Last updated: 21 October 2026

Enshrouded Beginner Guide Your First Hours in 1.0

In Enshrouded 1.0, the first concrete thing every new Flameborn does is place a Flame Altar — Keen Games designed that single action to trigger your character's first level-up, with freeing the Blacksmith giving you the second if you're following the main quest line. From there, surviving your first few hours comes down to watching the Shroud's timer, raising your Flame Level to unlock new armor and altar slots, and growing your base with rescued survivors. This guide walks through what a new player, or a returning Early Access player Keen Games is actively encouraging to start fresh, actually needs to know before stepping out of their first base — built entirely from Keen Games' own 1.0 launch FAQ, changelog, and store listings, not from quest steps or loot locations we haven't verified ourselves.

01What to Do First: Your Flame Altar and the Blacksmith

Enshrouded's official Steam description casts you as the title says: "Rise as a Flameborn," the last hope of a fallen kingdom, waking into a world being consumed by a corrupting mist called the Shroud.

1.0 redesigned the opening minutes around two specific, named milestones. Keen Games' own changelog says the first level-up is now designed to happen when you place your first Flame Altar — before 1.0, that first level-up instead fired when you reached a location called Longkeep. Keen Games adds a caveat worth keeping: this isn't "strict science," since players are free to go their own way. If you're following the main quest line, though, freeing the Blacksmith is what should trigger your second level-up.

Both milestones matter beyond the XP itself: leveling up is what opens your skill tree for the first time, so until you've placed that altar and freed the Blacksmith, you simply don't have points to spend yet.

Before any of that, 1.0 also added a character-creation choice: you pick between "classic" and newer "realistic" body proportions when you make your Flameborn. If you pick wrong, it's not permanent — the changelog confirms you can change it later at the Barber back at your base.

02Returning From Early Access? Keen Games Wants You to Restart

If you played Enshrouded before 1.0, your old save does carry over. Keen Games' official Launch FAQ is explicit: "You can absolutely use Early Access saves once the game releases in 1.0... saves will be converted to a new, more efficient format." You don't need to buy the game again on PC, either.

But Keen Games itself recommends against carrying your save forward if you want the best first impression of 1.0. The same FAQ adds: "we have made many improvements to the world and first few hours of the game, so if you're up for it, we strongly encourage you to start over." Four early biomes — Springlands, Revelwood, Blackmire, and Nomad Highlands — got a visual and layout rework in 1.0, so an old save skips past content built specifically for new players.

One change applies whether you restart or not: your skill tree is reset for every existing character. Keen Games' own 1.0 combat changelog says so directly: "with the new skills and changes to existing skill placement in the tree, your skill tree has been reset, hopefully for the last time. Don't step out of your base without investing your points."

For the full rundown of everything else that changed in 1.0, see our 1.0 changes explained guide; for exactly where your save files live and what to do if a migration fails, see our save file & crash-fix guide.

03The Shroud and Its Timer, Explained

The Shroud is the corrupting mist covering most of Enshrouded's map, and it comes with a survival timer: stay inside it too long without topping that timer up, and it starts working against you.

Hourglass capsules are the main way to extend your time in the Shroud, and 1.0 made them noticeably more useful: each capsule now adds roughly 70% more extra time than it used to, and capsules drop more often overall, including from large Fell enemies.

There's a catch, though. 1.0 also deliberately reduced how much benefit you get from stacking several Shroud-time extensions at once, specifically so the timer stays a real threat late in the game even with capsules now more plentiful. Don't assume hoarding capsules lets you ignore the clock indefinitely — that loophole was closed on purpose.

If you're exploring Nomad Highlands specifically, 1.0 also added three new save points there along with improved wayfinding back out of the Shroud, since that biome had been a known trouble spot for getting stranded.

04Flame Level: The Gate That Drives Your Progression

Flame Altars and your Flame Level sit at the center of Enshrouded's progression. Raising your Flame Level now auto-unlocks each armor-set tier as you go, replacing the old system that required finding specific resource pickups first.

