Enshrouded 1.0 has finally dropped, and with it comes a massive wave of fresh content, reworked skills, nine new spells, improved wand combat, and the brand new Cinders Cradle biome. If you're jumping back in after Early Access or starting fresh, picking the right build will shape your entire run. In the updated Enshrouded 1.0 Tier List, we rank the top builds for Solo and Duo play in Enshrouded 1.0, rate each one across Leveling and Endgame, walk through the exact setup for each archetype, and also cover the tips for building a proper starter base.
Enshrouded 1.0 Build Tier List (Solo & Duo)
Enshrouded 1.0 is the full release of Keen Games' action RPG survival hybrid, and it is a far larger experience than the Early Access version. The level cap has been raised to 50, Cinders Cradle has been added as a new endgame zone filled with mechanical construct enemies that deal heavy fire damage, two new Hollow Hall dungeons have arrived for Albaneve Summits and the Veil Water Basin, and the storyline can now be played start to finish.
The build state has also shifted. Wands received the biggest buff in the game thanks to new aerial, evasion, and jump attacks. Nine fresh spells including Blizzard, Entangle, Flame Pillar, Ball Lightning, Hollow Wretch, and three elemental Totems have expanded the Mage archetype dramatically. The Necromancer path became truly viable through the gem of necromancy stacking with Hollow Wretch summons and the base Necromancer skill. Rangers now get Eternal elemental arrows that never need crafting ammo, and the new Sparkworks system lets players design custom content. With that groundwork laid, let's get into the actual tier list.
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Enshrouded 1.0 Best Builds Ranking for Solo & Duo
Below is the full ranking of every viable build in Enshrouded 1.0, from S-tier endgame monsters down to niche picks.
1. Battle Mage (Wand Wizard) - S Tier
For Solo: S Tier
For Duo: S Tier
For Leveling: S Tier
For Endgame: S Tier
Difficulty: Easy
The Battle Mage sits at the top of the list in 1.0, and it earned that spot because of the aerial wand attack buff. You can float midair, double jump backwards, and blast an AoE wand nuke at the nearest enemy without taking a scratch. It is also the easiest build to pick up and play from level 1 to 50, since Eternal spells remove crafting pressure and a shield in the offhand gives you parry and block options.
Setup:
Weapons: Fire wand, ice wand, and shock wand to cover every elemental weakness, plus a percentage-mana staff at endgame so you can cast infinitely. Carry Eternal Ice Bolt and Eternal Fireball to avoid spell ammo crafting. A Spectral Ward offhand gives you parry access, or run a shield for pure defense.
Skills: Wand specialization, wand mastery, aerial wand attack, arcane proliferation, blink, blink attack, emergency blink, backstab mastery (60% damage from behind), water aura, waters of life, terror, bloodletting, chain hit, mass destruction, quick charge, mana currents, spellsinger, iceman, arsonist, wizard crit nodes.
Armor: Hailcaster set in Albaneve Summits for wand damage and HP, Crest Flame chest in Cinders Cradle for max armor and the Heavy Plates boost, Vorgoth's legs for wand damage, Flame Arcanist gloves for quick charge, Lifelock healing boots.
Rings: Mother Flame ring and Ring of Health, or Commander Ring early for double life leech.
Gems: Gem of Armoring on the staff for 4 seconds of damage immunity on kills, Gem of Currents on the shock wand for soaked enemy synergy.
2. Archer / Ranger - S Tier
For Solo: S Tier
For Duo: S Tier
For Leveling: A Tier
For Endgame: S Tier
Difficulty: Medium
The Archer is arguably tied for the number one spot depending on preference. Explosive arrows remain the most powerful projectiles in the game, letting you stun bosses repeatedly, and the new Eternal elemental arrows add infinite elemental damage on top of your base bow output. Range is unmatched, which is perfect for kiting and sniping, though cramped dungeons can get hairy and the crafting commitment for explosive ammo is heavy.
