Feature Request: Allow All Crafting Thralls to Level Up from Tier 1 to Tier 4

Conan Exiles General Discussion Feedback
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1

Dear Funcom and Inflexion Games teams,

I would like to submit a feature request for Conan Exiles Enhanced Edition.

Please allow all crafting thralls to level up from Tier 1 to Tier 4 through gameplay and investment.

This would give players a meaningful long-term system for their thralls. Here are some suggested ways to gain crafting experience:

• Feed profession-related junk or unwanted items to the thrall. They could study the item, dismantle it for materials (which the player receives back), and gain profession experience in the process.

• Discover and use profession-specific scrolls or knowledge items that grant crafting experience when used on a thrall.

• Passive experience gain over time through normal crafting work (the more they craft, the faster they improve).

Special Gold Tier 4 thralls could remain as instant high-tier options that don’t require leveling, while still allowing every thrall to improve and grow with enough time and player investment.

Why this would be great:

• It would give real purpose to the thousands of junk items players collect.

• It creates a rewarding long-term progression system for thralls.

• It makes every thrall feel valuable instead of immediately replacing lower-tier ones.

• It adds more depth and player agency to the thrall system.

This kind of system would be very well received by the community and make base management and thrall training feel much more engaging.

Thank you for your continued work on the game!

2

Good idea. Could be implemented by giving the dismantling bench a thrall slot. Every time you dismantle something that fits their profession (armor for armorsmiths, bows and furniture for carpenters and so on), the thrall gets some experience.

Could also work for fighters and archers, btw.

3

This is a bad idea, it would mean that farming a certain area is not needed but you just feed the crafter things to grow to the t4 crafter from that area. It would reduce the excitement when you finally get that specific crafter.
I already dislike that all t4’s nowadays are the same compared to in the past where you needed certain crafters to make certain armors or paints. This would diminish the hunting aspect of the game even more.

4

Hey @Blyker, I honestly agree with a lot of what you’re saying.

Bringing back unique traits and profession benefits for Named Tier 4 thralls (especially Gold ones) is definitely needed, they’ve become too samey compared to the past, and that excitement of hunting for specific crafters is important.

That said, being able to level crafting thralls from Tier 1 to Tier 4 wouldn’t really take that away. It would just give us something meaningful to do with all the lower-tier thralls we already capture. Combat thralls already feel rewarding because you can level them up, crafters deserve something similar.

It would be really cool if leveling them improved crafting-specific stats like crafting speed, quality (higher chance of better item tiers), and durability of crafted items. Named Tier 4 thralls (especially Gold) could start near max level or have much stronger bonuses, while regular ones grow stronger with time and investment.

It would also be great to have learnable crafting traits and perks, just like combat ones. And specific crafting gear made for crafters that gives set bonuses that also improving stats.

This way we get more depth and progression with thralls without removing the value of hunting good Named ones.

5

I like part of what you say for leveling, however we are not making an exile fighter I from newbie river into a Cimmerian Berserker by leveling it to 20.
The downside of having crafter specific things is the living settlements where you are limited with the amount of thralls that you can put in the world and 8 different armorers would make noone happy.
Giving them experience in making certain armors/weapons could certainly be done but would probably hamper pvp and get casual players to be annoyed when their t4 crafter cant make the best armor after capturing but needed experience in crafting certain armors.
I just don’t see a convenient way to build it all in without dilluting certain core aspects of the game.

7

I was thinking something similar. But…

It would require a max-level Altar of Religion (so which ever religion you wanted). - Because you would be crafting it there with a T4 Priest of that religion.

It would require components only unlocked at max Sorcery (fully upgraded tome).

It would require the Thrall be lvl 20.

It would reset the Thrall to lvl 0; reset all Attributes to their ‘initial placing’ values (so whatever value they had when you placed the Thrall down after the Wheel).

It would set the Thrall’s HP and modifiers to the ‘best in slot’ Thrall values.

It would be extremely cost-prohibitive to make. Faster to just go Thrallclubbing.

…call it Tincture of the Gods (religion); ie Tincture of the Gods (Mitra). And that ‘religion’ means it can only be used by someone who has unlocked that religion’s max Altar of Worship.

Note: This was mainly because I feel like the “I don’t want to play with you anymore” scene in Toy Story 2; every stage of your progression you’re dumping thralls to get the ‘next new shiny type’. Plus some of the “BiS” Thralls have annoying voice sets…“pokey pokey matey” :unamused_face: . So I’d like to keep some of the Thralls I had since staggering onto Noob River.

