Best Reasons Why You Should Play Kenshi

Key Takeaways

• Every encounter in Kenshi can be deadly due to its perma-death system.
• Players have near-unlimited freedom to craft their own story.
• Kenshi offers extensive base-building options and random encounters, which keep gameplay feeling fresh.

Released in 2018 by Lo-Fi Games, Kenshi is a sprawling open-world survival RPG. Every hour that passes is a brutal struggle for survival in this criminal-filled wasteland. When players aren’t being robbed, imprisoned, or enslaved, they’re instead being devoured by the planet’s alien wildlife. For those who manage to survive, a new legacy is born.

Kenshi presents players with near-unrivaled freedom to explore and interact with their world. Build a kingdom, launch an invasion, or remain a nomad — players are free to play the game however they wish. With a giant and varied map, there are always more locations to discover, nations to encounter, and monsters to fight and be devoured by.

8 Challenging Survival

Prepare To Die

With its perma-death system, every encounter can be deadly in Kenshi. Once a character is dead, they are gone forever. There are no revivals, redos, or takebacks. Even seasoned survival game players will cower when they see something approaching, as characters are incredibly weak without extensive training.

Given how deadly Kenshi’s wildlife and roaming bands of humanoids are, fleeing is usually the best course of action upon spotting a threat. Whether it’s man-eating monsters, criminals, or slavers, nearly all living things can and will kill the player in this incredibly hostile world. Most characters will meet a swift end in the wasteland even when equipped with powerful weapons and armor.

7 Organic, Player-Driven Storytelling

Build Your Own Story

Kenshi is a game of near-unlimited freedom where players carve out a name and narrative for themselves. They can pass the days adventuring, building settlements, or working as a manual laborer; the choice is theirs. Throughout their travels, players will be presented with various events to react to, organically building a narrative for players to shape.

Random encounters are where stories are born, as they often wholly alter the trajectory of a player’s journey. Perhaps a character is facing certain death at the hands of a monster only to be saved at the last moment by friendly adventurers. Or maybe a beloved character is slain, leading the player on a bloodthirsty quest for revenge.

6 Extensive Base Building

From Shacks To Settlements

Players are offered many building options in Kenshi, with base building systems that allow players to tailor their construction to their needs. From homes and fortresses to entire settlements, the flexibility in Kenshi’s base building is immense. The number of characters that can be obtained also incentivizes players to thoroughly explore this feature. After all, a bed is the most essential tool for health recovery.

Base and settlement building also feels incredibly organic in this game, as neighboring factions, independent groups, and monsters will react to and interact with players’ bases. Merchants will visit to trade, while monsters with nests nearby will steal from or attack bases.

5 Unique Adventures Around Every Corner

No Playthrough Is Ever The Same

Random encounters ensure that every playthrough is unique. From minor inconveniences to run-ending battles, players are kept on their toes throughout the wasteland as they never know what might be coming around the corner. On the rare occasion that these encounters are friendly, they can offer players game-changing aid, as some groups will even heal unconscious characters when they otherwise would have died.

Kenshi is also highly customizable in terms of difficulty and starting scenarios. This helps keep the game fresh, as players can choose from various starting conditions and tailor the world’s brutality for every playthrough.

4 Variety

There’s Always Something New To Explore

Kenshi’s diverse locations to explore, environments to survive in, and equipment to use keeps adventures fresh and exciting. Players never know what they’ll come across next, and it’s not uncommon for players to find items they’ve never seen before, even after hundreds of hours of gameplay. Kenshi is not a game that holds players’ hands either, so they must work out the value and practicalities of any items they find.

These wastelands are also home to various factions and monsters who interact uniquely with each other and the player. Some will fight players, while others will help them. Some will merely be too preoccupied fighting each other to notice the player, allowing for a speedy getaway.

3 Multifaceted Gameplay

Something Fun For Everyone

Kenshi is a joyful bundle of gaming genres. From RPG to kingdom builder, solo adventure or total conquest, players are guaranteed to find something to enjoy in this game. Focus on one area of the game or explore them all; the choice is in the players’ hands. And if players get bored with one area of the game — say, adventuring — there are still several other facets to explore, such as base building, faction conquest, or becoming a merchant.

This variety ensures every playthrough feels fresh, as players can customize their game around the features that most appeal to them.

Freshen Up The Game Any Time

After hundreds of hours of playtime, even the most thrilling, well-made games can begin to feel stale. Unlike many such games, however, Kenshi has a large modding community that never fails to return the game to an exhilarating experience. Whether players crave greater variety, more mechanics, or aesthetically pleasing visuals, countless fantastic mods exist to fill those needs.

Mods also allow players to tailor their Kenshi experience further. For players interested in a particular area of the game, specialized mods are abundant, whether for improving base building, adventuring, or settlement management.

1 Detailed Tech Tree & Skill Progression

Long-Term Goals

Kenshi’s tech tree is a highly beneficial though resource-intensive feature. It incentivizes players to engage with the world, whether through exploration or theft, the latter of which can drastically change a playthrough. Progressing through the tech tree is essential for long-term survival in this wasteland, allowing players to protect their settlements and significantly improve the survivability of their character(s).

Above all else, skill progression is the key to character survival. Even with powerful weapons and armor, a character will quickly perish unless they have the skills to match. With high enough skill levels, however, any character can go from being beaten up by thugs to a true menace of the wasteland.