Setup:
Weapons: Fire Feather Bow at endgame or the classic Ignited Bow earlier. Keep Eternal Ember Arrows loaded for free elemental hits and craft large stockpiles of explosive arrows for bosses. Keep a staff for utility slots like healing spells.
Skills: Bow specialization, skill shot, multi-shot, multi-shot spread, multi-shot trigger, echoing explosive, shrapnel blast, shell shock, arsonist. Grab stamina and food nodes early since stamina drain is rough without quality food.
Armor: Ashwind Strider set from Cinders Cradle, Vorgoth's chest for the 10% bow damage bonus. Prioritize bow damage, range damage, and range crit chance. Look for stamina and mana regen on boots and legs for sustain.
Rings: Any life leech rings for Solo survival, especially useful since you absorb hits when caught in melee.
Gems: Gem of Focused Light on the bow for a reliable damage boost.
3. Brutal Berserker (Two-Handed Barbarian) - S Tier
For Solo: S Tier
For Duo: A Tier
For Leveling: A Tier
For Endgame: S Tier
Difficulty: Medium
The Brutal Berserker is the strongest melee build in Enshrouded 1.0. Two-handed sweeps combined with Battle Heal, blink attack explosions, and life leech jewelry let you dive into enemy packs and heal through the damage. It handles the mechanical constructs of Cinders Cradle thanks to fire damage stacking, fire resistance nodes, and the Radiant Aura passive.
Setup:
Weapons: Firebird's Claw as primary with magic fire damage, health life leech, and crit damage. Magmatic Axe as backup for triple fire damage rolls. Shroud Vessel's Greatsword if you prefer the two-handed sword path with magical shroud damage. Keep a bow with magical fire damage for ranged pulls.
Skills: Barbarian's path, two-handed specialization, Brute, veteran, blood rage, heavy hitter, whirlwind crescendo, relentless, wet dog, crash down attack, vigorous deflection, athlete, evasion attack, blink, blink attack, emergency blink, double jump, updraft, giant slayer hook, grounding hook, merciless attack, power parry, opportunity, arsonist, radiant aura, earth aura, mage apprentice, sneak attack, cutthroat, backstab mastery, fatal precision, heavy plates, shiny plates, warden, tower, bash, shockwave, breach, battle heal, thick skin.
Armor: Mix of tank and damage pieces from the Artificer set at endgame. Chest: health and stamina (not health regen). Legs: stamina regen and HP. Boots: stamina regen (not regen delay). Helmet: melee crit chance and crit damage. Upgrade everything to max tier for bonus skill ranks.
Rings: Ancient Ring of Stamina for stamina pool and regen, or Ring of the Ancients with the 20% crit damage upgrade for best in slot.
Gems: Gem of Lycanthropy for 47% melee damage at night (farm the Lacemaker Pond night sanctum), Gem of Armoring for 4-second damage immunity on kills (farm the Shroud Stalker in Cinders Cradle's Gardens of Earthly Delights), Gem of Destiny for resource refills on marked kills.
Food: Grand Leaf Cabbage Rolls for 300 HP and stamina regen, Honey Baked Banana for massive stamina regen, Creamy Mushroom Spatzel for melee damage and frost resistance, Coconut A Smoothie for liquid buffs.
Flasks: Drag Soul Ward Flasks for Veil Water Basin damage, Greater Shroud Flasks for extra Shroud time, Elixir Craze from Rookmore scavengers for 10% damage over 30 minutes.
4. Night King (Ice/Shock Necromancer Battle Mage) - A Tier
For Solo: A Tier
For Duo: S Tier
For Leveling: B Tier
For Endgame: A Tier
Difficulty: Medium
The Night King build turns you into a true necromancer by stacking three sources of skeleton summons: the Hollow Wretch spell (four ice skeletons), the Gem of Necromancy (four more skeletons on wand killing blows), and the base Necromancer skill flying skulls. On top of the undead army, you soak enemies with water balloons and arc lightning for massive crit chance and chain damage. It is the biggest beneficiary of the 1.0 necromancy rework.
