How the Hawke plays

Conan Exiles PC Discussion
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@Keldy
@stelagel
@Ardenaso

I have read with interest how others play the game so this is how I play. After 14,500+ hrs of playtime I find it hard to change.

When I start a new game I don’t puddle around the noob river. I only stay there long enough to reach level 10 so I can make Light Armour (for the increased carrying capacity). I then hone in on Stargazer’s Crest.

I head up the river @ F4. On the way I call in to say Hello and learn ‘Yog’. I follow the river up stream then branch East to the Sink Hole Obelisk. I then back-track to F6 and head West to the Unamed City Obelisk via the Dawn Gate. While there I learn cartography.
I back-track through the Dawn Gate and make my way to Muriela’s Hope. I learn the Mitra religion and the cooking recipe, as well as picking up the Iron Axe from the scaffolding.

By this stage I’m about level 20 and have at least 5 in Agility. I will also have completed the Archery Quest and have 50 Iron Arrows. I now beat up the two Rhino’s (one at a time). A couple of arrows to slow them down, then hit them with the stone daggers (I love bleed early game). Thick hide for later.
Head across to the Child of Jhebbal Sag. Buy a potion to get you to the Midnight Grove. By-pass the Grove, just jump into the ‘returning pool’.

You will then be transported to ‘Sepermeru’. Go to the Bar above the Wine Cellar to remove your corruption.
(If you are feeling ‘adventurous’ you can go below to the Wine Cellar and try to knock over Szeth. He may drop ‘Szeth’s Truncheon’).
Head SE from the Bar then go up hill between the marquee tents. Above you will see the ‘Alter to Set’. At the rear there is a chest. Inside is the ‘Eye of Set’. Consume/use to learn the ‘Set’ religion.
Make you way back down to the lower ‘safe’ level and travel NE to the Obelisk at Klael’s Stronghold/Shattered Springs.
Circumvent the Springs and head towards the ‘Tradeway’ @ D9.
Travel NW to the Obelisk at the Mounds of the Dead. East NE takes you to Stargazer’s Crest.

This is where I lay my Bed.
By now you will be around level 30 but don’t be hasty just yet. There is a chest at the Stargazer’s Crest camp. Can contain Hardened Steel Bow, Hardened Steel Arrows, Hardened Steel Skinning Knife, Hardened Steel Cleaver, as well as high value meat.
The secret here is to run up, loot the chest, then vamoose with extreme haste. Two hits from the Jailor and you will be history.

Stargazer’s Crest camp:
Truckloads of Iron ore, coal, stone, wood.
Sooner or later a T3/4 Blacksmith will turn up at the camp (other T3/4’s will also spawn).
Be warned, if you see two female jailors, odds are one will be Dalinsia Snow Hunter (my favorite fighter thrall). Run away or write a ‘Will’.

Guaranteed Alchemist spawn in the South in the Mounds of the Dead.

Guaranteed spawn of a Cimmerian Berserker at the East of Mounds of the Dead.
Of special Note: At level 30 you can knock out a Cimmerian Berserker, but you need to maintain a constant attack to continually stagger them. If you miss (ie when they roll out of the way) their rebuttal will probably be your obituary.

If you want to learn the Ymir Religion:
Follow the snow path North to reach ‘The Outcast Camp’. There you will find the ‘Outcast’ and learn the Ymir Religion. There is also a chest which can contain Black Ice weapons, Black Ice, Ice, or Aloe Potions. Worth the trip if only for the weapons.
Note: this ‘an extreme cold region’. If you don’t have warming food then don’t muck about. Get in, get out, with extreme haste.

Only a short hop to reach the Obelisks at ‘The Temple of Frost’ @ 14 D/E.

At this stage you have connected to 4 of the 9 Obelisks.
The Mounds of the Dead Obelisks, to my home base, is only a short hop once I have ‘Maps’ set up.

