Crafting and the Tech Tree

Every craft needs the right station nearby, and each station is gated behind a biome material, so the tech tree is the progression spine.

You craft only when standing near the right station, and each station has an upgrade radius and required upgrade pieces. The tech tree is really the progression spine in disguise: every station is unlocked by a material from a specific biome, so beating a boss and mining its metal is what opens the next rung of crafting. This page maps the stations, what unlocks each one, and the handful of tools you reach for constantly.

The first stations

The Workbench is the first station and the gate to most basic crafting and tool repair. It must be sheltered under a roof and have a fire or comfort nearby to be usable, so your first base is built around it. The Cauldron is the cooking station for meads, stews, and processed food, upgraded with a Spice Rack, Pot, and Mortar and pestle. The Fermenter finishes meads from their bases, producing the poison resist, frost resist, healing, stamina, and eitr meads that carry you through hostile biomes. These three cover survival before you ever touch metal.

Metal and stone stations

Working metal unlocks a second wave of stations, each tied to a material milestone.

Station	Unlocked by	What it does
Forge	After Bronze	All metal weapons and armor; upgrades with Anvils, Forge Cooler, Grinding Wheel
Smelter	Surtling Cores	Turns Copper, Tin, Iron, Silver ore into bars using Coal
Charcoal Kiln	Surtling Cores	Turns Wood into Coal
Stonecutter	Iron, near a Workbench	Enables stone building
Stove	Iron	Better cooking for meats

The Forge is the heart of melee progression and gates every metal weapon and armor set. The Smelter and Charcoal Kiln work as a pair: the kiln makes the Coal that fuels the smelter, and both need Surtling Cores from Black Forest Burial Chambers.

The Artisan Table and beyond

A major gate sits at the Mountains. The Artisan Table is built with a Dragon Tear dropped by Moder, and it is required for three later stations: the Blast Furnace (smelts Black Metal Scrap and Flametal), the Windmill (turns Barley into Barley Flour), and the Spinning Wheel (turns Flax into Linen Thread). Without that single boss drop, the Plains economy of linen and bread stays locked, which is why Moder is a hard progression wall and not just a power.

The Dragon Tear is progression-critical, not optional. No Artisan Table means no Blast Furnace, which means no Black Metal gear, so beat Moder before you lean into the Plains.

The Mistlands adds the magic tier of stations. The Black Forge crafts and upgrades Mistlands and Ashlands gear, powered by Black Cores and using Sap. The Galdr Table crafts and upgrades magic staffs and Eitr gear. The Eitr Refinery produces Refined Eitr from Sap and Soft Tissue. These three open the mage path and the highest current gear tiers.

Key tools

A few tools never leave your bar. The Hammer is build mode for structures, furniture, and crafting stations, and it pulls materials from your inventory. The Hoe terraforms: it raises and levels ground, makes paths, and cultivates farmland, and its raised earth walls are the cheapest base defense. The Cultivator plants crops and grass once you can farm. Pickaxes run Antler to Bronze to Iron to Black Metal, mining ore, stone, and dirt, with the Antler Pickaxe being your first gate into copper. Axes chop trees and double as Slash weapons in a pinch.