The Isle of Siptah is the first significant DLC released for Conan Exiles. It includes a huge new map with a host of new adventures and enemies. It's a great game that you can easily sink hundreds of hours into. For those of you just starting the game, or are thinking about buying it, here’s my top ten beginner tips:
Stick to the beach
Siptah is a dangerous, dangerous place, more dangerous than the Exiles map. Initially stick to the beach areas as these are the least lethal. The worst enemies you’ll find here are crocodiles, lacertas (the things that look like shiny crocodiles) and the occasional hyena and wild dog, though you can also find shalebacks and giant snakes on the smaller southern island. Aside from being the lair of some powerful enemies, the interior of the island is also periodically swept by the Maelstrom (see below). Another reason to stick to the shore is the ready supply of easy meals on the sand – namely the corrugated oyster shells that litter most beaches.
Avoid the Grey Ones
South of the main island is another smaller island. The western half of this island is covered in a perpetual ash cloud. Don’t go there newbie, it’s nasty. The eastern half of the island is nice and sunny, but many of the ruins are infested with large grey humanoids – The Grey Ones. They are extremely antisocial and their weapons carry so much bleed they will one-shot any poorly-armoured player. If you encounter a Grey One in the early game, run away.
Loot the beaches and camps
The beaches of Siptah are strewn with shipwrecks around which are scattered water-logged crates and corpses. Both crates and corpses contain pitiful loot (stones, fibre and wood and the like) that’s hardly worth the bother of picking up. However, investigate any lone drowned corpses you stumble across as they might give up a Scout Report that you can sell for gold on the ‘Isle of Castaways’ (a largish island to the north of Siptah). Better loot is contained in the grey metal chests you can find in NPC camps. These camps are dangerous, but you can often sneak close enough to steal the contents of a chest before the locals become aware of you.
Look for Flotsam
Unlike regular waterlogged crates, Flotsam crates are large containers that you’ll occasionally find floating in the water. These crates have supply packages in them (like those dropped by bearer thralls) that often contain excellent loot. Flotsam crates are usually found floating ten to fifteen feet from the shore or bobbing in the water close to ships (the whole, un-wrecked ships you see off the coast). Most of the boxes I find are at regular spawn points on the eastern coast of the southern island. Flotsam is highly sought after, so go looking for it regularly otherwise other players will snap it up.
Get Yourself a Grave-Digger
The grave-digger is a shovel. It’s a tool that doubles as a weapon and can be found in flotsam crates (see above). A flotsam grave-digger has no health, so can’t be used offensively, but if you carry it in your inventory it will enable you to interact with graves and monuments that are found all over the map (see below). Flotsam crates often have odd weapons inside them (like broken bottles) but sadly all have zero health; only the grave-digger is of any immediate use.
Rob the dead
Grave sites are often not obvious: some are small piles of rocks with a skull on them; others are short obelisks of rough grey stone; while a few are tall, shaped obelisks with blue script on them. All of them will deliver some very decent gear if you’re carrying a grave-digger with you (see above). Unfortunately grave sites are most often found around NPC camps, so be prepared to hit and run to avoid ending up dead yourself. To see a tall obelisk visit the unnamed Lemurian camp at the mouth of the long sandy valley on the southern shore of the island. It will be farmed regularly by other players so repeat visits will pay off.
Salvage Weapons
Decent weapons can be picked up at many NPC camps. If you see a spear sticking out of a pile of boxes or an axe imbedded in a ship’s timber, try to interact with it – often you’ll be able to pick it up. Some are only bog-standard iron items; others are pretty good and made from hardened steel. One good location is the Lemurian camp mentioned above. The obelisk at this camp often has an excellent Lemurian sword stuck in the sand just next to it.
Avoid the Maelstrom
Periodically a huge hurricane-like storm will descend on the centre of the map – the Maelstrom – centred on a tower in the middle of the island. Unlike the Sandstorm that sweeps the map of Conan Exiles the Maelstrom won’t harm you directly, but it will summon up nasties that will kill you quicker than looking at you. It’s obvious when the Maelstrom strikes as the whole map goes dark, but to find out if you’re actually ‘in’ the Maelstrom rather than on its edge, check the top left of the screen, a status message will tell you if you’re in danger. However, entering the Maelstrom is a Journey Step, so running in and out again will tick that off the list for you.
Explore the Leyshrines
These temples are unique to Siptah and allow you to summon Surges that will deliver you loot, valuable thralls and other goodies. Some Leyshrines are intact and unoccupied; others are ruined and infested with dangerous NPCs. Leyshrines usually have scroll in them (lying on the ground in a ruin, but on an altar in an undamaged shrine) and these can contain useful recipes and interesting lore. Ruined leyshrines are also a good spot to find grave obelisks (see ‘Rob the dead’). You won’t find any leyshrines close to the beach so be prepared to run fast if you’re exploring the interior and the Maelstrom descends on you.
Look out for the vaults
Another type of structure unique to Siptah is the ‘vault’. Each vault is dedicated to a member of the Elder Races. These include gremlins (that look like Exiles imps on steroids), werewolves, Dagon fish-monsters and the bat-bird-like Children of Jhil. Vaults are well defended and are dangerous to enter, so don’t try to get inside one without a good thrall at your side. However, you can get their location on the map by running up to their huge front doors, and this is normally pretty easy. The areas outside of vaults are also good for useful materials such as silver ore (silverstone), black ice, crystal and brimstone.
That’s all for now. Hope it was useful. If you want to find out more check out some of my Isle of Siptah gameplay.
