A new survival game has launched into Early Access and is creeping up in popularity. No, I’m not talking about the all-consuming Palworld. The “Pokémon with guns” sensation shouldn’t keep this other survival title off your radar. We’re talking about Keen Games’ Enshrouded.
Enshrouded is a delightful new survival game that blends parts of Breath of the Wild and Valheim to great effect. While the genre is often known for meticulous (and sometimes downright tedious) management of statuses, like hunger and thirst, Enshrouded strips back some of the harsher components of its category. However, that doesn’t mean you won’t find yourself up against a challenge as you undertake the Flameborn’s journey.
Here are fifteen tips to ensure your Flameborn has a strong start to their adventure.
Explore and Break Everything in Longkeep
The beginning of the game takes place in Longkeep, after you navigate the first cave. Enshrouded has you place a Flame Altar for your very first land claim. Although multiple objectives will begin popping up, pushing you to head into The Shroud, you should take time to strip Longkeep of as many resources as possible.
Longkeep is home to multiple dilapidated structures that house plenty of materials and tucked away chests. This is a good way to stock up on health potions, bandages, arrows and other semi-scarce items in the early game. So let those distant objectives sit a while longer as you properly kit out your Flameborn.
Use the Map to Add Markers for Items of Interest
There are times when you will see something, be it a formidable enemy or a locked chest, that you aren’t yet ready to tackle. No problem! The map offers multiple icons that can be placed wherever you please. If you have stumbled across a locked chest but don’t have the metal scraps needed to craft a lockpick, simply drop a marker and swing back through when you have the appropriate resource. In regards to enemies, it never hurts to mark dense enemy location or areas where higher level opponents roam, especially if you want to venture far out at the first few levels.
Cook Food for a Health Boost
Much like Valheim, Enshrouded uses certain prepared foods to provide health benefits. Cooking meat is an easy and effective way to extend the player’s health bar mere moments into the game. There’s usually at least one wolf to be found in the starting Longkeep area and taking it out will provide wolf meat. Throw down a campfire and the resulting grilled wolf meat will essentially double the initial health bar for a solid twenty minutes. This extra padding will certainly help as you blindly stroll into new areas in search of materials for crafting better, more protective gear.
Get Some Rest
There’s a rested status that should not go overlooked. Once the Flameborn has established their first home, complete with walls, a roof and a bed, they can sleep. Sure, you could sleep without those other pieces of the home, but sleeping combined with warmth and a decent comfort level will extend the length of the rested status. What this status does is increase the total amount of stamina available and the rate at which it regenerates. Given the amount of sprinting, climbing and generally traversing that lies ahead on every path, the added stamina pool should not be skipped.
Pass the Night by Going to Bed
Not all hours of the day are equal when it comes to the enemies you might encounter in the wild. In fact, you will notice a stark increase in baddies when the sun goes down. If you’re low level or playing solo, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by a mod. Instead of getting decimated by a bunch of skeletons, simply head to bed and time will speed up, bringing you to sunrise incredibly fast. Now you can continue mapping out the world with a little less worry regarding packs of formidable foes lying in wait.
Don’t Be Afraid of Death
As I said earlier, Enshrouded removes some of the more abrasive aspects of survival games. This is also reflected in how death is handled. Enshrouded wants you to explore and it promotes that fact by softening death’s blow. When you die, you only lose some of the resources carried in your backpack. Equipped gear, crafted items and anything contained within the two present hotbars are left alone. If you feel like making the journey back to the spot of your demise, you can easily recover the dropped materials from the tombstone. So explore at length; push into frightening new areas; tackle it all with the knowledge that death is only a minor inconvenience.
