Should You Settle Fishman Island? | Kenshi Location Guide

Our squad met its match here on the Fishman Island. After calling in reinforcements though, we were eventually able to set up a base. In this guide we'll cover the notable aspects of this region as well as the challenges that go along with living here.
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Start 0:00
Fertility/Resources 0:22
The Dream: 1:42
Fishmen: 2:22
Holy Lad Colonization: 4:30
Recommendations: 5:00
Settlement Suggestion: 7:32

[@lolihitler4198]

cannibals living exclusively in some of the most fertile regions of the game will always be one of my favorite kenshi moon logic moments

[@paulrogersgaming]

Best place to grow food... Let's eat people instead tho

[@noonenowhere877]

Maybe they’re not cannibals for practical reasons but ideological reasons. 😂

[@goergebobicles1351]

@@noonenowhere877 my theory is that the area underwent a famine of both food and soil. And all of the cannibals and conflict attracted the gutters of whom re-firtilized the regions after enjoying a good meal.

[@smulGIANT]

Attracts all the farmers to the region just to eat them lol

[@WiseOwl_1408]

Can you be a cannibal if you eat other species? Fishmen are not people

[@darkranger116]

i've played for almost 600 hrs and the most advanced structure i've ever built has been a tent. I havnt even started a base building run yet. This game is insanely massive its mind blowing.

[@paulrogersgaming]

If I cover a region per week, it will take around a year. XD The game is huuuge.

[@user-xf1ur3hu4z]

was one of first things i did. like at most 10 hours in...... lol (much to early for a newbie i will add lol) but that is what makes this game fun. there is no rules. except to just go and have fun, do what u want to. make ur own story.

[@biglootums5243]

I built a base first thing, saw how well that was gonna go for me, and have not tried again since lmao. But these videos have me itching to take another swing

[@googlegoogleson9609]

The game has gotten pretty boring for me, nothing seems like a challenge to accomplish anymore, i'd rather wait for kenshi 2 than play again anytime soon

[@pimmpslap]

The only thing I've ever done is build bases lmao.

[@ailius1520]

I was able to get it to work with the "1 solo character, the rest of the squad is newbies" approach. The trick is to bring fabrics along too. The first thing you build is a small shack and you fill it with beds. When a character is injured, you put them on the bed and you lock the door. As long as the fishmen don't know there's somebody inside the shack, they'll run past it. Generally, for the first in-game week, my workers would only build things at night in sneak mode, and would spend days healing up from injuries inside the locked shack. After things running...well I didn't even set walls up. Just used the endless waves to level the combat stats of everybody.

[@paulrogersgaming]

Brilliant!

[@SgtThiel]

Nice. I like to train people early on and use them as guards later on when I start building. The others characters will accumulate experience under the protection of the more experienced guards.

[@goergebobicles1351]

I find that assembling a large force of hivers with polearms/sabres is a great way to go about conquering Fishman Island. They're immune to the acid rain that sometimes drops, a well trained pole arms and desert sabre (cracked sabre if you're ok with mods) force can make mince meat of them through aoe alone, and the best part being that you can simply eat the fishmen as hivers while getting your farming setup.

[@paulrogersgaming]

That's genius. You could run hivers with animals, and they'd all be well fed with the foul meat.

[@metazare]

Fishmen creep me out. They're like some freakish monster you'd run from in a nightmare.

[@paulrogersgaming]

I can't look at em too long. They're terrifying. I want to know why they even exist. Other than to haunt my dreams...

[@eshannumin]

I built an army solely of crab armor falling son wearing dudes and had miners in the crab armor too. Setting up there, most hostile attacks on my base died on the way.

[@ThorkellTheTall]

I run a mod to properly reclaim fishman island, because after you defeat king gurgler you are rewarded with most of the good area still being technically claimed. Those fools will cross that bridge to fight me and will like it.

[@heello2u465]

Is it on steam? Or custom?

[@newmoonwithface]

@@heello2u465i think i saw this mod on the nexus once

[@ThorkellTheTall]

@@heello2u465 There are likely more than one implementations out there, but I use 'YOUR Fish Isle!' on steam.

