MongrelReport

English：Mongrel　·　Locations

The independent city at the dead centre of the Fog Islands, under endless siege by the Fogmen. Most who get in never get out — which is exactly why it is the least judgemental place on the continent.

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People don't make a habit of visiting here. If you're lucky enough to make it to Mongrel, you're stuck in Mongrel. — Shinobi Guard

Mongrel is a city built on a lone island in the middle of the Fog Islands, and the only holding of the faction that shares its name. It belongs to no empire; there are no taxes, no doctrine, no background checks — the price being that it is surrounded on all sides by a fog that eats people.

Within the narrative architecture of the Fog Islands, it plays exactly one role: the only refuge. Those who escape the Fogmen can shelter behind these walls, but most of them end up trapped in the region for good, unable to leave^{[V1 0:06:45]}.

Geography: Easy to Enter, Impossible to Leave

The Fog Islands are a chain of basins where ground fog never lifts, the terrain littered with the colossal metal wreckage of a previous civilisation — the same visual vocabulary as neighbouring Obedience. The land is ruled by the Fogmen (also called the Deadhive), a runaway branch of the Hive that carries knocked-out victims back to its nests, ties them to poles and eats them alive.

One reading holds that the Fog Islands were once the site of another Hive civilisation, the Fogmen being what was left after that civilisation collapsed. The evidence advanced for this inference is that if both Hive Queens die at the same time, Fogmen spread into every former Hive holding — Hivers appear unable to hold onto their sanity without a queen's pheromones.

Founding: A Prison Break

The city's origin is written down in two documents held in the faction headquarters — Mission Graeme: Status and the three volumes of Maril's Diary. Both are described as papers "decades old".

It began with a failed job. The target died, and a ninja called Greycloud was captured by the Holy Nation and sentenced to Rebirth. His comrade Gomoe wrote in to report that Greycloud would be held in isolation for the next 72 hours; that was the only window.

Maril's Diary records what happened next:

1. Five of them slipped into Rebirth by night. Greycloud's legs had already been crippled badly enough that someone had to carry him — the Holy Nation knew perfectly well what a ninja could do, so they took his legs first. A priest woke during the operation and started towards the isolation chamber; Yania cut his throat before he could raise the alarm. The diarist's only comment: "And with the death of a holy priest… they're not going to be happy."
2. Carrying the immobile Greycloud, they fled west into the Fog Islands. When the Sentinels caught up, the thick fog turned into a battlefield advantage — they hid in it and picked their pursuers off one by one. But they were not the only things in the fog.
3. The last Sentinel was dragged off into the depths of a basin by "the locals" in a swarm. The diarist recorded only the screaming that came out of the fog. They found an island and judged it easy to defend and hard to assault: deep fog and neighbours who welcome no outsiders are a defensive line in themselves.

That island later became Mongrel.

The Present: A City That Does Not Ask Where You Came From

"Mongrel" literally means a crossbreed or a mutt, and no word could suit this city better. Inside it live Shinobi Thieves, trade ninjas, mercenaries, adventurers, exiles, escaped slaves, wanted criminals and a handful of Tech Hunters — with exactly one thing in common: all of them are people the fog has boxed in^{[V2 0:03:18]}. The faction's racial spawn weights are just as mixed: Greenlander (150), Scorchlander (60), Shek (60), Hive Soldier Drone (60), Worker Drone (30), Hive Prince (10), and even Skeleton (4).

None of that is unusual outside the Holy Nation. What is unusual is that the Holy Nation's prohibitions have no purchase here at all — Mongrel's relation value with the Holy Nation is −100, and the robotics workshop, tech workshop and weapon shop in town sell goods that would all count as heresy across the border.

Daily life here is a siege. The gate guards are extremely capable fighters, but the Fogmen come at the gate in wave after wave, and the town has eight corpse furnaces — that number is a battle report all by itself.

The leader is Arc, a legendary-grade sabre fighter permanently stationed at the faction headquarters. Beyond "very good with a blade", the game says nothing whatsoever about his past, or about why he leads these people. He is not tied to any world state, and harming him wrecks the player's relationship with Mongrel.

The People Inside

Mongrel has one of the highest densities of unique recruits of any town in the game:

The backgrounds of two of these recruits illustrate, from opposite directions, exactly what kind of person this city takes in.

Crumblejon is the sort left behind by time. He was once a United Cities samurai much favoured by the nobility, and served on well past his prime; once his master died he could never find another posting, and finally chose to retire to Mongrel, where his collapsing body earned him the nickname^{[V3 0:04:07]}. He claims to be at least forty-five and nearly every skill of his has fallen to 10 or below — only Strength, at 24, is still worth anything — and he still carries a Fragment Axe on his back^{[V4 0:11:46]}.

Shryke is the sort pinned in place by fear, and the most concrete case of "easy to enter, impossible to leave". She was a treasure hunter; her brother never made it into Mongrel, and the wiki's reading is that the Fogmen outside took him and ate him alive. Every time she works up the courage to go, his tortured screams come back to her and she stays^{[V5 0:07:18]}. She will leave with the player for free, though she hesitates if the squad is smaller than three.

Food: The City's Real Countdown

Mongrel's structural crisis is not the Fogmen, it is supply. Because the fog has severed all contact with the outside, the city has been forced to grow an entire self-sufficient economy — workshops, a bar, production facilities, the lot — sustaining an independent cycle by sheer stubbornness^{[V2 0:03:18]}. The town does have an automated tier-3 ore drill, but that solves ore, not calories.

