If you’ve spent hours grinding through Enshrouded’s early zones upgrading your base and fighting shambling shrouded creatures, you’ve probably hit a wall where stone tools and iron gear just don’t cut it anymore. Learning how to get steel in Enshrouded is the single biggest jump you can make to unlock endgame building, powerful weapons, and armor that lets you take on the toughest enemies in the deepest shroud zones. I remember wasting three full in-game days running around in circles trying to figure out the right crafting order before I got my first steel ingot, so I put together this guide to help you avoid the same annoying mistakes. You won’t need to farm super rare drops or beat tough endgame bosses to get your first batch, either – if you follow the steps below, you can have steel within an hour of hitting level 15.
What You Need Before You Can Get Steel in Enshrouded
Before you even think about smelting steel, you need to unlock a few key crafting stations and collect base resources that most new players skip over early on. I missed two of these the first time I tried, so double check you have all of the following before you start:
- A Smelter upgraded to at least tier 2 – you can unlock this by rescuing the Blacksmith from his vault in the Revelwood area
- 10 iron ingots per batch of steel – you can smelt these from iron ore found in mountain biomes or abandoned mine shafts
- 2 coal per steel ingot – this is not the same as charcoal, you’ll need to mine it from deep cave deposits or loot it from bandit camps
- A forged workbench to turn steel ingots into usable tools, weapons, and building parts
A lot of new players mix up coal and charcoal, and that’s the most common mistake that stops them from making steel. Charcoal is made by burning wood in a campfire, but it won’t work for steel crafting – you have to get raw coal from deposits. If you’re still in the starting forest zone, head west to the first mountain range you see, and look for dark grey rock outcroppings with black flecks – those are coal deposits, and you can mine them with a tier 2 iron pickaxe. You don’t need a huge stockpile to start, 20 coal will get you 10 steel ingots, which is enough to make your first set of steel tools. If you’re still struggling to figure out how to get steel in Enshrouded after following these steps, double check that your Smelter is actually upgraded to tier 2 – that’s the second most common mistake I see new players make.
Best Locations to Farm Steel Components Fast
You don’t have to trek into high-level shroud zones to get enough iron and coal for your first steel batches. I’ve tested dozens of farming routes across 4 full playthroughs, and there are two spots that stand out for speed and safety for new players. The abandoned mine north of the first starter Ancient Spire is my go-to spot for farming steel components, even when I’m playing on higher difficulty levels. It’s only partially covered in low-level shroud, so you won’t have to fight tough tier 3 enemies to get in, and there are 12 iron ore deposits and 8 coal deposits scattered through the first two tunnels. You can clear the entire mine in 15 minutes, and that’s enough to make 20+ steel ingots.
If you don’t want to deal with the mine at all, you can loot steel ingots directly from bandit chests in the Revelwood area. I’ve found up to 5 ingots in a single chest at the large bandit camp east of the Blacksmith’s vault, and the guards there are only level 12, so they’re easy to take out with iron gear. That’s a great shortcut if you just need a small amount of steel for a specific craft, but you’ll want to set up a regular farm eventually if you’re building a large base. Never waste your early steel on decorative building parts – save the first 15 ingots for a steel pickaxe and steel sword, which will make farming all other resources twice as fast.
How to Craft Steel Ingots Step-by-Step
Once you have all your resources collected, crafting steel is pretty straightforward, but there are a few small tricks that can cut your smelting time in half. First, make sure your Smelter is placed close to a fuel source, like a permanent campfire, to get a 10% speed boost. Most players don’t know that passive heat from nearby fires affects all crafting stations that use heat, so that’s a free upgrade you don’t have to spend any extra resources on. Put your iron ingots and coal into the Smelter’s input slots, and select the steel ingot recipe from the menu. Each ingot takes 30 seconds to smelt, so you can do other small tasks around your base while you wait, like sorting your storage or cooking food for your next exploration run.
If you have multiple tier 2 Smelters running at the same time, you can make 10 ingots in 5 minutes instead of 30, so it’s worth building two or three if you’re planning a big crafting session for a base upgrade or new armor set. You don’t need to add any extra flux or rare materials – the base game only requires iron and coal to make steel, despite what some old beta guides say. That requirement changed in the full release, so you can skip farming for limestone or other extra materials if you see that mentioned elsewhere. I once spent 2 hours farming limestone because I followed an old beta guide, so I can tell you first hand that it’s totally unnecessary now.
Smart Uses for Your First Batches of Steel
It’s tempting to turn all your first steel into fancy building parts or heavy armor to make your character look cool, but you’ll get way more value out of prioritizing specific crafts first. Your first 10 ingots should go to a steel pickaxe, which mines all resources 40% faster than an iron pickaxe, and takes 50% less damage. That means you’ll spend less time farming and less time repairing tools, so you can stock up on more steel faster with less effort. Next, make a steel sword and steel shield for combat. Steel weapons deal 35% more damage than iron ones, and they can one-shot most low-level shroud creatures, which makes exploring higher tier zones way less stressful.
Skip the heavy steel armor until you have at least 50 ingots saved up – it’s expensive, and you can get better unique armor drops from early boss fights if you wait a little bit. If you’re playing with friends, assign one person to farm steel components while the other builds extra Smelters and sorts resources, so you can scale up your production without wasting time duplicating tasks. You can also use steel ingots to upgrade your base’s defenses, like reinforced doors and spike traps, that will keep raiders from destroying your storage chests when you’re out exploring. I learned that the hard way when a group of raiders broke into my base and stole 30 of my first steel ingots while I was mining coal, so I always build at least two reinforced steel doors on my storage room now.
Getting steel doesn’t have to be a confusing grind, even if you’re brand new to Enshrouded. Once you unlock the tier 2 Smelter and find a reliable source of coal and iron ore, you can stock up on as much as you need for all your crafting and building plans. Don’t make the same mistakes I did early on, like wasting hours farming unnecessary materials or using your first ingots on low-value crafts that don’t move your progress forward. Take the time to set up a regular farming route for steel components, and you’ll be kitted out in endgame gear and building massive, shroud-proof bases before you know it. Now that you know how to get steel in Enshrouded, you can jump back into the game and start upgrading your loadout right away.