[@caledonianamerican41]

I just settled a little island just at the end of the long jut of islands to the south of the larger, main island. It was just big enough for a storm-house, and I found that this location is extremely peaceful and safe. It is also quite pretty, and I think living in the middle of the ocean in Kenshi is rather unique

[@fabf77]

I never considered the place, but it is more tempting than you suggest. If you make a group of only Hives, the Fishmann will be your source of infinite food. If you build an animal feeder and have someone loot corpses, they will take the meat from the fishmen (thus killing them in the process) and take it to the feeder, where the Hives will go to look for food. If you have a moderately trained group, so much combat will maintain a considerable increase in status, and the lack of planting for food or cooking it, much less watering plants, will allow them to take periods of naps to heal. Hive Paradise, bro.

[@Aeternous]

One serious flaw I realized while watching this video is the fact that I wasn't subscribed.

[@paulrogersgaming]

I hope you have remedied this tragic flaw 😉

[@zahhak5571]

The problem is Big Mom demanding snacks to not delete my settlement

[@mortaegul6241]

Skinners Roam is one of my favourite zones for a large base, simply because it's in the middle of the continent. Plenty of food, wind is ok, minerals are ok, water is kind of lacking

[@paulrogersgaming]

Was scouting Skinner's Roam yesterday. It has plenty of flat space, and I like it for having all the essentials

[@JB-xl2jc]

And a huge bonus of being very flat which is great for base building

[@aguyfromflorida4842]

cant wait for the unwanted zone settlement guide

[@TheVampireAzriel]

I've been asking for this since the beginning 😅

[@unknownself-kenshi]

Very comprehensive video, makes a solid case for putting a base or outpost there. If you don't kill King Gurglar, would make great combat training.

[@yourranger7025]

The one thing that will always remain a mystery to me about the Fishman Isle... what is the King Gurgler selling? RIP new recruits btw

[@paulrogersgaming]

😅

[@MateusVIII]

I really liked to build my base in the fishman island, but killing the King Gurgler first was an absolute must. It ended up becoming my strongest base and it was good to have no other factions sending raids, plus the fertilty and resources were able to sustain my whole faction. It is annoying how far it is from everywhere else, buthaving it as a safe haven where you can train your armies and then send them out is great since after killing the king gurgler and having a initial set up you never need to worry about it being in danger again.

[@keenbump2406]

finally! i was waiting for this video

[@1senhart]

Yo I'm binging these guides and you're making me want to start another run just to explore more

[@paulrogersgaming]

Glad to hear you're enjoying them! I love planning a base location as inspiration for a playthrough

[@jimmyselsmark7346]

Love all these setteling videoes... I wonder how long till the settling Obedience video comes out, I've been wondering about that place recently because I know there are viable places to settle around the edge with pretty much high everything, but I have NO IDEA what to expect if I ever settle there.

[@shinobi_chileno1737]

I love the fish island, but holy shit the spawn rate is insane

[@nanksm4583]

I just did a Settle on Sonorous Dark as a skeleton. i would highly recommend!

[@ozymandiasthesaltylobster8207]

I settled Fishman Isle on my first ever playthrough. Sent a single skeleton there to deal with them. The guy had been trained in Cannibal Plains/Foglands in Katana combat. On the Isle, he levelled to 50 martial arts and kicked both legs of Giant King Gurgler, before ripping of the stinker's head. After that, settling was very easy.

[@YoghurtKiss]

This, so much this. Fish island was my first base, I still consider this island to be the easiet place to conquer and setup a functioning base in.

[@Aereto]

Pacifying the Island first is the best approach. Approaching the king gurgler for Mortal Kombat is a bonus.

[@mr.d.rektorstudios]

Man, your audio quality has improved SO MUCH. Congrats!

[@paulrogersgaming]

Thank you!

