Stenn DesertReport
English：Stenn Desert · Locations
Rocky hill desert. Shek Kingdom. Main settlements: Admag, The Great Fortress, New Kralia, Exile Camp.
Contents
No rain, no grass; scrape the surface and you hit the last civilisation's concrete and rebar. The Shek took the least liveable ground on the continent for a homeland precisely because there is nothing here worth taking off them. Outside the capital, every building is a military installation.
Terrain
The terrain is Rocky hill desert.
Who holds it
- Shek Kingdom Controls
- Kral's Chosen Hostile
- Berserkers Hostile
- Band of Bones Hostile
- Tech Hunters Present
- Traders Guild Present
Settlements
| Name | Type |
|---|---|
| Admag | City |
| The Great Fortress | Outpost |
| New Kralia | Outpost |
| Exile Camp | Camp |
| Waystation | Outpost |
| Shek Ruins | Ruin |
Inhabitants
Faiths: Kral and the Way of the Warrior
Wildlife
Notable units
| Name | Type | Where | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Esata the Stone Golem | Hostile boss | Admag, faction HQ | Queen of the Shek Kingdom, a super boss but neutral to the player; she carries a Meitou fragment axe she lacks the strength to swing quickly. Take her or kill her and the whole Shek race switches to kamikaze attacks, with Mukai the Mountain as her successor. |
| Seto | Recruitable | Admag, faction HQ (handed over by Esata herself) | Esata's daughter and the only recruitable Shek royal; she carries a 20,000 Cats bounty of her own. Allying with the Holy Nation, the Slave Traders, the Traders Guild or the United Cities locks her away for good. |
| Bayan | Neutral | Admag, faction HQ | Esata's counsellor and the man you talk to about an alliance with the Shek Kingdom; kill him or abduct him and Esata comes for you in person with the Five Invincibles and the Hundred Guardians. |
| The Five Invincibles | Neutral | Admag, faction HQ | The Shek Kingdom's strongest warriors (only four remain — Esata herself is the fifth); Specialist grade armour and Skeleton-forged weapons. After Esata falls they all go over to Flying Bull. |
| Oron | Recruitable | Admag bar | A Shek retainer who wants out of serfdom and back onto a battlefield; mediocre stats, but cheap. |
| Ruka | Recruitable | Admag bar | A hornless Shek woman, cut and struck from the rolls; the best free Shek recruit in the game, with 10 in combat skills. |
| Rane the Giant | Recruitable | Admag bar | A former Hundred Guardian demoted after losing a duel; 20 in every combat skill, fighting strength you can simply buy. |
| Kang | Recruitable | Admag bar | A berserk-natured Shek with 20 in every combat skill, 1,500 cheaper than Rane. |
| Shek Medic | Recruitable | Shek Kingdom town bars, Admag included | A randomly named generic medic carrying basic and standard first aid kits — the role a starting squad is always short of. |
| Flying Bull | Hostile boss | New Kralia (south of Admag) | Leader of Kral's Chosen, born Ida, carrying the unique bull horn axe granted by King Shager. The Great Fortress nearby has a police station, the most convenient place to cash him in. |
| Tora the Fearless | Hostile boss | Exile Camp (due south of the Stenn waystation) | Boss of the Band of Bones' only base, horn-cut and exiled and still unwilling to put the blade down; Shek collecting on her call her Tora the Gutless. |
| Ghost | Hostile boss | Moves to Admag once Esata is dead (normally at Berserker Village east of Last Stand) | Born Suchon, leader of the Berserkers; while he lives the zone spawns steady Berserker squads of 2–8, dropping to 2–5 stragglers after his death. |
| Mukai the Mountain | Hostile boss | Esata's successor once she falls, patrolling the zone with kamikaze squads (the HQ moves to Squin) | A super boss with a Meitou fragment axe and Masterwork armour; when he dies Squin falls to either Kral's Chosen or the Berserkers. |
| Hive Caravan Boss | Merchant | Passes through Admag | Leader of a Western Hive crop and materials caravan, only present while the Hive Queen is still alive. |
History
- After the Second Empire dissolved, its masterless enforcers withdrew into these ruined hills and spent centuries as kingless tribes killing one another.
- Kral welded the scattered tribes into a single kingdom and was finally cut down by an enemy a hundred times his number — the manner of his death became the template for an entire people.
- Shager's total war on the Holy Nation ground the Shek to the edge of extinction; the Great Fortress and the old front lines collapsed one after another, and he refused to fight any other way until the day he died.
- After Esata took power by duel and made peace with the United Cities, the traditionalists walked out with their blades, and Kral's Chosen and the Berserkers took root inside the Kingdom's own heartland.
Building a base here
The channel's verdict: Recommended with caveats
- Copper Copper is in the same "you won't run short" bracket, standing alongside stone and iron as one of the region's strong suits.[V1 0:03:54]
- Copper Copper is in the same "you won't run short" bracket, standing alongside stone and iron as one of the region's strong suits.[V1 0:03:54]
- Copper Copper is in the same "you won't run short" bracket, standing alongside stone and iron as one of the region's strong suits.[V1 0:03:54]
- Copper Copper is in the same "you won't run short" bracket, standing alongside stone and iron as one of the region's strong suits.[V1 0:03:54]
- Copper Copper is in the same "you won't run short" bracket, standing alongside stone and iron as one of the region's strong suits.[V1 0:03:54]
- Defensible terrain The terrain is uneven in places, but never to the point of being unbuildable; the video finds a very flat patch to break ground on near the "Not Bandit Hideout" marker.[V1 0:04:26]
- Raids The heaviest threat is Kral's Chosen, who spawn only inside Shek territory and will launch massive raids against a player base, with attack values that can run as high as a Holy Paladin's.[V1 0:03:21]
- Raids Day-to-day harassment is comparatively light: Band of Bones turn up most often, and you will not get Dust Bandits or Hungry Bandits at the door every few minutes the way you do in some regions; Shek guards and patrols will also clear trouble away for you.[V1 0:06:38]
- Distance to supplies The first starter-base candidate is not far from either a Waystation or a Swamp village; when handing out its score the video also stresses that the south-eastern stretch is close to several shops.[V1 0:05:00]
- Other There are no Goat or Garru spawns, which costs you the best early source of food and hide, and one safe target to train combat on as well.[V1 0:06:05]
- Other The channel closes by giving the Stenn Desert 6/10 for base-building: the south-eastern part is good ground close to shops, and in practice the only thing you have to deal with is the low water level. For comparison, neighbouring Spider Plains gets 7/10, because the water is better and the location superior, while most of what makes the Stenn Desert good applies there too.[V1 0:07:44]
NoteDrawn from Paul Rogers Gaming's location-guide videos. This is the video author's judgement, not an official ruling from the game.
Getting there
Resupply inside the region: Admag, The Great Fortress, New Kralia, Exile Camp, Waystation.
The nearest city is Squin (Border Zone), just across the border.
Regions you can walk into directly from here:
| Region |
|---|
| Border Zone |
| Spider Plains |
| Vain |
NoteThis article is assembled from the region dossier; facts come from the Kenshi Fandom Wiki and in-game data, and the navigation section is computed from the 72-region adjacency graph.
Video citations
- Should You Settle the Shek Kingdom? | Kenshi Location GuidePaul Rogers Gaming