The Isle of Siptah - A New Way to Play Conan Exiles

[Spynosaur_Nicole]

This article can be found in other languages on our blog post here.

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Conan Exiles: Isle of Siptah is an upcoming expansion, which launches into Early Access on the 15th of September, and the biggest update to Conan Exiles yet!

Stranded and shipwrecked on the Isle of Siptah you quickly realize that survival here will not be the same as in the Exiled Lands. Brand new challenges and features await.

Unlocking the secrets of the vaults, the maelstrom and the surge will be the key to the most valuable resource of all – human life. Mastering these new features will be the key to getting thralls on the Isle of Siptah.

The new features form a completely new game cycle for Conan Exiles and a new way to compete for dominance and precious thralls.

The Vaults of the Elder Races

Scattered throughout the landscape you can see ominous entrances to vaults. The remnants of the elder races dwell in these deep dungeons. Enter the vaults to explore dark tunnels, underwater caverns and ancient halls.

Solve puzzles to progress and uncover hidden treasures, all while fighting your way through fiends, demonic spiders, goblins, harpies and many more of the eldritch creatures that created these forgotten monuments.

Each vault was a receptacle for the power of an elder race. The vaults contain many treasures, such as items, recipes and knowledge of the cataclysm which befell the island in ages past, but the most valuable may be a new resource and a sigil of power.

The Maelstrom

The center of the isle is dominated by Siptah’s Tower and a terrifying portal looming above it. After arriving on the island you will bear witness to the brutal storm known as the Maelstrom. A swirling mass of destruction that explodes from the tower at semi-regular intervals, the Maelstrom is the power that fuels all conflict on the Isle of Siptah.

If you venture within the vast maelstrom and its circle of devastation you will attract horrors from the outer void. These unspeakable monsters flicker across the boundary between universes, which is thinnest when the Maelstrom rages. They are the mighty Lloigor, swarming Mi-go, terrifying Shaggai, hulking Kr’llyandian and many more. Building within the storm’s reach will also attract the monsters, and cause them to tear down your buildings, and the bigger you build the bigger monsters you will draw.

Though threatening and dangerous you want to seek out and destroy the horrors in the maelstrom, as they hold one of the keys to the many mysteries of the island.

The Surge

After a storm has passed, a mighty surge of power erupts from the Tower of Siptah. The tower lights up and a massive portal opens above it. Vicious tentacles emerge from the ominous portal, sowing terror in the hearts of all who are near.

Surges are the only source of thralls on the Isle of Siptah and you will need to defeat them in combat and break their will on the wheel of pain before they can serve as your fighters or crafters. There may be a way for you to use the dark power of the portal to your own advantage. Explore and master the secrets of the island and you will be able to take control of the surges and use them for your own benefit.

In you hunt for thralls and hunger to control the magical surges you must remember to protect yourself against other players, especially on PvP servers. Or perhaps you prefer to let others do the work for you, and instead attack ferociously after a rival clan has successfully controlled a surge and try to steal the thralls from under their noses?

Your choices will determine who will gain dominance over the Isle of Siptah. Who will have thralls to craft the most powerful recipes and who can call the most powerful warrior thralls to aid them in combat.

As you fight your way through the vaults, the storm and through the surges, one thing is for certain – Conan Exiles is more brutal than ever before!

[Danouk]

Will you be able to play solo or coop like you can with the old map and how would that work when you launch the game?

[Narelle]

@Danouk

Will you be able to play solo or coop

Yes, once you start a new game for Isle of Siptah, you will create a 2nd save and when you press Continue, the game will ask you which save you want to load.

[gbmist]

Am I the only one that can’t find reward chests for the keys you get after killing a World Boss? I have killed 4 so far and now have 4 keys I have no idea what to do with.

[Jimbo]

You can find them in vaults, or there is one right at the tower.

[CodeMage]

More than one around the tower.

[gbmist]

Inside or just around the outside? I haven’t been to the tower yet. And have any idea where to find silk or gossamer? Thanks
!!!

[gbmist]

Found the gossamer, nevermind.

[CodeMage]

I haven’t been inside the tower. I don’t even know if it’s possible or not – I’m still exploring and taking it slow

[Bodin]

There is one “skeleton key accessible chest” in each vault. There are several “skeleton key accessible chests” around the base of the main tower. Chests that contain standard loot are also scattered around the Barrens that surrounds the tower.

