[Top 10] Kenshi Best Base Locations (And Why They're Good)

Updated:

05 Aug 2023

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Like a Hobo Baggins. It’s time for Ryan to leave the safety of Squin for an adventure.

Welcome back to Kenshi. In this guide, we’ll explore the different locals of Kenshi to find out where the best places are to build your base. With many pros and cons to the different lands, we shall journey through them together and find some of the best places where you might want to pitch up for good.

To help me with my journey into the unknowns, I reached out to the Kenshi community to see what their favourite places to make bases were and just what made them so special. Then I dragged myself-inserted carcass to the gates of Squin and sent him on his way to see these places for himself.

Having made a few Cats for himself and Ruka, Ryan was confident that the broken moon could indeed be tamed by someone as lowly as even he. So, with some scraps of dried meat in his pack and a few thousand cats in his pocket, it was time to find pastures green to stake his claim in the ground.

10. The Border Zone North Of Squin, South Of The Hub

As you travel the world, you will see titles in the centre of the screen, telling you when you have crossed into different regions of the game world.

The Border Zone lies north of the swamp and acts as a buffer between the Shek Kingdom and The Holy Nation. Its also within the Shek Kingdom and territories controlled by Holy Nation Outlaws and Dust Bandits. Even as a new player, you will be relatively familiar with it as it is the starting region for the Wanderer start.

Ignore that bandit camp. It probably won’t be there on your play through. Ryan just got unlucky.

Right between Squin and The Hub is a plateau of flat land that is pretty fertile, with outcrops of iron and copper nearby. Plenty of stone for building materials and with a few buddies of yours in your squad, you can get a base up and running relatively quickly.

The Hub can be seen from the plateau. To the south you can see the canyon where Squin is nestled inside of.

Flat, fertile land with road access between Squin and The Hub.

Of course, while this is a relatively good base and recommended for someone with a low level squad to dip their feet into base building, it does come with downsides. Namely, the Border Zone itself and the denizens within it.

Starving bandits as well as their more organised dusty cousins will regularly raid your base. Sometimes for food, sometimes they will offer you the chance to pay a “tax”. Not only will that be a drain on your hard earned Cats, you’ll also be within the bounds of The Shek Kingdom and they don’t take money.

Shek Warriors will come to your base on a weekly basis and demand a tribute in the form of food. If you agree, they will raid your food stores and pretty much leave you with nothing, refuse and they’ll return for blood. Although, as put by Egor 235 “... Sheks come for food (rarely), but just pack it into a backpack and drop it so they won't get it from you.”

The Holy Nation will send its missionaries for prayer day every week but as long as you have a Greenlander/Scorchlander, you can pay them some lip service and they won’t bother you. The real ones to look out for are the Black Dragon Ninjas who will raid your base and refuse to leave if they beat you.

All these can be ended if you become strong enough to take out the leader of both the Dust Bandits and the Black Dragon Ninjas. The Shek tribute can be ended if you either become an ally of the Kingdom or topple it by removing their leader. But those are a long way off when you’re just starting out.

To counter raids, you can either run back to Squin and lure the gate guards to come to your aid or you can hire some mercenaries from the bar in The Hub. For a starting base, it's a pretty good location for getting your settlement feet wet and to quote Egor 235 again “... wheat grows good, between 2 cities… Dust bandits come very often, black dragon ninjas can also be a problem. Overall, I enjoyed living there.”

Bandit attack

Ryan had admired the view and the soils for too long. He had overstayed his welcome and the Dust Bandits camped nearby had spotted him. It was time to run for the safety of The Hub and continue his journey in search of a place to truly call home.

Bar Brawl!

9. Okran’s Pride

The gorgeous, fertile valley of Okran’s Pride is truly a sight to behold having travelled from the bleak, barren Border Zone

To the north of the Border Zone lies The Holy Nation. A territory of Human purists who look down on all the other races as blighted beings and will attack any Skeleton, or anyone with a skeletal prosthetic on sight. They worship Okran and demand those in their territory pray obediently to him.

