If you’ve spent even a few hours exploring Enshrouded’s misty, monster-infested open world, you’ve probably hit a wall where you can’t upgrade your workbench or build fire-resistant structures without one slippery, hard-to-find resource. I spent three hours running in circles searching for a reliable way to make tar in Enshrouded when I first hit this bottleneck, wasting stacks of wood and resin on random crafting attempts before I figured out the exact process. Tar isn’t just a random crafting material, either: it’s the backbone of dozens of high-priority recipes, from asphalt for paved base paths to fireproof coating for structures that sit near the Shroud, to powerful fire arrows that melt even tanky Shroud enemies. This guide breaks down everything you need to know to farm ingredients, craft tar consistently, and use it wisely to progress faster, no fancy endgame gear required.
How to Make Tar in Enshrouded: Exact Crafting Recipe and Requirements
Tar follows a very simple crafting recipe, but the catch is you can only make it at one specific station that most new players don’t unlock until a few hours into their playthrough. There’s no workaround for this station requirement, so don’t waste time testing random combinations at lower-tier crafting tables. Here’s everything you need to start crafting tar today:
- 1 unlocked Charcoal Kiln (unlocked immediately after recruiting the Blacksmith to your base from the small dungeon north of the starter spawn)
- 3 units of Wood (farmed from any tree in the starting Revelwood biome, with full-grown pines dropping the highest amount per chop)
- 1 unit of Resin (dropped when cutting down pine trees, or looted from abandoned chests in small Shroud outposts and log cabins)
- 1 empty slot in your inventory or connected storage chest to collect the finished tar
The Charcoal Kiln unlocks immediately after you rescue the Blacksmith from the small dungeon north of your starting base. If you haven’t completed that quest yet, you can still collect wood and resin to stockpile for when you do unlock it, so you can make 20+ tar as soon as you place the Kiln down. You will get zero tar if you use the wrong crafting station, even if you have the exact right ingredient ratio. I learned this the hard way when I burned through 20 stacks of wood trying to make tar at my starter Fire Pit before I realized I needed to unlock the Charcoal Kiln first. Each crafting cycle for tar takes 30 seconds in real time, so if you queue up 30 units, it will take 15 minutes to finish, which is the perfect amount of time to run a quick resource farming run or clear a small nearby camp for extra loot.
Fastest Ways to Farm Tar Ingredients Without Wasting Time
Wood and resin are both common resources, but if you farm them in the wrong spots, you’ll spend twice as long running between nodes as you actually spend collecting materials. I’ve tested over a dozen farming spots across Revelwood to find the most efficient routes, and these are the methods that cut my farming time by 60%.
The best spot to farm both wood and resin in the early game is the northern edge of Revelwood, just south of the first Shroud tower you activate. There are 12 full-grown pine trees clustered in a 50 meter radius, so you can farm 60+ wood and 15+ resin in 10 minutes flat, no combat required unless you run into a random stray wolf. If you have a stone axe, you can cut down each pine tree in 3 hits, which cuts your farming time even more. For players who prefer looting over farming, you can find resin in 70% of chests in abandoned log cabins and small Shroud outposts across Revelwood, and you can often find 5-10 units of pre-crafted tar in chests inside larger Shroud dungeons, though that’s far riskier than just farming the ingredients yourself. If you’re playing multiplayer, split up the work: have one player cut trees while another loots nearby chests, and you can collect enough ingredients for 50 tar in less than 15 minutes.
You can also speed up farming by putting 1 skill point into the Logging proficiency node early on, which gives you a 25% chance to get double wood and resin from every tree you chop. That might not sound like much, but it adds up fast when you’re farming 100+ wood per run.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Making Tar in Enshrouded
When you’re first learning how to make tar in Enshrouded, it’s easy to rush through the setup and forget small details that can cost you resources or even destroy parts of your base. These are the three most common mistakes I see new players make, and how to avoid them entirely.
The first and most costly mistake is placing your Charcoal Kiln too close to flammable structures. Tar crafting produces constant open flame, so if you put the Kiln next to a wooden wall or thatch roof, it will catch fire and burn down nearby structures in minutes. I lost half my first storage shed that way, when a stray spark from the Kiln caught my thatch roof on fire while I was out farming, and I came back to all my stored stone tools and food gone. Always place your Charcoal Kiln at least 3 meters away from any wooden or thatch structures, or set it on a stone foundation to eliminate fire risk entirely.
Another common mistake is not keeping a separate storage chest for resin. Resin is used for a lot of other recipes too, like torches and glue, so if you use all your resin for tar, you might find yourself stuck without torches when you need to explore a dark dungeon. Keep at least 10 units of resin in a separate chest for emergency use, so you don’t have to go farming last minute. The last big mistake I see new players make is wasting their first few batches of tar on decorative items. It’s tempting to make asphalt paths to make your base look nicer, but you’ll get way more value out of using that tar to upgrade your workbench first, which unlocks dozens of useful recipes.
Smart Ways to Use Tar to Progress Faster in Enshrouded
Tar is used in over 30 different recipes, but not all of them are worth your limited supply early on. These are the highest-priority uses for tar that will help you progress faster, plus a few nice-to-have upgrades for when you have a surplus.
Tier 2 Workbench upgrade requires 8 tar, that's your first priority, because it lets you craft iron tools that last 3x longer than stone tools, and break resource nodes way faster. Once you have your Tier 2 Workbench, you’ll be able to farm iron and other higher-tier resources in half the time, which will speed up every other part of your playthrough.
Once you have your Tier 2 Workbench, the next best use for tar is fireproof coating for structures. If you want to build a base near the Shroud edge to get easier access to high-level resources, you need tar to coat the walls so the Shroud mist doesn't erode them over time. Uncoated wooden structures near the Shroud will lose 10% of their health every in-game day, so they’ll fall apart in less than 10 days if you don’t coat them with tar.
Third, tar is a key ingredient for fire arrows, which are the most effective early-game weapon against Shroud mages and the first boss, the Wraith of the Fell. Fire arrows crafted with tar deal 40% more damage than regular iron arrows to all non-Shroud enemies too, so they’re useful for hunting wild animals and clearing bandit camps as well. If you have a surplus of tar, you can use it to make asphalt paths that increase your movement speed by 15% when you walk on them, which is a nice quality of life upgrade for large bases.
Tar is one of those sleeper resources that doesn't seem important until you hit a hard progression wall, so learning how to make tar in Enshrouded early will save you hours of frustration later on. You don't need any rare endgame ingredients to make it, just a little bit of planning to unlock the right station and farm the right materials efficiently. Next time you're wrapping up a farming run, throw a few stacks of wood and resin into your Charcoal Kiln to queue up tar, and you'll never find yourself stuck waiting for it when you need to upgrade your base or take on a tough dungeon. I keep a chest next to my Charcoal Kiln dedicated solely to tar stockpiles, and it's made my playthrough way less stressful, especially when I'm expanding my base into higher-level Shroud areas. Don’t be like me, wasting hours fumbling with the wrong crafting station: follow the steps in this guide, and you’ll have a steady supply of tar whenever you need it.