If you’ve wandered the sun-dappled flower fields of Revelwood or the rolling meadows near Longkeep, you’ve probably run into those giant, aggressive bee hives that spit out swarms the second you step too close. Those swarms hit hard, especially early game, and they make harvesting honey, beeswax, and rare royal jelly a total nightmare. I still remember the first time I stumbled on a golden hive full of royal jelly, only to get swarmed so fast I died before I could even pull out my sword. I swore I’d never go near another hive again, until a friend told me about a beehive smoker enshrouded. This underrated tool takes almost all the risk out of raiding hives, and it’s way easier to get and use than you might think.
What Makes a Beehive Smoker Enshrouded Such a Valuable Farming Tool?
At its core, the beehive smoker is a simple utility item designed to neutralize bee aggression for short periods. When you activate it near an active hive, it releases a thick, non-toxic cloud of smoke that calms all bees in a 10-meter radius for 90 full seconds. During that window, you can harvest every resource from the hive without triggering a single swarm, and even wandering worker bees will ignore you completely. I used to lose half my health bar every time I tried to get honey for basic healing potions, even when I wore heavy iron armor. The first time I used the smoker, I raided three hives in under two minutes without taking a single point of damage.
The smoker’s utility goes far beyond just wild hive raiding, too. It works on domesticated bees in player-built apiaries, making base maintenance way less of a hassle, and it even calms aggressive cave wasps in the lower Shrouded Caverns. The key benefits of adding this tool to your loadout include:
You don’t need any special skills or stat points to use the smoker, so even brand new players can take advantage of it as soon as they get their hands on one. It’s easily one of the most cost-effective utility items in the entire game for the amount of frustration it saves.
How to Craft or Locate Your First Beehive Smoker
You have two options for getting a beehive smoker: crafting it yourself, or finding one as loot in the world. If you want to craft it, you’ll first need to rescue the Farmer NPC from the Old Barn vault, which is located just west of Longkeep near the edge of the first Shroud zone. Once you place her on your base, she’ll give you the smoker blueprint as part of her first side quest, which asks you to collect 3 pots of honey to help her set up her apiary.
You only need four common materials to craft one smoker: 2 iron bars, 1 leather scrap, 3 pieces of cloth, and 1 piece of coal. All of these are super easy to find even in the first 5 hours of play. Iron bars can be smelted from iron ore you dig up in any starting area cave, leather scrap drops from wolves and boars that roam the meadows, cloth comes from looting old houses or breaking down spare clothes you find in chests, and coal is everywhere in underground cave systems. The whole crafting process takes less than 30 seconds once you have the materials.
If you haven’t rescued the Farmer yet, you can still find smokers as loot in abandoned farmhouses scattered across Revelwood. I found my first one in a chest on the second floor of a dilapidated farm north of Longkeep, before I even knew the Farmer NPC existed. You can’t repair the beehive smoker once its uses run out, so it’s a good idea to craft 2 or 3 at a time if you plan to do a full day of resource farming runs.
Pro Tips for Using Your Beehive Smoker Effectively
Timing is everything when you’re using the smoker. You want to activate it right before you approach the hive, not when you’re already standing right next to it, because it takes about 2 seconds for the smoke cloud to fully spread. If you use it too late, you might trigger a swarm before the smoke takes effect, and you’ll end up running for your life anyway.
Always face the hive directly when you activate the smoker, because the smoke cloud only spreads in the direction you’re facing, and you don’t want to waste a use by blowing the smoke away from the hive. If you’re raiding multiple hives that are close together (within 5 meters of each other), one use of the smoker can cover both at the same time. I’ve used this trick to farm 6 hives in one run with just 3 uses, which cuts down on how often you need to craft new smokers and saves you a lot of materials over time.
One little-known trick: the smoker works on base apiary bees too. If you need to move your hives around or rearrange your farm, a quick burst of smoke will keep your domesticated bees calm so they don’t attack you or your base NPCs while you work. Just don’t use the smoker if it’s raining. The rain washes away the smoke almost immediately, so it won’t have any effect on the bees, and you’ll just waste a use. I learned that the hard way during a thunderstorm, when I used two full smoker charges and still got swarmed by 8 angry bees.
Common Mistakes to Avoid With Your Beehive Smoker
A lot of new players assume the smoker works on all insect enemies, but that’s not the case. It only works on bees and cave wasps, so don’t waste your uses trying to calm Shroud moths or giant spider enemies, it won’t do anything at all. Save your charges for the hives, and use a regular weapon for other insect mobs.
Another common mistake is storing the smoker in your main inventory instead of your quick access bar. You never know when you’ll run into a random golden hive while you’re out exploring, and fumbling through your inventory to find the smoker while bees are swarming you is a great way to die unnecessarily. Keep it in one of your first 3 quick slots so you can grab it instantly.
Never use a fire weapon near a hive after you’ve used the smoker, because the fire will agitate the bees even through the smoke, and you’ll trigger a swarm anyway. I made this mistake once when I was using my fire axe to cut down oak trees near a cluster of hives, and I ended up having to run all the way back to my base with a dozen bees chasing me, even though I’d used the smoker 10 seconds earlier. If you’re farming near hives, swap to a non-fire weapon until you’re done harvesting all the resources you need.
Whether you’re a new player just trying to get enough honey for your first stack of healing potions, or an endgame player stocking up on royal jelly for advanced stat boost foods, a beehive smoker enshrouded is a tool that will make your playthrough so much smoother. It’s cheap to craft, easy to use, and saves you from the constant frustration of dealing with aggressive bee swarms every time you pass a flower field. Next time you’re planning a resource farming run, make sure you pack a couple of these in your inventory, and you’ll be able to collect all the honey and beeswax you need without breaking a sweat. I’ve recommended this tool to every new player I play co-op with, and every single one has told me it’s one of the most useful early-game items they’ve ever found.