1-1: From Rock Bottom

Everyone has a story. In the chaotic, violent world of Kenshi, these stories aren't always long, and they sure as hell aren't always happy, but they aren't predictable either. A story could begin with anyone from lone wanderer to a pair of slaves, from a gang of six with outsized ambitions to a scavenger who stole a holy sword. A player can choose between 13 such beginnings. Our story will begin with someone Lady Luck has chewed up and not quite got around to spitting back out yet, someone who can only hope their life can't get any worse because the alternative is just too damn sad to consider.

Clicking Begin brings us directly to the character creator to meet our luckless loner.

Meet Jam! They're a hive soldier drone who's left their hive. Hivers are one of the four playable "races" in Kenshi, insect-like people who come in three varieties: Soldier drones, worker drones, and princes. They live together in hive villages, all fulfilling their respective roles in service of their queen, whose pheremones ensure everything they do is in service of her.

Sometimes, a hiver breaks from their queen's pheremone control, whether through an act of will, by chance, or by getting the boot. That's how you get people like Jam making their way in the world.

In terms of game mechanics, hive soldier drones are differentiated from other sorts of people by how durable they are (about average), how much they need to eat (very little), and by a list of bonuses and penalties to how fast they level up certain stats. Hive soldiers get bonuses to leveling Toughness and Melee Attack, and penalties to Perception, Farming, First Aid, Armour Smithing, Weapon Smithing, Robotics, Cooking, Science, and Engineering. That's a lot of penalties and not a lot of bonuses! It's tough to be a hiver! This is largely a game about fighting, though, and those Toughness and Melee Attack bonuses will go a long way. The various penalties will discourage Jam from pursuing a few skills but all in all they'll get by.

For the record, the other three playable "races" in Kenshi are: Humans, shek, and skeletons. We'll meet them soon enough.

The game doesn't start with a cutscene or any kind of intro text, it just dumps Jam's ass in the desert. We get exactly what we signed up for—Jam is in fact alone, unarmed, naked, hungry, and missing an arm. They only have two things going for them: The fact that they aren't currently bleeding and the fact that they do actually have some notion of where they are. That is to say: Jam has a map.

Right off the bat, we get to see the entire world. Looking at the map like this kind of undersells how vast it is—the Great Desert alone, that scorchingly hot orange patch in which Jam currently stands, is huge. None of the map's filled in apart from where Jam is right now, so we'll just have to explore!

It's best to start by exploring nearby. The world is harsh and dangerous; in their current condition, Jam will be best served by boldly going to the nearest city to get their bearings. While cities aren't without their own dangers, Jam should at the very least be able to find some food there to fill their growling stomach. As we can see on the map above, there are four whole cities nearby; let's zoom in and get a closer look.

The four cities are Sho-Battai, Bark, Stoat, and Heft, all belonging of a nation called the United Cities. They're one of the big three factions in this world. Jam is deep within UC territory—whether for good or ill, we'll just have to find out. For now, all we know of these cities are their names. Lacking a compelling reason to choose one over the other, Jam heads to the closest: Sho-Battai.

Jam walks west for a while. Eventually, the outline of a city starts to take shape on the horizon. There's a tower, high stone walls—squinting through the swirling cloud of dust ahead, they're pretty sure they can even make out a gate. That must be Sho-Battai. They pick up the pace a little, holding a hand in front of their face in a vain attempt to shield their eyes from the dust storm.

Dust storms are one of several types of weather that will affect characters. As the tooltip states, dust storms heap on pretty significant penalties to combat accuracy unless you're wearing clothing to protect yourself. That's honestly just fine for Jam at the moment—they're in no state to be fighting anything anyway, so if other people have a harder time hitting them, that's just gravy.

On that note, Jam spots a small encampment of people on their way to Sho-Battai. Perhaps they'll be friendly? Is Jam's luck about to turn around?

No.

These guys belong to a faction called Rebel Farmers. They're one of many factions that will generally attack player characters on sight. They're middle of the road in terms of aggression, though. You generally have to get pretty close before they decide to attack—a mistake Jam reminds themself not to make twice.

Now Jam really picks up the pace, sprinting as fast as their legs can carry them. These guys are pretty weak in the grand scheme of things. They're hungry, untrained farmers with no armour and rudimentary weapons—but Jam is weaker. They could not take even one of these guys let alone all sixteen of them. It's looking like Jam could be in some serious trouble; the farmers aren't just stronger but faster than them too, enough to catch up to them and take a swing at them every few paces. If this keeps up, they'll get beaten to the ground before they even reach Sho-Battai. Thankfully, Jam spots a way out of this pickle.