HeftReport

English：Heft　·　Locations

Capital of the United Cities and seat of Emperor Tengu - the best-stocked commercial town in the game, and the Empire's single most fragile point.

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Heft is the current capital of the United Cities, sitting on the eastern side of The Great Desert, directly east of Stoat, southeast of Sho-Battai and northeast of Heng. It is the physical centre of imperial power: Emperor Tengu's palace is here, so is Noble Circle member Lord Ohta, and so is Koin, the diplomat who handles all of the Empire's external dealings.

Players can find it by exploration, or reveal it directly with the Map of the United Cities (Central Territories).

A capital that lives off two supply lines

Heft produces no food of its own. Its economy rests on two external sources: raw material exports from the slave camp of Port South to the southeast, and transshipment from Heng to the southwest, whose local economy is the most stable in the Empire.

This has a mechanical price. The capital's dignity is built entirely on other people's supply chains, and those chains are made of slave camps and a merchant guild — which is to say, take out a few slavers and the capital starves.

Two worlds inside the town

Beside the faction HQ is a "yard" fenced off from the rest of the town by makeshift walls and a gate, watched by a Samurai Gate Sergeant and Samurai Gate Guards. Inside there is one building and a handful of open-air camp beds.

Those beds come with no official explanation. The reasonable guess is that they are temporary housing thrown up by the government for the homeless, or that the drifters simply built them themselves. Either way the conclusion is the same: inside the walls of the imperial capital there is another wall, and it separates off the poor.

Tengu himself stays in the throne room, surrounded by the thickest bodyguard in the Empire: 5 Samurai Elites, 8 Samurai Captains, 2 Samurai Heavies and 5 Jonin Elites — that is the establishment when the town is not in famine; under the malnourished state the numbers shrink.

Commerce: the most useful resupply stop in the game

Heft is the town a manufacturing player should settle in. Its shop density, stock ceilings and category coverage are among the best on the map:

The Heft Armory is the one place in town worth a detour. Its name in the game data is comically blunt — best armour shop UC. It sells Samurai Armour, Samurai Helmets, Samurai Legplates, Mercenary Plate, Plate Jackets, Heart Protectors, Plated Longboots and more, and almost every piece comes with a blueprint. Amusingly, in the data this shop belongs to the Tech Hunters rather than the United Cities.

Beyond that, Heft has a Robotics Workshop (for repairing Skeletons and characters with prosthetics) and a Thieves Guild (stealth gear), both rare in UC territory.

Buildings for sale

Town overrides: how the capital falls

Malnourished

The trigger is the slaver Wada plus any one of Ruben, Longen or Ren being killed or captured. Supply from the Port South and Heng directions breaks at the same time, and famine and disorder sweep the town.

Technically Heft has three different malnourished override versions depending on who goes down alongside Wada — but the results they produce are identical. Fourteen of the town's 27 buildings become ruins; the palace, police station, noble house, two power stations and most shops remain, but everybody in them is starving.

Empire Peasants

The moment Emperor Tengu dies or is captured, Heft falls straight into the hands of the Empire Peasants. This is Heft's terminal state; no further override follows it.

All 17 buildings in town are destroyed, including a pass taken at the imperial HQ itself. What remains are Squatters, two rebel barracks, a black market bar, the Travel Gear shop — and that Armory, which somehow survives. If Tinfist is still alive, the Anti-Slavers will also establish an outpost here.

Related facility: assessing Tengu's Vault

The far end of the capital's justice system is not in the town but to the west — the United Cities' maximum-security prison Tengu's Vault lies out in The Great Desert west of Heng (see Prisons & Escape).

A channel that specialises in reviewing the design of Kenshi's towns gave this building a fairly merciless verdict: good concept, terrible execution. The structure is really just an ancient fortress with a wall and a pile of samurai added out front, and beyond the garrison there is barely anything resembling a defensive measure; only the third floor actually holds prisoners while every other floor is barracks, wasting enormous amounts of space and failing entirely to carry the presence a "maximum-security prison" ought to have^{[V1 0:11:51]}. That is a criticism at the level-design level — a reviewer's opinion rather than a problem with the setting.