And lore commentators generally agree that the fatal weakness lies right there: most people in town cannot leave, and therefore cannot trade abroad, so following that structure through, the food stores must eventually run dry^{[V6 0:02:43]}. This is not merely an outsider's observation — Shryke herself says outright that the island's reserves will not last, and that worry is not a minority opinion in town^{[V2 0:03:18]}.

Some commentators therefore argue that calling Mongrel "an oasis in the Fog Islands" is flattery: it is closer to a refugee city, because most of its residents did not choose to stay but are trapped there with no way out — which is also why a good number of players build their own base elsewhere in the Fog Islands and treat it as a cleaner, more fully functional substitute^{[V7 0:02:12]}.

What This Means for Players

• Arriving is an achievement in itself. Approach within sight of the gate so the guards will hold off your pursuers. The guards are strong, but Fogmen still leak through now and then.
• Be extremely careful with sleeping squadmates. Fogmen will carry off a character who is lying down, and the carried character cannot break free on their own — a nearby ally has to knock down the kidnapper.
• The range of goods is comprehensive, including things unavailable in the Holy Nation. The weapon shop is run by a Ronin weapon trader; armour quality rolls on relative weights of Standard (50), Shoddy and High (20 each) and a little Specialist (8), with no Prototype and no Masterwork.
• Only two buildings are purchasable: two Shacks (4,000 Cats) and a Y-House (14,000 Cats).
• The town holds both a Shinobi Thieves tower and a Tech Hunters stall, making it one of the few places to plug into both grey networks at once.

See Also

• Fogmen
• Beep
• Tech Hunters
• Hive
• Locations of Kenshi

Buildings and shops

Armour Shop, Bar x3, Barracks, Boot Shop, Clothes Shop, Corpse Furnace x8, Faction HQ, General Shop, Ore Drill III (Automated), Ranger Shop, Robotics Workshop, Shinobi Thieves Watchtower, Tech Workshop, Weapon Shop

Buildings for sale

Sells

Vendors here stock 162 items in total, grouped by category — every entry links.

Items

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

Robot Limbs

Economy Arm (left), Economy Arm (right), Economy Leg (left), Economy Leg (right), Industrial Lifter Arm (left), Industrial Lifter Arm (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, Desert Sabre, Falling Sun, Foreign Sabre, Guardless Katana, Holed Sabre, Horse Chopper, Katana, Mercenary Club, Moon Cleaver, Naginata, Ninja Blade, Nodachi, Plank, Ringed Sabre, Spiked Club, Staff, Wakizashi

Light Armour

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

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 Rag Skirt, Armoured Rags, Black Plate Jacket, Blackened Chainmail Tagelmust, Mercenary Leather Armour, Plate Jacket, Plated Longboots, Rusty Chainmail Tagelmust, White Plate Jacket

Crossbows

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

Backpacks

Large Backpack, Medium Backpack, Scavenger's Basket, Small Backpack, Small Thieves Backpack, Thieves Backpack, Trader's Wooden Backpack

Nutrition

Bread, Cooked Vegetables, Dried Fish, Dried Meat, Foodcube, Meatwrap, Ration Pack

Legwear

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

Headgear

Ashland Hat, Ashlander Stormgoggles, Sandogasa

Clothing

Black Rag Shirt, Ninja Gi

Samurai

Samurai Boots, Samurai Legplates

Footwear

Wooden Sandals

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.

Adventurer Ranger Shop

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

Boot Shop

Advanced First Aid Kit, Authentic Skeleton Repair Kit, Basic First Aid Kit, Drifter's Boots, Fabrics, Large Backpack, Medium Backpack, Plated Longboots, Samurai Boots, Scavenger's Basket, Skeleton Repair Kit, Sleeping Bag, Small Backpack, Splint Kit, Standard First Aid Kit, Trader's Wooden Backpack, Wooden Sandals

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, Hemp, Iron Plates, Leather, Luxury Goods, … (27 items in all at this shop)

Independent Bar

Bread, Cooked Vegetables, Dried Fish, Dried Meat, Foodcube, Greenfruit, Grog, Meatwrap, Ration Pack, Water, Water Jug

Mongrel Armor Shop

Armoured Face Plates, Armoured Hood, Armoured Rag Skirt, Armoured Rags, Ashland Hat, Ashlander Stormgoggles, Authentic Skeleton Repair Kit, Black Plate Jacket, Blackened Chainmail Tagelmust, Dark Leather Shirt, Dustcoat, Heart Protector, Leather Turtleneck, Mercenary Leather Armour, Mercenary Plate, Plate Jacket, Rusty Chainmail Tagelmust, Samurai Clothpants, … (21 items in all at this shop)

Mongrel Clothes 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)

Mongrel 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, Industrial Lifter Arm (left), Industrial Lifter Arm (right), … (41 items in all at this shop)

Mongrel Tech Workshop

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

Mongrel Weapon Shop

Combat Cleaver, Desert Sabre, Falling Sun, Foreign Sabre, Guardless Katana, Holed Sabre, Horse Chopper, Katana, Mercenary Club, Moon Cleaver, Naginata, Ninja Blade, Plank, Ringed Sabre, Spiked Club, Staff, Wakizashi

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)

Video citations

1. Kenshi: Major Powers | Shek Kingdom and HiversCivilizationEx
2. History of Kenshi: Minor Powers | Factions (Deadcat, Mega City, Mongrel, Shinobi Thieves...)CivilizationEx
3. Kenshi: Unique Companions | GreenlandersCivilizationEx
4. Kenshi: All Unique CompanionsCivilizationEx
5. Kenshi: Unique Companions | ScorchlandersCivilizationEx
6. History of Kenshi: Minor Powers | DocumentaryCivilizationEx
7. Kenshi Base Building - Beep's Fog HavenHeroInHisHead