Conan Exiles Purge Not Starting: How to Fix "No Reachable Location"
If your Conan Exiles purge is not starting and you get the message "There is no reachable location for the purge to setup their base camp" instead, the game isn't missing space, it's missing a path. The Purge looks for an area for its forward camp and checks for a walkable route from there to your Treasure Coffer. If the AI can't find a route that reaches the target without climbing and without destroying anything except gates and doors, it retreats. This guide shows you step by step which building pieces and which terrain cut the route and how to open it up again.
The error message describes the problem badly. It sounds like "not enough free ground", but it means reachability. That's why many players clear the surroundings and still find their purge not starting, while the real blocker sits three doors deep in the basement.
โ๏ธ What the game really checks when you trigger it
You trigger the Purge yourself: at the Treasure Coffer, you talk to the figure called the Bookkeeper and choose "Proclaim Wealth". According to Funcom, the difficulty depends on the value of the hoard in the coffer.
After that, the part that fails happens in the background. Funcom describes it like this: a Stygian Forward Operating Base appears near your base, and the attackers set out from there. And there has to be a valid path from outside the base to the hoard, otherwise the Purge retreats. So the check has two parts:
- Room for the camp: a large enough, reasonably flat area within range of the coffer. Steep slopes, water, rocks and dense trees don't qualify.
- A walkable path to the coffer: attackers may break through gates and doors. Everything else, from walls and foundations to fences, furniture and barricades, counts as a dead end.
One player summed up the rule on the Funcom forums: there has to be a path from possible spawn points to the coffer that does not require climbing or destroying anything other than gates and doors. Not an official statement, but it matches Funcom's description.
๐ง Diagnosis: symptom, cause, fix
This table covers the cases where the purge is not starting, from the classic error message to a camp stuck in the rocks.
| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| "No reachable location for the purge to setup their base camp" | No room for the camp, or no path from there to the coffer | Clear the surroundings and check the chain door, corridor, coffer |
| "Too hard to reach your coffer" | Coffer sits behind several doors, in a basement or in a tower | Move the coffer to a ground-level room with a direct outside door |
| Base on a cliff, island or platform | Attackers would have to climb, which doesn't count as a path | Build a ramp, stairs or bridge down to the ground |
| Coffer stands outside in the open, message stays | Nearby placeables block the route, not the coffer | Remove chests, beds, benches and fences around the approach |
| A second coffer can't be placed | Radii overlap (about 7.4 foundations per coffer) | Increase the distance or stick to one coffer |
| Nothing happens after "Proclaim Wealth" | Server restricts Purge times or the Purge is disabled | Check server settings (Purge enabled, time window) |
| Attackers stuck in rocks instead of attacking | The camp spawned on unsuitable terrain | Move the coffer so the camp sets up somewhere else |
๐ฐ Purge not starting: a base that's too tight
Most bases where the purge is not starting are simply built too well. The typical case is the layered fortress: outer wall, courtyard, locked archway, stairwell, treasure room two floors below ground. For pathfinding, every extra layer is another chance to fail.
These candidates come up again and again in player reports. None of them is confirmed individually, but the pattern is clear:
- Too many doors in a row. Four doors between the outside world and the coffer is a real forum example where the check failed.
- Decorations and furniture in the way. A badly placed bed, a row of chests or a shelf across the corridor is enough.
- Barricades and fences in front of the entrance. Not a gate, so not an allowed obstacle.
- Thralls and animals in narrow passages. Anything parked in a doorway clogs the route.
- Rocks and trees in front of the base. They kill the camp area and leave attackers stuck.
The fix is unspectacular: build a dedicated Purge chamber. A ground-level room with a single door to the outside, a free approach from at least one side, the coffer inside and nothing else. Your living base can stay as layered as you like. How to separate defenses and walkways is in our base building tips, and the basics are in the beginner guide.
