Conan Exiles: Beginner's Guide & Best Tips

Introduction — Why This Game Will Own Your Life (and Why That's Okay)

Look, I'm not gonna sugarcoat it. Conan Exiles is a janky, buggy, beautiful mess of a survival game that I've dumped over 800 hours into, and I'd do it again. It's not polished like Valheim, not as "friendly" as Minecraft, and it sure as hell isn't optimized — you'll still get frame drops in your base when you've got 20 thralls and a dozen torches running. But here's the thing: no other game makes me feel like an actual barbarian king (or queen) carving a kingdom out of a cursed wasteland.

What makes it special? The world doesn't care about you. You're not the chosen one. You're a naked dude who gets dropped in the desert by a giant snake god, and if a hyper-aggressive alligator decides you look like lunch, nobody's coming to save you. I love that. I love that the weather can kill you, the wildlife can kill you, and other players — on PvP servers — will kill you, loot your corpse, and build a shrine out of your skull. It's brutally honest.

I hate the rubber-banding when my horse decides to clip into a rock. I hate that the building system sometimes decides a wall piece "doesn't fit" for zero reason. And I really hate how some endgame purge mechanics feel like the game just decides to nuke your base. But I keep coming back because the moment you down your first named thrall, build a wheel of pain, and watch them break — that hit of dopamine? Unmatched.

This guide is for the fresh spawns who just woke up on the River. I'm gonna tell you how to not die of thirst in the first 10 minutes, how to actually progress without banging your head against a wall, and the tricks that took me hundreds of hours to figure out. No fluff, no SEO garbage. Just real talk from someone who's been there.

Getting Started / First Steps — What I Wish I Knew Before My 20th Death

Alright, so you just spawned at the noob river (The Conan Exiles equivalent of a starting zone). You're naked, you have a rock, and a hyena is already eyeing you like you're an all-you-can-eat buffet. Here's what you actually need to do, in order, to not die in the first 5 minutes.

Step 1: Punch a tree, grab a rock, and make a pick. That sounds obvious, but here's the thing — don't bother with the stone axe first. Go for the Stone Pick (5 stone, 2 branch, 20 plant fiber). Why? Because you can harvest bark from trees with it, and you'll need bark for drying racks to make preserved food. Food spoils fast, and you don't want to be chasing rabbits forever. I spent my first 10 runs thinking I could just eat raw meat — yeah, you get dysentery and die. Fun.

Step 2: Find water. The noob river is literally right there. Don't go inland. Drink every 30 seconds at first — your thirst meter drops like a stone. I once thought "I'll just walk to the next oasis," collapsed from dehydration, and a scorpion ate me. Also, don't drink from swamp water unless you want the "Festering Wound" debuff. Trust me.

Step 3: Make a bedroll as soon as you can. You need 20 plant fiber and 5 twine (from fiber). Drop it somewhere safe. If you die without one, you respawn at the random desert obelisk and have to run back naked through a pack of crocodiles. I speak from experience — I lost my first full set of iron tools because I got cocky and skipped the bedroll.

Step 4: Loot every single noob camp you see. Those broken stone huts with the skeletons inside? They have iron bars, leather, and sometimes a weapon. You can rush to Sepermeru (the big city in the desert) by running along the river, but you'll get wrecked by snakes and corrupted humans if you go too early. Stick to the river area until you're level 15 with at least 300 HP.

Step 5: Don't fight the crocodiles. They look slow, but they one-shot you at level 1. I know, you think you can dodge. You can't. I tried. The crocodile won. Just run around them, or better yet — climb a rock and throw spears at it like a coward. That's the Conan way.

Core Mechanics & Progression — How the Game Actually Works (Spoiler: It's Not Fair)

Alright, you've survived the first hour. Now you need to understand how this game actually scales. Because if you treat it like Skyrim where you can just level up and become a god, you're gonna get flattened.

Leveling. You get XP from everything — crafting, building, killing, even exploring new areas. But the fastest way to level early on? Crafting sandstone foundations. They give great XP per material, and you can just spam them them when you're near a rockslide. I went from level 10 to 20 in about 30 minutes by doing this. It's brainless, but it works.

Attribute Points. You get one per level, up to level 60. Here's the real deal: put your first 10 points into Encumbrance. I cannot stress this enough. Everyone says "go strength" or "go vitality." Shut up. You will carry so much junk in this game — rocks, iron, wood, thralls, food — that having 15 extra carry weight will save you hours of running back and forth. After 10 in Encumbrance, go Vitality to 20 (that's 600 HP and better regen). Then you can dump the rest into Strength if you want to bonk things.

