FAQ

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Yes! Kenshi is available in Japanese, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese and Russian.

Strategy Role Playing Game. It is like a combination of an RTS and RPG.

No, this genre has never been done right. There is no such thing as a “hero” character. Every character in the game is a unique RPG-style character, with a name, skills, equipment and personality.

There are no “barracks” buildings that generate expendable, nameless clone soldiers. Think closer to an RPG, with the option of fortifications and buildings that serve a function for your characters.

Although you start out with just one character, you can have as many as you want. It is up to you if you want a huge faction or a small elite group. It is perfectly possible to play the game with only one or two characters if you wish, but the game plays best with around 4-15 characters.

Also you are not restricted to one single group. You can split up your characters into separate squads and have them travel independently to different parts of the game world.

You can think of it as one, but it is an original world, there are no fantasy-knock-off cliches. You wont find goblins, elves, dragons, knights or wizards. There is no magic in the game either, just blood sweat and metal. Combat is mostly sword-based, with a certain samurai / ninja influence.

No, its single player only.

Every single person you encounter is an equal, they have the same abilities and skill sets as you. This does not mean everyone is the same skill level as you, just that they are all based on the same code and have the same potentials.

There are no fluff NPCs or invincible people. A “level 1” character will find that almost everyone he encounters is stronger than him, and that the shops are full of fancy equipment he cannot afford. A high-level character will find he can win most fights even when outnumbered. The world does not revolve around you, unlike most normal RPGs.

You’re not great and powerful. You don’t have more ‘hitpoints’ than everyone else. You are not the center of the universe, you are not special. Unless you earn it.

No, but you can’t charge around like an idiot either, the game will require you to think a little more realistically. If you encounter bandits, give them the money! Don’t respond to people with insults or defiance! Don’t disobey authority!

Plus, there are some interesting points:

1. Depending on the situation, you don’t normally die from losing a fight.
2. You gain more experience for losing a fight than from winning.

There are other ways to get started than simply looking for fights, money should be your main goal early on.  Trading from town to town makes good money.  You can hire bodyguards.  You can purchase a building in a major town and use that to start research and production operations to make more money.  Or you could just steal everything that isn’t nailed down.

No, there is always something challenging for you. Your opponents won’t magically get stronger to match you, but they can always get more numerous. As you gain reputation your enemies will take you more seriously, they might even send a whole army after you!

There are also more dangerous locations to visit, parts of the world where no man dares to venture, parts of the world that are totally war torn. Also your responsibilities increase, do you use your strength to change the world, or protect something? You could bolster a losing faction in a conflict, dedicate yourself to freeing slaves, or you could just make a lot of powerful enemies. There’s more to this world than just scaring off bandits and you are going to need all the strength you can get.

Because you still get really badly injured, and will require medical attention and recovery time.

Most RPGs require that you hunt for trouble. If you want a good fight, you have to specifically find a quest and go to another *yawn* dungeon. If you don’t, nothing happens, the game stands still. In Kenshi, trouble comes to you. A lot. Don’t think you are safe because you are in a town now. There are still muggers, theives, police, corrupt officials, and thats just internal, what if the town comes under siege? Now you’re trapped. Do you aid the defence? If the defence falls then you will find yourself in the middle of a slaughter.

This is a world where survival is a constant goal. You do whatever you want. The prime objective is to survive, you can raise your characters, make money, fight for justice, rob people, stage a rescue for one of your characters that got captured, hunt legendary monsters, choose a profession, save up for really cool stuff, or just survive, you make your own story. I know this may seem alien to a lot of people, but you have to choose yourself!

Not in the traditional sense, where you just talk to random farmers and they all ask you to do something-that-conveniently-involves-trawling-a-dungeon-full-of-monsters-till-you-reach-the-end, no.

The game is driven by dynamic events that occur naturally as a result of the AI “ecosystem” that makes up the simulation of the game world. The world is full of various potentially conflicting forces- factions, religions, armies, emperors, criminals, lawmakers, wildlife, environment and so on. All these forces are constantly pursuing their own agendas. When they conflict, you have an event, and you can choose if you want to have an influence on the outcome.

It could be something small, like an old man getting mugged, or it could be a vast invading army on its way to wipe out a whole province. Maybe raiders are attacking a village, maybe one of your guys got enslaved or thrown in jail, maybe cannibals are swarming across the land eating everyone starting with their legs.

Aside from all the stuff that happens to you, there’s a whole range of stuff, the very emphasis of the game is stuff-to-do. You can be a peaceful trader, a bandit, a mercenary, soldier, thief, assassin, bodyguard, hunter, explorer, smuggler.

You can open your own shop, start your own village, raise an army and build a fortress. Or you could go up a level and aim for a higher, world-affecting purpose, such as protecting a village, influencing governments, challenging factions and armies you don’t like, overthrow a ruler, or even aim to take over the whole world.

There are no “dice rolls”, game mechanics are not based on archaic board game rules. The basis of the combat is damage accumulation and fatigue. Minor and major injuries cause bloodloss, crippling, concussion, then there’s exhaustion too. Wounded characters end up staggering or crawling around, trying to finish eachother off. The game can be paused at any time with the space bar, so you can give orders and make plans in the midst of chaos.

I don’t believe in having hitpoints, a single number that represents the lifeforce of a character. There will be a locational damage system, and a dynamic medical system. If a character gets a leg wound, he will need a medic to stop the bleeding and patch up the wound. He would then need time to rest in order to fully regain perfect leg-functionality.

It’s about blurring the line between life and death.  If your squad is defeated the enemy will walk away victorious, it could be that some of your guys are dying from their wounds and one or two manages to regain consciousness in time to give everyone first aid and get them to safety. If not, maybe they could get rescued by a passing trader, or slavers, or cannibals…

Unfortunately there was no time to add this feature in time for the release, but I wouldn’t rule it out for a future content update.

Yes, the game is totally data driven and will be released with the same editors that are used to make the game.

Yes, there’s a demo available on the website, which you can download via torrent.

No. Whatever you pay to buy the game, that’s all you pay forever.  There will be free updates even after release.  I will only charge money again if it is for a sequel or significantly huge expansion pack.

It is not set in japan.

I’m not telling you.

It means Swordsman.

Oh.

Get in contact!  It’s possible I missed you or am still waiting for details from you.