Enshrouded: How to Get the Ancient Gold Block in The Ancient Citadel

The Ancient Gold Block is the gold trim piece in Enshrouded’s Building Blocks: Cinder’s Cradle set. You don’t get it by picking up a material. You get it by finding one specific chest at The Ancient Citadel, and it sits off the main path where most players never look.

Quick answer: Enter The Ancient Citadel in Cinder’s Cradle, turn right through the ruined doorway after the round vault door, drop onto the metal platforms below the cliff, and open the chest between two urns.

Ancient Gold Block chest location at The Ancient Citadel

The chest is tucked under the Citadel itself, on suspended grating that hangs below the structure. The game points you toward it with a note: some Ancients tried to carry their treasures into the Mother Flame, and one of them wrote about solid gold blocks left behind somewhere nearby. That note sets up the “Find The Golden Building Blocks” objective, but the route below gets you there whether or not you’ve read it.

Open the World map and fast travel to The Ancient Citadel in Cinder’s Cradle, or make your way there on foot. The waypoint on the map is labeled Cinder’s Cradle – Citadel.

Citadel map location — The Ancient Citadel on the World map, where the route to the gold blocks starts. Shown at 00:03 in RIFAS’s video. Image: Keen Games GmbH

Climb the stone staircases toward the Citadel gates. Cross the damaged stone and metal bridges along the way. Enemies will fire at you during the approach, so keep moving.

Approaching the Citadel gates — The staircase up to the Citadel gates, the first climb on the route. Shown at 00:14 in RIFAS’s video. Image: Keen Games GmbH

Open the golden double doors at the entrance. Walk through and open the round vault door just inside.

As soon as you come out of the vault door, turn right. Don’t continue straight toward the main objective. Go up the short steps and through the broken, arched stone doorway of the ruined building on your right.

Detouring right to the cliffside — The ruined doorway to the right of the vault exit, which leads off the main path. Shown at 01:02 in RIFAS’s video. Image: Keen Games GmbH

Walk through the ruined building and out its back opening. You’ll come out on an exterior ledge that hangs over the abyss behind the Citadel.

Look down from the ledge and drop onto the metal grating platforms suspended beneath the structure. Jump carefully, because a missed landing sends you into the drop.

Descending to the lower ledge — The hidden grating platforms below the Citadel, where the chest is stashed. Shown at 01:13 in RIFAS’s video. Image: Keen Games GmbH

Find the chest sitting between two stone urns on the platform and open it. Take everything inside.

Looting the Ancient Gold Block chest — Opening the chest between the urns unlocks the Ancient Gold Block recipe and hands over 280 blocks. Shown at 01:20 in RIFAS’s video. Image: Keen Games GmbH

How to confirm the Ancient Gold Block recipe unlocked

You’ll know it worked right away. Looting the chest triggers a “RECIPE UNLOCKED!” banner that reads “Ancient Gold Block at Workbench.” You also get 280 Ancient Gold Blocks in your backpack.

To double-check, open your backpack and find the stack. The Ancient Gold Block is listed under Building Materials as a Common item, and its source is shown as Workbench. The in-game description calls it a solid gold Ancient block that’s mostly used as decorative trim on buildings.

Crafting more Ancient Gold Blocks at the Workbench

Once you’ve unlocked it, you aren’t limited to the 280 from the chest. You can craft the Ancient Gold Block at the Workbench, where each recipe yields 100 blocks. The Workbench has its own requirements, and it only works inside a Flame Altar’s area.

Record	Value
Rarity	Common
Crafted at	Workbench
Recipe yield	100
Stack size	5000
Found in	The Ancient Citadel, Cinder’s Cradle
Item set	Building Blocks: Cinder’s Cradle
Workbench unlock	Flame Altar placed, player level 2+
Workbench placement	Inside a Flame Altar’s area only

A 5000 stack size means a single backpack slot holds a lot of trim. The 280 blocks from the chest barely dent that, so you won’t run into storage problems while decorating.

Building Blocks: Cinder’s Cradle set pieces

The Ancient Gold Block is one of seven pieces in the Building Blocks: Cinder’s Cradle set. To complete the set you need to obtain all seven, and completing it grants 200 XP. Three pieces unlock as soon as you pick up a material. The other four, including the gold block, each come from a specific location.

Block	How it unlocks
Ancient Gold Block	Chest at The Ancient Citadel
Ancient Beacon Block	Found in Cinder’s Cradle (Island Ruin)
Ancient Circles Block	Found at Celestium Mining Site
Weathered Ancient Stone Block	Found in Blackmire (Lost Ancient Temple)
Ancient Stone Block	Pick up Basalt
Ancient Dungeon Block	Pick up Basalt
Moonstone Block	Pick up Moonstone

All seven are Common blocks with a 5000 stack size, and all of them are crafted at the Workbench in batches of 100 once unlocked. With the gold block in your recipe list, only the remaining location-locked pieces stand between you and the set’s 200 XP.