13 Things to do First in Conan Exiles - Conan Exiles Guide - IGN (2024)

Conan Exiles is a big game. You're dumped right into this hostile land with little information to go off. To help you out, our Conan Exiles guide below will provide you with every tip, trick, and secret that you need to get going, so that you don't just become another body in the sand.

Listed below are 13 crucial Conan Exiles tips that will help you get started in game.

Conan Exiles Tip 1: You're Going To Die

The first tip is less about helping you directly, and more about letting you know the facts. This isn't a game where you will never die. Death is going to happen, a lot!

To help mitigate the pains of death, we have two big tips.

Conan Exiles Tip 2: Check the map

Hit "M" to open the map. Unlike other games, the map does not change. If you're in a bad spot, open the map before you die and study it quickly. You'll know exactly where you are and can try and run back to recover your items.

Conan Exiles Tip 3: Don't Carry Valuables

The other tip is to not carry all your valuables on you. Once you have a house, leave everything behind and only bring the bare essentials (weapons, food). The less you have on you when you die, the better.

Conan Exiles Tip 4: Level Up 3 Key Stats

When you level up, you get points that you can allocate to stats. They all serve a purpose, but there are three very important ones early on. Strength, Vitality and Encumbrance are the best three to get levels in early on. Strength makes your attacks stronger, Vitality gives you more health and Encumbrance allows you to carry more items, all of which are vital for new characters.

Do keep in mind that there is a max level of 50 in the game, so don't waste all your points on these stats. However, getting them each to level 5-6 will give you a nice, healthy boost in those areas early on.

Conan Exiles Tip 5: Find Water, Food

Very quickly you will realize that your Food and Health guages deplete at an alarming rate. This will vary from server to server, but generally speaking you will be needing to find a source of food and water every few minutes.

It's important then to get to an area where both are plentiful. Water is easy enough, as rivers and lakes are plentiful, and you can simply walk up and drink from them by interacting with the water.

Food can be tougher. Meat has to be cooked before you eat it, or else you get food poisoning. Cooking requires a firepit, which can take time, time you don't always have. There are other, more temporary options however. Small bugs can be found when harvesting grass. They won't do much, but it can buy you a few minutes when you're about to die of hunger. Large grubs can also be seen on the ground, they look like huge, white worms. Lastly, you can find nests with eggs in them, which will give you quite a lot of food.

Conan Exiles Tip 6: Build a House

One of the most important things to get early on is a house. It doesn't have to be pretty, or even big. You just need somewhere to hide and store your items.

Depending on your server, building a house can be slow, or quite fast. Regardless, your first house should only be a few squares in size. 2x2 is more than enough to contain a bed and some chests for storage. Basically think of this as your starting shack, and you can build a full size house after.

Houses are important because they offer protection, from monsters roaming the land and other players who want to steal your items. Most important of all, it provides you a safe haven for your bed.

Conan Exiles Tip 7: Have a House? Make a bed!

Once you had a house, the next most important thing you can make is a bed. Why's that you may ask?

Beds act as respawn points. Once you place it on the ground, simply interact with it again and you'll get a notification that it is now your respawn point.

One thing to remember, not all beds are the same. Fiber Bedroll for example, can only be used once. After respawning at it, it will break and you need to make another one. Better beds can be used more often, but will take some time before you can build.

Conan Exiles Tip 8: Make a Friend, or 5

Although you can certainly play the game alone, finding allies will make the experience both more enjoyable, and easier. Many of the late game crafting options requires a lot of resources. So much in fact that if you were to collect them alone, you'd be at it for hours.

Making friends, or playing with friends will allow you to build more stuff, and defend what you have on a much greater scale.

Of course, this is a game where PvP is always an option, so sometimes, your attempts at friendship might end up with you losing your head, but you should still try!

Conan Exiles Tip 9: Unlock the Experienced Survivalist Recipe

One of the first recipes you should get is Experienced Survivalist. The reason for this, is that it unlocks the Campfire, which is mandatory to cooking meat. Without it, you'll be stuck eating bugs.

Once you have it, work towards getting a fire as soon as possible. Toss it inside your house, and then put some wood in it to turn it on. It will act as a light source at night and any raw meat you put in it will cook. Cooked meat will fill your food bar very quickly and doesn't poison you.

Conan Exiles Tip 10: Horde Everything

Crafting items in Conan Exiles takes a lot of resources. Even if you think you won't be needing Stone, or Branch, pick them up and store them anyways. Even some of the very last recipes will still require these basic ingredients, so there's no reason not to pick them up.

This does mean you'll be needing a lot of storage space. Building a bunch of chests will be mandatory, so as you build a bigger house, make sure to add room for storage areas.

Conan Exiles Tip 11: Learn the Map

Once you have some time, and a safe place to call home, you should learn the surrounding area. The map in Conan Exiles is always the same, so the more you know, the better off you will be.

The first thing to know is that the difficulty of the environment increases as you go further North and further West. New players always spawn in the South-East corner, which also has the easiest enemies.

Also note that while the difficulty of enemies goes up, so to does the quality of the resources you will find. Want Iron? Coal? Better start heading North into the dangerous territories to get it.

Conan Exiles Tip 12: Build a Shrine

Once you've established yourself, you should build a shrine to your god of choice. Shrines can offer very special, and useful items. The only downside is that they take a considerable amount of resources to build. This means it's best to make one once you have a few friends playing with you, so you all can contribute towards its construction.

Conan Exiles Tip 13: Fight Monsters!

An important part of Conan Exiles is leveling up. Once you have yourself safely established, do small excursions outside to hunt down animals. Not only do you want the resources, but combat is the fastest way to level up.

Do be careful about what you pick a fight with though. Even in the lowest level area, some monsters can pack a serious punch! Early on, you should stick to small creatures, and at all costs you should avoid the large crocodiles that sometimes patrol rivers.