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11 Overview
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33 The Workbench is the primary crafting station in Rooted. Building one is the first major step in establishing a base, because the Workbench unlocks blueprints in the Survivor Guide and serves as the place where players repair, build, and break down items recovered from the post-apocalyptic world.
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55 Function
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77 FunctionDescriptionItem craftingCombine gathered resources into tools, structures, furniture, and survival equipment.RepairRestore the condition of items recovered through salvaging, including weapons and tools.Blueprint unlocksBuilding a Workbench expands the catalog of available recipes in the Survivor Guide.Resource processingBreak down junk items into base components such as Metal Sheets and Planks.
88 Mechanical Workbench
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1010 A more advanced Mechanical Workbench is used for higher-tier crafting. It unlocks construction of complex items and integrates with the electricity progression. Inventory persistence at this station was corrected in a recent patch so that stored materials are retained between sessions.
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1212 Building And Placement
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1414 The Workbench is one of the first structures players assemble in a fresh base. It can be placed inside a secured existing structure, such as a small village house, or built into a fully modular base. The Base Building system uses free rotation with no grid restrictions, so the Workbench can be oriented to fit any layout.
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1616 Progression Role
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1818 Constructing a Workbench is the gate between early-game scavenging and mid-game systems. Once a Workbench is up, players can move on to the Mechanical Workbench, electricity, and automation. Group play benefits especially: cooperative survivors can split between salvaging, hunting, and operating workstations to maintain a stable supply line.
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2020 Tips
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2222 Place the Workbench close to your main storage to cut down on item shuffling.Build inside an existing structure when possible. Walls and a roof save time compared to constructing a full enclosure from scratch.Upgrade to a Mechanical Workbench as soon as resources allow so you stay ahead of the blueprint demand from later progression tiers.
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2424 Workbench Role
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2626 The workbench is the central crafting and repair station for a base in Rooted. It hosts recipe access, repair operations on damaged items, and the upgrade path that opens deeper crafting tiers. Most progression on the gear side runs through a workbench somewhere on the map.
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2828 Crafting Tiers
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3030 TierUnlock patternOutputsBasicAvailable from the first workbench placedTools, simple weapons, basic clothing, containersMidRequires workshop expansion and electrical inputsVehicles, advanced gear, electrical componentsAdvancedBuilt on automation and high-tier salvage2080-era recovered tech, late-game crafted firearms, advanced clothing
3131 Repair Versus Salvage
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3333 Damaged items go through the workbench for repair, an alternative to breaking them down via salvage. Recovery of pre-war hardware often passes through repair first, particularly for firearms recovered after the December 2025 weapons patch. Salvage applies where raw resources matter more than the specific item.
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3535 Pairing With Electricity
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3737 Once a base reaches the electricity-and-automation tier, certain workbench actions accelerate or run in background. Power-fed stations cut waiting times on chained recipes and free attention for exploration or hunting.
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3939 Crafting Camera (In Development)
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4141 A June 12, 2026 development update changed how the camera behaves at a crafting station, work that is in development and not yet in the public build. The view blends over the shoulder while a survivor works at the station, keeping the work in frame. This camera behavior is confirmed development direction.
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4343 Tier Progression In Development
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4545 An in-progress card on the studio's public roadmap covers workbench tiers and guides. The plan layers tier progression, salvage, and repair onto the existing benches, and adds exclusive blueprint guides unlocked at higher tiers rather than handed out from the start. The detail that matters most for group play is that a workshop is shared: in co-op, every craft a partner runs contributes toward the same workshop level, so a bench improves through the whole squad's activity rather than through one player's.
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4747 A separate planned card covers blueprint discovery, which would make recipes something a survivor learns through play instead of selecting from an open list. A mechanical workbench is already logged as completed development work, so the advanced tier exists as a target even though the public alpha has not received the progression system. None of this has reached the public build, which runs on patch v0.0.2.381.
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49+The bench interface was rebuilt around that progression in the unreleased build. It now opens as a full-screen layout showing live recipe requirements against what you are actually carrying, with an output bay to collect finished items and the current tier progress readable at a glance rather than buried. The camera blends over the shoulder while you craft, the prompt anchors on the bench body rather than floating, and the panel force-closes if you die or take a hit, so crafting cannot be used to hide from a fight.
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51+The co-op consequence is the part worth planning around: every craft a partner runs at the bench contributes to the shared workshop level. Progression through the tiers is a group effort rather than something each survivor grinds separately, which rewards keeping one well-supplied bench rather than scattering half-built ones. See Salvaging for where the tier materials come from and Multiplayer for how sessions are shared.