After a very long wait, several huge updates, and overhauls to many systems, Enshrouded 1.0 is finally here. While many things might be extremely familiar to the early Flameborn who ventured into Embervale, several others have changed, making the journey, especially during the early hours, much different. For that reason, we’ve prepared a starter guide to help you jump into one of the most addictive survival crafting games out there.
Getting Started in Enshrouded 1.0
For the unaware, Enshrouded has finally launched its 1.0 version, meaning that the game is now complete. The whole map is ready to be explored; the final biome is there; there are dozens of new enemies, items, new dungeons, and many more additions. While Keen Games has already covered all the changes, especially for the late-game areas, we’ll be focusing more on the first hours.
Table of Contents
Creating Your World
The first important thing you need to do, after creating your Flameborn, of course, is creating your world. Now, there are several options in the game.
- Start a Session: Start a single-player world or locally host a server for other players on your friends’ list.
- Join a Session: Find hosted servers by others or even join dedicated servers if you have the information.
- Explore Adventure Sharing: Part of the 1.0 update, which includes Sparkworks, allowing players to create their worlds and share them with others.
For this starter guide, and assuming it is your first time in Enshrouded, we recommend going for the first option and starting either with some friends or alone.
When you choose this option, you’ll see a few difficulty settings:
- Casual: Fewer enemies, more resources, and perfect for those who want to build bases.
- Default: The classic Enshrouded experience. This one offers the most balanced playthrough.
- Hard: Enemy health and damage increase.
- Custom: You can tailor everything the way you see fit.
While we always recommend going with default, one setting we think is great is going for Custom and changing the Loot Loss on Death to Keep All and Weapon Durability to Off. These two settings keep the normal difficulty, but make dying and combat much more enjoyable.
Besides that, you can also change every setting individually, such as enemy health, damage, spawn rate, and so on. If you want to have a tougher combat challenge but have an easier time when gathering materials, you can also do that. In any case, once you have your World ready, just start it up and begin your adventure.
Welcome to Embervale
With your World and Flameborn ready, you’ll spawn at the first Vault, and a light of sorts will guide you through the tutorial cave and all the way to the end of it. Before you set out on your journey, though, make sure to check your controls. For Keyboard & Mouse, you have these:
- WASD – Movement
- Space – Jump
- Shift – Sprint
- E – Interaction
- ALT – Switch Action Bar
- 1-9 – Action Bar Slots
- Left Mouse Button – Attack
- Right Mouse Button – Block and Parry
- CTRL – Evade/Dodge
- TAB – Lock on Target
- I – Inventory
- V – Crafting Menu
- B – Backpack
- N – Character Menu
- M – Map
- H – Skills Menu
- J – Journal
However, you can also use a controller, and for that, it will depend on the one you’re using. For instance, this is the one for the PS5 DualSense.
If you’re on PC, you can freely change between inputs, while on console you’re stuck with your platform’s controller.
Once you get the hang of how to move, dodge, jump, and so on, you can start your journey in the cave, which is pretty straightforward. As a quick checklist before leaving the cave, do these things:
- Grab all bombs from the cave, but don’t use them to defeat enemies.
- Defeat all enemies with the rusty sword and grab all their loot.
- When you reach the bridge above the water, dive under it to get some Metal Scraps, which you’ll need for your Grappling Hook.
- Be sure to break as many crates as possible to get some Wood before setting up your base.
Eventually, you’ll get out of the cave and will get to place your first base.
Your Base, The Altar, and Building
After finding the right spot for your base, you’ll need to get started with a few things if you want to set up a home in Embervale. First, we recommend crafting the following starting tools and weapons:
| Tool/Weapon | Materials |
|---|---|
| Axe | Twigs x4 Stone x1 String x1 |
| Pickaxe | Stone x1 Twigs x4 String x1 |
| Simple Fishing Rod (Optional) | Twigs x2 Metal Scraps x2 String x1 |
| Construction Hammer | Stone x1 |
| Club | Wood Logs x6 Stone x1 |
| Wand | Bones x2 |
| Staff | Bones x3 String x1 |
| Bow | Twigs x5 Sting x1 |
The reason we recommend the above items is that they are the basic starter kit. You’ll get the hang of most early weapons that aren’t expensive to craft, which is ideal before spending your first skill points. Furthermore, you’ll have all necessary tools to start grabbing some early materials for your base.
Speaking of base, it is important to learn how the building system works in Enshrouded, which is yet another important part of this starter guide.
First, you need to know that building requires Building Blocks. You can build them from different materials, and each structure will use different amounts of blocks. For instance, a foundation of any kind will require 240 blocks. This may sound like a lot at first, but blocks come in batches of 100, meaning you only need two pieces of wood for 100 blocks. The cost will vary depending on the material.
Once you have it, you can use your Construction Hammer to start building your base. Also, remember you can remove any pieces you don’t want, which will refund the full cost. However, furniture, crafting stations, and other decorative items can only be crafted through the Workbench and won’t be refunded if you pick them up.
Lastly, another important thing for your base, and the literal heart of one, is the Flame Altar. This structure will be your most important thing for progressing in the game. You’ll have to upgrade it to go through more dangerous biomes, as well as improve it if you want a bigger building area. For more information on how it works, here is an in-depth guide.
Exploring Outside Your Base
With your base, tools, weapons, and hopefully some armor ready, it is now time to go outside your home. Right now, you can explore most of the first biome. To explore it properly, you should get your Grappling Hook ready, as it is needed to reach new areas. Also, in terms of where to go first, we recommend following this path:
- Build your base with a bed to set it as your spawn point.
- Go to Longkeep (next to the recommended spot for your base) and loot all buildings.
- With the Grappling Hook, climb to the top area outside of Longkeep to fight some enemies and get some loot.
- Return to the broken bridge, use the Grappling Hook to cross over, and find the Blacksmith.
- Return to your base via Fast Travel, summon the Blacksmith, build his work stations, and work on your first set of armor.
- Defeat the first boss inside the Shroud.
- Head to the first Tower.
If you do all the above in order, you should be able to complete almost everything in the early portion of the game. Keep in mind, however, that these are only some recommended steps for the most “optimal” way to progress. Yet, given the open-world nature of Enshrouded, there’s no harm in ignoring this starting guide for a bit and just going off the beaten path.
Enshrouded F.A.Q.
Lastly, we’ve prepared a quick F.A.Q. section for Enshrouded 1.0, which has changed a lot since its early access days.
Is Enshrouded Multiplayer?
Enshrouded is a co-op game, meaning you can play with your friends, progress together through quests, boss fights, and more. Here we have an in-depth co-op guide for it.
What Platforms Is Enshrouded On?
Right now, Enshrouded 1.0 is on PC and PS5, with an Xbox release scheduled for 2027.
Does Enshrouded have PvP?
Right now, there’s no official PvP mode in Enshrouded, but the new Sparkworks system may allow players to create something like that.
Is Loot Randomly Generated?
Yes. All chests have different loot, meaning you can always find a new thing whenever you open one. Furthermore, all chests respawn, so make sure to return to them to see what else you can find.
Does Enshrouded Support Mods?
Right now, there isn’t official mod support for Enshrouded 1.0.