8

I like the way you are thinking about making it cost-prohibitive, but I’m not entirely happy with the idea of locking behind religion or sorcery. These two are supposed to be optional elements to the game, and I would not like to see any major feature locked behind them.

The Crom religion exists for a reason - to allow players to ignore the religion system if they wish. They lose the direct advantages of that system (the religious items/potions etc) and the avatars, but they are not blocked from any other content by choosing not to engage.

Similarly - I do not ever want anything to do with sorcery. It is not how I choose to play the game - it is, in fact, completely antithetical to a game based around Conan. By choosing not to engage with it, I lose the advantages it confers in itself (eg mass cull, flight, etc), but again I should not be locked out of any other element of the game. (I am still extremely irritated by Funcom deciding to lock the entire Kurak storyline and new ‘dungeon’ behind agreeing to be a sorceror’s 'b*tch, and then going ahead and locking one of the two companion characters behind yet more sorcery - as a result I do not engage with either at all, because they are locked behind something that I do not believe should even be in the game.)

I’d much rather see an equally costly system introduced that did not require locking behind either religion or sorcery. Still requiring plenty of work to achieve, but operating in a ‘clean’ way that is suitable for a barbarian with no interest in selling their soul to demons.

9

I picked those because it’s not exactly a ‘quick jaunt’ to finish them. Making it “just be 60” is a bit easy…even my slow butt made it to 60 in about a week on Official.

But, again, this idea was to be an option if you found a Thrall you really liked but found it was a low-tier. --As in the low tier named along Noob River; Tessa maxed out at around 1.7k HP compared to Janzil’s 3.8k at lvl 0; won’t count Corsair Elites since they kind of busted with that HP scaling.

I want to re-emphasis this upgrade mechanic would simply set Named-tier thralls to the ‘endgame’ Named-tier Thralls, which, would appear to be Janzil. --Again, she starts with the most HP of any Thrall I’ve seen so far. And I won’t be counting Black Corsair Elites because I do think those are glitched and Funcom has just “rolled with it”.

Note: When I speak of endgame Thralls. I’m specifically speaking of their starting HP. I way too new to be looking at spreadsheets. So ‘HP’ is the easiest gauge for me.

This means, in your case, wanting to avoid Religion and Sorcery would just mean you’d continue with the current way of discarding the ‘lesser named-tier’ thralls as you find better ones.

10

I agree that it shouldn’t be something easy like just getting to level 60. But my entire point is that a new and highly desired RP mechanic like this should not be locked behind other mechanics that force a specific aspect of RP.

Being able to take our companions that we have had with us from early on, through a complex (and time-consuming and work-intensive) process to let them become equivalent to ‘endgame’ followers is something that should be applicable for players with many different approaches to the game. It absolutely should not be locked to - ‘you must be an evil, demon-aligned, soulless sorceror’. That should be a requirement for things like making undead, summoning demonic assistance, gathering resources through magic etc. But it should not be a requirement for allowing ‘beloved’ companions to become more capable of endgame status.

11

Whether you like the idea or not, it is quite impractical as it would require a complete overhaul of the current thrall system.

A T2 isn’t just a stronger T1, it is a completely different thrall.

12

Honestly a few systems need an update one being the thrall system it needs better combat A.I., a workbench like a barbers chair and much more. So an update like this along with it in my opinion is needed.

13

Funcom needing to add a completely separate, non-magic/religion, method would probably be a bridge too far for them to cross. Which means it would be up to the modding community. And that means Official never gets it.

14

As Tephra already explained - they’d have to add a completely separate, total overhaul of the way thralls work in order for it to even be possible at all. To link that to a new system would be no harder (and probably easier, since it would not require also completely overhauling Religion and Sorcery).

15

I’m not too concerned with the modifiers. It’s more for the starting Health. Which is pretty important for late-game progression.

And I really don’t think this upgrade system should be used as a way to get ‘bis’ thralls just by hanging out on Noob River long enough to get a Novice-tier Named (ie Tessa) to 20 then reroll her HP to Janzil’s level. Then stomp through Arena and whatever else there is at late/end-game.

Min/maxing thralls should still require you to go hunt for them. Which, to me, is “God Rolling” perks, getting the best modifier for the archetype (archer, fighter, sorcerer [hint hint, Funcom; please make actual casters]), and getting the best Stat level ups for that archetype.

…but after doing all that you shouldn’t be told to ‘throw it away’ just because a Thrall’able NPC was added that has better starting HP.

The biggest challenge would be how they update the scaling (ie HP per Vit). Because it won’t really matter if Tessa is set to 3.8k HP at lvl 0 with her 27hp/vit vs Zajil (I’ll spell it right one day!) and her 127hp/vit a lvl 20 Tessa i still going to have way less HP by lvl 20.

