In the first Raft Survival Guide we looked at surviving your first day in the world of Raft, and when we left off you had enough equipment to ensure your day-to-day survival, but is that enough? You don’t want to just be floating around at the whims of the ocean do you? You don’t want to be casting your scrap hook every time you want to expand your raft? Don’t roast beets and baked potatoes make for a really boring diet? You also still have to deal with Sharkey and George, the douche bags of the sea. Therefore in this article we will look at improving your lot in life.
Step 1- Research
In order to improve your lot in life you are first going to need to do some research. You need a place to do this so, make yourself a research table. Remember to place it in the middle of your raft to avoid Sharkey’s tender ministrations.
To use this table simply take the resources you have collected so far and place them in the box on the right of the interface, then hit the research button. This should give you new recipes in the bottom of the menu, simply click the learn button and you will be able to craft these items. The first things you should put in to the table are rope, wood and nails. This should give you the ability to make a collection net. This leads us to step 2.
Step 2 – Automation
The collection net, as the name suggests collects materials. It does this in a small area around where it’s placed. Craft as many of these as you can. The most effective way to use them is to place the nets on the front of the raft, the one that is facing the direction that you are traveling. Starting in one corner of your raft place the nets so that the netted part is touching the foundation panel. After this place a net on every other panel facing the same direction. This pattern should ensure that you get the maximum amount of item collection.
The wider that you make your raft the more materials you should gather, reducing the amount of time you need to spend casting your hook. Don’t throw your hook into the ocean just yet though, you will be needing that later. Eventually you will want to have all four sides of your raft covered in collection nets to ensure maximum collection, for now though the front should be fine.
You should hear a splash every time the collection net gathers items, when you feel that the net is full enough press E to collect everything. Don’t let too much gather in your nets however because as soon as you place them they will become Sharkey’s new favourite snack. He will attack them more frequently than and other panels, and if you can’t fend him off with your spear he will destroy the net and everything inside it.
With all these new materials you are gathering you will fill your inventory space fairly quickly, therefore you should also build a small storage chest to keep any excess in.
Step 3 – Crops
By now you should be fed up of fending George the sea-gull off of your crops, it’s time to come up with a less labour intensive solution. Go to your research table a research palm leaves, and plastic. This should give you the recipe for a scarecrow. Place this near your plants, from now on George should attack the scarecrow instead of your crops. Each time he attacks George will rip off an arm, after both of these are gone George will remove the head. Once the head is gone the scarecrow will become useless and will need to be replaced.
If you remove the damaged scarecrow with the X button some of the materials used to make it will be returned so it is not a total loss. Alternatively you can still fend George off while your on the raft and rely on the scarecrow when you are off the raft.
Step 4 – Fish
Vegetables are all well and good but as the great Homer Simpson once said “you don’t make friends with salad,” therefore you should see about getting some meat in your diet. Craft yourself a fishing rod, with this done cast your line into the ocean. When the bob dips hit the left mouse button to reel in your fish.
There are number of different types of fish that you can catch in the game. Some such as the Herrings and Pomfret’s have multiple uses, however all are a good source food. When you have a fish place it on you’re simple grill with some wood after few moments it will be cooked, and can be eaten. These cooked fish fill more of you’re hunger bar than the roasted vegetables you have been eating up until now. There are some fish, such as the Catfish or Salmon that are too big to fit on your current grill. For now put these in your storage chest until you have a better grill.
It is possible that you will catch things other than fish with your rod, items such as old shoes, scrap mechanic ducks and lucky cats. The duck and the cat are purely decretive items that you can put anywhere on your raft to spruce the place up. Old shoes can be used as extra plant pots, however they can only hold one plant at a time so they can be more effort than they are worth from a survival point of view.
Step 5 – Navigation
Until now you have floated around on the ocean beholden to its whims, now it is time to take some control over your direction. To do this you need to make a sail, place this as near to the centre of you’re raft as possible. With the sail in pace you can unfurl it pointing in your direction of travel, this will speed your raft up. You can also rotate the sail to change the direction you are traveling in. Rotating the sail to the left or right will make the raft head in that direction, turning it around one hundred and eighty degrees will slow your raft to a crawl.
If you get disorientated and need to know which way the wind is blowing you can craft a streamer, this is a poll with a pointed flag on it. The pointed part of the flag will point in the direction that the wind is blowing, positioning the sail so that it faces this direction will give you maximum speed.
The sail will move you in a general direction but if you want to head towards something more specific you will also need to craft a paddle. You can use this to further nudge the raft towards whatever object you want to head to. Simply place your paddle in the water facing the object you want to go to, this will pull the raft in that direction. The paddle can also be used to free your raft if you get stuck on something.
Step 6 – The Breaks
Now that you have the ability to get to where you want to go you need to be able to stop when you get there. To achieve this you need to craft a throwable anchor. Unlike other objects you need to place this near the edge of the raft. The best technique for placing the anchor is to put it on the side of the raft closest to the object that you are aiming for. This is because when stopped the raft will be pulled towards the side that the anchor is on, and you don’t want your raft drifting away from you while you are trying to board another raft or get on to an island.
With this information you should be able to make your life in Raft a little more bearable, you should now have a bit of meat in your diet and therefore be able to go longer between meals and some of the manual labour should have been taken out of gathering materials. Finally you can also now exert some control over the direction of your travel and that will come in handy in the coming days. I hope you enjoyed this article and please come back soon for more guides. Missed the Day 1 Raft Survival Guide? Well you can find it here.
