Building and base progression are two of the most satisfying parts of Enshrouded, but a lot of new players hit a frustrating roadblock when they first try to upgrade their basic wood shelters to sturdier builds. They scroll through workbench recipes, check vendor inventories, and even dig through loot crates, only to realize they have no clue where to get the mortar they need for reinforced stone structures. If you’re stuck in that exact spot, you’re in the right place: we’re breaking down exactly how to make mortar enshrouded, what prerequisites you need to unlock first, and the smartest ways to use it to make your survival journey far less stressful.
What You Need to Make Mortar in Enshrouded
Mortar isn’t a craftable item you can make right at the start of the game, but you don’t have to progress super far to unlock it either. The only big prerequisite is building your first Grinder workstation, which becomes available as soon as you craft a basic workbench and gather the materials for the Grinder itself. You can also rarely find small stacks of mortar in abandoned village loot crates or Shroud outpost chests, but relying on loot is extremely unreliable if you need large amounts for builds.
Before you can start crafting mortar, make sure you have all of the following items checked off your list:
- A fully constructed Grinder workstation placed inside your claimed base area
- At least 2 pieces of raw stone per unit of mortar you want to craft
- Access to a basic workbench to build the Grinder if you haven’t unlocked it yet
- Enough free space in your Grinder’s output slot to collect finished mortar
You don’t need any rare Shroud resources or high-level perks to make mortar, which makes it one of the most accessible mid-game crafting materials for all playstyles. Even solo players can gather all the required materials in under 20 minutes if they know where to look.
Simple Step-by-Step Mortar Crafting Process
Once you have all your prerequisites sorted, crafting mortar is actually incredibly straightforward, and most players only mess it up the first time because they look for the recipe in the wrong workstation. First, you’ll need to gather enough raw stone for the amount of mortar you want. The best place to farm stone early on is the rocky outcrops surrounding the starting Ancient Spire; you don’t have to step foot in the Shroud to get hundreds of units in a single trip, and a basic iron pickaxe will cut your gathering time in half.
After you have your stone stockpiled, head back to your base and interact with your Grinder to pull up its crafting menu. Scroll through the available recipes until you find the mortar option, select the number of units you want to make, and confirm the craft. You don't need any fuel or special resources to run the Grinder, which is a big win for new players who haven’t unlocked coal or biofuel systems yet. The mortar will be added to your inventory or the Grinder’s output slot as soon as it’s done crafting.
A common mistake new players make is trying to find the mortar recipe in the basic workbench. It will never show up there, so don’t waste 10 minutes scrolling through every workbench tab like I did on my first playthrough. Mortar doesn't spoil or take up a lot of inventory space, so it’s always smart to craft 50+ extra units whenever you have spare stone, so you don’t have to pause a big build halfway through to gather more materials.
Most Useful Ways to Use Mortar in Your Playthrough
A lot of new players assume mortar is only useful for building, but it’s actually a core material for a ton of different progression paths in Enshrouded. The most common use is for crafting stone bricks and reinforced wooden structures that are far more resistant to Shroud corruption, raider attacks, and Shroud storms than basic wood or raw stone builds. I once built a small outpost near a Shroud root using only raw stone, and it completely crumbled after one severe Shroud storm. I rebuilt it with mortar-reinforced bricks the next day, and it’s stood strong through 10+ storms since.
Mortar is also required to craft most mid and late-game workstations, including the Forge, Alchemy Station, and Masonry Bench. You can’t unlock high-tier weapons, armor, or healing potions without these stations, so skipping mortar crafting will completely halt your progression long before you reach the late game areas. Even if you don’t care about building a fancy base, you’ll still need at least 20 units of mortar to craft the stations required for main story quests.
Finally, you’ll need mortar to repair any reinforced structures or workstations that take damage. If raiders break through your base walls or a storm damages your Forge, you can’t fix them with basic wood or stone. Having extra mortar on hand will save you from having to rebuild entire workstations from scratch if they take minor damage.
Pro Tips to Make Mortar Faster and Save Resources
If you’re planning large group builds or need hundreds of units of mortar for a big base project, there are a few small changes you can make to cut your crafting time in half and save a ton of stone. First, unlock the Grinder efficiency perk as soon as you hit level 10. This perk gives you a 20% chance to get an extra unit of mortar every time you craft one, so you can get 120 units of mortar for the cost of 100 stone. That adds up fast when you’re crafting thousands of units for a big base.
If you’re playing with a group, build 2 or 3 Grinders and run them all at the same time. You can assign one player to gather stone, another to craft mortar, and a third to work on building, so you don’t have to wait around for one Grinder to process hundreds of stone stacks. Just make sure all the Grinders are placed inside your claimed base area, or they’ll stop working when you walk away.
Don’t waste mortar on temporary structures either. If you’re building a small storage chest near a mining outpost or a temporary shelter while you explore a new area, use basic wood instead of reinforced materials. Mortar is cheap to make, but it’s still a waste of resources to use it on structures you’re only going to use for an hour or two. Save your mortar for permanent base builds and essential workstations, and you’ll never run out when you need it most.
Mortar is one of those underrated mid-game materials that makes all the difference between a flimsy shelter that falls apart at the first storm and a permanent base that can survive anything Enshrouded throws at you. Now that you know how to make mortar enshrouded, you can skip the early game confusion and get straight to building the base of your dreams or unlocking those high-tier workstations you’ve been waiting for. Next time you have a spare 10 minutes to farm stone, craft a few extra stacks of mortar. You’ll thank yourself later when you don’t have to pause a build halfway through to gather more materials.