[@robro2214]

I really want to see the Royal valley settled, I might do it in a future run myself

[@robro2214]

Update on settling Royal vally, honestly kinda fun but there are clearly better options

[@robro2214]

Update to the update King has located the base I repeat king has found the base

[@duxae1617]

Fishman island is a fun place to colonize. I made a city right where the bridge meets the island it has iron and I don't care about copper and less fish attack up there. Its a fun challenge fighting off their waves until you build up the strength to kill the King. I wiped out every fishman (I think) except one who I recruited (the last of his kind). His job is to pick up corpses.

[@Hello-lf1xs]

huh; I didn't know swamp fertility could eliminate water requirements! I thought it was just all the rain that did that tbh

[@nicolassolisbaez1435]

my last run was with all skellies not much to take from vanilla soo i added mods to raise my numbers to 20, rly fun to go around with those tanks

[@trunkmonkey8792]

goated channel these vids are fire king

[@paulrogersgaming]

Thank you trunk monkey 🙏

[@DeezNuggz]

paul posted 🙏

[@paulciampo2104]

I remember my first time settling there. I had hydroponics and it was always raining, so I built rain catchers.

[@HONGKELDONGKEL1888]

i have settled in fishman island, pretty okay place to live if you have advanced into the game far enough you can survive almost anywhere. definitely not a beginner place to settle down in, but a very viable farm location.

[@Rukiry-cw1bg]

I consider most zones in the south to be "late game" so i don't usually settle there, fish island though looks like a pretty neat place to make a big farm right next to cheater's run in order to run my trading route more effectively, overall personally this place seems much more pleasing than okranites land and a good trading point but you should worry about security more often just to make sure your caravan won't reach a farm filled up with dead bodies of your workers and guards, it aint big of a problem once you'll kill king gurgler an it's basically a free space to make a giant farm in. P.S. WIll there be a location guide for Great Desert? It's my most favorite zone in all of kenshi, so a few tips i don't know would be really nice, thanks!

[@jackverling1725]

I just recently set up an outpost at the Fishman islands, and built in the exact same place you recommend! the worst thing about is the hoardes of beak things on the way to get to the base :'(

[@fumarc4501]

I find the fishmen fascinating. Wish there was more lore about them. I do plan to settle here in my later game. I think it would make a nice place for the Unhived.

[@Busson_0]

Even thoug,it is have a very good place for players who wanna start their own sushi business in Kenshi!

[@Terminarch]

I ended up in a more central location. Come in from the north bridge and up the hill to the iron node. It was ROUGH. I use a camping mod, so had a basic recovery station right at the end of the bridge. Tried to clear it out the hard way before I knew that killing the big guy ends it all instantly. BRING DOGS! Pathfinding is bad. Your guys will get stuck on the bridge for sure, probably just train swimming instead or go full isolationist. Also occasional acid rain.

[@Fallout3131]

Whelp, time to start up Kenshi again, thanks! Lol!

[@AWESOMO5]

I did fish man isle as my second playthrough base, after my first playthrough got ended by unending torrent of beak things and swamp raptors eating my dudes and eating my crops. Fish man island is a great place to go as a skeleton to lvl up toughness dodge and general combat. If going gets tough, you can always run away to Catun or Mourn to resupply. The initial set up is tough because you have to kill King Gurgler, then buy a bunch of building materials and drag them over across bone fields dodging beak things, and then slowly start building up. You have to defend from occasional crabs but that's pretty much a non issue once you have walls up. The bad part about settling down there is that it's very remote, and far away from everyone else, besides Catun. After you kill King Gurgler, the fishmen stop spawning, and bandit raids take a week to arrive since the AI pathing always prefers to swim across instead of using the bridge.it got pretty quiet on the island, so I started doing some RP, where i sent a skeleton deep into the world and hired a bunch of low level characters, i told them of a paradise island where there is protection, no slavery, and plenty of food and drink for all. The only catch is that the potential recruits have to run a gauntlet through the swamps, and boneyard full of beak things. The recruiter only buys them 2 dustwiches and a bandage to get through. Only 1 in 5 recruits makes it to the island, it was like being the villain from SAW movies. I got bored there and hated making long trips so I started a new character and settled in Shem made a city around a lake and all the attackers get shot in the lake before the gate

[@focruz7290]

There is an interesting mod i found on Steam that allows you to take over fishman isle for your Faction!

