If you’ve spent hours grinding for resources and building out your Enshrouded base, you’ve probably hit a point where foraging for berries and wild crops just isn’t enough to keep your crew fed and your crafting stations running. That’s where farming comes in, and the first tool you’ll need to unlock that entire system is a rake. Figuring out how to get a rake in Enshrouded stumps a lot of new players, because it’s not something you can craft right out of the gate, and the game doesn’t exactly hold your hand to walk you through the requirements. I’ve put in over 120 hours in Enshrouded across three playthroughs, so I’ve tested every possible path to get this tool as fast as possible, even if you’re still in the early game. You won’t need to grind high-level Shroud zones or beat tough bosses to grab it, either.
What You Need Before You Can Get a Rake in Enshrouded
First off, you can’t craft a rake at your basic workbench, no matter how many resources you hoard early on. The recipe is exclusive to the Farmer NPC, one of the first special NPCs you can rescue once you leave the starting Springlands area. I made the mistake of wasting 2 hours scrolling through every workbench recipe looking for it on my first playthrough, so save yourself the frustration and prioritize rescuing the Farmer first. Before you head out to find her, make sure you have these basics covered:
- A level 3 workbench to craft the gear you’ll need to survive the short trip to her vault
- At least 4 pieces of gray or better armor to fend off the low-level Shroud enemies patrolling the area around her vault
- 10 Wood Planks and 5 Stone Bricks to build a basic house for the Farmer once you bring her back to your base
You don’t need any special Shroud clearance for this trip, either. The vault holding the Farmer is in a low-level Shroud zone just east of the first Ancient Spire you unlock, so even players with 5 or 6 hours of playtime can make the trip safely. Just make sure you bring a torch to keep your Shroud corruption low while you’re inside the vault.
Step-by-Step Process to Unlock the Rake Recipe
Once you’ve rescued the Farmer and placed her in a valid house at your base, interacting with her will pull up her crafting menu, which includes the rake recipe. But you still need to gather the required materials to craft it, which are all easy to find even in the early game. First, you’ll need 6 Wood Logs, which you can get by chopping down any regular tree in the Springlands. You probably already have a stack of these sitting in your storage chests, so that’s one resource you won’t have to go out of your way for.
Next, you’ll need 2 Iron Ingots. If you haven’t started smelting iron yet, you can find iron ore in the small caves dotted around the base of the Revelwood mountains, just north of the starting area. Each iron ore smelts into one ingot at a regular smelter, so you only need to grab 2 ore total for this recipe. The last material is 1 Leather Scrap, which drops from any wolf or boar you hunt in the Springlands. I usually have a bunch of these left over from hunting for food early on, but if you don’t, you can find wolves roaming the hills west of your starting base in 2 or 3 minutes flat.
Once you have all three materials, just go back to the Farmer, select the rake recipe, and craft it in one click. It doesn’t take any time to craft, and it will be added directly to your inventory as soon as you confirm the recipe. That’s all it takes to get a rake in Enshrouded, no complicated quests or rare drops required.
Creative Uses for Your Rake Beyond Basic Farming
A lot of new players think the rake is only good for tilling dirt to plant seeds, but it’s actually one of the most versatile early-game tools you can own. First, you can use it to clear small debris like bushes and small rocks from your base area way faster than you can with a sword or axe. It doesn’t do any damage to enemies, so you don’t want to bring it into combat, but it cuts down base cleanup time by 70% in my experience. You can also use the tilled dirt you make with the rake to grow more than just food crops.
If you plant flax seeds, you’ll get regular flax to craft linen, which you need for higher-level armor and furniture. If you plant cotton seeds, you can make bandages way faster than you can forage for them in the wild, which is a game changer for exploring higher-level Shroud zones. One trick I picked up on my last playthrough is to till a small patch of dirt right outside the entrance to high-level dungeons. You can plant healing mushrooms there, and they’ll grow in real time while you’re inside the dungeon, so you have a fresh stack of healing items waiting for you when you come out.
It sounds silly, but it saved me from having to travel back to base to restock after tough runs more times than I can count. Just make sure you don’t till dirt inside the Shroud, because any seeds you plant there will die within a few minutes, and you’ll waste all the resources you spent on them. Once you know how to get a rake in Enshrouded and start using it for more than just planting, you’ll wonder how you ever played without it.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Using Your New Rake
I’ve seen a lot of new players waste time and resources using their rake wrong, so I’ve rounded up the most common mistakes to skip. First, don’t waste your time tilling dirt on sand or snow. The game won’t stop you from doing it, but any seeds you plant on those surfaces won’t grow, no matter how long you wait. Stick to regular grass or dirt surfaces for all your farming plots. Second, don’t craft more than one rake at a time. The rake has extremely high durability, and it never breaks from regular farming use. It will only take damage if you accidentally hit enemies or hard stone with it, so one rake will last you for dozens of hours of playtime.
Wasting extra iron and leather on multiple rakes is just throwing resources you could use for other tools or armor down the drain. You spent time figuring out how to get a rake in Enshrouded, so make the one you have last as long as possible. Third, don’t forget to place water sources within two tiles of all your tilled dirt. Crops grow 50% faster if they’re next to water, and you don’t have to do any extra work to water them manually. I usually dig a small trench through the middle of my farming plots and fill it with water from a nearby river, which takes 2 minutes of work and cuts my crop grow time in half. You don’t need any special tools to dig the trench, either—your regular pickaxe works just fine.
Farming is one of the most rewarding systems in Enshrouded, and it all starts with getting your first rake. You don’t need to be a late-game player or have tons of rare resources to unlock it, either—if you follow the steps we laid out, you can have a rake in your inventory less than an hour after you finish the starting tutorial. Once you have it, you’ll be able to grow your own food, craft rare materials, and cut down on the time you spend foraging for basic resources so you can focus on exploring the Shroud and beating tough bosses. If you’ve been stuck trying to figure out how to get a rake in Enshrouded, give this method a try next time you log on—you’ll be shocked at how fast you can unlock the entire farming system. If you have your own favorite rake trick, drop it in the comments below to help other players out.