Enshrouded drops you into the vast world of Embervale with minimal guidance and expects you to figure everything out through exploration. While this freedom creates rewarding discoveries, it also means new players often waste hours on inefficient strategies or miss critical early-game items that make survival significantly easier.
In this guide, you will learn essential tips for your first hours in Enshrouded, how to prioritize early-game objectives for efficient progression, which items and NPCs to unlock first for maximum impact, survival strategies for the deadly Shroud and combat encounters, how to transition from solo play to multiplayer with friends, and explain the differences between self-hosting and using an Enshourded server host for your multiplayer adventures.
Understanding The Basics
Enshrouded blends survival crafting with action RPG elements in a voxel-based open world. Unlike pure survival games, you won't manage hunger or thirst meters. Instead, the game focuses on exploration, combat, base building, and character progression through skills and gear.
Your First Moments
You wake up in the Cinder Vault after character creation. Walk outside and interact with "The Flame" - the large torch in the central chamber. This unlocks the Flame Altar recipe and opens the exit.
Head left from the vault and follow the path into caves filled with basic enemies. This tutorial area teaches combat basics and gives you your first taste of resource gathering. Collect everything you see - Wood, Stone, Plant Fiber, and any materials from defeated enemies.
The Three Core Systems
Flame Altars function as your base anchors. These structures provide a safe zone radius, serve as fast travel points, and act as crafting hubs where you'll house NPCs. You start able to build two Flame Altars, expandable through upgrades.
The Shroud covers low-lying areas in deadly fog. Enter the Shroud and a timer appears showing remaining survival time. When it hits zero, you die. The Shroud contains valuable resources and quest objectives, making it unavoidable despite the danger.
Skill Points unlock abilities in your skill tree. Earn points through leveling, consuming Shroud Roots found in dangerous areas, and drinking from Elixir Wells scattered across the world. Thankfully, respeccing is cheap and easy at your Flame Altar, so experimentation is encouraged.
Essential Early-Game Items
Two items transform Enshrouded from frustrating to enjoyable. Craft these as soon as physically possible.
Grappling Hook
The Grappling Hook lets you reach elevated positions and climb structures using special grapple points - orange-glowing metal rungs attached to buildings, cliffs, and ruins.
Why It's Critical: Many areas and quest objectives are inaccessible without the Grappling Hook. Trying to progress without one locks you out of significant content.
How To Get It: The Blacksmith NPC unlocks the recipe. Rescuing the Blacksmith is your first major quest, so prioritize this immediately after establishing your initial base.
Glider
The Glider allows you to soar from high points and cover massive distances quickly. Since Enshrouded lacks mounts or vehicles, the Glider becomes your primary long-distance travel tool.
Why It's Critical: The world is enormous. Running everywhere wastes hours. The Glider lets you jump from Ancient Spires or mountains and fly directly to your destination, bypassing dangerous terrain and the Shroud-filled valleys below.
How To Get It: Like the Grappling Hook, the Blacksmith unlocks the Glider recipe after you rescue him.
Pro Tip: Deploy the Glider by pressing Spacebar while airborne. Use W to dive (gain speed), S to level out, and A/D to turn. You can also use the Grappling Hook mid-flight to change direction or gain altitude.
Building Your First Base
Your Flame Altar determines your base location. Choose carefully, as relocating means rebuilding everything.
Choosing A Location
For your starter base, look for these features:
Proximity to Resources: Wood, Stone, and basic crafting materials should be nearby. You'll make countless trips gathering supplies.
Flat Terrain: Makes building easier and more efficient. Mountainous areas look scenic but create construction headaches.
Near The Shroud Edge: You'll need Shroud access for quests and resources, but you don't want your base inside the deadly fog.
Central Position: Pick somewhere central to the Springlands biome. You'll explore outward from this hub, so a central location minimizes travel time.
The field just north of the Cinder Vault works perfectly for your first base. It's flat, resource-rich, and conveniently located.
What To Build First
Start with these essentials in order of priority:
Flame Altar: Your base foundation. Everything else builds around this.
Workbench: Unlocks basic crafting and provides free repairs (more on this below).
Simple Shelter: Four walls and a roof. This activates the Rested buff.
