Enshrouded 1.0 Beginner Guide: 12 Things to Do in Your First Hours

Enshrouded 1.0 is finally here, and Embervale doesn't explain itself. Keen Games' co-op survival RPG left Early Access on October 15 for PC and PS5 — the console debut — with a reworked skill tree, rune-based gear upgrades, a brand-new region, and a raised level cap. Whether you're starting fresh or returning to find your build wiped by the skill-tree reset, here's what actually matters in the first hours. This Enshrouded 1.0 beginner guide skips the stuff the tutorial covers and focuses on what it doesn't.

First 10 minutes: change this setting, grab this gear

Open Settings, go to Game, and turn Auto-Collect Scattered Loot on before you do anything else. Wood from felled trees, stone from broken rocks, ore — all picked up automatically instead of forcing you to press interact over every chunk on the ground. It's the single biggest quality-of-life toggle in the game, and the tutorial never mentions it.

Then grab the free gear in the starting cave before you walk out. It won't last long, but it beats fighting the first wolves with your fists.

Enshrouded 1.0 beginner guide: the first-hour priority list

1. Gather basics — stone, wood, plant fiber, torn cloth. Enough for tools, a Flame Altar, a workbench, and healing supplies.
2. Place a Flame Altar (5 stone) — this claims your land, sets your respawn, and anchors everything else.
3. Build a workbench and a bed inside the altar's radius — unlocks repairs and the Rested buff.
4. Follow the main quest to rescue the Blacksmith — starts the first real crafting and progression chain.
5. Get the Glider and Grappling Hook — these transform how you move through Embervale. Upgrade the glider the moment you can.
6. Clear your first Elixir Well, spend your skill points — this is where your build actually begins.

Flame Altars are the entire game

Everything in Enshrouded feeds back into the Flame Altar. It protects your base, holds your respawn, gates how deep into the Shroud you can survive (strengthening it extends your fog timer), and each one doubles as a fast-travel point. Version 1.0 raised the cap to 15 altars.

Here's the trick veterans swear by: altars only cost 5 stone, so place them liberally as disposable checkpoints on dangerous expeditions, then deactivate and relocate them when you're done. Keep the materials for one in your pack at all times — a fast-travel point you can drop anywhere is worth more than any weapon early on. If brutal survival is your thing, our DayZ Badlands beginner guide applies the same checkpoint thinking to a much meaner game.

Commit to one build before you touch anything else

The 1.0 skill tree was reworked, and the temptation is to spread points everywhere. Don't. For your first dozen levels, commit to one branch — it concentrates your power and makes you significantly stronger early. Hybrid builds are viable later, but a scattered tree just gives you weaker versions of everything. Valor Mortis teaches the same lesson for its own plague-ridden skill system: focus first, experiment later.

Grab Double Jump early regardless of build. It's the best mobility investment in the tree and opens routes all over Embervale.

The quality-of-life stuff the tutorial skips

• Build Small Magic Chests ASAP. Crafted at the workbench from Shroud Spores and small chests, they let you build and craft straight from storage. Keep crafting materials in them; weapons and food go in regular chests.
• Upgrade your backpack. The Tiny Backpack (torn cloth + string) is the first of several — you will be drowning in loot.
• Stack three food buffs. One drink plus two foods, all active at once. Cooked beats raw every time, and honey is secretly the best stamina-regen item in the early game.
• Search rubble, graves, and suspicious barrels. Hidden chests hide in the dumbest places, and demolishing abandoned structures gives you wood, stone, and cloth for free.
• Make lockpicks. You'll find locked chests constantly; showing up without picks is just leaving loot behind.
• Place map markers. Future you, lost in the Shroud with two minutes on the timer, will be grateful.
• Run the Hollow Halls. They're the best early source of the upgrade materials your gear actually needs.

After the first night: Elixir Wells and Cinder's Cradle

Once the basics are stable, your loop is: clear Elixir Wells and destroy Shroud Roots for skill points, rescue more survivors as main quests appear, and push into new regions. Version 1.0 added Cinder's Cradle plus new areas at the edges of older biomes, with the player cap at 50 and gear at 55 — there's a full endgame past the story's new ending.

Two honest warnings before you buy: there's no crossplay at launch (Keen says it's coming), and 1.0 costs $39.99 ($35.99 with the launch discount). The 86% positive Steam rating across 107,000+ reviews — and 64,000 concurrent players on launch day — suggests most people think it's money well spent. Mycopunk's day-one guide is there if you'd rather start with this week's other big co-op launch instead.