16

I really like the idea of being able to level up the skills of a crafter, but only up to a point. I think to maintain some semblance of balance, and keep the regular T4’s relevant, they should not be allowed to specialize. Also, let’s keep altars out of the process; skilling up should be done through some means via their related crafting bench(es).

17

Ok, well now you’re just deliberately misrepresenting what I have said. I have never once suggested that it should be possible to hunt around Noob River and then use this system to turn Tessa into an endgame powerhouse. In fact I have specified repeatedly that it should be a difficult, time-consuming, work-intensive process. I have agreed with you repeatedly that it should be difficult and meaningful.

Literally the only objection I have had is that you are obsessed with the idea of tying it into Religion and Sorcery, despite the fact that those are supposed to be OPTIONAL systems.

This isn’t about ‘Min/Maxing’ - which you knew perfectly well earlier. This is about exactly what you have stated before - the desire to not have to dispose of long-term companions simply because there is a better option available.

We already talked about the idea that such a system should require them to have reached level 20 and then be taken back to level 0 to be advanced again from a slightly higher starting point. Possibly this should even require multiple iterations, depending on their original starting point.

But if you are just going to pretend that all objections to your need for it to be specifically Sorcery/Religion based are purely about people wanting to be over-powered for no effort - despite there being no such need, in game code or in RP/lore - then it really isn’t worth discussing further.

As Tephra already pointed out, and I already re-iterated - all of this is purely irrelevant and never going to happen as it would require a complete re-working of thralls from the ground up.

All I have ever been saying is that locking RP systems (which is what this would be) behind one very narrow and specific RP approach (Sorcery/Religion) is the wrong approach, and nothing in the game at all should be locked behind those except their own specific elements.

18

I’ve been thinking about this too. One way to give T4 thralls something meaningful above the normal cap could be introducing a T-5 Legendary tier that’s only available to gold-named thralls.

Basically, keep the normal T-0 through T-4 progression for overall craft quality, attack strength, stamina, etc, that keeps regular T4s strong and relevant. Then the T-5 Legendary upgrade would give them a nice extra edge:

  • Significantly higher durability on crafted items (gear and weapons last noticeably longer)
  • Small secondary stat bonuses (e.g. +X Grit on armor, +X Strength on weapons, or whatever fits the playstyle)
  • For cooks and alchemists: a small HoT (heal over time) effect or extra stamina regeneration on top of the normal food/drink buffs

I’d probably lock the T-5 upgrade to only named (gold) thralls so it feels special and rewarding. That way, there is something you can even do with a Named Thrall. Just some thoughts, curious what you think!

19

@DanQuixote I think a solution for @illutian tying a proper religion overhaul into this, would be a fantastic solution. Everyone has been waiting for more meaningful progression and devotion/sacrifice systems. For example, instead of always dragging thralls to the Wheel of Pain or Sacrificial Stone or a shallow grave, imagine, at the Altar of Yog you can wake them up, grab them by the neck, and literally toss them into Yog’s pit, watching them burn and get devoured as part of a real sacrifice ritual. That kind of immersive moment would feel amazing.

On the sorcery side, I went pretty deep on thrall specializations in this post (linked below). The short version is adding distinct roles like:

  • Necromancer – Raises different types of undead (standard zombies, special variants, and massive Undead Monstrosities) using various Potent Composts, corpses, and sacrifices. They’d work with Driver Taskmasters and Blood Mages in a full production chain, but with a decay timer so you have to keep maintaining your undead army.
  • Warlock – The combat caster who can throw spells, command an undead bodyguard, and summon temporary (risky) demons.
  • Blood Mage – Specializes in harvesting Sacrificial Blood and Soul Essence from prisoners.
  • Thaumaturgist Scholar – Advanced researcher who unlocks new spells, lore, and can even send golems out to gather materials.

Full details here if you want to check it out:

I think something like this would make religion and sorcery feel way more alive and give thralls a lot more identity and purpose. But I know you don’t really like/use sorcery, so this was more for the other guy.

20

I think your over complicating it. If you keep the idea simple it’s more likely to (potentially) get dev time. Normal T4’s stay as they are with their specializations. Lower tier have the ability to level up to get the bonuses to crafting speed, etc… without a specialization. This maintains current balance while giving the option to keep using the thrall you have vs constantly recruiting.

21

I just picked using Religion and Sorcery because it “made sense” from a lore perspective that you’d be using the power of the gods and the arcane to “remake” the person (Thrall).