Sho-BattaiReport
English：Sho-Battai · Locations
A major imperial town in the middle of the Great Desert, kept alive by a single supply line — which is why it has the most complete collapse chain in the game, ending with the town being eaten by Cannibals.
Sho-Battai is a major United Cities town in the middle of the Great Desert, governed by the Noble Circle member Lord Nagata. It is one of the most common starting points in the game, and the city where the empire's whole chain of collapse is demonstrated most completely.
Players can discover it automatically by approaching, or light it up with either the Central Territories or the Extended Territories version of the Map of the United Cities — Sho-Battai is the only town that appears on both maps.
Only one lifeline
Sho-Battai's economy depends completely and exclusively on supplies from the slave camp of Port North to the north.
Port North is nominally a "port"; in practice it is a stone quarry camp, its ground covered in stone mines and raw-material processing, managed by Lady Kana. She calls it the largest "slave farm" in the empire, and it produces fabrics as well.
This kind of single-line dependency is fatal in game-mechanical terms. Heft still has two supply lines, and Heng is held up by three slave camps; Sho-Battai has one. The moment Lady Kana goes down, this town starves.
Lord Nagata
Nagata is a Scorchlander with unusually light skin. He lives in the Noble House with four Hooded Empire Noble Guards around him, and his personality is set to Fearful.
Your stench of poverty sickens me, peasant! Grovel for my forgiveness! — Lord Nagata
He is very likely the noble in the backstory of the "Empire Citizen" start, where the player character loses their job and property to a lord's passing whim and is forced to leave the city to fend for themselves before starving. Besides Sho-Battai, Nagata also has influence over Port North.
The back yard and that hat shop
Sho-Battai's "back yard" is the most distinctive part of the town: two power stations, a few open-air camp beds (shelters thrown up by the government or by vagrants), and the only dedicated headgear shop in the United Cities (Sho-Battai Headgear Shop).
The shop has a stock cap of 110 items and a 12-hour restock, selling bandanas, hachigane, side-angle hachigane, kusari zukin, karuta zukin, masked helmets, sandogasa, turbans, rattan hats and more, along with a great many blueprints.
The town also has a Thieves Guild, barracks, bakery, two bars, a general shop, general storage, a mechanical shop, a ranger shop, a slave shop, travel gear, a police station, the Noble House, and a corpse furnace.
Buildings for sale: Longhouse ×3 (19,200 Cats each), Small Shack ×2 (4,000 Cats each).
Who you can recruit here
Sho-Battai is a good place for early recruitment:
- Riddly — a lone adventurer who starts the conversation herself. Say you want to build a settlement and she declines; say you want to adventure together and she joins for free.
- Jewel — a cook who used to run a bar, until Shek brutes took it over.
- Izumi — a young scientist and medic; 2,500 Cats to recruit.
- Ells — an alcoholic, simple-minded Empire citizen carrying a small bounty (which expires naturally) for stealing booze from the distilleries. Pay him 300 Cats and he joins, with three bottles of cactus rum on him. He often stands next to the outhouses; look there if you cannot find him.
The first three are usually in one of the two bars or the bakery; Riddly, Jewel and Izumi can also appear in other imperial towns. Ells is fixed in Sho-Battai regardless of world state.
Game starts
- Empire Citizen: starts inside Sho-Battai with 750 Cats, all stats at 1, wearing rag shirt and torn shorts.
- Rock Bottom: starts in the desert east of Sho-Battai — naked, missing an arm, 0 Cats, malnourished. This is one of the most notoriously difficult starts in the game, and because being malnourished is itself a crime in imperial territory, the player may be questioned or even attacked by the gate sergeant on approaching the town gate.
Town overrides: a complete collapse chain
Sho-Battai has the most complex override tree in the game, with five states in total.
| Override | Trigger |
|---|---|
| Malnourished | Lady Kana killed/imprisoned, town still UC |
| Half-destroyed | Nagata killed/imprisoned, Tengu still alive and free |
| Malnourished + half-destroyed | Both of the above at once |
| Civil war | Kana killed/imprisoned, while Nagata or Tengu remains |
| Empire Peasants takeover | Nagata and Tengu both killed/imprisoned, and Simion alive |
| Cannibals takeover | Tengu, Nagata and Simion all killed or imprisoned |
Malnourished
With the sole supply camp of Port North cut off, famine and poverty crush the town, and some buildings and residents disappear in the chaos. Nagata is still there, but the entire town from gate samurai to commoner is malnourished.
I can't keep going… I need food… — malnourished gate samurai
Half-destroyed and civil war
When Nagata is down but Tengu remains, the town is half-destroyed while the empire nominally holds control. If Kana is taken out as well it escalates to "malnourished + half-destroyed" — peasants and samurai hacking at each other in the streets, and both sides hungry. It is one of the few scenes in Kenshi that acts out the fact that a civil war does not feed anybody.
Empire Peasant takeover
When both Nagata and Emperor Tengu are down while rebel leader Boss Simion is still alive, the Empire Peasants move in and rebuild the town.
