Keeping your items safe helps lighten the grind a bit, because there is nothing more frustrating than going on an brimstone harvest across the Exiled Lands only to come back and find your camp ransacked because you hadn’t completed construction on your building yet. Starting from a basic shack and building your encampment into a fortress really gave me a sense of accomplishment, and they make incredibly convenient places to store your crafted items and stations – especially when you log off, since on most servers your body does not leave the world when you do. Thankfully, while crafting itself can feel like a tedious grind, building structures in Conan Exiles is a joy because the level of creative freedom available gives you the chance to build the fortress – or home – of your dreams. And while the survival aspects, such as keeping yourself fed and staving off thirst, can feel like an annoying grind unto itself, having to prepare for the different climates by factoring in temperature, armor types, and how many waterskins to bring into the desert really adds to that sense of adventure. The world is full of small touches, like a petrified pirate ship in the northeast that has a tribe of pirates encamped in its hull, or the broken ruins in the swampland reminding me of Angkor Wat, rooting me more fully in this world. “In fact, the best times I’ve had in Conan Exiles were when I’ve simply been exploring the landscape, diving into the various ruins, caves, and encampments which dot the world. Additionally, the cost of ingredients isn’t cheap, meaning you’ll be spending more time harvesting resources rather than exploring the landscape, especially on servers with the default harvest settings. It feels incredibly convoluted and oftentimes ends up making crafting feel more like a chore than fun. Only then can you create the piece of armor you’re after. Then, in order to craft the armor, you first have to craft the shell – such as the padding for the chest piece or the lining for your gauntlets. You’re required to turn hide into leather, refine ironstone into iron bars, and then bring them all together on the armorer’s bench. Crafting a set of armor, for instance, requires three separate crafting stations to complete: a tannery, furnace, and armorer’s bench. Complexity is fine as it gives crafting a sense of progression, but there are moments in Conan Exiles where it crosses the line from fine to annoyingly tedious. Basic tools and weapons are easy enough to assemble thanks to plentiful deposits of stone, wood, and plant fiber, but as you level up and unlock more crafting tiers it becomes more and more complex – well beyond what similar games do, to a point that feels unnecessary. “Crafting is essential to surviving in Conan Exiles, and it’s something that will eat up the vast majority of your time early on. These journals aren’t really quests in the traditional sense, but they do help give a sense of direction early, as well as goals to reach on the journey to survive the Exiled Lands. In place of a standard tutorial there is a journal system which prompts you to take on various tasks to get started, such as drinking water, crafting basic tools and weapons, as well as finding signs of civilization. From the moment Conan cuts you from your cross, Conan Exiles leaves you to your own devices. Player-run servers are an alternative that offer varied experiences, as some of them have crazily increased leveling, abundant resources, or both, but that’s naturally inconsistent so you need to be careful which one you join. Some of these servers are officially run worlds offering a balanced experience – though the 40-player-per-server limit has resulted in all of these basically sitting at max capacity since launch, prompting Funcom to promise more servers in the days and weeks to come. You can play solo - though it’s rather dull this way - or you and a friend can take on the hardships of the Hyborian Age together either in a tethered co-op mode or playing online in one of Conan Exiles’ various servers. As with many survival games, there is a wealth of different ways to experience the adventure.
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