Enshrouded an early access fantasy Survival Game complete with combat, exploration, quests, base building, and crafting. It originally launched as early access on Steam in January of 2024, and caught some eyes but didn’t hit it nearly as big as Valheim. But something magical has been happening since its initial release. It’s grown by leaps and bounds with regular major updates and enhancements. It also won 4 awards at the German Developer Awards for Best Game Design, Best German Game, Studio of the Year, and Best Technical Achievement. Something even more impressive is Enshrouded features Keen’s custom built Holistic 3D rendering engine. This is quite a feat of achievement for any game development studio, especially since most use existing solutions like Unity or Unreal. As of June of 2025, Enshrouded’s Steam ratings are 9/10 with more than 70,000 votes. That’s very impressive. And with the recent “Pathch 6” drop (which is actually 0.8 and called Thralls of Twilight), the game continues to gain attention from numerous interested players, including myself.
- Developed By: Keen Games
- Early Access Release Date: January, 2024
- Projected 1.0 Release Date: Spring, 2026
- Version Reviewed: 0.8.11 (Thralls of Twilight)
First, a little background on Keen Games GmbH. The main game they made multiple iterations of prior to Enshrouded is Portal Knights, which is a 3D Sandbox game with very positive reviews. It was originally released in May of 2017.
Let’s dive into what makes this game so great.
Table of Contents
Content
The first thing a player does is create their own custom Character using a collection of preset body types (Male & Female) paired with customization of Skin, Hair, Eyes, Voice and Name. It’s a pretty simple system, but that’s alright since most characters will be decked out in armor or vanity outfits. It’s important to note that Enshrouded is a classless game. The skill system is completely dynamic and covered in more detail below.
After that, the player can create their own local world, host an online world, or join an online world. This system is similar to Valheim. I’ve only played solo in a local world. Difficulty Settings are a key part of setting up a world. Details on the settings can be found here.
The Lore of enshrouded has your character awakening as a Flameborn, the last hope for survival of the ravaged world of Embervale. It’s a little bit Last of Us meets fantasy since the world has been overrun by The Shroud, which has destroyed numerous pockets of the world with nasty gurgling spores and dangerous creatures. The Flame serves as your guide and assigned a mission to restore balance by igniting ancient flames, purifying the regions tainted by the Shroud, and discovering lost secrets. For those who like lore, it’s quite in-depth with this game. Reading all the dialogue, notes, discoveries, and learning the history of the towns regions is quite interesting. In the end, the lore within Enshrouded is quite deep and well-written. For those who are interested, the below video is the best compilation of Enshrouded lore that I’ve seen. It’s actually very interesting.
The World of Enshrouded is static, huge and beautiful. A lot of thought, planning, and love went into its design. There’s so much to explore and see that one would think a static realm would quickly become boring. It doesn’t. Embervale is packed full of everything ranging from abandoned castles to underground caves overrun with nasty critters. Mines. Dungeons. Large Tombs. Temples. Hidden treasure chests. Farms. Flame Shrines, mini bosses, big bosses, towers and more. Forests, plains, swamps, deserts, and snowy mountains await! Day and Night cycles are important because of the new night spawns for mobs, as well as night-only objects that need to be gathered (such as plants or moths). Some dungeons can also only be opened at night.
The Flame Altar serves as the center of your main base and can also be placed to act as exploration and teleportation points. The core base altar can be upgraded to extend the building radius and the overall strength, which increases the time the character can spend in the shroud. It also provides attribute bonuses and unlocks higher level deadly shroud. Details on what each level requires can be found here.
Spires serve as the unlocked teleportation points that help direct and control players to work their way through the acts. There’s currently seven spires: Springlands, Revelwood, Blackmire, Nomad Highlands, Kindlewastes, and the final Albaneve Summit. Spires are unlocked by completing puzzles. At first, the puzzles can be annoying, but the more you play the easier they get. Each spire has 3 levels the player needs to unlock to reach the top.
One interesting note is most of the chests in the game are RNG. One playthrough could drop more swords where another could drop more wands. Some chests are guaranteed specific legendary drops, but there’s only a few of them compare to the sheer volume of chests that are available in the game.
Resources generally come in the form of Mineable materials or Growing foliage that can be harvested. It’s important to note that all resources regenerate. What’s neat is you can pretty much dig anywhere. You’ll get dirt, stone, fertile soil, etc. One thing I like is how Mining allows you to hit places that are a bit of a distance from your character.
