Raft Survival Guide – Getting Through Day 1

In the world of Raft you wake up on, as you might have guessed, a raft. Stranded in the middle of an unnamed ocean. Your only possession is a plastic scavenging hook and there’s a shark circling you. I like to call him Sharkey and he is a vicious, evil SOB, who only means you harm. This article will teach you how to survive your first day in this precarious situation.

Step 1 – Gathering Materials

The first thing you need to survive is materials to craft with, fortunately there are plenty of raw materials floating in the ocean ripe for the picking. To gather them the easiest way is to cast your hook using the left mouse button. The hook will automatically attach to anything the tip touches then all you need to do is haul it back in.

The easiest pickings are the items that are coming directly at your raft. You can aim for things that are passing to the sides, however you need to lead the items a bit to compensate for the flow of the water. You can also pick things up that come within arms reach of the raft however this is an inefficient method when compared to using the hook.

It is important to avoid the temptation to try and jump in the water to grab items, as Sharkey will gladly take bites out of you as you swim around, and in this game there is no way to retrieve the items you have on you when you die.

At the moment it doesn’t matter what you collect, everything is useful. However you should make a special effort to collect the barrels. Not only do they contain multiples of the other items you will have collected so far, but they also contain beets and potatoes. For the time being this is you’re best source of food. If you don’t desperately need to eat them right now you should wait. You can check this need on the middle bar in the lower left corner of the screen, as there will soon be a way of making these into a sustainable crop.

Step 2 – Building

With all you’re new found loot you will be tempted to start crafting items left and right but you should hold off as your new worst enemy Sharkey has other plans. If he hasn’t yet he will jump up on your raft and eat sections of it! There is nothing you can do about it at this stage and anything on the panel he attacks, is destroyed. With this in mind you should build up your defences first.

Start by turning any Palm leaves you have collected into rope in the crafting menu. Once you have two lengths of rope and four planks, craft a Building Hammer. This will allow you to build new components to add to your raft. With this shiny new hammer start building foundation panels around your original four panels. These foundation panels are just what they say on the tin they will form the base of your raft. Everything you build will be based on these panels.

With the original four panels surrounded you will now have some protection from Sharkey eating the items you craft, as he can only attack the panels that border the water. With this done you need to start collecting materials again so we can move to the next step.

Step 3 – Water

Now that you have some protection it’s the time to start crafting things that you will need to survive past day one. The first thing you will need is a simple purifier this is will allow you turn undrinkable salt water into useful fresh water. Once you have made it place it in the centre of the raft well away from any areas Sharkey can get to. Once this is placed, make an empty cup, fill the cup with salt water and place it in the purifier, add some planks for fuel and after a few moments you will have a cup of fresh water. At this point you will probably need to drink a few cups to refill your thirst bar, the top bar in the lower left hand corner.

Step 4 – Food

With fresh drinking water sorted the next thing you need is food. You should have acquired some beets and potatoes from scavenging some of the barrels floating past. These are a good source of food, however you shouldn’t rely on scavenging to feed yourself. You can make your crops sustainable by crafting a small crop plot. Place this in the centre of your raft, well away from anywhere Sharkey can reach, and plant either some of the beets or potatoes that you have found. You will need a cup of fresh water to hydrate the plants. This will give you a yield of two crops per each item that you plant. This may not seem like a great rate of return but it will give you a sustainable food source when the barrels aren’t floating past.

With your farm up and running you now have a new problem. A seagull will regularly swoop in and try and steal your crops. We will call him George, now you have Sharkey and George to deal with. To prevent George making off with your precious crops you need to craft a spear. This simple pointy stick can be used to drive off Sharkey and George it has limited range so you have to get right up close to them to use it. However it will kill them both, George just needs one or two good jabs, Sharkey takes a few more but he does not heal between attacks so you can wear him down over time. If you do manage to kill either of them they will soon be replaced, however they will leave you with some meat, which you can use as another source of food.

The final thing you will need to craft is a simple grill. Once you have enough materials craft this and place this in the centre of your raft. If you need to craft some more foundations in order to keep Sharkey at bay. With your grill built you need to fuel it with some planks and then simply add either a beet or a potato to the top. This will cook the plant in question greatly increasing its nutritional value. You may want to create two grills in order to build a surplus of cooked food.

This should be all the information you need to survive your first day stranded in raft. I hope you enjoyed this article and please come back soon for more guides.