Make a Pouch for exploration, a Backpack for hauling
Make a Pouch for everyday exploration, and choose a Backpack when carrying a larger load matters more than sprinting. A Pouch adds room to your normal inventory without the Backpack's movement restrictions. The Backpack is particularly suited to packing up your belongings and moving between campsites.
Storage and movement compared
| Option | Storage and Movement |
|---|---|
| Pouch: Everyday Inventory Upgrade | Using a Pouch adds 3 slots to your normal inventory without the Backpack's movement restrictions. Choose it when you want more room for supplies while exploring. |
| Backpack: Separate Carrying Storage | Provides 9 separate carrying slots, slows movement and prevents sprinting. Choose it for hauling belongings when the additional load matters more than moving quickly. |
Find Leather before building your Workbench
Find some Leather before trying to make more at a Workbench. Having Leather unlocks its Workbench recipe, and Leather is also an ingredient in the Workbench itself. In the sewers, look for the small chest containing Leather and a Bone Club.
The Pouch is made at a Workbench, while the Backpack is made directly in the Crafting menu. Recipes become available as you discover their relevant items. If you cannot see the upgrade you want, check its ingredients and crafting location before spending materials on something else.
Craft and use a Pouch
- Craft a Workbench from 3 Wood Planks, 2 Iron Rods and 1 Leather. This gives you the station used to make the Pouch and process Animal Hide into Leather.
- Craft additional Leather at the Workbench if you need it. Each craft turns 2 Animal Hide into 1 Leather, supplying the processed material used by the Pouch recipe.
- Craft the Pouch at the Workbench using 2 Leather and 2 Vines. Keep these materials available after building the station, because the Pouch has its own ingredient cost.
- Use the Pouch to add 3 slots to your normal inventory. These slots expand the inventory you already use, without making you carry the Backpack's separate storage.
Craft and load a Backpack
- Craft Rope in the Crafting menu from 2 Vines and 1 Stick if you do not already have some. Each craft produces 1 Rope for the Backpack recipe.
- Craft the Backpack directly in the Crafting menu using 1 Leather, 2 Ragged Cloth and 1 Rope. The Backpack itself does not require a Workbench to craft.
Get the materials you are missing
Ragged Cloth has no crafting recipe, so collect it while exploring. Resource spots can refill with different items over time, including Ragged Cloth. Revisit previously cleared spots if cloth is the ingredient holding up your Backpack.
For more Animal Hide, process a Rat into Raw Meat; this also gives you hide. Take the hide to your Workbench to turn it into Leather. This gives you a way to replenish Leather after using your initial supply on the station or an upgrade.
Backpacks after death and where to recover them
Your equipped Backpack stays on your character after death. Items that are not kept go into a larger death pack, so retaining the Backpack does not mean you have retained everything you were carrying. Check your supplies before setting out again.
If a Backpack or death pack falls below the world, check camp or your spawn point, where these packs return. Death packs in water float at the surface. If you die in mid-air, the death pack is placed on the last solid ground.