How to Upgrade the Crafting Bench

So, you’ve got yourself a village, a campfire and maybe even some villagers to keep you company. And a bed. You … have a bed, right?

The next thing you’re going to need – the item that will make you a LEGO® Fortnite® pro in no time – is the Crafting Bench, an item that will let you make new tools to explore the world, Charms that increase your health and resistance cold and heat as well as weapons to fight off all the monsters you’ll encounter. Later on, you’ll even find cool new abilities in this Crafting Bench – so it’s well worth the upgrade!

What Does the Crafting Bench Do?

The Crafting Bench has four categories of things you can make: Tools, Weapons, Accessories and Equipment. Every time you upgrade the Crafting Bench, you unlock new recipes in each category that can help you explore further and survive longer.

The Tools category is where you’ll find Axes and Pickaxes, which break trees and rocks so you can collect Wood and Stone. You’ll also find the Shovel, which is used to get Dirt, which you need for farming.

Upgrading your Crafting Bench will unlock new tools that let you break harder materials, like Marble, Obsidian and Knotroot, which are ingredients for better new tools, weapons and decor.

Weapons means Swords, Recurve Crossbows, Hunting Daggers and Shields, for both long-range and melee fighting. Upgrading your bench will unlock better weapons for dealing more damage in a single hit.

Accessories are must-haves for your adventure. These are Charms and Totems that grant your character extra health, heat and cold resistance and even the ability to cheat death itself. Make sure you equip these in the Inventory menu.

Finally, the Equipment category is where you’ll find useful items like the Grappler and the Glider, two mobility items that will zip you around the map in no time, as well as Dynamite for ending fights quickly (and explosively).

But at the start of LEGO Fortnite, your little Crafting Bench can only make the most basic of tools and weapons. So how do you upgrade it?

What Items Do I Need for the First Crafting Bench Upgrade?

Your first Crafting Bench upgrade should be your priority in your first few in-game days. To upgrade it, you’ll need 8 Planks and 3 Shells.

You can make Planks by refining Wood at a Lumber Mill, which costs 8 Wood and 15 Granite. To find Wood and Granite, destroy trees, bushes and rocks, which are scattered around the map.

Shells are a little trickier. You’ll need to find a Roller – these are little bug-like enemies that hide in the soil until you get closer. Then they roll at you to deal damage. A neat trick to defeating these is to use a Pickaxe instead of a Sword. They’re made of rocks, so it does more damage.

Gather these materials, head back to your Crafting Bench and upgrade that to level 1.

What Items Do I Need for the Second Crafting Bench Upgrade?

Here’s where things start getting complicated. Once you’ve got your first Crafting Bench upgrade, you’ll need to upgrade your tools and then gather the materials for the next upgrade.

This Crafting Bench upgrade requires 12 Knotroot Rods, 15 Marble Slabs, 6 Sand Claws and 3 Sand Shells.

Knotroot Rods require the Lumber Mill, an Uncommon Forest Axe (the upgraded version of the first axe you can make) and a cave. You can find caves inside of big rock formations in your world. Look for gnarled roots inside, and chop them down to find Knotroot. Feed that Knotroot into the Lumber Mill to craft Knotroot Rods.

Marble is also found in caves, so make sure you’ve got the Uncommon Pickaxe, and then just look around for pale rocks. Feed those Marble chunks into the Stone Breaker – another crafting station, which requires 35 Marble and 20 Knotroot to build – and you’ll get Marble Slabs.

The Sand Claws and Sand Shells you need come from defeating Wolves and Rollers in hot, sandy Dry Valley and Shores biomes. You can avoid taking damage from the heat by eating Snowberries, equipping Health Charms and just trying to minimize your time spent in the area. Upgrade your weapons as well to make the battle go faster.

Once you have all the Wood, Marble and monster bits you need, you’re ready to upgrade your bench once more.

What Items Do I Need for the Third Crafting Bench Upgrade?

You will most likely spend a lot of time with the second Crafting Bench upgrade, and don’t feel bad about that. The final Crafting Bench upgrade takes a lot of time, patience and hard work, as well as fully upgraded tools that also require lots of materials.

This last upgrade takes 15 Copper Bars, 25 Obsidian Slabs and 1 Brute Scale.

You might have seen Brutes stomping around your world, looking like a terrifying hybrid of rhinos, dinos and your worst nightmares. But you can defeat them. Try using Crossbows to keep your distance or attacking with friends. You can sometimes find Brute Scales in chests within lava caves, and you’ll need to head to the lava caves anyway for the other two materials.

Obsidian, like Marble, is found in caves, but as you may have guessed, these are lava caves. They’re hot, they’re dangerous, and they’re full of things that want to fight you, so make sure you’re prepared. Upgrade your tools and weapons, and chug a Snowberry Shake to get yourself 10 minutes of heat resistance. Bring some materials to build bridges in case you need to cross the lava, too.

Copper deposits are also found in lava caves. You’ll need to build a Smelter to turn the ore into bars, which requires your Village to be level 9, as well as 15 Brightcore, 35 Obsidian Slabs and 3 Blast Cores. You can also find Brightcore and Blast Cores in the lava caves. How efficient!

And that’s how you upgrade your Crafting Bench. Now, go, and craft to your heart’s content!