Deep in the heart of the nation is the fertile valley of Okran’s Pride. The breadbasket of the Holy Nation that contains most of their holy farms. Its green and fertile pastures are ideal to lay down a farmstead, providing you are a human man of course. The Holy Nation are a bigoted, misogynistic faction.

Getting the lowdown from the local Paladin

After receiving some travel advice from the locals in Stack, Ryan continued his journey deep into the heart of The Holy Nation to find these hidden valleys of clean rivers and earth-bearing fruits. As a Greenlander, he is very much welcomed by The Holy Nation, providing he keeps his nose clean which he didn't.

He hired some mercenaries, waited till night and attempted to steal from the holy shops. Robbed those Okranites blind and got caught. This caused the guards to attack him. His mercenaries got involved and the paladins overwhelmed them while Ryan did his best to sneak out of the city. 4,000 Cats down the drain because he'd paid them for two days' protection and with a 1,500 cat bounty on his head.

Somewhere in the middle of Okran’s Pride

Venturing into the heart of the valley, it's clear to see why it can be a popular place to make a base. The soil is perfect for growing. It's peaceful. The Holy Nation patrols lay down the law and keep most of the ne’er do wells away and as long as you’re a Greenlander/Scorchlander with other Greenlander/Scorchlander friends, you’ll have nothing much to worry about.

As put by u/Kenanchi “It's green and bountiful area. You have tons of everything and there is even a few copper nodes spread around to harvest next to base locations. Farming is super easy money. There is no hostile roaming squads, except for a few starving bandits and bonedogs once in a while. Paladins will heal you and give you food, given you are greenlander/scorchlander. They will help fight river raptors that want your farms, if they are close or patrolling the city.

And best of all, the only "tax" is to do a prayer. And if you ally them, you can have all races in your city and paladins will leave you alone.”

Beautiful.

So if you don’t mind The Holy Nation and are planning on a Greenlander/Scorchlander only play through, at least in your early game, this might be the location for you. Building right on the flat floodplains of the gorgeous valley.

But this was not to be for Ryan. He had already befriended a Shek. Blighted in the eyes of The Holy Nation and unworthy of Okran’s Bounty, fruit of his pride. Alas, for Ryan, it was time to throw caution to the wind, ignore the advice of the Holy Paladin and head west.

8. Fog Islands

Not a place for the faint of heart, you will know by the thick fog when you have arrived.

West of Okran’s Gulf lies the lands of fog. Many people venture there, never to return. The Fog Islands are a desolate and terrifying place for those unprepared. Much like Ryan was when he first wandered in there, looking for somewhere he might call home.

The cultish devotion to Okran can be found all over the Holy Nation.

Crossing west across Okrnan’s gulf, Ryan stopped to admire the works of the Okranites. For better or worse, their peaceful land abided within the wastes but it would not do. Ryan wanted somewhere that could not be touched by Okran’s slavish followers. And thus, he continued on.

Fog men wander between the islands of relative safety but nowhere is truly safe from them in these cursed lands.

The Fog Islands are home to a race of Hivers that have rejected the ways of their peaceful, western cousins and turned to cannibalism. They patrol the lands and will try to kidnap anyone unlucky enough to be caught out in the fog. A perfect place to build a base if you want to keep others away.

No one is quite sure why these Hivers have become lost mindless creatures but one theory pertains to them contracting a disease. One they are more vulnerable to when they become disconnected from their queen.

To quote u/infinteapethy “I’ve always enjoyed my bases inside the heart of the fog-islands. Due to the locals being more interested in eating you than taxing you, there’s a few nice unoccupied plateaus you can set up on for free*. Granted this does mean every couple of days, a horde may try to bash your walls down and carry you into the fog. The upside of this is that any enemies or raids coming your way will have to wade through the same thing so by the time a lot of weaker raids get to your base, they’ve already been cut down by a large amount.”

“You’ll never take me alive, you foggy freaks!”

