Lyros Raft Tips

This is a list of tips, created by Lyroschen. It features Raft Tips for every type of player - from newbies to Raft experts. We hope this guide will be helpful for all players.

Lyro's Beginner Raft Tips

 * 1) Watch your pace. If you try to do everything at once, you can cause yourself a lot of aggravation. There's no need to rush.
 * 2) Keep your Building Hammer on your toolbar. When it is selected, you can hold down the right mouse button to find a number of raft pieces that you can build.
 * 3) Mind the essentials. Establish a Water Purifier first! Then a Simple Grill to cook food (try to always cook your food). Get a Fishing Rod, and get some fish. Remember to always keep some planks available to cook food an purify water.
 * 4) Keep a Paddle on-hand until you are able to make a Sail. It is possible for the raft to bump into an island and get stuck. Without a paddle or sail, you will be unable to dislodge yourself. If you make a sail, you only need 1, and having more than 1 will not provide any benefit.
 * 5) Make sure to spend most of your time early-game gathering debris from the water using the Plastic Hook. Don't worry too much about exploring Islands and gathering underwater resources at this point. Try to snag the floating barrels whenever you can. Also keep an eye out for floating derelict rafts. They will have a crate on them with some valuable resources such as Glass, Bolts or Hinges. Once you step on the derelict raft, it will begin to sink so be quick. If you plan it right, you can get on and off without ever going in the water. You may even be able to loot the chest without getting on the raft. It may help to use a sail or paddle it intercept these rafts.
 * 6) If you find beets or potatoes, plant them in small crop plots, they will give you back double. While they are growing don't worry about doing anything else (except refilling water and food) since you need to stand by to scare off the seagulls. Keep some of them to plant again later, and cook the rest for food. If your are going to leave the raft, harvest all of your crops before you go so the seagulls won't mess with them. There ae ways to seagull-proof your crops, but early-game, it is not usually convenient.
 * 7) Bruce (the shark) likes to eat your tasty foundations. Build an extra row of foundations around the outer edge of the raft for Bruce to eat. Then replace them after he eats them. It's pretty cheap at 2 Planks and 2 Plastic, and much better in the early game than trying to keep spears or arrows on hand, and frantically rushing to where he is to hit him. This is especially true in hard mode where killing him may cause more than 1 to respawn. Also, always keep a supply of planks and plastic to use for repairs. It's easy to forget and use all your Planks to build or cook something. Pro Tip: Use triangle foundations around the edge of the raft. They cost half the resources and work just as well for fending off Bruce. Plus, you can place 2 of them in the same space as 1 regular foundation, making them twice as effective.
 * 8) Expand your raft. You'll need some room to put more stuff as you proceed. Early-game, I would suggest expanding out to about a 10x10 raft. That should be plenty of room for your necessities. Always keep the original 4 foundations at the center of your raft. The game will always consider them the center of the raft, and the floating debris, character respawn points, etc. will be based on them.
 * 9) Build an advanced water purifier as soon as you can. It costs 4 glass to make, so may have to wait until you begin searching islands. It does not need planks for fuel, and purifies 5 doses at a time instead of just 1.
 * 10) Build collection nets as soon as you can. These should be placed along the outer edge of the raft. You can separate them with a regular foundation so they are spaced out to cover more area. They can be picked up, so when you expand your raft, pick up the collection nets and move them to the outer edge. Remember to place that extra row of foundations around the outside of your collection nets to protect them from Bruce. You'll find that having enough collection nets will mean never having to snag floating debris again.

At this point, you should have a decent size raft, no worries about food or water, and are able to keep up with gathering resources and fixing what Bruce breaks. The next step is to go to the islands.

