Conan Exiles Enhanced Beginner's Guide: First Day, the Survivor Journey and Your Base

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1. Create your character and pick a faith During character creation you choose a Religion, which unlocks its Knowledge recipe for free. Choosing Crom gives no recipe. Race appearance doesn't affect gameplay.
2. Head for the smoke After waking in the desert, the Survivor journey points you to smoke nearby. Grab the supplies there and eat and drink. In the first minutes thirst becomes dangerous faster than hunger.
3. Gather fiber, craft clothing Collect Plant Fiber and craft your first clothes from the inventory crafting screen. Wandering naked in the desert heat and night cold costs health.
4. Spend your first attribute points Levelling up grants attribute points. Vitality raises your health pool, Grit your stamina and armor, Strength your strength-based damage. Allocations aren't permanent; a Potion of Bestial Memory resets them.
5. Stone pick and your first weapon Gather stones and branches. With the Stone Tools knowledge unlocked at level 2, craft a Stone Pick, harvest stone with it, then craft your first stone weapon.
6. Follow the road out of the desert Staying in the desert means thirst. Follow the road your journey points to; you'll reach water sources and more liveable areas.
7. Craft and place a bedroll Craft a Fiber Bedroll and place it somewhere safe. You respawn there when you die; without one you may start at a random, distant point.
8. Bandage up, cook meat Heal yourself with Rough Wraps. Harvest meat from animals, unlock Primitive Cook and cook it at a campfire. Cooked food is far safer and more filling than raw meat.
9. Carry your water Refill your Waterskin at every water source. It's the simplest insurance for long walks and desert crossings.
10. Build a small shelter Unlock basic building pieces with Knowledge points and build a small shelter on flat ground near water. Keep a chest, campfire and bedroll together; this becomes your first base.

• Plan your Knowledge pointsKnowledge points come with levels and are spent to unlock recipes. Prioritise survival, building and tool recipes first; recipes you find in the world unlock without spending points.
• Know the attribute capAttribute points come one per level up to level 60, stopping at 60 total. Maxing a single attribute costs 20 points, so you can't max everything; balance them for your playstyle.
• Avoid corruptionDeep caves, ruins and magical creatures spread Corruption. It lowers your maximum health and stamina; cleanse it with a Cleansing Brew or by spending time near Performer followers.
• Hold E to gatherHolding E gives extra interaction options and lets you gather some materials in bulk. It saves time when collecting fiber and stone.
• Know the cost of heavy armorYou can't dodge roll in heavy armor. If your fighting style relies on dodging, prefer light or medium armor.
• Use Enhanced's crafting convenienceAccording to Funcom, crafting in Enhanced can pull ingredients from nearby storage and follower inventories. Placing crafting stations next to your chests speeds things up.
• Get a followerFollowers accompany you and help in fights; one can travel with you at a time. Human followers (Thralls) can currently be obtained in several ways such as capturing, rescuing, hiring or buying, and can work at stations or guard your base.
• Return to your body after deathWhen you die, your items stay on your corpse and you respawn at your bedroll. Think about where your bed is and your route back before taking risks, so you can recover your gear in time.
• Prepare before a PurgeA Purge is started through the Treasure Coffer in your base and sends waves of enemies at it. You can't build or repair during a Purge, so set up your defences beforehand.
• Use settings in single-playerIn single-player Esc pauses the game and server settings let you adjust values such as hunger, thirst or harvest rates. It makes learning the game easier.

• Underestimating water: the thirst bar drops fast in the desert and it causes most early deaths.
• Forgetting to place a bedroll: you may respawn far away and fail to reach your corpse.
• Putting off attribute points: levelling up alone doesn't raise your health or stamina.
• Entering deep caves unprepared: corruption lowers your maximum health and makes the way back harder.
• Building your first base beside busy roads on official servers: it draws other players' attention online.

This guide was written for version: This guide reflects Conan Exiles Enhanced (Unreal Engine 5) as of September 2026. The interface was revamped in Enhanced, so some key and menu names may differ; controls can be rebound in settings.

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