Organize the Two Hotbars
The aforementioned hotbars can be swapped between at your leisure. It will better prepare you for different scenarios if you organize these hotbars as soon as possible. For me, I found it most helpful to have the hotbars split between combat and exploration. The first hotbar carried my weapons, such as swords and bows, whereas the second was home to health potions, a pickaxe, and so on. Find the layout that works best for your personal playstyles and you won’t have to worry about digging through your backpack menu at a crucial moment
Unlock the Grappling Hook and Glider Immediately
Among the first objectives to be presented are crafting the grappling hook and glider. It is imperative that you do this as soon as possible, as each opens up new areas of exploration. That first trip through The Shroud can be completely skipped a second time once the grappling hook is in your possession because it’ll allow you to swing across a broken bridge. More instances like that appear all around, giving the Flameborn vertical exploration routes alongside cliffs and temples. The glider, on the other hand, will let you dive off of the highest heights with little worry (assuming you have ample stamina) and allow you to soar over the lands to distant locations without any opposition.
Pick up the Double Jump Skill as Soon as Possible
There are a wealth of skills awaiting players in Enshrouded, catering to different playstyles. Whether you want to be a spell-slinging battlemage or prefer the brute force tactics of a barbarian, the options are there. Before you go refining your character build, I highly recommend unlocking the double jump skill node as soon as you are able. Without a doubt, the ability makes platforming easier and more enjoyable. I personally went through the jump attack major node before linking to double jump, but you could get their quicker by navigating through the two smaller nodes.
Stay on the Road for Longer Trips
The grappling hook and glider are fine ways to traverse the lands, but each are going to whittle away at your stamina gauge. Preserving stamina where you can is important, especially so you’re not caught near-defenseless should an enemy (or a group of them) decide to ambush you. Using roads triggers the “On the Road” status effect, providing improved stamina efficiency. Of course, you’re always welcome to walk off the beaten path, and you often should, but you should also keep this piece of information in mind when your target destination is well off in the distance.
Repair for Free at the Workbench
Durability exists in Enshrouded, which means you will need to monitor the status of those fine weapons before you decide to take on a boss. Fortunately, virtually no resources are required for repairing items. All you need to do is invest the initial materials into crafting a workbench. From there, simply interact with the workbench at any time to automatically repair all items at zero cost! Make it a habit to fast travel back to your camp to regularly keep everything in pristine form, lest you find your best weapon broken in the midst of battle.
Salvage Unwanted/Duplicate Items for Runes
If you have a bunch of duplicate swords or unwanted materials cluttering your backpack, I have good news. You can make extra space while benefiting from their removal. So do not delete them. Instead, salvage these items in your backpack, workbench or the blacksmith. Salvaging does not break the items down into its base materials — sorry if you were hoping to build up a bunch of metal scraps immediately — but it does provide runes. Runes can be used to respec your skill allocation if you’d like to wipe the slate clean and try a different set of nodes. However, runes also have another use …
Use Runes to Upgrade Weapons
All of those accumulated runes will come in handy when its time to upgrade weapons at the blacksmith. The amount of upgrade slots and cost of upgrades depends on the weapon rarity. So if you have a purple tier two-handed mace, you may have several upgrade slots that will boost damage and add status effects; by contrast, a basic sword will only have one upgrade slot. Since fully leveling a weapon can eat through runes quickly, it’s important to follow that previous tip and salvage anything you don’t need. That will help ensure your damage output stays high as you stumble upon new enemies in more difficult areas.
Saving Survivors Should be a Priority
Not long after getting started, Enshrouded will point you in the direction of a survivor that needs saving. This is the blacksmith. He’s not the only one you’ll need to secure though. There are plenty of others you’ll want to prioritize rescuing, such as the hunter. Saving survivors enables you to summon them at your camp. Each brings several new crafting recipes to the table that cannot be accessed otherwise. So if you’re wanting a sweet set of scout armor or want to give your weapons added oomph, the two previously noted survivors should be among the main focuses in the early hours.
Blow Up the World
Okay, maybe don’t blow it all up. That said, you should use explosives to your advantage. The hostile lands can be terraformed using explosives. Explosive powder balls are equippable throwables that can open up passages and unearth buried secrets (as well as make a strong impact on encroaching enemies). Additionally, there are explosive barrels littered around certain areas that serve the same purpose. Make sure you’re a safe distance away, use a ranged weapon to set them off and enjoy the boom. At the very least, it sure beats mindlessly chipping away at the world with the pickaxe.
