Conan Exiles
Conan Exiles drops you into a brutal sandbox set in the Conan universe, where survival is earned through gathering, crafting, and hard fighting. As an outcast left to die, you will scavenge what you can, shape it into tools and weapons, and eventually raise anything from a simple shelter to a fortified stronghold.
 | Publisher: Funcom Playerbase: Medium Type: B2P Survival Game Release Date: January 30, 2017 Pros: +Crunchy, brutal combat paired with strong visuals. +Light RPG progression and build choices. +Distinct regions that reward exploration. +Deep crafting that supports both gear and large-scale building. Cons: -Server caps top out at 70 players. -Optimization and stability can be inconsistent. |
Conan Exiles Overview
Conan Exiles is an open-world survival game developed and published by Funcom. You begin as an exiled warrior in an unforgiving land, and the early hours revolve around basic needs and basic tools. Food and water matter, the environment can be hostile, and your best chance at lasting longer than a few minutes is learning where to gather essentials and how to turn them into useful equipment.
From there, the game opens into a broad sandbox built around exploration and construction. The map is split into multiple harsh regions, ranging from sun-blasted deserts to ominous forests and mountainous areas, each with its own threats and resources. Instead of pushing a linear campaign, Conan Exiles largely leaves direction to the player, your goals come from what you decide to build, where you decide to settle, and who (or what) you decide to fight.
Base building is a major pillar. You can start with a small home and scale up into walls, towers, and full fortresses, then defend them from hostile NPCs, creatures, and other players depending on server rules. Combat is designed to be active and close-range focused, with battles that can shift from scrappy duels into larger raids over territory. A day/night cycle, interactive NPCs, and character customization round out the experience, giving the world a lived-in survival-game rhythm.
Conan Exiles Key Features:
- Ritual offerings – capture and sacrifice enemy players to the gods, gaining access to powers that can swing a fight in your favor.
- Survival needs plus a time-of-day cycle – hunger and thirst require regular attention, and the shift from day to night changes how safe (or dangerous) travel feels.
- Action-forward fighting – engage enemies directly, with visceral melee clashes and a presentation that leans into Conan-style brutality.
- Multiple harsh regions – roam across very different environments, from bleak deserts to darker, more eerie wilderness zones.
- Robust crafting and construction – gather materials to create weapons, armor, tools, and crafting stations, then expand into full buildings and even community-built settlements.
Conan Exiles Screenshots
Conan Exiles Featured Video
Conan Exiles Review
The following is an Early Access impressions review.
Conan Exiles arrived in Early Access with a very clear pitch: classic survival-game loops set in a sword-and-sorcery wasteland, complete with graphic violence and an unapologetically savage tone. It delivers the genre essentials, you harvest, craft, build, and fight, but it also carries the usual Early Access baggage, uneven polish, occasional instability, and systems that feel like they are still being tuned. The key question is not whether it functions as a survival sandbox, it does, but whether the content and moment-to-moment play feel complete enough to justify long-term commitment at this stage.
From exile to a tool belt
The opening minutes set expectations quickly. You start with nothing, then immediately begin stripping the environment for whatever you can grab: stone, wood, fibers, and anything edible or craftable. Interactions come fast, and the world is generous with basic materials, so you can assemble starter tools and simple clothing without much friction.
That accessibility is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it makes the early game readable and rewarding, you are rarely stuck wondering what to do next. On the other, the sheer volume of pick-ups can make gathering feel more like constant busywork than considered survival. The core loop is still satisfying if you enjoy the meditative rhythm of chopping trees, cracking rocks, and converting raw materials into progress, but players who dislike extended harvesting sessions should know that Conan Exiles leans heavily into that identity.
A world that looks hand-built
Visually, Conan Exiles stands out among survival games. The landscape feels curated rather than randomly assembled, with strong vistas and memorable landmarks. Rivers and greener pockets provide a natural early route, while deeper areas hint at older civilizations through imposing ruins, caves, and temple-like structures. The environment does a lot of the storytelling work, encouraging you to wander simply to see what is over the next ridge.
