Raft Building Guide

Our Raft Building Guide will tell you how to unlock Building, the best way to build, and how to sharkproof your raft -- along with some tips & tricks, too!

Quicklinks: How to Unlock Raft Building | Best Way to Build
How to Sharkproof Your Raft | Tips & Tricks

How to Unlock Raft Building

You can unlock Raft Building by Crafting a Building Hammer. This will give you access to most of the major construction pieces. However, you will still need to do Research to unlock the various workbenches and devices you'll want to put in your Raft.

Is There a Size Limit For Your Raft?

There is no size limit for your Raft as far as we know. However, larger Rafts may require more Engines to move them forward at a decent speed. Larger Rafts may also result in lower framerates or other performance issues depending on how powerful your PC is.

How to Turn Your Raft in Raft - How to Unlock the Steering Wheel

You can turn your Raft in Raft with a Steering Wheel. You can unlock the Steering Wheel by progressing the Story.

Best Way to Build in Raft

The best way to build in Raft is by making sure you leave room for expansion. Your initial Raft design might work well for you in the beginning of the game, but you'll probably discover that you need more space as you explore more islands.

For example, Engines require a fair amount of infrastructure to keep them running. You'll need Biofuel Refiners, a Farm, and Beehives to produce Biofuel. This can easily add 30 or 40 Foundations worth of space on your Raft depending on how ambitious you'd like to be.

Animals, too, are another concern. You'll be able to tame creatures later in the game, but that means you'll have to provide them with enough living space and food. You might want to expand horizontally, but you can expand vertically, too, and simply add another floor to your existing Raft.

How to Sharkproof Your Raft with Foundation Armor

You can Sharkproof your Raft by building Foundation Armor on all of the outer pieces of your Raft. You'll have to Research Scrap, Metal, and the Nail before you can build Foundation Armor.

How to Build Foundation Armor

You can build Foundation Armor by equipping your Building Hammer, holding down right-click, highlighting Foundation at the top of the list, and scrolling to the right.

Raft Building Guide - Tips & Tricks

Here are some Raft Building Tips & Tricks to give you inspiration (and help you avoid mistakes).

Leave Room to Expand

I've already said this once, but it bears repeating -- leave room for expansion. As you progress in the Story, you'll inevitably find something new you want to build. Don't make it too hard to add more space onto your Raft or you might have to demolish a significant portion of it to make room for new objects.

You Get Materials Back When Breaking Down Pieces With an Axe

You won't get all of them back, but by switching to an axe and highlighting the piece you want to remove or replace - you can quickly change your raft without losing too much.

Sharkproof Your Raft As Soon As You Can

The Shark will attack your Raft around once every five minutes. It's terrifying in the early game, but it soon becomes a minor annoyance.

While you can leave your Raft unarmored, you run the risk of losing Planks and Plastic for no good reason. Building Foundation Armor on the outside of your Raft is worth it in the long run -- you're going to be sailing on the ocean for dozens of hours if you stick with this game.

Stockpile Planks, Plastic, and Nails

Pretty much all of your Building pieces will use either Planks, Plastic, or Nails. The sole exceptions are Thatch building pieces (which require Palm Leaves) and Foundation Armor (which requires Metal Ingots and Nails).

Planks are the most important item of all here -- they're used for a lot of things in the early game, so you want to collect as many as possible. Dedicating one or two Storages just for Planks is not a bad idea, and it's not unusual to have a few hundred Planks saved up -- just in case.

Use Creative Mode to Design Your Raft

If you're like me, you might get "Blank Canvas Syndrome" -- you have a small 2x2 Raft and you're not quite sure how you want to build. That is exactly why Creative Mode exists.

Creative Mode allows you to build a Raft without worrying about Hunger, Thirst, or attacks from enemies. It's a good idea to plan out your build before you actually start making changes to your Raft -- this way, you can be 100% certain that you're happy with the design.

Nothing is Permanent

Anything and everything can change about your Raft if you're willing to put in the time. As I've said before, you will inevitably want to make your Raft bigger in some way as you progress through the Story.

Don't be afraid to make changes to your Raft. It never hurts to experiment, and you can always tinker with a design in Creative Mode if you're not certain.

We're at the end of our Raft Building Guide, but there's still plenty more to learn! You can read some of our other Raft guides below: