Conan Exiles Improved Crafting Benches & QoL Mods 2026: Tier-2 Stations & Mod Overlay
Search for “Conan Exiles improved fish trap” or “improved armorer’s bench” and most people land on a vanilla tier-2 crafting station page. Search for “improved thralls and qol” and they hit a popular Workshop mod. The two are not the same thing, and the confusion costs new players hours. This guide covers both. First, the vanilla tier-2 “Improved” crafting benches that Funcom shipped with the 2.1 crafting revamp and how they fit into a 2026 progression run. Second, the Workshop mods that add a meaningful quality-of-life layer on top, especially the ones that have been ported to Enhanced UE5. By the end you should know which “Improved” you actually need at each stage of the game.
The vanilla “Improved” benches: where they came from
In late 2020, Funcom shipped Update 2.1 (Crafting Revamp). It split crafting across more specialised benches and added a tier-2 upgrade path for several core stations. Before 2.1, the Armorer’s Bench handled everything armour-related. After 2.1, it specialised in plate, mail, and steel-tier output, while the Tanner’s Table took on hide, leather, and silk processing.
The tier-2 versions are the “Improved” prefix lineup. They unlock at level 18 for most and 25 for the larger ones. They are not just cosmetic upgrades. Each one increases the speed of crafting, expands the recipe pool, and (for some) reduces material costs through better thrall assignment.
The lineup that matters for a 2026 progression:
- Improved Armorer’s Bench: tier-2. Adds heavier armour recipes (steel reinforced and beyond). Required for the late-game armour endgame. Crafted via blacksmith bench.
- Improved Tanner’s Table: tier-2. Unlocks layered silk, exquisite leather, and the high-end hide recipes used in light and medium armours.
- Improved Fish Trap: tier-2. Increases catch rate and unlocks rare fish (icefish, ling-cod variants) that feed high-tier recipes. Requires bait.
- Improved Stove: tier-2 cooking station. Faster cook times, unlocks the better consumables (seared meat dishes, special teas, the early-game stat-bonus loaves).
- Improved Carpenter’s Bench: tier-2 woodworking. Unlocks superior bows, treated wood, and the higher-tier furniture set.
- Improved Saddler’s Worktable: tier-2. Unlocks elephant and rhino saddles, and the high-speed riding saddles.
You can play the entire campaign without touching any of these. You can also stay stuck at tier-1 forever if you do. The “Improved” benches are the bridge between mid-game gathering and endgame crafting.
Which ones to build first
If you are starting a new character (or a new server after Enhanced) and you want to optimise your progression curve, the order that matters is:
- Improved Stove. Cheap to build, immediate quality-of-life impact. The stat-buff food matters more than people give it credit for.
- Improved Tanner’s Table. Bridges to medium armour and gives you the silk processing chain you need for sorcery.
- Improved Armorer’s Bench. Once you have iron and steel reliably, this is where the late-game armour comes from.
- Improved Carpenter’s Bench. Bows scale dramatically here. If your build is ranged, this jumps to step 2.
- Improved Fish Trap. Only relevant if you have a coastal base. Otherwise skip.
- Improved Saddler’s Worktable. Only relevant once you have a high-end mount. Otherwise late-game.
Most new players skip the Improved Stove and wonder why their stats lag behind teammates who built it early. The buff food is worth the effort.
Crafting thralls: where the “improved” benches actually shine
Every Improved bench has a thrall slot. Assign a named tier-3 or tier-4 crafter and the bench’s output speeds up substantially, recipe pool expands, and material costs drop. This is the multiplier you do not see in the recipe screen.
| Bench | Thrall type to assign | Tier-4 example |
|---|---|---|
| Improved Armorer’s Bench | Armorer | Beri (Sinner’s Refuge) |
| Improved Tanner’s Table | Tanner | Suchong (Sepermeru) |
| Improved Stove | Cook | Lianeele the Knife (Sepermeru) |
| Improved Carpenter’s Bench | Carpenter | Hampta of the Dunes (Buccaneer Bay) |
| Improved Fish Trap | No thrall slot (passive station) | N/A |
| Improved Saddler’s Worktable | Tanner (specifically saddler tag) | Tarman the Slow (Mounds of the Dead) |
The named tier-4 thralls have rare spawn pools. Getting them is its own grind, but the payoff is significant for any clan running long-term on a server.
The Workshop “Improved” mods that overlay on the vanilla ones
Funcom’s vanilla tier-2 lineup covers the basics. The Workshop ecosystem extends them substantially. The two big mods to know:
Improved Thralls & QoL (Szabii)
The headline thrall mod for groups that want fine-grained control. Adds runtime buffing or nerfing of thrall types based on attribute system and base health or armour. Useful when you have thralls from other mods that are too strong or too weak compared to vanilla. Also includes custom weapon and armour creation with admin-defined stats.