Setup:
Weapons: Violet Storm Staff with Gem of Currents for soaking groups via arc lightning (12% extra crit chance against soaked). Drac Wand or Blizzard Wand with Gem of Necromancy for the extra skeleton proc on killing blows. Drac Wand offers more crit damage, while Blizzard Wand pairs cleaner with Frost Gauntlets.
Spells: Hollow Wretch (four ice skeletons), arc lightning, standard necromancer skill summons, water balloons for self-soaking.
Skills: Advanced necromancy, enhanced shock nodes, iceman, trickster branch for staff damage, bloodletting, terror, chain hit, mass destruction, soaked, wet dog, good metabolism, blink, water aura, wand skills for both evasion and aerial attacks.
Armor: Circlet of Lightning (20% crit chance against soaked enemies), Frost Gauntlets for crit damage and ice damage, Tide Collar boots (gives +1 Necromancer and +1 Iceman), remaining Tide Collar pieces for synergy.
Rings: Superior Ring of Mana, Commander's Ring for guaranteed health leech, or Ring of Thundersnow for shock synergy.
Gems: Gem of Currents on the staff, Gem of Necromancy on the wand.
Combat loop: Throw a water balloon at a wall to soak yourself, cast arc lightning with Gem of Currents equipped to spread the soak across the mob, then finish kills with the wand for extra skeleton procs.
5. Infinite Paladin (Shock Paladin) - A Tier
For Solo: A Tier
For Duo: S Tier
For Leveling: B Tier
For Endgame: A Tier
Difficulty: Medium
The Infinite Paladin is a tank-caster hybrid that deals heavy shock damage while sustaining through parries, Battle Heal, and life leech. It uses the water balloon soaking strategy, so Violet Storm and the Death Gazer axe hit crits constantly against wet enemies, triggering Terror stuns and Bloodletting orbs for near-immortal uptime.
Setup:
Weapons: Violet Storm Staff and Death Gazer Axe with Gem of Currents on both. Guard of the North sword with Gem of Lycanthropy for night fights (double crit chance roll plus massive parry power). Vesta's Mace as a side weapon for double health leech when injured.
Skills: Full trickster branch, bloodletting, terror, chain hit, mass destruction, battle heal, athlete, blood warrior, good metabolism, arc deflection (20 mana per parry), merciless attack, thunder (deep in the mage tree), iceman and arsonist as flex nodes.
Armor: Sunpiercer helmet for 23% melee crit chance stacking with the sword's 17% base, Sunpiercer set pieces across all slots for health regen on every piece.
Rings: Ring of Health for max HP and leech, Commander Ring or any life leech option as the second slot.
Gems: Gem of Currents on both primary weapons, Gem of Lycanthropy on the night sword.
Combat loop: Soak yourself with a water balloon, cast arc lightning to spread the wet status, then parry and merciless attack while critical strikes drop orbs that refill your health, mana, and stamina.
6. Summoner / Necromancer (Totems and Skeletons) - A Tier
For Solo: A Tier
For Duo: A Tier
For Leveling: B Tier
For Endgame: A Tier
Difficulty: Medium
Brand new to 1.0, the Summoner uses Hollow Skeleton and Summon Totem spells to build an army. Skeletons tank, totems draw aggro and deal elemental damage based on which one you cast. Fire totems shred Fell enemies, ice totems slow lizards and block choke points, and lightning totems stack stamina damage on bosses.
Setup:
Weapons: Fire wand, shock wand, and ice wand to match totem elements. Staff of Reeds for an extra rank of Necromancer, which spawns flying skulls more often.
Spells: Hollow Skeleton for tank summons, Fire Totem, Ice Totem, Lightning Totem, plus Blizzard and Entangle for AoE and crowd control.