• Outer ring = standard chests (no key required)
• Inner ring = skeleton key chests (key required)

[prologue1337]

I heard in the Q&A mentioned thrall workers collecting resources (like in Ark) that would be part of a not yet future bigger plan.

But I don’t want to see anything like it at all here is why in my opinion:
I think any kind of AFK mechanic in a game is bad, the player must play the game and not let the game mechanics play for them.
This will also ruin the whole economy system of the game. Just play and collect the stuff yourself.

[DanQuixote]

I can see what you’re saying (and I’ve certainly so far taken that approach in my own play - avoiding certain mods because they looked a bit like they ‘give’ you stuff so long as you meet the requirements) and I wouldn’t want CE to end up as some sort of resource management game, where you sit back as the overlord and just give orders. But that said, picture this:

Maybe a special class of ‘worker’ thrall, maybe just a special workstation that requires a crafter (and resource proximity) - you have to take the thrall (or station) to the location of the resources you want to gather. You can’t just leave them there alone, because the local wildlife will kill them, so either you have to stay or you have to station a couple of decent fighters to guard them (location and resources could determine the threat level, either just what’s naturally around, or a sort of mini-purge). Perhaps they have a limit to the quantities they can gather. Maybe there could be a ‘team’ function that’s used to link these thralls (fighters, perhaps multiple workers), giving the ability to gather more total with more workers. Perhaps a bearer could be incorporated into the ‘team’, increasing the amounts that they can gather. I think that could be quite cool, and potentially add more interest to the game.

Obviously, I’m not saying that’s how it’s going to be, but we don’t know how it’ll be handled, and it could potentially be something quite interesting. So long as it doesn’t just ‘happen’ with no effort like a fish trap (which are fine as they are, I just wouldn’t want too many other resources to work the same way), I’d probably be happy enough. And, of course, the more flexibility of settings Funcom is able to hand over to players and servers the better. The more the game is able to be customised to suit the user(s), the closer it can get to ‘perfect’ for more users, since that’s always going to be different for different people.

[Maxpain]

so whats the new way to play Conan Exiles ? its still the same hack n slash-skill not needed. Boring dungeons which you can solo or 2 man.
Fly to level 60 in a few hours and then? with a new expansion I would expect a new way of playing, maybe a class system but no its still a building sim with a bit of hack n slash.

[prologue1337]

There is a different way of playing and achieving things on the Island of Siptah. Maybe you don’t like the differences but:

• Dungeons are different with new items
• The way you get thralls is different
• The landscape is much different with a lot of new and unique places
• The story is different
• Crafting is different, you can new learn things in a different way (really gotta find this out yourself don’t want to spoil it)

Based on the same game, what everyone expects.

Introducing classes will make the game totally different from what people expect from this game.

Did you even like the main game?

[JuanFra]

I do not know…

A quick glance at Steam and you will see that the game leaves buyers with mixed feelings to say the least (52% positive reviews so far).

So yes you have to keep in mind that the expansion is in development, but like since the December 5 update, Funcom has made some divisive choices and laid a ton of concrete on its foundations. Choices that lock the game more and more in a direction that I don’t like anymore.

Don’t make me say what I didn’t say, I loved playing Conan Exiles, I have several thousand hours under my belt and look at my steam review of the original game and you will see it positive with much praise.

But let’s go back to the history of development, originally thralls did not count as they were unusable and everything was based on combat. Then Funcom made them viable and expanded the weaponry and combo panel. They have also started to add interesting Dungeons with unique rewards. For me that was when the game hit its peak.

Then, they increased the power of the Thralls in significant ways, which made them almost indispensable overnight. And there they added the horses and destroyed the player’s mobility. Now on horseback on a stronger band than on foot, and it’s the thralls who provides both tank and damage. They tried to slow down their prominence by leveling, but a minimum of patience led to the same results.

Once again, it is possible to play differently, but hey, because it takes those who are playing a game to lose. Anyway, what I described above remains the most efficient way to play. And everyone thinks what they want, but I don’t like this new way of playing. Indeed, as said above, it has become Hack n Slash, but without the enjoyment of doing extraordinary things. And now they will be determined to balance their new, divisive healthcare system.