Obviously, building a base here is going to be a challenge and probably not one that you could achieve with a solo character. Although it might certainly be possible, they will need to be a hell of a lot stronger than Ryan here was.

Getting carried off to be eaten

That said, if you’re up for the challenge of a very unique, spooky atmosphere that’s within close proximity of one of the more interesting landmarks, Obedience. And with the city of Mongrel nearby, if you can make it there, The Fog Islands can certainly be an entertaining place to call home in Kenshi.

To quote u/agonyman “I love my fog base because it's a total existential nightmare. It is an endless battle against a foe you can never beat, I sweep through the fog to save anyone I can and I get some recruits for the unwinnable war, but I take too much damage through attrition to save everyone… It's very kenshi.”

The cannibals cannot be reasoned or bargained with. They want your flesh and they will get it.

“Fogmen! This is the day you shall always remember as the day that you almost ate Captain Ryan Sparrow!”

Ryan managed to get lucky. The fogmen weren’t quite ready to eat him just yet and left him alone. Being the sly devil that he is, he managed to break free of his bindings and escape into the fog.

The Fox Islands are like a maze of foggy valleys and island plateaus of relative safety.

A holy paladin comes to his aid. Maybe the Okranites weren’t so bad after all.

After escaping The Fog Islands, Ryan figured that it would be best to find a place to rest and recoup. Purchase some better gear and head back out. There were lands further west to explore as maybe the Fog Islands weren’t for him.

As summed up again by u/infinteapethy “The Fog-islands; no taxes, no okranites, and no visibility to see the hordes of fog men coming your way”

Resting in a bar and lucky to be alive.

7. Berserker Country

Home of Shek Berserkers

To the north west of The Fog Islands and Obedience, along the western coast is Berserker Country. A red, canyonous land roamed by Shek Berserkers. Shek who harbour different ideas to the Shek Kingdom and believe they should return to their tribal roots. Here, in their isolated country, they make their home and you can too.

Naked Shrieking Bandits roam the Forest to the east. A good buffer zone between Berserker Country and the rest of the world.

To get there, Ryan ventured through The Shrieking Forest. Where bands of crazed, naked mad men sprint through the woods. Attacking anyone they see. If you can avoid them, you can make it through to the great country to the west.

The Red western coast.

As put by u/SLiPMiP “I do like basing on the berserkers coast, food isn't an issue when you scale up production, scaling up crafting will get you plenty of armoursmiths that produce masterwork grade armour, which will enable you to train up to 80 in combat stats on the local berserkers there more easily… with the local wildlife (cannibals) i also had the pleasure of playing the minigame called ‘get your character back before he becomes grill a la human’.”

It's definitely a challenge due to its remoteness but if you can make a go of it there, you can make it anywhere. Being so far out of the way from the rest of the large factions, you’re not going to be bothered too much by anyone other than the locals. Make sure you’re ready for them though. Berserkers are tough cookies and not ones to mess with if your character is pretty weak.

The map of Berserker country

With canyons and plateaus to build on or in, you can use the landscape to your advantage when building defensively.

Alas, though the glorious red cliffs of the country were a sight to behold, its remoteness was not what Ryan was looking for. Perhaps the Okranites were right. The lands to the west were too harsh and unforgiving. Its denizens, too eager to kill and eat him. Maybe there were lands to the east where a safe foundation could be discovered.

6. The Canyons Of The Hidden Forest

Large trees and clean, cooling rain

Back east of the coast of Berserker Country, across The Flooded Plains and the cannibal countries, lies the valley of the Hidden Forest. Densely packed with large trees, there are a lot of places to hide a little base in here but the most interesting place lies further north.

The village of the Flotsam ninjas

Slipping past the patrols of roaming cannibals, Ryan made his way north through The Hidden Forest and came across a village of Flotsam Ninjas. Using the Hidden Forest to their advantage, they too had managed to find a home hidden away from the bigoted Okranites.

