There’s nothing worse than spotting a rare Shroud wisp perched on a cliff edge, or an unlooted bandit chest behind a group of armored foes, and realizing you don’t have a single arrow left to pick them off from a safe distance. Melee builds are fun, but ranged combat is the only reliable way to avoid taking unnecessary damage in hard-to-reach areas, and it’s a total game-changer for boss fights. That's why learning how to make arrows enshrouded early on will save you so many frustrating trips back to base when you're halfway through a dungeon. I’ve spent over 45 hours playing almost exclusively as a ranger build, so I’ve tested every arrow type, crafting trick, and resource hack to make the process as painless as possible.
How to Make Arrows in Enshrouded: Basic Early-Game Crafting Steps
You don’t need any special workbenches or unlocked skills to make your first batch of arrows, which is great for brand new players still figuring out the starting plateau. The basic stone arrow recipe is available in your personal crafting menu from the second you spawn into the world, and it only requires three easy-to-find materials: 1 piece of wood, 1 small stone, and 1 feather per arrow. Wood is the easiest to farm, you can get it by chopping small bushes or thin saplings, no axe required if you don’t have one yet. Stones can be picked up off the ground all across the starting area, or mined from small rock outcroppings with a pickaxe if you need a large stock.
Feathers are the only material that might give you trouble at first, but there are a few easy tricks to farm them fast. You can farm feathers easily early on by hanging around the starting plateau's open fields, where sparrows spawn every 2-3 minutes if you stand still for a bit. They don’t fly away unless you get within 10 feet of them, so you can hit them with a single stone axe swing to get 1 feather per bird. If you’re willing to travel a bit south to the first forest biome, turkeys spawn there regularly and drop 2-3 feathers each, though they run faster so you might need to chase them for a few seconds. Stone arrows deal 12 base damage, which is enough to take down early bandits, Shroud scavengers, and even the first Warden boss if you aim for headshots consistently.
Upgraded Arrow Variants to Unlock As You Progress
Once you hit level 5 and start exploring mid-game biomes like the desert and frozen highlands, stone arrows won’t cut it anymore against armored enemies and tanky Shroud elites. You’ll unlock new arrow recipes as you rescue NPCs and upgrade your base workbenches, and each variant has a specific use case that makes it worth crafting. The first upgrade you’ll likely make is iron arrows, which replace the stone in the basic recipe with an iron ingot, and deal 22 base damage. These are your go-to general-use arrow for most mid-game content, and they work just as well for hunting wild game as they do for clearing bandit camps.
Elemental arrows are next on the list, and you’ll unlock their recipes once you rescue the Alchemist NPC and build an Alchemy Bench. Fire arrows are also the cheapest elemental arrow to craft, only requiring 1 pine resin per arrow on top of the base iron arrow recipe. They deal 5 extra fire damage over 3 seconds, which is perfect for burning down wooden barricades in bandit camps, melting ice shields on frost enemies, and dealing extra damage to the Warden boss. Poison arrows cost 1 poison gland each, and they deal 4 damage per tick for 8 seconds, which is ideal for slow, tanky enemies like golems that you don’t want to get close to. Frost arrows add a 30% movement speed slow for 2 seconds, which is a lifesaver against fast enemies like Shroud stalkers that rush you down in open areas. Shock arrows cost 1 crystal shard each, and they stun small enemies for 1 full second, plus deal 2x damage to mechanical enemies like the sentinels in ancient spires.
I used to waste dozens of elemental arrows on regular trash mobs when I first unlocked them, but I quickly learned that saving them for elites and bosses cuts down on resource grind by almost 40%. Stick to iron arrows for regular enemies, and only pull out elemental variants when you’re facing something that will take more than 3 regular shots to kill.
