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Learn the essentials of Kenshi's brutal world. This guide covers game starts, character races (Humans, Shek, Hive), health, allies, equipment, combat, crime, skills, and money-making strategies.

Kenshi is an unforgiving game about a brutal world which does not care about you. Many people will attack you in order to loot you, enslave you, or eat you. You heal very slowly and, if you are not careful, you can easily lose a limb. Gaining the edge over your opponent is difficult since you do not gain skill faster than a non-player character. This guide's goal is to help new players who are Getting Started in the world of Kenshi.

Game Starts: Kenshi offers various starting scenarios, each with a unique Difficulty, starting Cash (Cats), Play Style suggestion (RPG, Action RPG, RTS, Wanted Criminal, Trading RPG), and a short description. More detailed information on items, stats, and faction relations is available on the dedicated Game Starts page.

Difficulty: Difficulty labels for Game Starts indicate the initial circumstances of your character. Easier starts do not affect leveling speed.

Cash: The currency in Kenshi is called Cats. Some Game Starts provide no money, while others offer a small sum.

Play Style: This label suggests a mindset for playing, but it's not enforced. You can deviate from the suggested play style.

Short Description: These descriptions offer context about your character's origin, items, and initial faction relations.

Crew (Races): You can choose your starting character's race, each with unique bonuses and penalties to XP rates, healing speed, and other stats.

• Humans: Can enter The Holy Nation territory without immediate hostility. Can wear most clothing. Blood pool: 75+(0.75)Strength.
  • Greenlanders: No XP penalties, normal healing and running speed. 100 health, 1x Bleed, 1x Hunger. Bonuses to Cooking, Farming, Science.
  • Scorchlanders: Fastest healing (1.1x Healrate), fast non-Hiver running speed. 100 health, 0.9x Bleed, 0.9x Hunger. Bonuses to Armoursmithing, Athletics, Dexterity (10%), Dodge, Stealth, Weaponsmithing. Penalties to Cooking, Farming, Labouring, Strength (-10%).
• Shek: Bonus to Attack, Strength (+10%), Toughness. Slow healing (0.8x Healrate), slow running speed. 125 health, 0.9x Bleed, 1.25x Hunger. Penalties to Athletics, Dexterity, Dodge, Farming, Labouring, Robotics, Science, Stealth, Thievery. Cannot wear some helmets. Blood pool: 75+(0.75)Strength.
• Hive: Three specialized sub-races. Cannot trade with Hive Villages, cannot wear boots, and have limited armor options. All Hivers have a blood pool of 50. Their body structure means most hits land on the chest.
  • Workers: Heal slowly (1x Healrate) due to low max health. 125 head health, 75 other body parts. Bonuses to Athletics, Dexterity, Engineering, Farming, Labouring, Stealth, Thievery, Toughness, Turrets. Penalties to Cooking, Science, Strength.