Conan Exiles
Conan Exiles

Crafting Stations & Workbenches — Conan Exiles Guide

Master crafting stations and workbenches in Conan Exiles. Learn to refine materials, forge gear, and cook food to progress through the Exiled Lands.

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Crafting Stations & Workbenches

Crafting is the backbone of survival and progression in Conan Exiles. To truly thrive in the Exiled Lands, you'll need to master the use of various crafting stations and workbenches. These structures allow you to refine raw materials, forge powerful weapons and armor, cook nourishing food, and much more. Understanding their purpose and how to acquire them is crucial for any aspiring exile.

Early Game Crafting Essentials

Your journey begins with basic crafting directly from your inventory, but to progress beyond primitive tools, you'll need to establish a dedicated crafting infrastructure. Here are the first stations you should prioritize:

  • Campfire: This is your very first crafting station, unlocked almost immediately.
    • Purpose: Cooks raw meat into cooked meat, purifies water (with a Waterskin), and provides warmth.
    • Materials: 5x Branch, 10x Stone.
    • Strategy: Place it near a water source and a hunting ground. Always keep a stack of wood or branches in its inventory to fuel it.
  • Carpenter's Bench: Essential for crafting wooden tools, weapons, and early-game building components.
    • Purpose: Crafts Wooden Clubs, Stone Hatchets, Stone Picks, and various building pieces.
    • Materials: 50x Wood, 20x Stone, 10x Twine.
    • Strategy: Unlock the "Carpenter" feat to build this. It's a fundamental step towards creating better harvesting tools.
  • Blacksmith's Bench: Your gateway to metalworking, allowing you to craft iron tools and weapons.
    • Purpose: Crafts Iron Broadswords, Iron Picks, Iron Hatchets, and other iron-based items.
    • Materials: 50x Iron Bar, 20x Wood, 10x Twine.
    • Strategy: Requires a significant amount of Iron Bars, which means you'll first need a Smelter. Prioritize crafting an Iron Pick for more efficient resource gathering.

Mid-Game Progression: Expanding Your Crafting Capabilities

As you venture further and gather more diverse resources, you'll unlock more advanced crafting stations. These will allow for greater efficiency and access to higher-tier gear.

Refinement Stations

These stations are crucial for processing raw materials into usable components.

  • Smelter: Transforms raw ore into metal bars.
    • Purpose: Converts Ironstone into Iron Bars, Coal into Tar, and Brimstone into Sulfur.
    • Materials: 50x Stone, 20x Wood, 10x Twine.
    • Location/Strategy: Ironstone can be found in abundance in the starting river biome, particularly around the "Shattered Springs" area. Coal is often found alongside iron deposits. Fuel it with wood or coal.
  • Tannery: Processes animal hides into leather.
    • Purpose: Converts Animal Hide into Leather, Thick Hide into Thick Leather, and offers various other hide-related recipes.
    • Materials: 50x Wood, 20x Stone, 10x Twine.
    • Strategy: Hunting animals like gazelles, hyenas, and ostriches will provide the necessary hides.
  • Grinder: Creates powders and pastes from various resources.
    • Purpose: Grinds Plant Fiber into Fiber, Stone into Stone Dust, and Bones into Bone Meal.
    • Materials: 50x Stone, 20x Wood, 10x Twine.
    • Strategy: Useful for creating building materials and certain alchemical ingredients.

Specialized Workbenches

These stations open up new avenues for crafting and utility.

  • Alchemist's Bench: For brewing potions, poisons, and other alchemical concoctions.
    • Purpose: Crafts various potions, dyes, and explosives.
    • Materials: 50x Stone, 20x Wood, 10x Twine, 5x Glass.
    • Strategy: Requires specific ingredients often found in caves or harvested from plants. Consider capturing a Tier 3 or Named Alchemist Thrall to unlock advanced recipes and reduce crafting costs.
  • Armorer's Bench: For crafting more advanced armor sets.
    • Purpose: Crafts medium and heavy armor, as well as specialized gear.
    • Materials: 50x Iron Bar, 20x Wood, 10x Twine.
    • Strategy: Placing a Named Armorer Thrall on this bench significantly improves armor stats and unlocks unique recipes.
  • Artisan's Table: Primarily for crafting decorative items and building upgrades.
    • Purpose: Crafts various decorative items, banners, and some structural components.
    • Materials: 50x Wood, 20x Stone, 10x Twine.
    • Strategy: While not essential for survival, it's great for personalizing your base.

Thralls and Crafting Efficiency

A key strategy for maximizing your crafting output and unlocking advanced recipes is to employ Crafting Thralls. These NPCs, once captured and broken on the Wheel of Pain, can be placed into specific crafting stations.

  • Benefits of Crafting Thralls:
    • Recipe Unlocks: Higher-tier thralls (Tier 3 and Named) unlock unique and powerful recipes not available otherwise.
    • Resource Cost Reduction: Thralls often reduce the material cost of crafting items.
    • Crafting Speed Increase: Items are produced faster with a thrall present.
    • Improved Item Quality: Some thralls can improve the durability or stats of crafted items.
  • Finding Crafting Thralls:
    • Locations: Thralls are typically found in NPC camps and settlements throughout the Exiled Lands. Higher-tier thralls are often located in more dangerous areas.
    • Specific Thralls: Look for specific thrall types like "Taskmaster" (for Wheel of Pain), "Blacksmith" (for Blacksmith's Bench), "Armorer" (for Armorer's Bench), and "Alchemist" (for Alchemist's Bench).

Always aim to upgrade your crafting thralls as you progress. A named Blacksmith, for instance, can turn your basic iron tools into formidable weapons, making your adventures significantly easier.