Starting your journey in Embervale and learning about the different types of hazards brought forth by the Shroud can feel a bit overwhelming, especially if you attempt to learn all the mechanics that a survival game of this nature has. Here are 19 tips for Enshrouded beginner players, including some that the game doesn't tell you.
Manage your Stamina
One of the first things you will notice by playing this game by either jumping, running, or even trying to dodge is that stamina is used very quickly, but replenishes slowly. I've lost track of how many times my stamina ran out during a very important combat leaving me exposed by not being able to dodge the incoming enemy attacks and I end up dying and dropping my resources.
For that same reason, always take a couple of seconds before undergoing a very stamina-heavy route or encounter, making use of food and items that will increase the amount of stamina you have and how quickly it will regenerate. You will not regret it.
Keep Tabs on Your Journal
While you can lose yourself exploring your way through the world and discovering new secrets beneath the ground and the enshrouded areas, keeping track of your objectives might be a great alternative to avoid facing many powerful enemies that will one-shot you. It's also a great way to both create, unlock, or craft new items, gear, and even mechanics that will help you out along the way.
While accepting a lot of quests in bulk, one good idea is to first finish up the secondary ones so that your progression isn't stifled for something you need to learn or an item you need to craft. For example, I forgot to craft the Grappling Hook and went for the Ancient Spire and found myself going back to craft it, wasting valuable time.
Don't Neglect Your Main Quests
This one is more centered on mechanics than anything else. I found myself stuck trying to advance in the game while the Blacksmith wanted me to just craft a small sword. It was actually a main quest, but due to the nature of it, I tried just to keep exploring and finding new content in the wild. Figure my surprise when I realized that crafting the sword would set me on the path of not only crafting some armor that I much needed but also some items that would save me a lot of walking time, such as the Glider.
Craft the Glider
You have no idea how much the Glider helps during your adventures in Enshrouded. Yes, you might not have much control, but the area you cover per jump will save you a lot of time and stress. While attempting to take shortcuts, I ended up falling to my demise on the initial enshrouded chasm more times than I am willing to admit. Now with the Glider, I'm not only available to not die but also cover the same distance in a fraction of the time.
In short, it opens up the world in ways you cannot imagine. And speaking of items that open up secret pathways...
Craft the Grappling Hook
I have been always a fan of having a Grappling Hook as a way to traverse vertical distances and use it to solve puzzles, so I was very pleased to experience Enshrouded's version of this very famous item. Being able to jump up to spots in a second and swing across platforms a la Indiana Jones or Luke and Leia Skywalker in A New Hope is something that I did not expect to enjoy as much as I did.
It is also acquired very early during your playthrough, as long as you don't deviate much from the main quests and know where its crafting recipe items are located. You will find grappling points all around the world that will help you out by offering shortcuts or even opening paths to secret rewards.
Create More Flame Altars
Discovering a new fast travel point or a checkpoint is like a breeze of fresh air. Being able to get back to stockpile resources and improve your gear and then resume your progression on a very enemy-heavy zone or even a dungeon or puzzle. Now, imagine creating your custom fast travel locations as you please. Well, that's where Flame Altars come in.
While building Flame Altars will enable you to both build structures as well as summon friendly crafting NPCs, it will also enable said Flame Altar as a fully functional fast travel point. Be sure to use this mechanic wisely and position your Flame Altars strategically across the world so that you can teleport across the land just to be ready to discover points of interest such as mines or other farming points.
Strengthen Your Flame Altars
Strengthening your Flame Altars requires you to sacrifice some resources in favor of gaining certain bonuses such as improved resistance to enshrouded areas, the ability to open up more Flame Altars across the world, and even some stat bonuses while you are at it. It is a pretty straightforward thing, so if you have been focusing on farming and exploring, you probably have enough resources to strengthen it.
Always Return to Your Tombstone
And now that we are talking about resources, don't you hate it when you lose most of them to the most basic and average enemies in the game? Well, Enshrouded will punish your deaths by taking away a good chunk of your resources and leaving them exactly where you previously fell. With a special focus on crafting, losing all your resources surely sounds like nothing short of trouble.
So, whenever you die, be sure to visit your Tombstone as soon as possible so that you can collect all your belongings. Don't worry, the game will point to your latest grave with the previous ones being marked on your map as red spots.
Don't Forget to Farm Resources!
I have mentioned this before, but whenever you are exploring or just following a quest, be sure to pick up both rare and common resources you can find in the wild. A single resource will occupy one spot in your backpack, but the maximum amount of that resource that you can carry is apparently limitless, so don't be shy.
This will help you for future recipes and undiscovered ones that will pop out after unlocking a new crafting NPC. However, this is also extremely helpful whenever you are planning to build a new house or structure. Building blocks are the result of treating raw materials such as Wood, Metal, or Rock on the Workbench, and they are needed by the thousands, so farming is the way to go!
