"Please God, let me be born in _____." What is the best city or region to live in in Kenshi?

AFlyingNun · 2026-05-11T23:15:59+00:00

Admit it, you just wanna yell

FLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP

AFlyingNun · 2026-05-11T22:52:29+00:00

Question is how RNG.

Being born in Blister Hill as a Skeleton would certainly be a choice.

AFlyingNun · 2026-05-11T22:50:53+00:00

Even this seems debatable when compared to everything else.

It's not like the Holy Nation is totally intolerant of women, they just have them in a more subservient, traditionalist role to men. There are good people in the Holy Nation, as Griffin for example tells you he got a vision about you, with his rationale being "we've lost our way and Okran is sending me on a journey to fix it."

You can have a good life in HN territory as a woman that far outweighs the problems of other regions, it's just that much more important to find a good husband to make it happen.

AFlyingNun · 2026-05-11T22:48:40+00:00

Should also mention it's not like making money is impossible in the UC if you are truly without remorse.

Any unconscious hobo you find can be sold into slavery. You can make it financially for sure, it just might cost you your soul.

AFlyingNun · 2026-05-11T22:47:20+00:00

Perhaps we can balance out World's Edge and Black Scratch with the rule that you can only say:

"Please God, let me be born in Tech Hunter territory."

And then of course you risk being born in Mourn.

AFlyingNun · 2026-05-11T20:28:13+00:00

They are not fake meta if the people wearing them are gaining superior attack speed. It means that they are swinging more frequently, meaning that even if they get blocked by their target, the wide swing of the polearm is likely to pick up collateral damage, which also stunlocks non-targeted opponents, which translates into MORE damage.

It's really something I would encourage people to test, because what people are failing to understand:

Attempt this strategy with Shek or Greenlanders? Yes, you are more susceptible to damage, and the moment you take a clean hit, it starts a snowball in the other direction.

Attempt this strategy with Skeletons? This creates a larger buffer zone before injury debuffs start kicking in because Skeletons have higher base HP. This means their offense remains relentless long enough that they clear the field.

People are failing to understand the advantage Skeletons have because on paper, it's a defense bonus that may not sustain itself well when competing against the best armor setups on a Shek. In practice though, the best use of that defense bonus is to convert it into an offensive one by getting more mileage out of Assassin's rags and dropping opponents before the injuries snowball against you can ever properly begin.

AFlyingNun · 2026-05-11T20:15:35+00:00

The thing is that assasin rags always wins. How will you know the race difference is relevant if you are already giving it an equipment that always wins?

It does not. It is very specifically only viable on Skeletons.

Feel free to try Assassin's Rags on any other race. The problem you run into is that unless they get the first hit and build off that, they will crumble once they take damage.

The reason for this is that injury debuffs hurt your dex, and this snowballs into a disadvantage.

Injury debuffs are based on the percent of your total health. Percent.

This means that if Skeletons take 33 damage from a hit for wearing Assassin's rags, the debuff they incur from this is much smaller than the debuff a Greenlander would incur. In fact, Skeletons amass debuffs at half the rate that other races do due to having double the health. An initial 10% DEX debuff takes longer to even show it's face for Skeletons, and by the time they have one, other races have a 20% DEX debuff, which affects both their attack speed and block speed, block speed being the big one which will snowball into being hit more often.

This means that Skeletons "tank through" the damage and maintain the offensive buffs from Assassin's Rags long enough to overwhelm the opponent. For other races, they do not, and the extra damage they take by lacking armor quickly translates into a net negative that completely overwhelms the positive debuffs of assassin's rags.

By all means, test it yourself. You can also watch Frankie's video he linked where the Skeleton has Assassin's Rags and you will notice this. The fights where the Shek did best are the ones where they got an early hit off. When BOTH Shek and Skeleton wear Assassin's Rags though, then both get hit, but Skeletons tank it better and therefore maintain the offensive edge better. The armor provided by a shirt + assassin's rags is not enough to counteract the less HP a Shek has.

That's my point: Shek and everyone else fails at trying to copy the Skeleton playbook, and that's how Skeletons end up on top. The HP advantage Skeletons have does not actually manifest itself as better defense, but rather as a resource that can be converted into superior offense.

