Last Ember Homestead guide: buildings, skills and forge

The Homestead is your home base in Last Ember, shared by every survivor on your account and built up between runs with what you carry home. Raw materials left in your pack at the end of a run go to the Storehouse, the bosses you kill hang in the Trophy Hall, and seven buildings turn those into gear, food, fire and permanent bonuses. Your life skills decide what you can build and how well it works. Signed in, it saves to your account. As a guest it saves on your device and moves into your account the first time you sign in.

What are life skills?

Every survivor has seven life skills that level from 1 to 50 and stay between runs. You earn skill XP by doing the thing: chopping, burning, mining, fishing, foraging, cooking and crafting. Each skill helps in a run and at home:

New survivors catch up fast. A newer survivor learns each life skill three times as fast until it reaches half the level your best survivor has in that skill (once your best is at least level 4), so a new character never starts from scratch.

What goes into the Storehouse?

At the end of every run, win or lose, any ore (copper, iron, silver, emberite), raw fish, raw meat, hide, herbs, berries, mushrooms and spiritbloom still in your pack comes home. Cooked food and potions stay behind. It also keeps the Ember Shards you get from salvaging gear: 1 for an epic, 3 for a legendary. The Storehouse holds a set amount of each material, shards included, and anything over the cap is lost:

From level 2 the Storehouse also has a woodpile that sends you into each run with logs: one for every 10 Woodcutting levels, up to 5.

What does each building do?

There are seven buildings. Upgrades are paid in Storehouse materials plus embers from the survivor doing the building. Some also need that survivor to have a life skill level. No building can go higher than the Hearth.

How does the Forge work?

The Forge works on gear in the stash of whichever survivor you have selected. It does four jobs, and each forge level opens the next metal: copper at level 1, iron at 2, silver at 3, emberite at 4.

• Craft: make a new weapon, armor or charm for your survivor from Storehouse ore: 10 copper, 14 iron, 18 silver or 14 emberite, plus 40, 90, 180 or 320 embers. Armor also takes hides, and silver and emberite charms take spiritbloom. The piece comes out at your level inside that metal's band. Crafting sets a rarity floor: uncommon or better at Crafting 10, rare at 20 and epic at 35, with the odds shown on screen. Silver and emberite pieces also have a slim chance to come out legendary: 1 in 400 and 1 in 200, climbing to 1 in 100 and 1 in 50 by Crafting 50. For half again the embers you can lock in one bonus stat you want (charms always, weapons and armor from Crafting 10).
• Temper: raise a piece one item level and every stat with it, up to your own level. Tempering never lowers a stat, and a piece can cross into the next metal. Each step costs a little ore of its metal and some embers.
• Reforge (level 2): roll every stat again at the same level and rarity, then keep whichever roll you like. It costs silver and embers, except epics and legendaries, which take 2 and 3 Ember Shards instead of silver. A legendary keeps its power.
• Masterwork (level 5): raise a piece's rarity one step, all the way to legendary, which adds a stat and strengthens the rest (a new legendary also gets a legendary power). It costs emberite, spiritbloom and embers, and the top two steps also take Ember Shards: 2 for rare to epic, 6 for epic to legendary.

Your Mining level takes that percent off the ore, and your Crafting level takes that percent off the embers, so a level 30 miner pays 30% less ore.

How does the Smokehouse work?

The Smokehouse cures raw materials into provisions. You pack one provision slot per Smokehouse level, and packed provisions go with whoever you play next and are used up when the run starts.

Each cure makes one provision. A level 5 Smokehouse makes two, and Cooking 35 adds one more. The racks hold up to 99 of each.

How does the Trophy Hall work?

Every boss you bring down in any mode sends its head home, whether or not you have built the hall. There are 31 trophies: the five bosses of each of the six maps, plus the Last Dark. Once the Trophy Hall is built, each different trophy gives every survivor a small bonus:

• Stags: +1% damage to bosses each.
• Moonfang: +0.6% move speed each.
• Colossi: 0.6% less damage taken each.
• Brood Mothers: +1% max health each.
• Lantern Eaters: wood you burn gives 1% more fuel each.
• The Last Dark: +3% damage.

Hall level 1 counts trophies in full, level 2 counts them half again as much, and level 3 counts them double. The hall costs 30 copper and 10 hide (plus 150 embers) to build.

What does the Merchant sell?

The Merchant brings new stock every day at midnight UTC, with gear made for the survivor you have selected:

• Level 1: two pieces of gear a day (a weapon and an armor, rare or better), plus iron (10 for 45 embers) and silver (5 for 70).
• Level 2: three pieces, one of them epic, plus emberite (3 for 150).
• Level 3: four pieces, two of them epic, plus spiritbloom (1 for 90).
• It buys too: 10 copper for 8 embers, 10 iron for 15, 5 hides for 10, and 5 fish or 5 meat for 6.

How does the Garden grow?

The Garden grows while you are away, even with the game closed, for up to 20 hours before the beds are full. At level 1 it grows about 1 herb, 0.6 berries and 0.5 mushrooms an hour, and each level above 1 adds 50% to that. From level 3 it also grows spiritbloom. Foraging 30 makes every bed grow 25% faster. Harvest it often, because nothing grows while the beds are full and the harvest has to fit in the Storehouse.

What should you build first?

1. Storehouse to 2 (20 copper, 60 embers). It doubles your storage and starts the woodpile.
2. Hearth to 2 (25 copper, 8 hide, 120 embers). It adds fire and lets other buildings reach level 2.
3. Smokehouse once a survivor has Cooking 5. Jerky and Smoked Fish make every run start stronger.
4. Forge at Crafting 5, then tempering to keep your favorite piece at your level.
5. Trophy Hall as soon as you have a few bosses down, since trophies already count account-wide.
6. Garden at Foraging 5 for steady herbs, then the Merchant for metals you cannot dig yet.

What else carries over between runs?

Each survivor also spends embers at Camp. Upgrades are permanent bonuses with up to 10 ranks, and they cost more as they climb and give half value past a soft cap: Stout (+10 starting health), Keen Edge (+8% damage), Dry Kindling (+8 starting fire), Steady Hands (gather 5% faster), Lucky Find (better gear drops), Packed Bag (2 bandages per rank), Foresight (4 upgrade choices) and more. Each class has two class perks of its own. The Ember shop sells a Bigger Stash and a Bigger Loot Bag, plus six palettes and five flame colors that unlock for every survivor on the account.

Does the Homestead work in co-op?

Yes. Everyone brings their own kit (provisions, trophy bonuses, woodpile logs) and carries their own pack home to their own Storehouse. The host's Hearth and Firemaking set the fire everyone shares. See the co-op guide for the rest.

Frequently asked questions