The feature list (relevant ones, not all of them):
- Thrall behaviour setter. Change how a thrall responds to commands per-thrall, not per-server.
- Revive DBNO thrall. Revive a downed thrall without travelling back to base.
- Boost follower stats (Strength, Agility, Armor). Use sparingly on a balanced server; this is admin-tier power.
- Auto-revive option for permanent companions.
- Custom weapon and armour creation. Set damage, armour values, look. Admin-bound, not free for players.
This mod is for servers that already have a careful balance between modded content and want to dial things in. It is not a casual mod; pair it with a clear server-rule document or it becomes admin-only loot.
Improved Quality of Life
The general-purpose QoL mod that covers small frictions across many systems. The 3.5.4 build is stable on Enhanced as of mid-2026 with the UE5 recompile. Headline features:
- Configurable inventory sort and filter.
- Quick stack to nearby containers (the same shortcut most modern survival games have).
- Drag-and-drop equipment swapping with weight checks.
- Auto-loot from kills if you walk over a corpse with a free inventory slot.
- Bulk-craft queueing (queue 50 reinforcements without manually re-triggering).
- Map waypoint marking with custom icons.
This is the mod most new servers install without question. It does not change the game balance; it just smooths over the parts that feel like 2016. Players who try it once never go back.
How these mods interact with vanilla “Improved” benches
The QoL mods do not replace the vanilla tier-2 benches. They sit alongside them. The Improved Armorer’s Bench still exists, you still build one, you still assign a tier-4 armorer to it. The QoL mod just makes it less painful to manage the workflow.
Where the mods do step on vanilla content is in the thrall area. Improved Thralls & QoL adjusts thrall stats at runtime. This means the named tier-4 thralls you spent hours hunting can be re-tuned by an admin in five seconds. Some servers explicitly disable the thrall-modification side of the mod to keep the hunt meaningful.
The cleanest setup most active servers run:
- Vanilla tier-2 “Improved” benches as the canonical late-game crafting layer.
- Improved Quality of Life mod on top for inventory and UI smoothness.
- Improved Thralls & QoL mod only on roleplay or hardcore servers where admins want runtime control.
- Better Thralls (the Testerle mod, separate project) for combat AI improvements without admin override.
Enhanced compatibility notes
Both mods (Improved Thralls & QoL and Improved Quality of Life) have been recompiled for Enhanced as of May 2026. The mod authors moved fast because both have engaged communities. Some specifics:
- Improved Quality of Life version 3.5.4 is the Enhanced-compatible build. Earlier builds are UE4-only.
- Improved Thralls & QoL has not changed feature set since the Enhanced port; the existing settings carry over.
- Save state and admin config are preserved across the engine swap. No reset needed.
- UI rendering changed for both because Enhanced uses a different UI batching system. Some custom icon textures look subtly different but functionality is identical.
Building order: a 2026 starter checklist
If you are starting a fresh server or character and you want a clear path:
- Levels 1 to 15: stay vanilla, no mods, learn the base loop.
- Level 18: build Improved Stove. Save your buff-food recipes.
- Level 18 to 25: build Improved Tanner’s Table. Start light armour upgrades.
- Level 25 to 30: build Improved Armorer’s Bench and Improved Carpenter’s Bench. Pivot to the build you want.
- Level 30+: install Improved Quality of Life mod (if your server allows). Inventory life gets dramatically better.
- Level 35+: install Better Thralls and consider Improved Thralls & QoL if your group runs a deeper RP or hardcore meta.
- Endgame: hunt named tier-4 crafters for each Improved bench. This is the multiplier that separates established clans from new players.
The point is to not stack everything at once. Each “Improved” addition (vanilla or mod) has a cost. Build it when the cost is worth what it unlocks.
What to avoid
A few easy mistakes from new players:
- Building tier-1 benches and never upgrading. The “Improved” versions exist for a reason; the tier-1 ones are starter content.
- Loading every QoL mod simultaneously. They sometimes conflict on UI hotkeys. Add one at a time.
- Assigning a generic tier-1 crafter to a tier-2 bench. The bench works, but you do not get the benefit. Wait until you have a tier-3 or tier-4 named crafter.
- Installing Improved Thralls & QoL on a casual PvE server without rule-documenting it. The mod’s power can be misused if untrained admins forget what it can do.
Bottom line
The vanilla tier-2 “Improved” benches are a core part of late-game Conan Exiles. Build them, assign the right thralls, and your output catches up with the rest of your server. The QoL mods on top (Improved Quality of Life specifically) make the day-to-day inventory grind much less of a grind. The Improved Thralls & QoL mod is power-user territory; install it if your server needs admin-level tuning, skip it otherwise. Combined, the three layers cover most of what an Enhanced-era server actually wants from the crafting system.