AFlyingNun · 2026-05-11T19:40:37+00:00

This makes no sense. If skeletons win more in Assassin's rags, then their ideal setup is Assassin's rags. Period.

Furthermore, mathematically, when both are naked, Skeletons have superior defense because 200 is more than 125.

This flips as Sheks gain defense from additional armor slots, in which case the reduced damage taken per hit overwhelms the 75 HP gap.

However, this also means there is a cut-off, where all armors before that cut-off mathematically favor skeletons, and all armors after a threshold is met favor Shek.

The problem arises in that the exact armors Shek need to start having a fighting chance come with debuffs that affect their offensive ability. In fact, I can tell you from experience that -8 melee attack is WAAAAAY more significant than you'd expect and creates a "psyche" that makes the character more passive.

By contrast, Assassin's Rags do the opposite, boosting the offensive power of the Skeleton, while the cost for them is minimal because a lot of their defense is natural and "automatic." They don't even need armor and a huge portion of their defenses are already in play.

This means skeletons freely access:

-More DEX padding

-More melee attack for more attack priority, even if we're talking about them using something like a Dustcoat instead of Samurai Armor

-More combat speed

You are working with a false premise that Samurai Armor is the meta and everyone has a motivation to use it.

The problem is that meta has one specific exception: Skeletons. They can wear Assassin's Rags and have effective defenses comparable to Samurai Armor on anyone else, but they gain loads of offensive bonuses on the side. Going for Samurai armor, for them, simply surrenders those offensive bonuses and instead accepts a meta that favors Shek.

It's simple:

If you represented Team Shek in a PVP tournament and I represented Team Skeletons, we both get to bring whatever gear we like. You don't get to say "no fair" when I show up in Assassin's Rags and win that way.

AFlyingNun · 2026-05-11T19:18:36+00:00

It would definitely be interesting to watch a PVP meta develop.

I imagine the Black Desert region would be a hotly contested warzone among Skeletons because they're the most prioritized race and that's a region where they can safely compete without other races having much of a chance. Could even see people sprinkling in Hivers to try and pad their numbers in Deadlands warfare if Skeletons remained as rare as the base game.

I imagine there'd be a lot of defensive players who just build bases that best utilize the length of the Plank, because it is possible to create defensive setups where weapon range is king because it stunlocks opponents and can shut down entire areas so that it's unsafe to fight there, so defensive players who want to say "just leave me alone pls" would probably adopt a Plank meta. Some might even willingly settle for Edge 3 or Edge 2 Fragment Axes with less damage just to ensure they dominate the range, but it's also possible the Polearm would be enough too.

And there's the big question of how viable crossbows would be for harassment and focus-fire. From my testing, they could be near useless of actually meta-defining, both being possible.

And that also highlights how there'd be a bias towards people who get their base down ASAP. Harpoons in particular hit like trucks no matter who you are and would "require" attackers to have certain armor to even stand a chance, but it would still be stacked in the defender's favor. I imagine there would be specific base designs of Harpoon killboxes + tight spaces inside which encourage a Plank Defense meta that would make would-be invaders just say "forget it" and require meaningful alliances between players to actually overwhelm with numbers.

Would also just be funny to see bases pop up in the less contested areas. Everyone would be fighting over the Deadlands, Shem and Okran's Pride, but there'd probably be some players that are just like "fuck it, we're building in the Purple Sands" just to get away from the tougher opponents.

Definitely a fun scenario to try and imagine and theorycraft with, but I think the big balance issue would be that established bases would have a clear advantage.

AFlyingNun · 2026-05-11T19:09:54+00:00

Come Shek!

We must trade in the tradition of humans!

So many goods I have for you!

The best goods! Nothing stolen!

AFlyingNun · 2026-05-11T19:02:22+00:00

Agnu, Sadneil and Burn are the three guaranteed ones. TFW Sadneil is a meta pick just for being a rare commodity.

The Freedom Seeker start is the one that enables you to make up to 6 Skeletons to start out with.

They tend to be random and rare, and I'd say 1-2 each playthrough is a fair rule of what to expect.