Lyro's Intermediate Raft Tips

 * 1) Now that the priorities are managed, it's time to review the Research Table. Look for what technologies you want to make, and what items need to be researched before you can learn them. For example, to learn to make a Smelter, you must have researched a plank, dry brick, scrap, and nail. Place one of those items in the slot at the top, and click on the research button. Quick note: To get a dry brick, you craft a wet brick (2 sand, 2 clay) and then place it on the deck of your boat for several minutes to dry.
 * 2) The small islands will often appear directly in your path, or close to it. Some will be a bit further away. If they are not directly in your path, use a sail or paddle to get you closer. These islands will provide you with the remaining resources you need to learn almost everything in the research table.
 * 3) Before you explore the islands, you will want to have an anchor. There are two types, Throwable Anchor, and Stationary Anchor. The Throwable Anchor is cheap and easy to make, but is only good for a single use. When you have the resources, build a stationary anchor. It will take up a 3x3 area of the raft, with the center foundation removed for the anchor to fit through. If your raft floats far enough away while you are on the island, the island will despawn and leave you stranded in the water. If that happens, wait for 10-30 seconds without moving and open the ESC menu to find an UNSTUCK button Click on it to get back on the raft or a nearby island. After that, you can disconnect and rejoin (save and load for hosts) to end up back on the raft.
 * 4) On the surface of the island you will find trees (bring an axe), fruits, and flowers. Often there is also a crate like you would find on a derelict raft.
 * 5) Underwater around the island you will find seaweed, giant clams, clay, sand, metal ore, copper ore, scrap, stone and occasionally a crate, as mentioned above. You will use the hook to collect most of these (although you don't throw it like when you are collecting debris). Be mindful. You have a limited air supply underwater before you need to surface, and if you get too close to your raft, Bruce will come after you.
 * 6) The resources on the island do not respawn. Grab what you need, and move on. Even if you only get some of the stuff (such as if you choose to avoid getting too close to the raft underwater) it's okay. There are unlimited islands, and a new one is not far away.
 * 7) There are 2 rare islands, Shipwreck Island with a shipwreck, and Plane Crash Island with a... crashed plane. Both of these islands have something extra to discover. Be sure to check them out!
 * 8) Begin planning for a second level to your raft. There are some things (such as the receiver) that cannot and others (such as captured animals) that should not be placed on the bottom level of the raft.
 * 9) When you can, build a receiver and 3 antennas and place them all on the second level (or higher) of your raft. Each antenna has to be on the same level as the receiver and at least 2 blocks away from it. They have to be at least 3 blocks away from each other (2 if diagonal), and no more than 12 away.
 * 10) Once the receiver is built and turned on (you'll need to put a battery in the appropriate place), there will be a code already entered, and a blue dot will show on the radar. Open your journal (T by default) to begin the storyline, then navigate your raft to the blue dot to find the Radio Tower. Pro tip: Choose one side of your raft to be the "front". Set your receiver, engines, and steering wheel to all face that direction. Then, on the receiver "up" is the direction you're facing. Point yourself to face the direction of the wind (having a streamer will help) and it will be easier to navigate to your destinations and recognize when you're sailing against the wind.

At this point, you've unlocked large islands (they will show up as green dots on the radar) with even more resources, additional challenges, and animals you can catch and keep on your raft! Your adventure has really just begun!

Lyro's Advanced Raft Tips

 * 1) Islands come in 3 varieties: Tropical (Palm Trees), Temperate (Evergreen Trees), and Desert (Cactus). They do not have the same resources or threats. You will see more Tropical islands when you have the code for Vasagatan in the receiver, and more Temperate islands when you have the code for Balboa in the receiver, and more Desert islands when you have the code for Caravan Island in the receiver.
 * 2) On the large islands, Bruce is no longer the only threat to watch out for. Tropical islands have a screecher (a large bird that drops rocks on your head), 1-3 warthogs (a large boar with a very fast charge attack), and 1-5 puffer fish (a tiny round fish that will explode in a poisonous cloud underwater if it gets close enough to you). The temperate islands only have one new threat: bears. Each temperate island will have several bears, each in a separate location on the island. Unlike the threats on the tropical islands, though, defeated bears will respawn once you leave their area for a few minutes. All of them can be defeated with a bit of practice and the right tactics.
 * 3) There are 1 or 2 caves on the large islands. Within the caves you will find cave mushrooms (used for some food recipes) and dirt (used for grass plots); bring a shovel. You'll need to research the dirt in the research table before you can make a grass plot.
 * 4) The large tropical islands are home to 3 types of tamable animals: cluckers which provide eggs, goats which provide milk, and llamas which provide wool. To capture them, you will need a net launcher and ammo. The ammo requires explosive powder (made by putting explosive goo obtained from puffer fish into a smelter). After netting an animal, you have to carry it back to the raft. Your new pet will need grass to feed on. Have a couple of grass plots watered and ready to go before claiming your pet. Be sure to put a fence or wall around the grass plots to keep the animals from wandering off, and always keep the grass plots watered. Placing the animals on the bottom (foundation) level of the raft is not recommended. The animals float, and stormy conditions may cause the waves to lift the animals up and out of your pens.
 * 5) The large temperate islands have bees. These can be captured using a sweep net, and will automatically be placed in jars (that's a cool net). The bees fly in a pattern, and are often out of reach for most of their flight. But, with some patience and observation you will see where they come close enough to the ground or a stump that you can reach them. You may need to jump. The bees do sting sometimes, but it doesn't hurt too much. With enough jars of bees, you can build a beehive on your raft and have a source of honey to use for making biofuel.
 * 6) As a rule, each engine is powerful enough to move 100 foundations, and everything on them. Only the bottom level foundations count, collections nets do not. So if your raft has 500 foundations, you will need 5 engines in order to move the raft. 6 engines, though, will move any size raft. There is a caveat to the 1 engine = 100 foundations rule, and that involves the speed calculations, which get a bit more complicated. Here's a link to the details for those that want to know