Skills: Wand specialization, wand aerial attack, wand mastery, blink, water aura, Necromancer, advanced necromancy, totem mastery, quick charge, mana currents, spirit nodes for max mana.
Armor: Flame Arcanist set for max mana and quick charge, Vorgoth's crown at endgame for Necromancer boosts.
Rings: Ring of the Mother Flame for life leech and Mage Apprentice amplification.
Combat loop: Pre-cast skeletons and totems before engaging, blink behind enemies while your summons tank, then fire wand attacks and spells from the backline.
7. Half Shinobi Half Terminator (Fire and Poison Ranger) - A Tier
For Solo: A Tier
For Duo: A Tier
For Leveling: B Tier
For Endgame: A Tier
Difficulty: Medium
This hybrid Ranger/Assassin build dances between backstabs with poison daggers and explosive fire arrows at range. The new Skull Summoning Vessel throwables stack with your fire damage buffs, giving you flying skull companions that distract enemies while dealing extra fire damage. Half the time you roll behind enemies for backstabs, the other half you float through the air firing explosive arrows.
Setup:
Weapons: A powerful fire bow with Eternal Ember Arrows loaded, plus a strong stock of explosive arrows for burst. Poison daggers with extra poison damage and health leech rolls.
Throwables: Skull Summoning Vessels that spawn flying skull allies dealing fire damage.
Skills: Nearly full Ranger and Assassin trees except Barrage and Cutthroat. Backstab mastery, strategic maneuver (easier backside positioning for one skill point), arsonist (buffs both arrow fire damage and skull summon fire damage), vile concoction (36% buff to throwables), shrapnel blast, echoing explosives for explosive arrow scaling.
Gems: Gem of Focused Light on the bow for consistent damage. Gem of Acrobatics is a flavor option that fires multiple shuriken-style projectiles, though it misses often.
Combat loop: Toss skull vessels to pull aggro, roll behind targets for backstab poison damage, then swap to the bow for explosive arrow finishers while skulls distract.
8. Radiant Paladin (Aura Paladin) - B Tier
For Solo: A Tier
For Duo: A Tier
For Leveling: A Tier
For Endgame: B Tier
Difficulty: Easy
The Radiant Paladin runs three auras at once: Radiant Aura burns Fell enemies within range using your intelligence as a scaler, Water Aura heals you passively, and Earth Aura adds 10% physical and magical resistance. You hit with a sword and shield while enemies melt in your presence inside Shroud zones, with Counter Strike reflecting 60% of damage back as extra fire damage.
Setup:
Weapons: Welling Blade with magic fire damage and +1 Renewal, or a strong club with life leech. Luminous Wand for ranged pokes with multi-shot. Riptide shield for the 20% retaliation on melee damage received (found in Grind Teeth Grotto near the Rebelwood Ancient Spire).
Skills: Merciless attack, power parry, opportunity, warrior's path, veteran, bash, shockwave, breach, battle heal, counter strike, blink, blink attack, emergency blink, water aura, waters of life, radiant aura, arsonist, mage apprentice, every intelligence node you can grab, earth aura, double jump, updraft, giant slayer hook.
Armor: Any heavy chest with high HP and physical/magic armor, Warrior's helmet for merciless attack damage, Adventurer gloves with heavy-handed, Ranger trousers for stamina rolls, Cutthroat boots for stamina and health regen.
Rings: Commander Ring (health, mana, stamina, plus Bash and Heavy Plates skill ranks), Ring of Stamina as the second slot for blink spam uptime.
9. Wizard (Pure Spellcaster) - B Tier
For Solo: B Tier
For Duo: S Tier
For Leveling: C Tier
For Endgame: S Tier
Difficulty: Hard
The Wizard focuses on spells rather than wand attacks. Blizzard freezes groups and stun-locks them with Terror procs, Entangle roots mobs for Fireball combos, Flame Pillar nukes Shroud enemies, and the Eternal Shroud Meteor can drop five rocks for 15 to 25k damage per cast. The downside is spell ammo crafting and long cast times, which make Solo play rougher early on and leave you a glass cannon.