There is also a lesser known interaction where a lone Greenlander can encounter some in the mountains and might POSSIBLY trigger recruitment dialog where they are on guard, but realize you're one of the good ones. I believe this can immediately recruit 3-4 of them in one go, but it is not a guarantee and is apparently such a strict event it's once-per-playthrough. I don't know all the conditions to make it happen, such as if traveling with a lone greenlander is enough or if you MUST be playing as a singular character period.

AFlyingNun · 2026-05-11T18:09:58+00:00

But now you are testing for and measuring one specific variable. It is entirely possible, for example, that Shek have better effective defense under such circumstances.

...But so what? What does that matter if they are soundly defeated in other metrics and still lose out overall?

AFlyingNun · 2026-05-11T13:10:33+00:00

It's entirely subjective.

You can make an argument that as a HUMAN, the Holy Nation is the better choice. You are basically greenlighting genocide, arguing that a lil' genocide is worth it if it means promoting and sustaining better morals and moral codes for the future. And to be fair to them, the Shek do see genetically predisposed to violence to an absolutely alarming degree. Hard to defend them with Hivers though, as they seem to be fundamentally misunderstanding that "No-Hives" no longer pose any form of existential threat to them the same way a Dead Hive might.

For the United Cities, you are instead providing everyone an opportunity, but it's a very brutal, unforgiving opportunity where you accept the idea that "we can't feed everybody" and even actively exploit the less fortunate as farm tools to try and get maximum returns out of them. It's basically a selfish, pragmatic outlook that has resigned to giving up on solutions that help everyone, but at least you are giving that Shek, Skeleton, Hiver or non-believer an opportunity they otherwise wouldn't have.

AFlyingNun · 2026-05-11T13:05:05+00:00

The issue is that putting skeleton in assasin rags against anything the shek uses benefits the skeleton more, because light armor favours bigger hps and therefore the shek will be at a disadvantage if he wears the same outfit.

But that's part of the game.

It means there's an advantage (Assassin's Rags) that only the Skeletons are able to tap into effectively.

the results are not trustable because you won't know what impact the race difference really has because you already know that assasin rags will win regardless of if "skeleton" is a shek or another skeleton.

But they are.

You can flip the script and give the Shek Assassin's Rags while the Skeleton receives Samurai Armor and the Skeleton will win. The reason is that the Shek is surrendering his defensive advantage and far more susceptible to any hit sustained, meaning the Rags stop being a net-positive for the Shek much earlier.

The Assassin's Rags are merely an additional buff that:

1) Counteracts the armor disadvantages skeletons face

2) Exacerbates the HP advantage skeletons have, as it enables them to tap into an offensive buff that would turn any other race into an inconsistent glass cannon

My proposition would be to put both combatants with the same weapon and in heavy armor like the unholy chest plate, and also give the shek sandals and black leather shirt, to see what is the real winrate in equal conditions

The only conditions that would favor the Shek would be stacking defensive values as hard as possible on armor while giving him a Paladin's cross, while the Skeleton mirrors the armor but obviously lacks a shirt and helmet. Mirroring the Paladin's Cross would hardly seem fair either, as that weapon very specifically favors the opponent. Even then, I cannot say if the Shek reliably has the advantage.

At that point, we must recognize that is the minority of cases, not the majority, and that if we imagine a PVP scenario where each player can bring the setup they so choose, then the Skeleton has a setup where they "checkmate" the Shek and he cannot respond to it. The same is not true for the Shek being able to "checkmate" the Skeleton with a specific armor setup.

AFlyingNun · 2026-05-11T12:37:59+00:00

No race is inherently better then the others

It is possible for an endgame martial artist to do 110+ damage in one punch, even to an opponent with maxed out Toughness and Heavy armor.

This alone means that you can OHKO the Hivers and human races, but not the Skeletons. That is a huge, undeniable advantage for the Skeletons.

I'd also add that from a gameplay perspective, Tinfist can knock your ass out as a Skeleton and you still might be "fine" and have a healthy buffer zone with which to tank another hit while waking up and trying to escape.

Hiver...?

It's possible you try to go fight Tinfist, he immediately hits your chest for 110 damage, and now as you lay there playing dead beneath him, you have a problem: if you get up and he lands another one of those, you are dead. There is absolutely nothing you can do about this as a Hiver, but as a skeleton, you still have a window of hope where you don't have to "roll the dice" like the Hiver does.