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Well, my low level run for this year is slowly approaching, so thanks for the tips.
Otherwise, last year I tried playing as a wandering knight and had it easier because witch hunt was running at the time. So I collected some materials, made a bow, and hunted mages in camps around Sinkhole.
Plus, I was lucky because the first combatant I bought was Dalinsia.
Then it got boring. I finished level 20 by hunting skeletons in UC, then I temporarily built a camp, got a horse, and headed to Mounds.
During the day, I had a complete set of heavy armor for myself, Dalinsia, and the bearer (a bearer/squire is a necessity for a wandering knight).

After that, it was completely boring, so I gave up somewhere around level 50.

This year, I’ll see how I plan it and write it down here if necessary.

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@Keldy

I also look for new challenges. Sadly I would sooner watch golf than play the Vanilla game as it is. Too slow for me.
I have lost count of how many new games I’ve started, then lost interest in.
Now I play on Private Servers. Someone else’s rules. That makes it a new challenge every time.

BTW. I’ve always gone for ‘Beast of Burden’ attribute so never needed a bearer. If I knobble a ‘Named Bearer’ then I will use them as a Fighter.
The dancer Lianeele I will level up, and take as a companion/bodyguard to remove corruption on the hoof.

Always looking for a new challenge.

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Try this then :smiling_face: …

Have fun :sign_of_the_horns:

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what’s the starting stat build btw ? I often start expertise to carry materials which I realize isn’t optimal if I am to quickly move around early game and leave river

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I always have at least 5 points in expertise ASAP to increase the life of tools and reduce hunger and thirst. By the time I get to Stargazer’s Crest I’m usually at 15 points.

I dump a lot of hides and other unnecessary stuff on the way. It seems a waste at the time but any thing I dump is easily replaceable. When I get to Muriela’s Hope I put down a camp fire as well as a bed roll. I use the fire-place to store all the heavy stuff (rhino hide etc) that I want to keep. I retrieve later on.

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It’s interesting the different ways people play. You are all, in one way or another, seeking the most efficient ways to obtain power quickly - whether by levelling fast, or by obtaining specific items with the benefits they confer etc. But there is another way to play. I (and I know of a few others who do the same) choose to take my time, to savour the journey, rather than racing to that first plateau.

(What do I mean by the ‘first plateau’? Level 60. Because as we all know, the game is (or at least was) designed so that many things were not intended to be possible to do before level 60. ‘The game begins at level 60’ is an old phrase that people often use(d) to advise newer players that more opportunities would open up for them once they got there.)

I prefer to play the game with the XP multiplier set to 0.2 or 0.1 (so I receive 10-20% of the normal XP) (and no XP for just standing around - that setting is always switched off). This allows me to enjoy the process of progressing through the levels - using every tier of tools, armor and weapons. At standard XP rates, I think most experienced players would agree you pretty much jump from stone to star-metal with maybe one other tier in between. By going slower I get to experience and enjoy those small incremental improvements. Enjoying the difference between stone and iron, iron and steel etc. And yes, I also have to be a bit more careful with what I spend my points on - until I am in a position to reset with potions of natural learning, I risk having too many points tied up in early tier knowledge and that can then limit the ability to open mid tier knowledge that I want - this also is part of the enjoyment, having to think and make careful tradeoffs. If I gain a level in a play session, that is probably the only points I am going to gain, so I need to consider where to put them (whereas at standard XP rates I would often find I had levelled half a dozen times without spending any of the points…).

This slower progress also means that there is more opportunity to go to various places while my level and equipment are still low enough to enjoy the challenge. Whether that is a lower tier dungeon like the Dregs, or just different regions of the map - it’s fun to go to the jungle while apes and salamanders are still dangerous (not difficult, they remain predictable of course, but their damage output can still be threatening, and mistakes or poor stamina management can be punished). And this also limits how soon you can realistically go to some locations - at low levels places like New Asagarth or the Unnamed City become real threats again (as they were when we were beginners), places to try and sneak into the periphery of and try to get out with some limited reward, rather than simply places to farm over and over until we get exactly what we wanted.

