If you’ve spent any time upgrading your base or crafting higher-tier gear in Enshrouded, you’ve probably hit a wall when you realize you don’t have enough tar for that next build. Most new players brush off this dark, sticky resource early on, only to scramble for it when they need to make asphalt, fire arrows, or advanced alchemy items. I made the mistake of spending my first 30 tar on decorative asphalt paths for my base 12 hours into my first playthrough, and spent the next three hours grinding low-level mobs to make up for it. That’s why we put together this no-fluff guide on how to get tar in Enshrouded, with methods that work whether you’re 10 hours into your first playthrough or wrapping up endgame content.
Fastest Early-Game Methods to Farm Tar in Enshrouded
You don’t need fancy tools or access to late-game biomes to get your first batches of tar. The earliest methods require nothing more than a basic wooden club and a little bit of exploration around your starting Flame Altar. The easiest first source is looted crates and barrels in the Revelwood biome. Small abandoned camps scattered across the starting area usually have 2-3 crates each, and roughly one out of three of these crates will drop 2-5 tar with no fighting required if you sneak past the low-level shroud mobs patrolling the area.
The other reliable early-game method is defeating slime and blob enemies in low-tier shroud zones. These slow, low-damage mobs have a 40% drop rate for 1-2 tar per kill, and you can find clusters of 5-10 of them just a few hundred meters from most starting spawn points. You only need around 50 tar to get through the first 15 hours of gameplay, so 20 minutes of running through these camps and slime zones will give you more than enough to cover your early upgrades. Just don’t waste that early tar on decorative items — save it for your first smelter upgrade, which unlocks all mid-game crafting recipes.
Mid-Game Tar Crafting and Farmable Locations
Once you unlock the Charcoal Kiln and get your first iron pickaxe, you’ll be able to get tar far faster than looting or mob grinding. If you’re still figuring out how to get tar in Enshrouded once you leave the starting biome, these mid-game methods will cut your farming time in half. The most consistent source at this stage is tar pools in the Kindlewastes biome. These dark, glossy pools sit on the surface of the dry, desert-adjacent biome, and each node drops 8-12 tar when mined with an iron pickaxe. A single 10-minute run to a cluster of 6 tar pools will net you 60-80 tar, which is enough for most mid-game upgrades.
If you don’t want to travel to the Kindlewastes or risk running into high-level fire mobs, you can also craft tar directly in your Charcoal Kiln. The recipe requires 10 pieces of wood, 3 pine resin, and 1 lump of coal to make 5 tar, and it’s perfect for when you’re stuck at base waiting for other crafting projects to finish. The only downside to this method is that it uses a lot of coal, which you’ll also need for smelting metal, so I only recommend crafting tar this way if you have a large surplus of coal saved up. I usually stick to mining tar pools mid-game, and only craft tar when I’m 5 or 10 short for a specific recipe.
End-Game AFK Tar Farm Setup for Unlimited Supply
Once you unlock the Farmer NPC and advanced building pieces, you can set up a fully passive tar farm that generates hundreds of units of tar while you complete quests, fight bosses, or work on other base upgrades. This setup takes around 30 minutes to build, but it will eliminate the need to grind for tar entirely for the rest of your playthrough. Automated Kiln setups connected to your wood farm are the core of this build, and you can expand it as you get access to more building resources. To build the full AFK farm, you’ll need:
- 12 upgraded Charcoal Kilns placed within range of your base’s Flame Altar to avoid despawning
- A connected wood and pine resin farm with 20+ fully grown pine trees tended by your Farmer NPC for constant input materials
- 2 large storage chests linked to the kiln output slots to hold excess tar between play sessions
- A small mob pen nearby for tar-dropping blobs, for extra passive gains while you craft or build at base
This setup generates roughly 200 tar per hour of playtime, with zero extra work required on your end. I recommend placing the farm at least 50 meters away from your main base to avoid the tar smell particle effects clogging up your frame rate, especially if you’re playing on a lower-end PC. You can also add extra kilns as you gather more resources, to scale your output up for endgame Flame Altar upgrades that require hundreds of tar each.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Gathering Tar in Enshrouded
Even if you already know how to get tar in Enshrouded, these common mistakes can make the process way more frustrating than it needs to be. The first and most common mistake is mining tar pools without a fire resistance potion in the Kindlewastes. Most tar pools sit right next to lava vents that deal constant burn damage, even if you’re not standing directly in the lava. A single basic fire resistance potion costs almost nothing to craft, and it will save you from dying repeatedly mid-farm and losing all your gathered tar.
The second mistake is selling excess tar to NPCs, even if you think you have more than enough. Endgame upgrades for your Flame Altar, advanced alchemy recipes, and late-game building pieces require well over 1,000 tar total, and you’ll burn through your surplus faster than you think. The third mistake is not marking tar pool locations on your map when you first find them. The Kindlewastes is a huge biome, and it’s easy to lose track of good farming spots if you don’t drop a map pin the first time you find a cluster of pools. I have 4 different tar pool clusters marked on my map, so I can always run to the closest one if I need extra tar in a hurry.
Tar is one of those underrated resources that makes or breaks your progression speed in Enshrouded. You don’t have to spend hours grinding for it if you use the methods that fit your current progression stage, from looting early-game crates to setting up a passive AFK farm for endgame. Whether you’re gearing up for a shroud boss fight or upgrading your base to resist higher tier weather events, knowing how to get tar in Enshrouded will save you hours of frustrating scavenging down the line. If you have a favorite tar farming trick we didn’t mention, drop it in the comments below to help other players out.