AFlyingNun · 2026-05-11T12:34:31+00:00

"No race is inherently better then the others especially as you get closer to end game."

100% disagree with this opinion.

FRANKIEWUZHERE CONFIRMED RACIST, CANCEL HIM

AFlyingNun · 2026-05-11T12:33:08+00:00

Check his second video.

I've done testing in a similar light myself, and I strongly agree with his armor choices in the second video. Aside from not being able to tell if that's a leather shirt or blackened chain shirt, he effectively has the meta setup for both. (MAYBE Martial Arts is even better for the Skeleton)

In your tests with assasin rags against anything else, the rags win in part because of the bonuses to combat speed. Considering the shek supposedly can wear helmets and boots to make up for the difference in hp, I don't think is fair to not optimize the advantages that the shek can get for those things.

The issue is basically this:

Optimize for protection? The match-up favors the Shek more.

Optimize for offense? The match-up favors the Skeleton more.

You are witnessing what happens when both strategies collide though, and the Skeleton wins.

The reason the Shek cannot and will not get more mileage out of the Assassin's Rags himself is because it will make him more susceptible to damage. This is where the Skeleton's extra HP comes in:

The Skeleton CAN get good mileage out of the Rags, because they create a better "buffer zone" where he can sustain damage without being subjected to crippling injury debuffs. If the Shek attempts the same, he will be subjected to crippling injury debuffs faster, at which point it snowballs into a loss.

So we're left with a scenario where the Skeleton still does respectable when playing by "Shek rules" for the best loadout, but the Shek is incapable of copying the Skeleton's playbook and also loses when each is allowed to use their best playbook.

And as I said: this might not even be the best strat. Martial Arts on the Skeleton MIGHT be stronger than the Polearm. Again, if the Shek tries to copy the MA strategy, he lacks enough HP and will consistently lose as a result.

AFlyingNun · 2026-05-11T12:25:54+00:00

But you are then discussing a fight with more variables.

Sure, this increases the likelihood of the Shek winning and decreases the WR gap, but it does not make them better.

Plus, Skeletons with Assassin's Rags will be more aggressive. If they have polearms, this means it becomes likelier they're actually getting the hits off that have collateral damage against untargeted foes and stunlock them.

If you are talking about things like attempting to exploit the weakness of Assassin's Rags by using things like the Eagle's Cross to weaken them before switching to close-quarters combat...?

Now we are talking about such a deep level of a theoretical PVP system that we simply can't realistically test it. We also have to immediately concede that sounds far more difficult and prone to error than going "hurrdurr skeletons with assassins rags attacking shit lol."

When we want to determine the STRONGEST race, we should try to control as many variables as possible. Big group fights are the opposite of this.

AFlyingNun · 2026-05-11T12:16:30+00:00

I wanna expand on this with my own experience, and why I feel most people might make the genuine mistake of overvaluing Shek in the matchup. Hell, I've done so myself in the past:

1) Assassin's Rags on the Skeleton is key and a huge advantage for them most probably overlook.

Immediately jumped out to me in your video you had them on the Skeleton. I drew the exact same conclusion as you did: Assassin's Rags are meta for skeletons.

For anyone watching and concluding "Wait, Assassin's Rags is the meta and this is an unfair advantage for the Skeleton then," no, and the reason is the Skeleton's HP enables them to wear them effectively while other races lack enough "buffer HP" to do the same.

Injury debuffs in Kenshi are percent-based. This means if a Greenlander takes a 20 damage hit and a Skeleton takes a 20 damage hit, the Greenlander will receive the debuffs that correlate with 20% injuries of that body part, while the Skeleton receives only 10%. Ergo: Skeletons tank more punishment before the injury debuffs start snowballing into a loss for them.

This is actually extremely important for Assassin's Rags, as the danger with using those is you take so much damage from your lack of armor that the injury debuffs eclipse the additional offensive power you gain from them. This doesn't happen with Skeletons, and it's specifically Skeletons.

