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A free-roaming squad based RPG. Focusing on open-ended sandbox gameplay features rather than a linear story. Be a trader, a thief, a rebel, a warlord, an adventurer, a farmer, a slave, or just food for the cannibals. Research new equipment and craft new gear.
Kenshi: Crafting Guide
This is a quick breakdown of what’s profitable to craft and what’s less so. I’m still on my first playthrough, so I’ll be adding to it as I go along.
What is this?
This is not a guide (more like reference material), and it’s very far from complete – consider it a WIP. I just started playing Kenshi, but I haven’t found anyone post any details about crafting recipes, so I started to organize crafting costs/profits for myself, and then decided to share it. If someone knows of a chart that does this already, please let me know as it will save me a great deal of time.
You can reference the below charts to help you decide what’s more profitable for you to craft, and what recipes to look for when browsing through shops.
As I mentioned, I’m still playing my first playthrough, so there are plenty of blueprints that I haven’t unlocked or found yet, so I’ll keep adding to it as I explore this game more.
Couple of misc things to note:
I will be breaking this down into several sections for different types of crafting (weapon, clothes, armor, etc).
Each item can be crafted in varying qualities, which results in different sell prices, but I will not be covering all of them because that’s too much. The item quality that I will use for each item, is the mid-tier type of item that can be crafted once the character reaches level 40 in that specific skill (which doesn’t take too long).
Turns out that the sell price of an item rises in-line with the amount of time it takes to craft that item, so it’s not really possible to “speed up” your profits by choosing one recipe over another. In order to increase profit, you have to either level up your character’s crafting skill, set up another crafting bench, or (if you’re buying the materials instead of procuring them yourself) make the crafting more resource-efficient.
Contents of charts:
Name, Sell Price: self-explanatory.
Craft Time: How long it takes to craft. The quicker this is, the quicker your target storage container gets filled up, and it takes more management to sell it all.
Material Type, Material Cost: What material is used to craft, and how much of it is used
Mat per hour: This is basically mat cost divided by time. It lets you know the rate at which you need to procure the material in order to keep the crafting going non-stop.
Cats Per Material: This is the overall profit per material used.
Cats Per Bought Material: This is the overall profit per material used, but also subtracting the average cost of that material (listed above each chart). This is relevant if you’re not procuring/processing the materials yourself, such as when you’re crafting in a base within a city and buying the materials from vendors. For example, mercenary club sells for 484, and it costs 6 iron plates, and iron plates are priced at 135 on average. The calculation is 484 / 6 – 135. So the Cats Per Material will be -54.3, making it unprofitable.
In cases where multiple materials are used, the following formula is employed: (Sell Price – Mat1Cost x Mat1Amount – Mat2Cost x Mat2Amount) / (Mat1Amount + Mat2Amount)
Weapon Smithing
This section will be referring to all weapons crafted to mid-grade quality called “Refitted Blade”. I’ll break it down by tech levels (there are several levels of weapon smith).
Average price of Iron Plates: 135
Weapon Smith 1:
| Name | Sell Price | Craft Time | Material Type | Material Cost | Mats per Hour | Cats per material | Cats per bought material |
| Mercenary Club | 484 | 3h | Iron Plates | 6 | 2 | 80.7 | -54.3 |
| Staff | 322 | 2h | Iron Plates | 2 | 1 | 161 | 26 |
| Ninja Blade | 645 | 4h | Iron Plates | 4 | 1 | 161.3 | 26.25 |
| Desert Sabre | 1614 | 10h | Iron Plates | 5 | 0.5 | 322.8 | 187.8 |
