel
• Every crafting profession and where to place it
• Follower commands and the one-follower combat rule
• What "guardian thrall" actually means (spoiler: not what you'd expect)

How to Capture and Tame Thralls: The Wheel of Pain

The classic process, still the fastest way to build a workforce on most servers:

1. Knock them out — use a truncheon (or the blunt side of a warhammer) to reduce an NPC's health to zero without killing them. They fall unconscious and can be picked up.
2. Drag them home — pick up the unconscious body and carry or drag it back to your base. This is the vulnerable part: you move slowly, and on PvP servers you're a target.
3. Build a Wheel of Pain — the crafting station that breaks their will. It's a large placeable (150,000 building HP, 42 inventory slots) learned from the Wheel of Pain knowledge.
4. Place them in the wheel — add the thrall plus fuel and gruel. The wheel consumes fuel (wood, coal, etc.) and gruel while converting the NPC over time. The wiki's Wheel of Pain page documents the station fully.
5. Collect your broken thrall — when the timer finishes, you get a converted thrall you can place at a station or follow you.

The taming time scales with the NPC's tier: T1 trash breaks in minutes, T4 named thralls can take real hours on default settings (server rates change this — see our servers guide for rate settings).

Per the official Thrall wiki page, "in 2026, they can be obtained in various ways: captured, rescued, hired, bought, or convinced through companion quests" — the Age of War and Age of Heroes updates deliberately moved away from the wheel being the only source.

Thrall Tiers and Named Thralls

Every capturable NPC spawns with either a random identity or is pulled from a list of rare named thralls, and quality runs in four tiers:

• T1 (Novice) — the fodder population of most camps; fine for basic station work, useless in combat.
• T2 (Apprentice) — passable workers, weak fighters.
• T3 (Journeyman) — real workers; many crafting stations need T3 for the best recipes and bonuses.
• T4 (Master / named) — the prize. Named T4 thralls like the Aesir Berserker, Dalinsia Snowhunter and the Relic Hunter specialists are the endgame recruitment targets, with dramatically better combat stats and the best crafting bonuses.

The tier of the NPC you knock out is visible from their name and gear before you attack, and the camp's faction determines what profession you'll get (Relic Hunters produce the best generalists; Heirs of the North produce the Aesir fighters). For finding named T4 spawns, the killer tool is the named-thrall filter on community maps — our interactive map guide explains how to use it.

Professions: Which Thrall Goes Where

Thralls at crafting stations unlock recipes and bonuses by profession and tier. The confirmed list (from the wiki's profession table):

The Armorer is the one most players prioritize: placing even a T3 Armorer at your bench cuts material costs for every armor piece you craft, and the shieldwright (armor-boosting) and scoutwright (weight-reducing) variants are what make the best PvP builds possible — see our armor guide for how they interact with armor kits. The Armorer (profession) wiki page lists every station and bonus in detail.

Followers: Combat Commands and the One-Follower Rule

Follower thralls follow you on command and fight anything you attack (or anything that attacks you). Key rules:

• You can only have one follower at a time — one thrall or one pet. Mounts don't count toward the limit.
• Follower types: Fighter, Archer, Bearer and Performer thralls, plus pets.
• Commands (long-press the interact key on the follower): Move (send them to a location), Attack (target a specific enemy), Return (come back to you), Hold Here (guard a spot until you move on), and Flee (run from combat). The Age of War rework moved these into a reworked command radial with a dedicated follower inventory menu.
• Followers are dangerous to bystanders: a follower can attack other players or their followers if they're in the area during a fight, and they auto-engage nearby enemies when the original target dies.

For PvE, a well-geared named fighter follower (equipped from your hardened steel stock) with a taunt can hold bosses while you DPS — this is the standard endgame thrall tactic.

What Is a Guardian Thrall?

There's a catch with this search term: there is no "Guardian" thrall class in the base game. The word appears in three unrelated places:

1. The "Guard Area" temperament — many thralls and NPCs spawn with a Guard Area/Chase behavior, and players informally call any thrall set to guard a location a "guardian thrall."
2. The Guardian creature line — "Guardian" is a creature/part name on the wiki (Crystalline Guardian parts), unrelated to human thralls.
3. Server and mod usage — some modded servers (especially RP communities) use "guardian" as a role name for thralls that defend a base or a VIP. If you saw the term on a specific server, check that server's mod list — see the mods guide.

If you're looking for a defensive follower, what you actually want is a Fighter thrall set to Hold Here / Guard Area with heavy armor and a shield — that's the closest thing to a "guardian thrall" the base game offers.

FAQ

How do I capture and tame thralls in Conan Exiles? Knock an NPC unconscious with a truncheon, drag them to a Wheel of Pain, add gruel and fuel, and wait for the conversion timer. Since the Age of Heroes updates you can also rescue, hire, buy, or recruit followers through quests and taverns — the wheel is no longer the only source.

What is the best way to get high-tier thralls? Target known T4 named spawns (Aesir Berserker, Dalinsia Snowhunter, Relic Hunter specialists) using the named-thrall filters on community maps, and recruit them with a high-tier truncheon on a server with reasonable taming rates. Named fighters follow you; named crafting thralls go to stations.

What is a guardian thrall? There's no official "Guardian" thrall class — the term is community slang for a thrall with the Guard Area behavior, or a role name on some modded/RP servers. For a defensive follower, use a heavy-armored Fighter set to Hold Here.

Which thrall professions should I put at my crafting stations? Prioritize an Armorer at the Armorer's Bench (cost reduction + shieldwright/scoutwright bonuses), an Alchemist at the Alchemist's Bench (required for oil, T3/T4), a Blacksmith for weapons, and a Cook for buff foods. Match profession to station — the tier of the thrall determines the bonus level.

How many followers can I have at once? One follower (a thrall or a pet) at a time in combat — mounts don't count against the limit. Station thralls (workers) are unlimited and separate from followers.

Related Guides

• Conan Exiles Armor Guide: Best Sets & How Armor Works
• Conan Exiles Servers Guide: Hosting & Server Types
• Conan Exiles Mods Guide: Best Mods & Install Tips
• Conan Exiles Interactive Map Guide: Best Maps & Coordinates
• Conan Exiles Resource Locations Guide: Iron, Oil, Glass & More

Official resources: Steam store page · Official wiki — Thrall · Official wiki — Wheel of Pain · Official wiki — Armorer (profession) · Official wiki — Follower

Last Updated: August 13, 2026