If you’ve ever spent 20 minutes trying to repair a broken base wall mid-Shroud attack only to realize you’re missing one key material, you know how frustrating it is to run out of common crafting supplies. Learning how to get mortar enshrouded is one of the first mid-game skills every player should master, since it’s used for everything from stone building upgrades to crafting certain furniture and repairing structures damaged by Shroud corruption or enemy raids. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve had to pause a base expansion run to go farm the materials for this item, so I put together all the tricks I’ve picked up over 100+ hours of play to make the process as painless as possible.
How to Get Mortar in Enshrouded: Core Crafting Requirements
Mortar isn’t an item you’ll find as random loot in chests or as a drop from enemies, so the only reliable way to get it is to craft it yourself. You must first rescue the Carpenter NPC from the Forgotten Vault in the Springlands biome before you can craft mortar, that’s non-negotiable. The vault is located just west of the first starting Flame Altar, and you can clear it with basic iron weapons if you come prepared with a few healing potions. Once you bring the Carpenter back to your base, you can craft mortar at their workbench, no extra upgrades to the station required.
Each mortar craft takes 2 raw stone and 1 unit of dirt, no extra refining steps required. You don’t need to turn stone into cut stone blocks first, and you don’t need any special additives like sand or resin. That’s part of what makes mortar such an accessible material for mid-game builds. If you’re playing with friends, you can split the work: one person can rescue the Carpenter while the other farms the initial batch of stone and dirt, so you can start crafting mortar as soon as the NPC is set up in your base.
Fastest Ways to Farm Mortar Crafting Materials
Stone and dirt are two of the most common materials in Enshrouded, but there are ways to farm them way faster than just digging up your base’s front lawn. I used to spend 15 minutes picking up random loose rocks around my base until I found these high-yield spots, and they cut my farming time for mortar materials by 70%. The best part? All of these spots are in the starting Springlands biome, so you don’t have to venture into dangerous high-level areas to stock up.
- Equip a bronze pickaxe and bronze shovel if you have them, as they cut farming time for both materials by 40% compared to basic iron tools, and they last three times longer before needing repair.
- Clear out small Shroud nests near farming spots first, so you don’t get interrupted by ambushes mid-farm. Even low-level Shroud mobs can knock you off a rocky ledge and make you lose half your gathered materials if you’re not paying attention.
- Keep 20 extra stone and 10 extra dirt in your personal inventory at all times, so you can craft mortar on the go if you unlock a new Carpenter station at a remote outpost, no need to travel back to your main base.
For stone, head to the rocky outcrops just north of the first Flame Altar. You can get 50+ raw stone in 5 minutes just by mining the large grey boulders there, no need to dig up small loose rocks. For dirt, the soft soil patches along the river beds in the southern Springlands give 2 units of dirt per hit with a shovel, way faster than digging up grass blocks, which only give 1 dirt per hit on average.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Making Mortar
Even though crafting mortar is pretty straightforward, there are a few common mistakes that waste your time and resources, especially for new players. I made almost all of these mistakes myself during my first playthrough, so I’m sharing them to save you the frustration. The biggest mistake I see new players make is waiting until they run out of mortar mid-build to make more, which can derail your entire construction plan for an hour or more.
Never use refined cut stone to craft mortar, as it takes 3 raw stone to make one cut stone, so you’re wasting 2/3 of your stone supply for no benefit. Cut stone is better used for decorative building elements or high-tier structure upgrades, not for mortar. Another common mistake is not stocking up before entering the Revelwood biome. Revelwood has way more frequent enemy raids that damage stone bases, and you won’t find as many high-yield stone and dirt spots there as you do in the Springlands, so you’ll have to travel all the way back to the starting biome to farm more if you run out.
Always keep a stack of 50+ mortar in your base storage if you’re planning a large stone building project, you’ll burn through it faster than you think. A full 10x10 stone base uses around 40 mortar just for the walls, plus extra for floors and repairs. I learned this the hard way when I was building a mountain outpost last month: I ran out of mortar halfway through the roof, and had to make a 20-minute round trip back to my main base to make more, right as a rain storm rolled in and started damaging the unfinished wood supports I’d set up temporarily.
Practical Uses for Mortar You Might Have Missed
Most players only use mortar for building stone walls and floors, but it has a handful of lesser-known uses that make it even more valuable to keep stocked. If you only craft enough mortar for your immediate building plans, you’ll miss out on these quality-of-life upgrades that make your playthrough way smoother.
Mortar is the only material that can repair stone structures damaged by Shroud corruption, wood repair paste won’t work for stone builds. If you build your base near the edge of a Shroud zone to farm rare materials, your stone walls will take slow, constant damage over time, and you’ll need mortar to patch them up before they collapse entirely. You can also use mortar to upgrade your Flame Altar to level 3, which unlocks the ability to build higher-level structures and expand your base’s protected area. Most new players don’t know this requirement until they go to upgrade their altar, so having a few extra mortar on hand saves you a last-minute farming run.
You can also use mortar to craft stone storage chests, which have 50% more storage space than wooden chests and can’t be destroyed by low-level enemy raiders. If you’re playing on a PvE server with frequent raider attacks, swapping out your wooden chests for stone ones will save you from losing all your rare crafting materials if a raiding party breaks through your outer walls. Mortar is also used to craft stone fireplaces, which give a higher comfort buff than wooden fireplaces and last twice as long before needing to be refueled with wood.
At the end of the day, figuring out how to get mortar enshrouded is a small skill that makes a huge difference in how smoothly your mid-game playthrough goes. You don’t need any rare materials or high-level unlocks to make it, just a little bit of prep work to rescue the Carpenter and stock up on cheap, easy-to-find stone and dirt. Next time you’re planning a big base build or getting ready to push into a new biome, take 10 minutes to farm extra materials and craft a stack of mortar first, you’ll thank yourself later when you don’t have to pause your progress to run back for supplies.