If you’ve just spawned into Enshrouded’s sprawling, mist-covered open world, the first thing you’ll notice is that almost every early-game item requires basic wood materials to build. From your first stone axe to the walls of your starter base, wood is the backbone of your progression, and knowing how to make wooden planks enshrouded is one of the first core skills you need to master before you can take on harder Shrouded zones or recruit your first NPCs. I remember fumbling around for 20 minutes on my first playthrough trying to figure out why my raw wood wouldn’t turn into planks, so this guide cuts out all the guesswork to get you set up fast. You won’t have to waste time testing random crafting stations or missing obvious unlock requirements like I did.
What You Need to Make Wooden Planks in Enshrouded
You don’t need any rare or hard-to-find items to craft your first set of planks, but there are a few non-negotiable prerequisites you can’t skip. A lot of new players assume they can make planks straight from their inventory, but Enshrouded locks all refined material crafting behind dedicated stations, so you’ll need to gather a few basic supplies first. Raw wood from pine trees gives the same yield as oak or birch, so don’t go out of your way to find a specific tree type early on. The only difference is the appearance of the planks you use for building, so if you want a darker wood finish for your base, you can harvest oak later, but for functional items like tools or chests, any wood works.
- 10 pieces of raw wood (collected from felling small or large trees in non-Shrouded zones)
- A crafted stone axe (to harvest wood faster than punching trees, which takes 3x longer)
- A basic Workbench (unlocked immediately after you place your first Flame Altar)
Don't waste time punching trees either: even a crummy stone axe cuts down harvest time by 70%, and you'll get 2x more raw wood per tree than you would with your bare hands. You can craft a stone axe straight from your personal inventory as soon as you collect 5 pieces of raw wood and 2 pieces of stone, so make that the first item you build after spawning. Stone is easy to find scattered on the ground around the starter zone, so you won’t have to dig or mine for it early on.
Step-by-Step Process to Craft Wooden Planks
Once you have all your required materials, the actual crafting process is straightforward, as long as you follow the right order of operations. If you're trying to make wooden planks enshrouded for the first time, you might be confused why the recipe isn't showing up in your inventory, and that’s normal—you have to unlock the Workbench first. The game locks all Workbench recipes until you complete the first tutorial quest to activate the Flame Altar, so don’t panic if it’s missing at first. Just follow the on-screen prompts to place your Flame Altar, and the Workbench recipe will unlock automatically.
First, craft your Workbench using 10 raw wood and 2 stone, then place it anywhere within the protected zone of your Flame Altar. If you place it outside that zone, it will take damage over time from the Shroud or roaming enemies, and you risk losing any materials you have stored inside. Interact with the Workbench, and scroll down to the Refined Materials tab. You’ll see the wooden planks recipe listed first, before any other refined items. Select how many planks you want to make, and confirm the craft. Each batch of 2 wooden planks costs 10 raw wood when you're using the basic Workbench, so keep that ratio in mind when you're out harvesting for building projects.
I usually stock up on 200 raw wood every time I head out early game, which gives me 40 planks enough to build a full small house frame and a chest to store extra supplies. If you're playing with friends, split the harvesting duty so one person cuts wood while the other builds, you'll progress twice as fast. You can also store extra raw wood in chests near your Workbench so you don’t have to run back and forth to the forest every time you run out of materials.
Upgrade Plank Production for Late Game Efficiency
Once you get past the first few hours of the game, you'll need hundreds of planks for larger bases, upgraded tools, and NPC housing. The basic Workbench is way too slow for that, so you'll want to unlock the Sawmill as soon as possible. The Sawmill blueprint unlocks after you rescue the Carpenter NPC from the first Shrouded dungeon near the starter zone, and it costs 30 planks, 10 metal scraps, and 5 flame essence to build. The dungeon is fairly easy for early players, as long as you bring a couple of torches to keep the Shroud corruption at bay and a stone sword to fight the small skeletons inside.
The Sawmill cuts the raw wood cost per plank in half and produces planks 4x faster than the Workbench, so it's a no-brainer upgrade as soon as you can get it. It also lets you make other wood-derived materials like wooden beams and wattle, which you'll need for mid-game building and furniture. You can also assign the Carpenter NPC to work at the Sawmill to get an extra 20% production speed boost, which is a huge help if you're crafting materials for a guild base with multiple players. The Carpenter will also occasionally give you free planks as a reward for completing his side quests, so it's worth checking in with him every time you return to base.
So if you place the Sawmill right next to a wood storage chest, you can pull raw wood directly from the chest without having to carry it in your inventory, which saves a ton of time when you're crafting thousands of planks for a big build. I have my Sawmill set up between two large wood storage chests, and I can craft 500 planks in less than two minutes without ever having to open my inventory. That setup saved me hours of grind when I was building my castle base on the mountain ridge overlooking the starter zone.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Making Planks
Even though crafting planks is a simple process, there are a few common mistakes that new players make all the time that slow down their progression. I’ve made every single one of these mistakes myself, so I can tell you exactly what to watch out for to avoid wasting time and resources.
First, don’t harvest wood in Shrouded zones early on. If you cut trees inside the Shroud without proper protection, the wood you collect will be corrupted, and you can't use it to make planks. You'll have to process it first at a Purification Table, which is a waste of resources early on. Stick to harvesting in the sunlit zones around your Flame Altar until you have better Shroud resistance gear. Second, don’t use planks for fuel in your campfire. Planks burn for the same amount of time as raw wood, so you're wasting all the effort you put into refining them if you toss them in the fire. Stick to using raw wood or plant fiber for fuel, and save planks for crafting and building.
Never leave your Workbench or Sawmill outside the Flame Altar range, I made this mistake on my second playthrough, I placed a Sawmill right on the edge of my base zone, and overnight a pack of wolves destroyed it, and I lost all the planks I had crafting inside. It took me an hour to gather the materials to rebuild it, and that set back my base build by a full day of play time. Third, don’t forget to account for planks in your build budget. A lot of new players count raw wood instead of planks when planning a build, and end up short halfway through. Always multiply your required plank count by 5 (for Workbench crafting) or 2.5 (for Sawmill crafting) to get the total raw wood you need to collect.
Mastering how to make wooden planks enshrouded is such a small skill, but it makes a huge difference in how fast you can progress through the game. Whether you're building a tiny starter hut or a massive castle overlooking the Shroud, you'll never run out of uses for planks, so setting up an efficient production line early will save you hours of grind later. Take the time to unlock the Sawmill as soon as you can, and you'll never find yourself short on this core material again, no matter how big your building projects get.