Things I took into consideration while writing this guide: I’ve even beaten things like Legendary of Kenshi solo using these ideas, so this should work for pretty much anything in Kenshi.

You are playing the game organically, no meta-farming, no save scumming, and you deal with the consequences of your actions. I personally only play ironman, and I recommend it if you’ve never tried it.

You are not using mods that drastically change the game, like ridiculous animations for weapons that shouldn’t have them, or armor and weapons that are way stronger than anything in the base game.

I strongly recommend using mods even on your first playthrough. RE-Kenshi and Dust feel like must-haves, along with SCARaw optimization mods and others.
If you’re too lazy, here’s a very good collection for a first or vanilla-like run:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3276600292

I played this collection for a long time and it’s great, but it changes the balance a lot, and many things I say here become invalid (primordial hive soldiers are insanely fun in that modpack, and heavy weapons become much stronger and viable from early game):

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2822248814

After my first playthrough, I realized I didn’t like managing big groups, so I kept reducing my squad size until I got to what I liked the most: solo. It’s better for RP, and all content can be done solo, yes, even building and defending a base. You just won’t be self-sufficient.

After thousands of hours playing solo and seeing there aren’t many guides for this kind of player, I decided to write one. This is not a step-by-step guide, but tips you can apply to any playthrough. I’ll approach it in a min-max way, but the “cool factor” matters more, so feel free to ignore anything.

RACES

Hives

Everything except Hive is very good.

The problem with Hive is that it was designed to be a swarm, where subraces complement each other and are low maintenance. You eat less, use cheaper healing and beds, bleed less, etc. But we’re solo, so most of those advantages don’t matter (movement speed is nice, but honestly unnecessary — my PC is a potato and enemies don’t run that fast anyway).

The Prince might be the best crossbow user and great for thievery, but anyone can use crossbows, and it’s one of the most OP things in the game, same as thievery.

The Soldier is extremely strong in early game, maybe the best race in the game (my favorite btw), but they can’t wear helmets. The problem? No gas immunity. So you’re basically locking yourself out of part of the game. Feel free to try dodging every gas cloud.

The solution is installing a mod that allows helmets or adds something to the belt slot, but I’m not going to tell you to install something that breaks balance. Do it if you want.

Now, a quick tier list of the other 3 races:

SHEKS: S+
HUMANS: S
SKELETONS: S

All three are very good. Maybe you’ve read that skeletons are the best race (which is true), and you’re wondering why they’re not higher. The answer is simple: consistency.

In a solo run, your priority is staying alive, and consistency is how you do that. The problem with skeletons is the lack of helmets. Unlike hive soldiers, they have gas immunity, so that part doesn’t matter, but you still have no head protection.

You won’t die from one head hit (with enough toughness), from anyone or even city harpoons, but Kenshi has a system where once a body part gets hit, the chance of it getting hit again increases. So if you take one hit to the head, you need to back off to “reset” it. If you take 3 more in a row, your stats will drop hard. And if that doesn’t matter, then anyone could’ve won that fight.

Sheks don’t have that problem, so they are the best race if all you care about is combat. Their main weakness is speed, but it doesn’t matter much. Once you run above 22 mph, you can escape almost everything. Their high maintenance isn’t an issue when it’s just you. That said, research and base building can be harder.

Humans are basically nothing, and that’s not bad. They have no weaknesses, which is great. Consistency is everything. You also get access to Holy Nation territory, which helps a LOT in early game.

WEAPONS

Just grab a Falling Sun, man. I’m kidding, it’s not the best.

Heavy Weapons

They deal insane damage, the best in the game, but you’ll spend more than half the game carrying trash because you don’t have the strength for better tiers.

You can argue junk weapons are good for training, and that you can put someone in bed and stack iron and walk forever, blah blah blah… but skipping early game with cheese, bugs, or sitting inside walls forever doesn’t feel right. If you do it, fine, just don’t say it’s the “correct” way.

That said, in endgame they are insanely strong, especially if you lose limbs on purpose to use robotic arms. Just be careful: if you take too many hits, your stats drop and you might swing your weapon as slow as a skeleton with 1 athletics.

Katanas

Great early game and against trash human mobs (which is most of the game), but late game they feel like a toothpick.

Blunt

Usable, but not ideal. If you really like it, you can use a spiked club, land some hits, and let bleed destroy the enemy while you block. It’s fun. The problem is range and strength requirement.

Now the 3 most interesting types for solo:

Sabres

Great defensive bonus. Defense > attack. Decent damage all game. But short range can make fighting groups slow or hard.

Hackers

Seen as worse heavy weapons, but lower strength requirements and best vs robots (which are a big part of late game). Also have armor penetration. Good from start to end, especially Paladin’s Cross. Average range.

Polearms

In my opinion, the best weapon type.

They look weak at first, like worse heavies or “hackers for animals”, but they’re actually good at everything. Good weight, consistent damage, good bleed, great range, and probably the best moveset.

If you micro your character, you can stunlock enemies (I think that’s OP though).

They work against almost everything, except robots, but still decent. Downsides: bad indoors and always two-handed. You’ll need to pull enemies outside, and maybe use a secondary weapon if you want to min-max.

Martial Arts

Very hit or miss. I don’t like it solo because it’s inconsistent and armor coverage is bad. One strong leg hit can mean death.

Crossbows

The most OP thing in the game.

ARMOR

I won’t go deep into this, there are guides for it, and it depends on your weapon. But:

Prioritize footwear (wooden sandals) and leg armor first.
You do NOT want to take heavy leg damage in solo.

TIPS

Never fight animals early if they can eat you (or “friendly” humans and robots)
Never stay with a badly injured leg — heal first
Always prioritize good armor over good weapons
Run at least 22 mph before leaving central areas
Don’t do all-wins (I don’t even follow this)
Never get knocked out in areas with predators, and never get knocked out anywhere before at least 30 toughness
Your enemy’s enemy is your ally, even if they’re hostile to you too.

Early Game

Best way to make money is being a vulture. Lure enemies to city guards or wait for fights, then loot everything.

You can also raid ruins, but sometimes you don’t even know where they are.

Thievery is always OP. Go to UC and rob noble houses. It’s safer than robbing armor traders, Scraphouse, or Mongrel shops solo.

Some people save scum before stealing. Honestly, if you’re doing that, you might as well just edit your money, but do whatever you want.

If you’re human, Holy Nation is paradise early game.

There are many shortcuts if you know the game (like kidnapping sleeping people), I don’t recommend it.

Always fight one enemy at a time.

And like I said: don’t get knocked out. Take some hits and back off.

Midgame

Buy your armor first, then explore less extreme regions. Have fun.

Endgame

Buy a house in a city first to start research. Snailhouse in Heft is the best for this, but if you don’t like the “USA of Kenshi” like I do, anywhere works.

Then build your base and do whatever you want.

That’s all I remember. There’s probably more like robotic limbs and stuff, but there are guides for that already.

Good luck to anyone trying solo.