Pro Tips to Save Resources When Crafting Arrows
Crafting hundreds of arrows every week can get resource-heavy, especially when you’re using rare materials like crystal shards and poison glands for elemental variants. I’ve tested dozens of hacks to cut down on grind over my playthrough, and these are the three tricks that made the biggest difference for me:
- Loot every enemy you kill with arrows: 70% of the time, you can retrieve 1-2 of the arrows you shot at them, even if they’re elemental variants. I always run through a fight area after all enemies are dead to pick up stray arrows stuck in corpses or the ground, and I’ve saved hundreds of iron ingots and crystal shards this way over my playthrough.
- Use the skill "Arrow Salvage" from the Ranger skill tree: This skill boosts your arrow retrieval rate to 90% for non-elemental arrows, and 50% for elemental ones. It only costs 2 skill points, so it’s one of the best early investments for any ranged build, and it pays for itself within a few hours of play.
- Only craft the arrows you need for your next trip: Don’t make 500 fire arrows if you’re heading to the frozen highlands, where fire damage is cut in half. Check your destination first, look up what enemies you’ll be facing, and craft 20-30 of the right elemental arrow type, plus 50 basic iron arrows for trash mobs. You’ll waste way fewer rare materials this way.
There are a few other small tricks that add up over time too. If you rescue the Hunter NPC, you can buy feathers and iron ingots from her for cheap gold, which is a great option if you’re swimming in coin from selling extra loot but short on time to grind materials. I also found a cluster of 8 bird nests on a cliff west of the starting base that respawn feathers every in-game day, so I make a point to swing by once every few days to grab 10-12 free feathers without having to hunt any birds. If you build a bird feeder near your base once you unlock the recipe, you’ll get passive feather spawns every in-game hour, which is even easier.
Best Arrow Types for Common Enshrouded Playstyles
You don’t need to craft every single arrow type if they don’t fit the way you play the game. I’ve tested all of them across different playstyles, and these are the combinations that work best for most players: If you’re a casual explorer who mostly wanders around gathering resources, clearing small bandit camps, and building up your base, stick to 70% iron arrows and 30% fire arrows. You won’t need fancy elemental ammo most of the time, and fire arrows are useful for lighting campfires, breaking down wooden storage crates, and scaring off wild animals that attack you while you’re mining. If you’re a dungeon delver who spends most of your time clearing Shroud dungeons and ancient spires for rare loot, prioritize frost and shock arrows. Shock arrows will one-shot most small Shroud mobs, and frost arrows slow down the fast tanky elites that can take you by surprise in tight corridors. I usually bring 30 shock arrows, 20 frost arrows, and 60 iron arrows for every dungeon run, and I almost never run out before I’m ready to head back to base. If you’re a boss hunter who grinds bosses for rare crafting materials and unique gear, bring a mix of poison arrows and whatever arrow type the boss is weak to. For example, the Warden boss is weak to fire, so fire arrows deal 2x damage to him, while the Frost Wyrm is weak to shock. Poison arrows work on almost every boss in the game, and the damage over time adds up fast even if you’re hiding behind cover to avoid boss attacks. I usually bring 100 of the boss’s weak point arrow type, plus 50 iron arrows for any add mobs that spawn during the fight. If you play with a group of friends, you can split up crafting duties to save even more time. Have one player farm wood and feathers, another mine ingots and gather elemental materials, and you can mass produce hundreds of arrows in a fraction of the time it would take to craft alone. We did this for our first group Wyrm fight, and we had more than enough ammo to take it down without anyone having to run back to base mid-fight.
Once you know how to make arrows enshrouded, you'll never get stuck in a fight without ammo again. Don’t overcomplicate it early on, start with basic stone arrows until you’re comfortable with ranged combat, then work your way up to elemental variants as you unlock more recipes and explore harder biomes. Experiment with different arrow types to see what fits your playstyle, and don’t forget to loot your arrows after fights to cut down on unnecessary grind. I used to hate using bows in Enshrouded because I kept running out of ammo halfway through trips, but now it’s my favorite way to play, and I barely ever touch my melee weapons anymore. Next time you head out to explore, pack a few extra arrows, you’ll be glad you did.