They had just put down another raid of cannibals and were making sure that Ryan he was not gonna be trouble

Chatting with ex okranites who fled the Holy Nation

Still, this would not make a good home as the Flotsam Ninjas and refugees had already staked their claim. They had no use for a wandering adventurer like Ryan. No, the place he was looking for was further north still. He set off in search of the Canyons of The Hidden Forest

After getting to a certain level of stealth, your character will naruto run in stealth mode.

At the very northernmost tip of the Hidden Forest, you will find these crescent shaped canyons.

The crescent canyons at the top of the Hidden Forest are an ideal place to use the geography of the land to your defensive advantage. Building your own walls into the rock, you can funnel any enemy raids into killzones for your mounted turrets. Using the large impassable rock walls as a natural defence.

Truly gorgeous

To quote u/beckychao “Crescent canyon at the north end of Hidden Forest. Several towns/shops nearby, including World's End. The location has everything, including perfect wind for constant small windmill generation, and several of the canyon entrances can be turned into death traps (while the rest are walled off, usually). Geography provides most of the walls. The location is also beautiful, probably one of the most pleasant places in the game to base yourself. If you're trying to do a low level base, though, it's not a good idea, because cannibals eat you if you lose a fight.”

The Canyons are very hard to miss on the map

So as long as you can bring enough of your friends with you to keep the locals at bay, it can be a very pleasant place to live. It certainly looks like it. However, as Ruka had rather unfortunately perished while mining copper back at Squin, Ryan had no friends left at all. So he set off for Worlds End to find some.

Worlds End sits on the very top of the mountain to the East of the Canyons

5. The Deadlands

There’s a very good reason that this place is known as the Deadlands

Down the mountain from Worlds End, across the Skimmers Sands, there is a land that is nothing but dead. Acid rains and lightning storms discourage any and all who happen to be made of flesh and blood. Sounds like a perfect place to make a place that tells the world to “leave me alone”.

After hiring some mercenary friends at World's End, Ryan made his way southward for these strange and dark lands.

Most bars have these tough as nails mercs for hire

You’ll know you’re getting closer when the rain starts to burn your skin off. Take a long coat.

In the very northernmost edge of the Deadlands, there is a peninsula that reaches into the lakes of acid. If you can wall off the land bridge, you’ll have acid on all three sides to keep out any potential raids of people stupid enough to actually try to raid you.

The peninsula, seen here, is to the North East of Black Desert City.

Plenty of room for building and expansion

You’ll absolutely need to kit any human characters with long coats or dust coats. It rains acid almost constantly. You’ll also need to do some heavy investing in research so that you can unlock hydroponics. If it wasn't already obvious, absolutely nothing will grow naturally in the Deadlands. Even the ground itself will burn bare feet.

That includes Shek characters if you didn't already know. Afterall, Shek are confirmed human. Don't send them in there without some cover unless you're a sadist.

To quote u/Jimbeaux_Slice “I love it for a safe hideout or HQ, only thing you have to fight is the occasional iron spider. So gear up in your best rain defense and you can raid anywhere on the map from the most central region.”

The view towards Black Desert City

Still, if you’ve got the stomach to settle this miserable place or your entire faction is nothing but Skeletons who need no food and are immune to the environment, the Deadlands could be the perfect home.

For Ryan, it certainly wasn’t, so he made his way further westward. Stopping to check out the nearby ruin for loot to sell. Not knowing that what he would find would be worth more than any ancient treasures.

“Master!”

4. Gut

The blue sands and iron trees of Gut

After bursting into an ancient ruin, Ryan was surprised and shocked to see a bunch of broken Skeletons. Thinking this might be the first time that save scumming would be required to keep this thing going, to his surprise, the Skeletons called Ryan “Master” and murdered his hired mercenaries. Ryan had accidentally acquired his own army of ancient skeletons. Perfect for crossing the hazardous dunes of the east.

“Come you poor lost, broken lambs. Follow me and live free”

The imprinted skeleton soldiers accompanied him across the wastes. Keeping him safe from pirates and Bonedogs alike. Until they reached the blue lands of Gut. Inhabited by horrendously violent Beak Things, Ryan was certainly glad to have them with him.