Feat Points (Skill Tree). You also get one per level. This is where new players screw up. The tree is huge and overwhelming. My advice? Rush the "Steel" feat line (it's under Blacksmithing). Steel weapons and tools are a massive upgrade from iron. Don't bother with armor crafting early — you can loot armor from dead exiles and thralls. Spend your first 15 feats on: Survivalist (for the bedroll), Carpenter 1 (for drying racks), Blacksmith 1-3 (for steel), and Siege 1 (for explosive jars later). That's it.

Thralls — The Real Progression. This is the secret sauce. You build a Wheel of Pain at level 20 (it's under the "Fighter" feat line). Knock out a human NPC with a truncheon, drag them back, put them in the wheel with gruel (food), and wait. After a few hours, they become your thrall. They'll craft faster, fight for you, and make your base actually feel alive. A T4 (named) crafter thrall reduces repair costs by 50% and speeds up crafting by 200%. Hunt for them early — camp the Sepemeru city at night and knock out the ones that look special.

Purges. Once you build a base with a certain "threat level" (check the meter on your map), the game sends waves of enemies to destroy it. The first purge is manageable — like 10 Dafari warriors. The later ones? I had a purge of 40+ Cimmerian berserkers that wiped my entire base because I built a single wall of sandstone. Don't build your main base out of sandstone. Use T2 (iron-reinforced) or T3 (black ice) for your main walls. I learned that the hard way when my "fortress" collapsed in 30 seconds.

Expert Tips & Tricks — The Stuff You Only Learn After 200 Hours

These are the tips that make you feel like a god among mortals. Not the "craft a bedroll" nonsense.

• The "Sneaky Croc" trick. Crocodiles drop tough hide, which you need for heavy armor. Early game, you can't beat them in a fight. Solution? Climb a cliff near the river, shoot them with a bow from above. They can't path up. You can farm 100 tough hide in 10 minutes. Do this before you hit level 30.
• Placing campfires under water. Wait, what? Yes. If you place a campfire on a shallow riverbed, it still works. No one expects a fire in the middle of the water. Great escape route if you're being chased by players on a PvP server. They will literally swim into the fire and burn.
• The Oasis of the Damned is the best early base spot. It's in the northwest of the noob river, near the giant skull. It has water, iron nodes, and a few named thrall spawns nearby. But more importantly: it's flat. Building on flat ground in this game is a blessing because the building system hates slopes. I built my first base on a hill and spent 3 hours trying to get a ceiling to snap. Don't be me.
• Horses are faster than any mount. Everyone rushes for a rhino or a deer. Horses are 197% faster than sprinting, and they don't have that annoying "stamina pause" that other mounts have. Tame a horse early — it's the difference between exploring the map and dying of thirst halfway there.
• The "Javelin Trick" for world bosses. There's a giant spider in the north called the Spider Queen. It hits like a truck. But if you stand on the rocks near her lair, she can't reach you. Throw 50 iron javelins from range. It takes 5 minutes, but you get a legendary drop that sells for 500 gold. I farmed her 10 times in a day and crafted the "Claws of the Spider Queen" daggers — they do bleeding damage that stacks to 200 DPS.
• Use the "repair all" button AFTER stripping nude. When you repair gear, it costs in-game currency (gold or silver coins) if you're using a repair hammer. But if you equip the broken item, then unequip it (making you naked), the repair cost is half. I don't know why. It's been a bug for years. Use it. It's not cheating, it's working as intended by Funcom's spaghetti code.

Common Mistakes to Avoid — What Got Me Killed, Wrecked, and Frustrated

I've made every dumb mistake in this game so you don't have to. Here's what not to do.