And finally, yes we have the right to be sorry when we see this energy expended in a direction that divides. This is irrefutable, Funcom’s choices divide. And when you add divisions to divisions, there is little chance that the result will be high. So much so that I am surprised to see such energy expended to defend this or that arrangement, or rather, this or that comma in a sentence that always loses its meaning. Certainly, many are gone, it is 2020, few are those who take the time to say: overall, you are going in the wrong direction! Rather than saying that a quarter of a second less for putting on the bandages would solve everything …

I still believe in you Funcom, but I believe less and less …

[prologue1337]

@JuanFra

A quick glance at Steam and you will see that the game leaves buyers with mixed feelings to say the least (52% positive reviews so far).

Have you seen the reviews people put there?
Lot’s of it is server related which has nothing to do with the new playstyle at all… or something else that affects the whole game… not only Siptah

Also a lot of players claim the map looks bad, mostly because they are missing the biomes but they clearly have n’t been exploring. Looks are a opinion of course but it feels unfair to say it looks bad since you can clearly see there has been a lot of time spend (loads of beautiful locations despite not as much biomes).

The map is n’t only for PvP what some players claim, even in PvE you encounter other players much more frequent, which is great for PvP but also does n’t make you feel lonely in PvE (like you are very lonely in like the swamp of the exiled lands).

The thrall spawn gotta be addressed I also dont understand why there should n’t be camps for thralls, the T2 thralls are already extremely rare… Why not have surges in clear skies and when it storms washed up thralls which move to camps on the beach?

And a lot more…

I’m a PvE player and I quite like the new map, I like doing dungeons and getting new stuff in them, the storm really gives a dark and unwelcome feeling which should be. The land is also much better to built on but feels a little small beacause of the map being split in 2 sides.

It needs a lot of polishing to be as good as the Exiled lands, but I don’t let other reviews get the hold on me since a lot of them did barely anything on the map other than rush to lvl 60 build a huge sandstone box and claim everything is bad bla bla bla.

[Ecto_One]

Thralls and the surge system is my biggest issue with the game so far, everyone seems to be crying out about it and no one is getting responses from the devs as far as I can see. At the moment I’m just stockpiling Eldarium and Chaos Essence until the crafting Thralls drop rate has been reviewed again as people are summons numerous top tier surges and getting none

Rhinos seem completely pointless, they are slow, regen recovery takes forever, they cant jump, wont defend themselves and just offer nothing extra that a horse cannot in fact I’d say they are much less useful than a horse at this point!

Also SIGILS…what exactly do they do? I know they appear in my stats and I can only assume they buff my attacks against the Maelstorm creatures but with 14 different Sigils I’d like to know if each one offers a different buff as the description for each is exactly the same and rather vague

[prologue1337]

@Ecto_One

Thralls and the surge system is my biggest issue with the game so far, everyone seems to be crying out about it and no one is getting responses from the devs as far as I can see. At the moment I’m just stockpiling Eldarium and Chaos Essence until the crafting Thralls drop rate has been reviewed again as people are summons numerous top tier surges and getting none

Very true and a wise decision, I do this too.
But they have said they’ll be balancing the surges, this often means spawn rate of certain tiers too.

So I guess we have to wait for next balancing update, I believe they are working on it in testlive atm

@Ecto_One

Rhinos seem completely pointless, they are slow, regen recovery takes forever, they cant jump, wont defend themselves and just offer nothing extra that a horse cannot in fact I’d say they are much less useful than a horse at this point!

Also true, the normally OP Rhino feels weak and slow

[JuanFra]

It does not always correspond to what I have read in my language. Truth be told, there is only one negative message related to the state of the servers. I could always say with pride that comments are more often about substance than form.

The messages deal with the new map, yes, but also with the idea of ​​a new map “in itself”. Lots of players who rediscover Conan during the expansion and take stock of it.

We must keep in mind that a lot of information is not accessible to us: the sales figures, the population of the servers, and obviously the disgruntled players who simply stop playing (and talking, remember: we are in 2020) etc … We only have clues, such as the friends who play it (or not or no longer), the entourage, the opinions on the forums but especially his own experience.

What I would like is for all this data, known or not, to be a pretext to discuss the substance. What Funcom and the Fan-base refuse at all costs. People just say: I like it or I don’t like it. Or on the contrary, they argue over trivial details that flow directly from policy decisions.

And that bothers me, because I liked this game you know.