Slaughtering the giant fauna

Gut is a remote coastal location surrounded by packs of Beak Things. It makes base building here a bit of a challenge but if you can pull it off, or have an army of robots who murder anything that comes within viewing distance of you, it's certainly doable. If you can get yourself established, you won’t even need to farm. You’ll get your food delivered right to your door, as long as it doesn’t eat you first.

To quote u/Chagdoo “Gut! It's a very unique coastal location, with beautiful blue sand, and iron trees. Farming is barely needed because the food simply delivers itself to your walls (while attempting to break them down), and every few weeks you get a show as the tax collectors brave hordes of beak things all to get a pittance of cats from you.

I named my base in Gut ‘intestine’”

Flat lands with plenty of room to expand.

A very defensible place from the raids of other factions if you can make a go of it here. You just have to watch out for the local fauna yourself but with high enough walls and turret kill boxes, you’ll have a lovely little coastal home.

Where Gut lies on the map

Sadly, for Ryan, the Beak Things proved too much for his ancient army of robots and they were quickly decommissioned by the ravenous bird-like creatures. Ryan was only able to save one of the poor broken soldier bots that had imprinted on him.It looked like Gut was not going to be the place for him after all.

“Error”

3. Stobe’s Gamble

The place Stobe Gambled his life for peace

Losing his robotic followers meant losing his protection. It was time to enlist the help of mercenaries again and head further south. With some paid for friends, the adventure continued into the blighted lands of Stobe’s Gamble.

The blighted, acrid coasts of the burnt lands

Orbital lasers from a still functional, ancient satellite randomly strike into the ground, scorching anyone who happens to be caught in them. The lands of Venge and surrounding Stobe’s Gamble are not at all forgiving or hospitable to life. It was a perilous journey just to get there.

A Leviathan grazes along the shore of the acidic lakes.

In the northern shores of Stobe’s Gamble lies the ruins of a town. South of that is probably one of the most defensible base locations out there. If you can manage to get there in the first place.

After Ryan here posed for a photo, this leviathan decided that they weren’t too keen on being photographed. Thus Ryan’s hired mercenaries met a very unfortunate end as he ran away from the lumbering beast. He was fast burning through hired friends and was starting to wonder if they were even worth the Cats.

A peninsula of flat land, surrounded by acid on three sides.

Farming will be a bit of a challenge but with herds of land bats roaming around, you may not even need to grow your own food if you’re hunting them. Other than that, you will only need to build one wall. Anyone stupid enough to try and swim to you will have their skin melted off by the time they get to you.

To quote u/beckychao again for this little gem of a location “Of the dangerous locations, this one is phenomenal. Surrounded by acid on 3 sides, if you build your walls up to the acid, no one will approach the acid sides (even Southern Hivers, who are immune to it). That means your east end can be turned into a death trap entrance… not meant for low level factions due to the extremely dangerous raids… Otherwise, you have infinite skins available at all times due to landbat swarms and gorillos killing each other in front of your base, and the occasional leviathan (I never hurt them, because I'm a nice person). Excellent location for southeast adventuring. HN [Holy Nation] raids don't seem to reach here, but UC [United Cities] ones definitely do."

The map location of the peninsula.

All in all, a very good location for a faction with some high level characters. It can open up exploration for the south east providing everyone is geared for the weather. For Ryan, though. Well, he had no friends for which to speak of. It was time to move on. He had heard of an island to the south. Isolated and out of the way. He ventured on.

2. Fishman Island

Fishman Island in the distance seen from the continent.

Just off the southern coast of the continent is an island connected to the mainland by a thin, man made bridge. One way on. One way off. Unless you fancy a very long swim. Plenty of room to expand and build. It seemed to Ryan that it was too good to be true. Had he really found the place to call home?

Crossing the bridge

Almost immediately after crossing, Ryan was accosted by the local Fishmen. He was glad he hadn’t totally given up on the mercenary guild for their professional body guarding services.

The Fishmen attack anyone on sight. You don’t want to find out what they do if they capture you.

