The latest popular survival game Enshrouded is here and I’ve got some of the best tips and tricks to help you. I’ve included a variety of tips for newcomers with a few tricks that other players may not know about.
While I’m still working through Enshrouded, I currently have 27 hours in for those wondering how much experience I have. I’m also level 12 and have unlocked every NPC in the Steam Early Access.
Tip 1 – Surviving the Shroud
A major challenge you’ll frequently encounter is surviving the Shroud. You’ll quickly come across this dangerous fog that you can only survive a limited amount of time within. And once you run out of time, you’ll instantly die. You can extend your time by using Shroud Survival Flasks, upgrading your Flame Altar via the Strenghting the Flame option, finding glowing consumable containers in the Shroud, and a skill under the Survivor path.
I recommend getting your Glider as soon as possible since it makes traveling that much easier. Also, another trick is to use your map to see where the Shroud is. This can help significantly when you need to find a safe spot to escape to.
Tip 2 – Get the Rested Buff
Early on you’ll place your Flame Altar where you can start building and in doing so, gain the rested buff. This buff will increase your maximum stamina and regeneration. Which can be easy to overlook when you haven’t played much of Enshrouded yet. But, it’s a game-changer since you’ll need stamina to explore this large world, gather resources, and even glide.
The most common way you’ll get the rested buff is by being in your base, away from enemies, and near a source of warmth. However, once you leave your shelter, the rested buff will begin to deplete. This is why you’ll need to place all sorts of furniture and workbenches to increase your comfort level. That will then extend your rested buff timer.
Tip 3 – What Food to Eat
Survival game developers often put their twist on how their food system works. Instead of worrying about starving in Enshrouded, the food system is more about giving you buffs. You can have up to three active food buffs simultaneously as long as they’re all a different type of food.
The best food to eat in Enshrouded will depend on how you build your character. For example, meat will increase your Consitution for more health. This is generally a good idea regardless of how you’re playing. Whereas, Hazelnut increases your Strength for extra melee damage. Or eating Red Mushrooms to get Intelligence for more magic damage.
Tip 4 – How to Level Up Quicker
Leveling up is important if you want to fight tougher enemies, unlock new quests, and get skill points. While you can mine ore to get experience, I wouldn’t recommend it since it’s slow. You’re better off discovering new landmarks for a quick chunk of experience. For example, I frequently get 150 when discovering new places but have gotten as high as 500.
My other tip is a basic one about how you can get a lot of experience fighting higher-level enemies. Make sure they’re tough enemies and not just the tiny beetles you can almost one-hit. I’ve noticed there’s a decent range in experience depending on how difficult the enemy is regardless of their level. Such as a level 13 enemy to me at 11 giving 60 experience while others can give much more or less.
Tip 5 – Always Check Lore Notes
While exploring Enshrouded you’ll come across little lore notes and books that glow aggressively. They’re usually short little stories that can provide extra lore to the world. But, they also frequently start new quests and reveal landmarks worth visiting. So even if you’re not the type that wants to read them, you should still check them out.
I’ve noticed lore quests can lead to anything from a treasure chest to a new base building block. Alongside that, you’ll also get a tiny bit of experience for grabbing new lore entries/notes.
Tip 6 – Prioritize Finding New NPCs
The developer moved the Magic Chest recipe to the Blacksmith in an update.
When I first started playing Enshrouded I had some fun exploring and tried pursuing quests a little out of order. This is why it’s frequently important to follow the quests that lead to unlocking new NPCs. In doing so, you’ll also unlock new recipes and even the Magic Chest. Which is a game-changer since it lets you craft from storage chests without being inside them. I wish this was already a feature since it’s a huge quality-of-life improvement.
An early mistake I made was following a quest that required a grappling hook without it saying so. This made for an awkward moment when I couldn’t get past a wall without it. Aside from that, NPCs aren’t the only way to unlock new crafting recipes. Every item and ingredient you come across will too.
Tip 7 – Break Pots and Furniture For Loot
A neat part of Enshrouded is how a good chunk of your environment is destructible. And going a step further, pretty much everything you can break will also give you resources. Even if it’s something as simple as a wooden wagon giving you twigs and logs. As long as you don’t mind damaging your weapon’s durability, it can be worth taking out some furniture.
But it’s especially worth your time destroying metal pots that have a good variety of useful loot. For example, you can get potions, experience scrolls, rare materials, and more when breaking them. You’ll frequently find metal pots in caves and Ancient Spires where you can unlock fast travel points.
Tip 8 – Take Advantage of the Road Bonus
Enshrouded’s world is filled with dirt and stone roads that can help you get around more than you may know. Aside from organically leading to new places, they also reduce your stamina consumption when sprinting. What I didn’t realize at first is that stone roads decrease it even more than dirt ones.
If you want to further take advantage of this bonus, you can also get the Wanderlust skill under the Survivor skill path. This decreases stamina consumption by another 10% while on dirt roads and another 25% on stone roads. By default, the rate is 10% less stamina on dirt roads and 25% less on stone. You can learn what different statuses do like this one by tapping the Status Details button on the character screen.
Tip 9 – How to Get More Skill Points in Enshrouded
If you’re like me and want a ton of skills, you’ll want to know how to get more skill points. Fortunately, it isn’t too complicated but it isn’t anything quick either. The only two ways to get skill points seem to be leveling and cutting down Shroud Roots. You’ll get two skill points per level and one skill point per root.
A good way to find Shroud Roots is to follow the quests that lead to Ancient Spires. These will reveal a lot of nearby landmarks including Shroud Roots and Elixir Wells that have them too. If you have a question mark landmark but aren’t sure what it is, click it and it’ll tell you. This could be a bug that may be fixed later, however.
Tip 10 – Fast Traveling Trick to Return to Where You Were
A fun trick I learned with fast traveling takes advantage of how you can place multiple Flame Altars/bases. Since you can fast travel to a Flame Altar, you can place one where you are before fast traveling back to base. This makes it easy to return to instead of running all the way back. As long as you aren’t at your Flame Altar limit yet which shows on the map, near the left side of your screen. At the start of your world, you’ll only have two. After doing some quests, you’ll reach a maximum of six.
One quick warning I have is that when you place a Flame Altar, you’re setting your checkpoint to it. So if you destroy it, your checkpoint will reset to the Cinder Vault where you first created your world. Assuming you haven’t found a new checkpoint since destroying your Flame Altar. This is why I wouldn’t recommend destroying your temporary base immediately unless you’re hitting that maximum limit.
Tip 11 – Pin Crafting Recipes to Save Time
Before you unlock Magic Chests where you can craft from your storage without being in it, I recommend pinning recipes. For those on PC, when looking at a recipe, just press F to pin it. This will show on your screen what materials you need to craft that item or workbench.
It can be a pain searching for the items you need and then having to pull the recipe back up again. The one thing I wish the developer would do is get rid of the pinned recipe once you’ve created it. Currently, you have to return to that recipe and unpin it or just pin another one and undo it.
I could write Enshrouded tips forever but I don’t want to make you read too much so I’ll stop there. Feel free to share some tips and tricks of your own in the comments below to help others.
Jeff is a journalist with over 10 years of experience writing, streaming, and making content about video games. With an associate degree in journalism, he’s a sucker for RPGs, survival games, roguelikes, and more.