Storage Chests: You'll quickly overflow your inventory. Build multiple chests and organize materials by type.
Beds: Not required for sleeping, but beds enhance the Rested buff significantly.
Understanding The Rested Buff
Building enclosed structures with roofs grants the Rested buff when you're inside. This buff dramatically increases Endurance regeneration and maximum Endurance.
Practical Benefits:
- Run faster and longer
- Glide farther
- Perform more combat actions before exhausting stamina
The Rested buff is so powerful that returning to base before difficult content gives you a substantial advantage.
Rescuing NPCs
Five NPCs await rescue in Ancient Vaults across Embervale. Each unlocks critical crafting recipes and functionality.
Priority Order
1. The Blacksmith (HIGHEST PRIORITY)
Location: Ancient Vault - Blacksmith in the Springlands
Unlocks:
- Grappling Hook and Glider recipes
- Basic armor crafting
- Tool upgrades
- Workshop structures
This is your first quest for good reason. The Blacksmith enables progression by unlocking essential traversal tools.
2. The Alchemist
Location: Ancient Vault - Alchemist in the Springlands
Unlocks:
- Healing potions
- Buff elixirs
- Staff charges (magical ammunition)
- Alchemy station
Potions transform combat from desperately searching for berries to confidently engaging tough enemies.
3. The Farmer
Location: Ancient Vault - Farmer in Revelwood
Unlocks:
- Farming and crop growing
- Advanced food recipes
- Seeds for sustainable food production
While not immediately critical, farming provides long-term food security and powerful buff foods.
4. The Carpenter
Location: Ancient Vault - Carpenter in the Nomad Highlands
Unlocks:
- Advanced building materials
- Furniture and decorations
- Comfort items that enhance buffs
Essential for serious builders and late-game base upgrades.
5. The Hunter
Location: Ancient Vault - Hunter in the Nomad Highlands
Unlocks:
- Advanced weapons
- Hunting-related crafting
- Specialized combat gear
Useful but less critical than the others for basic progression.
Housing NPCs At Your Base
After rescuing NPCs, build them proper housing at your Flame Altar. They need basic shelter - four walls, a roof, a bed. Nothing fancy required.
NPCs stationed at your base allow you to access their crafting stations, which unlock recipes you can't craft at standard workbenches.
Combat Survival Tips
Enshrouded features stamina-based, dodge-heavy combat similar to Souls-like games. Early combat is challenging without good gear, so use these strategies.
Use Wands For Early Combat
Ranged combat provides massive advantages when you lack strong gear. Wands are particularly powerful early because:
No Ammunition Required: Unlike bows (need arrows) or staves (need charges), wands only consume durability. This makes them effectively unlimited as long as you repair them.
Safe Engagement: Damage enemies from distance before they close to melee range. Many tough enemies become trivial when you can kite them.
Low Resource Cost: Crafting wands requires minimal materials compared to other weapon types.
Keep a wand on your hotbar even if you prefer melee. Some enemies are dangerous enough that range becomes mandatory.
Free Repairs At Workbenches
Here's a mechanic the game doesn't explain clearly: Workbenches repair ALL your equipped gear and inventory items for free. No resources required.
How It Works: Simply interact with any Workbench. Your items instantly restore to full durability without consuming materials.
Why This Matters: Unlike most survival games where repair costs materials, Enshrouded lets you maintain gear effortlessly. Return to base after every major excursion and touch your Workbench. Never let items break when repairs are free.
Healing Options
Enshrouded lacks an "Estus Flask" style healing item that refills at checkpoints. Instead, you rely on consumables:
Early Game:
- Purple Berries (found on bushes)
- Mushrooms (found in caves and forests)
- Basic bandages (crafted at Workbench)
Mid Game:
- Healing potions (crafted after rescuing the Alchemist)
- Cooked food with health bonuses
- Advanced bandages
Pro Tip: Berries are finite in each area but respawn when you reload your world. If you need to farm healing items quickly, place a Flame Altar near berry bushes, gather everything, return to main menu, reload the game, and gather again. All resources respawn.
Understanding The Shroud
The Shroud is Enshrouded's signature mechanic - a deadly fog that kills you when your timer expires.
