Enshrouded: How to Build and Place Your First Flame Altar

The Flame Altar is the anchor for your base in Enshrouded. You build the first one in the Plains meadow north-east of Longkeep, during the quest Claim A Spot For Your Base and its objective “Build A Flame Altar”. Once it is down and lit, it marks your respawn point, opens a menu of base and character upgrades, and pushes the story forward. If you have not reached the Plains yet, follow the Cinder Vault walkthrough to escape to the Plains first.

Quick answer: Pick up Stone x5 from the grass, open Crafting (V), craft the Level 1 Flame Altar under Essentials, select its hotbar slot, place it where the preview turns blue, then press E to commune with the Flame.

What you need before building the Flame Altar

You already have the recipe. Communing with the Flame back in the Cinder Vault unlocks it right away, shown on screen as “RECIPE UNLOCKED! Flame Altar”. The only material you need is Stone x5.

Stones are scattered through the grass in the Plains meadow. Hold E near them (“Collect nearby loot”) to pick up several in one go. One pickup may yield Stone x3 and reveal additional recipes, for example “RECIPE UNLOCKED! Axe (+1 more)”.

Craft and place your first Flame Altar

Collect Stone from the meadow until you have at least five. Holding E scoops up the stones lying nearby in one go.

Open the Crafting menu with V. The Flame Altar is the first entry under Essentials, listed as “Level 1 Flame Altar” and marked Common. With your Stone count meeting the requirement, the Craft option (Space) becomes available. Crafting it pops the Steam achievement “A place to call home” (“Create a flame altar.”).

Crafting menu with the Flame Altar recipe selected and a prompt to press Space to craft — The Flame Altar under Essentials in the Crafting menu, showing its Stone cost with Space ready to craft.

The altar goes into hotbar slot 4. Select it to bring up a placement preview in front of your character. The on-screen controls assign Place to the left mouse button and Rotate 90° to R, with a toggle for Use Snapping.

Look for an open spot. If something blocks the location—including your character standing where the altar would be—the preview turns red and displays “Not enough free space”. Move back until it turns blue, then place the altar.

Red Flame Altar placement preview warning that there is not enough free space on the stone path — A red preview with “Not enough free space”; move off the blocked tile until the boundary turns blue to place.

After placement, the quest progresses. A notice reads “QUEST UPDATED: Claim A Spot For Your Base” and gives the new objective “Talk To The Flame”; “RECIPE UNLOCKED! Ragged Boots (+3 more)” appears as well.

Quest updated to Talk To The Flame with an E prompt to commune at the lit altar — The altar ignites and the quest updates, prompting you to press E to commune with the Flame.

Commune with the Flame

Approach the altar and press E for “Commune with the Flame”. The Flame speaks:

“You are not alone. There are other survivors, drowsing in nearby Ancient Vaults. Find them so they may aid in your journey. Go gently — one beckons nearby, just outside of the Shroud’s grasp.”

The Flame's message about survivors drowsing in nearby Ancient Vaults with a Space prompt to continue — The Flame points you toward other survivors in nearby Ancient Vaults; press Space to continue.

Press Space to continue. During this scene the character reached Level 2: the achievement “Doing something right” (“Reach level 2.”) popped, followed by the “LEVEL UP! 2” screen with its “Invest Skill Points” prompt. You also get “NEW LOCATION CHARTED! 1 markers added.”

Commune with the Flame prompt alongside the Level Up screen showing Level 2 and the Invest Skill Points prompt — Communing reaches Level 2, with the “Invest Skill Points” prompt on the Level Up screen.

Next, the quest becomes “Find The Sleeping Survivor”, with “Travel Through The Shroud” as its objective. You can verify the altar worked without hearing the dialogue: dying in the Shroud now sends your character back to this Flame Altar.

What the Flame Altar menu does

Interact with the altar after communing to open its menu. It shows ALTAR LEVEL 1 and a BUILDING AREA of 40m×40m×40m, plus a row of options: Upgrade Altar (“Extend its building range”), Strengthen the Flame (“Gain global benefits”), Reskill (“Modify or Reset the Skill Tree”), Remove Water, Deactivate Altar, and “Set as preferred spawn altar” (“If set, players entering your world for the first time will spawn at this Flame Altar.”). Rename Altar is offered as well.

Flame Altar menu with Upgrade Altar highlighted among options to extend its building range — The Flame Altar menu, with Upgrade Altar selected to extend the building range.

Upgrade Altar: extend the building range

Choosing Upgrade Altar enlarges the area available for building. At Altar Level 2, the Building Area increases from 40m×40m×40m to 80m×80m×80m. The upgrade uses Shroud Core x1; the in-game source listing names “Alchemist or Fell Bosses”.

Upgrade Altar screen showing the Level 1 to Level 2 building area expansion and its Shroud Core requirement — The Upgrade Altar screen listing the Level 1-to-2 building area jump and its single Shroud Core cost.

Strengthen the Flame: global benefits

Strengthen the Flame raises the Flame Level, which changes several world and character limits at once. Going from Flame Level 1 to 2 adjusts the values below. One of those is Time in the Shroud, which rises from 5min to 6min; for how that clock behaves and other ways to stretch it, see the Shroud timer guide.

Flame Altar upgrade panel beside a shirtless character standing at a glowing altar, listing resin, penny bun, bones and other requirements. — The Flame Altar’s Strengthen the Flame screen lists the upgrade requirements for raising the Flame Level from 1 to 2.

Benefit	Flame Level 1	Flame Level 2
Altar activation capacity	2	4
Water source capacity	1	1
Shroud Passage Level	1	2
Character Attribute bonuses	0	1
Time in the Shroud	5min	6min

The Flame Level 2 upgrade requires the following:

Resin x5 (Found on trees, especially stumps and trees with red foliage)
Penny Bun x5 (Springlands)
Bones x5
Shroud Liquid x5 (Springlands Shroud)
Spark x1 (Found in Flame Shrines and Sanctums)
Animal Fur x5

Press F to Pin the upgrade requirements. They will then appear as a checklist on the right side of the screen under “Flame Level 2”, making it easy to see what you still need to collect.

Tracking your base on the World Map

Press M to view the World Map and track your progress. Before the first altar is placed, its panel reports Flame Level 1, with ACTIVE ALTARS at 0/2, CRAFTSPEOPLE at 0/11, and PLACED WATER SOURCES at 0/1. You can also choose “Fast Travel to last visited Altar” on the map.

World Map panel showing Flame Level 1 and Active Altars 0/2 before the first altar is placed — The World Map panel before placing the altar: Flame Level 1 and Active Altars 0/2.