Obviously, none of this works on a server you do not have control of - I play in singleplayer (and the others that I know of who prefer these sorts of options are similarly either singleplayers or on dedicated private servers). And the new journey system, and increased prevalence of ‘good loot’ can work against this playstyle to some extent - it used to mean something to find a near broken falchion early game, now I could easily get better for free by completing a few journey steps or looting a few easily accessed chests. But a little restraint, plus the inability to repair these found items, can at least still allow some feel of earned progress through the lower levels.

Not suitable for all, of course, but I just wanted to point out a completely different approach that can also be enjoyable.

As for the stats portion of the discussion - I pretty much always begin by pumping the first five points into vitality - the passive regeneration feels especially useful when you have to grind for each step of progress. There might be other stats I would also find useful, but health is where I begin.

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I do remember this challenge…

The greatest problem i find in this choice of gameplay was the durability of the lower tier weapons and the absence of fridges. I love my kitchen and cooking in this game.

On lvl twenty something i got bored and i finished the game with an iron axe and a light encumbrance armor .

Nobody needs high level to visit all the map as long as he-she knows each spawn and what to avoid. Then the map has many chests and opportunities to give you higher level tools and gear. The reason i didn’t use them other than illusion, was to be correct with what this challenge wanted.

It does worth to try it both you @DanQuixote and @Xevyr are correct.

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Play by committing to perma death. You die, you recreate your character.

That alone will make you pause.

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While I don’t generally go the full permadeath route, I certainly get very frustrated when I do screw up and die. I’ve done a couple of playthroughs where I didn’t die at all, and it is very satisfying when I’ve managed it. And yes, having that attitude in mind certainly does make you pause and really consider whether a particular fight is worth it. (Plus it can lead to some hilarious ‘panic runs’ across the map when you are trying to avoid a fight. I think my best one of those was playing with Age of Calamitous mod (which adds a ton of overpowered enemies to the map) and everywhere I ran to I ran into another terrifying spawn. I eventually ended up back at noob river on an island, built a hut and told my thrall ‘we live here now’ :rofl: )

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Oh I tried that too :laughing: . It took me many efforts and many silly deaths. But the way i tried it was making it impossible in the end.

I still didn’t knew back then how easy it was to hold a lvl 10 purge without big risk.

It’s true that after lvl 60 , especially on single player, you have to do a really big mistake to die, probably stupidity of over confidence. But high level purges (except volcano) can lead you easily to death with only a minor mistake. Right now purges are the only difficult part this game has , no other.

But i wish for years this game had permadeath. It would be even better if you could rent a server with this option.

Anyways, if someone can think an interesting challenge let me know.

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I’ve given this some thought and came up with nada. We’ve tried/done it all within the framework of “the way things are now”™

Short of cheat free pvp, a redesign of the game geared towards more challenge, possibly true random gen maps so everything is different for every playthrough, or learning to code, buying the Conan rights and doing it ourselves I got nothing.

To quote Max from Strange Days, “How do you know it’s the end of the world? Cause everything’s been tried. Every kind of breakfast cereal, bubble gum flavor, hairstyles, everything. We’ve used it all up.”

As always this amazingly useful, productive and upbeat post brought to you by Raeil Inc.

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Tbh, I craft my challenges on Single player. If you activate a few options, your former thralls will become hostile if you set them so. This allows for some very dangerous enemies. On PlayStation, if you have two consoles and a few accounts, you can create some interesting scenarios. Without mods, it’s the best that we can do.

