Crafting in Casualties: Unknown is how you turn a cave full of garbage into a survivable kit. It is also where new players lose runs: the wrong recipe consumes a favorite item, a failed craft destroys the materials, or the intelligence requirement is one level too high.
How crafting works
Open the crafting menu with C or the button in the bottom-left corner. Recipes are grouped into Materials, Tools, Medicine, Utilities and Food. You do not need the ingredients in your hands: they must be nearby and not blocked by tiles. That means a full inventory is not a crafting blocker, but a wall between you and your bag is.
New recipes carry a green +. The first time you craft one, you gain +1 mood and +10 INT experience. The plus disappears afterward and only returns after a Mindwipe. If you are trying to raise intelligence quickly, craft every new recipe you can afford, even if you do not need the item immediately.
You can pin a recipe to the screen with the pin icon. Pinned recipes show their ingredient progress while you explore, which is useful for long chains like the Backpack.
INT and failure
Each recipe has an intelligence requirement. The number is color-coded against your current INT:
| INT gap | Colour | Result |
|---|---|---|
| At or above requirement | Green | Normal craft, no failure chance. |
| 1 level below | Yellow | 50% minor failure: condition reduced by 10-90%. Fluid containers are exempt. |
| 2 levels below | Orange | 50% major failure: no item is produced. |
| 3 levels below | Red | 50% critical failure: no item, plus hand pain, skin damage and bleeding. |
| 4+ levels below | Hidden | The recipe is not shown at all. |
A failed craft still counts as your first craft for the mood and INT bonus. That is a small consolation when your only Rope is gone. If the recipe is yellow or worse, ask whether you can wait for one more intelligence level instead of gambling the materials.
Crafting quality
Some recipes do not ask for a specific item. They ask for a quality, such as Cutting, Hammering, Foliage, Flammable, Nails or Dressing. Any item with a high enough quality can fill the slot, and the condition consumed is proportional to the gap between the tool’s quality and the recipe’s requirement.
A Flimsy Knife has 8 Cutting quality. A Machete has 200. If a recipe needs 4 Cutting, the Machete spends only 2% of the condition the knife would spend. That is why a good blade is also a crafting tool, and why you should not use a rare weapon to cut wood if a cheap knife will do.
- Cutting: Flimsy Knife (8), Crude Cleaver (40), Claw Pack (100), Machete (200).
- Hammering: Makeshift Digging Tool (10), Machete (15), Wrench (150), Sledgehammer (1000).
- Foliage: Foliage, Dried Foliage, Wrapvine.
- Flammable: Stick, Wood Cube, Wood Panel, Charcoal.
- Firestarter: Firestarter (3), Lighter (100).
The early chain
The first ten minutes have a clear optimal path. It starts with Foliage and ends with a wearable container.
- Harvest 8-12 Foliage. Glowplants and Geotrees are best. Hydreed Wrapvines count, but they are heavy.
- Craft 1 Rope (2 Foliage) and 2 Canvas (3 Foliage each). Craft them as you harvest to save inventory space.
- Craft a Foliage Bag at INT 5. 4u capacity and 25% weight reduction. Favorite it immediately.
- Find 2 Chunks of Plastic. Break plastic or rubber blocks, or loot them from crates. Craft a Canteen at INT 6 with a Rope and 10 mL Bio-chem fluid.
- Upgrade to a Sling Bag at INT 7. One Foliage Bag + String + 2 Rope. Any condition Foliage Bag works, so it doubles as a repair.
You now have a wearable container, a water container and a free hand for a light. That is the minimum viable kit for Layer 2. Everything after this is optimization.
Priority recipes
These are the crafts that change survival odds the most, in roughly the order you should pursue them.
| Recipe | INT | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Foliage Bag | 5 | Fixes the first inventory crunch. |
| Canteen | 6 | Carries clean water without the Water Bottle’s weight. |
| Makeshift Digging Tool | 7 | Lets you make a route when the cave does not provide one. |
| Sling Bag | 7 | 40% weight reduction in a wearable slot. |
| Splint | 8 | Turns a run-ending fracture into a 20-minute detour. |
| Tourniquet | 9 | Eight uses of instant bleeding control. |
| Material Pouch | 10 | Makes carrying Canvas and crafting materials efficient. |
| Backpack | 13 | 7.5u capacity and 45% weight reduction. |
Food, fire and water
A Campfire is a heat source for cooking and boiling. It costs three flammable items and a firestarter at INT 4. Place it on dry ground: any water tile destroys it instantly. Boil groundwater before filling a Canteen, then cook perishables before they rot.
Early food recipes are not about gourmet meals. They are about turning abundant materials into safe calories. A Foliage Meal at INT 7 uses a heat source, three Foliage and a Produce item. A Nutrient Bar at INT 9 needs flour, produce and fat, but gives three bites and never decays. That is the food you save for the layer you did not plan for.
The INT 13 backpack
The Backpack is the single biggest quality-of-life upgrade in the demo. It holds 7.5u, accepts items up to 5u, reduces stored weight by 45% and provides 7% insulation. It needs 2 Rope, 1 Wood Panel, 5 Canvas, 3 String and a Cutting tool at INT 13.
That is a lot of Foliage. The efficient route is to carry Canvas in a Material Pouch, harvest while exploring, and craft String from Rope only when you have the rest. Do not hoard 5 Canvas in a Foliage Bag that is about to decay; move them to a safer container or craft the panels first.
Once the Backpack is built, the game opens up. You can carry a full medical kit, food, water and a spare weapon without becoming over-encumbered. It is worth delaying a descent for.
Common mistakes
- Not favoriting containers. Crafting can consume equipped or nearby items. Favorite your bag, canteen and light with
F. - Crafting red recipes for progression. A critical failure damages both hands. Wait for the INT level if the recipe is not urgent.
- Carrying finished Dressings. Canvas is lighter and more flexible; craft Dressings at the health panel.
- Building a campfire in a puddle. It dies instantly. Check the floor tiles first.
- Ignoring quality. A cheap knife can satisfy a Cutting recipe without spending your Machete’s condition.
- Forgetting the pin. Long chains are much easier with a pinned recipe and a clear material list.
If you want an interactive ingredient list, use the crafting calculator. It includes the full early chain and a persistent checklist, so you can plan a Backpack without writing anything down.