If you've spent your first few hours in Enshrouded running around hunting for scrap metal and stone to craft basic tools, you've probably hit a wall when you try to upgrade your gear to the next tier. Tin ore is the first mid-tier crafting material you'll need to make bronze tools, armor, and building upgrades, and learning how to get tin ore in Enshrouded is non-negotiable if you want to progress past the early starting areas. I’ve spent 40+ hours testing different routes and locations to farm this resource, and I’ve cut out all the bad spots so you don't waste time wandering the shroud or fighting enemies you aren't ready for.
What You Need Before You Start Farming Tin Ore
First, you don't need super high level gear to farm tin, but there are a few basics that will make your run way smoother. You need at least a stone pickaxe to mine tin ore nodes, so make sure you’ve crafted one before you leave your base. You’ll also want to have 2-3 healing berries or a basic health potion on hand, because most tin locations are near low-level shroud zones or patrolling wolf packs. I also recommend bringing a bedroll to set a temporary spawn point near your farming route, so you don't have to run all the way back from your main base if you get taken out by a surprise Shroud Wraith.
How to Get Tin Ore in Enshrouded: Top 3 Safe, Low-Level Locations
Most tin ore nodes spawn in the forest regions west and north of the starting Cinder Vault, and you won't have to go deep into high-level shroud areas to get all you need. I tested 12 different spawn clusters, and these three are the best for new players with low-tier gear:
- Western Bluff Cliffs: This small cliffside area is 2 minutes west of the first Cinder Vault, and has 7 tin nodes packed into a tiny space. There are only 2 patrolling wolves here, so you can either sneak past them or take them out easily with a stone bow. No shroud here, so you don't have to worry about your timer running out mid-mine.
- Northern River Bank: Follow the river north from your starting base until you hit the first small shroud zone on the east bank. The tin nodes here spawn right on the edge of the shroud, so you can mine them without stepping into the fog at all. There are 12 nodes spread along a 30-second run of the bank, so you can farm 20+ tin ore in one run if you hit all of them.
- Abandoned Logging Camp Perimeter: The logging camp is a common early quest spot, and the hills around it have 9 tin nodes scattered between trees. The only enemies here are level 2 scavengers, which you can take out with one hit from a stone axe if you get the jump on them.
All of these spots respawn nodes every 10 minutes, so you can loop them as many times as you need if you're stocking up for a big crafting project. I usually bring 2 empty stack slots when I run these routes, and I leave with enough tin to make 3 bronze tools and a full set of bronze armor in 20 minutes flat.
Advanced Tin Ore Farming Tips to Cut Down Your Run Time
If you've already unlocked a few glider upgrades or better gear, you can speed up your tin farming even more with a few simple tricks. Always mine tin nodes with a pickaxe with the mining speed perk if you have one, because it cuts mining time per node by almost 30%. I found a common pickaxe with this perk from a random scavenger drop early on, and it cut my full route time from 20 minutes to 14. You can also bring a glider to jump off the Western Bluff Cliffs straight to the Northern River Bank, which cuts the travel time between the two spots by 75% compared to running.
One thing to avoid: Don't waste time mining tin nodes deep inside shroud zones unless you're already there for a quest. The extra shroud timer pressure isn't worth the 1 or 2 extra nodes you'll find, and you're far more likely to run into a high level wraith that will kill you and make you drop all your ore. Never carry more than 50 tin ore at a time if you're running long routes, either. If you die, you'll lose all the ore you're carrying unless you can run back to your body before it despawns, so it's safer to drop off stacks at your temporary bedroll spawn every time you hit 40-50 ore.
What to Do With Tin Ore Once You've Farmed It
Tin ore isn't useful on its own, so you'll need to smelt it first at a smelter to turn it into tin bars. You'll need 2 tin ore to make one tin bar, and you can combine tin bars with copper bars to make bronze, which is the material you'll use for most of your mid-tier upgrades. The first thing you should craft with your first 10 tin bars is a bronze pickaxe, because it lets you mine even higher tier materials like iron ore later on, and it mines tin nodes twice as fast as a stone pickaxe.
You can also use tin bars to make better cooking stations, storage chests, and reinforced building parts that are more resistant to raider attacks. If you end up with extra tin ore after you've crafted all the gear you need, you can store it for later, because you'll need small amounts of it for a lot of late-game crafting recipes too. A lot of new players sell their extra tin to traders early on, but that's a mistake. You'll regret it when you need 15 tin bars to build your first alchemy station 10 hours later.
You don't need to spend hours grinding or fight tough bosses to stock up on this essential mid-tier material, and once you know the best routes, learning how to get tin ore in Enshrouded takes less time than you think. Start with the low-level locations first if you're a new player, grab the basic prep gear we recommended, and you'll have enough bronze gear to take on the first main story dungeon in no time. If you find a better spawn spot we didn't mention, feel free to drop it in the comments below to help other players out.