How The Shroud Works
Shrouded areas appear as blue-grey fog covering valleys and low areas. When you enter, a timer appears at the top of your screen.
Default Timer: 5 minutes
Your timer depletes while inside the Shroud. When it hits zero, you die and drop inventory items. Exiting the Shroud pauses the timer and it slowly regenerates.
Extending Shroud Time
Multiple systems increase survivability:
Strengthening Your Flame Altar: The most important upgrade. Each strengthening level adds Shroud time and increases your stats.
Skill Tree Perks: Certain skills directly increase Shroud duration.
Equipment: Some armor and accessories provide Shroud time bonuses.
Potions: The Alchemist can craft elixirs that temporarily extend Shroud survival.
Shroud Beacons: Found inside particularly deep Shroud areas, these reset your timer when activated.
Flame Altar Protection
Flame Altars create a safe zone within their radius. You can build Flame Altars at the edge of Shrouded areas to push back the fog, creating safe pathways into otherwise deadly zones.
Strategic Placement: Build a Flame Altar at the Shroud boundary before tackling difficult Shroud content. This creates a safe fallback point if your timer runs low.
Skill Tree Strategy
Enshrouded's skill tree contains twelve branches - four each for melee, ranged, and magic builds. New players often feel overwhelmed by options.
Early Skill Priorities
Focus on these categories first regardless of build:
Survival Skills:
- Increased health
- Extended Shroud time
- Glider improvements
Crafting Skills:
- Reduced crafting costs
- Increased harvesting yields
- Faster gathering
Mobility Skills:
- Increased movement speed
- Better jumping
- Stamina improvements
Respeccing Is Cheap
Don't stress over skill choices. You can completely respec at your Flame Altar for one Rune per skill point spent. Runes are common, making experimentation essentially free.
Recommended Approach: Try different builds by respeccing freely. Test melee, magic, and ranged play-styles. You'll discover what's fun for you without permanent consequences.
Build Diversity
Save different armor sets for different builds. When you find interesting weapons or armor, store them instead of scrapping. This lets you completely swap play-styles by changing equipment and respeccing.
For example, keep a heavy armor set for tank melee builds, a light armor set for magic builds, and a medium set for ranger builds. Swap between them whenever you want variety.
Inventory Management
Inventory space is limited, and you'll constantly fight clutter.
Backpack Upgrades
Prioritize upgrading your backpack as soon as possible.
First Upgrade Requirements:
- 3x Torn Cloth
- 4x Dried Fur
- 5x Thread
This might seem like a lot early, but the extra inventory slots are worth it. Every upgrade significantly improves your looting efficiency.
Cosmetic Slot Storage Trick
Here's a clever exploit: Cosmetic armor slots can hold actual armor pieces. If your inventory fills while looting, unequip armor into cosmetic slots to free space. This gives you emergency storage for particularly valuable finds.
Organize Your Chests
Build multiple chests at your base and organize materials by category:
- Building materials (Wood, Stone, etc.)
- Combat items (weapons, armor, ammunition)
- Crafting materials (ores, gems, special drops)
- Consumables (food, potions, bandages)
Label chests if possible or maintain consistent positioning. Nothing wastes time like searching through ten random chests for specific materials.
Fast Travel And Exploration
Embervale is massive. Efficient travel is critical.
Fast Travel Points
You can fast travel to two location types:
Ancient Spires: Permanent fast travel points found in each biome. These huge towers require solving internal puzzles to unlock. Once unlocked, you can teleport to them anytime and use them as glider launch points.
Flame Altars: Your player-built bases serve as fast travel destinations. You can warp between any Flame Altar you've constructed.
Managing Flame Altar Network
You start with two Flame Altar slots. Strengthen your Flame to unlock more.
Strategic Placement:
- Home base (central Springlands location)
- Temporary expedition bases near difficult content
- Resource farming outposts
When you finish with a temporary altar, teleport to it, deactivate it, and the slot becomes available for a new location. This lets you maintain a dynamic fast travel network.
Flame Holders For Checkpoints
Flame Holders are ultra-cheap fast travel points (5 Stone). Place them as checkpoints during dangerous expeditions.
