If you’ve spent any time building in Enshrouded, you’ve probably hit a wall when a recipe for windows, alchemy stations, or advanced decor calls for glass. Most new players have no clue how to get glass in Enshrouded at first, since it’s not a resource you can dig up randomly from rock patches in the starting biome. I wasted almost three hours running around the Springlands hitting every stone node I could find before I figured out the exact crafting process, so I put this guide together to save you that same frustration. We’ll cover all the prerequisites you need to unlock glass crafting, where to find the required materials, and tricks to stockpile hundreds of units fast so you never run out mid-build.
Prerequisites You Need to Unlock Glass Crafting in Enshrouded
You can’t craft glass as soon as you spawn into the world, but you also don’t need to beat endgame bosses or unlock rare content to access it. The first thing you’ll need to do is rescue the Carpenter NPC from the small ruin northwest of your first starting Flame Altar in the Springlands. This is a low-level area, so you can complete this quest within your first two hours of play if you prioritize it. Once you’ve rescued the Carpenter and placed her in your base, she’ll unlock the recipe for the Smelter, the only crafting station that can produce glass in the game. You don’t need to upgrade the Smelter to its higher tiers to make basic glass, but you will need to make sure you place it in a covered area. If the Smelter is exposed to rain, the fire will go out, and it won’t run any crafting recipes until you dry it off or move it under a roof.
Exact Materials You Need to Craft Glass in Enshrouded
The base recipe for one unit of glass is surprisingly simple, but the required materials can be tricky to find if you don’t know where to look. I spent so long digging in dirt and stone nodes looking for sand before I realized it only spawns in very specific areas of the map. To make one piece of glass, you’ll need the following:
- 2 Sand: Only spawns along the edges of large lakes and rivers in the Springlands, or across the entire desert area of the Kindlewastes biome
- 1 Charcoal: Made by burning regular wood in a Kiln, which is also unlocked by the Carpenter NPC
- 1 unit of fuel (wood or coal) to power the Smelter during crafting
Step-by-Step Process to Make Glass
Once you have all your materials gathered, the actual crafting process is straightforward, but there are a few small mistakes you can make that will slow you down. First, double check that your Smelter is placed under cover and has enough fuel in its dedicated fuel slot. I prefer using coal for mass crafting, since it burns four times longer than regular wood and saves you from having to refill the station every five minutes. Next, add your sand and charcoal to the input slots of the Smelter, then select the glass recipe from the crafting menu. You can queue up as many batches as you have materials for, so you don’t have to stand around waiting for each individual piece to finish crafting. Once the process is done, the glass will pop into the output slot, and you can move it to your inventory or storage chests. If you want to make stained glass for decorative builds later, you can combine regular glass with flower dye at the Carpenter’s bench, but that’s an optional extra you don’t need to worry about early on.
Pro Tips to Farm Glass Fast for Large Builds
If you’re planning to build a large base with floor-to-ceiling windows, or you need dozens of pieces of glass for alchemy stations and crafting benches, you’ll want to optimize your process to avoid wasting time running back and forth across the map. First, unlock the Glider as soon as you complete the first Ancient Spire quest. This lets you cover long distances between sand deposits and your base in a fraction of the time it takes to run or ride a mount. Second, set up a small outpost in the Kindlewastes biome once you unlock access to it. The entire southern half of this biome is covered in sand dunes, so you can mine 200+ units of sand in less than 15 minutes without having to search for small, scattered patches along rivers. Third, keep a Kiln running right next to your Smelter at all times. You can burn excess wood from your tree farms to make a near-endless supply of charcoal, so you never run out mid-crafting session. If you have the resources to spare, build two or three Smelters and run them all at the same time to double or triple your output. I have four Smelters running on my main base, and I can make 200 units of glass in less than 10 minutes when I need them for big builds.
At the end of the day, figuring out how to get glass in Enshrouded is way simpler once you know the prerequisites and where to find the right materials. You don’t need to grind for rare drops or beat hard bosses to unlock it, just rescue the Carpenter, build a Smelter, and farm enough sand and charcoal to make as much as you need. If you follow the tips we covered, you’ll have enough glass to build whatever base or utility structure you want without wasting hours running around the map looking for resources. If you have any other tricks for farming glass faster, feel free to drop them in the comments below.