WatchtowerReport
English：Watchtower · Locations
A Holy Nation tower on the Arm of Okran, with a few guards on shift outside and a good number of people asleep inside until you walk in. The name also belongs to a player-buildable shell — the most expensive structure in the game, and the one that fits anywhere.
Watchtower means two things in Kenshi: the Holy Nation outpost on the Arm of Okran, and the player-buildable structure of the same name. The interactive map marks the former.
The Holy Nation tower
This tower is controlled by the Holy Nation and sits in Okran's Valley.
Outside, a few guards can be seen on shift. Inside, a good number of them will be sleeping — until you walk in. The tower holds food, some armour and weapons, and of course beds, useful for resting and healing the wounded.
Why build it there? The terrain suggests a scouting and blocking position: it fends off United Cities military forces trying to push north through Bast, and occasionally serves to dissuade the Flotsam Ninja patrols that try to break the border at the Northern Coast, along with the Cannibal hordes that keep infiltrating Okran's Valley.
The building of the same name
"Watchtower" is also a building shell the player can raise in their own outpost.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Type | Building Shell |
| Materials | Building Materials ×60, Iron Plates ×10 |
| Build time | About 12 hours |
| Research | Large Building Shells |
| Building condition | 70 |
| Door condition | 16 |
| Door lock | Level 15 |
It has four floors including the roof, and the roof takes both Turrets and Harpoon Turrets. Because the tower is tall, turrets placed on it gain a large height bonus — which is its main role in base defence.
What makes it unusual
The way it is designed lets it be implanted into terrain no other structure can use: cliffsides, or even swallowing an entire natural rock formation. In tight or otherwise uninhabitable ground it is frequently the only thing that can be built at all.
One trivia note and one bug
Trivia: the Watchtower has the highest building condition of all building types (70). This makes no difference in game — but it would have made perfect sense had engines of war ever been introduced to Kenshi.
Bug: from the build menu, select the Watchtower blueprint and set the floor to roof height, and you can slide it off an already-built structure until it suddenly "snaps" to the ground. That snap opens an extremely brief window in which the tower can be placed anywhere, from any angle, regardless of collision. A tower built that way typically has its entrance at least one floor below ground, making it impossible to enter.