If you're tackling a difficult vault or Shroud area, drop Flame Holders periodically. They become respawn points if you die and save you from traversing the same dangerous areas repeatedly.
Quest System And Progression
Quests drive progression in Enshrouded by unlocking NPCs, recipes, and new areas.
Quest Color Coding
Your journal uses colors to indicate quest importance:
Gold Quests: Main progression quests. These advance the core story and unlock major features like Flame Altar upgrades.
Blue Quests: NPC progression quests. These enhance your rescued NPCs' capabilities and unlock advanced recipes.
Green Quests: Easy optional content. Good for when you're exploring aimlessly and want direction.
Follow The Quest Path
When you're unsure what to do next, check your quest log for green-highlighted easy quests. These provide level-appropriate challenges and guide you toward important locations without overwhelming difficulty.
Quests also provide valuable loot, XP, and lore. Even if exploration is your focus, completing quests accelerates character progression significantly.
Food And Buff Management
While Enshrouded lacks hunger mechanics, food provides powerful temporary buffs.
Food Buff System
You can have three food buffs active simultaneously. Each food item provides different bonuses - increased damage, better stamina regeneration, improved mining speed, etc.
Strategic Buffing: Before difficult content, eat three complementary foods that match your approach. For example, before a tough boss fight, eat foods that increase health, stamina, and damage.
Buff Duration
Food buffs last 20-30 minutes by default. Certain server settings and perks can extend this duration.
Pro Tip: Stack long-duration buffs before logging off. They persist through sessions, so you'll start your next play session with active buffs.
The Comfort System
Similar to Valheim, Enshrouded uses a comfort system. Build furniture, decorations, and amenities at your base to increase comfort level.
Higher comfort provides better buffs - increased stats, longer buff durations, and improved regeneration. Building a beautiful, well-furnished base isn't just aesthetic; it provides tangible gameplay advantages.
Resource Gathering Efficiency
Efficient resource gathering saves hours of grinding.
Loot Everything
Early on, grab everything you find. Even "junk" items often have uses you haven't discovered yet. That random crafting material might be essential for a recipe you unlock later.
Hidden Loot Locations:
- Vases and pots (smash them all)
- Chests in ruins
- Destructible crates
- Bodies in Shroud areas
- Hidden alcoves in vaults
Don't rush through areas. Thorough exploration yields weapons, armor, and materials you'd otherwise miss.
Resource Respawning
Resources respawn when you reload your world. This creates farming opportunities:
Farm Strategy:
- Place a Flame Altar near valuable resources
- Gather everything
- Return to main menu
- Reload your game
- Resources have respawned - gather again
This works for berries, minerals, enemy camps, and even bosses. Solo players can use this to stockpile materials quickly.
Mining Efficiency
Upgrade your pickaxe as soon as possible. Better pickaxes mine faster and damage ore nodes more efficiently.
Skill Investment: Mining-related skills increase yield and speed. Even if you're focused on combat, invest a few points here. The time saved gathering materials adds up significantly.
Multiplayer Considerations
Enshrouded supports up to 16 players cooperatively. Multiplayer changes the game significantly.
Solo Vs Multiplayer
Solo Play Strengths:
- Complete control over base building
- Pause by returning to menu
- Farm resources by reloading world
- No coordination needed
Multiplayer Strengths:
- Shared workload (gathering, building, combat)
- Always-online world (no host required with dedicated server)
- Specialized roles (one player builds, another explores)
- Tackle difficult content with teamwork
Host Vs Dedicated Server
When playing multiplayer, you have two options:
Self-Hosting: One player hosts the game from their PC. The world only exists when the host is online and playing.
Drawbacks:
- Other players can't access the world when host is offline
- Performance limited by host's PC
- Host must run the game to keep world accessible
Dedicated Server: A separate Enshrouded game server runs the game world 24/7 independently of any player.
Advantages:
- World accessible anytime, regardless of who's online
- Better performance (server hardware handles the load)
- No dependency on host's availability
- Automatic backups and easier management
Transitioning To Multiplayer
If you start solo and later want to play with friends, you can transfer your single-player world to a server.
