If you’ve spent your first hour in Enshrouded whacking at thick oak trees with a flimsy stone axe and getting nowhere, you’re not alone. Most new players hit this wall fast, because the only tool that can harvest mature hardwood and speed up your base building is the higher-tier woodcutting tool. This guide breaks down exactly how to get felling axe in Enshrouded, no hidden quests or random loot drops required, so you can stop wasting stamina on unbreakable trees and start progressing faster.
Prerequisites You Need Before Unlocking the Felling Axe in Enshrouded
Before you can even see the felling axe in any crafting menu, you need to check off a few small requirements that most new players miss. None of these take more than an hour to complete if you follow the main quest line, and skipping even one will leave you stuck grinding basic resources for no reason. I missed the second requirement on my first playthrough, and spent 45 minutes browsing every workbench menu looking for the recipe before I realized my mistake.
Here’s the full list of what you need to have sorted first:
- Level 3 character with at least 15 maximum health to handle low-level shroud enemies near the Carpenter’s spawn location
- Basic workbench placed inside your claimed base area, unlocked immediately after you build your first Flame Altar
- Carpenter NPC rescued from the small ruined outpost west of the Cindervault starter spawn, and assigned to a vacant bed in your base
- 20 pieces of raw stone, 5 pieces of twine, and 3 copper bars stored in your base chest or personal inventory
You don’t need to explore any high-level shroud areas to get these materials, either. Copper ore spawns in the rocky hills just north of the starter beach, and twine can be crafted from plant fiber you harvest from any small bush scattered across the starting zone. The Carpenter’s spawn is guarded by 3 low-level goblins, so even a basic stone sword is enough to take them out without healing items.
Step-by-Step Process to Craft Your Felling Axe
Once you’ve checked off all the prerequisites, crafting the felling axe takes less than two minutes, no extra quests or skill point investments needed. First, head to your base and talk to the Carpenter NPC you rescued. If you haven’t completed her first small side quest yet, she’ll ask you to bring her 10 wood planks first, which you can craft at your basic workbench from regular wood. Turn that quest in, and the felling axe recipe will automatically unlock in her crafting menu.
You don’t need to spend skill points in the woodcutting or crafting skill trees to unlock this recipe, which is a common misconception I see new players spread in community forums. The recipe is tied directly to the Carpenter NPC, so as long as she’s living in your base, you can craft as many felling axes as you want whenever you need them.
Next, make sure you have all the required materials in your inventory, then select the felling axe from the Carpenter’s tool crafting menu. Make sure you have at least one empty slot in your inventory before you hit craft, otherwise the game will refund your materials and you’ll have to start the process over again. I’ve run into this issue twice when my inventory was full of foraged berries, so it’s an easy mistake to avoid if you double check first.
Once the crafting bar fills, the felling axe will appear in your inventory, and you can equip it immediately. You don’t need to do any extra calibration or unlocks to use it, just swap it out for your old stone axe and head to the nearest oak tree to test it out. It’ll cut through thick trunks faster than you expect, and you’ll get your first stack of hardwood in less than a minute.
Key Advantages of Using the Felling Axe Over Basic Tools
The difference between the stone axe and the felling axe is night and day, and you’ll notice it the second you take your first swing at a mature tree. The felling axe cuts down oak and pine trees 3x faster than the basic stone axe, so a tree that used to take 12 hits to cut down now only takes 4, saving you tons of stamina and time when you’re gathering resources for base builds. You’ll finish gathering materials for a new storage room in half the time you’d spend with a stone axe.
Hardwood is impossible to harvest with any tool lower than the felling axe, which is the biggest reason this tool is non-negotiable for early game progress. Hardwood is used to craft larger storage chests, better weapons, upgraded workbenches, and to raise your Flame Altar to level 2, which lets you claim more base land and explore higher level shroud zones. Without the felling axe, you’ll be stuck at the first level of progression indefinitely, no matter how many basic resources you gather.
Another bonus most players don’t expect is that the felling axe works as a decent emergency melee weapon if you run out of durability on your sword while exploring. It deals 8 damage per hit, which is enough to take out small goblins, wolves, and low-level shroud enemies without having to run back to base to repair your primary weapon. It’s not as strong as a dedicated sword or club, but it’s a great backup to have in your inventory when you’re far from home.
I also found that using the felling axe reduces the chance of tree saplings not spawning after you cut down a mature tree, which is a small but helpful quality of life bonus. When you use a stone axe, there’s a 30% chance no sapling will drop, meaning you have to travel further to find more trees later on. The felling axe drops a sapling 90% of the time, so you can set up a sustainable tree farm right next to your base without having to wander for resources.
Pro Tips to Maintain and Upgrade Your Felling Axe Long-Term
The felling axe has 150 durability points, which is 3x more than the basic stone axe, so you won’t have to replace it nearly as often. That said, there are a few small tips you can follow to make it last even longer, and upgrade it later on when you reach mid-game content. These tricks have saved me hours of unnecessary grinding across three separate playthroughs, so they’re well worth adopting.
Don’t use your felling axe to break rocks or fight tough enemies, that’s the fastest way to waste durability. Even though it works as a backup weapon for small enemies, using it to fight elite shroud enemies or break stone deposits will wear it out in 20 hits or less, meaning you’ll have to craft a new one way sooner than necessary. Keep a stone pickaxe and a dedicated melee weapon in your inventory for those tasks, and save the felling axe only for cutting trees.
You can repair the felling axe at any basic workbench for just 3 pieces of stone and 1 copper bar, which is way cheaper than crafting a new one from scratch. I keep a stack of 20 copper bars and 50 stone in my base storage chest at all times, so I can repair my axe in 10 seconds whenever it runs low on durability, no extra gathering required. It’s a small habit that adds up to a lot of saved time over the course of a playthrough.
Once you rescue the Blacksmith NPC and reach level 7, you can unlock the steel felling axe recipe, which is a direct upgrade to the basic felling axe. It cuts trees 2x faster than the regular felling axe, has 300 durability points, and has a 100% chance to drop a sapling every time you cut down a tree. You don’t have to get rid of your old felling axe when you unlock the steel version, either: keep it as a backup, or give it to a new co-op teammate who hasn’t unlocked theirs yet.
If you’re playing co-op, I recommend crafting at least two felling axes per player, so you always have a spare if one breaks while you’re out gathering resources for group builds. It’s a small investment that saves you tons of time when you’re working on large base projects with friends, and it ensures no one on the team gets stuck waiting for someone else to harvest hardwood.
Getting the felling axe is one of the most important milestones in your first few hours of playing Enshrouded, and it doesn’t have to be a confusing process. All you need to do is rescue the Carpenter, gather a few basic materials, and craft it directly from her menu, no hidden grind or rare drops required. Once you know how to get felling axe in Enshrouded, you’ll be able to harvest hardwood, upgrade your base, and progress through the game’s early content way faster, so you can spend less time grinding resources and more time exploring the world’s hidden secrets.