If you've spent hours running around Enshrouded's open world picking up fiber, berries, and small plant drops one by one, you know how tedious that gets. You don't have to waste that time any longer, because learning how to craft rake in Enshrouded is one of the earliest quality-of-life upgrades you can unlock for your playthrough. You don’t need any special unlocks to craft rake in Enshrouded either, which makes it even more accessible for new players. I remember I skipped making this tool for the first 10 hours of my run, and I kicked myself as soon as I realized how much time I wasted picking individual plants across my base. This guide breaks down everything you need to know, from required materials to secret uses you might not have found on your own.
Required Materials to Craft Rake in Enshrouded
First, you don't need to unlock any super late-game workbenches to make this tool. The rake is available as soon as you build your first Basic Workbench within your Flame Altar's protected area, which is one of the first base building tasks you'll complete after the opening tutorial. I've seen a lot of new players assume they need to level up their Farmer NPC first, but that's not the case at all. You just need three common materials you can find within the first hour of play.
- 4x Wood: You can get this by punching small saplings or cutting down regular trees with your starting stone axe. You don't need refined wood for this recipe, so don't waste extra resources processing it first.
- 2x Stone: Gathered from mining small loose rocks on the ground around the starting meadow area, or mining larger boulders with your pickaxe.
- 1x String: Crafted from 2x Plant Fiber, which you can pick from the small grass tufts and weed patches all over the starting zone. You can also get string from looting random chests in small abandoned camps nearby.
That’s all you need to craft rake in Enshrouded, no fancy rare drops or NPC unlocks required. Once you have all three materials, just walk up to your Basic Workbench, scroll to the Tools tab, and select the rake to craft it. The whole process takes less than 10 seconds, and you don't need any extra fuel or rare drops to make it work. You can craft multiple rakes at once if you want to leave one at your main base and one at a distant outpost, so you don't have to run back and forth to grab it when you're gathering resources far from home.
Key Uses for Your Enshrouded Rake
Once you craft rake in Enshrouded, you’ll immediately notice how much faster your farming runs go. A lot of new players think the rake only works for picking up plants, but it has way more uses than you might expect after you first craft it. I've tested this tool across every starting biome, and these are the most useful functions I've found so far. First, it's perfect for mass gathering of all small ground resources. Swinging it once in a wide arc will pick up every plant fiber, berry, mushroom, and even loose stone within a 3m radius of your character. That means you can clear an entire field of berries in 10 seconds instead of 5 minutes of clicking each individual plant.
The rake also doesn't consume durability when you use it on non-combat targets, so you don't have to worry about repairing it after every farming run. It also works great for clearing out weeds and small grass patches when you're prepping space for new farm plots or building foundations. You don't have to pull out your axe or pickaxe to clear those small obstacles anymore; one swing of the rake will get rid of them instantly. You can even use it to knock loose small fruit from low-hanging trees, like apple and pear saplings, without having to chop the whole tree down. If you craft rake in Enshrouded early on, you’ll stockpile enough resources to upgrade your base and gear much faster than players who skip it. That's a huge time saver if you're cooking a lot of food for health regen buffs before exploring the Shroud areas.
Pro Tips to Get the Most Out of Your Rake
Even if you know how to craft rake in Enshrouded, there are a few little tricks that will make it even more useful for your playstyle. Many players who craft rake in Enshrouded don’t realize they can pair it with skill perks to make it even more powerful. I've picked these up from dozens of hours of testing and chatting with other players in community groups, so they're not the kind of tips you'll find in the basic in-game tutorial. First, pair your rake with the Gathering Speed perk that unlocks at level 3 in the Survival skill tree. This perk will make your rake swings 20% faster, and increase the radius of your gathering arc by another meter, so you can cover even more ground in less time. If you're running a build focused on base building and farming, you can upgrade this perk later to get a 50% chance to double all resources you gather with the rake, which is a game-changer for stocking up on plant fiber for building and string for arrows.
Another trick is to use your rake right after you defeat a group of plant-based enemies, like the Thorned Walkers that spawn near forest edges. The rake will pick up all their drops, including thorns and plant fiber, in one swing, so you don't have to click each individual loot pile. You can also use the rake in the Shroud, as long as you're within the safe zone of a Flame Shrine. It works just as well on the glowing mushrooms and rare Shroud plant resources as it does on regular surface plants, so it's a great tool to bring with you when you're farming rare crafting materials for late-game upgrades.
Common Rake Mistakes to Avoid
When you first craft rake in Enshrouded, it’s easy to write it off as a niche farming tool, but even regular players can make avoidable mistakes that stop them from getting the full value out of it. The first and most common one is keeping it stored in your base chest instead of on your hotbar. It only takes up one slot, and you never know when you'll run past a huge patch of berries or fiber that you can clear in seconds. I keep mine on the 5th slot of my hotbar, right next to my other gathering tools, so I can swap to it instantly.
Another mistake is using the rake for combat. It does almost no damage to enemies, and it will consume durability very quickly if you hit hostile targets with it. Always swap to your axe, sword, or bow if you run into enemies while you're farming to avoid breaking your rake mid-run. The last common mistake is forgetting that you can use the rake to gather resources while you're on a mount. If you're riding a deer or wolf mount, you can swing the rake as you ride past resource patches, and you'll pick up all the drops without having to get off your mount. That's perfect for when you're traveling long distances and want to stock up on resources along the way without slowing down.
At the end of the day, the rake is one of the most underrated early-game tools in Enshrouded, and it's well worth the tiny resource investment to make. Even if you're focused on combat and exploring the Shroud instead of farming, having one on hand will save you hours of tedious resource grinding over the course of your playthrough. Now that you know how to craft rake in Enshrouded and all its hidden uses, you can stop wasting time clicking individual plants and focus on the parts of the game you actually enjoy. If you have any other little tricks for using the rake that I didn't mention, feel free to drop them in the comments below!