I remember my first week playing Enshrouded, I spent three hours chasing rabbits around the starting meadow just to get enough Raw Hide for a single piece of padded armor. I had no idea I could get three times as much hide from a single deer, and I wasted most of a gaming session for no reason. If you’re stuck trying to figure out how to make leather in Enshrouded, this guide breaks down every step, from unlocking the required workstation to avoiding the mistakes that cost me so much time early on. Leather is one of the most versatile early to mid-game resources, so getting a steady production line going will make every part of your playthrough smoother.
What You Need Before You Can Make Leather in Enshrouded
You can’t craft leather right out of the starting pod, so you’ll need to hit a few small milestones first. The first requirement is rescuing the Hunter NPC from the small Shroud vault located just north of the starting Cindervault. She’s guarded by a few low-level Shroud creatures, so bring a stone club and a couple of healing berries to make the fight easy. Once you bring her back to your base, she’ll give you the recipe for the Tanning Station, the only workstation that lets you turn Raw Hide into leather.
To build the basic Tanning Station, you’ll need 10 Wood, 5 Metal Scraps, and 2 Flint, all easy to find in the starting meadow area. Upgrading your Tanning Station early will save you dozens of hours of farming in the long run. Once you unlock the Carpenter NPC, you can upgrade the station to cut crafting time in half and use 20% less Raw Hide per piece of leather. You won't find leather as random loot in early-game chests, so crafting it is the only reliable way to get steady supplies. Don’t waste time digging through crates looking for it, it’s not there.
Step-by-Step Process to Craft Leather
Once you have your Tanning Station set up, the actual crafting process is straightforward, but there are a few shortcuts to speed things up. Each piece of leather requires 2 Raw Hide and 1 Salt, so you’ll need to gather both materials first before you can start crafting. When you’re learning how to make leather in Enshrouded, the biggest bottleneck new players hit is finding enough Salt, so we’ll cover the easiest spots to get both resources.
First, farm Raw Hide. You can get it from almost any wild animal, but some are far more efficient to hunt than others. Rabbits and foxes only drop 1 Raw Hide per kill, so skip them unless you stumble across them by accident. Deer herds near the starting meadow drop 3 to 4 Raw Hide per kill, and they don’t attack you unless you get too close, so they’re the best early-game source. If you’re level 5 or higher, you can hunt wolves in the western forest, which drop 4 to 5 Raw Hide per kill, though they will fight back.
Next, gather Salt. The easiest low-level spot to find Salt is the shallow caves along the southern coast, just east of the starting meadow. The caves only have a few low-level slimes, so you can clear them easily with a stone club. If you don’t feel like farming Salt, you can buy stacks of 10 from the Hunter for 10 gold once you level her up to level 2, which is a great option if you have extra gold from selling unwanted loot.
Once you have your materials, just interact with the Tanning Station, put the Raw Hide and Salt in the input slots, and wait 10 seconds per piece of leather. You can queue up to 20 pieces at a time, so you don’t have to stand around waiting for it to craft.
Follow these quick tips to make your crafting even more efficient:
- Equip the Loot Gatherer perk before hunting to get 20% extra Raw Hide per kill
- Store your Tanning Station near your fast travel point so you can drop off materials mid-farm
- Craft leather in batches of 50 while you're off doing other base tasks to avoid wasting playtime
Target deer herds instead of small prey to cut your farming time by 70%. I tested this myself, and I can get enough Raw Hide for 50 leather in 20 minutes hunting deer, compared to over an hour chasing rabbits.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Making Leather
There are a lot of small mistakes that can slow down your leather production, and I made almost all of them my first playthrough. If you're new to how to make leather in Enshrouded, it's easy to waste your first few stacks on low-value items that don't help you progress. Prioritize leather for armor and tool upgrades before using it for cosmetic base builds. It’s tempting to make that fancy leather rug for your base, but you’ll regret it when you don’t have enough leather for the padded armor you need to explore the next Shroud area.
Another common mistake is farming Salt in high-level caves before you’re ready. I tried to go to the mountain Salt caves at level 6 once, and I got one-shot by a level 12 cave troll before I even got to mine a single Salt node. I lost all the Raw Hide I was carrying, and I had to walk all the way back to my base with no loot. Stick to the coastal caves until you’re at least level 10 and have fire resistance armor, you won’t regret it.
Don’t forget to level up your Hunter NPC either. Every time you complete a quest for her, she sells higher quality items and cheaper resources. At level 3, she sells Raw Hide for 1 gold each, which is a great option if you have extra gold and don’t feel like hunting. A lot of players ignore NPC quests, but they make resource gathering so much easier.
Best Uses for Leather in Enshrouded
Now that you know how to make leather in Enshrouded, you might be wondering what to spend it on first to get the most value. The first item you should craft is the full padded armor set. It’s the first armor that gives you both physical damage resistance and Shroud resistance, so you can explore mid-level Shroud areas without taking constant damage. You only need 30 leather for the full set, so it’s worth farming for right after you unlock the Tanning Station.
Next, craft the upgraded leather tools. The leather axe and pickaxe have 50% more durability than stone tools, and they mine resources 20% faster. You’ll only need 5 leather per tool, so it’s a small investment that saves you a lot of time crafting new tools every 10 minutes. Once you have those, craft the mount saddle, which requires 25 leather. The mount cuts travel time across the map by 70%, so it’s one of the most useful items you can make in the early game.
If you're planning to explore the northern mountain regions, stock up at least 40 leather before you go, as there are very few hunting spots there. I made the mistake of going up there with only 10 leather once, and I had to travel all the way back down to the meadow to farm more when my armor broke mid-quest. If you play on a multiplayer server, you can also trade excess leather to other players for rare materials like Iron Ore or Shroud Root, which is a great way to get materials you don’t want to farm yourself.
Once you get the hang of the process, you’ll never run out of leather again. I now keep a stock of 100 leather at all times, and it’s saved me from having to stop mid-quest to farm materials more times than I can count. Don’t be afraid to test different farming spots to find what works best for your playstyle, and if you find a great spot for Raw Hide or Salt, make sure to share it with other players in your server. Knowing how to make leather in Enshrouded is one of the core skills that will make your playthrough far less frustrating, so take the time to set up your production line early, and you’ll be set for the rest of the game.