It was Elixir which made Embervale mighty. It was Elixir which brought Embervale to ruin. If Embervale is ever to be restored, the Elixir Wells which brought forth the Shroud must be cleansed.
All right, Flameborn. Here’s where things start to get serious. Up till now, it’s been a slow progression of reaching out, testing your limits in the Shroud, finding new areas to explore and enemies to defeat. But with Oswald Anders the Blacksmith giving you marching orders, you’re approaching a major milestone in your early Enshrouded journey: cleansing an Elixir Well. It’s going to require a good bit of prep work beforehand. But if you do it right, you’ll be that much further along. This Enshrouded guide will aid you along your way as you conquer your first Elixir Well.
Elixir Well Battle Preparations
First things first: you will want to be level 3 before attempting the Elixir Well. While you can technically try it at level 2, particularly if you’ve got some buddies with you to help spread the damage out, going up against enemies who are higher level just makes it more difficult to fight them. Plus, you won’t get any real XP bonus for taking on the Well early. You’ve probably already run into this problem if you putter around further west of Longkeep, but, if not, don’t sweat. You get XP for mining and hunting (at least a little), but not for woodcutting. Clear out Shroud mutants and wolves in and around Longkeep (they will respawn after a while) as well as Scavengers on Braelyn Bridge and at the Blacksmith’s Ancient Vault to get your level up before heading out.
Oswald has a number of recipes other than the ones discussed in our previous guide, and these will be either crucial to your immediate efforts or important later on. You’ll notice that Oswald can make Lockpicks, same as you, but he can do so for only one piece of Metal Scrap. Going forward, if you feel like you might need a few Lockpicks in your backpack (and you invariably will later on), get those made up by Oswald before heading out.
You may want to grind out an upgraded weapon through opening various chests. Or, failing that, you will want to craft either a Spiked Club or a Scrappy Sword, if you haven’t previously. We recommend the Spiked Club – the reason why will be obvious soon enough.
Once you’ve fully armored up, make sure you’re at your maximum Rested Bonus, have a full stack of Bandages and Purple Berries in your quick slots, and have a breakfast of Grilled Wolf Meat and Water to get the most health and stamina possible before you make your way to the Elixir Well. If you’ve been fortunate enough to come across Health Potions, slotting those would be a good idea as well, but be careful with them. At this point, they’re kind of a rare resource, so save them for a true emergency.
Clear The Elixir Well
To make your way to the first Elixir Well, you’ll start by taking the same path you did to reach the Ancient Vault for the Blacksmith. Once you’re in the Enshrouded area, at the base of the pillars for Braelyn Bridge, you’re going to turn right and head east. “Clear The Elixir Well” should be the active quest in your journal, and the carat with the exclamation point in it should point the way.
You’ll be able to see the twin towers of the Elixir Well in the distance, even through the Shroud. As you approach, you’ll come across several Shroud mutants. We recommend dispatching the archers first, since they not only have their bows but can also fling Shroud bombs that damage your health faster. You may want to eat a Purple Berry right before combat to help mitigate some of the damage. It should be pointed out here that, if you didn’t notice beforehand, Shroud mutants are resistant to Cutting-type damage (such as from swords and axes) but take more damage from Piercing and Blunt-type attacks (arrows and maces, respectively). The Spiked Club is a boon here.
Once you’ve cleared out the opposition, continue east and you’ll find a Return Beacon. Standing next to this resets your Shroud timer, so make sure to take some time to get it at full charge before heading down. Once you’re ready, continue east a short distance and go down a climbing wall. If you’re taking buddies into the well, descend the wall one at a time. If you run into a buddy, you’ll bump them off and send them crashing to the ground. It’s an injury you really don’t need to deal with at this point.
At the bottom of the climbing wall, you’ll see a staircase. While you’ll ultimately be heading down for the big fight, take the stairs up for now. You’ll come to a silver chest with loot in it. Now, take the stairs all the way to the bottom. There’s a second short climbing wall and more stairs leading down to a short tunnel. Go through the tunnel and you’ll see two things. One is a Shroud Root, which looks like a red glowing mushroom. The other is the boss you have to defeat, the Fell Thunderbrute.
The Fell Thunderbrute has two main attack sequences. The first is a slow windup to a smash attack, sending out a line of energy that damages anything in or close to its path. The second is a series of slashing attacks, also pretty slow. You can dodge out of the way of these easily with a little care, but do not try to parry or block them. Getting hit with either one will drop a good chunk of your health and stun you for a few seconds. Occasionally, if you get too close, the boss can give you a kick to push you back a little bit before laying the unholy smack down on you with his main attacks. Get in behind him for bonus “Backstab” damage, back off, dodge his attack, and then come back in for another course. When the Fell Thunderbrute dies, he’ll drop two distinct pieces of loot, a Shroud Core and a Fell Thunderbrute Trophy, along with some other random bits.
With the Fell Thunderbrute out of the way, the only thing left is to chop down the Shroud Root. The tooltip will recommend a Felling Axe of some sort, but any edged weapon will do nicely. Once the Shroud Root is destroyed, the chamber will no longer be Enshrouded. Take a little time to explore the chamber. Over by a ruined wagon in one corner, there’s a common chest with some random loot inside, but, beyond that, there’s not much here. Because the chamber is no longer Enshrouded, you can fast travel directly back to home base.
Elixir Well Aftermath
Oswald is very happy you cleared up the Elixir Well, but there’s always something for a champion of your caliber to do. The Shroud Core is important, since it will extend the building area around your Flame Altar. By this point, you should be able to raise the Flame Level of your Flame Altar to 2.
What does this do for you? Raising your Flame Level increases the number of Flame Altars you can build out in the world, gives a global bonus to all your character attributes, gives you an extra minute of timer when in the Shroud, and makes it easier for you to pass through higher-level Enshrouded areas.
Flame Altar Sacrificial Offerings (Upgrades To Flame Level 2)
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5 Resin
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5 Red Mushrooms
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5 Bones
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5 Shroud Liquid
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1 Spark
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5 Animal Fur
Having cleared the first Elixir Well, Oswald has another job for you, and you’re going to be taking a hike north, towards the Ancient Spire of the Springlands. Check out GameLuster’s other Enshrouded guides for more information to help you along your journey.