Setup:
Weapons: Percentage-mana staff at endgame for infinite casting, elemental wands (fire, ice, shock) for backup. Spectral Ward offhand for mana regen and parry.
Spells: Blizzard, Flame Pillar, Entangle, Fireball, Ball Lightning, Eternal Ice Bolt, Eternal Fireball, Eternal Chain Lightning, Eternal Shroud Meteor.
Skills: Wand specialization, mana currents, quick charge, spellsinger, mage apprentice, wand mastery, blast cast, arsonist, iceman, frost, wizard crit nodes, terror, bloodletting, chain hit, mass destruction, water aura, waters of life, fatal precision at endgame, arcane deflection for parry mana recovery.
Armor: Magus hat and Magus Chant for crit chance and wizard ranks, Flame Arcanist gloves for 10% reduced casting time plus staff and magical enemy damage, Vorgoth's pants, Lifelock boots for +1 healer and healing rolls. Carry stamina boots to swap in during exploration.
Rings: Lesser Ring of Mana for extra wizard ranks (stacking crit chance up to 23% base), Ring of Health as the second slot for max HP.
Gems: Gem of Armoring on the staff for 100% damage reduction uptime, Gem of Currents on the shock wand for soaked synergy.
10. Assassin - C Tier
For Solo: C Tier
For Duo: B Tier
For Leveling: C Tier
For Endgame: C Tier
Difficulty: Hard
The dagger-focused Assassin struggles because sneak attacks are hard to execute consistently in Enshrouded, and the archetype lacks the AoE punch of other builds. Combat with daggers feels fine thanks to varied elemental and poison effects, but sneak kills require finding isolated unaware enemies, which is rare. It works as a Duo addition when a tank and healer already fill the group, but Solo bossing gets rough.
Setup:
Weapons: Dual poison daggers with piercing damage, backstab damage, and health leech bonuses. Keep a bow for pulling and switch puzzles.
Skills: Sneak attack, backstab mastery, dagger specialization for AoE, thrust for piercing damage, venomous blades, venom mastery, strategic maneuver.
Armor: Sky Spectre set at endgame, Vorgoth's gloves as best in slot for the massive dagger bonus, Blood Feather set earlier in progression. Prioritize melee damage, melee crit chance, and backstab damage rolls.
Rings: Life leech on every slot possible for Solo sustain.
11. Warrior (Sword and Shield) - C Tier
For Solo: C Tier
For Duo: B Tier
For Leveling: B Tier
For Endgame: C Tier
Difficulty: Easy
The classic Warrior is the simplest starting build thanks to easy access to swords and shields, decent blocking against both ranged and melee attacks, and sweeping cleave attacks for groups. However, it drops off hard versus ranged and flying enemies, and most players transition to a Barbarian or Battle Mage path by midgame. If you insist on sword and board, the right skill choices can keep it afloat.
Setup:
Weapons: Any one-handed sword with cleave, a bow for pulling enemies from range or hitting switches, and a wand for elemental options like ice versus Scavengers or fire versus Fell.
Skills: One-handed specialization for the focus special attack, evasion attack as a gap closer, blink from the healer tree for faster dodges, crash down attack from the athlete tree, merciless attack in the center tree, power parry.
Armor: Any heavy set with high physical armor and HP rolls. Prioritize block value and parry power on shields.
Rings: Life leech options for Solo sustain, Commander Ring for the double leech source early.
With the ranking covered, let's move from character setup to the physical home your character will be returning to between runs.
Enshrouded 1.0 Build Tutorial: Best Starter Base Building Tips
A proper starter base in Enshrouded 1.0 should fit at least five NPCs, give you a basement for extra storage, and have a clean exterior that scales as you progress. Here is a step-by-step plan for a three-floor starter home built around the Flame Altar.
