Tangaroa

Tangaroa City from above.

Tangaroa is an Environmental Element in Raft. It is the second and last location introduced in the Second Chapter.

Summary

Tangaroa City is a massive location that consists of a metallic, circular foundation topped by a honeycomb-patterned glass and metal dome. Inside the dome is a complete city, full of apartment buildings that can be explored, shops such as a barber or hamburger restaurant, and a new type of enemy: the Butler Bot. The city is the most complex location in the game by far, both in terms of the amount of intricate places to explore and puzzles to solve.

To be completed, the city requires being explored pretty much in full, as well as backtracking to previously visited locations with newfound supplies. Also, for the first time, a location in the game offers the possibility to restock on vital supplies like water or food without having to go back to the raft, via a vending machines service that uses Tangaroa Tokens, thus allowing for longer exploration sessions.

Areas of the City

One of Tangaroa's underground tunnels; note the signs leading the player to different rooms.

Entrance and Basement Area

The City is entered via a large metal hatch at the bottom; there are arrows painted along the foundation leading to this hatch. A decently sized raft, which the player will probably have at this point, cannot fit in this hatch, so it is necessary to anchor outside and swim in. From here, a large underground section must be explored to reach the upper, dome-encapsulated levels. Quite a few Lurkers can be found in these tunnels, so preparations for combat are recommended (ideally a Machete or a Bow with Metal Arrows).

Once entered, the player will find signs that lead to different areas of the basement, although many doors will be locked from the other side. These will serve as an easy way to get back to the raft, once the areas have been fully explored. The first area encountered is the cafeteria, which is a large room with a few tables and cooking equipment. Some loot can be found here as well as a note. A Generator Part is found here, which is needed to repair the generator in the Storage Area.

Storage Area and Connected Rooms

The room with the crane puzzle, pre-flood.

One of the puzzle areas in Tangaroa is the Storage Area. Once the player reaches this area, they will see a room full of containers and a crane on top of them. To complete this puzzle, the player must have found three Generator Parts in the previous underground areas - these can be placed in the generator found by going up the ladder. Once done, this will power up the crane and activate the controls.

The goal of the crane puzzle is to move the containers in such a way that a path is created from where the player enters the room to the doorway marked "Surface Access". Containers can only be moved to adjacent empty spaces as they don't lift all the way to clear the neighboring ones, so care must be taken to build a path such that the player always has empty spaces to maneuver containers around. The initial empty spaces are in front of the storage access door, and there are two more right next to where the crane's initial position is. The last thing to note is that the containers with yellow-black striped lines on top of them are actually hollow in the directions the lines indicate, meaning they can be used in the construction of the path.

Once the player completes the puzzle and goes through the doorway, they will come into a room with the Water Pipe blueprint and a surface access hatch. However, the room above has been flooded, and water will start spreading to the basement area once opened. The player must head back to the Storage Area to climb a previously inaccessible ladder to the Plantation, now reachable with the help of the rising water level. There are air pockets on the roof along the way, but it is recommended to carry an Oxygen Bottle and Flippers into this area.

Plantation

The first room in the Plantation area, with the water electrified.

The next area is where the Tangaroans attempted to grow their food. It consists of a series of connected rooms, which have numerous crop plots sticking out of a flooded floor. The water in the floor becomes electrified every couple of seconds, zapping the player if touched. To avoid being electrocuted, the player must traverse the rooms by jumping from crop plot to crop plot, or running between them within the timing of the water being unaffected by electric current. In terms of items, the player can find two new consumables, namely Strawberries and Bananas - as well as their seeds.

The area is electrified due to four faulty electric panels located on the walls, that have to be fixed with Tape. These panels will also open certain doors when fixed. The player will find enough tape to fix the first panel in the plantation itself, but will need more tape which can only be found on the upper levels. Since the last location of the city can only be accessed through the plantation, the Tape is effectively a gate forcing the player to explore the whole city. Once the player has fixed all four panels, the water will become permanently safe to walk on and the door to the elevator will open. In the room connecting to the elevator, the Blueprint: Electric Purifier can be found.

The Plantation area also connects to the Surface Access tunnel, providing the player a way to get to the above ground area of the city.

Tangaroa from above, inside the dome.

Main City Area

Once the player reaches the surface, they will encounter a massive area that is very similar to most modern cities today. It is laid out with streets that have their own unique names and green areas with trees and benches, all centered around a tall black tower that represents the centerpiece of the city and the second to last location that must be explored. The streets are patrolled by the aforementioned Butler Bots, which cannot actually be killed but disabled, with the use of weapons. Four Metal Arrows will disable one of these robots, allowing the player to extract a Tangaroa Keycard from its head. One Keycard is needed to explore one skyscraper, since the door on its bottom floor is locked and can only be opened with a keycard, which is consumed on use. It is important to note that the robots eventually restart themselves, so if a player needs more keycards they can always disable the same robots multiple times.

According to the Story, which is revealed in the notes found around the city, a big riot took place on the surface before the fall of Tangaroa. As a result, the streets and green areas are littered with garbage and debris, none of which can be harvested for resources.

Around the city, the player can find five exits which can be activated by interacting with them. Once this is done, an emergency exit will open and an inflatable bridge will be deployed, allowing the player to access the city directly from their raft, without going through the underground area.

Skyscrapers

A bedroom inside one of the apartments.

