How INT works
Every item has an INT recognition requirement — you cannot craft or fully identify it until your Intelligence reaches that level. First-time crafts and blueprints grant INT experience; so does haggling with traders and reaching new depth layers. See the crafting tutorial for the in-game course text.
Early craft order
After the tutorial, craft in this order before hauling heavy loot. Full walkthrough context is on getting started.
Collect groundwater and boil it into clean water.
Two canvases plus rope are the core of early bags.
Needed for foliage bags and many later crafts.
Your first real carry capacity — craft two if you can.
Break scrap piles and harvest materials faster.
Dedicated slot for loose crafting scrap.
Head protection before you push past layer 2.
Key INT milestones
Crafting above your INT
You can attempt recipes up to 3 INT higher than your current level — but each step adds a failure penalty:
- +1 INT
- 50% chance the resulting item spawns damaged
- +2 INT
- 50% chance all materials are wasted
- +3 INT
- Same as +2, and you take slight self-damage
Prefer grinding INT through safe first-time crafts and trading before forcing high-tier recipes.
Full recognition gates
Quality slots
Recipes that call for “any item with __ quality” are explained on the crafting qualities page — each recipe detail page also lists matching provider items.