Step 1: Place the Flame Altar and Lift It One Level
Set down your Flame Altar, then turn off the snapping feature on your foundations so wood pieces don't glue to the altar. Raise the foundations by one increment, delete the Flame Altar, then place it back so it snaps to the new height. Fill out a 3x5 wooden foundation grid with the altar in the dead center.
Step 2: Dig the Basement
Walk to the back right corner of the build, place two foundations, and start hollowing out the ground below by placing and deleting foundations in a stair pattern until you reach two full foundation heights below your main floor. Once there, fill the entire 3x5 space with foundations to carve out the basement.
Step 3: Add a Stairwell and Stone Perimeter
Build a stairwell from the second foundation at the back down into the basement. Return to the surface and ring the entire exterior with stone foundations, leaving the three middle front spots open for the entrance path.
Step 4: Pillar Framework
Use the hammer's remove function with the 1m wall block to carve out the corners of your wooden foundations and the four corners around the Flame Altar. Place thick stone pillars in these slots, running a second pillar underneath on the outside slots to seal the ground gap. Add door frames in stone between every exterior pillar.
Step 5: Walls and Window Placement
Place narrow wall pieces on either side of the front doorway and insert a window in the middle, pushed back by one small block width for depth. Repeat this on the right side of the entrance. The remaining walls get standard wooden walls pushed back the same amount. Above the stairwell at the back, add a shroud wood quarter slab railing between the two stone pillars.
Step 6: Stone Shingle Roof
Build the roof using the stone shingle roof blocks. Line up each corner piece shifted two spaces and pulled out by one, lowered by one, then use snapping for the rest. Fill the sides with half roof pieces that meet in a clean peak, and use inner corner pieces to tie the two angles together at the front and back. Cap the top with straight roof top pieces submerged into the roofline.
Step 7: Second Floor
Fill in the ceiling of the lower floor with wooden flooring to form the upper floor, leaving a stairwell gap on the right side. Chisel one layer off the upper floor to give the stairs clearance, then run shroud wood stairs up into that opening. Add step walls to fill the gap between upper walls and the roof peak.
Step 8: Window Decoration
For each window, chisel an outline around it using the smallest wall block and refill with stone to create a curved stone frame effect. Place plant fiber roof blocks directly above each stone-framed window. Slide crafted window inserts into the open frames, then add benches below each lower window to act as sills.
Step 9: Fireplace Alcove
Underneath the stairwell, place two skinny stone pillars with small stone blocks on top. Add two more skinny pillars one block forward, then connect them with small stone blocks across the top to form an alcove. Chisel out the wooden floor directly in front and center the fireplace in the alcove. Chisel a vent above and run stone pillars up through the wall and out the exterior for a chimney effect.
Step 10: Finishing Touches
Ring the base with stone pillars at each corner and midpoint, then string wood banister 2 pieces between them for fencing. Drop firefly lanterns on top of the perimeter pillars for ambient lighting. Replace any remaining wooden exterior foundations with stone for consistency, and swap the lower-level wooden walls in the basement for proper walls while leaving one natural stone wall exposed for atmosphere.
Interior decoration is open-ended. Line the back wall near the Flame Altar with storage boxes framed by shroud wood, group all cooking stations around the furnace, and place other crafting tables along the opposite wall. Once Farmer NPC access is available later, greenery and shrubs can be used liberally. The basement works well as either NPC housing or your own private bedroom, depending on how much room you want above ground.
That covers the full tier list and starter base plan for Enshrouded 1.0. The Battle Mage, Archer, and Brutal Berserker currently sit at the top for both Solo and Duo play, while the Night King, Infinite Paladin, Summoner, and Half Shinobi hybrid round out the strongest A-tier options. Pair whichever build fits your style with the three-floor starter base above, and you will be ready to clear Cinders Cradle, the Hollow Halls, and anything else Embervale throws at you.