Surrounding the central tower, there are numerous concrete skyscrapers, which can be explored for loot and Tape. Seven of these can be accessed directly from ground surface, but one of them provides access to the central tower via Ziplines. To prevent the player from immediately exploring the tower, repairing the aforementioned electrical panels is required to enter it. It must be accessed underground through the Plantation, and only after all four panels have been repaired. To access the other seven skyscrapers, the player must use keycards and the readily available elevators. Some buildings only have one floor that can be accessed, while others have two or three. Most buildings have two doors on each floor, and these mostly lead to two different apartments. One of the skyscrapers in particular is an office building, which have the two areas connected. Apart from exploring the inside of these buildings, the player can usually access a balcony area of the apartments, which contains extra loot and access to numerous hidden areas. These locations are often hinted at with broken railings, electrical wiring that acts as Ziplines, or plank ramps, all of which allow the player to access otherwise unreachable areas.

In these apartments, which show different levels of luxury (although all indicate high standards of living; some are more decorated than others) the player can find numerous rolls of Tape and Tokens. Occasionally, the player may find rooms sealed off with Tape. These can be cut with a Machete, allowing the player to find Loot Boxes, containing higher quality loot. These can be briefcases that contain Metal Ingots, Glass, and even the newly available Titanium Ore. The apartments themselves are repetitive (with some unique exceptions such as the office building and the birthday party apartment) but the loot can spawn in different places so the player should take care to explore everything thoroughly.

Shops

Around Tangaroa there are four shops: a VR games store (V Are Arcade), a barber shop (Sea Side Barber) a hamburger place (Chi's Burgers) and a fashion store (Floating Fashion). These can't actually be accessed or explored, but play a vital role in the story, as they are part of the last puzzle in the Second Chapter.

Main Tower

The Tower from below. Vending machines visible at the bottom.

The large tower in the center of the city is where the player must go to finish the story of the Second Chapter. At the base, it has a door which is initially locked. Next to the door are four vending machines that require Tangaroa Tokens in exchange for a number of items, some of which are Tangaroa exclusive. Available items range from Bottle of Fresh Water to Tangaroa Paintings, to Tangaroa Plants and even a grand Piano. It is important to note that the tokens respawn once the player far enough away from the city, making all items purchasable on a single save file.

The tower itself has three levels: the ground floor (0), the room in the middle of the shaft (1) and the top area (2). The tower must be accessed by a network of Ziplines (which in reality are cables connecting Electric Poles); these are reachable only through a specific Skyscraper, whose door has a "keycard reader malfunctioned" sign, and which can thus only be accessed through the Plantation elevator. To reach the elevator, the player needs enough tape to fix all electric panels in the Plantation. Once this is done, the elevator door will open and the player will be able to explore the last apartment building; going to the balcony of this one will lead to the main attraction in the form of a cocktail party area. Going further up some stairs, the player is led to a zipline, allowing access to the bottom-most platform of the tower. The player must then find a ladder leading to the platform on top, from which they can call the tower elevator. The lower part of the tower is just a room with the street level door, which can now be opened for easy access into the tower.

Upper part

The note used to decipher the code.

When the player goes up via the elevator, they will reach a room with a door and a keypad to the left of it. The Blueprint: Large Storage can be found here. The keypad says "Emergency Bridge Launch" and its code must be deciphered with the help of the adjacent note to launch the bridge, which is the actual last location related to the city. The provided note names four streets with the drawings of the four aforementioned shops. To decipher the code, the player must visit the shops, and write down the respective numbers on their doors. The street names are mentioned in the note to help find the shops. Once all numbers are found, the code is revealed: the numbers, ordered from top to bottom. Entering the correct code will show "success" on the keypad and the bridge will be launched, landing in the ocean outside the city.

Reveal Code

4813

Bridge

The bridge from the inside. The note for the coordinates to the next area and the blueprint are on the blue-silver table at the top right.

When the player completes the code puzzle and the bridge launches, it will land in the water close to the city. The player must then locate it visually, swim/sail to it and climb a ladder on the side, leading to an access hatch on the top. The bridge is a circular structure with a pillar in the center and is filled with control panels, indicating this is the place where Tangaroa was steered. A couple of notes can be found here, both story related and the code note leading to the next area which will be added in the Third Chapter. Also found here is the Blueprint: Water Tank.

There are also a couple of paintings of the captain of the city and the founder of the Tangaroa project, James Tulley and Max Landshoff respectively.

Strategies

• Bring food and water in abundance. The city is huge and exploring the apartments will take a long time. Cooking Pot produced foods are recommended, as well as at least two Water Bottles. A Backpack is highly useful here as it provides more inventory slots thereby limiting the need for returning to the raft.

• Armor is not recommended as there are not that many enemies and they can be dispatched quickly and from a distance. The most dangerous enemies are the Lurkers, but they can be dodged without much trouble.
• Don't bring a Metal Detector or Shovel, as there are no digging spots in the city.
• If possible, open all of the exits of the dome. This will allow for an easier entry into the city if the player comes back after leaving it, no matter the angle they approach from.
• As with other locations, it is highly recommended to explore during the day and bring a Head Light for the dark areas.

History

Early Access
Update 12		Tangaroa City added to the game.

Gallery

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  The Tangaroa Lurker Variant

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  Tangaroa's Vending Service

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  Top-Down View of Tangaroa