"I walk in a land of desperation. A wasteland of the exiled and the outcast. Where the broken strive to build and the weak are crushed while the strong survive."

These are the words of Conan the Barbarian as he strides across a desert wasteland, skulls and bones crushing beneath is sandaled feet.

Conan Exiles is first and foremost a multiplayer game that can be enjoyed on both private and public servers, but it will also feature a single-player mode.

Journey through a vast, seamless world filled with the ruins of ancient civilizations and uncover its dark history and buried secrets as you seek to conquer and dominate the exiled lands yourself. Start with nothing but your bare hands and forge the legacy of your clan, from simple tools and weapons to gigantic fortresses and entire cities.

In this new video, Joel Bylos and Lead Designer Oscar Lopez Lacalle talk about how players can build on mountainsides using a very flexible building system, and how you and your enemies will be able to summon giant avatars of the gods that can wreak havoc and destruction on anything made by players. They highlight the fact that ‘Conan Exiles’ is anything but an empty sandbox: here players will discover remnants of ancient civilizations, and they must build on top of and in between the dilapidated ruins of vast, forgotten cities.

“They say that home is where your heart is, but in ‘Conan Exiles’ home is where you keep the hearts of your enemies,” says Joel Bylos, Creative Director at Funcom. “Building is a big part of ‘Conan Exiles’ and you will need to build smart and build strong in order to defend yourself from the environment, cannibals, monsters, and of course enemy players. We are working hard to make sure players have powerful tools to build and defend their kingdoms.”

Funcom is also excited to announce that Joel Bylos and Community Manager Jens Erik Vaaler will host another live gameplay stream on Twitch.tv/Funcom today. At 19:00 CET/1pm EST on Friday January 6th, the duo will once again turn on the camera and this time they will be showing advanced building and crafting gameplay.

On January 31st, 2017, the open-world survival game ‘Conan Exiles’ will be entering Early Access on the PC, with Xbox One Game Preview to follow later this spring. Here players will have to survive, build, and dominate alone or in multiplayer on public and private servers.

You are an exile, one of thousands cast out to fend for themselves in a barbaric wasteland swept in sandstorms and besieged by enemies on every side. Grow crops or hunt animals for food. Harvest resources to build weapons and tools. Build a shelter to survive. Ride across a vast world and explore alone, or band together with other players to build entire settlements and fortified strongholds, and wage war against your enemies as you unleash your fury in savage, fast-paced combat that will see limbs flying and heads rolling.

Enslave the bandits of the exiled lands to do your bidding by breaking them on the grueling Wheel of Pain. Sacrifice the beating hearts of your enemies on the blood-soiled altars of your god to seize true power and glory. Summon the colossal avatar of your god and see them lay waste to your enemies and their homes.

You can even align yourself with the Hyborian gods, building altars to their glory and sacrificing the bloody hearts of enemy players upon them to shift the balance of power in your favor. Players will also have to face the purge: a special event where NPC armies from the neighboring kingdoms sweep in to destroy the progress that the exiles have made. Will you stand together with your fellow players against the purge, or will you use it to your advantage?

Just remember: in this brutal land of vengeful gods, bloodthirsty cannibals, and vicious monsters, survival is more than tracking down food and water. Explore mysterious ruins in search of treasure and knowledge, but beware the risk of your mind being corrupted by the dark forces of the world. Traverse vast sand dunes and seek shelter from scouring sandstorms sweeping across the burning sands. March into war against your enemies and unleash your savage fury in brutal combat. Go in unprepared and it will be your head rolling and limbs flying.

Conan Exiles is not an empty sandbox. It is a world rich in history where you must discover the knowledge and secrets of ancient civilizations as you struggle to build your own.