Characters will craft a grappling hook early on, which is required for traversing many of the puzzles throughout the world. There’s also a glider, which allows the character to jump off the tops of spires and other high areas to glide for long distances. There’s even an updraft skill that allows players to glide horizontally much further and faster than they could cover on foot.
The game has a World Map that tracks quest locations, discovered places, Shroud Wells that have been cleared, and also allows for waypoints to be defined. The only issue is the waypoint system is just a colored icon. The developers plan on allowing for enhanced waypoints in the future, including the ability to write a note.
A character can teleport to any unlocked Spire or Flame Altar from anywhere in the game except the Shroud.
Survivors are in-game companions the character is tasked to retrieve as they progress through the game. They are actual people and souls of those who have been lost. These NPCs are placed at the players base, which unlocks crafting and quests. These systems are covered in more detail below under Mechanics.
Enshrouded is a Quest driven game, and there’s more than 210 available. Some quests can take an hour or longer to complete, while others are quick. Quests are broken down into two core categories: NPC and Lore. NPC quests are generally to unlock crafting stations while Lore quests are about exploration. It’s easy to quickly be overcome with some many quests you don’t know which one to do; just review their rewards and hammer them out. It’s not uncommon to have 20+ quests open at any given time in your log as you’re leveling. Quests are colored based on difficulty relative to the character’s level. Green for easy, Yellow for normal and Purple for difficult.
When it comes to Equipment, the world of Embervale is full of weapons, armor, crafting materials, ammunition, food, consumables, and a plethora of other items that’s quite extensive. The character has the following slots: Ranged, Shield, Pack, Grapple Hook, Glider, Rings (x2), Helmet, Chest, Gloves, Pants and Boots. Weapons have durability and need to be repaired after use. I find the normal durability settings to be too tedious, and many players turn weapon durability off entirely.
The game also has a Cosmetics slot for each armor slot, which allows the player to define their character’s look at feel. Note this only applies to armor and not weapons. Some players use the cosmetics slots as extra storage slots for armor. The Carpenter unlocks Mannequins early game, allowing the player to set up collections of armor sets they can quickly switch in and out of.
For Inventory, the game follows the standard slot and stack based approach that’s expanded on the character with back upgrades. Chests can be built to store items at bases, and Magic versions of those chests allow for crafting stations to pull directly from them.
Players can also deconstruct or even take over and enhance existing buildings and get their materials by placing a Flame Altar nearby.
Gameplay & Mechanics
Enshrouded is a difficult game. I died more times on my first playthrough than all my playthroughs of Valheim combined. The main reason is because there are so many more ways to die. Getting stuck in shroud, mis-jumping on a puzzle, having your primary weapon break in the middle of battle, or running out of stamina while gliding. That, and combat is much more involved with groups of monsters that can quickly overwhelm and destroy you. Mastering this game takes more skill than most others I’ve played. The good news is a player can customize the difficulty, which is covered below.
Embervale is a destructible world. If you can see it, you can probably break it or dig into it. This makes things a lot of fun during combat when you shoot the collection of explosive charges, or spin around with your axe during combat and break apart nearby storage boxes that drop materials you’ve been looking for. The player can pretty much dig into the ground anywhere; however unless it’s within an Altar’s radius, all digging and world objects reset within 30 minutes.
The core Attributes are Health, Mana, and Stamina. The game also categorizes Melee Damage, Ranged Damage and Magic Damage as main attributes, which is interesting. Primary stats are: Constitution, Spirit, Endurance, Strength, Dexterity and Intelligence. Each directly enhances the character by raising health, increasing magic damage, etc. What’s interesting is Enshrouded doesn’t follow the standard resistance damage type of fire, ice, electricity, dark/shadow, etc. It has a simplified version that includes Magic, Melee, Ranged, Flying and Hollow. There is Fire, Ice, Shock, and Poison, and some monsters are more resistant or take extra damage, but it’s not clear cut with the way attributes are defined. A player can find out if monsters are fire or ice resistant by using weapons (or spells) of those elements against targets to see if extra damage is done. Melee weapons also have attributes like Cutting, Piercing, Blunt and even Poison. But there’s no chart showing which monsters are more resistant to specific attribute values. Because Enshrouded really is a unique game where the developers put together their own systems rather than copying “standards” there’s a learning curve.
A new character doesn’t have health regeneration. The only way to regenerate health is to use a consumable, rest in a bed, or take healing/leeching nodes from the skill tree. Some weapons also have leech. This can make starting out in the game a bit rough, which forces the player to rely on bandages, potions and minimalist HP regeneration food.
