Conan Exiles followers missing after server transfer — what's happening and what you can do
You used the Conan Exiles Character Transfer feature to move from one server to another. Your character arrived with the right level, recipes, and inventory. But your thralls, pets, mounts, and other followers did not come along. They are not in your character's inventory and they are not on the destination map. Frustrating — but this is by design and the answer to "where did they go?" matters for what you can do about it.
The short answer
Followers do not transfer between servers. They never have. The Character Transfer feature only carries your character itself — level, attributes, recipes, currently-equipped items, and items in your character's personal inventory at the moment of export. Everything else stays on the source server. This includes:
- Thralls of every type (fighters, archers, dancers, crafters)
- Pets and mounts (horses, animals)
- Buildings and storage containers
- Items in storage containers
- Clan membership and clan-shared assets
- Decay timers on existing structures
If your old thralls were placed on the source server's map, that is where they remain.
Why Conan Exiles is designed this way
Each Conan Exiles server has its own world database. Thralls are NPCs that exist in the world database, not entries on your character's record. The Character Transfer feature is essentially an export of your character's data — analogous to copying your character.json file. It doesn't reach into the source server's world database and remove world entities, because that would require the destination server to import them into its own world database, and the two worlds may not have compatible coordinate systems, structures, or encounter tables.
Even on Isle of Siptah → Exiled Lands transfers (or vice versa) within the same hosting cluster, followers stay behind because they are tied to map coordinates on the source map.
What you CAN do about it
Option 1: collect followers into your inventory before transfer (the only "official" preservation)
Some specific thrall types and pets can be picked up into your character's inventory before they are placed in the world:
- Thralls in their "captured but not yet placed" state (in the Wheel of Pain or as a knocked-out NPC being dragged) can be carried in inventory
- Pets in egg/baby state (before they hatch / grow) can be in inventory
- Mounts are sometimes carryable depending on tier and state
If you have advance notice that you're transferring, you can KO new thralls and not place them — keeping them in the Wheel of Pain — and the items stay in the world but the NPC reference can be picked up if conditions allow.
This option is limited because most established thralls are already placed; you can't "un-place" a thrall that's been guarding your base for weeks.
Option 2: admin-spawn equivalent thralls on the destination server
If the destination server is your own (or one where you have admin), you can use console commands to spawn equivalent thralls. This is recovery, not cheating, when the goal is preserving the character's previous progress:
# In admin console
SpawnItem <thrall_template_id> 1For named thralls (e.g., Beri or Dalinsia Snowhunter), the item ID returns a "placeable in Wheel of Pain" version. You place it, work the Wheel, and you have your named thrall back. Document this in your server admin log so other players see the precedent and fairness.
This option is not available on official Funcom servers or on managed servers where you don't have admin.
Option 3: keep the source server alive as an archive
If you're moving servers because a group dissolved but you might come back, consider keeping the source server alive in low-cost archive mode. Your character can transfer back later, and your followers and base will still be where you left them (assuming decay didn't claim them).
This option requires the source server's host to keep accepting your subscription. If the source was a community server that shut down, this option is gone.
Option 4: accept it and rebuild
Most players, after a transfer, end up doing this. The lost thralls become part of the campaign's history; you re-capture on the new server. The character keeps its level and recipes, so re-capture is faster than from a fresh character (you remember where the named thrall spawns are, your character has the right armor and weapons for capture).
Many players report that the rebuild is actually fun — a chance to revisit favorite thrall spawn points with the experience of having done it before.
Preventing it next time: what to know before transferring
- Check what's in your character's inventory. Anything in slots 1-30 of your character itself transfers. Anything in storage containers, on placed thralls, on placed pets, in chests — does not.
- Top up consumables. If you have favorite food, potions, or arrows, eat/stack them in personal inventory before exporting.
- Take screenshots. Your base, your thralls' placements, your storage — all gone from your perspective once you transfer. Screenshots become memorabilia and confirm what existed if you ever return.
- Tell the group. If you're in a clan, transfer breaks your clan membership on the source server. Notify clanmates so they can adjust their plans.
- Don't transfer if you're undecided. Transfer is one-way per character. Once you've imported on the destination, the source server's copy is marked transferred-out and cannot be re-imported unless you transfer back from the destination.
A separate issue: followers missing on the SAME server
If you didn't transfer but your followers disappeared, that's a different problem. Most common causes:
- Decay claimed them. Thralls without a sufficient food supply will become hungry, lose loyalty, and eventually wander off or die. See decay settings article.
- A raid claimed them. PvP servers, especially with the Purge system enabled, see thralls die in raids. Check your event log via the admin panel.
- A server-side bug from a patch. Less common; if affected, see every-update-breaks-server article for rollback strategy.
- You changed clans. Leaving a clan can transfer ownership of clan-owned thralls in unintuitive ways. Check the event log for "thrall ownership transferred."
These are recoverable on the same server. Transfer-related loss is not.
Related articles
- Thralls and taming guide
- Running two maps on one server (transfer between them)
- Decay settings
- Save file management
For a managed Conan Exiles server where character transfers between your own clusters are handled cleanly, see Supercraft plans.