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There are some dreams still forming in Conan Exiles. Though you can build to the sky in any shape or size that you can imagine, there are some limitations to how the structure functions when you’re through. Other players only complicate things. They abuse systems and wreck fantastical structures. Other players bottleneck our dreams into the same defensible builds as everyone else on the map.
This is true in most survival games, though I would agree that Conan Exiles maintains more of its player’s ability to be unique than other games. Its commitment to unique features that actually work when it comes to defending your base usually sets it apart from other games of the genre. Some of these features, however, have had a little trouble becoming functional in a PvP environment. The Conan Exiles drawbridge is one of these features, but as with any other mildly broken thing the game has to offer, we continue to hold out hope that some solutions are on the horizon.
TL:DR: Drawbridge Delusions
If you’d like to use a drawbridge on a PvP server, I have some bad news for you. They are challenging to implement in their intended function because you can only control them from one side. While you are out for the day, the drawbridge will need to remain down, defeating some of its viability as a defense measure.
Conan Exiles Drawbridges are great solutions in PvE when only dealing with the purge or for sandwiching in between your walls for added strength in a PvP base. You can try making two drawbridges that meet at a central tower for defense against PvP players. While one is down, the other will remain open. However, the central tower must be impossible to climb, or they will just have access to the one you had to leave open.
My Experience with Drawbridges in Conan Exiles
I enjoy a good drawbridge for purge defense, and I have been known to layer them between other structures for added wall strength. I’ve tried my hardest to employ them in a PvP build but have found them lacking in a Pillar build when compared to elevators. There is something very nostalgic about raising a drawbridge in preparation for a defense, and I wish they were easier to use.
If Funcom is listening… please consider giving them a thrall equipment slot so that an NPC can operate the bridge while we’re away. I will go capture whoever you want to have them operate my drawbridge for me. Maybe they could even wear funny gloves and insult our enemies from the wall.
How to Build a Drawbridge
You will need to learn the master gatekeeper feat at level 39 to learn the recipe for a drawbridge. Building a drawbridge requires 30 hardened bricks, 20 shaped wood, six steel reinforcements, and ten twines. You will also need to build a gateway of your choice to place the drawbridge in. This gateway will need three foundations as its base. The drawbridge’s lever will be on the gate’s side of the bridge.
How to Place a Drawbridge
Because there is no digging in Conan Exiles, you will need to either find a ravine or moat in your environment to place your drawbridge across, or you will need to build one. Finding one is always superior because the landscape cannot be destroyed by other players or the purge. Look for somewhere that would be easy to trap at the bottom and difficult to climb out of for when your drawbridge is up.
It is helpful to bring the drawbridge with you so that you can measure the approximate distance with its placement ghost. You can always build foundations out to meet one side of your drawbridge or even link two together to span long ravines. Place your three foundations and your gateway when you’ve found the perfect location for your drawbridge.
Gateways are not easy to place, but the best advice I have for you is to back up from your project and try again. If you back up far enough, there will only be one way the gateway can align on your foundations. After you’ve accomplished that, simply rotate it until the outward side of the gateway is facing where you want your drawbridge to go.
Once placed, you may need to add a couple of foundations to the other side to level out the entry points. Head back to your gate to hit the drawbridge lever and test out your creation.
More Drawbridges!
Placing two together comes with some utility challenges but is easy to construct with the help of a central tower to connect them. You can either line them up facing the same direction, which is easy but not as fun, or you can line them up facing opposite directions so that when they’re deployed, they meet each other in the middle or at their ends.
The challenging part about drawbridges that face each other is determining where they will meet. Where should you place the central tower? Where should the other bridge start? The easiest way to construct facing drawbridges is to build your first bridge and then use cheap foundations underneath to measure its distance. Then construct your central foundation tower and use the sandstone measurement to determine where the gate for your second drawbridge should be constructed.
Of course, it will be evident if you’ve messed up when you go to place the second bridge. In this case, you’ll have just to eat the materials for the second gate and try again.
Drawbridge Successes: The Purge
The most effective way to use drawbridges is to deal with the purge. The purge’s AI is not equipped to deal with a disappearing bridge over a big pit with spikes, so they mostly just fall in and die. How you make the ravine under your drawbridge dangerous is up to you. Palisades are a cheap and deadly option for the bottom of your pit, but you could line it with explosives, crocodiles, or poison tiles!
