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The Age of War Chapter 2 completely overhauls one of Conan Exiles’ core systems. The purge has long been contentious and even frustrating for some. That is changing with this next update, so let’s look together and see what is lurking around the corner. Explore this Conan Exiles: New Purge Explained guide for more!
Disclaimer: Information in this article comes from the Age of War: Chapter 2 Public Beta Client and may be subject to change.
TLDR
The purge will receive a complete overhaul in The Age of War Chapter 2. It will transform into an opt-in system based on your treasure hoard. You will be in control of when the purge arrives and find rich rewards for defeating high-tier assaults. Gone are the area-specific purges or enemies randomly showing up at your gate. All purges now consist of the Stygian army, and the difficulty scales with how much treasure you own. The new purge is a 15 – 20 minute encounter with high replayability and rewards to suit your efforts.
What’s Wrong With the Current Purge?
The current purge system has been in Conan Exiles for a long time. The system can be entertaining but becomes a burden for many. A litany of problems has arisen with the current purge system, a few of which are listed below.
- Inconsistent spawning on official servers
- Occasional non-spawning on official servers under high load
- Purges spawning inside bases
- Purges having no end goal aside from combat
- Purges arising at inconvenient times
Many have enjoyed the purge system over the years, but most will admit it needs to change. Under perfect conditions, when the spawning issues do not arise, the purge remains a somewhat unenthused mechanic for experienced players. Conan’s developers have recognized this and aim to overhaul and improve the system. These changes were announced at the launch of the Age of War Chapter 1, though details were scarce, as the update was still in development. With this enormous change around the corner, the purge system will be massively improved.
How Does the Old Purge Work?
Before now, The Purge has been a somewhat random mechanic. Your purge meter would build as you continued to play, eventually reaching a point where the purge is triggered. Multiple waves of enemies, different types depending on your location, would spawn near one of your bases.
They proceeded to attack your base, thralls, and yourself until they successfully destroyed a specific tile or were defeated by yourself. As mentioned earlier, the purge often suffers from numerous issues which hamper its effectiveness. Perhaps the biggest complaint is purges spawning inside the player’s base, which often causes heavy damage to thralls and the structure itself.
Despite its faults, the purge system has remained a popular method of gathering thralls, especially those that can only appear in purge waves. While the system does have issues, it’s clear there are still redeeming factors that captivate players.
How is the Purge Changing?
As one of Conan Exiles’ oldest features, any changes to the purge need to be carefully considered. The mechanic plays a large part in the PvE ecosystem, and despite its issues, there are many factors that players wish to keep. That being said, how has Funcom chosen to overhaul the purge? Well, let’s take a look at the bullet point features.
- The purge is now an opt-in mechanic.
- Purges can be called at any time, almost anywhere.
- Purges now scale in difficulty.
- Purges do not change based on location. All purges consist of the Stygian army.
- You’ll summon the purge through the treasure coffer.
- Difficulty scales with how much treasure you own.
- The purge now constructs a forward operating base outside your base.
- Purges now target your treasure coffer, and will actively steal treasure
- You’ll fight off waves of enemies before besieging the forward operating base to end the purge
Even in this bullet point format, the changes are enormous. The player now has near complete control over how, when, and in what manner the purge will appear. If that is the case, why would anyone choose to be purged? Well, that leads us conveniently to our next point.
Incentives
Who in their right mind would welcome invaders battering down the gates and stealing their treasures? The only correct answer is someone who has the proper incentives. Fun is the primary design behind these changes, and the new purge is fun, but the reward structure needs to be just as robust.
The purge revamp comes alongside the loot rework, which itself rebalances and improves loot tables to ensure you aren’t plagued by stone and plant fiber. Enemies in purge waves don’t drop loot themselves, but you’ll instead find two chests in the forward operating base, alongside some cages. The Hand of War, a Stygian commander, drops keys for these chests and cages.
The chests contain the best loot. You’ll find a smaller chest at the side, packed full of resources, placeables, weapons, and armor. All valuable items, most of which you can disassemble for a return on the core components. The main chest was glitched during the Public Beta Client testing I did, though I managed to clip inside the chest and get a brief peek at its contents. The loot was a step up from the smaller side chest and also included treasures to help you climb to the purge’s next difficulty level.
The cages contained NPCs of all manner, from fighters to dancers and all things in between. Dennis Douthett, lead designer of Conan Exiles, said these NPCs will be enthrallable at release. They were, however, bugged during testing. You’ll also commonly find Isscar the Sellsword in those cages, a merchant happy to sell you a bunch of raid-related items. Trebuchet rocks, explosive jars, and explosive arrows are all available for the right price, though a new addition to his wares is the mercenary banners. These banners are temporary calls for help, allowing you to summon a gaggle of mercenaries to assist you with the purge without contributing to your follower count. It’s helpful for solo players, though, in the public beta client, your thralls will attack these mercenaries, though this should be fixed at launch.
Overall, the incentives for this new system are an improvement over the previous iteration. The main draw of the old purge was the exclusive thralls, and it seems the dev team has supplemented extra incentives well using the reward chests. There are still issues that need to be fixed before The Age of War: Chapter 2 launches, but given the time spent in the Public Beta Client, I’m hopeful they will be rectified.
How Do I Summon the New Purge?
In the Age of War: Chapter 1, treasure hoards were the flagship feature. We could create, steal, or find treasure and build an impressive collection. There wasn’t much incentive to do so, but with the new purge, that incentive is finally in place. That being said, when you’re ready to fight, how do you get the purge to show up?
