SpringReport

English：Spring　·　Locations

The Anti-Slavers' capital, built on a mountaintop in the south-west of Stobe's Gamble. The best crossbow shelf in the far south, houses you can actually buy, and Tinfist himself — but this is a city that decides whether to let you in by looking at who your friends are.

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Another adventurer, eh? I'd say don't do it at all, yer not gonna come back, but I know you won't listen to that. So here's my advice: Come prepared, build an outpost somewhere in the south but not too far south. Preferably off to the east, in The Pits. — Tinfist

Spring is the capital of the Anti-Slavers, built on top of a mountain in the south-west of Stobe's Gamble. Tinfist himself is inside the faction HQ.

It is one of the very few cities in Kenshi with a position. It does not tax you and it does not check your papers — but it absolutely checks who you have been drinking with.

Check your reputation sheet before you walk in

Spring's admission logic runs backwards compared with most towns: being on good terms with the empire is what gets you attacked.

Three ways to trip it:

1. Allied with the Holy Nation, the United Cities, the Traders Guild or the Slave Traders — Grey will attack on sight, unprovoked.
2. Very high reputation with certain factions (the United Cities being the example the wiki gives) — even without a formal alliance, the town guard can turn on you.
3. Wearing armour looted from an enemy faction — the easiest one to forget. Imperial or slaver plate stripped off a corpse is a liability the moment you reach the gate.

The same logic runs the other way for their rank and file: an ordinary Anti-Slaver has a 50% chance of carrying a bounty of 200–2,200 Cats issued by the United Cities. If you are working for the empire, the whole town is a payday.

Why there are hydroponics units on a mountaintop

Spring is built from a mix of Storm Houses, Metal Wallhouses and Swamp Houses — the classic refugee-city look, made out of whatever was to hand.

What actually explains the layout is the geology of Stobe's Gamble:

Nothing grows here. Iron and copper, meanwhile, are maxed. So Spring's industrial layout is exactly what you would predict: two hydroponics units growing the town's food indoors, a Steel Refinery III eating the ore out of the mountain, and a power station to run it. A fortress designed from the foundations up to feed itself.

What you can buy

Spring is not a large market, but its stock is unusually well targeted.

Adventurer Ranger Shop — the single best reason to make the trip. This is the Tech Hunter crossbow chain, and it stocks better than the imperial Ranger Shops:

• Tooth Pick, Spring Bat, Ranger, Eagle's Cross
• Oldworld Bow MkI and MkII
• All four bolt types (Toothpicks, Regulars, Longs, Heavies)

Only five settlements on the continent have this shop, and Spring is one of them — the others are Black Scratch, Flats Lagoon, Mongrel and World's End.

Tech Hunter Shop — travel supplies and light/medium armour: first aid kits at every tier, splint kits, Skeleton Repair Kits, backpacks of every size, Dustcoats, ninja gear, dark leather, and a wider blueprint selection than an ordinary travel-gear vendor.

Adventurer Bar — the Tech Hunter version of a bar, carrying more high-tech and adventuring equipment than a normal one: Authentic Skeleton Repair Kits, ration packs, sleeping bags, tools, backpacks, plus the usual food and water.

On armour quality, Anti-Slaver shops roll Shoddy 40%, Standard 40%, High 20% — no Specialist, no Masterwork.

Houses you can buy

Spring is one of the few towns that sells property, and it sells a lot of it:

32,000 a piece is not cheap, but what you are buying is a mountaintop, guarded by people who will never audit you. For a squad trying to establish itself in the south without imperial tax collectors turning up, Spring's houses are a genuinely practical base — and the town has no override to worry about: as long as Tinfist stands, Spring is Spring.

Who is here

Tinfist — leader of the Anti-Slavers, a skeleton with Martial Arts 110, the hardest-hitting single unit in the game. He stays in the faction HQ.

Grey — a Hive Prince, at Tinfist's side. He vets new blood: you cannot join the Anti-Slavers without going through him. He is also the only NPC in the game who can fully clear the Ex-Slave / Escaped Slave status — talking to him under it opens the character edit screen, and pressing OK wipes the flag.

Jaegar — a Scorchlander jonin who wanders the streets of the town. His wanted poster calls him "Jaegar the Mad" and lists charges running all the way to "crime against peace and outright lunacy".

None of the three are cheap targets: Tinfist carries a 100,000-Cat bounty, Grey and Jaegar 30,000 Cats each.

Beyond the named characters, the town's data also seats five squads of Anti-Slaver recruits plus the usual rank and file around the streets.