[@Ironmaidenportugal]

there's one time i thought settling in fishman island would be easy with free training, because gurglers are just unarmed humanoides. But i underestimated their numbers and frequent attacks. I wipe first group but didn't give time to recover as a second attack appears, then the third and so on. I had to wall the base quickly before anything else.

[@Centinym]

Funny that you had this massive struggle, I literally just snuck one guy in, popped the king on the back of the head and snuck out. Mission complete. No more fishmen.

[@TheMarcone1985]

U should add in those base build guide if there is a good chance or not of having a visiting trade caravan

[@zombieranger3410]

After assassinating the king and killing some of the groups, putting up a basic wall to stop crabs, you can now set up the facilities and automate the game in complete peace. Its true AFK hash and food production. The only issue I had was I made the fishmen extinct and needed to find “alternative” ways of practicing combat. Would recommend if you want to fast track to having loads of money and supplies, but not for first time playing, especially when your only nearby city is in beak thing county. AND the bridge is glitchy.

[@cellulanus]

Yeah you've got to go for the king first. I was able to take it pretty easily with a small well trained party.

[@RealJohnSlinkman]

Great to conquer but not for me… maybe it’s time to go out east

[@paulrogersgaming]

Same here. It's too remote for me. I like being close to other factions (for peaceful purposes of course).

[@GodlordBazi]

My first experience with the Fishmam Island was the result of pure greed. It was like my second playthrough ever. During my first, I explored the northern regions of the map, so this time I went for the south. For the most part, it was horrible. After having lost a bunch of my guys in the Swamp and in the Bonefields already, I finally entered Catun. The city itsealf didn't really appeal to me except for its location on top a lone mountain and the quality of the weapons sold there, but then I noticed a strange thing: a sack of flour sells for 400+ cats there. Being the greedy fuck that I am, I immediately sent my guys out into the killzone that is called the Bonefields again in order to find a fertile patch of land to grow weed on. The local wildlife made this task as difficult as possible and I was already starting to think my guys too weak for a settlement somewhere close to Catun - that's when I noticed a long and defendable bridge leading to a peaceful island down south. I checked out the area and was blown away by the fertility and the ressources there. It was basically the motherload I've been looking for, so I set up camp directly at the bridge. And bam - Fishmen. It was one assault after another until my group was too worn out to defend themselves anymore. I quickly realised that the Fishmen were picking up all my unconcious guys during combat and it really didn't look like I could defeat them one more time, so I fled with everything I had left back to Catun mid combat. Out of the 12 guys I brought with me, the Fishmen took 6 and the beakthings took another one in the Bonefields. I had lost all of my pack animals, pretty much all of my ressources and backpacks, some of my best people and the chance to make a lot of money thanks to the Fishmen. But: back in Catun I accidentily noticed that you can mine iron ore from INSIDE the city by moving your guys closer toe the huge ruin north of the city entrance and clicking manually on it (instead of giving your guys the task to do it, which will lead them outside of the city). That's how I became the new blacksmith in town and made a fortune without being in constant danger of getting eaten by whatever lurks outside those city walls. ;D

[@jacobC1083]

Fishman island, great for setting a base and getting animal hide using the peeler on the steady supply of volunteers.

[@inmosh]

My favorite place actually

[@onebigfatguy]

This just makes me want to see if Watchers Rim is even do-able because it sure doesn't look all that big on the map.

[@Fallout3131]

Subbed!

[@h.f.v.1428]

Man, imagine if these kind of menace invading the other coastal regions like the deep ones from lovecraft, this type of event will be nice.

[@amogus-eo6nm]

You got me to return to kenshi man

[@paulrogersgaming]

Welcome back to land of suffering (meaningful suffering of course) haha

[@heello2u465]

I was able to get a robotic character, a droid from the kathun mod, up to 90+ toughness and 55 martial arts here, as they don't eat robots/skeletons. I just stole king guegler's meitou heavy weapon and used it for strength training instead of killing him, as I plan to train my other droids and droideka first.

