Conan Exiles Bearer Guide

• About
• Latest Posts

Emily Parker

Emily, or Zoe if you’re on her discord, is a Conan Exiles guide contributor and long-term fan. She’s been raiding bases since its release, mixing in some Rust, Archeage, Apex Legends, Hearthstone, Don’t Starve, and Horizon Zero Dawn. Video games have been a core aspect of her life since she was a child with an N64. When she needs a break, she’ll switch genres and start a new kind of adventure, though survival games have always been a favorite.

Latest posts by Emily Parker (see all)

• Conan Exiles Elevator Guide - October 14, 2022
• Conan Exiles Drawbridge Guide - October 9, 2022
• Conan Exiles Bleeding Guide - August 12, 2022

What makes a thrall a thrall? Is it their combat ability, their bonuses on a workbench, their innate ability to trap you in a small space, or is it their randomly generated, yet always ripped aesthetic? Whatever you think best characterizes them the most, it’s hard to argue their usefulness in Conan Exiles. Whether helping in combat or crafting, it would be a far more difficult game without their addition.

If all a thrall ever did was carry my treasures, they would still be a very valuable asset to me in the Exiled Lands. A combat thrall, however, is somewhat lacking in the inventory department. They may be the most powerful allies available in Conan Exiles, due to their high strength and ability to equip armor, but there are better options when it comes to lugging your gear around.

If you’re looking for a pack mule, a bearer thrall is a great option. They may not be as mighty as the mammoth when it comes to carrying your goods, but their superior combat capabilities and low profile make them a preferred companion in the Exiled Lands.

TL:DR: Bearer of Your Burdens

The main draw of a bearer thrall is that they can have up to 25 inventory slots, depending on their tier. Additionally, they can be equipped with any of the same armor you would put on a combat thrall. Even their pack (head-slot) can be removed with no effect on their carrying capabilities to equip a helmet. Their main stats are vitality and survival, and these will level well with your thrall. They may not do as much damage as your combat thralls, but they will survive just as well if not better.

You will likely not find a high-tier thrall on your first trip, but an easy place to look for a bearer thrall is Riverwatch in between E4 and F4. The best place to farm for a high-tier bearer is, like most thralls, the black galleon. There are four bearer spawns in and around the ship.

Where to Find a Bearer Thrall

A bearer thrall is not an easy thrall to find. Carrying massive amounts of treasure back to base is a big advantage in Conan Exiles and their scarcity reflects that. You’ll recognize a bearer thrall out in the wild by their massive pack.

If you are a beginner or low-level player, you’ll find at least a T1 bearer spawned at a couple of locations around the river in the starting area. There is a small Dafari camp called Riverwatch on the hill between E4 and F4 that has a single bearer spawn point. While you’re in the area, check out the camp between E4 and D4, just north of the beginning of the river for another bearer spawn point.

These spawn points can have any tier bearer in them, but will most often have lower tiered thralls. If you do not get the tier you want, you can always clear the camp and try again. Camps with several bearer spawn locations are more difficult to clear and require higher levels to access. This system means you could luck into a T4 at camp that has a bearer spawn, but it’s unlikely.

See also: Conan Exiles Elephant Pet Guide

Where to Find a T4 Named Bearer Thrall

An easy way to tell right away if you’ve found a named bearer, or T4 bearer, from a distance, is their choice of armor. All other bearers wear some combination of fiber armor, while named bearers have light armor equipped. A T4 bearer could technically spawn at any of the locations I mentioned previously, but if you’re hunting specifically for one it’s best to head to a camp that has several bearer spawn locations to increase your chances.

Once you’ve got some levels on you, the best place to find a t4 bearer (and plenty of other tiers) is the black galleon. You can start farming the camps around the black galleon at level 20 if you’re pretty tough, and the ship area at level 30. Be very cautious at these levels, there are 50 aggressive exiles just aboard the ship, and it is very easy to aggro more than you bargained for. The Black Galleon is the only location with four bearer thrall spawn points, upping your odds of running into a named bearer.

There is an easier way to farm for a better bearer than messing with the pirates, but it involves werewolves. Head to the Den for three bearer spawn locations that are much less effort to access. Not only are the enemies slightly easier to get along with, but they are more spread out than they are on the Black Galleon. This is my favorite location to look for bearers for two reasons. First, the Black Galleon usually has someone else farming it, that may or may not be friendly, and second, my panther Lucy and I are usually only wrong one click away from disaster while on the crowded ship.

Inventory Space: Which Tier Bearer Thrall Do I Need? 

Each tier bearer has a different sized inventory, and of course, the better the bigger. T1 has a 10 slot inventory, T2 has a 15 slot inventory, T3 has a 20 slot inventory, and T4 has a 25 slot inventory.

As with many things Funcom, there are a couple of bugs to consider when talking about bearer thralls and their tiers.

First off, named T4 thralls may not initially look like they have 25 inventory slots, but their inventory will fill up to 25 slots after the initial 20 visible slots are taken up. If your bearer thrall is T4, it will be able to carry 25 different items even if it does not appear that way.

Next, all bearers will use one of their slots to store their weapon when out of combat. If you’d like to use this last slot, simply manually move their weapons or shields in their appropriate hands and fill the spot. The weapon will create a spare spot when sheathed after your thrall’s inventory is full.

Finally, there was a glitch for a significant amount of time in Conan Exiles that set a T4 bearer’s level 0 health well below the health of a T3 bearer thrall.  After leveling the two, a T3 bearer would end up being the better thrall. Funcom has recently patched this glitch out; T4 bearers are once again the superior option.

What’s With The Pack?

