Veterans of Kenshi
A vanilla-friendly difficulty, progression, and world overhaul built for experienced Kenshi players.
Veterans of Kenshi keeps the identity of the base game intact while making its factions, bosses, wildlife, recruits, shops, patrols, and neglected settlements remain relevant throughout a long campaign. It is designed as a demanding New Game Plus-style experience without replacing Kenshi’s research, crafting, building progression, faction weapon preferences, or core survival loop.
- Every combat faction receives a deliberate balance pass.
- Faction hierarchy is preserved: weak factions become dangerous, but proper military factions remain stronger.
- Regular recruits begin at useful but balanced skill levels around 20-30.
- Low-tier enemies generally sit around 20-45, mid-tier forces around 50-70, elites around 75-90, and major bosses around 100 or higher where appropriate.
- Normal NPC and animal stats are controlled to prevent accidental extreme scaling.
- Cat-Lon remains the intended exceptional endgame threat.
- Armour quality and weapon grade scale with rank and combat ability.
- Meitou weapons remain boss rewards and are not added to ordinary shops.
Major and minor factions have been reviewed individually, including the Holy Nation, United Cities, Trader’s Guild, Shek Kingdom, Tech Hunters, Rebel Farmers, swamp gangs, Deadcat, Nomads, hives, Fogmen, Cannibals, Skeleton Bandits, Skin Bandits, Crab Raiders, Second Empire forces, slavers, bandits, and many more.
Bosses and faction leaders are stronger, better protected, and equipped in proportion to their importance. Major encounters such as Cat-Lon, the Bugmaster, Phoenix, Tinfist, Armour King, Dust King, hive leaders, and regional gang bosses are intended to feel like real milestones.
- The Hub has been rebuilt into a functioning Holy Nation Outlaw settlement with guards, occupied buildings, shops, bars, and Alexa the Uniter.
- Alexa offers a 50,000 Cat alliance path and Holy Nation Outlaw support against the Holy Nation.
- Abandoned Tech Hunter waystations and expedition stations have been restored and reinforced.
- Tech Hunters now field varied guards, vanguards, marksmen, scouts, medics, weapons, armour, and larger defensive squads.
- Sniper Valley’s Police Barracks is defended by the local sniperbot faction.
- Patrol reach and regional raid pressure are moderately increased without turning the entire map into uncontrolled faction warfare.
- Cities, bars, roads, and revived settlements receive more appropriate population and activity.
- Shops carry substantially more stock and refresh more often.
- High-end shops can offer better armour and Edge-grade weapons, while Meitou remains boss-only.
- Animal backpacks and storage containers support larger practical stack sizes.
- Maximum faction size is 256 characters.
- Maximum squad size is 50 characters.
Veterans of Kenshi uses compatibility overrides and does not redistribute third-party assets. The following mods are required:
Dark UI, DUST, and RE_Kenshi may be used alongside Veterans of Kenshi but are not required by this mod.
Place Veterans of Kenshi after all three required mods in the launcher load order. An Import Game is strongly recommended after enabling or updating the mod, especially for town ownership, residents, squads, recruits, shops, and world-state changes.
Veterans of Kenshi is meant to make the world dangerous again without discarding the game beneath it. Factions retain their normal roles and weapon styles, recruits remain recruitable, research and production remain meaningful, and victories must still be earned.