[@Rekkenze]

Considered settling here after I killed the king with a stealthy character and I had inadvertently made the fisherman the dominant faction of the south. They were still around after I killed him so be careful not to kill the UC before the fishy boys as well otherwise it’ll just keep spawning fish man alphas in his place

[@paulrogersgaming]

I hate that the Fishmen take Catun. I think there's a mod to have the Tech Hunters take it instead, and I wish the vanilla game would let the Tech Hunters have it.

[@TheVampireAzriel]

The UC Taxman wouldn't come to me, but I would get assaults. I also had 4x population, so they stomped my shit repeatedly. 😅

[@michaeledblom9164]

you do know that if you run into the ocean the fishmen will stop chasing you and run off right? I got the settlement builder start and used all hivers since they can eat the rancid meat the fishmen drop and kind of got away building here with low level characters just by dipping into the ocean. Also I'm pretty sure the copper deposit moves depending on new games. I played one game where the deposit was right next to the ruin so I couldn't build my base next to it and in another it was basically where your base is.

[@mikoajkosinski6666]

i always settle in river valley around holy nation capital

[@wallabing]

Skeleton characters level up extremely fast fighting the endless hordes of Fishmen. Fishmen leave Skeletons alone when they are knocked out.

[@shinsenshogun900]

Kral's Crib is gonna be a haven mistaken by Shek Pilgrims, to the annoyance of the possibly distantly related Kralson

[@paulrogersgaming]

😭

[@someone-ke4qj]

Wipe the fishmen city and you can sleep there, I think if you kill kingfish in the stronghold not far from fish city it wipes the giant patrols.

[@user-tb7ml8kz7h]

??? Fishman are the easiest to kill in the entire game; Just knock them out, and steal their foul meat - works with their big boss too. Use bonuses from clothes on a Scorchlander to make a sneaky assassin (100stealth/100assassination) really early...

[@markjacobs3232]

Yeah I remember doing that, eventually assassinating the king and then making it a gohan producing base.

[@Monkey_Surgeon]

you should do the storm gap coast next

[@ditch_magnet]

wife is crab crab is life

[@ferretmonger0236]

AAARRRLOOOOOOONG!!!!!!!!

[@WiseOwl_1408]

Once the king is dead it's a very quiet place

[@jalen7690]

I have had this game in my library for years and I haven’t really played it yet. It looks complicated

[@paulrogersgaming]

It's not an easy game at the start. I feel like most players get hooked after they learn the basics.

[@leandrodejesus338]

I shall go to the fishman island, unfortunate I settle at shem, but, hey, life is pretty good, besides make the UC angry because killing a noble and make an alliance with the anti-slavers. Now i have 41 characters, because of the bunch of mods that increase my limit capacity to 256 and add a lot of content to the game. Also, someone dies after my four save in the game all my base becomes to starved when i decide to search for the guy who shall make the food, so find out that he dies and someone burn his corpse.

[@jv85fr]

I think you forgot to mention the island has acid rain quite often

[@lvjkb7026]

I cleared fish island with a solo martial arts skeleton. Every run I play solo till day 50 or so to make sure my solo guy has 90+ toughness and whatever combat skill I choose.

[@paulrogersgaming]

Martial arts skellies are the best 👌

[@lvjkb7026]

@@paulrogersgaming update: ALL the guys I recruited died trying to get to Flats Lagoon. The skelly is now solo again... Day 74

[@waldirnacarath]

the struggle

[@uncorr6982]

It's an only place where it's convenient to cook gohan. All crops can grow there well.

[@paulrogersgaming]

That's right, the GOHAN. Isn't that the best food type? Or at least second best?

[@uncorr6982]

@@paulrogersgaming , if you buy it in bars - it's indeed second to best in terms of nutrition-to-cost ratio. If you make it - no, it's usually too inconvenient to make and too cheap to make for profit.