| Holed Sabre | 807 | 5h | Iron Plates | 4 | 0.8 | 201.8 | 66.8 |
| Spiked Club | 516 | 3h | Iron Plates | 6 | 2 | 86 | -49 |
| Horse Chopper | 645 | 4h | Iron Plates | 4 | 1 | 161.3 | 26.25 |
| Iron Club | 258 | 2h | Iron Plates | 2 | 1 | 129 | -6 |
| Topper | 1291 | 8h | Iron Plates | 8 | 1 | 161.4 | 26.375 |
Leather Armor Crafting
These Recipes use two separate materials, so there are extra columns to disambiguate them. The Last two columns calculate profits by taking into account the cost of all materials combined. See Introduction section for the formula
Leather average price: 234
Fabric Average Price: 63
| Name | Sell Price | Craft Time | Material Type | Material Cost | Mats per Hour | Material Type | Material Cost | Mats per Hour | Cats per Material | Cats per bought Material |
| Leather Shirt | 1117 | 24 | Leather | 3.1 | 0.13 | Fabrics | 0.62 | 0.025 | 300.26 | 94.76 |
| Samurai Clothpants | 372 | 2 | Leather | 2.5 | 1.25 | Fabrics | 0.5 | 0.25 | 124 | -81.5 |
| Trader’s Leathers | 745 | 8 | Leather | 3.1 | 0.38 | Fabrics | 0.62 | 0.08 | 200.27 | -5.23 |
| Rattan Hat | 223 | 1 | Leather | 0.7 | 0.7 | Fabrics | 0.14 | 0.14 | 265.48 | 59.98 |
| Leather Vest | 670 | 17 | Leather | 2.27 | 0.13 | Fabrics | 0.454 | 0.027 | 245.96 | 40.46 |
| Leather Turtleneck | 1117 | 33 | Leather | 4.3 | 0.13 | Fabrics | 0.86 | 0.03 | 216.47 | 10.97 |
| Mercenary Leather Armour | 712 | 9 | Leather | 3.8 | 0.42 | Fabrics | 0.76 | 0.084 | 156.14 | -49.36 |
| Drifter’s Leather Jacket | 447 | 9 | Leather | 3.65 | 0.41 | Fabrics | 0.73 | 0.08 | 102.05 | -103.45 |
| Drifter’s Leather Pants | 149 | 2 | Leather | 1.8 | 0.9 | Fabrics | 0.36 | 0.18 | 68.98 | -136.52 |
| Drifter’s Boots | 149 | 1 | Leather | 0.8 | 0.8 | Fabrics | 0.16 | 0.16 | 155.21 | -50.29 |
| Dustcoat | 745 | 15 | Leather | 5.95 | 0.4 | Fabrics | 1.19 | 0.079 | 104.34 | -101.16 |
| Ashlander Stormgoggles | 30 | 3 | Leather | 1 | 0.33 | Fabrics | 0.2 | 0.07 | 25 | -180.5 |
Clothing
Note: The Clothing Bench indicates two separate costs: “Material Cost” and “Fabrics Cost”. After some testing I confirmed that the value for “Material Cost” is actually used during crafting, where as “Fabrics Cost” doesn’t appear to be used for anything. If anyone knows what “Fabrics Cost” is used for in the Clothing Bench, please let me know.
Fabrics average cost: 63
| Name | Sell Price | Craft Time | Material Type | Material Cost | Mats per Hour | Cats per material | Cats per bought material |
| Turtleneck | 75 | 3 | Fabrics | 1 | 0.4 | 75 | 12 |
| Cargopants | 12 | 3 | Fabrics | 1 | 0.4 | 12 | -51 |
| Halfpants (ragged) | 12 | 3 | Fabrics | 1 | 0.4 | 12 | -51 |
| Halfpants [padded] | 205 | 2 | Fabrics | 2 | 1 | 102.5 | 39.5 |
| Wooden Sandals | 12 | 3 | Fabrics | 1 | 0.4 | 12 | -51 |
| Gi | 50 | 3 | Fabrics | 1 | 0.4 | 50 | -13 |
| Straw Hat | 2 | 3 | Fabrics | 1 | 0.4 | 2 | -61 |
| White Vest | 37 | 3 | Fabrics | 1 | 0.4 | 37 | -26 |
| Cloth Shirt | 56 | 3 | Fabrics | 1 | 0.4 | 56 | -7 |
| Halfpants (reinforced) | 260 | 2 | Fabrics | 2 | 1 | 130 | 67 |
| Cargopants (sneaky chain) | 395 | 4 | Fabrics | 2 | 0.5 | 197.5 | 134.5 |
| Cargopants (reinforced) | 260 | 2 | Fabrics | 2 | 1 | 130 | 67 |
| Worn-out Shorts | 5 | 3 | Fabrics | 1 | 0.4 | 5 | -58 |
| Samurai Clothpants | 372 | 2 | Fabrics | 2.5 | 1.3 | 148.8 | 85.8 |
| Wool Hat | 22 | 3 | Fabrics | 1 | 0.4 | 22 | -41 |
| Cap | 22 | 3 | Fabrics | 1 | 0.4 | 22 | -41 |
| Monk Pants | 12 | 3 | Fabrics | 1 | 0.4 | 12 | -51 |
| Gi Pants | 12 | 3 | Fabrics | 1 | 0.4 | 12 | -51 |
| Ninja Gi | 50 | 3 | Fabrics | 1 | 0.4 | 50 | -13 |
| Turban | 175 | 1 | Fabrics | 0.75 | 0.8 | 233.4 | 170.4 |
| Bandana | 175 | 0.33 | Fabrics | 0.4 | 1.3 | 437.5 | 374.5 |
| Rag Loincloth | 12 | 3 | Fabrics | 1 | 0.4 | 12 | -51 |
| Rag Shirt | 98 | 3 | Fabrics | 1.35 | 0.5 | 72.6 | 9.6 |
| Martial Artist Bindings | 37 | 3 | Fabrics | 1 | 0.4 | 37 | -26 |
| Tagelmust | 175 | 1 | Fabrics | 0.9 | 0.9 | 194.5 | 131.5 |
| Black Cloth Shirt | 56 | 3 | Fabrics | 1 | 0.4 | 56 | -7 |
| Sandogasa | 2 | 3 | Fabrics | 1 | 0.4 | 2 | -61 |
| Basket Hat | 2 | 3 | Fabrics | 1 | 0.4 | 2 | -61 |