Raising your Flame Level also increases how many Flame Altars you're allowed to have active in your world at once. At the top of the new 1.0 tier, Flame Level 11, Keen Games' own QoL notes call it "the final flame level" and say it unlocks the ability to push the Shroud itself back using Flame Altars — a requirement a host can lower in a world's settings.

Worth flagging: Keen Games' own 1.0 changelog isn't fully consistent about the altar cap at that top tier. One section states the cap rises to 16 altars at Flame Level 11; a separate highlights section says 15. We're calling out the mismatch rather than silently picking one, and it may get reconciled in a future patch.

Flame Levels are separate from skill points — raising one doesn't spend the other. The 1.0 skill tree itself was restructured with new skills and a moved Assassin dagger branch; see our skill tree guide for what actually changed there.

05Survivors, Crafting Stations and Your Base

Per Keen Games' own description, rescuing survivors from the Shroud is how "your lonely hut grows into a bustling settlement of craftspeople and townsfolk, unlocking new recipes and gear." Each rescued survivor staffs a crafting station back at your base.

1.0 adds a new survivor tied to Ancient knowledge and recipes, who becomes available once you've reached the new Cinder's Cradle region.

Crafting survivors assigned to combat classes now also handle upgrades for Eternal spells and arrows — the no-ammo-cost versions of spells and arrows added in 1.0.

One small but useful 1.0 addition: survivor roaming distance around your base is now configurable, down to a 2-meter minimum, before you place them — handy if you want a specific survivor to stay close to the station you built them for.

Storage got easier to manage too: chests can now be upgraded in place instead of needing to be emptied first, can be freely renamed, and can be converted into Magic chests, while 24-slot chests are craftable earlier than before — worth knowing before you build out your first storage room.

06Glider and Grappling Hook: Getting Around

Keen Games' own store description sums up basic traversal: "Swing across chasms with your grappling hook, glide from dizzying heights." Both tools are available from early on and are the main way to cross terrain you can't simply walk across.

1.0 makes both a little more forgiving. Grappling toward an enemy specifically now costs less stamina, and air streams can push a gliding player in any direction instead of only upward — useful for reaching spots a straight glide couldn't get you to before.

If you make it to the reworked Albaneve Summits boss fight later on, note that 1.0 also added grapple-hook anchors inside that arena specifically to help you recover after a fall.

07Food Buffs and the Puke Potion

Food and potions in Enshrouded grant temporary buffs, and part of early survival is keeping a useful one active.

1.0 adds the Puke Potion, which clears all of your active food buffs at once — a quick way to reset before switching to a different buff combination, rather than waiting out whatever you're currently running.

One existing buff got a direct upgrade: Wisp of Light now lasts 10 minutes, up from 5 minutes pre-1.0.

08Auto-Loot, Difficulty and World Settings

1.0 adds auto-loot: hold the interact button and nearby scattered loot items get pulled in automatically. It doesn't reach into containers, enemies, or quest items, and there's an optional setting to make the behavior always-on instead of hold-to-activate.

Enshrouded's Steam listing confirms the game ships with adjustable difficulty options and a camera-comfort setting, if motion or combat intensity is a concern for your group. The same listing confirms full controller support, including dedicated DualSense support, if you'd rather not play with a mouse and keyboard.

World settings also let a host adjust certain progression gates directly — for example, the Flame Level required before Flame Altars can push the Shroud back can be lowered from its default, which is worth knowing if your group wants that feature sooner.

09Playing Solo or With Others

Enshrouded genuinely supports solo play: Steam lists Single-player alongside its multiplayer categories, so you're not required to bring friends.

If you do want company, Steam's own store description states you can play "alone or in co-op with up to 16 players" on PC. On PS5, the official store listing caps offline/solo play at 1 player and online co-op at up to 8 players, and PlayStation Plus is required for the online portion specifically (not for solo play).

Crossplay between PC and PS5 is not available at launch. For the full platform breakdown, including pricing and what Keen Games has said about a future crossplay timeline, see our crossplay & PS5 guide.