StoatReport

English：Stoat　·　Locations

A United Cities town in the south-west of the Great Desert, seat of Lord Inaba, with four gates and four sets of Samurai gate guards. Every calorie in it is trucked in from two slave camps, which makes it the game's most complete demonstration of what happens when you cut a supply line — famine, then civil war, then either a lawless waystation or a bandit warlord's capital.

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Stoat is a United Cities town in the south-west of the Great Desert, governed from its Noble House by the Noble Circle member Lord Inaba. Heading east through the desert, it is the last major town on the road — past it there are no shops, no traders and no samurai.

You can discover it by travelling nearby, or by acquiring and reading the Map of the United Cities (Central Territories).

A town built on other people's slaves

Stoat grows nothing. Its supplies come from two slave camps:

• Stone Camp — run by Slave Master Haga, sitting almost exactly halfway along the road between Stoat and Sho-Battai. Stone mines and stone processors, feeding stone up the trade routes to Stoat, Heng and Trader's Edge.
• Slave Farm — run by Slave Mistress Ren out in the Heng region, more than ten XL cactus farms, supplying both Heft and Stoat.

Both are pure forced-labour installations. Every stone in Stoat's walls and every cactus in its bars was cut and picked by someone in chains — and the man governing the town happens to be the author of The Blessing of Slavery.

In one corner of the town stand wind generators and a row of open-air camp beds. The likeliest reading is that they are slums for the homeless, thrown up either by the government or by the peasants themselves.

Four gates

Stoat has four gates, and therefore four sets of Samurai Gate Guards — more than most Imperial towns. They are strong. It is worth checking the state of your squad before you walk up to one.

That garrison is not decoration. Lord Inaba is responsible for conscription and for organising the patrols around Bast; Stoat is effectively the administrative centre of that whole military apparatus. Kill or capture him and several Samurai patrols in that region simply stop spawning.

Measured by the forces tied to Inaba and stationed in Bast, Stoat is reckoned the largest United Cities town other than Heft — 2.06 times Heng, 30.9 times Sho-Battai, 103 times Brink, and 154.4 times Bark.

What is here

Under United Cities rule Stoat has an unusually complete set of shops — it is the only place in the western desert where you can restock food, clothes, weapons and repairs in one stop.

The jitte and heavy jitte are the entries worth circling on Stoat's vendor list. Blunt weapons of this class knock targets out rather than killing them — they are the Empire's standard tool for taking prisoners alive, and the cheapest way for a player to start farming bounties. Stoat's Empire Weapon Shop is the most reliable source in the western desert.

The town also holds barracks, a general storage, two police stations, a power station and the Noble House. Two police stations means the law here is real machinery: get arrested in Stoat and you go into a cell by the book, unlike Bark, where you are simply sold.

Buildings for sale

The Slave Traders pacifier

A Pacifier is a character who, for a fee, repairs your relations with his parent faction after you have wrecked them. The price scales with how bad things are — anywhere from 15,000 to 100,000 Cats — and if you have really burned the bridge, one payment is not enough and you have to come back.

The Slave Traders pacifier exists in exactly one place in the game, and that place is Stoat. For anyone running slave-trade routes, or anyone who cut down a few slavers and later regretted it, this town is the only undo button.

He will also refuse. Being allied with the Anti-Slavers, or being at war with the Traders Guild, is enough for him to turn you away — and he tells you which one it is, which conveniently doubles as instructions.

World states: a collapse chain you pull yourself

Stoat's fate hangs on four people — Emperor Tengu, Lord Inaba, Slave Master Haga and Slave Mistress Ren. There are five overrides in total.

The last two are terminal — nothing changes after them.

Stoat has one distinction here: of the northern United Cities towns (leaving Brink aside), it is the only one with no path at all to an Empire Peasants takeover. The wiki's suggested reason is distance — it sits too far from any supply camp and too far from Rebel Farmer influence. That stretch of desert is mostly empty, so there is no peasantry to inherit the place.

Malnourished

Cut both slave camps and famine and poverty flatten the town. Nine of its 21 buildings are destroyed in the resulting chaos, along with a share of the inhabitants.

So hungry... I can't take it anymore... — Malnourished Samurai Gate Guard

Half-destroyed and Civil war

With either Tengu or Inaba down the town is half-destroyed but the Empire still nominally holds it: again nine of 21 buildings in ruins, the survivors being housing, two barracks, a weapon shop, a bar, a bakery, a slave shop and a row of cages.

Cut the supply line at the same time and the states stack into "malnourished + half-destroyed", which escalates into civil war — Rebel Swordsmen, most of them outlaw farmers, fighting United Cities troops in the streets. Even the gate guards are the malnourished version by this point. A starving town fights its own civil war, and nobody eats either way.

