You finally did it. You recruited a ragtag group of starving drifters, gave them some rusted pipes, and marched out into the Border Zone thinking you were the next Cat-Lon. Then you clicked on a Dust Bandit. Your guys just stood there. Or maybe they shuffled around awkwardly while getting their teeth kicked in. It’s frustrating. It’s Kenshi.
Figuring out Kenshi how to attack is basically the first real "boss" of the game. Lo-Fi Games doesn't give you a tutorial because the world of Kenshi doesn't care if you live or die. Most people think you just right-click and win. Wrong. It’s a messy mix of AI goals, encumbrance math, and specific UI toggles that are way too easy to miss if you're playing at 3x speed.
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Honestly, the combat isn't even "combat" in the traditional sense. It's an RPG simulation where your characters make decisions based on a hierarchy of commands. If those commands are borked, your legendary swordsman will literally watch his friends get eaten by Beak Things without lifting a finger.
The Basics You’re Probably Missing
First things first: the right-click. In Kenshi, a simple right-click on an enemy issues an attack order. But here’s the kicker—if you have a group selected, they might all try to pathfind to the exact same spot, clipping into each other and resetting their attack animations. It's janky.
Check your bottom right panel. See those buttons? "Block" and "Passive" are the silent killers of new runs. If "Block" is toggled on (it turns green), your character will gain a massive bonus to their melee defense but will never swing their weapon. They just stand there playing hero while their health bar slowly turns yellow. "Passive" is even worse for combat; it tells your unit to ignore everything unless they are personally being hit. Turn those off if you actually want to see some blood.
Then there’s the "Taunt" button. This is your best friend for micro-management. If you want your heavy armor tank to take the heat while your glass-cannon thieves get behind the enemy, Taunt needs to be on for the tank and off for everyone else.
Why Your Attack Animations Are So Slow
Ever noticed your character starts a swing, stops, and gets hit? That’s the "stagger" mechanic. If your Dexterity is low, your attack speed is garbage. If your weapon is too heavy for your Strength level, you’ll swing like you’re underwater.
The rule of thumb is simple: you need twice the Strength of the weapon’s weight (for blunt damage) or 40 times the "Blunt" weight value. If you’re trying to swing a Fragment Axe with 10 Strength, you aren’t "attacking"—you’re just practicing how to die.
Advanced Tactics: Beyond Right-Clicking
Manual targeting is a lie. Well, mostly. While you click an enemy to target them, Kenshi uses a "hitbox" system. This means if your character swings a heavy Falling Sun and an enemy happens to be standing in the arc of that swing, they take damage regardless of who you were actually aiming at.
This leads to the "Cheesing" method.
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If you find yourself outnumbered, don't just let the AI handle it. Move your characters. By manually moving a character away just as an enemy starts their wind-up animation, you can make them miss. Then, you click back on them to "attack." This "hit-and-run" micro is the only way to survive the early game against enemies like Hungry Bandits who have better stats than you.
The Ranged Meta
Crossbows change everything about Kenshi how to attack. They don't rely on the same melee logic. But—and this is a big "but"—friendly fire is a nightmare. If you put your archers directly behind your warriors, you will kill your own people. Guaranteed.
- Position archers at a 45-degree angle to the fight.
- Check the "Precision Shooting" stat. It only levels up by actually hitting your friends (sadly).
- Use the "Hold" command. This keeps your archers from chasing enemies into a melee mosh pit where they'll get slaughtered.
Environmental Factors and Limb Loss
Kenshi is a game of math masquerading as a desert wasteland. Your ability to attack is directly tied to the health of your right arm. If that arm hits zero or goes into the negative, it's "useless" or severed. Your character will either drop their weapon or switch to one-handed combat if they’re using a sidearm like a Katana.
If you’re wondering why your character won’t attack with that cool new Plank you bought, check their left arm too. Most heavy weapons require two functional limbs. If one is broken, you're just a walking target.
Nighttime also sucks. Unless you have Nagas or specific headgear, fighting in the dark gives you a massive penalty to your attack stats. It’s often better to set up a campfire or just wait for dawn before raiding a Holy Nation outpost. Your characters will literally "miss" more often because the simulation accounts for visibility.
The "Attack All" vs. "Attack Target" Confusion
There’s a subtle difference in how the game handles orders. If you right-click the ground near an enemy while holding 'Ctrl', you can sometimes force an "Attack Area" logic, but usually, it's better to use the "Combat" job.
Shift-clicking the "Attack Unprovoked" button adds it to your permanent job list. This is dangerous. If you walk into a neutral town with this job active, your characters might start a fight with the local guards because they "perceived" a threat. Use it only when you’re clearing out a nest of Blood Spiders or Fogmen where there’s no such thing as a "neutral" party.
Dealing with the "Getting Outnumbered" Penalty
Kenshi has a mechanic where characters can be "surrounded." If three people are attacking you at once, your character's AI gets overwhelmed. They spend so much time in the "defense" animation that they never find a window to strike back.
This is why "Attack Slots" mods are so popular in the community. In the base game, only one person can effectively attack a single target at a time in a specific window. If you're fighting a group, try to spread your guys out. Turn it into a series of 1v1s or 2v1s. Never let your squad get clumped into a tight circle, or you’ll just get AOE'd (Area of Effect) into oblivion by a single high-level enemy with a polearm.
Training Your Attack Stat Fast
You want to get better at attacking? You have to lose. A lot.
The "Melee Attack" stat goes up when you swing, but the "Melee Defense" and "Toughness" stats go up when you get hit. Paradoxically, the best way to become a master attacker is to put on the heaviest armor you can find—which lowers your stats—and fight enemies slightly stronger than you. This "stat dampening" actually makes your experience gain faster because the game thinks you’re a total underdog.
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Find a captured bandit. Put them in a cage. Give them the shittiest rusted sword you can find. Give yourself a toothpick. Spend all day swinging at each other. It’s cruel, it’s efficient, and it’s very Kenshi.
Actionable Steps for Your Next Combat Encounter
Stop rushing. The biggest mistake is panic-clicking. When the fight starts, pause the game (Spacebar is your best friend).
First, look at the UI. Is anyone on "Block" mode? Is anyone on "Passive"? If they are, toggle them off immediately.
Second, check the weight of your weapons. If a character’s Strength is lower than the weapon's requirement, open their inventory and swap it for a lighter Katana or even their fists. It is better to hit fast and weak than to never hit at all.
Third, split your squad. Take your fastest runner and have them "kite" half the enemy group away. Kenshi's AI is easily distracted. If you can peel off three bandits from a group of six, your remaining squad members have a much higher chance of actually landing an attack instead of being stuck in a permanent block-stagger loop.
Lastly, watch the limbs. If you see a character's icon showing a red arm, micro-manage them out of the fight. They are no longer an asset; they are a liability who will likely lose that limb permanently if they take one more heavy hit. Move them back, let them bandage, and let the people with two working arms handle the "attacking" part.
Combat in Kenshi is a survival simulation, not an action game. Treat it like a series of math problems where the solution is usually "bring more people" or "run away faster." Once you understand that attacking is a privilege granted by your stats and gear, not a right granted by a mouse click, you'll stop dying in the Border Zone dirt. Over time, those rusted pipes will turn into Meitou-grade blades, and you'll be the one making the world stand still in fear.