The lantern sputtered; the map was blank and the cart creaked under the weight of half-broken hopes. I had one hour to decide whether I would leave with pockets full or leave with regrets. I’ve learned you don’t guess—craft with intent, or you pay for it later.
I’m going to show you what I make first, what I ignore, and why a few small items tilt a run from chore to triumph. Read fast; the cave won’t wait.
You will dig more than you eat — Best crafting recipes in Casualties: Unknown
Observation: rubble, plants, and broken traps are the game’s grocery store and hardware shop at once. I treat non-food crafting as the backbone of every run: tools, containers, and basic components that let you squeeze value from the map. Below are the raw materials you want to pull off the ground as often as you can.
- Plastic and Rubber: yields chunks of Plastic
- Plants: yields Glowplant Fruit and Foliage
- Wood: yields Wood Scraps
- Trash and Scrap: yields Scrap Metal
- Break Traps: yields Scrap Metal
| Recipes | Reason |
|---|---|
| Canvas | Important basic resource required in multiple recipes. |
| Rope | Important basic resource required in multiple recipes. |
| Makeshift Digging Tool | Allows you to dig more resources as you keep going down deeper into the cave. |
| Bio-chem Fluid | Another important basic material that’s required in multiple resources. |
| Wood Cube | Required for crafting the Flimsy Knife. |
| Canteen | Allows you to carry or scoop up fluids. |
| Foliage Bag | Allows you to hoard more garbage, and save space in your Canteen. |
| Flimsy Knife | While this might not be a weapon, the tool helps you in crafting. |
I always make three items on my first stop: a Foliage Bag, a Canteen, and a Flimsy Knife. The Foliage Bag is a small bank vault for trash. The Canteen turns puddles and seepage into a resource you can carry, and the Flimsy Knife opens recipes that otherwise sit locked in menus.
What should I craft first in Casualties: Unknown?
Answer: start with capacity. You want to carry more and free inventory space. Canvas and Rope feed several follow-up builds; the Canteen converts wasted water into usable fluid; the Foliage Bag keeps junk from clogging your pockets. If you have to pick one, make the Foliage Bag first so you can stash salvage without micro-managing every tile.
You will go hungry faster than you think — Best cooking recipes in Casualties: Unknown
Observation: food runs out sooner than your patience does, and rationing wastes more time than a bad fight. Cooking recipes give you sustained gains—carryable calories, buffs, and fewer inventory headaches. Below are the go-to meals I make on almost every run.
| Recipes | Ingredients |
|---|---|
| Bread | Requires 1 Rye Flour and 150 ml of Clean Water |
| Soup | Requires 200 ml of Clean Water, 1x Meat, and 25 ml of Fat |
| Nutrient Bar | Requires 1x Rye Flour, and 25 ml of Fat, and any 1 Produce |
| Pemmican | Any 1 Produce, 75 ml of Fat, and 1x Meat |
| Foliage Meal | 1x Produce and 3x Foliage |
| Produce Juice | 3x Produce |
| Refined Juice | 250 ml of Produce Juice |
Nutrient Bar and Pemmican are my steady staples: they compress ingredients into weight-efficient, long-lasting food. Bread is a filler when you have Rye Flour and water, and Juice recipes convert surplus produce into portable drink that can top off thirst between checkpoints.
How do I carry and use liquids?
Make a Canteen early and keep it filled. Water is multipurpose—clean it, use it in recipes, or refill the flasks you trade with NPCs. If you see standing fluid, scoop it: you can refine or combine it into Soup, Bread dough, or Bio-chem Fluid later.
I follow discussions on Steam and Reddit for patch notes and meta shifts; the Casualties: Unknown Discord has recipe tips that often beat the patch notes at predicting what will save you next run. Use those communities to adapt recipes to current builds.
Small note on efficiency: hoarding Scrap Metal and Plastic pays off more often than you think. Canvas and Rope are cheap to make but expensive to forgo when you need a makeshift bandage or a spare strap in the dark. A Flimsy Knife is a backstage pass to better crafting when you reach mid-run and the menu starts offering higher-tier items.
So what will you craft on your next descent, and which recipe are you willing to trade for a shot at survival?