Time to dive into the Skill Tree. As mentioned, there are no classes in Enshrouded. Instead, there are builds, which revolve around using different weapons and armor sets paired with skills that benefit the style a character wants to focus on. The tree is broken into 3 sections: Red, Green and Blue. Red is generally warrior/physical, Green is ranger/survival, and Blue is Magic/Healer. Skill points are obtained by leveling up and destroying Shroud Roots through exploration. At this time, it’s possible to obtain up to 149 skill points.
Skill points are awarded by leveling, destroying Shroud Roots, and clearing Elixir Wells. 2 points per level, 1 point per root, and 3 points per well. This comes out to be 68 points from leveling, 33 points from roots and 48 points from Elixir Wells, coming to a grand total of 149. Skill points can be refunded by spending runes at the Altar of Flame. It’s not costly at all and allows a player to test different skill combinations as they make their way through the game.
The max Character Level in the game is currently 35, but what’s interesting is Character Level doesn’t have any associations with armor, weapons, or even combat damage. Character level also unlocks quests, but they can still be done if the player knows where to go. While reaching level 35 to get all skill points is always the goal, there’s so much more to do. Like taking out the shroud roots and clearing wells, crafting armor, building an efficient productive base, and finding the best weapons.
Standard builds are: Assassin, Barbarian, Battlemage, Beastmaster, Healer, Ranger, Tank, Warrior and Wizard. Granted these are generic build references, a character can customize their tree and even respec as they see fit. So a player could start as a “Sword and Board” warrior, and covert to a powerful Wizard at end-game. Many players prefer to just build their own way as they play through, and if they want to try another build, they start another character. The Beastmaster tree and the way it interacts with creatures just doesn’t work very well. I’m sure the devs will address it in the future.
The general consensus is the best two builds for new players are Melee (Sword+Shield/2H) and Ranger (Ranged+Melee Support). Magic is very powerful at endgame, but leveling up a mage is quite tedious and squishy. Melee does the most damage, and Ranger has the most flexibility. I include a link to builds for players to follow in the resources section below for those who want to try something that’s proven and powerful.
The Combat in this game is well done, fluid, and requires strategy. A single fight can quickly become overwhelming and intense as the game features melee, parrying, blocking, running and dodging, ranged bow attacks, and ranged magic attacks from foes on the ground and in the air. And all of that can happen at once if you run headfirst into the wrong group as the game can quickly inject the player into a zerg of attackers that can be challenging to manage. So much there’s a world difficulty setting called Simultaneous Enemy Attacks that controls the number of enemies that can attack at any given time. This is a great design and results in a dozen attackers taking breaks from their attacks and instead circle you as their buddies hack and swing. I like the combat. It can be brutal sometimes, but it’s very engaging. The one system that seems to be a bit broken is sneaking and sneak attacks. It’s just not very well implemented, so playing an assassin is tough. There’s also no curse/DoT or true minion build like a necromancer. While one can “charm” beasts as a Beastmaster, the system really doesn’t act as much more than a novelty. In the end, melee and Ranged are smooth and don’t feel clunky at all. The funny part is magic feels a bit clunky and is very rough in the beginning. Archery allows for headshots, and can do crazy damage when properly aimed. But Melee pretty much destroys everything, and once a character is properly set up as a tank with leech and regeneration… it’s a gladiator splat-fest of carnage that’s a ton of fun to play.
Boss Fights can be challenging and fun. Most bosses in the game are mini bosses and there are currently only two major bosses: the Fell Wispwyvern and Fell Dragon Youngling. Other mini-bosses include the poison belching Scavenger Matron, the leap slamming Vukah Brawler, and the first mini-boss the player encounters while clearing the well next to their starting base, the Fell Thunderbrute. Each boss and mini-boss has their own mechanics, which are easy to learn.
The game has two Action Bars with 8 slots each the character can switch between by pressing ALT. This is where weapons, ammo, and consumables are slotted up for use during combat. The player can also put furniture items they want to place in their base on the action bar for easy placement.
Ammunition is a big part of the game, mainly for Rangers and their Arrows, but also for Mages and charges for their Staff before they get eternal versions of the ammunition. Food is a key mechanic of the game as are other Consumables including potions. The character has 3 slots open for food at any given time, and a skill tree node adds a 4th. Using the right food makes all the difference as it augments health, stats, regeneration and even damage.
