Crafting Bench Tiers in 99 Nights in the Forest

Five tiers, two of them gated by gems you cannot farm. This page covers what each tier costs, what it unlocks, and the point in a run where you should start preparing for the next wall.

Source ledger checked 2026-09-12NEEDS_VERIFYIndependent fan wiki

Short answer

Bench 2 costs 1 Metal and 5 Wood. Bench 3 costs 10 Metal and 15 Wood. Bench 4 costs 20 Metal, 30 Wood and 2 Cultist Gems. Bench 5 costs 50 Metal, 50 Wood and 1 Gem of the Forest. The first two walls are farmable; the last two are content gates.

NEEDS_VERIFYPocket Tactics, 99 Nights Guide · Page-level source ledger · observed 2026-09-12

Tiers 1–3: solve with wood and metal income.
Tier 4: 2 Cultist Gems — Ice Temple, fishing, Cultist kills, Cultist Stronghold.
Tier 5: 1 Gem of the Forest — deep temple chests or 100+ day raids.
Build a Sawmill before Tier 4, because higher tiers consume Planks.

Five gates

Tier overview

Farmable tiers

1 – 3

Gated by Wood and Metal only.

Content-gated tiers

4 – 5

Gated by Cultist Gems and the Gem of the Forest.

Tier	Focus	Bottleneck
Crafting Bench 1	Navigation and basic campWhere you get the Map. Build the Map before you start exploring, so fog clears as you move instead of wasting daylight.	Wood only
Crafting Bench 2	Defence, food and navigation upgradesUnlocks the Compass, Bear Trap, Log Wall and Crock Pot. This is the tier where a camp stops being a campfire and becomes a base.	Metal
Crafting Bench 3	Power, radar and sustained productionUnlocks the Radar, Biofuel Processor, Lightning Rod and Torch. Radar is what makes biome navigation deliberate instead of guesswork.	Metal and Wood at scale
Crafting Bench 4	Late-game logisticsThe hard gate. You must explore underground temples or clear a Cultist Stronghold to get Cultist Gems, so plan this tier before you need it.	2 Cultist Gems
Crafting Bench 5	End-game machinesThe final gate. The Gem of the Forest is tied to deep temple chests or 100+ day raid content, so this is a long-run objective.	1 Gem of the Forest

NEEDS_VERIFY

Wood and metal

Tiers 1–3: the farmable gates

These three tiers reward ordinary farming. Wood comes from the inner forest ring, metal from salvage and the Recycler, and both scale with how efficiently you route your day. Nothing here is hidden — if you are stuck, you need more income, not more information.

What each tier changes

Bench 1 gives you the Map and the most basic bed and trap. It is the tier you leave within minutes.
Bench 2 is the real start. Compass, Bear Trap, Log Wall and Crock Pot all arrive here.
Bench 3 adds Radar, Biofuel Processor, Lightning Rod and Torch — the tier that makes expeditions survivable.

Content gates

Tiers 4–5: the gem walls

This is where runs diverge. Two Cultist Gems and one Gem of the Forest cannot be farmed by chopping trees. They require you to enter content — temples, strongholds, raids — which in turn requires gear, which requires bench tiers.

Gate	Material	Known sources	Prepare by
Bench 4	2 × Cultist Gem	Ice Temple, fishing, Cultist kills, Cultist Stronghold	Mid game, as soon as you can survive a temple trip
Bench 5	1 × Gem of the Forest	Deep temple chests, 100+ day raid content	Late game, once your base survives without you

The classic stall

Reaching Bench 3 with a huge wood surplus and no gems is the most common way a strong run dies. The economy you built stops converting into progress at the exact moment costs start rising.

When to do what

Preparation timeline

Days 1–5 — Wood and metal only. Bench 2 and a Map.
Days 6–20 — Defences and food. Build a Recycler so metal stops being scarce.
Days 21–40 — First Ice Temple and Cultist Stronghold loops. Start banking Cultist Gems.
Days 41–60 — Aim for Bench 4. Add the Sawmill if you have not already.
Days 61–99 — Deep temples and raids for the Gem of the Forest, then Bench 5.

What to do next

Reach Bench 2 on day one or two.
Begin Cultist Gem collection as soon as you can survive an Ice Temple trip.

Frequently asked questions

What does Crafting Bench 4 require?

Reported cost is 20 Metal, 30 Wood and 2 Cultist Gems. The gems are the real requirement — they come from the Ice Temple, fishing, Cultist kills or the Cultist Stronghold, not from ordinary farming.

What does Crafting Bench 5 require?

Reported cost is 50 Metal, 50 Wood and 1 Gem of the Forest. That gem is tied to deep temple chests or 100+ day raid content, making it a long-run objective.

Why can I not craft things with my wood anymore?

Because higher tiers consume Planks produced by the Sawmill rather than raw logs. Once you reach that point, a raw wood pile no longer converts into progress until it goes through the Sawmill.

Should I rush the bench upgrades?

Rush Bench 2, yes. After that, upgrade in response to a need rather than automatically, because the metal cost competes directly with traps, beds and walls.

Sources and verification status

Bench costs come from a press crafting page dated 2025-11-11 and are marked NEEDS_VERIFY until re-tested. The gem gate structure is consistent with 2026 community update leads.

Pocket TacticsNot officialmedium confidenceGaming press
Page is dated 2025-11-11. Used only as a draft checklist of recipes and bench levels — not valid as current-version data until re-tested.
Observed 2026-09-12 · 99 Nights in the Forest crafting recipes (no outbound link — unofficial sources are cited by name only)
99 Nights GuideNot officialhigh confidenceOur in-game testing
Our own in-game observations. Every code, stat, drop and route on this site is scheduled for a full in-game pass before it is promoted from "reported" to "confirmed".
Observed 2026-09-12 · First-party in-game testing log (no outbound link — unofficial sources are cited by name only)

Recipe TableEvery recipe by bench level.Cultist GemEvery known source for the bench 4 gate.Gem of the ForestThe bench 5 gate.Crafting OverviewProduction buildings and 2026 gear.