Trivia

• Heft existed as far back as the game's Alpha, but back then it sat on the cliffs in the southeast of the map and belonged to the "Deadcat" faction, with a giant metal cage in the middle of town. It is one of the few cities that survived from the old world into the released game.
• "Heft" in English means bulk or weight. One reading takes it as the town's political and economic weight; another takes it as a jab at Emperor Tengu's waistline. Both circulate in the player community.

Buildings and shops

Tengu's Palace, Power Station x2, Noble House, Police Station, Slave Shop, Armory ~100 items, 12hr refresh, Bakery ~140 items, 24hr refresh, Bar (UC big bar) x2 ~240 items, 15hr refresh, Clothing Shop ~130 items, 12hr refresh, Farm Shop ~222 items, 12hr refresh, General Shop ~400 items, 12hr refresh, Mechanical Shop ~150 items, 24hr refresh, Ranger Shop ~60 items, 24hr refresh, Robotics Workshop ~25 items, 24hr refresh, Thieves Guild ~15 items, 12hr refresh, Travel Gear ~100 items, 24hr refresh

Buildings for sale

Sells

Vendors here stock 165 items in total, grouped by category — every entry links.

Items

Armour Plating, Authentic Skeleton Repair Kit, Basic First Aid Kit, Bloodrum, Book, CPU Unit, Cactus Rum, Cactus, Chainmail Sheets, Copper Alloy Plates, Copper, Cotton, Crossbow Parts, Damaged Book, Electrical Components, Fabrics, Fuel, Gears, Generator Core, Greenfruit, Grog, Hacksaw, Hinge, Iron Plates, Leather, Luxury Goods, Medical Supplies, Motor, Power Core, Press, Riceweed, Robotics Components, Sake, Simple Rug, Skeleton Repair Kit, Spring Steel, Steel Bars, Strawflour, Tools, Water Jug, Water, Wheatstraw

Light Armour

Cargopants (padded), Cargopants (reinforced), Cargopants (sneaky chain), Drifter's Boots, Drifters Leather Jacket, Drifters Leather Pants, Fog Mask, Hachigane, Halfpants (padded), Halfpants (reinforced), Halfpants (sneaky chain), Heart Protector, Ninja Mask, Ninja Rags, Samurai Clothpants, Side-Angle Hachigane, Swamp Ninja Mask, Trader's Leathers

Robot Limbs

Economy Arm (left), Economy Arm (right), Economy Leg (left), Economy Leg (right), KLR Series Arm (left), KLR Series Arm (right), KLR Series Leg (left), KLR Series Leg (right), Scout Leg (left), Scout Leg (right), Skeleton Arm (left), Skeleton Arm (right), Skeleton Leg (left), Skeleton Leg (right), Steady Arm (left), Stealth Leg (left), Stealth Leg (right), Thief's Arm (right)

Weapons

Combat Cleaver, Falling Sun, Guardless Katana, Heavy Polearm, Holed Sabre, Horse Chopper, Iron Club, Jitte, Katana, Naginata Katana, Naginata, Ninja Blade, Nodachi, Plank, Polearm, Ringed Sabre, Staff, Wakizashi

Shirts

Black Cloth Shirt, Blackened Chain Hive Shirt, Blackened Chain Shirt, Blackened Chainmail, Chain Shirt, Chainmail, Cloth Shirt, Dark Leather Shirt, Leather Shirt, Leather Turtleneck, Leather Vest, Rusty Chain Shirt, Rusty Chainmail, Turtleneck, White Vest

Medium Armour

Armoured Face Plates, Armoured Hood, Armoured Rags, Black Plate Jacket, Flared Helmet, Iron Hat, Masked Helmet, Mercenary Leather Armour, Plate Jacket, Plated Longboots, Police Helmet, Rusty Chainmail Tagelmust, Visored Helmet

Crossbows

Bolts Heavies, Bolts Longs, Bolts Regulars, Bolts Toothpicks, Eagle's Cross, Junkbow, Oldworld Bow MkII, Oldworld Bow MkI, Ranger, Spring Bat, Tooth Pick

Nutrition

Bread, Chewsticks, Cooked Vegetables, Dried Fish, Dried Meat, Dustwich, Foodcube, Meatwrap, Ration Pack, Raw Meat

Legwear

Cargopants, Gi Pants, Halfpants (ragged), Ninja Pants, Worn-out Shorts

Backpacks

Bull Backpack, Garru Backpack, Small Thieves Backpack, Thieves Backpack

Samurai

Samurai Armour, Samurai Boots, Samurai Helmet, Samurai Legplates

Heavy Armour

Bucket Zukin, Spiked Helmet, Tin Can

Clothing

Black Rag Shirt, Ninja Gi

Headgear

Sandogasa

Mercenaries

Mercenary Plate

Vendors and stock here

Compiled automatically from the wiki's vendor data: shops that can appear in this settlement and what they may carry. Actual stock varies with world state and randomisation.