The process involves locating your save files, uploading them to the server, and configuring settings. For detailed steps, check out our guide on how to upload your existing world to your Enshrouded server.
Server Configuration
Running a multiplayer server requires configuration - setting passwords, player limits, difficulty settings, and user permissions.
Pine Hosting simplifies this with a web-based control panel. Instead of manually editing JSON files, adjust settings through an intuitive interface. For details on configuring your server, see our guide on how to configure settings on your Enshrouded server.
You'll also want to set up user roles with different permissions - admin access for you, standard player access for friends, and guest access for trial players. Learn more in our guide on how to configure user roles on your Enshrouded server.
Joining A Server
Connecting to an Enshrouded server works through the in-game browser or Steam's server favorites system.
In-Game Browser: Enter IP and port to join your server and enter password.
Steam Favorites: Add your server to Steam favorites using IP:Port format for quick access.
For step-by-step instructions, check our guide on how to join your Enshrouded server.
Common Beginner Mistakes
Avoid these pitfalls that slow progression:
Skipping The Blacksmith
Some players explore aimlessly instead of prioritizing the Blacksmith rescue quest. This locks them out of the Grappling Hook and Glider, making progression unnecessarily painful.
Fix: Make rescuing the Blacksmith your immediate goal after building your starter base.
Ignoring Flame Altar Upgrades
Your Flame Altar upgrades are massive power spikes. Each level increases stats, Shroud time, and altar capacity.
Fix: Gather materials for Flame upgrades as soon as they become available. These upgrades have more impact than individual gear pieces.
Not Repairing Before Expeditions
Venturing into dangerous areas with damaged gear is asking for trouble. Items can break mid-combat, leaving you defenseless.
Fix: Touch your Workbench before every expedition. Free repairs take two seconds and prevent equipment failures at critical moments.
Hoarding Skill Points
Some players save skill points "for when they need them." This means playing weaker than necessary for no benefit.
Fix: Spend skill points immediately. Respeccing is cheap, so there's no reason to hoard points. Use them now and change later if needed.
Building In Bad Locations
Choosing a terrible base location means rebuilding everything later when you realize the mistake.
Fix: Take time selecting your first base spot. Flat terrain, central location, resource access - these factors matter more than scenic views.
Neglecting Food Buffs
Playing without food buffs means operating at maybe 70% effectiveness. Buffs are easy to maintain and provide huge advantages.
Fix: Always have three food buffs active. Cook basic foods and eat them before logging in for play sessions.
Advanced Tips
Once you've mastered the basics, these advanced strategies optimize your efficiency:
Shroud Root Hunting
Shroud Roots grant free skill points but are located in dangerous Shroud areas. Hunt these systematically for rapid skill progression.
Build Flame Altars at Shroud boundaries to create safe zones, then carefully navigate deep Shroud areas collecting Roots.
Elixir Well Strategy
Elixir Wells are combat challenges that reward skill points upon completion. These scattered challenges provide substantial character power if you seek them out.
Tackle Wells appropriate to your level. Attempting Wells far above your level wastes time on repeated failures.
Legendary Weapon Hunting
Legendary weapons hide in specific locations across Embervale. These powerful items dramatically increase combat effectiveness.
Research legendary locations online or explore thoroughly. Finding even one legendary weapon transforms difficult encounters into manageable fights.
Base Building For Buffs
Advanced base building focuses on maximizing comfort buffs through furniture placement and decoration.
High comfort bases provide 20%+ stat bonuses, longer buff durations, and improved regeneration. This makes investing in your base practical, not just aesthetic.
Efficient Material Routes
Plan gathering routes that hit multiple resource types in one trip. For example, a route that passes ore deposits, wood forests, and berry bushes maximizes efficiency compared to separate trips for each material.
Ready To Start Your Adventure?
Enshrouded offers hundreds of hours of exploration, building, and combat in a beautifully crafted voxel world. These tips provide the foundation you need to avoid common mistakes and progress efficiently.
While solo play is rewarding, Enshrouded truly shines in multiplayer. Tackling Ancient Vaults with friends, building elaborate bases together, and coordinating against tough bosses creates memorable gaming experiences.
Check out our Enshrouded server hosting plans and start building your perfect multiplayer world today.
