I’ve put over 120 hours into Enshrouded across multiple playthroughs, and I still kick myself for waiting 8 hours to build my first mortar on my first run. I thought it was a late-game crafting station that required rare drops and unlocked NPCs, so I spent hours manually grinding materials the slow way instead of just building this simple tool. If you’re looking to speed up potion making, building material crafting, and general base progression, learning how to get a mortar in Enshrouded is one of the first big upgrades you should prioritize.
How to Get a Mortar in Enshrouded: First Unlock the Required Workbench
I see this question pop up at least three times a week on the official Enshrouded subreddit, so I want to clear this up right away: you don’t need to unlock higher tier NPCs to craft your first mortar. A lot of new players assume you need to rescue the Blacksmith or Carpenter to access the recipe, but that’s not true at all. The basic mortar is available from the very first workbench you build in the game.
All you need to unlock the workbench in the first place is a level 1 Flame Altar, which you build right after you wake up in the starting cave and complete the first two intro quests. The workbench only costs 10 wood logs and 5 stone to build, so you can put it together within 10 minutes of starting a new playthrough. Flame Altar level 1 is the only core base requirement to get started, you don’t need to upgrade your Flame or clear any Shroud areas first.
So if you’ve been holding off on looking for this tool because you thought you needed to progress further in the main quest, you can stop waiting. You can build your mortar as soon as you have your basic base set up.
Exact Materials You Need to Craft Your Mortar
All the materials required for the basic mortar are available in the starting Revelwood biome, no Shroud exploration required. You don’t need any upgraded tools to collect them either, the starting stone axe and pickaxe you get from the intro quests work perfectly. Here’s the full list of what you’ll need:
- 12 x Rough Stone: Gathered from any small or large rock nodes in the starting Revelwood biome, no upgraded pickaxe required
- 6 x Dirt: Collected from digging grassy ground with a basic pickaxe or hoe, found all around your starting base area
- 4 x Wood Logs: Cut from any small tree in the Revelwood, using the starting stone axe you get from the first quest
you can collect all required materials in less than 10 minutes if you stick to the starting meadow area. For example, if you spawned in the northern part of Revelwood near the small river, you can find all 12 stones along the riverbank in just a couple of minutes, no mining into hills required. The dirt is even easier: just dig up any patch of grass right outside your base, you’ll get more than enough in 2 minutes. The wood logs are as simple as chopping down two small pine trees, which takes less than a minute with the starting stone axe.
Don’t waste time traveling to far areas looking for special materials, you won’t need them for this basic version. The only time you’ll need rare materials is when you upgrade to the mechanical mortar later in the game, which we’ll cover a bit later.
Step-by-Step Crafting and Placement Process
Once you have all the materials, head to your basic workbench and open the crafting menu. If you don’t see the mortar recipe right away, don’t panic. Enshrouded hides crafting recipes until you’ve collected at least one of each required material, so just make sure you have at least one stone, one dirt, and one wood log in your inventory, and the recipe will pop up automatically under the “Processing Stations” tab.
Select the mortar to craft it, it takes about 5 seconds to complete, no waiting time required. Once it’s in your inventory, you can place it anywhere in your base that’s within range of your Flame Altar. place your mortar within 10 blocks of your Flame Altar to make sure it stays powered and usable at all times. If you place it outside the Flame’s range, it will be uncraftable until you move it closer or upgrade your Flame Altar to cover more area.
But here’s the catch: if you place your mortar too close to your campfire, the dust it produces will mix with the smoke and make it hard to see the crafting menu when you’re standing right in front of it. I made that mistake on my second playthrough, and I had to move it after three days of squinting to select recipes. The good news is you can pick up and move the mortar as many times as you want with your building hammer, no materials lost, so you can test out different spots until you find one that works for you.
Best Uses for Your Mortar to Speed Up Progression
Now that you have your mortar, you’re probably wondering what to do with it first. This tool is used to grind raw materials into refined versions that are used in dozens of higher-tier recipes, so it’s useful for every playstyle, whether you focus on building, combat, or exploration.
prioritize grinding bone powder first if you're struggling to survive Shroud exploration runs. Bone powder is made by grinding animal or skeleton bones in the mortar, and it’s the key ingredient in regen health potions that give you 30 seconds of gradual healing, instead of just the small instant heal from basic berries. These potions are game-changing for longer Shroud runs, where you’ll take damage over time from the Shroud fog plus enemy attacks.
Next, you can use the mortar to grind stone into sand, which is used to make glass for windows and alchemy equipment, and dirt into clay, which is used for stronger building walls and larger storage chests that hold 50% more items than basic wood chests. If you’re a builder, you’ll use your mortar almost every day to make refined building materials that make your base look way better and hold up better against enemy raids.
The only downside of the basic mortar is that it’s pretty slow, it takes about 10 seconds to process each individual item. Once you rescue the Engineer NPC later in the game, you can upgrade it to a mechanical mortar that cuts processing time in half and can process multiple items at once, but the basic version is more than enough for the first 10 to 15 hours of gameplay.
At the end of the day, learning how to get a mortar in Enshrouded is one of the lowest-effort, highest-reward upgrades you can make for your early game base. It doesn’t require any rare drops, tough boss fights, or long quest lines to unlock, just a quick run around your starting area to grab common materials. I keep mine right next to my alchemy table and storage chests for easy access, and it’s cut down the time I spend prepping for Shroud runs by almost half. Even as you unlock higher tier processing stations later in the game, you’ll still find yourself coming back to your basic mortar for small, quick crafting jobs that don’t warrant firing up the upgraded mechanical version. If you haven’t built one yet, grab your tools and go collect those materials this play session, you won’t regret it.