When I first spawned into my Enshrouded playthrough, I spent nearly 20 minutes punching tall grass and small bushes to scrounge up enough plant fiber for my first bandages and torch. It was slow, tedious, and I kept getting jumped by low-level Shroud creatures while I was focused on harvesting. All that frustration ended the second I figured out how to make a rake enshrouded. This unassuming early-game tool cuts resource gathering time for plant-based materials by nearly 70%, and it’s one of the first items I craft every time I start a new world. Even 50 hours into my endgame base build, I still keep a spare rake in my hotbar for quick cleanup jobs.
What You Need Before You Make a Rake in Enshrouded
The great news is you don’t need any advanced progression or rare materials to craft your first rake. You can get everything you need within 10 minutes of waking up in the starting cave, as long as you follow the basic tutorial steps first. The only prerequisite crafting station is the basic level 1 workbench, which you unlock immediately after collecting your first stone axe from the tutorial chest.
Before you head to the workbench, gather these three core materials: 6 pieces of rough wood, which you can get by hitting small saplings or fallen branches around the starting meadow with your stone axe. You don’t need to cut down full-grown trees for this, so you can save your axe durability for bigger builds later. 3 pieces of crushed stone, collected by hitting the small loose grey rocks scattered across grassy areas. Don’t waste time hitting large boulders, as those require a pickaxe to break and won’t drop the light stone you need for this recipe. 2 strands of plant fiber, which you can get by punching a few patches of tall grass before you craft your rake. You only need a tiny amount, so you won’t have to spend more than a minute gathering this.
You don’t need any special skills or NPC unlocks for this recipe. It’s available to all players immediately after they place their first workbench, no matter what progression path you choose to take first. That means even if you’re rushing to unlock the Flame Altar first, you can still pop this tool together in seconds between tasks.
Step-by-Step Process to Craft Your First Rake
Once you have all your materials gathered, head to your placed workbench and interact with it to pull up the crafting menu. A lot of new players make the mistake of looking for the rake in their personal survival crafting menu, but it only shows up in the workbench interface, so don’t waste time scrolling through your personal inventory looking for it.
First, navigate to the “Tools” tab in the workbench menu. It’s the third icon from the left, shaped like a small claw hammer, and it’s separate from the weapons and building materials tabs. Scroll down past the stone axe, stone pickaxe, and torch options until you see the rake listed. If you have all the required materials, the icon will be fully colored in; if it’s greyed out, double check that you have enough of each material in your inventory.
Click the craft button once to make a single rake, or hold it down to craft multiple at once. You can craft multiple rakes at once if you want spares, since each rake only lasts around 15 minutes of continuous use. Keeping a spare in your base chest means you won’t have to run around gathering materials again when your first one breaks mid-harvest.
Once crafted, the rake will automatically be added to the first open slot in your hotbar if you have space. If your hotbar is full, it will go into your main inventory, so you’ll need to drag it to a hotbar slot to use it quickly. I like to test mine immediately on a nearby patch of grass to make sure it works, just to avoid any surprises later when I’m in the middle of a big harvest run.
Best Ways to Use Your Rake for Maximum Efficiency
The rake is designed specifically for plant-based harvesting and light debris clearing, and it does those jobs far faster than any other early-game tool. Using it on the right tasks will save you hours of grinding over the course of your playthrough, while using it on the wrong tasks will waste its durability in seconds.
These are the most useful ways to use your rake in both early and late game:
- Harvesting large patches of tall grass for plant fiber to make bandages, torches, and woven building materials. A single swing of the rake can harvest 3-4 grass patches at once, compared to one per punch or axe swing.
- Clearing small bushes and weeds from flat land before you place foundation blocks for your base. It removes small vegetation in one hit, so you don’t have to spend time picking each individual weed by hand.
- Collecting grass seeds to plant a farm plot for steady food and fiber supplies later in the game. The rake has a 30% higher chance to drop seeds than punching grass, so you’ll fill your seed inventory much faster.
- Picking low-growing berries without having to switch tools between harvests. You can collect berries and clear surrounding grass in the same swing, which cuts down foraging time by half.
Don't waste your rake durability on cutting down trees or mining stone, it does less than 10% of the damage of a stone axe or pickaxe to those resources, and you’ll burn through a brand new rake in 2-3 hits. I made that mistake my first playthrough, and I had to run all the way back to base to craft a new axe after I broke my only rake trying to cut down a pine tree.
If you’re playing co-op with friends, assign one person to use the rake to gather fiber and seeds while the rest of your group mines stone and cuts wood. You’ll be able to gather all the materials for your first base and set of tools twice as fast as you would if everyone was gathering random resources on their own.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Making and Using Your Rake
Even though the rake is a simple tool, a lot of new players make avoidable mistakes that waste materials and time. I’ve seen players skip crafting a rake entirely for their first 5 hours of play, because they didn’t realize how much time it would save them, or use it incorrectly and think it’s not worth the effort.
One of the most common mistakes is keeping your rake in the same hotbar slots as your combat tools. If you’re in a fight with a Shroud creature or a wild wolf, you might accidentally pull out your rake instead of your sword, which will get you killed almost instantly. Assign your rake to the 7th or 8th hotbar slot, far away from your sword, bow, and healing items, so you don’t mix them up during tense moments.
Another mistake is throwing away nearly broken rakes instead of repairing them. You can repair a rake with 1 piece of rough wood and 1 piece of crushed stone at any workbench, which is way cheaper than crafting a new one from scratch. Early game when resources are tight, that small saving adds up fast, especially if you use your rake often.
You also don’t need to upgrade your rake to iron or steel versions later in the game. The basic stone rake works exactly as well for harvesting plant materials as higher tier versions, so you don’t have to waste rare iron or steel bars on an upgrade that gives you no real benefit. Save those rare metals for upgrading your weapons, armor, and building tools instead. The only time you might want a higher tier rake is if you want one that lasts longer, but even then, it’s usually cheaper to just craft a handful of stone rakes to keep in your inventory.
The rake isn’t the flashiest tool in Enshrouded, but it’s one of the most impactful quality of life upgrades you can get in the early game. It takes less than five minutes to gather the materials and craft it, and it will save you hours of tedious grinding over the course of your playthrough. Now that you know how to make a rake enshrouded, you can skip the frustrating phase of punching grass and get straight to building your dream base, exploring the Shroud, and tackling the game’s harder content without wasting time on mindless harvesting.