If you’ve spent 20 minutes mining copper ore only to lose all of it because you died to a Shroud creature and couldn’t recover your grave in time, you know how frustrating Enshrouded’s limited starting inventory can be. Figuring out how to make a chest in Enshrouded is one of the first quality-of-life upgrades you can unlock, and it takes way less work than you might think. I remember ignoring storage for the first three hours of my playthrough, and I ended up tossing rare crafting materials left and right just to make room for healing potions. Don’t make that same mistake. The game gives you almost no guidance on storage early on, so a lot of new players end up hoarding everything in their inventory or dropping items they think they won’t need, only to realize later that they need those exact items to unlock a new crafting station or complete a quest. That’s exactly what happened to me when I tossed 10 units of bone dust early on, only to find out I needed it to make fire arrows for the first boss fight. I had to spend 45 minutes killing skeletons just to get back what I’d thrown away, all because I didn’t have a chest to store extra materials. This guide will walk you through every step, from unlocking the recipe to picking the best spots to place your chests for maximum convenience.
What You Need to Make a Chest in Enshrouded
Before you can craft your first chest, you’ll need to tick a few simple prerequisite boxes first. The chest recipe unlocks automatically once you build your first Workbench, which is part of the early base building quest line you get right after you place your first Flame Altar. You can only build chests within the protected boundary of an active Flame Altar, so make sure your base is properly set up before you start gathering materials.
The only materials you need for a basic chest are 8 Wood Logs and 2 Resin. Wood Logs are super easy to get, just punch any small tree or use a basic axe for faster farming. You don’t need a fancy stone axe to get enough for your first chest, even the flimsy starting axe works if you don’t mind a few extra swings. Resin drops randomly when you cut down trees, especially pine trees found in the northern starting area. If you’re struggling to find resin, try cutting down the taller, darker pine trees near the first Shroud area you encounter. They have a much higher drop rate for resin than the small birch trees near the starting spawn point. You can also sometimes find resin in random loot crates scattered around abandoned camps, so keep an eye out for those as you explore.
Step-by-Step Crafting Process for Your First Chest
Crafting a chest is straightforward once you have all the required materials and prerequisites sorted. You can have your first storage unit set up in under five minutes, even if you’re still learning the game’s crafting system. If you don’t see the Basic Chest option in your Workbench menu, double check that you’ve completed the early “Build a Workbench” quest given by the first NPC you rescue. The recipe unlocks automatically as soon as you place your first Workbench, but if you skipped the quest steps, it might not show up right away. You can also unlock the recipe by picking up 8 wood logs, so if you haven’t already, just chop a couple trees and the recipe should pop up in your crafting menu.
Follow these simple steps to craft and place your first chest:
- Open your Workbench interface by interacting with the station at your base
- Navigate to the Storage tab in the crafting menu, located next to the Tools and Weapons tabs
- Select the Basic Chest option from the list, then confirm the craft if you have all required materials
- Pick a flat spot within your Flame Altar’s coverage area to place the finished chest
That’s all there is to it. Each basic chest holds 36 inventory slots, which is almost double the 20 slots you get in your starting personal inventory. If you’re playing with friends, you can mark chests as public or private too, so you don’t have to worry about a teammate accidentally taking your rare upgrade materials. I usually place at least two chests right next to my Workbench when I start a new playthrough, one for raw materials and one for finished consumables like potions and food. It cuts down on time spent rummaging through inventory when I’m mid-crafting session.
Pro Tips for Optimizing Your Enshrouded Storage Setup
Even if you know how to make a chest in Enshrouded, optimizing where you place them and how you organize them makes a huge difference in your overall gameplay experience. Don’t just stick to basic chests once you progress further in the game. You can unlock reinforced chests later that hold 64 slots each, and they’re more resistant to damage if stray creatures wander close to your base. You won’t need those until you’re 10 or more hours into the game, but it’s good to keep the upgrade in mind as you collect more rare materials.
Label your chests as soon as you place them—the game lets you add custom names to each storage unit, so you don’t have to open every single one to find the iron ore you need for a new pickaxe. I’ve got separate chests for building materials, crafting reagents, armor, weapons, and food, and it saves me at least 10 minutes of wasted time every play session. You can also place chests right next to your smelters and forges, so you can store the metal bars you smelt directly without having to carry them back to your main storage area. I have a small storage unit next to each of my crafting stations, so I never have to run across my base to grab materials for a specific craft. That small change cut my crafting time in half almost immediately.
Also, don’t place chests too close to the edge of your Flame Altar’s boundary. If you upgrade your Flame Altar later and expand your base, that’s not a big deal, but if you forget to refill your Flame Altar’s fuel supply, any chests outside the protected area can be destroyed by Shroud corruption. That’s a mistake I made once early on, and I lost 50 units of iron ore I’d spent an hour mining. So place your most valuable storage closer to the Flame Altar itself for extra safety. Another tip: If you’re building an outpost far from your main base, always place at least one chest there. You can store extra healing items and tools in it, so you don’t have to make the long trip back to your main base every time your inventory fills up.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Making Chests in Enshrouded
There are a few small mistakes that can turn your storage setup from a convenient quality-of-life upgrade to a major frustration, and most new players make at least one of them in their first playthrough. First, don’t waste rare materials on basic chests when you’re first starting out. You don’t need stone or metal to make your first storage units, wood and resin are more than enough for early game. A lot of new players think they need to build higher tier storage right away, but basic chests work perfectly fine for the first 10 to 15 hours of gameplay.
Don’t stack chests too high if you’re playing on a controller, because you might not be able to reach the top ones to open them. The game lets you stack up to three chests vertically, but I only ever stack two, so I don’t have to jump every time I want to grab something from the top unit. Another mistake I see a lot of new players make is placing chests in areas that flood when it rains. Enshrouded has dynamic weather, and if you place a chest in a low lying area near a river, it can get submerged and you won’t be able to open it until the water recedes. Always place chests on raised ground or on wooden platforms to avoid this issue. It’s a small detail, but it can save you a lot of frustration when you need a healing potion right before a big fight and your only supply is trapped under water.
Also, don’t leave all your most valuable items in a single chest. If you’re playing on a PvE server this isn’t a huge risk, but if you’re on a PvP server, or if a bug wipes a chest’s inventory (it’s rare, but it does happen), you don’t want to lose all your rare Shroud fragments or legendary weapons in one go. Spread your most precious items across 2 or 3 different chests to minimize risk. Another common mistake: Forgetting that chests count towards your base’s build limit. You get more build slots as you upgrade your Flame Altar, but if you spam 50 chests early on, you might not have enough slots left to build new crafting stations or base decorations. Stick to only as many chests as you actually need, and upgrade to higher capacity ones when you can to save space.
At the end of the day, learning how to make a chest in Enshrouded is one of the simplest yet most impactful upgrades you can make to your early game experience. It eliminates the stress of managing a tiny inventory, lets you save rare materials you’ll need later in the game, and makes your entire base feel more organized. You don’t need any fancy gear or high level unlocks to build your first storage unit, so if you haven’t already, grab a few logs and some resin the next time you log in, and build that first chest. You’ll wonder how you ever played without it.