If you’ve ever tried to smelt a large batch of iron ingots for your first fortified base or upgrade your Flame Altar to level 3, you’ve probably hit a wall when you run out of coal powder. I wasted three hours running around the Revelwood biome last month trying to figure out how to make coal powder in Enshrouded, because I kept skipping over the required crafting station I needed to unlock first. This guide breaks down every step you need, from gathering raw materials to optimizing your farming run so you never run out of this essential resource mid-project again.
What You Need First to Make Coal Powder in Enshrouded
Before you can start crafting coal powder consistently, you need to check off a few key prerequisites that many new players miss. I skipped the Mortar and Pestle unlock on my first playthrough, and I spent way too long selling excess coal to vendors thinking I couldn’t turn it into powder. Don’t make that mistake.
- Rescue the Alchemist NPC from the Ancient Vault in the western part of the Revelwood biome to unlock the Mortar and Pestle crafting recipe
- Build a Mortar and Pestle using 5 stone, 2 wood, and 1 iron ingot, and place it anywhere in your base or outpost
- Gather at least 1 piece of raw coal, which you can find in underground caves, surface coal outcrops, and loot chests across all biomes
You don’t need any special perks or high-level Flame Altar upgrades to make coal powder, which makes it accessible as soon as you hit mid-game. The only common roadblock is forgetting to unlock the Alchemist first, since most new players focus on rescuing the Blacksmith and Hunter first. If you haven’t found the Alchemist yet, follow the main quest line that points you toward the Revelwood area, and you’ll run into his vault within 30 minutes of exploring. You can’t craft coal powder at a regular workbench or Charcoal Kiln, even if you have all the raw materials on hand. That’s the number one mistake I see new players make when they first try to make this resource.
Where to Farm Raw Coal Fast for Coal Powder
Not all coal farming spots are created equal, and some locations let you stock up on hundreds of pieces of coal in less than an hour of play time. My go-to spot for early mid-game farming is the abandoned mine network northeast of the first starting Flame Altar. There are 12 surface coal nodes right at the mine entrance, so you don’t even have to go deep into the shroud or fight high-level enemies to gather them. They respawn every 10 minutes if you fast travel back to your main base and return, so you can loop this route as many times as you need.
For players who have unlocked the Revelwood biome, the cave system right next to the Alchemist’s vault has 28 coal nodes scattered throughout its first two levels. I usually pair coal runs here with sulfur farming for bombs, since there are also 15 sulfur nodes in the deeper part of the cave. If you’re in the late game, the Kindlewastes biome has coal nodes mixed in with obsidian and iron nodes, so you can farm three high-demand resources in a single run. The most efficient coal farming route only takes 15 minutes per run and yields over 80 pieces of raw coal, which translates to 80 coal powder, enough to smelt 240 iron ingots or power 10 upgraded furnaces for an hour. I always bring a pickaxe with the +15% mining speed perk and eat a stamina-boosting stew before runs to cut down on travel and farming time even more.
Step-by-Step Process to Craft Coal Powder
Once you have all your prerequisites sorted and a stack of raw coal ready, the actual crafting process is almost too simple. Walk up to your Mortar and Pestle and interact with it to pull up the crafting menu. Navigate to the Refined Resources tab, and you’ll see coal powder listed near the top, right next to bonemeal and alchemical dust. Each piece of raw coal crafts into one coal powder, with no extra ingredients or fuel required. You can craft one piece at a time, or select the “craft all” option to turn your entire stack of coal into powder in one go.
There is no crafting time for coal powder, so you'll get all your pieces immediately as soon as you confirm the craft. That's a huge difference from other refined resources like ingots, which take time to smelt in a furnace. If you do a lot of remote building or outpost construction, you can also craft a portable Mortar and Pestle to carry in your inventory, so you can turn coal into powder on the spot without traveling back to your main base. You can also get small amounts of coal powder as a reward for completing Alchemist side quests, but it's never enough to cover regular use, so crafting it yourself is always the better option. Once you get the hang of how to make coal powder in Enshrouded, you’ll wonder how you ever played without a steady stock of it. I keep a dedicated chest next to my furnace array with at least 200 coal powder stocked at all times, so I never run out mid-smelting run.
Best Uses for Coal Powder in Your Enshrouded Playthrough
A lot of new players only use coal powder for smelting ingots, but it has far more uses that make it worth farming in bulk. First and foremost, it’s the only fuel that works for upgraded furnaces and smelters, which run 50% faster than basic furnaces and use half the fuel of raw coal. If you’re crafting large amounts of iron or steel for base building, using coal powder will cut your smelting time in half and save you hours of waiting for resources to process.
You also need coal powder to craft explosive bombs, which are essential for clearing large shroud patches, breaking open sealed Ancient Vault doors, and taking out groups of high-level enemies quickly. I usually keep 20 bombs in my inventory at all times for unexpected shroud obstacles, and each bomb takes 2 coal powder to craft. Coal powder is also a required material for upgrading your Flame Altar from level 3 to level 4, which unlocks the ability to build in the highest level shroud zones in the Kindlewastes biome. If you like customizing your builds and armor, you can also use coal powder to craft black dye, which is one of the most popular dyes for dark, fortified base designs. If you plan on building any large-scale base with metal building parts, you’ll need at least 500 coal powder to smelt all the required iron and steel ingots, so it's worth stocking up early instead of farming last minute. On multiplayer servers, coal powder is also a really valuable trade good; I usually trade stacks of 100 coal powder for rare items like Ancient Seeds or Shroud Cores that take way longer to farm on my own.
At the end of the day, figuring out how to make coal powder in Enshrouded is one of the most useful mid-game unlocks that makes every part of your playthrough smoother. You don't need any fancy gear or high-level upgrades to start crafting it, just a little bit of time to unlock the Alchemist and farm some coal nodes. Next time you're running low on fuel for your furnaces or need materials for your Flame Altar upgrade, follow the steps in this guide and you'll have a full stock of coal powder in no time.