The most 75,000important thing to consider when placing a drawbridge for purge defense is their eventual approach. You’ll want your drawbridge to be your only entrance, or another part of your base will also have to be easy to defend. You’ll also need to be careful about leaving your drawbridge down while the purge has a chance of spawning. If the computer cannot find a reasonable route to your base walls, it will just spawn inside.
Even T3 purges can be defeated by a nice spike pit. Just remember there are flying things in Conan Exiles!
Drawbridge Successes: Sandwiches
Another way to use drawbridges is a bit of cheese but is still situationally utilized by PvP players. Drawbridges have a relatively large quantity of health for their imprint size. When they are closed and stuffed between wall pieces or other gateways, you’ll end up with a pretty formidable structure for its imprint.
A reinforced stone gate’s health is 65,000, and a drawbridge’s health is 75,000. The stone gate is less expensive to make, but both take up the same imprint. If you aren’t using the structure for its intended purpose either way, you may consider installing the tougher of the two.
Drawbridge Failures: Castle in the Sky
The drawbridge has one major flaw that keeps it from becoming a standard piece of equipment on every base. It can only be closed from inside the base by a human player. This means that if everyone has left for their daily adventure, potential raiders will find your drawbridge down. If you close your drawbridge and leave out of an alternate entrance, then it’s hardly serving its intended purpose.
The solution would be the ability to command your defending thralls to open and close your drawbridge from inside your base. While this isn’t totally unlikely, it’s not a feature on the top of anyone’s list as far as the community is aware. For now, if you want to use a drawbridge, you’ll have to figure out how to use it in a way where closing it from the inside of your base is not a hindrance.
Another solution is to place two bridges and settle for only having one closed at a time. If you are leaving for the day, you will close the drawbridge connected to the bank. If you are working inside your base, you will close the bridge connected to your base. The danger here is that someone could simply climb your central tower to access the bridge that was left down. If your ravine is deep enough or your tower is trapped with palisades and trap plates, this can be a viable solution to a defensible drawbridge build.
Making it into your base in time to close your drawbridge is hardly an issue for the purge as you get a warning when they are headed your way, but on a PvP server, drawbridges can be a hassle.
A Drawbridge Over Troubled Water
A lot of effort went into designing a working drawbridge in Conan Exiles, but a little more is needed to make it a practical addition to any base. For now, the drawbridge works well in a PvP environment, especially when defending a pillar base against a purge. It’s satisfying to watch the entire attack fall into a deadly pit of spikes and palisades, and it’s fun to design a base around the concept.
If you choose to use drawbridges on a PvP server, it would be most helpful to learn how to build two. Two drawbridges must meet in the middle, and one of them can be closed at a time to defend your base. You’ll need to learn how to build a central tower that other players would find it difficult to scale. Raiders will always choose the weakest link when it comes to getting in your base, and depending on your base build, it can be considerable effort to make sure your drawbridge is not it.
FAQs – Conan Exiles Drawbridge
Question: What is a drawbridge in Conan Exiles?
Answer: A drawbridge is a bridge that can be raised and lowered between two points. The drawbridge in Conan Exiles has a small lever that raises the massive span of bridge or lowers it. It is a T3 gate unit with comparable health to other T3 gates. When it is closed, it will actually take more explosives to get through than a standard T3 gate. If it is left open, your raiders will walk straight into your base. A drawbridge is best used to span a ravine, whether player-made or already existing.
Question: How do you place a drawbridge in Conan Exiles?
Answer: A drawbridge must be placed in a gateway, which requires three foundations of any tier to attach to. This means a drawbridge may be placed anywhere that three foundations can be placed in a line. Don’t worry about where the drawbridge will end yet; you can always build a foundation tower for it to land on if it doesn’t quite hit the bank. Make sure your gate is oriented the correct way, and then snap the drawbridge in place. If you are having trouble getting the drawbridge to snap, back way up until you can see then entire structure and then try again.
Question: Are drawbridges broken in Conan Exiles?
Answer: Drawbridges are not broken; they just aren’t as helpful as they could be. Drawbridges can only be opened and closed from one lever that is located inside the area they are defending. That makes sense, right? Kind of. Drawbridges would be perfect if a thrall could operate this lever, but as it stands, only a player can. This means that when you leave for the day, your drawbridge will remain open. The purge will give you enough notice to return home and close your drawbridge, but raiders will not. You can try building two drawbridges if you’re intent on using them on a PvP server, but you’ll have to make very sure the tower where they meet is secure.
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