How to play guide

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

A Conan Exiles Enhanced starter guide: controls, Survivor journey steps, water and food, bedrolls, knowledge and attribute points, corruption, followers and what the Enhanced upgrade changed.

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Conan Exiles is Funcom's open-world survival game set in Robert E. Howard's Conan universe. As an exile you start almost naked in the desert, gather stones and branches to craft tools, and fight thirst, hunger, monsters and other exiles while building your own fortress. You can play solo, on a private server or on online servers.

Conan Exiles Enhanced is the Unreal Engine 5 version Funcom built with Inflexion Games and released free to Steam owners on 5 May 2026. According to Funcom, it overhauls visuals and performance, lets one character travel between the Exiled Lands and the Isle of Siptah, and adds multiple single-player characters per account and a revamped interface.

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This guide follows the game's own first journey, Survivor, to explain what to do and in what order during your first hours. Mechanics come from the community wiki and Enhanced details from Funcom's official announcement.

Goal of the game

The game has no fixed ending but it has a frame: finding a way out of the lands you were exiled to. Your day-to-day goals are to survive and grow stronger: keep hunger and thirst bars full, craft tools and armor, build a base, and level up your character with Attribute and Knowledge points.

The game's guide is The Exiles Journey screen. The next step of your active journey shows at the top right; each step grants experience and completing a whole journey gives an extra reward. Later on you gain followers, run crafting stations, delve into dungeons and face Purge events, in which waves of enemies march on your base.

Controls

Key	Action
`W A S D`	Move
`Space`	Jump; hold to climb
`Left Shift (hold)`	Sprint
`C`	Crouch, dive, dismount
`E`	Interact; hold for the shortcut radial and bulk gathering
`Left click`	Light attack / use right-hand item
`Right click`	Heavy attack / use left-hand item; exit building mode
`Left Alt`	Dodge roll (not possible in heavy armor)
`Q`	Target lock
`Ctrl`	Block with shield, kick or throw (depending on item)
`1 - 8`	Hotbar
`Tab / I`	Inventory and crafting screen
`J`	The Exiles Journey
`M`	Fullscreen map
`Esc`	Menu; pauses single-player

First steps

Create your character and pick a faithDuring character creation you choose a Religion, which unlocks its Knowledge recipe for free. Choosing Crom gives no recipe. Race appearance doesn't affect gameplay.
Head for the smokeAfter 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.
Gather fiber, craft clothingCollect Plant Fiber and craft your first clothes from the inventory crafting screen. Wandering naked in the desert heat and night cold costs health.
Spend your first attribute pointsLevelling 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.
Stone pick and your first weaponGather 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.
Follow the road out of the desertStaying in the desert means thirst. Follow the road your journey points to; you'll reach water sources and more liveable areas.
Craft and place a bedrollCraft a Fiber Bedroll and place it somewhere safe. You respawn there when you die; without one you may start at a random, distant point.
Bandage up, cook meatHeal 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.
Carry your waterRefill your Waterskin at every water source. It's the simplest insurance for long walks and desert crossings.
Build a small shelterUnlock 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.

Tips and tactics

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.

Common mistakes

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.

Frequently asked questions

Is Conan Exiles Enhanced available in Turkish?

No. According to its Steam page the game supports English, French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese and Italian, but not Turkish.

Is Enhanced a separate, paid game?

No. According to Funcom, Enhanced is the Unreal Engine 5 update released free to Steam owners of Conan Exiles on 5 May 2026. The old version can be selected on Steam as Conan Exiles Legacy but receives no updates.

Is Enhanced on consoles?

According to Funcom's announcement, Enhanced is PC (Steam) only for now. The Xbox and PlayStation versions remain on Unreal Engine 4, with a future release said to be under consideration.

Can I play solo?

Yes. Single-player can be paused and server settings adjusted. Enhanced also allows multiple single-player characters per account.

How do I get to the Isle of Siptah?

In Enhanced the Exiled Lands and the Isle of Siptah can be explored with the same character without restarting. Access to the Isle of Siptah still requires owning its DLC.

Do my old saves carry over?

According to Funcom, Exiled Lands saves from the Unreal Engine 4 version, including characters, bases and loot, can be transferred to Enhanced.

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.