The Swamp Dome: cages and harpoons

The faction HQ is housed in a Swamp Dome, and there are two prisoner cages inside it.

Their lock complexity is 51 and 61 — a notch above the faction's standard settings, which put cages, containers and doors all at 60 with a randomisation of 10. Picking someone out of there takes a real lockpicking score.

Joining the Anti-Slavers

This is the real service Spring offers. There are three routes to Grey saying yes:

1. Prove you are an enemy of their enemies — the front door, and it means fighting a lot of powerful people first.
2. Turn up with Ex-Slave / Escaped Slave status — they will take you in as a refugee.
3. Kill the Bugmaster — also buys you entry.

The price of joining is +75 Anti-Slavers alongside -30 with the United Cities, -30 Slave Traders and -30 Traders Guild.

There is one route that skips the penalties: kill or capture Longen first, then talk to Tinfist. Same +75, none of the three -30s (capturing Longen still costs what it normally costs).

Or: sell Tinfist

Spring also works as a target rather than a home. Once you have taken Tinfist, there are three buyers:

Outside the walls: Stobe's Gamble

Stobe's Gamble is rated danger 4 / 5 and the terrain is volcanic badland. The threat list is long:

• Land Bat swarms — the big variant is 18 to 30 adults. On the upside, they are a good source of raw meat when your squad is starving.
• Leviathans — one of the few zones in the game where they spawn at all.
• Karate Drifters — lone martial artists, absurdly tough for a single wanderer, and the zone's signature encounter.
• Southern Hive patrols — a Prince plus eight Droneguards, as long as the Queen of the South is alive.
• Skeleton Bandits — patrols of 10 to 15 while Elder still stands.
• Sniperbots (the "Mad Sniper" squad), Crab Raider scouts, Bounty Hunters, Scavengers and Black Gorillos.

Two places worth the detour:

• Secret Drug Farm — a Blackshifter operation stacked with Hemp and Hashish, which sell for a fortune at nearby Flats Lagoon. Of the six Storm Houses, five are locked and one is destroyed, and Security Spiders guard the place.
• Free Settlement — an empty United Cities town south of Brink. If Emperor Tengu and Longen are both dead while Tinfist lives, it becomes The Free City.

Is it worth the trip?

Yes, and for concrete reasons:

• Crossbows. Only five Adventurer Ranger Shops exist, and this is the southernmost.
• Joining the Anti-Slavers, or scrubbing an escaped-slave flag off a character.
• Buying a house in the south, in a town that will never change hands to the empire.
• Taking Tinfist — if you picked the other side.

There is exactly one situation where it is not worth it: you are a friend of the empire. In that case you will find out at the gate.

See also

• Anti-Slavers
• Tinfist
• Grey
• Jaegar
• Bo
• Stobe's Gamble
• Tech Hunters
• Slavery
• All Locations

Sells

Vendors here stock 54 items in total, grouped by category — every entry links.

Items

Advanced First Aid Kit, Advanced Splint Kit, Authentic Skeleton Repair Kit, Basic First Aid Kit, Bloodrum, Book, Greenfruit, Grog, Sake, Skeleton Repair Kit, Sleeping Bag, Splint Kit, Standard First Aid Kit, Tools, Water Jug, Water

Backpacks

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

Crossbows

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

Nutrition

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

Light Armour

Assassin's Rags, Dustcoat, Ninja Mask, Ninja Rags

Shirts

Blackened Chain Hive Shirt, Blackened Chain Shirt, Blackened Chainmail, Dark Leather Shirt

Headgear

Ashland Hat, Ashlander Stormgoggles

Medium Armour

Black Plate Jacket

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 Bar

Advanced Splint Kit, Authentic Skeleton Repair Kit, Basic First Aid Kit, Bloodrum, Bolts Heavies, Bolts Longs, Bolts Regulars, Bolts Toothpicks, Bread, Bull Backpack, Cooked Vegetables, Dried Fish, Dried Meat, Foodcube, Garru Backpack, Greenfruit, Grog, Meatwrap, … (30 items in all at this shop)

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

Tech Hunter Shop

Advanced First Aid Kit, Advanced Splint Kit, Ashland Hat, Ashlander Stormgoggles, Assassin's Rags, Authentic Skeleton Repair Kit, Basic First Aid Kit, Black Plate Jacket, Blackened Chain Hive Shirt, Blackened Chain Shirt, Blackened Chainmail, Bolts Heavies, Bolts Longs, Bolts Regulars, Bolts Toothpicks, Book, Bull Backpack, Dark Leather Shirt, … (33 items in all at this shop)