Expand Your Backpack Inventory
And since you are wondering, yes, you can expand your Backpack. Spots are very limited starting up and you will find yourself either consuming your food or dropping any other resources you have in your Backpack. With the number of different types of resources and their derivatives whenever they are treated on the workbench or other structure, you will find yourself out of Backpack space pretty quickly.
So, if you are eager for some more space, upgrade your Backpack! Spoiler alert: you will need to unlock the Hunter to do so! However, there are other ways to keep all your resources without them going to waste.
Use Blacksmith Structures as Storage
Storage chests can be crafted either at the Blacksmith or at the Carpenter, increasing the amount of space for you to store all the resources you can spare and aren't quite necessary at the time. However, if you are in a rush, you can just store them at other structures! For example, I stuck some resources in the Charcoal Kiln just to see what happened and nothing occurred! So, if you don't want to build chests, you can just leave them there and nothing bad will happen.
Keep Visiting a Workbench
And since we are already visiting the Blacksmith at our base, then I'll give you a tip that will pretty much solve your fighting needs. If you just interact with your Workbench, all your weapons and tools will be completely repaired. Yes, your axes, bows, swords, and everything in between will automatically be fixed without any cost. Free repairs in a survival game? Yes, you've heard that right, and you better make the best of it! You can also find anvil tables in the wild that will fix your equipment, so be sure to interact with those as well.
Experiment With Food Effects
The sheer amount of food and variants that you can find in the world is crazy in Enshrouded. Health, magic, stamina, shroud resistance, and many more boosts can potentially mean either life or death. Keep food and potions in your inventory so that you will be able to adapt and outperform your stat limitations to defeat powerful enemies or access areas that you otherwise could not. Just don't eat raw meat, I died from that one specifically.
Explore the World, Open Chests
This tip is not only a recommendation but almost an obligation for all survival games. Enshrouded in particular is very rewarding whenever you decide to stray from the path and start visiting caves, castles, and defeat enemies of different tiers. Be sure to look out for loot in caches and treasure chests!
There is nothing better than finding high-tier equipment that will help you defeat bigger and stronger enemies as well as equipping gear that will withstand more than one lethal move from bosses and enemies at a higher level than that of the player's.
Unlock Double Jump
Jumping and using the Glider's forward summersault helps a lot when climbing steep hills and mountains that you find across the land. This not only lets you save some time by cutting some corners and even some undesired encounters whenever you follow the main road, but helps you find some secret items and resources in places that to the naked eye seem unreachable.
However, one early unlock that will further improve your climbing efforts is the double jump. Yes, upgrading your melee attack and even upgrading your magic capabilities sounds great, but the impossibility of a double jump will make your character reach new heights, literally.
Use a Wand
There is one weapon that you shouldn't neglect whenever you start a new game and even after you have been playing for a while: the wand. You might not cast Latin-based spells, but you do get a homing energy projectile that will take care of enemies at a distance.
While not universally effective against all types of enemies, wands can do some extreme damage. For example, I faced a Fell Thunderbrute with a fire wand and it fell after only a few hits whereas I would get destroyed if I just used a sword and a shield. Don't neglect the magic weapons, especially wands!
Adapt Your Combat to Your Enemy
Every enemy is unique and there is not a single weapon or strategy that is the most efficient everywhere. For example, wands work great with wildlife and shroud enemies, but some non-shroud foes will be resistant to magic.
The best thing you can do is to bring different types of weapons from your arsenal so that whenever you find something isn't efficient, you can alternate to use magic attacks or even the occasional grenade.
Parry More Than You Dodge
While dodging gets you out of harm's way most of the time, parrying in Enshrouded is extremely rewarding and won't cost you the chunk of stamina that dodging requires to work. It can take some time to learn how to perfectly execute your shield move to parry, but actually landing it will stun your enemy.
Once you have perfected the parrying move, deal as much damage as possible before the effect runs out. Focus on parrying over dodging whenever you are faced with a single enemy. If surrounded by enemies, running and dodging would be the best approach to evasive maneuvers.
Craft Armor Sets as Soon as Possible
When you start your Enshrouded adventure, you'll notice that even the weakest of enemies either deal a massive amount of damage or straight up one-hit you to non-existence. While you can dodge and parry to survive or even craft powerful weapons to reduce the number of hits necessary for victory, crafting armor will give you some free hits before you ultimately die.
Continue upgrading your gear and discover new armor types to craft. Advanced armor allows you to craft some sets that will adapt your playstyle. Whether you are more of a tanky player (Tank Armor) or prefer to use ancient magic attacks (Warlock Armor), there is a specific armor made for you. You might have to explore and farm some rare items, but at least the amount of defense and damage boost will make it worthwhile.
