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The Skeletons are a complete mystery, nobody knows where they came from, or how they were made, but they are suspected to be thousands of years old. Fully sentient, and capable of feeling sadness, anger, excitement, compassion, thrill and enjoyment, although they don't posses the ability to express anything visually. This, combined with their dry sense of humor, often confuses the other races, whom the Skeletons see as somewhat volatile and unpredictable. They have no prejudice or fear of death, and make for brutally effective warriors.

–In-Game Description

S2

Skeleton is a Race in Kenshi, best described as sentient robots. There are many subraces of Skeletons. Skeletons heal 2 to 3 times faster than Greenlander Human characters and bleed at a reduced rate compared to most organic races. They also don't experience hunger. They are immune to all Weather Effects and don't need to swim to pass through bodies of water or acid. Repairing Skeletons uses and levels the Robotics stat.

Subraces[]

There are Playable Characters which can spawn as a member of these races.

These races require Modding to be used as a player character.

Play Style Tips[]

Loading Screen Tips
Skeletons accumulate permanent damage over time, which lowers their max HP. This can be repaired at a Skeleton Bed.

Initially, skeletons may seem like a difficult choice because of how expensive Skeleton Repair Kits are and how much harder it is to find Skeleton Repair Beds than regular beds. But once you learn about the consistent locations where you can find repair kits (South East Deadlands Armoury Ruin is undefended and always contains two Repair Kits) along with how cheap beds are in Hive Villages (c.800) or Black Desert City (c.200) they seem a lot easier. When repairing a Skeleton, all bandaged health is healed at 250x their healspeed. Skeleton characters experience Wear and Tear damage after being hurt, meaning that their total health is lowered for the affected body part equal to 4% of damage taken. So you would need to take 2,500 damage in a single bodypart for the max health of that bodypart to reach 100. Wear and Tear damage is fixed only through Skeleton Repair Beds, which can be expensive in some locations but can be unlocked relatively early in the Research tree.

Skeletons can make good Martial Artists because their fists aren't damaged when punch an opponent unlike the organic races. Skeletons also take only 60% damage from Martial Arts from organic races, Players need to take more care when selecting Equipment for their Skeleton characters to ensure they have adequate armour protection because they are only able to wear armour in the "ARMOR" and "LEGS" slots.

Skeletons can survive in any Zone because they are unaffected by weather and don't need to eat, thus eliminating the need for an Environment that can support Farming. Players often set their skeleton characters to work on Turrets due to these same reasons as well as because they have a higher vision range than most of the organic races. (Scorchlanders are tied with Skeletons (Subrace Skeletons) which also have a 1.25 vision range)

Due to religious reasons, The Holy Nation hates all Skeletons. They will attack any skeleton character on sight. This makes travelling in Holy Nation territory (located in the central Northwest region of the map) slightly riskier for Skeleton characters than characters of other races, who can pass through their territory without much hassle as long as they have a Greenlander man by their side. Skeletons are tied with Sheks for having the slowest run speed of any playable humanoid unit meaning escaping from Paladins can be difficult early on.

Players interested in allying with the minor Southeast Faction Skin Bandits should have a Skeleton Player Character when speaking to Savant. Even if not allied Skeletons can use the Skeleton Repair Beds of the Skin Bandits and Skeleton Bandits for free.

Trivia[]

  • In the lore, skeletons can be "enthralled" through a process that involves removing their heads. This appears to turn them into a mechanical "zombie" of sorts, as Thralls are essentially slaves with no individuality (skeletons cannot be enthralled by the player).
  • Although extremely long-lived, they have limited memory, which is the reason they usually reset themselves every few centuries. Skeletons that don't do this are at a constant risk of losing their sanity. However, it is hinted by Iyo that they remember the past and the Extinction perfectly, but act as a whole to prevent knowledge of their involvement from being discovered.
  • It appears that every Skeleton aside from thralls has the ability to drink Grog, given the abundance of Grog in several Skeleton-dominant areas.
  • (Bug?) Unlike other races Skeletons cannot repair themselves while playing dead. However, you can get them to repair like normal. Without allies nearby when knocked unconscious (And Robotics is enabled as a job) save the game. Then load that save. When you wake up you'll repair yourself while playing dead. You can also trigger this by removing a robotic leg while in combat, getting attacked while getting back up which sometimes (10% chance) causes your character to play dead again and repair themselves or by getting picked up and dropped on the ground while still unconscious.
  • Because of their robotic nature, when knocked out they will have "Rebooting" tag instead of "Unconscious". And their body fluid is listed as "Oil" instead of "Blood". This has no impact in game except visually.
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