Unless you like the way it looks, you can just remove it and give them a helmet. The pack they come equipped with does not affect their inventory size or their encumbrance. You can take it from them and wear it yourself if you like, it will take up your head slot but increase your encumbrance stat by 5.

You can also craft your very own bearer pack at the armor’s bench. For only 1 light padding and 30 hide, you and your bearer thrall can have matching outfits!

How Bearer Stats Work

All thralls’ stats are randomized, but different kinds of thralls have stat trends that differentiate them from other placeable thralls. Their base stats at level one will be obvious, but next to that number is a percentage, which is not so obvious. The percentage next to their strength, for instance, designates how likely they are to gain this attribute at every level. The food you feed your thrall can increase these chances.

Bearer thralls have great survival and vitality stat columns. Both the amount they start with, and the growth percentage, are usually very high in these categories. The vitality stat affects their health pool and the survival stat affects how well they use food to heal and the duration of bleeds and poisons.

This stat spread is to ensure your bearer’s survivability, but not their combat prowess. A fighter thrall will always be more valuable in a fight than a bearer if leveled with the same care. Their inventory space is a tradeoff you’ll want to consider when you decide who will be crawling the dungeon with you.

What to Feed Your Bearer Thrall

Now that you know how stats work, let’s talk about how to customize your bearer thrall. How your thralls level in Conan Exiles is determined by what you feed them. Depending on the stats you’re blessed with, the level your thrall is at, and the amount of effort you’re willing to put in, I have three recommendations for what to feed your bearer (which stats to level).

Gruel – Strength

To increase the chances that your bearer will level strength, or increase their melee damage, put gruel in your bearer’s inventory. This method works especially well when you’ve managed to find a bearer that already has a high growth chance for vitality. It is most important to grow a bearer’s health pool, but if they already have a 70% or higher chance to grow that stat, I like to roll the dice and try to grow their strength instead. Even with gruel for every meal, a bearer thrall will never have loads of strength, but you could end up with a pretty well-rounded thrall.

This is also the route for folks that don’t want to put a lot of effort into leveling their bearer anyway. Gruel is very easy and cheap to make! Five fiber and 1 seeds make a whole 10 stack of gruel at a campfire.

Grilled Steak – Vitality

Grilled steak adds to your bearer’s vitality growth chance. Leaving grilled steak in their inventory is the safe route. It will guarantee that you end up with a very durable bearer thrall with a large health pool. It’s especially important to feed for vitality if your bearer has a low growth chance in vitality. You don’t want to wind up with a bearer with a low health pool or they will be far less viable as a pack mule.

You can farm grilled steak from antelope in Conan. They drop savory flesh that can be cooked at a campfire into grilled meat.

Exotic Feast or… More Gruel

You may have noticed that as your thrall consumed food from their inventory, a healing buff was applied to them during combat. While leveling your thrall, it’s more important to keep the appropriate stat increasing food in their inventory (gruel or grilled steak), but once your bearer thrall is max level, you can switch to foods with higher healing bonuses. This will make your bearers more durable when in very dangerous situations.

You can stick with gruel for its 7pts/second healing bonus or switch to stocking exotic feast in your thrall’s inventory for a 10pt/second health buff. Exotic feast also applies 3 STR to your thrall when consumed. An exotic feast requires an oven to make, exotic flesh, an egg, and five dried berries.

Because of its expense, you may decide to save exotic feast for particularly dangerous treks and rely on gruel for the rest of your time on the road.

Can I Murder It: Killing Bearers Instead of Breaking Them

You really only need a couple of bearers for your adventures, and if you’re not knocking something out in Conan Exiles, you’re murdering it. So what kind of treasure does a bearer thrall drop?

After killing a bearer, you’ll find their pack in their inventory. These packs are full of supplies and can be opened in your inventory whenever you choose. This means that if you are short on space when you loot the bearer, there is no need to open the pack until you get back to base and free up your inventory.

The better the bearer, the better the supplies in the pack that he drops. A T1 bearer’s pack can have rocks, wood, and branches (poor guy). A T2 bearer’s pack can have ironstone, feathers, bones, blood, and sometimes skulls. A T3 bearer’s pack can have alchemical base, wood, crystal, and bark. A T4 or named bearer’s pack can have iron bars, tar, highland bush seeds, aloe seeds, golden lotus seeds and hops seeds.

There are not many situations where you would murder a T4 bearer instead of knocking out and breaking them if you are playing vanilla Conan Exiles. Named bearers are far more valuable as a thrall. These supplies are maybe a small boon in case you kill them on accident when trying to knock them out.

See also: Conan Exiles Brimestone Locations

You’ll Bearly Leave A Treasure Behind

If you’re a bit of a collector in Conan Exiles, or you are just sick of inventory juggling, there may be no better companion for you than the bearer thrall. A named bearer thrall has a 25 slot inventory, which is only trumped by the mammoth and camel that have a 30 slot inventory. Relative to the mammoth, and especially the camel, the bearer thrall is more viable in a tight situation. This is due to their ability to wear armor and their smaller size. Try taking a mammoth into a cave!

The bearer thrall is an excellent solution for long resource runs and dangerous camp farming. If you don’t care to have a bearer thrall, or you already have one you like, you can always kill a bearer for their resource pack and move on! You’ll quickly learn to scan for their large packs on the horizon, because any way you slice it, you’re in luck when you find a bearer.

FAQ – Conan Exiles Bearer

Recommended Reads:

• Conan Exiles Brick Guide
• Conan Exiles How to Make Hardened Steel
• Conan Exiles Wheel of Pain Guide
• Conan Exiles Taskmaster Guide
• Best Pets in Conan Exiles