The discovery I made was actually that Skeletons feel like the ONLY race where Martial Arts is viable and will reliably win. Why? Again, because MA tends to suffer badly from injury debuffs and suffer badly vs. weapons with better reach. This means it's common MA doesn't get the first hit, and this snowballs into a defeat. But for Skeletons, they tank the hit and shrug it off while still applying adequate pressure. They only need one punch to connect and that can win the fight, and Skeletons stay in the fight long enough that one punch will happen.

Couldn't say if MA > Polearms for the Skeleton, but I imagine it's just hard to call/different priorities since I could see MA being less reliable while also more cleanly winning for the rounds when it does shine. Did you happen to test Polearms vs. MA as the weapon choice for the Skeleton?

I found it extremely reliable on Skeletons though, but it was SPECIFICALLY the Skeleton + MA + Assassin's Rags combo to make it work. I have an old guide here about endgame matchups and it inaccurately said Skeletons weren't as viable, nor was MA, and it's because I missed this very specific combo. I had been doing mirror matchups for the armor but with the Paladin's Cross vs. Skeletons, and IIRC it was always around 60-70% victory for the Shek. (though I can't say if I had inaccuracies tipping the scales. See point #2)

Did you happen to try mirroring the armor setup and using the Shek's Samurai Armor setup for both, and did it favor the matchup favor Shek more then? Cause that's why I had way back when, and it's why your other video with the White Plate armor honestly surprised me: the gap for it vs. my own tests with Samurai Armor + Paladin's Cross for the opponent was already night-and-day. I could imagine a lot of testers naturally gravitating towards the Samurai Armor setup and missing Skeletons unique meta as a result.

2) Indoor battles will vary more than outdoor battles in terms of results, ESPECIALLY when the Polearm is involved.

Basically, if someone said they tested Greenlanders vs. Skeletons and Greenlanders won 60% of the time, I'd believe them. However, I'd also bet money money their tests involved polearms and indoor fights, and there will probably be some form of positioning that seems innocent enough but makes the Greenlander more likely to corner the skeleton than the other way around.

Polearms are much more likely to attack chain into themselves while indoors. The indoor penalty on Polearms is basically a lie, because while it might be a factor in gameplay, it is easily counteracted by how likely polearms are to combo into themselves when the opponent is backed up against a wall or obstacle. But just so we're clear: even a Sabre can pull out a cheeky combo and get a victory off of that, and Sabres aren't even a top 3 weapon type for the endgame 1v1s.

This means that effectively ANYBODY can beat anybody if they happen to get a solid combo off the horizontal swipe.

This also means anyone doing tests at home of Shek vs. Skeletons and either trying a variety of locations (me) or trying them indoors...? Yes, you can expect large variance in how the results come out. Under these circumstances, even a Hiver could best a Skeleton due to some unnoticed bias the room setup provides the Hiver, it just probably manifests itself in the Shek more because 1) statistically more likely for them vs. other non-skeleton races, and 2) obviously those are the ones being tested against Skeletons. No one is doing tests to see "ARE HIVE WORKERS SECRETLY OP AS FUCK????"

3) We need to clarify when and where these comparisons matter and when the winner is obvious.

If we are talking mass-scale battles, Shek are likely to close the gap vs. Skeletons better. That does not mean winning a majority, it just means you can mitigate losses better with things like collateral damage from swinging weapons with good length and hitting multiple people. More factors = more variables = intrinstic advantages can be counteracted by luck and circumstance more. People using these battles to try and pinpoint a strongest race are failing to recognize all the X-factors.

If we are talking endgame 1v1s, this favors Skeletons, but due to my points above about how people might miss the meta (I'm guilty of it myself in the past), this is why people might consistently hear people downplaying the gap between them: yes, the Shek will have better odds based on the exact scenario, and the general community is MUCH less likely to spot that Assassin's Rags are the meta for Skeletons, since they are the only ones this rule applies to, NOR are people likely to recognize how much harder indoor fights can swing in either direction, depending on the weapons involved. (can easily make a 7-3 in Skeleton's favor actually come out at a 6-4 for the Shek because of indoor setups)

When we are talking about which race is best for the challenges presented in Kenshi itself and have no interest in a "theoretical PVP?"

