Hackers are a class of weapons in Kenshi that focus on combining blunt and cutting damage in crude weapons that rely more on the user's brute strength than anything else. Easy to learn and easy to master. They are particularly adept at penetrating armour and the metal flesh of Skeletons. This comes with the trade-off of being less effective at fighting animals.
Having some hackers in your squad is essential if you're taking on heavily armoured opponents or robotic ones. They are relatively common and found in shops throughout the world at varying levels of quality. Certain ones will be more common in other places as we'll get to cause in this article, we're gonna take you through all things Hacker.
5. The Flesh Cleaver
The crude cleaver of flesh.
As the name suggests, this menacing-looking thing is designed to cleave flesh from bone. This common weapon is favoured among cannibals and shrieking bandits for obvious reasons. They want to carve through your armour for their pound of flesh to cook.
To that end, if you don’t fancy buying one of these, you can always loot them off the cannibals that bit off more than they could chew, so to speak. Other than that, they can be purchased for low prices of shoddy quality in most of the world.
Flesh Cleaver Stats
Unless otherwise stated, all stats are listed at Meitou, the highest quality in the game.
The Flesh Cleaver does not have the Meitou version in the vanilla game, so its stats are listed at Edge Type 3.
- Cutting Damage - 1.0956
- Blunt Damage - 0.96
- Blood Loss - 50%
- Armour Penetration - +30%
- Defence Bonus - -2
- Damage Vs Animals - -10%
- Damage Vs Robots - +15%
- Damage Vs Humans - +20%
- Required Strength Level - 38.40
4. The Combat Cleaver
The bigger, more grown-up version of the Flesh Cleaver.
The combat cleaver is a sort of cleaver hybrid more suited to actual combat than simply stripping folk of their meat. It is a standard weapon of most of the Kenshi faction’s armed forces.
Interestingly, the combat cleaver doesn’t come with any attack or defence bonuses/penalties, so it’s a versatile all-rounder for your characters lacking combat skills.
The foot soldiers of The Holy Nation and Bloodraiders can be seen wielding these bad boys. To that end, you won’t have too much trouble finding these in reputable weapon shops. The Meitou version, however, will take you to some nasty places if you seek it.
South of Catun lies the Isle of Fishmen. Their king wields an ancient weapon of the old empire; if you can kill him, it is yours to keep.
Be warned; the gurglers will know of your presence the second you set foot on Fishman Isle. They will seek you out, hunt you down in overwhelming numbers and feast on your flesh if they catch you. Go prepared.
Combat Cleaver Stats
- Cutting Damage - 1.65
- Blunt Damage - 1.40
- Blood Loss - 75%
- Armour Penetration - +30%
- Defence Bonus - Nil
- Damage Vs Animals - -10%
- Damage Vs Robots - +25%
- Required Strength Level - 56
3. The Moon Cleaver
The brutal-looking, inverse blade of the Moon Cleaver.
The Moon Cleaver is a Flesh Cleaver on steroids. Its heavy, inwardly curved blade is designed to grab onto limbs, hack right through armour and rip out the flesh beneath.
It is a favoured weapon among cannibals and Blackshifters. The Blackshifters are Hiveless hive soldiers who have conglomerated in the swamps into a criminal gang. If you can defeat them, you can claim their Moon Cleavers, although I wouldn’t recommend it if you want to travel the swamps a lot.
The Meitou version of the Moon Cleaver is in the hands of The Preacher. Out on the Stormgap coast, he maintains a village of moon-worshipping cultists. They worship the moons in the sky, Kenshi being one of those moons orbiting the gas giant.
They will capture people, hang them on prisoner poles and beat them to death in a sacrifice to the harvest, so be careful when you go there. If you want the Meitou Moon Cleaver, you must kill or capture The Preacher himself. He also has a pretty hefty bounty on him, but we all know it's the sword you want.
Moon Cleaver Stats
- Cutting Damage - 1.54
- Blunt Damage - 1.60
- Blood Loss - 50%
- Armour Penetration - +30%
- Defence Bonus - -2
- Damage Vs Animals - -10%
- Damage Vs Robots - +20%
- Required Strength Level - 64
2. The Long Cleaver
The Long Cleaver.
The Long Cleaver is the longest hacker in the game. Its reach is unrivalled by any other weapon in its class, but it requires more strength to wield. It is practically a heavy weapon at this point. Because of this, it comes with a combat penalty when using it indoors.
It can be found in shops worldwide, especially in the Shek armourers of Squin and Admag, who prefer bigger, badder-looking weapons. They can also be looted from some paladins and United Cities nobles who are known to carry them on occasion.
The base game has no Meitou version, so the best you can acquire through buying or looting ancient ruins is the Edge Type 3 quality.
Long Cleaver Stats
- Cutting Damage - 1.4608
- Blunt Damage - 1.28
- Blood Loss - 75%
- Armour Penetration - +30%
- Defence Bonus - -2
- Indoor Bonus - -4
- Damage Vs Animals - -10%
- Damage Vs Robots - +20%
- Required Strength Level - 51.2
1. The Paladins Cross
The Paladins Cross. A weapon to be feared by those made of metal bones.
The Holy Nation has had hundreds of years to perfect its deadliest weapon designed to fight the enemies of humanity, in their eyes, the Skeletons.
The Paladins Cross is wielded by The Holy Nation’s Holiest of Holy warriors, the Paladins themselves. It is the best weapon in the game for fighting skeletons, robots and those with skeleton limbs, with a 50% damage bonus against them. After all, the Holy Nation has been using it to do so for centuries.
You can buy these in shops worldwide but mainly in the Holy Nation. Just make sure you’re a plain old human if you want to go shopping there. Other shops will sell them as they have their reasons for hating skeletons.
You can also loot them from dead or dying Paladins, but they can be a force to be reckoned with if you want to piss off the Holy Nation in the process.
The Meitou version of this weapon is held by none other than the Holy Lord Pheonix himself. He resides atop his throne at Blister Hill. Taking him on and winning will effectively end the Holy Nation, and he can even be turned in for a 100,000 Cat bounty to either the Shek Kingdom or the United Cities. Ever thus to tyrants, I suppose.
Paladins Cross Stats
- Cutting Damage - 1.76
- Blunt Damage - 1.60
- Blood Loss - 75%
- Armour Penetration - +30%
- Defence Bonus - +2
- Indoor Bonus - -2
- Damage Vs Animals - -10%
- Damage Vs Robots - +50%
- Damage Vs Humans - -10%
- Required Strength Level - 64
Conclusion
As with all the weapons in Kenshi, it serves you well to have a good lineup of different characters specialising in their own class of weapons. Kenshi is a game of doing, and characters get better at doing things the more of those things they do. That includes using weapons of certain classes.
The Hackers are some of the easiest to learn, with the lowest entry bar. It is well suited to characters on the lower end of the combat skill scale and why they are wielded by cannon fodder soldiers in the world of Kenshi.
To that end, if you want your own mass of cannon fodder, you can always recruit a few randoms from bars and waystations, manufacture your own relatively low-quality hackers and send them to die in glorious battle. At the same time, you and your higher-level characters loot the spoils. Kenshi is a game of endless possibilities.
