If you’ve ever stared up at a cliffside chest glowing with rare loot or tried to cross a chasm only to fall into the Shroud below, you know how frustrating it is to hit a movement wall early in Enshrouded. Getting around the vast, ruined open world gets ten times easier once you unlock the right tools, and few are as game-changing as the grappling hook. We’ve put together this guide after 40+ hours of playtesting to walk you through exactly how to craft grappling hook in Enshrouded, plus tips to get the most out of it once you have it. You won’t have to grind for hours for rare materials or complete complicated quests to get it, either.
What You Need Before Crafting the Enshrouded Grappling Hook
First, you have to unlock the Carpenter NPC to get access to the grappling hook recipe. You’ll find his survivor vault in the northern part of the starting Springlands biome, just a short walk east of the first Ancient Spire you activate. Rescuing him takes 5 minutes at most, even if you’re still in the early game, and he unlocks a ton of useful building and tool recipes besides the grappling hook. You don’t need to spend any Flames or upgrade your Flame Altar to get access to this recipe, either – it’s available as soon as you add the Carpenter to your base.
Once you have the Carpenter set up, you’ll need four core materials to craft the grappling hook. We’ve broken down exactly where to find each one below:
- 4x Iron Bars: You can smelt these from Iron Ore you mine in the northern Springlands or western Revelwood areas. If you haven’t unlocked the Smelter yet, you can also loot Iron Bars from bandit chests and ruined buildings around the first Ancient Spire.
- 8x String: Craft this from Plant Fiber you collect from grass, bushes, and small plants anywhere in the Springlands. You’ll need 2 Plant Fiber per String, so 16 total Plant Fiber for this recipe.
- 1x Shroud Root: Harvest this from the large glowing root plants growing in any Shrouded area, even the low-level ones near the starting base. You don’t have to go deep into dangerous high-level Shroud zones to find it.
- 2x Leather Scraps: Loot these from dead wolves, boars, or bandits you fight across the Springlands. You can also get them by breaking down old furniture and armor you find in ruined houses.
How to Craft Grappling Hook in Enshrouded: Step-by-Step Process
Once you have all your materials gathered and the Carpenter unlocked, the actual crafting process takes less than a minute. First, head to your base and interact with the Carpenter’s workbench to pull up his crafting menu. Scroll down to the Tools section, and you’ll see the grappling hook listed right next to the basic climbing pick and glider recipes. If you don’t see it, double check that you’ve turned in the Carpenter’s initial introduction quest – sometimes the recipe doesn’t unlock until you speak to him once after placing his workbench.
Select the grappling hook from the menu, and confirm you have all the required materials in your inventory or your base’s storage chests. The game will automatically pull materials from nearby chests if you don’t have them on you, so you don’t have to run back and forth grabbing items one by one. Click craft, and the grappling hook will be added to your inventory immediately. You don’t have to wait for a crafting timer to finish – all Carpenter tool recipes are instant once you have the materials.
After you craft it, open your inventory and drag the grappling hook to one of your quick access slots. I usually put it on the third slot, right next to my glider and building hammer, so I can swap to it in half a second when I need it. You can also assign it to a custom keybind if you’re playing on PC, which makes navigating cliffs and chasms even faster.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Using Your New Grappling Hook
Even if you’ve used grappling hooks in other survival games, Enshrouded’s version has a few unique quirks that can trip up new players. The first mistake I see all the time is trying to grapple to surfaces that are too far away. The base grappling hook only has a range of 20 meters, which is shorter than most players assume. If your targeting reticle doesn’t turn green when you point it at a surface, you won’t be able to hook to it, no matter how hard you try. You can upgrade the range later by crafting the advanced grappling hook once you reach the Revelwood biome, but the base version works perfectly for most early game areas.
Another common mistake is forgetting that the grappling hook doesn’t work on Shrouded surfaces that are covered in that black, gooey corruption. If you’re trying to climb up a cliff inside a Shroud zone, make sure you’re targeting clear, uncorrupted rock or wood surfaces. The hook will bounce right off corrupted surfaces, and you’ll likely fall straight into the Shroud and take damage or die.
You also don’t want to use the grappling hook when you’re low on stamina. The hook uses 15 stamina every time you fire it, and if you run out of stamina mid-swing, you’ll let go and fall. That’s not a big deal if you’re only a few feet off the ground, but it can be devastating if you’re crossing a deep chasm or climbing a tall mountain. Always make sure you have at least half your stamina bar full before you fire the hook to avoid unnecessary deaths.
So, if you find yourself missing hooks more often than not, try moving a little closer to your target, or switching to a higher vantage point before you fire. A lot of new players also don’t realize you can swing while attached to the hook to build momentum and jump further than you normally would. That trick is perfect for crossing wide gaps that you can’t jump or glide across on your own.
How to Upgrade Your Grappling Hook for Better Performance
The base grappling hook works great for the first 10 hours of play, but once you start exploring higher-level biomes like the Revelwood and the Kindlewastes, you’ll want to upgrade it to get more range and durability. The advanced grappling hook recipe unlocks once you rescue the Blacksmith NPC, which you’ll find in a vault in the southern part of the Revelwood biome. You’ll need to upgrade your Flame Altar to level 3 to reach that area safely, so that’s a good mid-game goal to work towards once you’ve settled into your first base.
The advanced grappling hook has a 35-meter range, which is almost double the base version, and it only uses 10 stamina per use instead of 15. It also lets you hook to softer surfaces like dirt and packed snow, which the base version can’t attach to. The materials for the upgrade are a little harder to find, but they’re still manageable if you’ve been exploring the Revelwood regularly: you’ll need 8 Iron Bars, 4 Shroud Roots, 2 Tough Leather, and 1 Mechanical Part. Mechanical Parts are looted from ancient robot enemies and chests in old ruin sites, so you’ll probably collect a few just by doing regular exploration quests.
There’s also a late-game legendary grappling hook you can get as a drop from the Warden boss in the Shroud Vault under the Kindlewastes. That version has a 50-meter range, uses no stamina at all, and even lets you pull small enemies towards you to attack them. It’s not necessary for casual play, but it’s a fun upgrade to chase if you’re a completionist or you love exploring every corner of the map.
The grappling hook is easily one of the most useful tools you can add to your loadout in Enshrouded, and it’s accessible much earlier than most new players think. You don’t need to grind for rare materials or beat tough bosses to get it, just rescue the Carpenter and gather a few common items from the starting biome. Now that you know how to craft grappling hook in Enshrouded, you can start exploring all those hidden areas you’ve been staring at across the Springlands, grab all that rare cliffside loot, and cut down on travel time across the map. Don’t forget to practice swinging and timing your jumps to get the most out of it, and upgrade it as soon as you can once you reach the Revelwood for even better performance.