If you’ve spent even a few hours exploring Enshrouded’s post-apocalyptic open world, you know how quickly basic resources run out when you’re fighting Shrouds, building bases, or patching up wounds after a bad fall. One tool you’ll need to unlock pretty early to keep your supply chains running is the hand spindle, and figuring out how to get hand spindle enshrouded is way simpler than you might think if you know where to look for the right materials. I’ve spent over 80 hours grinding through Enshrouded’s early and mid-game zones, and I’ve used the hand spindle to craft hundreds of cloth rolls for everything from roof insulation to healing bandages. I put together this guide to walk you through every step, so you don’t waste time wandering aimlessly looking for rare drops or hidden crafting stations.
How to Get Hand Spindle Enshrouded: Core Crafting Requirements
First, you should know you won’t find the hand spindle as random loot in chests or as a drop from enemies. The only way to get it is to craft it yourself, and the recipe is unlocked automatically once you hit player level 3. You don’t need a special crafting table or workbench to make it either — it’s craftable directly from your personal inventory menu. The materials you’ll need are all common, early-game resources that you can collect within five minutes of spawning into a new world:
- 2 pieces of wood – you can get this by chopping any small tree or bush in the starting Springlands zone, even with your basic starting axe
- 1 piece of string – craft this from 2 plant fiber harvested from tall grass, or loot it from basic enemy camps and low-tier chests
- 1 piece of stone – picked up from any small rock formation on the surface, no pickaxe required for loose, small stones
Once you have all those materials, the process of how to get hand spindle enshrouded is as simple as opening your inventory, navigating to the tools tab, and clicking craft. The whole process takes less than 10 seconds, and the spindle stays in your permanent tool inventory forever, no repairs or replacements needed. If you don’t see the recipe pop up, double check that you’ve hit level 3 — running a couple of the starting quests like building your first campfire or collecting 10 berries will get you there in no time.
Fastest Spots to Farm All Required Materials
Even though all three materials are super common, there are specific spots you can hit to collect everything you need in under five minutes, no combat required if you don’t want to fight. My go-to spot is the western Springlands lake, located just south of the first Ancient Spire fast travel point. The area is dotted with tiny birch trees that drop 2-3 wood per axe swing, and the thick grass around the lake shore drops tons of plant fiber every time you run through swinging a basic sickle. I usually collect 20 plant fiber in two minutes here, which is enough for 10 pieces of string, so you can stock up for future crafts at the same time.
Loose stone is scattered all along the lake shore too, so you won’t have to trek into dangerous cave systems to find it. If you’re really in a hurry, you can also grab string from bandit camp chests scattered around the starting zone. Most small camps have 2-3 pieces of string per chest, and the low-level bandits are easy to take down with a basic club if they agro you. You don’t have to clear the whole camp either — just run in, grab the chest loot, and run out if you don’t feel like fighting.
How to Use Your Hand Spindle for Maximum Benefit
Once you craft the hand spindle, you don’t have to equip it or hold it to use it. It lives in your hidden crafting tool tab, and automatically unlocks new recipes for you to use anywhere, anytime. The most common item you’ll make with it is cloth rolls, which require 2 pieces of string each. Cloth rolls are used for so many core game mechanics, from building fabric roof panels that keep rain out of your base to crafting warm clothes for exploring the cold northern mountain zones. You’ll also need cloth to build beds, which let you set custom spawn points so you don’t have to run all the way back to your starter base every time you die.
You can also use the hand spindle to make healing bandages by combining 1 cloth roll and 1 piece of honey. Those bandages heal twice as much health as the basic berry poultices you make early on, and they don’t leave you with the overeating debuff that comes with eating too many berries at once. If you’re still on the fence about taking five minutes to figure out how to get hand spindle enshrouded, just think about how much time you’ll save not farming enemy drops for cloth. I wasted almost an hour my first playthrough running around killing bandits hoping for cloth drops, when I could have made 20 cloth rolls in 10 minutes with the spindle.
Common Hand Spindle Mistakes to Avoid
Even though the hand spindle is a super simple tool, I see new players make the same few mistakes with it all the time on Enshrouded community forums. First, don’t waste all your string on random decorative items before you make at least 10 cloth rolls for your base and healing supplies. I’ve had friends who blew all their plant fiber on string for wall hangings, then had no way to make bandages when they ran into a tough Shroud enemy deep in a fog zone. Second, don’t wait until you’re halfway through the mid-game to craft the spindle. You unlock the recipe at level 3 for a reason — it’s a core early-game tool that makes every part of survival easier.
Third, don’t forget you can use the spindle to make fire resistant cloth later in the game when you combine cloth rolls with ash from burnt trees. That cloth is essential for exploring the volcanic biomes, and you can’t get it anywhere else without the spindle. If you accidentally delete your hand spindle for some reason, you can just craft a new one with the same materials, no penalty. Most players never have to do that, but it’s good to know the option is there if you mess up your inventory sorting.
At the end of the day, figuring out how to get hand spindle enshrouded is one of the easiest, highest-impact early game tasks you can complete to make your playthrough smoother. It takes almost no time to collect the materials, you don’t need any special tools or stations to craft it, and it unlocks dozens of useful recipes that you’ll rely on for the rest of the game. If you haven’t crafted yours yet, grab your axe and head to that Springlands lake spot I mentioned earlier — you’ll have your spindle in five minutes flat, and you’ll wonder how you ever played without it.