Like many other sandbox exploration, adventure and base building game, Comfort and Rested Bonus are critical in Enshrouded. Players are enticed to build nice interior furniture and items to deck out the comfort level in their main base so they can have the longest rest bonus possible. Rest bonus provides increased Stamina and Regeneration, which makes all the difference when running, mining, etc. The max comfort level currently achievable is 103, which gives 1 hour and 52 minutes of rest bonus. Here’s a guide on how to do it.
The game is designed to respawn all resources, monsters and even chest contents outside of a Flame Altar region every 30 minutes or when the game is restarted.
Enshrouded has a Pet and Animal Husbandry system. Characters use Bait to lure and befriend their targets. Pets live at your base and you can pet them for a bonus. Farm Animals can be bred and farmed for materials like Meat and Feathers. Both Pets and Farm Animals need feeders and a place to sleep.
Movement consists of walking, running (with sprint), using a Glider, and using Flame Altar or Spire waypoints for teleport. The game also has an On the Road buff that is active when players follow roads so their stamina drains more slowly.
Movement within puzzles still has a few hiccups as the character will sometimes fail to grab a crawl wall you jump on, or a wall top will confuse the system and cause your character to plummet to their death. It’s frustrating and takes time to learn what areas to be extra cautious in and/or avoid.
With default settings, there is no Death Penalty, only the need to go back to your tombstone to retrieve what was dropped based on the difficulty settings. It can be frustrating though because as you’re adventuring and forget to put down a nearby Flame Altar after going a long distance, it can be quite the trek to get back. I will acknowledge that this game has some of the best death gravestone placement code I’ve seen. When you jump off a ledge and die somewhere you can’t get your body, the game marks a location where you can actually get your stuff.
Some areas and dungeons have buffs available that last 30 minutes. For example, the Vukka buff gives 20% melee damage.
With the default settings, weapons have durability and will need to be regularly repaired, which is done at a repair station (an anvil that is found in the world) or at your workbench. I think the default weapon durability system is probably the most frustrating part of the game. Weapons break way too quickly in my opinion and it’s more fun to play the game with durability disabled.
Crafting & Building
Crafting is very extensive in this game with 9 NPCs including the Blacksmith, Alchemist, Carpenter, Hunter, Farmer, Collector, Bard, Lunar New Year Trader and Barber. Recipes are unlocked by completing quests, harvesting resources, finding or crafting items. There are more than 200 crafting materials in the game, and 22 crafting stations. The crafting UI has these categories: Essentials, Blocks, Roof Blocks, Road Blocks, Supplies, Ammo, Production, Resources, Survival, Weapons, Magical Weapons, Armor, Comfort, Decorative, Tools & Components, Fun, and Cosmetic. While I’m not sure as to how many craftable items the player can make, it’s hundreds. Crafting at a NPC is instant whereas a workstation usually requires time (and can be queued up). The Workbench is the first crafting station that is used to make everything from building blocks to starting storage chests. It’s also where all items are repaired on use. As the player expands their crafting base, they learn which NPC to use. Blacksmith is for… blacksmith things! Carpenter is for… Carpentry! While it can be overwhelming at first, it’s easy to learn who crafts what and which NPC to use. The Alchemist makes potions. The Hunter makes Arrows. The Farmer makes farming related items and resources. Pretty soon, a players base is bustling with the NPCs offering quests, walking around and greeting them when they return. One interesting thing to note is NPCs are used to craft armor sets, but there are no magic armor sets in the game and NPCs cannot craft magic weapons. Those can only be found in the world.
The Building system of this in this game is fantastic and probably the best I’ve seen. It’s also important to note that building in Enshrouded doesn’t use physics. So players can build anything that’s visually appealing without having to worry about support beams. Because of this, the “estates” players can create are pretty mind blowing and the core progression of the game quickly has the player building a cozy base complete with crafting stations and comfort items. A players base will evolve into a much larger mini-settlement complete with farmland and even animals. But for those who don’t care about building, things can be kept minimalistic. And for those who want grandiose full-on estates, the system supports that as well. It’s easy to navigate, delete, pick up, place and customize houses, gardens, paths, and other building-related activities.
Tired of your NPCs wandering around? Using the Staff Summon menu, press TAB and use F to set their Roaming Range to 0 and they will stay where you put them!
Enhancing is a NPC feature that empowers weapons by using Runes. Players can also use the Gem Forge to socket gems they find during their adventure. Empowering and gem socketing a weapon can make all the difference in damage and fun factor. At this time, only weapons can be enhanced or socketed, not armor.
