To collect Mycelium, use a pickaxe to mine the fungal ground in the Shroud and check the item name in your inventory. Active Mycelium is a separate crafting material, obtained from glowing blue mycelium patches. Do not assume that either item satisfies a recipe asking for the other.
The community wiki's Mycelium material entry lists ground mining in the Shroud as its source. The Active Mycelium entry separately describes the glowing blue patches.
Mine the fungal ground with a pickaxe
Look for pale, greyish fungal ground rather than treating every mushroom as a plant to harvest. Mining the terrain is the collection action for the base material.
- Enter a Shroud area you can safely explore with a pickaxe equipped.
- Locate ground with visible fungal growth.
- Mine a small patch and check whether the pickup says Mycelium or Active Mycelium.
- Continue only after you have confirmed the ingredient your recipe needs.
- Leave time to return out of the Shroud; gathering does not pause its survival limit.
An older guide demonstrates harvesting with a Scrap Pickaxe, so there is no need to assume a high-tier pickaxe is required for ordinary Mycelium. Its old map route is less reliable than confirming the terrain and pickup name in your current world.
Mycelium and Active Mycelium serve different recipes
| Material | Collection clue | Examples of use |
|---|---|---|
| Mycelium | Mine fungal ground in the Shroud | Apprentice, Rising Fighter and Scout boots; Mycelium Overgrown Blocks; White Glowing Substance. |
| Active Mycelium | Mine glowing blue mycelium patches, primarily in the Shroud | Alchemist Apprentice Chest, Ancient Mana Potion and Eternal Shroud Beam. |
The visual clue helps you choose where to swing, but the item name is the final check. If a recipe asks for Active Mycelium and your stack is simply named Mycelium, gathering more of the ordinary item does not solve that shortage.
Also distinguish the raw material from Mycelium (Overgrowth Material), a separate Farmer-crafted product. The current recipe for that product consumes 3 Mycelium and 2 Fossilized Bone to produce 1.
Collect enough for the intended recipe
The current material table gives a useful reason to plan your trip: all three early boot recipes below use 15 ordinary Mycelium, but their other ingredients and crafters differ.
| Item | Ordinary Mycelium | Remaining ingredients | Crafter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alchemist Apprentice Boots | 15 | 2 Resin, 6 String, 3 Torn Cloth | Alchemist |
| Rising Fighter Boots | 15 | 5 Resin, 1 Metal Sheet, 2 Animal Fur | Blacksmith |
| Scout Boots | 15 | 2 Resin, 4 Dried Fur, 8 String | Hunter |
For building, the Mycelium Overgrown Block recipe produces 100 blocks from 2 Mycelium and 2 Stone at the Workbench. Check the output count before deciding how large a gathering run is needed.
For alchemy, White Glowing Substance produces 20 at the Alchemist from 10 Mycelium, 1 Wood Acid, 20 Bonemeal and 7 Springlands Dirt. This is a recipe for ordinary Mycelium; it does not imply that the Active variant is interchangeable.
Check the current altar requirement separately
Some Early Access guides describe ordinary Mycelium as a requirement for strengthening the Flame from level 3 to 4. Those pages predate 1.0 and do not establish the current altar recipe. Read the material list in your altar instead of spending time farming an old checklist.
If your immediate goal is an upgrade, identify the missing item first. If the goal is armor or a building product, use the exact material name and output count in that recipe. This avoids confusing a familiar word in an older guide with the ingredient required now.