We've got Tengu right where we want him, (player)… mate! I'm heading back to the Great Desert! — Simion
This is the relatively "good" ending: the town is only about 20% damaged, the gates are guarded by high-level rebel swordsmen and bonedogs, free traders reopen their shops, and the bar's beds are swapped for camp beds. The headgear shop comes back too. There are no further overrides after this.
Cannibal takeover
If Tengu, Nagata and Simion are all killed or imprisoned, imperial authority in the area evaporates entirely, and civil war and infighting burn the town to ruins. Cannibals from Sinkuun migrate in via Bast and turn Sho-Battai into a forward base for their expansion into the Great Desert.
The override includes 2 Cannibal raid squads (6–25 each), 11 ruined camps (each with 1 Cannibal Grand Wizard + 4–6 Cannibals), 7 scrawny Cannibal settlements (10–35 each), plus 2 still-running generators and 1 broken gate.
This is Sho-Battai's terminal state.
Trivia
- Sho-Battai is the only town included on both the Central Territories and Extended Territories versions of the Map of the United Cities.
- Converted from Nagata's patrol spawn value (his homeless spawn value is 120), Sho-Battai ranks fourth in size among the six northern United Cities towns.
Buildings and shops
Barracks, Bakery, Bar x2, Corpse Furnace, General Shop, General Storage, Headgear Shop, Mechanical Shop, Noble House, Police Station, Power Station x2, Ranger Shop, Slave Shop, Thieves Guild, Travel Gear
Buildings for sale
| Building | Price |
|---|---|
| Longhouse x3 | 19,200 Cats |
| Small Shack x2 | 4,000 Cats |
| 1x Empire Noble Nagata (5) | — |
| 1x Small Empire Weapon Shop (4) | — |
| 1x Slave Shop (4) | — |
| 1x Empire Hat Shop (3) | — |
| 1x Empire Big Bar (3) | — |
| 1x Empire Crossbow (3) | — |
| 1x Empire General Shop (2) | — |
| 1x Adventure Shop (2) | — |
| 1x Empire Barracks (1) | — |
| 1x Empire Storehouse (1) | — |
| 1x Empire Bakery (1) | — |
Sells
Vendors here stock 92 items in total, grouped by category — every entry links.
Items
Armour Plating, Authentic Skeleton Repair Kit, Basic First Aid Kit, Book, Cactus Rum, Cactus, Chainmail Sheets, Copper Alloy Plates, Copper, Electrical Components, Fabrics, Fuel, Gears, Generator Core, Grog, Hacksaw, Iron Plates, Leather, Luxury Goods, Medical Supplies, Robotics Components, Sake, Simple Rug, Skeleton Repair Kit, Spring Steel, Steel Bars, Strawflour, Water Jug, Water, Wheatstraw
Light Armour
Bandana, Black Bandana, Drifter's Boots, Drifters Leather Pants, Fog Mask, Hachigane, Ninja Mask, Ninja Rags, Rattan Hat, Red Bandana, Side-Angle Hachigane, Swamp Ninja Mask, Tagelmust, Turban
Weapons
Guardless Katana, Holed Sabre, Horse Chopper, Katana, Longsword, Mercenary Club, Naginata, Ninja Blade, Nodachi, Plank, Ringed Sabre, Staff, Wakizashi
Crossbows
Bolts Heavies, Bolts Longs, Bolts Regulars, Bolts Toothpicks, Eagle's Cross, Oldworld Bow MkII, Oldworld Bow MkI, Ranger, Spring Bat, Tooth Pick
Medium Armour
Armoured Hood, Armoured Rags, Black Plate Jacket, Karuta Zukin, Kusari Zukin, Masked Helmet, Mercenary Leather Armour
Shirts
Black Cloth Shirt, Blackened Chain Hive Shirt, Blackened Chain Shirt, Blackened Chainmail, Dark Leather Shirt, Rusty Chain Shirt, Rusty Chainmail
Nutrition
Bread, Chewsticks, Dried Meat, Dustwich, Foodcube, Meatwrap
Backpacks
Small Thieves Backpack, Thieves Backpack
Headgear
Clothing
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.
Empire Bakery
Bread, Cactus, Chewsticks, Dustwich, Wheatstraw
Empire Bar
Bread, Cactus Rum, Dried Meat, Foodcube, Grog, Meatwrap, Sake, Water, Water Jug
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
Sho-Battai Headgear Shop
Bandana, Basket Hat, Black Bandana, Hachigane, Karuta Zukin, Kusari Zukin, Masked Helmet, Rattan Hat, Red Bandana, Sandogasa, Side-Angle Hachigane, Tagelmust, Turban
The source does not record what this shop sells.
Small Empire Weapon Shop
Holed Sabre, Horse Chopper, Katana, Longsword, Mercenary Club, Naginata, Ninja Blade, Plank, Ringed Sabre, Staff, Wakizashi
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)
The source does not record what this shop sells.