Stranded Deep: Best Items To Craft First (& Why)

Without a doubt, the most important aspect of survival games like Stranded Deep is crafting different items. In order to make it very far in this game, players have no choice but to spend their time collecting different resources like wood, cloth, rocks, and coconuts in order to create different weapons and tools. Those who don’t will find themselves starving or running out of water pretty quickly.

Crafting itself may be pretty important, but more than that players need to make sure they go for the most important craftable items first. By doing this players can set themselves up for success earlier by having access to things that make collecting resources easier, give them better access to things like food and water, or even allow them to explore the world more efficiently. This guide shows players what items they should work on crafting first and how they should be used.

Stranded Deep – The Refined Tools

Without a doubt, once players have gotten their basic survival needs out of the way they will want to start working on some better tools. The starter crude tools work well enough at first, but they aren’t nearly as powerful or durable as their advanced counterparts. As soon as possible players will want to craft the Refined Axe, Refined Spear, and Refined Pick.

• Refined Axe – This is the upgraded version of the Crude Axe, and it is wildly better at what it does. Players will need 1 Leather, 1 Stone Tool, and 1 Crude Axe. This axe is much more durable than the original version and will chop through things like trees at a much faster pace.
• Refined Spear – This is an upgraded version of the Crude Spear which is much stronger and more durable than the original. While the Crude Spear is fine to use against smaller enemies, the Refined one is perfect when players want to fight against sharks. This can be crafted using 1 Leather, 1 Stone Tool, and 1 Crude Spear.
• Refined Pick – This pick doesn’t actually have a Crude counterpart, so it is, therefore, the only way to break apart rocky outcrops to obtain rocks and clay. This is something that players will want to invest in as quickly as possible in order to start crafting more advanced items. Players can make it using 2 Leather, 2 Stone Tool, and 1 Stick

Stranded Deep – The Smoker

By far one of the more frustrating aspects of Stranded Deep is to spend a lot of time collecting meat and cooking it only to have it spoil. Because of the fact that food spoils it is a waste of time to hunt several animals at a time and players are usually better off only hunting and cooking when they are actually hungry rather than storing large amounts of food. The biggest way to fix this problem though is to invest in The Smoker.

This structure can be crafted by using 1 Lashing and 3 Sticks and combining it with a Fire Pit. By doing this players are now able to smoke up to five pieces of meat a time. While this is really easy to craft, it does take a long time to cook each piece of meat. Once cooked through the smoked meat will never go bad, which means that players can cook a bunch up and store it away. By doing this the player can ensure that they don’t have to go hunting every few hours.

Stranded Deep – Bird Snare and Fish Trap

Once the player has acquired their Smoker they still will need to go out and hunt creatures down to cook their meat. Even without having to constantly cook things hunting down animals will still take up a lot of the player’s limited time during the day. In order to make the player’s life easier in the long run they just have to invest in snares and traps to collect animals with little work at all.

The Bird Snare and the Fish Trap are both very effective at capturing their respective animals. The Bird Snare requires 1 Rock, 3 Lashings, and 2 Sticks to create. Once it has been set up it will capture any seagull that lands on it, which in turn will allow the player to harvest them for meat. The Fish Trap on the other hand can be crafted using 2 Lashings, 2 Rocks, and 6 Sticks. The player then just has to drag the trap out into the ocean and fill it with bait to attract fish to it. Players can craft as many Snares and Traps as they want in order to have a steady supply of easily obtained food.

Stranded Deep – Better Shelter

Shelters really aren’t super important for the overall game as players can sleep and save just using the basic type of shelter. Most players assume that this means that they can just ignore the building structure building aspects of the game. As those players begin to cut down all of the trees on their local island though and begin to run out of things to shield them from the harmful UV rays of the sun they will wish that they had a small hut to hide inside.

Building a structure is by far one of the best ways to avoid getting a sunburn or sunstroke. While out in the middle of the day players will probably want to duck inside their house to avoid these harmful status effects. Players can use a combination of things like Wood, Lashings, and Palm Fronds to create wooden walls, floors, and ceilings. Those who want a simple way to get out of the sun should just build four walls, a foundation, a floor, and a ceiling early on in the game. Keep in mind that a hammer is needed in order to craft these structures.

Stranded Deep – Loom and Tanning Rack

In order to create a lot of the more advanced items in the game players will need to have access to some of the more rare resources in the game. Things like cloth and leather are able to be found inside chests and shipwrecks, but these are pretty rare and far between for players who want to craft certain things. The biggest trick to obtaining large amounts of these items is by building a Loom and Tanning Rack as soon as possible.

The Loom can be built using 4 Lashings and 6 Sticks. Once players have gotten this structure built they can in turn use Fibrous Leaves on it to create Cloth. The Tanning Rack on the other hand can be created using 4 Lashings and 4 Sticks. When players skin animals like sharks and wild boars they will obtain Raw Hide that can be combined with Tanning Rack to create strips of Leather. Basically, by creating the Loom and Tanning Rack the player doesn’t have to leave tracking down these items to random chance and can pick them up as easily as possible.

Stranded Deep – Medicines and Status Healing Items

There is a massive amount of things that can kill the player throughout the course of Stranded Deep, so in order to survive players will want to be prepared for just about anything. One of the easiest ways to do this is by creating a series of medical items that will be needed for different purposes.

• Bandages – A bandage can be crafted using 1 Lashing and 1 Cloth. These can be used to fix the bleeding status effect that is inflicted by sharks.
• Antidote – This can be crafted using 1 Pipi and 1 Coconut Flask. This is what players will need to use whenever they are poisoned by the numerous different poisonous creatures in the game.
• Aloe Salve – This can be made using 1 Coconut Flask and 1 Aloe. This is perfect for whenever the player has gotten a nasty sunburn.
• Splint – The splint can be crafted using 2 Lashings and 2 Sticks. If the player happens to fall off a particularly high location they can break a bone that then can only be healed by using a splint.

Stranded Deep can be played on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.

About The Author

Cody Peterson
(951 Articles Published)

Cody Peterson is an avid reader and writer. Graduated from Midwestern State University with a BA in English where he worked as an editor for the University literary journal. Currently a freelancer for Screenrant, where he spends most of his time writing guides or reviews. Be warned that any conversation started with him will probably wind up gravitating towards his two dogs, The Adventure Zone, or Kingdom Hearts 2.

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