Keep your distance and keep shooting.

Fishman Island is very large and exceptionally fertile growing ground for farming. Its isolation makes raids pretty easy to shrug off and as long as you can pacify the local population of Fishmen, you’ll have your very own private island.

As put by u/ExplodingPixelBoat “I currently have a huge base on Fishman Island. It constantly rains there so farming greenfruit and wheatstraw is a breeze and hydroponics allows me to farm hemp and riceweed. There’s plenty of stone, iron and copper to manufacture anything one might need for building needs and it’s quite close to the ashlands for those precious AI cores. Mourn and Flats Lagoon are a quick trip north and they keep me flush with Cats because I run the best Hash operation on the continent. As an added bonus, raiding parties almost always opt to swim the channel instead of using the conveniently placed bridge so that makes them VERY easy pickings for my harpoon Skellies who have orders to shoot anything that moves.”

The view from the Island’s highest peak.

The Island itself is massive

If you can make it in this place, you’ll be set up for a great, out of the way, endgame base. If Ryan had any friends, he would have stayed put and cleansed the island of the abominable fishmen and made it his own. It’s not like he could have negotiated with them peacefully. Especially after they tried to eat him.

Don’t get captured by the locals.

Unfortunately, while checking the map, Ryan and his band of mercenaries were accosted by a large group of Fishmen. The Fishmen must have reacted to their initial presence on the island. Ryan was knocked down and captured. Thankfully, before the temptation to reload the save became overwhelming, the mercs were able to come to the rescue.

The Island belongs to the Fishmen… for now.

It looked like they had overstayed their welcome and it was time to flee. With his limbs un eaten and with less mercenaries than he’d arrived with, it looked like Fishman Island would not be the promised paradise after all. The journey continued.

1. Shem

On the edge of the swamp on the border with Shem

It was time to head north as there was nowhere further south to go. Further along from the Fishman Island and up north, Ryan happened upon a market town to stop and buy some more supplies for the journey.

As it turned out, the market specialised in one thing in particular. Slaves! After freeing as many as he could with his ninja-like stealth abilities, one even decided to join him on his journey to the promised lands of Shem.

Meet Red Sabre. Not sure if that is a name or title but she’s a free woman now.

To the north lies a bountiful land. Through thick mangroves of sticky swamp there were rumours of a true paradise.

The swamp is dark and full of terrors

Emerging from the swamp, the land turns to a pinkish sand

The rumours were true!

Shem is arguably the most popular base location in the game. It is a beautiful oasis nestled almost central to the entire world map. With water and fertile lands for growing arid crops, you’ll be able to make your farming dreams a reality here.

Coupled with relatively low level dust bandits and such, it can be a great place to get started. Its central location lends it to trade routes for you to sell any goods you produce and it is all around a stunningly beautiful desert paradise to behold.

Beautiful

As wonderfully put by u/sirrealizt “Shem. It’s beautiful, consistent wind for power, good water and fertility for cactus, wheatstraw and hemp, close to cities… just a great place to call home. It’s a popular choice.”

It’s worth mentioning that when I did reach out to the community for help with this little adventure guide, Shem was clearly the winner's choice for these reasons above. Of all the places in the world of Kenshi, this is the first place that looks the most welcoming. Definitely a place to settle down and call home.

Shem on the map.

Conclusion

To sum it up, you really are left to your own devices when it comes to finding a place to make a base. Kenshi doesn’t hold your hand nor does it prevent you from placing down your stake virtually anywhere you want. The map is absolutely huge and you are spoiled for choice.

The silly route that I took and the locations listed above.

There are pros and cons to setting up shop and it all depends on the characters in your faction, their strengths, weaknesses and most importantly, what you want to get out of your particular play through.

While playing my way across the world of Kenshi to visit these places, I got into all sorts of shenanigans and had a blast doing it. Wandering through with my self inserted character and wondering just what to do with them at the conclusion of this article. But that’s the great thing about Kenshi. Its world is what you make of it.