Farming is another critical part of the game and a key mechanic because it allows the player to plant and grow not only food, but resources for crafting items. For example, Flax is one of the most used materials in mid-game because it’s used to make Linen. Sure, it grows all over Revelwood, but wouldn’t it be nice to have 100 plants back at your base you can harvest every 10-15 minutes? You can pretty much grow most anything in this game, and the farming mechanic is one of the best I’ve seen. Vegetables, Grains, Fruits, Herbs, Wild Plants, Fungi, Tea, Sweets and Trees can all be planted for aesthetic or harvesting purposes. A detailed overview of everything the player can plant and grow can be found here.
Community
I’ve only played Enshrouded solo, but looking at all the activity on the subreddit, wiki and content on YouTube, it appears the community isn’t just alive and well, but very active. Their Discord channel is teeming with activity, and people are constantly talking about and playing this game with many twitch streamers regularly broadcasting.
When it comes to multiplayer, the game only supports co-op play. It’s not like Valheim where a bunch of players can run off and do their own thing and build their own bases. Even if there’s 16 players on an Enshrouded server, all of them are limited to the 5 Flame Altar positions. So only consider co-op if you plan on actually playing and progressing with others. You can pool resources, adventure together and even have your own quest progression – but the “server world” is built by everyone and can host up to 16 players at a time. For those who want to run their own Dedicated Enshrouded server, here’s an overview of how to set it up.
Technical
I really haven’t encounter any bugs, but I did fall through the world once. The game teleported me back to the starting chamber without penalty. No crashes, and only a few terrain mesh seam issues that are barely noticeable. As mentioned above, I have experienced some wonky behavior when jumping, gliding, and trying to grab things while doing puzzles. It’s happened enough for me to think there’s a few hiccups with the fine-tuning of complex character movements. But other than that, Enshrouded is a solid game from a technical perspective. Especially given the developers created their own client engine.
Mods are currently not supported, but the developers have stated it’s their goal to add mod support in the future.
The Graphics are stunning and perfect for the world and environment. I have a Radeon RX 7900 XTX and all graphic settings are on max. I haven’t encountered any stuttering or FPS issue. The game has been smooth as silk.
The Music is relaxing, original, goes very well with the surrounding environments. The Sound FX are directional, balanced and perfect for this type of game as well.
The User Interface is unique and takes some adjusting to, but it becomes easy to use and navigate once you’re familiar with it.
End Game
Although Enshrouded is still in Early Access, the current level cap is 35. That might not sound high at first glance, but reaching it takes considerable time and effort. Even after hitting max level, most characters will still be missing a significant number of skill points, incomplete quests, and far from optimal gear.
My understanding is two more biomes are due before release next year, including an underwater biome.
Endgame progression isn’t just about levels. It’s about refining your build and setting up efficient farming setups for consumables, ammo, and resources. A well-designed, productive base becomes essential not just for survival, but for long-term progression and experimentation.
Many players report spending over 100 hours on a single playthrough with one character and build. Replaying the game with a completely different build is a fun and different way to experience the core game. And it’s so large, it’s easy to forget things from your previous run. With the wide variety of playstyles available, true endgame content lies in restarting in new worlds, building fresh bases, and optimizing new character paths all while praying the RNG gods bless your chest loot.
Conclusion
Enshrouded is a brilliantly designed experience and one of the best fantasy survival games currently on the market that offers hundreds of hours of play time. But more than that, this early access game has more content than many AAA released games. The world is lush, custom tailored and beautiful. Exploration feels rewarding. Combat is fun, challenging and interactive. The classless build flexibility works well, but it could be refined further. The building system is top notch, and players can make grand amazing bases that are actually functional and support the build type they’ve chosen. The overall pacing is very good, especially the structured progression through quests. Inventory management is a chore and pain, even with magic chests. Endgame is still under construction, but there’s so much content, the game already offers hundreds of hours of enjoyment. Some of the puzzles are frustrating and time consuming. Navigating the multi-layer complex terrain design can be problematic. But in the end, the game is fantastic. Enshrouded is a world I enjoy being in, and I’m not the only one as I’ve met players who have thousands of hours in the game. A game that just keeps getting better and better due to the hard work, focus, and dedication of the developers. If you haven’t played it yet, now is the perfect time to start!
Resources
- Enshrouded Interactive Map
- Official Enshrouded Wiki
- Enshrouded Skill Planner
- Deltia’s Enshrouded Build Guides
- Deltia’s Enshrouded Beginner Guide
- Official Enshrouded Latest News & Patch Notes