• Don't build your base near a world boss spawn. I once built a cozy cabin near the "Monstrous Crocodile" spawn in the swamp. I thought, "I'll just avoid it." The croc aggroed on my thralls, they all died, and the croc then despawned into my base wall. My base collapsed from structural damage because the croc's body was counted as a "structure." Zero stars, would not recommend.
• Don't store all your valuables in one chest. This is PvP 101, but even in PvE — I lost 200 steel bars because a purge spawned inside my base and destroyed the single chest I had. Spread your loot across multiple chests. Better yet, build a small "decoy base" nearby that looks like your main base, but is empty. When I did that, a raid team spent 2 hours destroying my decoy and left my real base untouched. Tactical genius.
• Don't eat raw human flesh. Yeah, there's a recipe for "human flesh" from killing NPCs. You can cook it and it gives good hunger. But if you eat it raw, you get "The Hunger" debuff — which is permanent until you eat a "Shadebloom" (rare plant). I ate raw flesh once while trying to save inventory space, and I spent the next 3 real-world hours running around the jungle looking for a weird purple flower. Not worth it.
• Don't fight the Dregs dungeon at level 15. The game tells you it's "recommended level 15." That's a lie. The final boss has 5,000 HP and one-shots you with a poison blast. I went in with iron weapons and a prayer, and got eaten by the boss's adds (spiders) in 4 seconds. Wait until level 30 with steel weapons and a shield.
• Don't skip the "Survivalist" feat. There's a feat under Survival that lets you craft "Insulated Wood" — which is required for the best campfire (the "Furnace" basically). If you don't take it, you'll be stuck with the basic campfire that uses 2x the fuel. I played 50 hours without it, thinking "I'll just use more wood." I wasted over 10,000 wood because I was too stubborn to spend one feat point.
• Don't trust the swimming mechanics. You can swim, but the game has a hidden "stamina drain" while swimming that's way faster than running. If you try to swim across the Great River (the wide one in the north), you'll run out of stamina and drown. I lost a full set of Flawless Silent Legion armor doing this. Watch for shallow crossings — there are bridges and rocks you can hop on.

FAQ — The Questions You're Too Afraid to Ask in Global Chat

These are the real questions I see new players typing in chat, followed by the real answers. Not the "read the wiki" nonsense.

Q: Can I play this game solo or do I need a group?
A: You can 100% solo. I've done all three major boss fights solo (the Arena, the Witch Queen, and the Undead Dragon). Takes patience and ranged weapons. But for the love of Crom — avoid official PvP servers as a solo. You'll get raided by a clan of 12 people while you're offline. Play on a PvE-C (conflict) server or a private PvP server with rules.

Q: What's the best weapon type?
A: For early game? Spears. They have reach, you can poke from behind a shield, and the heavy attack does a lunge that staggers. For mid-game? Daggers with bleeding. The "Blade of the Adventurer" (found in a chest near the Black Galleon) has a base 45 damage and applies a bleeding that ticks for 15 damage per second for 10 seconds. That's 150 extra damage. For endgame? Two-handed mace with the "heavy armor" build. The mace reduces enemy armor by 20% on hit. Stack that with a T4 fighter thrall, and you can kill the giant Rhino boss in 20 seconds.

Q: How do I get more inventory space without encumbrance?
A: Craft a "Saddlebag" for your horse or pack animal. A basic horse saddlebag adds 15 slots to the mount. Also, use the "Survivalist" skill to craft "Pouches" that go on your belt (adds 5 slots each). I have 3 pouches on my character, giving me 45 extra slots total. Now I never run out of space when farming.

Q: Why do my buildings keep crumbling?
A: You're probably using sandstone in a decay zone. Every building material has a "decay timer" — sandstone lasts 7 days if you don't log in, while T3 lasts 30 days. But more importantly, check your building integrity. If you have a wall hanging in the air with no support (like a doorframe missing), it will collapse. I once removed a pillar and my entire second floor fell on my head. Game over.

Q: Is the DLC worth it?
A: Depends. The Isle of Siptah DLC is a different map with more verticality and a unique "storm" mechanic (you surf on a giant sandstorm to travel). It's fun but the base map is bigger. The cosmetic DLCs (like the "Barbarian" pack) are purely visual — they add armor skins and building pieces. I bought "The Decor" pack for the doorways that are 2.5 meters high instead of the default 2 meters. It made my base look 10x better. If you're not into building, skip. If you want to show off your base to friends, get it.

Q: The game is buggy — should I wait for it to be "fixed"?
A: It's been out since 2018. It's not getting "fixed" — it's getting patched and updated. There are still bugs (like thralls walking into walls, invisible crocodiles, and the occasional crash when you open a chest). But the dev team (Funcom) is active, and they added a whole new biome (the Deadlands) in 2023. It's a "embrace the jank" situation. If you want a polished survival game, play Valheim. If you want a brutal, chaotic sandbox where you can build a castle, enslave your enemies, and ride a giant spider into battle — this is it.

Q: What's the fastest way to get to level 60?
A: Build a steel bar crafting loop. Mine iron, smelt it, then craft it into steel (iron + coal + tar). Each steel bar gives 500 XP. I made 2,000 steel bars once in a marathon session and went from level 45 to 60 in 2 hours. Combine with the "Blacksmith" thrall to reduce material cost. You're welcome.

That's it, fresh blood. Now go out there, get your thralls, and remember: if it moves, you can probably kill it, eat it, or drag it back to base. Crom laughs at your ill-equipped, home-brewed weapons, but so long as you're laughing back, you're playing it right.