If you’ve spent your first few hours in Enshrouded running from Shroud wraiths and scavenging for basic twigs and stone, you’ve probably hit a wall where stone tools just don’t cut it anymore. Copper bars are the first major crafting material that lets you upgrade from primitive gear to durable weapons, better building parts, and essential workstations that unlock even more advanced recipes. This guide breaks down exactly how to make copper bar in Enshrouded, plus little tricks I picked up during my first 20 hours of playthrough to skip the most frustrating parts of the process.
What You Need Before You Can Make Copper Bars in Enshrouded
Before you even think about smelting ore, there are a few non-negotiable prerequisites you have to check off your list first. I see a lot of new players spawn in, find a copper vein, and get confused when they can’t turn the ore into usable bars right away, so don’t skip these steps. First, you must rescue the Blacksmith NPC first from the small Forgotten Ruin west of your starting Cinder Vault. This is a low-level quest that only takes 15 to 20 minutes to complete, and unlocking the Blacksmith gives you access to the Smelter recipe, which is the only workstation that can process copper ore into bars. You can’t use the regular campfire or basic Furnace for this, so this step is non-negotiable. Next, you’ll need to craft the Smelter itself. The recipe calls for 30 stone, 10 pieces of wood, and 3 pieces of rope, all materials you can find within 10 minutes of your starting base. Place the Smelter anywhere inside your claimed base area, as it won’t work if it’s left unclaimed or exposed to the Shroud. When it comes to materials, each copper bar requires 2 raw copper ore and 1 piece of charcoal to craft. The smelting process takes about 10 seconds per bar, so you can stack up dozens of ore and charcoal to run the Smelter while you’re off doing other tasks around your base or exploring. Last, a stone pickaxe or higher is required to mine copper veins. You can make a stone pickaxe with 5 stone and 2 wood at your basic workbench, and it’ll mine copper veins in about 3 to 4 hits per node. Copper pickaxes work even faster, but you won’t have access to those until you make your first few bars anyway. Once you have all these prerequisites lined up, you're ready to start the process of how to make copper bar in Enshrouded without any delays.
Best Locations to Farm Raw Copper Ore Fast
You don’t have to wander deep into high-level Shroud zones to find plenty of copper ore, despite what many new players assume. The best early-game spots are all within a 5-minute run of the starting Cinder Vault, so you won’t have to fight tough enemies or worry about your Shroud corruption timer running out while you farm. The most reliable spot is the ridgeline west of the starting base area, right before the edge of the first low-level Shroud zone. The rocks here have clusters of copper veins scattered across the surface, and you can collect 40 to 50 ore in a single 10-minute run if you know what to look for. Copper veins have a unique rust-colored glow in direct sunlight that makes them stand out from regular grey stone, so scan the tops of ridgelines as you run instead of staring at the ground to find them faster. If you’re comfortable dipping a little way into the Shroud, the shallow cave systems just inside the Shroud edge have even higher concentrations of copper, with nodes that drop 3 to 4 ore per hit instead of the usual 2. Just make sure you bring a few extra torches to keep your corruption timer low, and don’t go deeper than 20 or 30 feet into the caves until you have better gear. I’ve put together a few quick tips to make copper farming even faster:
- Mark copper vein locations on your map as soon as you spot them, so you don't have to search again when you need more ore later. Nodes respawn every 10 to 15 minutes, so you can loop the same route over and over if you need a lot of bars fast.
- Bring a torch with you if you're farming near Shroud edges, as the fog makes it harder to spot the reddish copper tint on rocks. You can also hold your torch out while mining to keep corruption from building up too fast if you’re near the Shroud border.
- Prioritize veins that are above ground first, as underground copper deposits are often guarded by low-level Shroud creatures that can catch you off guard early on. You can clear those caves later once you have copper weapons if you want a more consistent farming spot.
How to Craft Charcoal for Smelting Copper Bars
Charcoal is one of those materials a lot of new players forget they need until they’re standing in front of their Smelter with a pile of copper ore and nothing to burn. You can’t use regular raw wood or refined wood planks in the Smelter, so you’ll need to make charcoal first in a Charcoal Kiln. You unlock the Charcoal Kiln recipe almost immediately after you place your first workbench, so you probably already have one sitting around your base without realizing it. It only costs 20 stone and 5 wood to craft, so make two or three of them if you plan on smelting a lot of copper at once. To make charcoal, just put raw wood into the Charcoal Kiln and wait 5 seconds per piece. Each piece of raw wood turns into one piece of charcoal, so if you’re smelting 20 copper bars, you’ll need 20 pieces of charcoal, which only takes a minute to make if you have a stockpile of wood. Don't waste your refined wood planks on charcoal, stick to raw, unprocessed wood you pick up from chopping small trees or picking up fallen branches around your base. Refined planks are better used for building parts and advanced workstations, so save those for higher-priority projects. If you’re running low on wood, the area around your starting base has hundreds of small pine trees that only take one hit with a stone axe to chop down, so you can collect 50 pieces of wood in less than 5 minutes. You can also get extra wood as a bonus drop when you mine stone nodes, so keep an eye out for that while you’re farming copper.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Making Copper Bars
Even with all the right materials, it’s easy to waste time or resources if you’re making the same mistakes most new players do when they first start smelting copper. I made all of these during my first playthrough, so I can tell you exactly what to skip to save yourself hours of extra grinding. The first mistake is trying to smelt copper in a regular Furnace instead of a Smelter. The Furnace is only used for cooking food and making stone bricks, so it won’t process ore at all. I spent 10 minutes staring at my Furnace wondering why my copper ore wouldn’t smelt my first time playing, so don’t make that same error. Another common mistake is using your first few copper bars on decorative building parts instead of essential tools. Copper pickaxes mine stone and ore 50% faster than stone pickaxes, and copper swords deal twice as much damage as stone swords, so you should always make those first. I wasted 12 copper bars on copper roof tiles my first playthrough, and had to spend an extra hour farming ore just to make a better pickaxe, so save the decorative stuff for later when you have a surplus of bars. You also don’t want to farm copper without marking your favorite spots on the map. Nodes respawn consistently, so if you find a route that gives you 50 ore in 10 minutes, you can use that same route for the entire early game instead of wandering around looking for new veins every time you need more ore. Finally, don’t run your Smelter for only one or two bars at a time. It’s way more efficient to stack up 50 or 60 ore and charcoal and let the Smelter run while you’re off exploring or completing quests, so you don’t have to check back every 10 seconds to add more materials.
Copper bars are the backbone of your early to mid-game progression in Enshrouded, and getting the hang of making them fast will save you hours of grinding later on. Whether you're gearing up to take on your first major Shroud boss, unlocking new NPCs, or expanding your base to hold more storage and workstations, knowing how to make copper bar in Enshrouded is one of the first core skills every new player should master. Take the tips we covered here, and you'll have a full stack of copper bars sitting in your chest before you know it, with none of the frustration that comes with learning the hard way.