I died 11 times in my first two hours of playing Enshrouded. I wandered straight into the Shroud without checking my corruption meter, forgot to set a spawn point before chasing a rare deer across the map, and lost half my early-game resources when a random raider mob set my tiny wooden shelter on fire. If you’re feeling just as lost starting out and want to learn how to play Enshrouded without wasting hours on avoidable mistakes, this guide covers everything you need to know from your first spawn to your first boss fight.
How to Play Enshrouded: Core First Steps for New Spawns
The first 10 minutes of your playthrough set the tone for the rest of your run, so don’t rush off to explore the pretty distant castles right away. You’ll spawn in a small cleared area just outside the Shroud, with nothing but the clothes on your back and a basic tutorial prompt. The first thing you need to do is collect 5 stones, 10 sticks, and 5 fiber from the nearby bushes to craft a stone axe and pickaxe. Always set your spawn point first before exploring any unmarked areas – you can craft a simple bed with 10 fiber and 8 wood, and placing it down means you won’t respawn all the way back at the starting point if you die.
Many new players waste their first batch of resources on decorative walls or fancy furniture, but you’re better off building 2-3 small storage chests first. You only have 20 inventory slots when you start, so you’ll fill up fast as you collect resources. If you die with a full inventory, you’ll drop all your items, and they’ll despawn after 10 minutes if you don’t make it back to collect them. So it’s better to store extra resources before you head out on long exploration runs. You don’t need a big base to start either – a simple 3x3 wooden shelter is enough to keep you safe from night time mobs for the first few hours.
Mastering Shroud Exploration Without Dying Repeatedly
The Shroud is the corrupted mist that covers most of Embervale, and it’s where you’ll find all the rare resources, crafting recipes, and story progression you need to advance. A lot of new players avoid it for the first few hours because they’re scared of the corruption meter, but it’s a lot easier to navigate than you think once you know the rules. Your Shroud corruption meter pauses when you stand inside lit, cleared areas inside the mist, so you don’t have to rush through every trip.
When you first start exploring the Shroud, stick to the outer edges first so you can run back to clear ground fast if your corruption meter gets too high. Before you head into any Shroud area, make sure you pack these three essential items:
- At least 2 stacks of wood and a craftable campfire to place down and reset your corruption meter in a pinch – you don’t have to run all the way out of the mist to clear your meter if you can drop a campfire and stand next to it for 10 seconds
- A stack of roasted meat instead of raw berries, as it restores more health faster if you get ambushed by Shroud mobs like the corrupted wolves or floating spirits that spawn in the mist
- One extra pickaxe, since most valuable ores like copper and tin only spawn inside Shroud areas, and your first stone pick will break fast if you’re mining a lot of ore
You also want to avoid staying in the Shroud after dark if you can help it. Mobs spawn twice as fast at night inside the mist, and their damage output is 30% higher than it is during the day. And don’t ever log out while you’re inside the Shroud – when you log back in, your corruption meter will be full instantly, and you’ll die before you even finish loading in. That’s a mistake I made three times before I figured it out, and I lost almost all my early copper ore each time.
Base Building Rules That Save You Hours of Frustration
Base building is one of the biggest parts of Enshrouded, but a lot of new players make mistakes with their first base that force them to move entirely after a few hours of play. The most important thing to consider when picking your first base location is proximity to a Flame Altar. Build your first base within 100 meters of a Flame Altar upgrade spot, because upgrading the altar will expand the safe zone around your base, keep the Shroud from creeping closer, and unlock more building space for you to expand later.
Don’t build your base in a low-lying area or right on the edge of the Shroud either. Low-lying areas get flooded during rainstorms, which can destroy any wooden floors or storage chests you have placed on the ground. If you build right on the Shroud edge, you run the risk of the mist shifting during updates and covering your base entirely, which will spawn corrupted mobs right outside your door every night. It’s better to pick a small hill near the starting area that has easy access to trees, stone, and a nearby Shroud entrance.
You also don’t need to build one giant base to hold all your stuff. Once you unlock the fast travel recipe, you can build small outposts near high-value resource areas like iron mines or ancient ruins. Each outpost only needs a bed, a storage chest, and a fast travel point, so you don’t have to run 20 minutes across the map every time you need to farm iron ore. Put at least one storage chest outside your main base if you play on a public server – that way, if someone accidentally locks themselves out of your base, they can still access shared resources without having to break down your walls.
Combat and Progression Tips for New Players
Enshrouded’s combat system is a lot more flexible than most survival games, and you don’t have to lock yourself into a single class right away. You can mix and match skills from the warrior, ranger, and mage skill trees as you level up, and you don’t have to stick to one playstyle if you don’t want to. Rolling is way more effective than blocking for most early-game mob attacks – your starting shield only blocks 40% of incoming damage, and it uses up almost all your stamina each time you block, whereas rolling gives you a full second of invincibility and uses barely any stamina.
Don’t waste time fighting high-level mobs when you first start out. The armored knights you see wandering near ancient ruins are 10 levels higher than you when you spawn, and they can one-shot you even if you’re wearing full iron armor. It’s better to focus on completing small quests for the NPCs you rescue first, as those quests give you rare crafting recipes and skill points that make combat a lot easier later on. You can reset your skill points for a tiny amount of coin at any Flame Altar, so don’t stress about picking the “wrong” skills when you first level up. I switched from a full warrior build to a mage build 10 hours into my playthrough, and it only cost me 50 coin to reset all my points.
When you get to your first boss fight, the Fell Wispwyvern, don’t try to fight it head-on without preparing first. You can craft spike traps with 10 wood and 5 iron each, and placing 6-8 of them around the boss’s spawn point will take off almost half its health before you even start fighting. If you’re playing solo, bring along at least 3 stacks of roasted meat and a few fire resistance potions, since the boss’s fire attacks do a lot of damage over time. You don’t have to beat it on your first try either – it’s normal to die 3-4 times while you learn its attack patterns.
You don’t have to follow every rule to a tee to have fun with the game, but these tips will help you avoid the most common mistakes new players make when they’re learning how to play Enshrouded. Take your time exploring, don’t rush through progression just to get to endgame content, and don’t be afraid to experiment with different builds and base designs. Half the fun of the game is stumbling onto hidden secrets in the Shroud or building a base that’s completely unique to your playstyle, so don’t let the fear of making mistakes stop you from exploring everything Embervale has to offer.