If you’ve ever spent 10 minutes rummaging through random chests trying to find that one copper ingot you swore you stashed somewhere, you know how frustrating messy base storage can get in Enshrouded. I lost count of how many times I scrapped the wrong crafting material early on because I had no system for sorting my loot, or accidentally left rare shroud roots sitting on the ground where they despawned before I could pick them up. Learning how to make storage in Enshrouded that works for your playstyle doesn’t just make base management less of a chore—it frees up more time for exploring the Shroud, fighting bosses, and building out your dream settlement. I’ve tested dozens of storage setups over 120+ hours of play, from tiny early-game huts to sprawling late-game castles, so I’m breaking down exactly what works, what doesn’t, and what you can skip entirely.
How to Make Storage in Enshrouded for Early, Mid, and Late Game Progression
If you’re just starting out, you don’t need to overcomplicate how to make storage in Enshrouded right away. The basic wooden chest is the first storage option you’ll unlock, and it only requires 8 wood planks to craft, no rare materials needed. You can place 4 of these in your starting hut before you even unlock the first base altar upgrade, which is enough to hold all your early-game loot like stone, fiber, and copper ore. You don’t need to build more than that at first, since you won’t have that much loot to store until you start exploring further from your base.
Once you hit level 10 and unlock the carpentry bench upgrade, you’ll get access to the reinforced chest, which has double the storage space of the basic wooden chest, and is made with iron ingots and treated wood. These are perfect for mid-game when you start gathering more rare materials like shroud roots, amber, and ancient tablets, and you need more space to store loot from longer Shroud exploration runs. I usually keep 2-3 reinforced chests for common materials first, then add more as I expand my base to fit new crafting stations.
For late game, once you clear the first ancient spire, you’ll unlock linked magic storage chests that let you access all connected chests from any one of them. That means you don’t have to run around your entire base to grab a crafting material—you can pull it from any linked chest, no matter where you are. You don’t need to upgrade all your chests at once, either. I usually swap out my basic wooden chests for reinforced ones gradually as I collect extra iron, so I don’t waste resources that could go to crafting new gear or base upgrades. If you’re playing co-op, it’s also a good idea to assign specific chests to each player, so no one accidentally uses your saved rare materials for their own builds.
Smart Sorting Systems to Cut Down on Loot Rummaging
As you expand your base, you’ll find that how to make storage in Enshrouded isn’t just about building chests, but about organizing them to fit your routine. A messy storage setup will waste hours of your playtime, but a simple, intentional system will make crafting and exploration way smoother. I’ve tried everything from color-coded chests to complicated spreadsheets for sorting, and these are the only tips that actually stuck for me:
- Group materials by crafting type: keep all mining loot (ore, ingots, stone) in one section, all foraging loot (berries, fiber, wood) in another, and all combat loot (weapons, armor, upgrade materials) in a separate area
- Place the most frequently used chests closest to your crafting stations: put ore chests right next to the forge, fiber and cloth chests next to the sewing table, and food chests next to the cooking pot
- Add a dedicated "loot dump" chest right by your base entrance: you can drop all your unprocessed loot here after a long exploration run before sorting it later, so you don’t leave items scattered on the ground that despawn
- Use in-game signs to label every chest group: you don’t have to make fancy signs, even short labels like "ORE" or "FOOD" will save you hours of clicking through chests
I used to skip labeling at first, and I’d waste 15 minutes every time I needed to find a specific alchemy ingredient for a healing potion. The loot dump chest was a game changer for me, especially when I’d come back from a deep Shroud run with 10+ types of materials and just wanted to go repair my gear first. If you have a lot of rare crafting materials, consider a locked rare loot chest that only you have access to if you’re playing co-op, to avoid accidental use of rare items like ancient spires keys or boss upgrade materials.
Common Storage Mistakes That Will Cost You Loot
Even if you build all the right chests, small mistakes can lead to you losing hours of hard-earned loot. I’ve made almost all of these mistakes myself, so you don’t have to. The first and most costly mistake is leaving chests unprotected outside your base’s flame radius. Any chest outside the area your flame altar covers can be destroyed by roaming enemies, or even despawn if you go too far away. I learned this the hard way when I left a chest full of iron ingots outside my base while I went to explore a nearby spire, came back to find it gone, no trace left. Always keep all storage chests inside the purple flame boundary, or build a wall around them if you have to place them near the edge.
Another common mistake is overstuffing single chests. Even though basic chests hold 30 slots, if you put too many different item types in one, you’ll never find what you need. I recommend keeping no more than 5 different item types per chest to make sorting easier. It’s also tempting to hoard every single item you find, but you don’t need to keep 500 pieces of grass or 200 common stone arrows. Donate extra common materials to your base’s flame altar for extra range, or scrap them for small amounts of resources.
Forgetting to transfer items from your personal inventory to storage before logging off or heading into high-risk areas is another easy mistake to make. If you die in the Shroud and can’t get back to your tombstone before the timer runs out, you’ll lose everything you were carrying. Get in the habit of stashing all non-essential items before you log off or head into a thick Shroud zone with high-level enemies. Never leave unique quest items in chests you don’t check regularly, either. I once lost a quest item for 3 days because I stashed it in a random chest I forgot about, and I had to re-run an entire dungeon to get it back.
Creative Storage Ideas That Blend With Your Base Aesthetic
A lot of players treat storage as an afterthought, but you can make it fit your base’s look without sacrificing functionality. You don’t have to line your walls with ugly, mismatched chests if you don’t want to. If you’re building a medieval-style castle, you can line chests along stone walls and cover the front with decorative wooden panels, leaving only the top open to access them. No one will even know they’re there unless you tell them, and you still get all the storage space you need.
If you’re building a small cottage, you can tuck small chests under beds or inside kitchen counters to save space. I built a tiny cottage for my first mid-game base, and I fit 6 chests under different pieces of furniture so I had more room for crafting stations in my small main room. For late-game floating bases, you can hang storage chests from the ceiling using iron chains, so they don’t take up valuable floor space. I built a treehouse base a few weeks ago, and I tucked all my storage chests inside the hollow trunk of the tree, so you can’t even see them from the outside, but I can access all of them easily by climbing a small ladder inside.
Another trick is to use decorative shelves to display your most rare loot, like boss trophies or unique weapons, so you don’t have to hide them away in chests where you’ll never see them. You can still pull items off the shelves like you would a chest, so they work just as well for storage as regular chests. You can also place small chests on top of counters or tables to hold frequently used items like healing potions or building materials, so you don’t have to walk to a separate storage area every time you need one.
You don’t need a super complicated system to get your base storage under control, just a little planning and a few simple tweaks to how you set up your chests. Even small changes, like adding a loot dump chest by your front door or labeling your most used storage spots, will make a huge difference in how much time you spend managing your items. Once you figure out how to make storage in Enshrouded that fits your playstyle and base design, you’ll be able to spend more time doing the parts of the game you actually enjoy, instead of rummaging through piles of random loot. Don’t be afraid to experiment with different setups until you find one that works for you—there’s no right or wrong way to organize your base, as long as it works for you.