If you’re a few hours into your Enshrouded playthrough, you’ve almost certainly hit that frustrating crafting wall where every upgrade you want requires copper. You can’t make a better pickaxe, build larger storage chests, or craft basic mid-tier armor without it, and it can feel impossible to find if you don’t know where to look. I spent my first 8 hours wandering aimlessly through low-level areas wondering why I couldn’t find a single vein, so I put together this guide to cut out all the guesswork. We’re covering everything you need to know about how to get copper in Enshrouded, from the safest early-game spots to a farming routine that nets you 100+ bars an hour.
Best Early-Game Locations to Find Copper in Enshrouded
You don’t have to venture deep into dangerous high-level Shroud zones to get your first batch of copper, despite what many new players assume. Most early-game copper veins are in safe, above-ground areas within a 10-minute glide of the starting Ancient Spire, so you won’t have to fight tough enemies or race against the Shroud corruption timer to collect it.
The most reliable early spot is the abandoned quarry 300 meters west of the starting Spire. It has 4 large copper veins right out in the open, and the only enemies nearby are a few low-level wolves that go down in 2 hits with a stone sword. The second best spot is the small, shallow cave system on the southern edge of Revelwood, which has 6 copper veins and only a handful of slimes inside. Mark copper veins on your map as soon as you spot them, so you don’t have to waste time searching for them on future farming runs.
If you’ve already unlocked the first fast travel point in Revelwood, you can also check the rocky outcrops along the northern edge of the region. These have smaller veins, but they’re usually unguarded, so you can run in, mine them, and leave in under 2 minutes. Just avoid the copper veins inside the deep Shroud on the eastern edge of Revelwood for now—those are guarded by level 15 Shroud creatures that will one-shot you if you’re still in early-game gear.
Required Tools and Prep for Safe Copper Farming
You don’t need fancy gear to farm copper, but a little prep will save you a ton of time and avoid frustrating trips back to base halfway through a run. First, you’ll need at least a stone pickaxe to mine copper ore—wooden pickaxes won’t do any damage to copper veins, so make sure you craft a few spares before you head out. Iron pickaxes work even better, cutting mining time by roughly 40% if you’ve already unlocked iron crafting.
Before you leave your base, run through this quick pre-farming checklist to make sure you have everything you need:
- Stone pickaxe or better (bring 2 spares if you’re going on a long run, as pickaxes break fast with heavy use)
- 2-3 health consumables for unexpected Shroud creature or wolf encounters
- 1 portable workbench and smelter to process ore on-site if you’re far from base
- 1 stack of wood to fuel your portable smelter and light dark cave areas
Don’t forget to empty half your inventory before heading out—copper ore stacks to 20 per slot, and a full run will net you 80-100 ore, so you’ll need plenty of empty space to carry it all. If you’re playing on a server with friends, you can also bring a shared chest to drop off ore halfway through your run so you don’t have to teleport back early.
Copper ore can’t be used for crafting until it’s smelted into copper bars, so if you don’t have a portable smelter, make sure you have at least 20 slots free in your furnace back at base before you start farming. It takes 2 ore to make 1 copper bar, and smelting takes 10 seconds per bar, so you can process a full load of ore in under 10 minutes if you have multiple furnaces running at once.
Efficient How to Get Copper in Enshrouded Farming Routine
Once you know where the veins are and have your prep done, you can set up a simple farming loop that nets you 100+ copper bars per hour with almost no risk. I use this routine every time I start a new playthrough, and it’s helped me skip the early-game copper grind almost entirely.
Start at the starting Ancient Spire, and glide west to the abandoned quarry we mentioned earlier. Mine all 4 veins there, which will give you roughly 30-40 copper ore. Next, glide south to the shallow Revelwood cave system, mine all 6 veins there for another 40-50 ore. If you still have inventory space left, head north to the Revelwood rocky outcrops and mine the 3 small veins there for an extra 15-20 ore. Then teleport back to base, smelt all your ore into bars, and repeat the loop. Veins respawn after 15 in-game minutes, so by the time you finish smelting, the first set of veins will be ready to mine again.
Prioritize veins above ground first whenever possible. You don’t have to deal with the Shroud timer, dark areas, or hidden enemies, so you can mine much faster than you would in cave or Shroud locations. If you do decide to mine in shallow Shroud areas, make sure you set a timer on your phone to remind you when you have 1 minute left on your corruption bar—nothing is more frustrating than dying right as you finish mining a full load of ore.
For players who have already built a second base, I highly recommend placing it within 100 meters of the abandoned quarry copper spot. You can put 3-4 furnaces right next to the veins, so you can smelt ore as you mine it without having to carry heavy ore back to your main base. That cuts your farming time almost in half, and you can stockpile thousands of copper bars in just a few hours of casual play.
Top Uses for Copper to Prioritize Early in Your Playthrough
It’s easy to waste your first batch of copper on decorative items or low-priority upgrades, so it’s good to have a plan for what to craft first to get the most value out of your farmed materials. I always follow this order when I’m starting out, and it helps me progress way faster than if I was crafting random items.
First, craft a copper pickaxe as soon as you have 12 copper bars. It mines stone, tin, and iron 2x faster than a stone pickaxe, and it will make all future resource farming runs way more efficient. Next, craft 3 large copper storage chests—they hold twice as many items as wooden chests, and they’re much more durable if enemies attack your base. Third, upgrade your workbench to a copper workbench, which unlocks mid-tier crafting recipes for armor, tools, and building parts.
Don’t waste copper on decorative items early—you’ll need every bar for functional upgrades for the first 20 hours of your playthrough. Save the decorative copper walls and furniture for after you’ve unlocked iron tools and have a steady stockpile of 200+ copper bars saved up.
Copper is also used in a lot of unexpected mid-game recipes, like glider upgrades, fire resistance potions, and the first tier of electric crafting stations. It’s a good idea to keep a stack of 100 copper bars in your storage at all times, so you don’t have to stop what you’re doing to go farm more when you unlock a new recipe that requires it. If you’re playing with friends, assign one person to run the copper farming loop once a week, and you’ll never run out of this critical material.
Once you get the hang of how to get copper in Enshrouded, you’ll stop hitting those annoying crafting roadblocks and progress way faster through the early and mid game. I used to waste hours wandering the map looking for copper when I first started, so sticking to the spots and routine we laid out will save you a ton of frustration. If you’re playing with friends, split up to cover multiple veins at once, and you can get 200+ bars in an hour without even trying. Don’t forget to mark all your found veins on your map, and you’ll have a steady supply of copper for the rest of your playthrough.