Enshrouded’s open-world survival loop relies heavily on unlocking the right crafting tools at the right time, and few early-game items are as game-changing as the mortar. I spent three hours wandering the Springlands my first playthrough, digging through random chests and killing low-level mobs hoping to find it as loot, before I realized I was approaching the process completely wrong. If you’re stuck wondering how to get the mortar enshrouded, this guide breaks down every step you need to follow, no vague hints or hidden hoops to jump through. We’ll cover unlock requirements, fast material farming spots, top uses for the tool, and common mistakes to avoid so you can add it to your inventory in under 10 minutes.
How to Get the Mortar in Enshrouded: Core Unlock Requirements
First, let’s clear up the biggest misconception new players have: the mortar is never available as random loot in chests, enemy drops, or hidden stashes across the map. You can't craft the mortar before rescuing the Carpenter NPC, so your first priority is completing the early main quest that sends you to locate his hidden vault. The vault is located in the low-level shroud zone just west of the Springlands starting camp, and you only need basic copper-tier gear and a full torch to clear the mobs inside.
Once you free the Carpenter and place his workstation at your base, the mortar crafting recipe will unlock automatically in your workbench menu. The materials required to craft it are extremely low-effort to farm, even for brand new players: 4 pieces of stone, 1 iron bar, and 2 pieces of rough wood. If you’ve been exploring the starting area for even an hour, you probably already have most of these materials in your storage chest.
When you have all materials gathered, just interact with the Carpenter’s workbench and select the mortar from the crafting menu to make it instantly, no wait time or extra quests required. You can craft as many as you want after that, though we’ll cover later why you probably don’t need more than two total for your entire playthrough.
Best Locations to Farm Mortar Crafting Materials Fast
If you don’t already have the required materials on hand, these high-yield farming spots will let you gather everything you need in under five minutes, no dangerous shroud exposure or high-level mob fights required. The rocky outcrops directly north of the Ancient Spire in the Springlands have 30+ stone nodes within a two-minute run of the fast travel point, and almost no hostile mobs spawn in the area, so you can mine without interruptions. A copper pickaxe will break each node in two hits, so you’ll have more than enough stone for multiple mortars in just a couple of minutes.
For the iron bar, head to the small cave system just east of the Carpenter’s vault. The cave has 25+ iron ore nodes, all inside a low-level shroud zone that gives you 12 full minutes of exploration time before your timer runs out. Smelt the ore at your base furnace to get the single iron bar you need, and you can save any extra ore for early weapon or armor upgrades if you want. Harvesting pine trees around the starter base gives 2x more wood per swing than smaller bushes, so you can stock up on enough wood for 10 mortars in five minutes if you prioritize taller pine trees over small underbrush.
If you’re playing co-op with friends, split up to farm materials even faster. One player can mine stone, another can gather iron ore, and a third can harvest wood, and you’ll have everything you need for a mortar in under two minutes total instead of 10 playing solo. There’s no benefit to waiting to craft the mortar, so we recommend making it as soon as you rescue the Carpenter to unlock all its benefits early.
Top Uses for the Mortar Once You Craft It
Most new players assume the mortar is only useful for building upgrades, but it’s actually a core tool for progressing almost every part of the game, from main quests to combat to farming. I didn’t realize how critical it was until I hit a main quest roadblock where I couldn’t reach the Blacksmith NPC without grenades that require the mortar to craft. These are the most useful ways to use the mortar once you have it:
- Advanced building components: Mix stone and sand with the mortar to make cobblestone blocks, which have 3x more durability than basic wood walls and are completely fireproof, perfect for building bases in high-threat zones near volcanoes or dragon spawns. You’ll also need cobblestone to build tier 2 storage chests that hold 2x more items than basic wood chests.
- Explosive crafting: Combine mortar with sulfur and coal to make basic grenades, which are the only early-game way to break through cracked rock walls hiding rare loot vaults and hidden NPCs like the Blacksmith and Alchemist. Grenades are also extremely effective against groups of shroud mobs, so they’re great for clearing out dungeon areas fast.
- Farming infrastructure: Use mortar to craft raised planter boxes that let you grow food in any biome, even the harsh desert regions where normal soil can’t support crops. You can grow healing herbs, cooking ingredients, and even crafting materials like cotton in these boxes, so you don’t have to travel across the map to restock supplies.
- Station upgrades: You’ll need 2 mortars to upgrade your workbench to tier 3, which unlocks all mid-game weapon and armor recipes to take on harder shroud zones in the Nomad Highlands. You’ll also need mortar to upgrade your furnace to smelt higher tier metals like steel and gold later in the game.
The mortar is also required to craft repair kits for stone buildings, so you won’t have to rebuild entire walls after a mob attack if you keep a stack of repair kits handy. I keep a few extra repair kits in my inventory whenever I’m exploring far from my base, just in case I need to fix up a temporary outpost after a mob raid.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Unlocking the Mortar
After playing through Enshrouded three times with different groups, I’ve seen the same handful of mistakes slow down new players trying to unlock the mortar. First, don’t skip the Carpenter quest to explore higher level zones first. A lot of new players rush to the Nomad Highlands early to get better loot, but without the mortar, you can’t build a durable stone base there, so you’ll end up losing all your progress when high-level mobs destroy your wood base overnight. Always prioritize rescuing the Carpenter within your first 2 hours of play to avoid this headache.
Second, don’t waste all your early iron bars on low-tier weapons and armor before crafting the mortar. You only need 1 iron bar for the mortar, but if you use all your first iron bars to make swords and chest plates, you’ll have to spend an extra hour farming ore just to unlock the recipe. You can get perfectly usable copper weapons from early chests that work fine for the first few hours of play, so save your first iron bar for the mortar first.
Third, don’t craft more than 2 mortars at once. You only need 1 for your main base and 1 for any secondary outpost you build in a faraway biome. Extra mortars take up valuable inventory space and can’t be sold for a meaningful amount of gold, so don’t waste materials making more than you need. If you lose your mortar somehow (like if your base gets completely destroyed in a raid), you can craft a new one any time at the Carpenter’s station, no need to redo the unlock quest.
At the end of the day, figuring out how to get the mortar enshrouded is way simpler than most new players expect, as long as you follow the main quest to rescue the Carpenter first and farm your materials in the high-yield spots we covered. It’s one of the most underrated early-game items in the game, and unlocking it as soon as possible will make every part of your playthrough smoother, from building to combat to quest progression. I still keep a spare mortar in my storage chest just in case I need to build a quick outpost in a new biome, and it’s saved me dozens of hours of travel time back to my main base. If you have your own favorite uses for the mortar, drop them in the comments below to help other players out.