Running dry on ammo halfway through a raid used to mean two choices: loot or leave. Nomadic Crafting, an end-of-branch Survival skill added in the Frozen Trails skill tree overhaul, gives you a third. It lets you build ammunition, grenades, a Zipline, and Defibrillators from materials you carry topside, with no trip back to Speranza.
Quick answer: Nomadic Crafting unlocks nine field recipes. Reach 30 points in Survival to take it, and make sure you own each item’s blueprint, or that recipe won’t show up.
Nomadic Crafting items and recipes
These nine items are what Nomadic Crafting adds to the in-round crafting menu. The costs listed are the ones shown on the field recipe cards, which is what you pay while topside.
| Item | Materials | Output | Rarity |
|---|---|---|---|
 Heavy Ammo | 3 Metal Parts, 2 Chemicals | 10 rounds | — |
 Light Ammo | 2 Metal Parts, 2 Chemicals | 25 rounds | — |
 Medium Ammo | 3 Metal Parts, 2 Chemicals | 20 rounds | — |
 Shotgun Ammo | 2 Metal Parts, 3 Chemicals | 5 shells | — |
 Blaze Grenade | 1 Explosive Compound, 2 Oil | 1 | Rare |
 Shrapnel Grenade | 1 Crude Explosives, 2 Steel Spring | 1 | Uncommon |
 Defibrillator | 8 Plastic Parts, 4 Moss | 1 | Rare |
 Zipline | 1 Rope, 1 Mechanical Components | 1 | Rare |
 White Flag | 3 Plastic Parts, 10 Fabric | 1 | — |
The field Defibrillator recipe uses 8 Plastic Parts and 4 Moss, which is much heavier on Moss than the workbench version (9 Plastic Parts and 1 Moss). Gather Moss accordingly if revives are the reason you picked this skill.
Ammunition
All four ammo types draw from the same two materials, Metal Parts and Chemicals, so one stash covers whatever weapon you bring. The menu shows every ammo recipe even when it doesn’t match your current guns. It tags those as incompatible, so check the label before you spend materials on the wrong caliber.
Medium Ammo stacks to 80 and weighs 0.025 per round, so a 20-round craft adds 0.5 to your load. Shotgun Ammo stacks to 20 at 0.085 per shell, so each 5-shell craft adds 0.425. Tian Wen sells both for 900 Coins if you’d rather stock up before deploying.
Grenades
The Blaze Grenade bursts on impact and sets a 10m area on fire, dealing 5 damage per second for 10 seconds. The Shrapnel Grenade uses a fuze and throws out fragments for 60 damage across a 6m radius. Those fragments do poorly against ARC armor plating, so it works better on Raiders than on armored machines. Apollo sells the Shrapnel Grenade for 2,400 Coins, and it sells back for 800.
Defibrillator, Zipline, and White Flag
The Defibrillator is an injection that brings a downed squadmate back up with 50 health, and it takes 1.5 seconds to use. The Zipline is a deployable line that links two points up to 80m apart, so you can get across gaps and up to high ground quickly. The White Flag is the niche pick of the group. You use it to show other Raiders you don’t want a fight.
How to unlock Nomadic Crafting in the Survival branch
Nomadic Crafting sits at the far end of the Survival branch. It belongs to a three-way choice with Road Warrior and Field Repair, and you can own only two of the three.
Your choice also decides which of the other two end-of-branch skills you give up.
- Road Warrior: more ammo and ARC Powercells from ARC, plus full-efficiency recycling in a round.
- Field Repair: repairs weapons, shields, and gadgets in a round, up to 30% durability.
- Nomadic Crafting: the nine field recipes listed above.
Changing your mind later costs 2,000 Coins per skill point, and resets wipe the whole tree. You can’t reset a single branch or skill.
You’ll know the unlock worked when Nomadic Crafting shows as owned in the Survival branch. In your next raid, the ammo, grenade, and Defibrillator recipes appear in the Crafting tab of the in-round menu. A recipe card displays a CRAFT button when you have the materials and “Not enough resources” when you don’t.
Field crafting items from In-Round Crafting and Traveling Tinkerer
Nomadic Crafting adds to the field menu; it doesn’t replace anything. Because the path to it runs through both earlier crafting skills, a Raider with all three can build 25 items topside.
In-Round Crafting recipes
| Item | Materials | Rarity |
|---|---|---|
 Flame Spray | 1 Air Freshener, 1 Fireball Burner | Uncommon |
 Shaker | 1 Canister, 7 Assorted Seeds | Uncommon |
 Li’l Smoke Grenade | 1 Plastic Parts, 5 Chemicals | Common |
 Light Impact Grenade | 2 Plastic Parts, 3 Chemicals | Common |
 Fruit Mix | 1 Lemon, 1 Apricot, 1 Prickly Pear | Uncommon |
 Shield Recharger | 1 ARC Powercell, 1 Rubber Parts | Uncommon |
 Adrenaline Shot | 3 Plastic Parts, 4 Chemicals | Common |
 Agave Juice | 1 Agave, 1 Empty Wine Bottle | Common |
 Bandage | 5 Fabric | Common |
The Shield Recharger restores 4 shield per second for 10 seconds after a 2-second use, and Lance sells it for 1,560 Coins. The Light Impact Grenade hits for 30 damage in a 2.5m radius and sells for 270.
Traveling Tinkerer recipes
| Item | Materials | Rarity |
|---|---|---|
 Noisemaker | 1 Speaker Component, 2 Plastic Parts | Common |
 Blaze Grenade Trap | 1 Blaze Grenade, 1 Wires | Rare |
 Smoke Grenade Trap | 1 Smoke Grenade, 1 Wires | Rare |
 Lure Grenade Trap | 1 Lure Grenade, 1 Wires | Uncommon |
 Gas Grenade Trap | 1 Gas Grenade, 1 Wires | Common |
 Herbal Bandage | 14 Fabric, 1 Great Mullein | Uncommon |
 Raider Hatch Key | 3 Advanced Electrical Components, 1 Sensors | Rare |
Each trap is a laser tripwire that sets off the grenade you built it from, so every trap costs you one grenade of that type plus Wires. The two skills also work together here. With Nomadic Crafting, you can build a Blaze Grenade in the field and then turn it straight into a Blaze Grenade Trap.
Why a Nomadic Crafting recipe is missing from the menu
Owning the skill opens the category, but every item still needs its own blueprint. If you’ve unlocked Nomadic Crafting and the Defibrillator, Zipline, or another recipe isn’t in the field menu, you haven’t learned that blueprint yet. Once you learn it, the recipe shows up in the Crafting tab on your next deploy.
Also check which skill a missing item belongs to. Traps, Herbal Bandages, and the Raider Hatch Key come from Traveling Tinkerer, not Nomadic Crafting. Grabbing one end-of-branch skill won’t fill gaps left by a skill earlier in the path.
