What is Temperature in Conan Exiles?
In the upper left corner of your screen is an analog thermometer gauge. If the white line drifts too far up or down, you get debuffed; if it drifts all the way to the top or the bottom, you start taking damage.
Temperature in the game is controlled by:
- Where you are on the map
- How high up you are in absolute altitude
- What gear you have in your hands
- What armor you are wearing
- What buffs you have from foods or beverages
- What decor items you are standing next to, and …
- Whether or not you are swimming.
Whether or not you are in a player-made Shelter is supposed to matter, but at the moment that system isn’t working.
Swimming lowers your temperature by 8 degrees. You would think that it would be warmer during the day than at night, but it isn’t. You would think it would be cooler when it’s raining or snowing than when it’s not, but it isn’t. The Sandstorm also doesn’t raise or lower the temperature.
Temperature Effects
There are nine levels of temperature effects, ranging from Heatstroke to Frostbite.
- All of the heat effects increase your thirst and reduce your maximum stamina.
- All of the cold effects increase your hunger and reduce your maximum health.
- The two most extreme heat effects, and the two most extreme cold effects, put a damage over time effect on you.
The Vitality 20 perk reduces these effects by around 90%, but does not completely eliminate any of them.
Where You Are on the Map and How High You Are
In broad general terms, the Oasis is neutral, parts of the Desert and most of the Jungle are warm, the Savanna is hot (except for the Shattered Springs area which is very hot), a few parts of the northern Jungle are hot. In the “Frozen North,” the eastern Forest is neutral, the western Highlands are cool, most of the Ice area is very cold, the half-frozen lake is dangerously cold. Inside the Volcano is dangerously hot.
Altitude matters, too. In the main desert, the difference between up on the bluffs and down by the river is significant. Up on the ice, once you start climbing the mountains, the temperature falls off from very cold to dangerously cold.
Weapons in Your Hands
These items raise or lower your temperature, but only when you have them in your hands, not just when they’re in your inventory. The default user interface only gives you a faint hint as to how much.
- Improvised Torches and Torches raise your temperature by a measly 2 degrees.
- Glowing Sticks (glowing goop torches) lower your temperature by an equally trivial 2 degrees.
- The tier 3 Ymir religion weapon Glacier-Crack lowers your temperature by 10 degrees.
- The legendary shield Solspiel lowers your temperature by 20 degrees.
- The legendary shield Mistmourn raises your temperature by 20 degrees.
Armor You are Wearing
Most (but not all!) armor pieces raise or lower your temperature by a fixed amount per piece worn. When selected in the Inventory window, you can get a rough estimate by looking at the bottom display: each orange bar cools, and each blue bar warms, by 1-4 degrees per bar filled in. In general, except for a few bugged items, the rule of thumb is:
- Regular armor pieces give 1 degree, exceptional 2, flawless 3.
- Epic armor pieces give an extra +1. And …
- Silent Legion, Vanir, and DLC armors give an extra +1.
(Silent Legion also counts as flawless epic whether it says so or not.)
There are a few bugged items! In particular, the Cimmerian and Lemurian armors, which only exist in Epic form, should be giving +2 for regular, +3 for exceptional, and +4 for flawless; they’re all off by one. Also, there was a patch note a while ago saying that Sandstorm Masks are supposed to give at least some heat protection; they don’t.
Food and Beverage Buffs
There’s a lot of misinformation out there about this, but if you look at the code in Conan Exiles Devkit, it’s actually quite clear how it works. There are six possible temperature buffs: strong, regular, or weak warming or cooling. You can have one instance of each buff on you at any time. Consuming another food or beverage that gives that buff doesn’t stack, nor does it extend the duration; it merely restarts the countdown timer. It does not matter if you get it from a food or a beverage; if it is the same buff for the same amount, it overwrites the previous buff.
- +15 degrees: Absinthe, Desert Chili, Exotic Meat Feast, Firewater, Mulled Brew
- +10 degrees: Highlands Wine, Mead, Phykos Rum, Savory Meat Feast
- +5 degrees: Feral Meat Feast, Resin Wine, Shroom Beer, Spiced (everything)
- -5 degrees: Ale, Berry Drink, Cactus Wine, Darfari Bug Soup, Wine
- -10 degrees: Desert Wine, IceTea
- -15 degrees: Ice, Waterskin
How Shelter is Supposed to Work
To determine the Shelter buff (which also calculates your damage resistance versus the Sandstorm if you’re not wearing a Sandstorm Mask or Set Mask), the game is supposed to count the foundation blocks, walls, window frames, door frames, ceiling blocks, and roof blocks within a certain radius of you and raise your Shelter percentage for each one, to a cap of 100%. This percentage is then supposed to be multiplied by -15 degrees if you are in desert building materials, and +15 if you are in highlands building materials. (It’s not entirely clear to me how it’s supposed to calculate that if you mix them?)
However, I have experimentally demonstrated that this does not work at all as of this date.
That being said, how you decorate your shelter does matter:
Heating and Cooling Decor
All heating and cooling placeable items have a maximum temperature effect which only applies if you’re right on top of the item. This effect fades to zero at the maximum radius. It’s not entirely clear to me what the units for that radius are; I had assumed millimeters, since so much of DevKit works in millimeters, but that’s not entirely consistent with my experience in-game. Still, here are the numbers in the code:
- Brazier, hanging: +1, 1000
- Brazier, standing or wall: +1, 500
- Campfire: +8, 750
- Large Bonfire or Cooking Fire: +8, 1000
- Firebowl Cauldron: +8, 750
- Fireplace: +12, 1000
- Furnace: +6, 1000
- Glowing Goop Torch: -1, 1000
- Stove: +8, 750
- Torch: +1, 1000
- Radium Torch: none (bugged?)
- Witchfire Torch: bugged
Items which burn fuel are turned off by default. Items which do not burn fuel are turned on by default. Items are supposed to only provide heat or cooling when they are turned on, and I think that’s working right.
- Brazier, hanging: +1, 1000
- Brazier, standing or wall: +1, 500
- Campfire: +8, 750
- Large Bonfire or Cooking Fire: +8, 1000
- Firebowl Cauldron: +8, 750
- Fireplace: +12, 1000
- Furnace: +6, 1000
- Stove: +8, 750
- Torch: +1, 1000
- Glowing Goop Torch: -1, 1000
- Radium Torch: none (bugged?)
- Witchfire Torch: bugged
Yes, these effects do stack. No, despite having a visible flame on them, religious shrines (and the Mitra religious decor item) do not increase heat.