[@jesus2639]

It likely would have been way different if you built a multi layered base and had a full squad not 10 guys

[@foxdavion6865]

Fishman Island is *the* end game settle spot; Once you've researched every tech and you're strong enough to wipe out the Fishman leader and can contend with the crabs with base turrets, you're set. Don't expect caravans or traders to show up to buy your stuff though, but in equal measure, no one is going to show up to demand payment for the right to live there either, regardless of their pathetic reasons. Personally, I don't care about upsetting the Reavers, they can eat a beakthing turd, goes double if I am allied with the Crab Raiders. I however don't want to upset the UC and have an army of professional rank 30+ skilled Samurai in Standard or better Samurai heavy armour with Edgewalkers grade Swords being launched against me once a week until I am dead or enslaved for daring to refuse to pay their extortionate tithe. (and I already know how tough those guys are because in my Start I made the Old Solider into one), yeah I'd rather not fight an army of "me" that will wipe out everyone in my faction bar the two strongest shek I've recruited, thanks.

[@paulrogersgaming]

Agreed. Reavers can pound sand.

[@KaptifLaDistillerie]

You forgot to mention that acid rain can happen there

[@paulrogersgaming]

True! I don't think I mentioned it.

[@MrTroves]

On the plus side, if any of the Holy Lads return to the Holy Nation, one could make the argument that they managed a successful crusade in the name of Humanity against one of the worst of the inhuman scourges on the planet.

[@richardchaines5570]

I usually kill king gurgler first then settle the isle lol

[@applepiepieapple5464]

King gurgler was pretty easy imo. His weapon is no joke, but he doesn't wear any armor.

[@paulrogersgaming]

I feel like he should be tougher, all things considered.

[@wither5673]

To be fair, if you have enough high level warriors and strong enough gates....its infinite free food, just saying.

[@caledonianamerican41]

🥖🥖🥖🥖🥖🥖🥖🥖👍

[@fajile5109]

I think you can get 7 skeleton recruits in the entire game and they wont be eaten.

[@scramblex2692]

you can get infinite skeleton recruits, even in vanilla. it does take some time though.

[@melanclock]

shoulda brought more crabs

[@chaoticcramer9877]

Fisher Tiger did NOT die for this 😭

[@lorenzopiccarreta8568]

Me like fish

[@LordBlancmont]

THE ONE PIECE IS REAL!!!!

[@Suffering4Success]

Lol do shrieking forest

[@TheAb0mination]

Stone is not hart to find - Show us a screenshot of 1% stone prospec

[@YoghurtKiss]

You lost me at 5 seconds in... Difficult? Fish Island is Noob-island, it's one of the easiest places to build a giant functioning base. Plus it allows you to farm pretty much everything (except for 'dry' things). Pick up one skelleton and use it to clear the entire island for you as Fishmen will never kidnap Skellys. Free training for defence skills (which also hurts the unarmed fishmen). Idk man, Fishman island was the first place I had a successful colony and it's still to this day for me, in my mind "noob island" (Which is a good thing)

[@ShiveringEroticKingBanana]

more

[@paulrogersgaming]

Another tomorrow 👍

[@ShiveringEroticKingBanana]

@@paulrogersgaming nice

[@sicksock435446]

beep

[@markjacobs3232]

Your mistake was not making a squad of hounds.

[@paulrogersgaming]

True

[@FingerinUrDaughter]

youre wasting that areas potential completely. every single one of those fishmen has between 100-2,000 cats on them. every. single. one. you build a small base with turrets and a long funnel section leading to an open gate. you then proceed to loot the corpses until your people are starving to death, and send a dude out to go buy some food with the millions of cats you earned in like an hour. more corpses = more fishmen, so make damn sure you burn those corpses too, or it wont be long before the game crashes from too many fishmen spawning right outside your view distance, and making a beeline to your base.

[@banks33]

i have settled the fishman island. I went there as a solo. Cause i wanted to give it a try. I had a solo base up and running ... But jesus i wanted too pull my hair out. But my character is a Super OP Martial Arts character, He has now moved back to the Unwanted zone with his actual base and his loving wife and 2 kids ...