To turn in bounties in Kenshi you must take the NPC with a bounty on their head to a police station or prison tower. Depending on which faction has the bounty, you will have to go to an appropriate town and take the NPC with the bounty there. For example, for criminals wanted by the United Cities, you will have to take the bounty to a Police Station and speak with the Police Chief. For more information read on below.
Bounties in Kenshi
In Kenshi, some NPC characters will have a random chance to spawn in with a bounty. Having a bounty means that this character has committed what a certain faction would call a crime. Bringing this character to an authority figure within the faction will mean that you get the amount of Cats that the bounty is worth. You may bring the bounty in dead or alive, but if you bring the bounty in dead you will only receive half of the reward. For example if the bounty is worth 1000 cats, you will receive 500.
Player character bounties
Your own characters can also get a bounty on their heads by breaking the law within certain faction areas on the map. Trespassing on private property, assault and kidnapping are just some of the many crimes that are punishable by the law. If you get a bounty on your head and are recognized by peacemakers of a faction they will render you unconscious and capture you. You will carry out your sentence in prison and the time you are in prison will depend on how high your bounty is. Sometimes you may even be sold to slavers, where you will remain a prisoner until you are bought back to freedom or manage to escape.
Your bounty value will eventually go down if you stay away from towns long enough. If your bounty exceeds 10,000 cats however, it will remain permanent until you are caught and serve your sentence.
Unique bounties
There are a few unique bounties in Kenshi where big shot criminals are wanted for rewards. Keep a look out for wanted posters in towns and shops. You can also ask the Police Chief at the police stations in the United Cities for information on bounties. They will sometimes give you information on some high profile targets. Bringing these targets in will net you large amounts of currency and raise your factions relation with whoever you do the bounty for.
Capturing some important figures in Kenshi may change the state of the world. For example capturing a leader of a town or faction leader will result in a new faction destroying the town or even taking it over. Choose your side wisely.
How to turn in a bounty
If you want to turn in a bounty you must first find a character that has a bounty on their head. You can check this by left-clicking on the character and looking at the bottom left of the UI. If you are having trouble see the image in the ‘Bounties in Kenshi’ section of this guide.
Once you have found a character with a bounty on their head it is important to note which faction the bounty is for. For example, just because a character has a bounty with the Shek Kingdom, doesn’t mean you can bring them to justice at a Police Station in a town in the United Cities. Once you have established where the bounty can be turned in it is time to go in for the kill, so to speak.
Through sneaking you can attempt to knock the character unconscious. Success chance is dependent on your chosen characters assassination skill level and the targets Toughness level. You can fight the bounty to incapacitate them or even kill them. Once you have successfully fallen your enemy have a character pick them up. You can do this by selecting one of your characters and holding the right-click on the unconscious enemy.
Once you’ve got the dead/alive bounty in your hands it is time to head to once of the cities to turn in the bounty. In this example, the criminal is wanted by the United Cities, the faction with the samurais in Kenshi. To turn him in, travel to one of the towns in the United Cities and find the Police Station. You can highlight important locations within towns by holding down the left ctrl button on your keyboard. See the image below for an example of what a police station looks like in Kenshi.
This is the Police Station in my game of Kenshi at the moment in the town of Stoat. The towns in Kenshi are randomly generated so just because the Police Station is here in my game now, doesn’t mean it will be there in the next playthrough so keep that in mind. Once you find the police station send in your character who is holding the bounty in their hands.
Now that you are inside it is time to locate the Police Chief. This character will always be standing at the front desk of the police station. You can select them and look for the nametag in the bottom left of the UI stating ‘Police Chief’. An easy way to find this character is by selecting on of your characters and ‘mousing’ over the NPC’s. The Police Chief often be the only one that you can interact with. Select your character holding the bounty and right click on the Police Chief to start the dialogue.
Alternatively you can hold down the right click to open up the interaction menu. For the sake of this being a guide on how to turn in bounties we will only focus on the option at the top, ‘talk to’.
Talk to the police chief and they will mention that you are holding a bounty. The dialogue will be different depending on whether the target is dead or alive. Once they ask about the bounty select the option ‘Take him’ to get your reward. If you change your mind about bringing the criminal to justice you can still change your mind here by selecting the bottom option or pressing the number 2 on your keyboard.
Upon handing over the bounty you will earn yourself a reward depending on whether the bounty was caught dead of alive. Catching a bounty will always give you a relationship boost with the faction you give them too, depending on how large the bounty was. Catching bounties is a great way to earn a few extra cats in Kenshi and build a relationship with a faction.
That’s all that you need to know about turning in bounties in Kenshi! Did this guide help you? If you still have more questions about bounties in Kenshi drop a comment below and I’ll try to help you further.
[Link to developer, LoFi games’ website]
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