When I first spawned into Enshrouded’s sunlit grasslands, I spent three hours bumbling around the starting zone hitting every rock I saw, convinced I’d find copper eventually. I only realized I was looking in the wrong place after a random player I met near the first Ancient Spire laughed and pointed me north across the chasm. If you’ve been having the same frustrating experience, you’re not alone. Knowing how to get copper in Enshrouded is the first big hurdle to get past early-game stone tools and start building a base that can actually survive shroud attacks.
How to Get Copper in Enshrouded: First Steps Before You Farm
You don’t need endgame gear to start farming copper, but a little prep will save you from dying over and over and losing all your hard-earned ore. First, make sure you have at least a reinforced stone pickaxe to mine nodes faster. A standard stone pick works too, but it will take twice as long to harvest each node, which leaves you exposed to enemies for longer. Second, unlock the glider from the first Ancient Spire if you haven’t already. Most early copper spots are just across small chasms you can’t climb across on foot, and the glider lets you reach them without a long detour.
Third, gear up to at least level 5 before heading into any shrouded copper zones. Even the lowest-level shroud areas around copper spawns have level 4 wolves and shroud stalkers that can one-shot undergeared new players. Bring at least three healing berries or basic health potions just in case you run into a surprise pack of enemies. This prep work will make your runs to get copper in Enshrouded way less frustrating, even if you’re still learning the map.
Best Copper Farming Spots in Early and Mid Game
Copper nodes are bright orange-brown, so they’re easy to spot against green grass or grey rock once you’re in the right area. If you’re looking to get copper in Enshrouded without fighting hordes of enemies, start with the first spot we list, then move to higher-yield spots as you level up.
The best early-game spot is just north of the first Grasslands Ancient Spire, across the small narrow chasm. There are six copper nodes clustered right outside the shroud boundary, with only two or three stray wolves patrolling the area. You can harvest all six nodes in under two minutes, and they respawn every 10 minutes, so it’s perfect for new players who just need enough copper for their first set of tools and armor.
Once you’re level 6 or higher, head to the western edge of the Revelwood biome. There’s a clearing with 12 copper nodes inside a low-level shroud zone. You can either clear the small shroud root on the edge of the clearing to make the area permanently safe, or bring shroud resistance potions to harvest the nodes before your timer runs out. For mid-game players looking for bulk copper, the abandoned mine north of the Farmer’s vault has 20+ copper nodes plus a handful of tin spawns, so you can stock up on both resources in one run.
Every time you head out for a copper farming run, pack these items to avoid getting stuck:
- 2-3 spare pickaxes, so you don’t have to cut your run short if your main tool breaks mid-harvest
- At least 4 shroud resistance potions if you’re farming nodes inside any shrouded area
- A stack of wood to build a small temporary campfire if you need to reset your shroud timer fast
- One empty chest to store extra ore if you’re doing a bulk run and run out of inventory space
How to Process Copper Ore Into Usable Materials
Once you get back to base with your copper ore, you need to smelt it into copper bars before you can use it for most crafting recipes. First, you’ll need to unlock the Smelter blueprint from the Carpenter NPC, which becomes available once you’ve rescued them from their early-game vault. The smelter costs 20 stone, 10 wood, and 5 charcoal to build, so make sure you have those materials saved up before you go on your first big copper run.
Each piece of copper ore smelts into one copper bar, and each bar takes 30 seconds to process. If you’re smelting 50 or more ore at a time, you can walk away and tend to other base tasks while it runs. Don’t make the mistake I did early on of smelting all your copper ore into bars immediately. Keep 10 to 15 raw ore on hand at all times, because several early NPC quests ask for unprocessed copper, and you don’t want to have to run back out to farm more just to complete a quest.
If you plan to farm a lot of copper, build a charcoal kiln right next to your smelter. Charcoal is three times more efficient as fuel for smelting than regular wood, so you’ll save hours of time farming wood for fuel every week. I used to waste half my playtime chopping wood to smelt copper until I built my first kiln, and it cut my fuel grind by 70% overnight.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Farming Copper
It’s easy to make small mistakes that waste your time or cost you all your ore when you’re first learning to farm copper. The biggest mistake new players make is running into high-level shroud zones for big copper clusters before they have the gear to survive. I’ve seen so many players run straight into a level 10 shroud zone for a group of 15 copper nodes, only to get one-shot by a shroud mage before they can mine a single piece of ore. It’s better to farm lower-yield safe spots at first, because you’ll get more copper total over time without losing all your inventory to deaths.
Another common mistake is forgetting to mark good copper spawn points on your map. Enshrouded doesn’t save resource spawn locations for you automatically, so if you find a cluster you like, drop a custom map marker right away so you can come back every 10 minutes when the nodes respawn. I have 12 different copper spawn points marked on my main save, and I can cycle through them all to get 100+ ore in 20 minutes flat.
Don’t waste your hard-earned copper on low-tier tools you don’t need. Copper tools are only 30% more efficient than stone tools, and you’ll unlock iron tools only a few hours after you start farming copper. You’re better off saving most of your copper for copper armor sets and base upgrades, which give way bigger, longer-lasting benefits. It’s also worth saving 20 to 30 copper bars to build a workbench upgrade, which lets you craft higher-tier recipes faster.
Copper is the first resource that really pushes you out of the safe starting zone in Enshrouded, and once you get the hang of farming it, you’ll blow through the early game grind way faster. Stick to spots that match your current level, pack the right supplies for every run, and don’t waste your ore on low-value items, and you’ll never run short. Whether you’re a brand new player just leaving the starting area or a veteran doing a bulk run for a big base expansion, knowing how to get copper in Enshrouded will make every part of your playthrough smoother and more fun.