Two side effects: a second building site needs its own upkeep, otherwise decay kicks in. And according to the wiki, the coffer claims a sphere with a radius of about 7.4 foundations that no second coffer may reach into.
โ ๏ธ What Enhanced changed about pathfinding
The move to Unreal Engine 5 improved things here. The Enhanced patch notes say word for word: "Enemies now correctly interact with gates during a purge. Gates no longer block path finding for the purposes of spawning a purge." Since then, gates no longer count as walls when the game checks the path to the coffer. If you tore down your gatehouse because of this, you can rebuild it. So if your purge is not starting since Enhanced, the gate isn't the reason.
Two known issues from the same list are still worth knowing because they affect your defense:
- Purge thralls walk through placed barricades instead of going around, destroying or climbing over them. This is still listed as a known issue in the 3.0.0 patch notes from October 6, 2026. That makes barricades worthless as defense, and for spawn pathfinding they remain a risk.
- Enemy NPCs ignored doors to get to the player. That was in the Enhanced patch notes and still listed under known issues in Patch 2.0.0. It no longer shows up in the lists from Patch 2.1.0 on, but no explicit fix is noted there either. So don't rely on doors as a safe path block.
Also documented: removing the coffer in the middle of a Purge could lock the Purge state permanently, and building in the area was blocked until the next server restart. That bug is fixed, but the rule stays: hands off the coffer while the attack is running. Everything about how the Purge plays out is in our Purge guide, and the rest of the UE5 switch is in the Enhanced guide.
โ Why you really need the Purge
Few people connect this: for certain crafters, the Purge is the only source. The community wiki lists several T4 blacksmiths with the Tempersmith specialization that only appear in the Purge:
| Tempersmith (T4 blacksmith) | Purge faction |
|---|---|
| Gars the Smith | Votaries of Skelos |
| Ontra the Blacksmith | Votaries of Skelos |
| Trank the Metalwright | Votaries of Skelos |
| Ulva of the North | Votaries of Skelos |
| Nut'Makra Blackened-Fingers | Relic Hunters |
| Vankel the Bringer of Suffering | Forgotten Tribe |
A Tempersmith unlocks the Legendary Weapon Repair Kit at the Tinker's Bench, according to the wiki made from 1x Master Weapon Repair Kit, 5x Alchemical Base and 5x Oil. Funcom hasn't confirmed whether this route still works in the current Enhanced build. Without a working Purge, that route stays closed and you depend on the repair station in the dungeon. Details are in our legendary repair guide. How to break and use crafters is covered in the thralls guide, and which fighters hold your wall is in our list of the best thralls.
๐ก FAQ: Conan Exiles purge not starting
My purge is not starting. How do I find the blocker?
Walk to your coffer on foot from outside and keep track of what you do on the way. Every jump, every climbing section and every obstacle that isn't a door or gate is a candidate. Clear those spots and try again.
How much room does the Purge camp need exactly?
Funcom gives no number. All that's confirmed is that a suitable area nearby has to be found and a valid path to the hoard has to exist. Distance figures floating around are player estimates.
Do gates still block the Purge?
No. The Enhanced patch notes state explicitly that gates no longer block pathfinding for spawning a Purge and that enemies interact with them correctly.
Does it help to put the coffer outside?
Not necessarily. Players report the message even with a coffer standing in the open, because nearby objects or the terrain cut the route. The path is what counts, not the line of sight. If your purge is not starting, check the whole approach.
Is the old Purge meter still around?
The wiki still describes a meter that fills through activity and can be triggered during Purge hours from about 75 percent. Currently, though, you start the Purge yourself at the coffer. Whether your server also enforces a time window depends on the server settings.
All details were checked against Funcom's official announcement of the reworked Purge, the Enhanced patch notes and the fan-run Conan Exiles wiki on Fandom, which is written by players. Experience reports come from the official Funcom forums and are labeled as such. As of October 2026 (Patch 3.0.0).
