Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey Tool List and Uses

Making tools in Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey will give you a major step up and allow you to craft resources that can be used to help you survive. By using tools you can make some tasks easier, or gain access to items you otherwise couldn’t get to. Mastering tool use can allow you to provide defense to your settlement and quickly counter any issue that might occur.

There are four primary tools in Ancestors, and we’ll tell you how to craft each below. We’ll also show you the recommended uses for each tool so you can make sure you’re using the right one for the job.

What are tools in Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey?

When you think of tools, you think of hammers, wrenches, screwdrivers, and so on. Your hominids won’t be doing any major construction projects, but all the modern implements we use to build have humble beginnings, which you’ll see in Ancestors.

For our ancestors, tools were simple things. Rocks and branches make up the bulk of your mechanical implements in the game, but these make all the difference when you’re trying to survive. Tools can be used to grind, scrape, cut, or lift, actions you couldn’t take with just your bare hands.

All Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey Tools

There are many items classified as “tools” in Ancestors, but really there are only four main tools. These can be readily crafted and are immensely useful from the beginning of the game until the end.

Basalt Chopper

Recipe: Alter Basalt with any rock.

The Basalt Chopper is the most useful tool, in my opinion. The chopper can be used to strip branches and sharpen them quickly and can also be used as a powerful weapon. When exploring, I always keep a Basalt Chopper with me. It makes a great impromptu defense item and can be used to quickly craft an arsenal of sharpened sticks if you find yourself under attack.

Granite Grinder

Recipe: Alter Granite with any rock.

The least useful tool in Ancestors is the Granite Grinder. There’s surprisingly little to grind in the prehistoric world, and we’ve only found one use for it. You can use the grinder to make Ground Khat, which amplifies the temperature and anti-bone breaking buffs. I’ve tried grinding a ton of items in Ancestors, but Khat is the only one I’ve found that the tool actually works on.

Obsidian Scraper

Recipe: Alter Obsidian with any rock.

The Obsidian Scraper works similarly to the Basalt Chopper and also allows you to increase sharpened stick crafting speed. The scraper is a good fallback if you can’t find Basalt. However, as a weapon, it seems to cause a bit less damage than the chopper. There’s likely a specific use for this tool, but I haven’t found it yet. From the info I’ve gathered, it just seems to be an alternative to the chopper.

Sharpened Stick

Recipes: Use a rock, Basalt Chopper, or Obsidian Scraper on a Dead Branch.

The Sharpened Stick is the most useful tool in Ancestors. It can be used to poke holes to forage for food, lift rocks to access resources underneath them, and to defend your tribe. These break when you engage in combat, so they’ll also most likely be your most frequently crafted item.

I always carry a Sharpened Stick with me no matter where I go. If I’m just walking around my settlement, I’m still backing one of these. You never know when danger is going to strike, and having something to defend yourself with can make the difference between life and death in Ancestors.

Are there other tools in Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey?

Ancestors has the habit of calling pretty much anything that isn’t food a tool. You’ll run into other objects during the game that are called “tools,” but most have only one use. The items above are the ones you’ll find yourself crafting over and over from beginning until the end.

More Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey is a third-person open world survival game where you Explore, Expand, and Evolve to advance your clan to the next generation in this exhilarating new adventure from the creator of Assassin’s Creed.

Embark on the most incredible odyssey known to humankind: human evolution. Spanning from 10 million to 2 million years ago, begin your journey, before us, in Neogene period Africa. Explore a beautiful yet ruthless world, from swinging through tree branches in the jungle to stalking prey across the golden savannah grasslands. Decide what attributes to learn and hone in order to pass down knowledge to future generations, from crafting tools to enhancing evasive tactics against predators. Just like real life, make sure to eat, drink, and sleep to stay alive and have the energy to face any danger that may come your way.

Grow your clan and find strength in numbers as you progress through critical evolutionary stages of human evolution. Your choices will write your clan’s story and determine if you can survive your evolution.