Tech Hunters takeover

With Tengu and Inaba both down and Yabuta never freed, Imperial authority evaporates. Stoat is almost completely destroyed and depopulated; squatters and displaced peasants, mostly malnourished, are scattered through the ruins, while Trade Ninjas and Tech Hunters set up small shops in the wreckage, turning the place into a waystation settlement much like Mourn or The Hub.

The details of this version are worth reading on their own:

• Every gate is broken and cannot be repaired. With no gate security, Skimmers and Cannibals can sprint straight into the town centre and start butchering — though the sheer number of Tech Hunters usually stops them.
• There is no longer any Imperial force here holding Cannibals back, so they begin spilling out into the Great Desert at large.
• The trade culture switches from Empire Trade to Empire Lawless Trade: slavery is now a crime here. If Manhunters or Slave Hunters are still touring the zone, they end up fighting the town.
• Empire Peasants and Tech Hunters are not allies and will not cover for each other, which makes survival harder for both.
• The Slave Traders pacifier is still sitting in the bar, and so is Hobbs.
• The shops become a Tech Hunter Shop, a Black Market Bar, a Thieves Guild, a Boot Shop, an Empire Ranger Shop and a row of slave cage shacks.
• The ruined buildings are still for sale, at a fraction of the price — Small Shack 1,500 Cats, Storm House 4,800 Cats, Old Storm House 6,000 Cats, Longhouse 7,200 Cats, Snailhouse 9,000 Cats, L-House and Y-House 10,500 Cats each.

Yabuta Outlaws takeover

If Yabuta of the Sands got out of Tengu's Vault and is still breathing, the location's type changes outright to Ruins and he sets it up as his base of operations: one Yabuta HQ (a Yabuta Chief plus 12–16 Yabuta Outlaws), three Yabuta barracks (9–12 each) and six trashed buildings.

Life is not easy for them. Bounty Hunters, Rebel Swordsmen, and — depending on world state — Manhunters and Slave Hunters all come calling. It is one of the few places where the game shows you a gang seizing a town and then discovering that holding one is much harder than taking it.

Why it matters to the player

• Last resupply before the deep desert. Sell, re-equip, buy food, get repairs. There is nothing after Stoat.
• Jitte source. If you want to take prisoners for bounties, the Empire Weapon Shop here is the steadiest supply in the western desert.
• The only Slave Traders pacifier. Fall out with the slavers and this is the one place that will talk you back in.
• Lord Inaba's Edgewalkers wakizashi is worth 18,989–20,711 Cats, easily the single most valuable object in town — assuming you are willing to break with the United Cities.
• To run the whole collapse chain: take out Haga and Ren first (famine), then Inaba (half-destroyed and civil war), then decide whether to let Yabuta of the Sands out of Tengu's Vault. That last choice decides who ends up owning the town.

See also

• United Cities
• Lord Inaba
• Slave Master Haga
• Slave Mistress Ren
• Tech Hunters
• Bast
• Slavery
• Locations of Kenshi

Sells

Vendors here stock 137 items in total, grouped by category — every entry links.

Items

Advanced First Aid Kit, Advanced Splint Kit, Armour Plating, Authentic Skeleton Repair Kit, Basic First Aid Kit, Bloodrum, Book, Cactus Rum, Cactus, Chainmail Sheets, Copper Alloy Plates, Copper, Cotton, Electrical Components, Fabrics, Fuel, Gears, Generator Core, Greenfruit, Grog, Hacksaw, Iron Plates, Leather, Luxury Goods, Medical Supplies, Riceweed, Robotics Components, Sake, Simple Rug, Skeleton Repair Kit, Sleeping Bag, Splint Kit, Spring Steel, Standard First Aid Kit, Steel Bars, Strawflour, Tools, Water Jug, Water, Wheatstraw

Weapons

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

Light Armour

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

Shirts

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

Crossbows

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

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

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

Headgear

Ashland Hat, Ashlander Stormgoggles, Sandogasa

Medium Armour

Black Plate Jacket, Plated Longboots, Rusty Chainmail Tagelmust

Clothing

Ninja Gi

Footwear

Wooden Sandals

Samurai

Samurai Boots

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)

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

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 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

Empire Weapon Shop

Desert Sabre, Foreign Sabre, Guardless Katana, Heavy Jitte, Holed Sabre, Horse Chopper, Jitte, Katana, Longsword, Mercenary Club, Naginata, Naginata Katana, Ninja Blade, Nodachi, Plank, Ringed Sabre, Staff, Wakizashi

Farm Shop

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

Slave Shop

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

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)