Finding Followers in Conan Exiles

I am going to start with a very general overview first before I get into the details.  Believe me, it is funnier that way.

In Conan Exiles you can recruit followers from the NPC population.  There are many NPCs scattered about the map in various camps, some of them are skilled in the combat arts, while others have talents in crafting.  In fact, each crafting station that you build has a slot in it for a follower so that they can tend that crafting station and add recipes to the list of items that can be made.

Conan Exiles

The NPCs also come in different levels.  A fighter II is better than a fighter I, for example.  Likewise, the crafters have levels and the higher the level the more they add.

And, once you recruit one of the NPCs you can gear them up and they have their own leveling system that unlocks abilities as they grow.  They are pretty much an essential and fully integrated part of the game and one of the earliest journeys you unlock involves followers.

Sounds nice, doesn’t it?

Okay, now I need to bring us back to the game itself, which is set in the age and land of Conan the barbarian, when life was a brutal Hobbesian nightmare of survival at all costs.  I mean, what is likely the most famous Conan quote?  It isn’t about loving thy neighbor, I am pretty sure of that.  It is more likely this one:

What is best in life? To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women.

So when I say you can recruit followers, well… the recruitment process is one of that age.

To start with, most NPCs will attack you on sight.  Nobody is happy to see you, save the occasional sign post NPC who has some bit of description to give about some aspect of the land, like Gilzan the Treasure Hunter, who has is theories about the city named The Unnamed City.

He also teaches an emote!

Most everybody else you meet is pretty much set on messing you up the moment they see you.

So how do you recruit.  First you and your friends… and this works better with a friend or two… make sure you have your main weapon ready as well as a truncheon.

Got my truncheon ready

Then you roll up on the hostile camp and start a fight, killing anybody you don’t want to recruit with your main weapon.  This can be a bit tricky for me as I have opted for the two handed steel sword at this point, all the better to kill my foes.  Conan Exiles has that full area swing where you catch anybody within the sweep of your blade, and my sword has quite a sweep.

But, managing that, it is then out with the truncheons to pummel the target into unconsciousness.  Then it is out with the rope… did I mention the rope… you need rope… to bind your recruit and drag them back to your base.

We have our next volunteer

You drag your new beaten buddy back to the wheel of pain.  This is a key part of the recruiting process.

We only have a lesser wheel so far

You then put your recruit on the wheel, stock it up with some gruel, and set it going.

The wheel is actually not that exciting.  They basically push a heavy wheel around until their will is broken.  The details say it has the bonus of strengthening the recruit while the monotonous effort and sustenance degrades their ability to resist.

On the wheel in an earlier version of our base

Then it is just a matter of waiting and being sure the gruel doesn’t run out.  Higher tier recruits take longer, but they all submit in the end.

I’ve used a few euphemisms in this; buddy, recruit, follower, NPC.  And the game itself refers to them directly as thralls.  The crafting stations all have a slot that are reserved for thralls.  The journey that guides you is called Thrall Taker.

New thrall now available for work

Elsewhere it calls them followers or companions.   Your pals!

But the reality is, if you’re raiding a camp, hauling people off and making them work for you you’re taking slaves.  You are not completely out of bounds asking the obvious question.

We’ve avoided skulls on our gear so far

And while on the main path it uses other terms, there are all sorts of references to slaves, slavers, slave taking, and all the related gear.

I mean, the upgrade to the wheel of pain, along with the more efficient steel truncheons, comes from the crafting station called the torturer’s workbench… and that isn’t a euphemism.

So, I will say, if that mechanic gives you pause, you might think twice about Conan Exiles I guess.

Oh, but it gets better.

Because, of course, I rolled up a character that resembles me… like a lot of people, I want to see a bit of myself in some of my characters… that means, as in real life, my avatar takes a bit after my half Swede half Catalan grandmother.  Basically an obvious white guy.

Meanwhile all of our nearby neighbors, from whom we began raiding, were all Darfari, who favor a very dark skin tone.  White guy taking black slaves.  The optics of that… well, you could easily over think that.

Sure, the lore says that the Darfari worship Yog and practice cannibalism and human sacrifice.  I mean, our nearest neighbors have this in their back yard.

Good lord, what is happening in there?

Though, I only know about that because I’ve been next door to kill them all repeatedly and does that really justify slavery?

I know, it is only a game.  Still, I felt a little better about myself when we shanghaied a white guy we found squatting up the way and put him on the wheel.  We’re equal opportunity slavers or something.

This guy could be a cousin from Aland

And, in light of decades of decades of slaying all and sundry in a long series of video games, this hardly seems like something to get worked up about.  It is a game mechanic, and not even close to being the worst I have ever encountered.   I am making pixels and database entries behave in a way that gives me advantage in a video game.

Still, I’d have to completely without self-reflection if I didn’t at least consider what was going on.

So that is the way it goes with Conan Exiles.