The Border Zone is an arid no-mans-land between the Shek Kingdom and the Holy Nation territories. This zone is included in several of the game starts, often making it the first area that the new players would see. It occupies the region of the map south of Okran's Pride and east of Vain.
It is a relatively forgiving area, most notable for its very large quantity of Iron and Copper veins of high quality near towns with merchants that make it easy for early-game moneymaking. However, the various bandit factions that inhabit the region will be the downfall of any fledgling outpost. The zone is occupied by groups of wandering Starving Bandits and Dust Bandits who constantly harass each other, as well as the player. Both the Dust Bandits and the Black Dragon Ninjas have their fortified centres of banditry in this area.
The zone is also teeming with Tech Hunters (and even has a Tech Hunter settlement, known as Waystation, in the South-East). This zone was previously under Holy Nation control, but their settlements are now in ruins. There are only two major inhabited settlements in the region. The Shek town of Squin acts as the main bastion standing between the Shek Kingdom and bandits of the Border Zone and the many factions of the Swamp. The former major city of the Holy Nation, The Hub, is now in ruins and is partially controlled by various petty factions that cannot yet hope to rebuild it into a major trading center.
Inhabitants[]
Major Towns[]
Minor Outposts[]
These locations are typically small towns, villages, or faction bases.
Ancient Locations[]
These are places which do not have competent inhabitants. Ancient Locations are usually lost outposts or ruins. Beware: sometimes these locations contain territorial protectors such as Security Spiders.
Camps[]
These are temporary locations which can spawn randomly. They usually spawn with Camp Beds which are free to use.
Nests[]
Nests are temporary locations which can spawn randomly and typically belong to Animals.
Homeless Spawns[]
These are squads which spawn without being tied to a location, camp, or nest. This list is in order of likelihood.
- Starving Bandits
- Dust Bandits
- Slave Traders (Slavemongers)
- Escaped Servants
- Garrus
- Goats
- Bonedogs
- Tech Hunter
- Nomads
- Wandering Assassin
These squads can potentially spawn in this zone if certain World States have been reached.
- Kral's Chosen - if High Inquisitor Seta is dead and Flying Bull is alive.
- The Holy Nation - if Holy Lord Phoenix is alive and Esata or Seto are dead, there is an increase Holy Nation's patrols and even more so if both Shek leaders are dead. If Lord Phoenix, High Inquisitor Seta and High Inquisitor Valtena are dead, Strayed Paladins will spawn.
- Shek Kingdom's Kamikaze - spawn if Esata is dead, Hundred Guardians and Shek Warriors spawn if High Inquisitor Seta is dead and Esata is alive.
- Southern Hive patrols - if West Hive Queen is dead and South Hive Queen is alive.
- Western Hive - if West Hive Queen is dead:
Environment[]
| Border Zone | ||||
| These are the modifiers which are linked to this zone on FCS.
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| Water | 50% | Fertility | 100% | |
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| Environment | Resources | |||
| Arid | 100% | Stone | 100 | |
| Green | 10% | Iron | 100 | |
| Swamp | 0% | Copper | 80 | |
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| Before building an outpost, players should find information about specific areas through Prospecting. | ||||
Aside from the occasional bandit menace and fairly balanced growth stats for crops, the Border Zone is host to a lot of Bonedog packs. Rarely you may encounter a pack of goats or garru wandering through your land, especially in the mountainous south or the canyons. This region is also home to the enigmatic Urchins, which are strewn across the landscape. Notable settlements in the Border Zone are Squin, the Hub, and a Tech Hunter Waystation. With all of the different factions and cities in close proximity to the area, the Border Zone is one of the most diverse regions in the world as far as faction selection and patrols go.
The only other noteworthy attribute of The Border Zone is its abundance of ore in the region. Iron veins of 100% quality can be found almost anywhere, but predominantly in the southern canyons or the western edge of the region near Vain. Waystation has access to a lot of iron veins and 40% copper nodes as well, and satellite wreckage can be salvaged for iron closer to the southern edge of the Border Zone. The same can be said about the Hub and Squin that have iron and copper nodes in near proximity.
Weather[]
This zone has the Border Zone season. Seasons may cause harmful Weather Effects or be purely aesthetic.
- Sand steam (Duststorm)
- Desert dust swirls
- Sand steam (no effect)
- Desert calm
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Being the default starting zone for the most default starting scenario, this zone is arguably the most mild in dangers in all of Kenshi for a neutral, unaligned loner/group of vagabonds to survive and learn the initial hardships of Kenshi for several reasons.
- The Weather Effects are mild (unlike Deadlands, Black Desert or even Venge).
- The roaming Dust Bandit groups aren't skilled, (frankly besides Starving Bandits (and the like) all other roaming bandit groups are at least slightly more skilled than them) and there aren't hordes of mobs to overrun your group to beat you, rob you, or better yet, eat you up entirely.
- You won't be the subject of opportunistic enslavement, and if you do get beaten down and are about to die from it, chances are you will be saved, and slaved by some passers-by to give you a second chance at life.
- The Fauna are non-challenging, both easy to defeat and easy to run away from, and they do not come in large numbers (or hide in the sand for ambush like some). Set the foot slightly outside this zone to the western Vain or the southern Swamp and the threat increases significantly, with Beak Things and Blood Spiders able to incapacitate any non-skilled combatant with ease and feast upon them when they are unconcious (with the former being so fast in speed that running away is hardly a possibility). And even then, these zones are nothing compared to the sheer amount of Fauna seen in (based on roughly escalating order of threats) Leviathan Coast, The Unwanted Zone, Gut, Bonefields and Arach.
- Being a desolated no-mans-land, you won't really find yourself caught in conflict with any of the major factions with their dogma and way of life. Which can range anywhere from racial, technological and theological monolithic purity - decadent and corrupted dystopian hierarchy to jingoistic reckless warmongering tribalism each bringing their own agendas to shove it down your throat. The only instance of interacting with them is when you settle down in the middle of the zone, which causes both HN and SK to come, but they usually beat each other up first due to their own issues with one another before they get to the player.
- Outside of being knocked out dead, players will not really lose characters as a result of getting into places they are not supposed to be in without sufficient preparations. Dust King Tower for one, will simply throw the player out once they get knocked out, giving them a chance to live another day. Meanwhilst, places like Deadcat, Nice Ruin and Preacher Cult simply kill off the character for good (and generally, most types of ancient ruins have dangers that can kill off an ill-prepared group).
- There are a reasonable amounts of settlements to trade here, Squin, Waystation, The Hub and the shack not far from there are all good places to trade provided you aren't enemies with any of them. Scavenging bodies, stealing or mining ores are all good ways to start off the budget.