Firstly, you must have built a treasure hoard and have some treasure in it. So long as your accountant has something to tally up, you’re eligible for a purge. You must then approach your accountant and interact with him to check how much treasure you own. You’ll see the full tally of all you own, alongside your purge status and threat level. Threat scales between one and ten, and dictates roughly how difficult the purge will be. You then hit “Proclaim Wealth”, click the confirmation, and the purge will begin scouting.
During the scouting process, the purge is looking for a viable place to spawn and a path to your treasure room. The Purge needs a decent chunk of land to build its forward operating base on, so keep that in mind when you’re setting up your own home. They also take the path of least resistance to your treasure room and will need a clear path to the treasure itself. You can obstruct the path with doors and gates but can’t wall off your treasure room. If you do, the purge will refuse to spawn, and you’ll get an error message explaining why.
Assuming the above checks are successful, you’ll see or hear a forward operating base appear nearby, and the purge will begin to run for your gates.
How Does the New Purge Fight?
After the combat changes in the Age of War: Chapter 1, the purge plays surprisingly well. They still attack in a wave-based format and the numbers you’ll face scale for how many players or thralls are actively fighting the purge at a given time. In my testing, I played solo with roughly 12 thralls and faced a veritable horde of treasure-hungry invaders. Despite that, I never felt that I was overwhelmed by inescapable numbers. I could always retreat to the gates or find space to breathe in the battle. You’ll likely only fight two or three enemies in melee combat at once, though archers on the outskirts can prove troublesome. The same is true for your thralls, who themselves can fight roughly the same amount of enemies at a time, helping to reinforce the feeling of a true battle.
Amongst the waves of enemies, you’ll find demolishers. These are a new enemy type, notable for their traditional Stygian dress and imposing size, as they tower above the other soldiers. They do not directly fight but rather will approach your base and begin to beat down the gates and walls with a battering ram. The appearance of demolishers is a test of target priority, as the battering rams are incredibly powerful. You’ll need to quickly dispatch them, lest your gates fall to ruins.
You’ll face various groups of enemies during the waves, from lowly prisoners to well-armed Stygian soldiers. A new wave will not start until the previous wave has been nearly defeated, giving you room to breathe before running back into the fray. Eventually, a warhorn will sound and the Stygian commander, The Hand of War, will challenge you to combat. This horn signals the arrival of the final wave, and the commander himself. To be perfectly honest, the commander is incredibly weak as a boss enemy and falls as quickly as his fellow soldiers.
While not currently implemented, the Age of War: Chapter 3 will allow the purge to use trebuchets. It remains to be seen how this will play out, though I would imagine the use of siege machines will only apply to high-difficulty purges. We’ll have to wait until December 2023 to see how this plays out, which is when we can expect to see the Chapter 3 update.
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What is the Lore Behind the New Purge?
Thoth Amon, the architect of The Exiled Lands, began using the land as a prison after stealing the Serpent Ring of Set from The Unnamed City. He knew relics untold still rotted beneath the sands and wished to recover them. Therefore, without knowledge of the kings to whom he sold this prison, Thoth would build a relationship with numerous bands of mercenaries. He would grant them access to The Exiled Lands, and allow them to pillage as they pleased. They could take the gold and silver, but relics dug up by the prisoners would be the property of Thoth Amon.
Across the oceans, The Empire of Stygia, resent has been brewing. The Stygian coffers run low, and King Ctsephon has heard rumors of those mercenaries running rampant within The Exiled Lands. With the Stygian armies rallied, Cstephon demanded they cross the oceans, through vicious jungles and wind-spun deserts, to reach The Exiled Lands. There will be no reinforcements, no extra provisions, the Stygians must claim those riches for themselves.
The army is tasked with raising a bastion in hostile territory, to dominate the land, subjugate its wealth, and bolster the royal coffers. The Stygians have seen off the mercenaries and enthralled those who refused to leave. They stand alone as the dominant force in The Exiled Lands, and as the serpent’s shadow looms, all beneath it will submit, lest their banners fall buried beneath time’s unceasing sands.
Overall Impressions
The new purge certainly has some issues. In my testing, alongside the glitched chests and NPCs mentioned earlier, getting the purge to spawn was frustrating. I would like to see the system loosened up somewhat to be more flexible, though it seems that was the purpose of the nearly month-long period this update has spent on the public beta client.
However, when the purge works, it works. Fighting off waves of attackers was some of the most fun I’ve had in Conan Exiles, and that is coming from someone with over 3,300 hours played. Even for beginners, the purge will challenge you, but not insurmountably so. The new purge feels surprisingly well-balanced in its execution, and once the more buggy elements of spawning and rewards are fixed, it will emerge as an incredibly healthy change for Conan Exiles.
Conan Exiles: New Purge Explained FAQs
Question: How many waves does the new purge consist of?
Answer: The answer changes based on difficulty. A tier 1 purge may only be two or three, though a tier 10 purge could go a little longer.
Question: Are all purge waves the same?
Answer: No. I’ve personally seen waves of prisoners, Stygian soldiers, and Khitan Exile Headhunters, though others have also reported Aesir and Vanir amongst the purge waves.
Question: What about the giant snake seen in the Age of War: Chapter 1 trailer?
Answer: There’s no sign of the giant snake yet. If it does arrive, it will likely come with the Chapter 3 update, alongside trebuchets.
Conclusion
There you have it, all you need to know about the purge revamp coming to Conan Exiles in the Age of War: Chapter 2. The Public Beta Client is already available on Steam and has been for a while. If you’re on a console, or can’t spare the disk space, the update will be released to the live servers on September the 21st 2023. The new purge may have some issues currently in the beta client, but when those are rectified, I believe it will stand as one of the best changes Conan Exiles has seen. As always, don’t forget to stay tuned into ConanFanatics for all the Conan Exiles news, guides, and tips.
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