Black Market Bar

Armour Plating, Authentic Skeleton Repair Kit, Basic First Aid Kit, Bloodrum, Bolts Heavies, Bolts Regulars, Bolts Toothpicks, Book, Bread, Chainmail Sheets, Combat Cleaver, Cooked Vegetables, Copper, Copper Alloy Plates, Dried Fish, Dried Meat, Electrical Components, Fabrics, … (57 items in all at this shop)

Clothing Shop

Cargopants, Cargopants (padded), Cargopants (reinforced), Cargopants (sneaky chain), Chain Shirt, Chainmail, Cloth Shirt, Drifter's Boots, Drifters Leather Jacket, Drifters Leather Pants, Gi Pants, Halfpants (padded), Halfpants (ragged), Halfpants (reinforced), Halfpants (sneaky chain), Leather, Leather Shirt, Leather Turtleneck, … (31 items in all at this shop)

Empire Bakery

Bread, Cactus, Chewsticks, Dustwich, Wheatstraw

Empire Big Bar

Bread, Cactus Rum, Dried Meat, Foodcube, Grog, Meatwrap, Sake, Water, Water Jug

Empire General Shop

Armour Plating, Authentic Skeleton Repair Kit, Basic First Aid Kit, Book, Cactus, Chainmail Sheets, Copper, Copper Alloy Plates, Electrical Components, Fabrics, Fuel, Gears, Grog, Hacksaw, Iron Plates, Leather, Luxury Goods, Medical Supplies, … (25 items in all at this shop)

Empire Mechanical Shop

Armour Plating, Authentic Skeleton Repair Kit, Book, Chainmail Sheets, Copper, Copper Alloy Plates, Electrical Components, Fabrics, Fuel, Gears, Generator Core, Hacksaw, Iron Plates, Leather, Skeleton Repair Kit, Spring Steel, Steel Bars

Empire Ranger Shop

Bolts Heavies, Bolts Longs, Bolts Regulars, Bolts Toothpicks, Eagle's Cross, Oldworld Bow MkI, Oldworld Bow MkII, Ranger, Spring Bat, Tooth Pick

Farm Shop

Basic First Aid Kit, Bread, Bull Backpack, Cactus, Cotton, Dried Meat, Garru Backpack, Greenfruit, Raw Meat, Riceweed, Water Jug, Wheatstraw

Heft Armory

Armoured Face Plates, Armoured Hood, Black Plate Jacket, Bucket Zukin, Flared Helmet, Hachigane, Heart Protector, Iron Hat, Masked Helmet, Mercenary Leather Armour, Mercenary Plate, Plate Jacket, Plated Longboots, Police Helmet, Samurai Armour, Samurai Boots, Samurai Helmet, Samurai Legplates, … (22 items in all at this shop)

Robotics Workshop

Authentic Skeleton Repair Kit, Book, CPU Unit, Copper Alloy Plates, Crossbow Parts, Damaged Book, Economy Arm (left), Economy Arm (right), Economy Leg (left), Economy Leg (right), Electrical Components, Fuel, Gears, Generator Core, Hacksaw, Hinge, Iron Plates, KLR Series Arm (left), … (39 items in all at this shop)

Slave Shop

The source does not record what this shop sells.

Thieves Guild

Armoured Hood, Armoured Rags (black), Black Cloth Shirt, Black Plate Jacket, Black Rag Shirt, Blackened Chain Hive Shirt, Blackened Chain Shirt, Blackened Chainmail, Dark Leather Shirt, Drifter's Boots, Drifters Leather Pants, Fog Mask, Guardless Katana, Katana, Mercenary Leather Armour, Ninja Blade, Ninja Mask, Ninja Rags, … (25 items in all at this shop)

Travel Gear

The source does not record what this shop sells.

Video citations

1. Kenshi Base Building - Anzai's VaultHeroInHisHead