Imagine that you want to buy a castle with a small hold. You can, but you’ll need a treasure dude to exchange relics for gold, as it will cost a pretty buck. Then it’sa matter of inviting you to the clan and transfer leadership from another account. On top of that you have to free your crafters from the worst dungeons with some new enemies. Like a Arena Champion, full armor, level 20, bulked, with food (exotic feast) and not a Quake, but a master fitted momentum. Amd she has a twin. With another account, you can relive them as they’ll have 3 strikes. This is just an example. You can start at the cross, for instance. Travel to a stone and teleport inside the Exiled Lands. You can build two similar boats and copy your character to Siptah, as if you traveled there and come back when you want. You can even have the same thralls there. So, there’s still some room for fun, even if we are quite limited in what we can do.

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When I played on pvp servers I used the single player method you’re describing here to test base designs and thrall effectiveness. Aka I’d set it all up then come back and raid it. Theory crafting is well and good but until something is stress tested for real there’s no way to know how it’s going to hold up.

Guess that means I’m my own worst enemy…

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Pvp is a different thing altogether. Humans are much harder to fight than any NPC. All npcs are dumb compared to a noob on pvp.

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:backhand_index_pointing_up: . Fact that goes to literally everything, not only on gaming. Thanks for sharing wisdom brother, it’s highly appreciated.

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Players are sometimes worst than NPC’s

I do remember trying a lot of times to be friendly and sharing yet for some reason people felt threat and started attacking me.

So since i knew every combo in each weapon i knew when to dodge or counter attack and wait for his next move. Eventually i had to kill him and give him the presents i stopped to share. I told you again , back in these days most people playing pvp didn’t knew how to reach star metal and black ice harvesting. So sharing some of the stacks i harvested was a dreamy present. And yes, my build back then was constantly full encumbrance even in PvP servers. It was the grit war axe and the light of the always broken predatory that kept me alive. These weapons were always “useless” for PvP . Well …not exactly!

What kills PvP above all is performance. Without performance the game is only frustrating in this mode . But NPC’s? Yes you can kill these without decent performance, that’s absolutely correct.

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That’s so you lol. I know how much you like to help. I was on the receiving end for a long time. Materials, weapons and, the most invaluable gift, knowledge of the game. That’s what gets you on in this game, helping folks.

About the subject, yeah, at least we know what to expect from npcs. Those gifts, back in the day (previous to my time) were so awesome! But those dumb idiots couldn’t even recognize it, I reckon.

I had a few occasions on pvp where really cool players approached me to help. I always wait to see what happens when their weapons are sheathed. More than once, they helped me fight whatever I was fighting, usually a boss in the UC or a spider to get a legendary. But I also met the occasional jerk who decided to kill me instead while I was fighting.

I was just talking about combat. Humans are harder to fight. But when it comes to morals, I bet the average is worse than npcs! :sweat_smile:

Edit: and yes, performance is key. Otherwise it’s almost a game of luck. The one lagging less takes the day , purely by random chance.

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can’t when I’m in a risk of lagging and crashing; then reconnecting to see myself dead from teleportation

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It’s interesting reading your post (and others) as to how we all play the same game, but differently.
Having traversed the early stages unpteen number of times, I do tend to rush them (I’m a bit of an impatient player).

By the time I get to Stargazer’s Crest I’m usually at level 30 or higher. I will have at least 10 points in Encumbrance, 5 (min) in Vitality, 5 (min) in Grit, 5 (min) in Agility. I don’t worry about Authority early game.
Agility I level up early game for the ‘stopping power’ of daggers (even stone). Rush at a crocodile, hitting along his length. By the time it snaps at you, you are past it out of range. Turn and pause then repeat attack, hit and run, hit and run.
If I encounter a Corrupted Crocodile I take to my scrapers.

I’m now about to start a new game (for the umpteenth time lol). I’m going to discard my previous paths and try something different. Finding the leaping croc for example. I haven’t really explored the snow Biomes around the Volcano so that is also on my bucket list.
I have never played with Sorcery, except for using Illusion on the Thaumaturgy Bench so I will give that a shot as well.

Side note: for any new players reading, the Archery step is well worth it early game. Costs you nothing, and gives you 50 iron arrows reward.

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