If you’ve ever been mid-way through building your first permanent base or upgrading your starter workbench only to hit a wall because you’re out of nails, you know how frustrating that gap can be. Nails are one of the most versatile early to mid-game resources in Enshrouded, used for everything from storage chests to reinforced armor and weapon upgrades. If you’re just starting out, learning how to get nails enshrouded is one of the first core skills you’ll want to master to avoid unnecessary delays in your progress.
How to Get Nails in Enshrouded: Core Farm Methods
Nails are primarily crafted from metal scrap, though you can also find pre-made nails as loot from certain enemies and chests across the map. You don’t need any advanced crafting stations to make them either; a basic tier 1 workbench is enough to turn scrap into usable nails as soon as you unlock the recipe. You don't need a high-level smelter to turn scrap into nails, which makes them accessible within the first two hours of gameplay for most players.
The easiest way to stock up on the materials you need for nails is to hit high-yield scrap loot spots early on. If you’re playing in the starting Revelwood region, these are the three most reliable locations to farm for scrap and pre-made nails:
- Abandoned farmhouse cellars in the northern part of Revelwood, which often have 10-15 scrap piles per run and rarely have high-level enemies to fight off
- Small bandit camps along the main road east of the Ancient Spire, where chests regularly drop pre-made nails alongside scrap and basic healing items
- Ruined blacksmith shops in the Cindervault outskirts, which have guaranteed scrap respawns every 15 in-game minutes and occasional elite bandit drops
For every 2 pieces of metal scrap you bring back to your workbench, you can craft 5 nails. Pre-made nails drop 3x more often from elite bandit enemies than regular mobs, so it’s worth taking the extra 30 seconds to clear those tougher enemies when you spot them at camps. You can also get small amounts of scrap by breaking down old metal tools and weapons you find as loot, so don’t just sell those extra rusty swords you pick up from dead bandits.
Optimizing Your Nail Farm for Maximum Yield
Once you have a basic farm route down, you can tweak your setup to get 2x more nails per run with very little extra effort. First, make sure you’re using a pickaxe with the Scrap Harvester perk unlocked. This perk increases the amount of scrap you get from each pile by 20%, and it also gives you a 10% chance to get double loot from scrap piles. It unlocks at level 3 for the Miner skill tree, so you can grab it very early in your playthrough.
It’s also a good idea to build a small outpost with a workbench near your preferred farm spot. That way you don’t have to travel all the way back to your main base every time your inventory fills up with scrap. You can craft nails on site, store extra stacks in a small chest at the outpost, and only make the trip back to your main base when you have a full stack of 100+ nails to add to your main storage.
Batch crafting is another simple trick that will save you a lot of time. I used to craft 10 nails at a time early on, and I was always running out mid-build when I was adding storage or reinforcing my base walls. Now I always craft at least 50 nails every time I’m at the workbench, and I rarely run out unexpectedly anymore. That means you won’t have to pause a big build to run off and farm more scrap halfway through.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Farming Nails
Even if you follow the best farm routes, there are a few common mistakes that can make you run out of nails faster than you can replace them. You should never use nails to craft basic wooden furniture when you can use plain wood pegs for those items instead. Wood pegs are made from regular lumber, which is far easier to farm in large quantities than metal scrap, so save your nails for items that actually require them, like reinforced doors, chests, and weapon upgrades.
Another mistake I see new players make all the time is ignoring small scrap piles on the side of roads or near random ruins. A single small scrap pile only gives you 1 or 2 pieces of scrap, but those add up fast over the course of a regular exploration run. If you stop to grab every small scrap pile you pass for an hour of play, you’ll end up with enough extra scrap to make 20 to 30 nails without making a dedicated farm run.
Don’t sell extra nails to wandering vendors either. Nails only sell for 1 gold each, which is almost worthless compared to how useful they are for your own builds and upgrades. I made this mistake early on, selling 40 nails for 40 gold to buy a extra healing potion, and then I had to spend two hours farming scrap to get enough nails to build my first smelter upgrade. It’s just not worth the tiny amount of gold you get for them.
Creative Uses for Nails You Might Have Missed
Most players only use nails for building and basic workbench upgrades, but they have a handful of other really useful applications that can make your playthrough a lot easier. For example, nails are a core component of improved arrowheads, which do 15% more damage to armored enemies like shamblers and elite bandits. If you main a bow, keeping a stack of 100 extra nails on you will let you craft these higher damage arrows on the go without having to travel back to base.
Nails are also used to repair metal tools and weapons, which is far cheaper than crafting new ones every time your gear breaks. A single metal pickaxe costs 10 pieces of metal scrap to craft from scratch, but you can repair it to full durability with only 2 nails. That cuts down on your overall scrap usage by 60% over time, which means you can spend less time farming scrap and more time exploring or building.
You’ll also run into side quests fairly often that require you to bring 20 to 30 nails to NPCs to help them repair their own shelters or crafting stations. These quests usually reward you with rare crafting recipes or high-tier healing items, so keeping a small stack of 30 nails in your inventory at all times saves you from having to backtrack to your base when you pick up these quests out in the world.
At the end of the day, nails are such a low-effort resource to farm once you know where to look, that there’s no reason to ever be short on them. Even if you only spend 10 minutes farming scrap every time you log on, you’ll build up a huge stack of nails in no time. Whether you’re a new player just setting up your first base or a veteran working on a massive fortified outpost in the late game, knowing how to get nails enshrouded will make every part of your playthrough smoother and more enjoyable. I keep a dedicated storage chest just for nails next to my main workbench, and it’s saved me so much stress when I’m in the middle of a big build and realize I need a few extra nails to finish a section.