Kenshi Beginner's Guide — How to Play, Survive and Stop Dying
Kenshi for beginners: what kind of game it is, how combat and skills work, the first-hour survival guide, how to attack, and the mindset that makes Kenshi enjoyable.
Kenshi Beginner's Guide — How to Play, Survive and Stop Dying
The short version: Kenshi is a brutal open-world squad game with no main story — you build a band of characters from nothing and survive (or fail) in a hostile world. The first hours are the hardest: you're weak, and everything wants to kill or enslave you. The skill curve is about learning the systems (skills train through use, combat is directional, death is common).
This guide teaches the fundamentals and the first-hour plan.
What Kind of Game Is Kenshi?
- Genre: Open-world squad-based RPG/sim. Often called an "anti-RPG" — no quests, no story rail, no level-ups with a path.
- The premise: The world is post-apocalyptic and indifferent. You control a squad (1 to 30+ members) of nobodies, and everything — stats, money, survival — is earned through doing.
- Progression: Skills train by use (fighting trains Melee Attack, mining trains Labouring, getting hit trains Toughness). There are no class levels; your character is the sum of their practiced skills.
- Difficulty: Infamously hard — you will lose limbs, get enslaved, and die. That's the game.
Kenshi rewards endurance, not skill. A run where you get enslaved and escape is a great story, not a failure. Treat every death as the game's intended experience — "Kenshi is a story generator about suffering."
The First Hour (Survival Plan)
- Pick a start: "The Wanderer" (one nobody) is the classic. Consider "The Holy Nation Citizen" or a Freedom Seekers start for more support.
- Get food fast: Scavenge dead bodies, buy food at a bar, or mine copper to sell. Hunger kills new players more than combat.
- Buy a bed / find a safe spot: The Hub (a starting town) is safe-ish. Sleep to heal.
- Mine copper near town — it sells well and trains Labouring; buy food and a cheap weapon (a rusty blade).
- Don't fight yet: Your first fights should be against starving bandits — and even then, only when outnumbered favorably. Getting knocked out is fine (you'll usually be left alive); getting enslaved or eaten is not.
Hunger (manage food), beak things (avoid them — they'll eat you), and slavers (they'll sell you into mines). Learn to run. Kenshi's greatest skill is knowing when to flee.
How Combat Works
- Squad combat: Select characters, right-click enemies; your squad auto-engages in real-time.
- Stats matter: Melee Attack, Melee Defense, Dexterity, Strength, Toughness — all train by use. A character with 1 skill vs 30 is night and day.
- Attack styles: "Kenshi how to attack" searches usually mean the attack/block stance — you can toggle Heavy/Medium/Light/Ranged attack modes (R hotkey or the combat UI). Heavy = slower but stronger; Ranged = shoot.
- Dismemberment: Limbs can be severed — replace with robotic limbs later (a beloved Kenshi mechanic).
- Death: You're not always killed when you fall — enemies often leave you alive (unconscious) unless you're food (beak things) or they're slavers.
The 5 Beginner Rules
- Stay near towns for the first several hours.
- Food > weapons — you can't fight hungry.
- Run from anything bigger than a starving bandit.
- Train by living: getting beat up and surviving trains Toughness — the best stat to grind early (safely, near a town).
- Save often (F5 quicksave) — but embrace permadeath-style storytelling; reloading every death robs the game of its point.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Kenshi hard for beginners?
Yes — brutally. But the difficulty is knowledge-based: once you learn the systems and the "run away" instinct, it becomes deeply rewarding.
How do I survive my first hour in Kenshi?
Get food (scavenge/buy), mine copper for money, sleep to heal, stay near town, and avoid fights until you've trained a little.
How does combat work in Kenshi?
Real-time squad combat; stats train by use; attack modes (heavy/light/ranged) are toggleable; limbs can be lost.
How do I attack in Kenshi?
Select a character, right-click an enemy. Toggle attack mode via the combat UI (heavy/medium/light/ranged) — 'R' toggles ranged stance.
What should I do first in Kenshi?
Mine copper near a town, buy food and a weapon, train Toughness by surviving fights, and build toward a small squad and a base.
Is Kenshi worth the learning curve?
For patient players, absolutely — it's one of the most unique and rewarding open-world games ever made, with a huge mod scene.