Conan Exiles Purge Guide: Trigger, Defend and Survive

Since the rework, the Conan Exiles Purge is no longer a random event. You build a Treasure Coffer, fill it with loot and trigger the attack yourself. How rich your hoard is decides the threat level and with it how strong the waves are. Every Purge ends with the Hand of War, unless the attackers carry off enough loot first.

This guide covers the current Enhanced state: triggering, how the fight plays out, base design, siege gear and rewards. A lot of older guides still describe a system that no longer exists, so the old-versus-new comparison comes first.

🗓️ What changed about the Purge

Before the rework, the Purge was something that just happened to you. A meter filled up through activity, the attack hit during set hours, and the difficulty depended on the map region. That's still how plenty of guides describe it, and that's exactly how it no longer works.

Funcom's official announcement sums up the core: Purge difficulty scales with the amount of treasure inside your coffer when you proclaim your wealth. One server host's documentation puts it briefly: the old Purge meter was replaced by the Treasure Coffer system, and there's no server-wide Purge level anymore. That's not an official Funcom statement, but it matches the server settings that still exist.

📦 Build the Treasure Coffer and trigger the Conan Exiles Purge

Without a Treasure Coffer, nothing happens. The recipe is cheap. What gets expensive is what you put inside.

Place the coffer, put your treasure in, and talk to the Bookkeeper who shows up at it. That's where you proclaim your wealth, and the game spawns a Stygian Forward Operating Base near your base.

If that fails with an error message, the cause is almost always pathfinding, not space. The attackers need a walkable route to the coffer, so check that one exists before you proclaim.

💰 Threat level: your hoard picks the enemy

According to Funcom, the threat level currently runs from 1 to 10, and the developer hasn't ruled out expanding it later. Funcom has never officially published how much treasure triggers which level. The breakdown below comes from a commercial guide database, so treat it as a community figure, not a confirmed value:

The Hand of War isn't exclusive to the top level. According to the official patch notes, the boss shows up in every Purge once you've repelled enough waves. The threat level changes how hard the waves before it are.

Funcom also says the number of defending players and available followers feeds into the fight without changing the displayed level. If you play solo, the same level shows the same number, but you get a different fight.

🏰 A base that survives the Conan Exiles Purge

The attackers don't want you. They want your hoard. They carry treasure from the coffer back to their war camp. Once they've stolen a significant part of it, they retreat victorious and the Purge is lost. You win by repelling enough waves and killing the Hand of War when he appears.

• One path, one choke point. A single ground-level entrance to your treasure room forces every wave into the same corridor.
• Height beats thickness. Battering Rams eat walls. A position on the battlements beats a thicker wall.
• Thralls on the doors. Since the rework you can assign followers to guard doors and gates, and they hold their post instead of chasing enemies. Which fighters can take it is covered in our list of the best thralls.
• Barricades are useless. The Enhanced patch notes list it as a known issue, still listed in patch 3.0.0 of October 6, 2026, that Purge NPCs walk straight through placed barricades instead of going around or breaking them.
• A second base needs upkeep. A separate Purge build site has its own decay timer.

One detail from the same patch notes (also still listed in 3.0.0) helps you directly: enemies sometimes wander in place after stealing instead of leaving. It's a bug, but while it exists you can still catch thieves after they've grabbed from the coffer and take the loot back. Funcom also fixed demolisher enemies attacking buildings of uninvolved players.

🔧 Siege Cauldrons and Mercenary Banners

Two tools change your defense more than any extra wall. The Burning Siege Cauldron sits above a gate or door and damages the attackers piling up below. It's a two-step build: first the Siege Cauldron at a blacksmith's bench, then the burning version from the cauldron plus Components of Advanced Warfare.

The Enhanced database lists Components of Advanced Warfare as an ingredient in exactly three recipes: the Burning Siege Cauldron, an archer post and the Battering Ram. You learn the Burning Siege Cauldron from a Stygian schematic in Purge loot, and guide databases mainly name threat levels 8 to 10 for that. Where the components themselves come from and how the Battering Ram and the archer post are unlocked is not officially documented.

What four gates really cost: 60x Steel Bar and 16x Shaped Wood for the cauldrons, plus 4x Components of Advanced Warfare. The cauldrons themselves are cheap. The real cost is the schematic, which you first have to win in a Purge.

The second pillar is Mercenary Banners. They summon friendly fighters for a limited time and are paid for with Gold Coins. Prices from the game files:

The Combination banner stands out: it gives you two troop types for 750 Gold Coins, while the pure fighter banner alone costs 1,000. If you're short on gold, buy the Combination banner first, not the fighters. The banners are sold by Isscar the Sellsword, a vendor who according to Funcom takes treasure as payment.

✨ Rewards: war camp, chests and cages

When the Hand of War falls, the boss drops keys (at least three according to player reports; there is no official number), called Commander's Key in the game. Each key opens either a treasure chest or a thrall cage in the Stygian war camp. Freed prisoners join you right away. No Wheel of Pain, no food, no waiting.

• Stygian schematics and recipes: regularly from threat level 8, only with a small chance at lower levels. They include the Burning Siege Cauldron, the Stygian Strategist Table, the Stygian Treasure Coffer and the Stygian Vanguard armor recipes. According to guide databases, these recipes are the only truly exclusive Purge reward.
• Thralls from cages: quality goes up noticeably at levels 8 to 10. How to put them to work is in our thralls guide.
• Materials: gold and silver bars, Gold Coins and rarer materials such as Steelfire.
• Weapons and armor: a small chance at legendary pieces, rising with the level. What's worth keeping is in our best weapons tier list.

If you lose and the attackers haul off your hoard, it isn't gone for good: you can storm the war camp yourself, kill the commander and take your treasure back from his chests.

💡 FAQ about the Conan Exiles Purge

Can the Purge still catch me by surprise?

Not in the current version. The attack starts when you proclaim your wealth at the Treasure Coffer. Private servers can restrict the time window or turn Purges off completely.

How do I lower the threat level again?

Take treasure out of the coffer before you proclaim. The level is locked in at the moment you proclaim, based on the hoard's value. Anything added afterwards doesn't count for that run.

Is a high threat level worth it?

Yes, if you want the Stygian schematics. According to guide databases, they drop almost only from level 8. Below that you get materials and thralls you can farm elsewhere too.

How many waves are there?

Funcom doesn't give a fixed number. The only official description is that you have to repel enough waves for the Hand of War to show up, and that applies at every threat level. Once the boss dies, you've won the Purge. Wave counts floating around online are player estimates.

Do I need a clan for the Conan Exiles Purge?

No. The Treasure Coffer works solo too. Funcom does point out that the number of defenders and followers affects how hard the fight actually is, without changing the displayed level.

Do barricades in front of the gate help?

Not right now. The Enhanced patch notes list it as a known issue that Purge NPCs simply walk through placed barricades. Rely on cauldrons, door guards and choke points instead.

As of October 11, 2026. Checked against Funcom's official announcement of the reworked Purge, the official blog post and patch notes for the launch of Age of War Chapter 2, the Age of War Chapter 3 patch notes, the Enhanced patch notes on the Funcom forums and the game-data database conanexiles.gaming.tools. The threat level table and loot lists come from commercial guide databases and are marked as community figures. The Conan Exiles Wiki on Fandom calls itself the "Official Conan Exiles Wiki", but it is maintained by players.