Enshrouded

Embervale was a kingdom. Then the Shroud came: a thick fog that swallowed the land and turned what lived in it into something else. You are Flameborn, woken from a sleep you did not choose, and you are the only thing that can push the fog back.

Mechanically it is three games stacked neatly. A survival crafting loop (gather, cook, build), a genuinely good action RPG (dodge, block, bows, magic, a large skill tree), and a voxel builder that lets you dig into a mountain and carve a hall out of it rather than snapping prefabs together.

• The world is handcrafted, not procedural, so exploration rewards curiosity in a way random worlds cannot.
• You do not starve. Food gives you stat buffs instead, which is a much friendlier design.
• You glide and grapple everywhere. Traversal is fast and vertical from early on.
• Death costs you progress toward your current level and sends you back to a Flame, not to the title screen.

Your first real act is lighting a Flame Altar. It is your spawn point, your base anchor, and the thing that makes an area buildable and safe. Everything else in Enshrouded is measured against it.

• The altar defines a build zone. Inside it you can place, dig and terraform freely.
• Raising the altar's Flame level extends that zone, lets you place more altars, and is what lets you survive deeper into the Shroud.
• You raise it by burning Shroud Roots, the pulsing growths you find inside shrouded areas. Clearing fog is literally how you level your base.
• Rescued survivors live at your altar and each one unlocks a craft discipline.

1. 1

   Light the first flame

   Follow the opening quest. Do not overthink the location, you can and will build more altars.

2. 2

   Build a shelter with a bed and storage

   A bed sets your respawn and passes time. Chests near your crafting benches save you an enormous amount of walking.

3. 3

   Rescue survivors

   They are sealed in the world, usually behind a small dungeon or a shrouded ruin. Each one you free and place at your altar unlocks a workbench and their own quest chain.

4. 4

   Activate Ancient Spires

   Climb them, activate them. They reveal the map around them and become fast travel points. Do this the moment you see one.

The Shroud is a fog that covers large parts of the map. Step into it and a timer starts. When it runs out, you die, wherever you are, however much health you had.

• Shroud areas hold the best early materials, the sealed survivors and most of the interesting ruins. You cannot avoid them.
• Your timer extends as your Flame level rises, so shroud diving and base progress feed each other.
• Look for the pale glowing wells inside the fog. Standing at one refills the timer, which turns a two minute raid into a proper expedition.
• Enemies in the fog hit harder and see further. Bring a bow, and bring a way out.

Combat is stamina-based and deliberate: light attacks, heavy attacks, blocks, parries and dodge rolls. It is not a soulslike, but it borrows the good habits. Enemies telegraph, and greed gets punished.

• Melee, ranged and magic are all fully supported, and the skill tree is wide enough to mix them.
• The tree branches into a dozen class routes, from pure warrior through ranger and assassin to battlemage and healer.
• Gear has rarity tiers and rolls. A well rolled blue can beat a poorly rolled purple.
• Food and drink give real combat buffs: max health, stamina regeneration, resistances. Cooking is not flavour text.

Enshrouded's builder is the best thing in it. The world is voxels, so you can dig a tunnel, hollow a cliff, flatten a hill, and then build a keep on top of it with free placement rather than a grid.

1. 1

   Learn the terrain tools first

   The pickaxe and the shovel are building tools. Removing and adding ground is how you get a flat, believable foundation.

2. 2

   Use the material swap

   Any block you have placed can be changed to another material later. Build the shape first, decorate second.

3. 3

   Put your craftspeople somewhere sensible

   Their workbenches need space around them. A cramped workshop is a workshop you cannot upgrade.

4. 4

   Build for comfort

   Furniture, light and decoration raise your base's comfort, which gives you a real buff. Making it nice IS the optimisation.

The story is told through the survivors you rescue and the ruins you loot. The kingdom had alchemists who solved a problem in a way that created a much larger one, and the Shroud is the bill coming due.

• The Elixir the kingdom depended on is at the centre of it. Chasing where it came from is the main quest.
• Each rescued survivor is a professional with an opinion about the collapse: the blacksmith, the hunter, the alchemist and the farmer do not agree about who is to blame.
• The Flame is presented as salvation and never quite explains itself. You are its instrument, and it woke you up for a reason.
• The best environmental storytelling is in the shrouded ruins: houses, mid-meal, mid-evacuation, still standing.

• Co-op holds a large group, and a dedicated server keeps the world running when the host logs off.
• Everyone shares the world and its altars, and every player keeps their own character, level and gear.
• Split the work: one person on shroud raids, one on base and cooking, one on the quest line. It is a game where a support player is genuinely useful.
• Build permissions are shared inside an altar's zone, so agree on a plan before someone flattens the hill your tower is on.

• Cook. Buffed food is the cheapest power in the game and most new players ignore it.
• Activate every Ancient Spire you pass. Map reveal plus fast travel plus a safe respawn.
• Carry a bow always. Half the dangerous fights become safe when you pull one enemy at a time.
• Loot every bookcase and crate. Recipes, seeds and building materials hide in furniture.
• Place a second Flame Altar near the next region you are exploring rather than running back and forth.
• Chests near benches, benches near each other. Crafting pulls from nearby storage.
• When the timer scares you, leave. The fog is not going anywhere and neither is the loot.

• The official site and Steam patch notes for what each content update added.
• The community wiki for recipe lists, survivor locations and skill tree planning.
• Ask in our Discord. Build screenshots are half the reason anyone posts in there.