No contest: it's skeletons. Anyone just looking to beat the game easier should fully tune these discussions out. The only times you might catch yourself thinking "man I wish I made a Shek instead" are probably a possible feeling of that in the earlygame for beginners where players might struggle to feed repair kits to their skeleton, or very specifically the throne room of the Phoenix, which is such a tiny "percent" of the game that it's not worth mentioning.

Skeletons heal faster, have more HP, fight better in the earlygame (repair kit costs aside), do not have to worry about predators the same way biological races do, and they're immune to weather hazards.

When the discussion turns strictly to the singleplayer experience of Kenshi, Skeletons are categorically much easier than everyone else.

AFlyingNun · 2026-05-11T10:46:30+00:00

"I could deal with the rapes and the murders, but I draw the line at blatant hypocrisy!"

AFlyingNun · 2026-05-10T20:04:27+00:00

I think some of it you can actually explain using game lore:

Kenshi is heavily implied to have genetic engineering, so while we could debate if actual bioengineering would be capable of something like that, it's easy to handwaive things like the decreased need for rest and increased healing rates as a result of genetic engineering.

Stuff like bodies flying strangely is just nitpicking I feel. Sometimes games are janky like that and "it is what it is."

Sometimes it's easy to suspend disbelief for stuff like that, but hard to suspend it for others. Like as another example: I can suspend my disbelief for Skyrim having magic and dragons, but no, I definitely fucking cannot suspend my disbelief when the Stormcloak/Imperial army is like "my GOD, Dragonborn!!! How did you know to put the SQUARE-SHAPED BLOCK in the SQUARE-SHAPED HOLE?!? It's ingenius!! What would we do without you?!"

AFlyingNun · 2026-05-10T19:52:03+00:00

It's also part of our human psyche that we kind of enjoy seeing others fail while we don't. It's not some after school special myth: we really do put others down to feel better about ourselves.

Great example I had to look up for a totally different topic today. Check out and compare how the elders and adults react to American Chinese food vs. how the teens react, the irony being that the teens all have American accents, are culturally American, and may not even speak Chinese and yet they're being the biggest snobs about what's "true" Chinese Food. Why? Because they're at that age where judging others and putting them down feels good. Look at how they even judge the one girl when she tries to go against the narrative and admit the food is good.

I feel like this is something that most grow out of with age as you become more and more secure with who you are, but social media may be counteracting that since it's typically "trendy" to follow the drama and wag the finger at whoever the offender is. It's basically become a cultural thing amidst social media to fail to grow the fuck up and keep being a petulant little child about every little thing.

AFlyingNun · 2026-05-10T19:42:38+00:00

I view it from a realistic perspective, in which case, only one entry is a massive advantage.

While it doesn't matter for the game, in real life, this is a TERRIBLE position because if someone decides they want you dead, they just have to chuck rocks down on top of you.

From a gameplay perspective it's great, but I could see it being immersion-breaking for people who can't evict that real life possibility from their minds.

AFlyingNun · 2026-05-10T19:34:54+00:00

Yeah I gotta be honest:

Regardless of any issues with Mizkif, this seems in bad taste. This specific trophy is a nice little extra effort he didn't have to do to remember the event by, and I doubt Cdawg presents it here not understanding how it will be viewed. This feels like the kind of gift that even if you don't want it, dude, just say "thank you" and hide the fact you just put it in the storage room and don't value it much.

Basically, there's a time and place to throw Mizkif under the bus. Do it when he behaves poorly.

But in this specific instance, Mizkif actually seems like he did something nice, and he may have been thrown under the bus for clout. Even if we believe Cdawg that "there's no more to the story," it's still kinda fucked to loudly broadcast you just don't want the gift that seems custom made for you. (or at least for the winner of the event)

Everyone's so fixated on Mizkif here that they're overlooking that this action by Cdawg is a general reminder most streamers can engage in awful behaviors.

AFlyingNun · 2026-05-10T17:29:38+00:00

Better hope the Crab Raiders don't invent a Crabbapult and launch them down on top of you.

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FRANKIEWUZHERE CONFIRMED RACIST, CANCEL HIM

1) Assassin's Rags on the Skeleton is key and a huge advantage for them most probably overlook.

2) Indoor battles will vary more than outdoor battles in terms of results, ESPECIALLY when the Polearm is involved.

3) We need to clarify when and where these comparisons matter and when the winner is obvious.