Creatures and hostile tribes add constant pressure to that exploration. You will run into wildlife that ranges from small nuisances to dangerous threats, and human NPCs are generally not interested in negotiation. Scattered lore elements, such as notes and tablets, offer background for those who want it without forcing narrative pacing onto a sandbox. Even so, at this Early Access stage the world can sometimes feel like an impressive set that is still waiting for its systems and inhabitants to fully come alive.
Combat and AI still finding their footing
In this build, enemy behavior is one of the rougher edges. NPCs often act like traditional MMO mobs, tethered to small patrol areas, with inconsistent aggro ranges and limited reactions once a fight begins. Wildlife encounters can also feel oddly coordinated, as different species frequently pile into the same fight in ways that do not always read as natural.
The combat itself aims for active melee, but it can become repetitive when opponents track you too cleanly and movement options do not consistently create openings. Instead of fights that reward clean spacing and clever positioning, many engagements devolve into trading basic attacks while managing stamina and health. Ranged combat, particularly bows, also feels undercooked here. The foundation is workable, but the overall system needs refinement to better support the kind of dynamic, brutal duels the setting suggests.
Progression, attributes, and the grind curve
Unlike some survival games that keep progression mostly in crafted tiers, Conan Exiles adds a clear RPG layer. Almost everything you do contributes experience, and leveling grants attribute points across multiple stats (for example Strength and Vitality), plus knowledge points used to unlock recipes. This creates a steady drip of advancement, and it gives players room to shape roles within a group.
The trade-off is that time investment directly translates into power, and knowledge points are limited enough that you cannot simply unlock every crafting path immediately. That restriction can be a positive, it encourages specialization and cooperation, but it can also be frustrating if you are playing solo and want access to every utility option. The leveling pace also slows notably around the early milestones, and under default settings it can push players into repetitive hunting and harvesting loops just to reach the next meaningful unlock.
Server settings and mod potential
A lot of Conan Exiles’ rough pacing can be smoothed out through player-hosted servers. Tweaks to experience rates, harvesting speed, durability, and other variables can dramatically change how the game feels, turning it from a long-form grind into something closer to a faster-paced building and raiding sandbox.
Mod support is also a meaningful inclusion, even if its long-term impact depends on how the community develops. Survival games often live or die by their ecosystems, and a healthy mod scene can keep a sandbox fresh well past its initial content. When official updates lag behind player expectations, community tools frequently become the difference between a game that fades and one that evolves.
Final [Early Access] Verdict – Good
As an Early Access release, Conan Exiles shows a strong core. The world is striking, the crafting and building framework is substantial, and the Conan theme gives it a more aggressive identity than many peers. At the same time, combat feel, AI behavior, and general performance still hold it back from being the easy recommendation it could become.
For players already comfortable with Early Access survival games, there is plenty here to justify diving in, especially on well-tuned community servers. If you prefer finished systems and smoother stability, it is smarter to wait until more of the rough edges are addressed. The foundation suggests real potential, but it is still in the process of becoming the definitive version of itself.
Conan Exiles Links
Conan Exiles Official Site
Conan Exiles Steam Page
Conan Exiles Facebook Page
Conan Exiles Subreddit
Conan Exiles System Requirements
Minimum Requirements:
Operating System: Windows 7 64 bit
CPU: Core 2 Duo E6550 2.33GHz or Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5600+
Video Card: GeForce 8800 GTS or Radeon HD 5670 1GB DDR3
RAM: 4 GB
Hard Disk Space: TBA
Official system requirements have not yet been released for Conan Exiles. The requirements above our based on our experience and will be updated when official numbers become available.
Conan Exiles Music & Soundtrack
Coming Soon!
Conan Exiles Additional Information
Developer(s): Funcom
Publisher(s): Funcom
Game Engine: Unreal Engine 4
Early Access Release Date: January 30, 2017 (Steam early access release)
Development History / Background:
Conan Exiles is an open-world survival game developed and published by Funcom. Funcom also developed and published Age of Conan, an MMORPG centered set in the universe of Conan the Barbarian. The game has been set to enter beta testing through early access available January 30, 2017 at a price of $29.99. Conan Exiles is built on Unreal Engine 4.