Most of each session goes to staying alive and growing your raft in Raft, a survival game set on an endless ocean. Melting ice caps have flooded most of the land, and you start alone on a small raft with a plastic hook and no land in sight. You can play solo or team up with friends in online co-op.
Most of a session goes to staying alive and growing your raft. You pull floating planks, barrels and plastic out of the water with your hook, then dive around reefs and visit islands for materials the ocean doesn't provide. Food comes from crops, fishing and hunting, and water comes from purifying seawater, since hunger and thirst drain your health once either runs out. The Shark circles the raft and bites off pieces of it, so you keep repairing and building as you go.
The main goal is to find land where people can still live. A Receiver, wired to three Antennas and a battery, shows nearby islands on a radar screen. Story islands are the ones that move the plot along, and each one gives you the code to find the next. You can keep sailing and building long after the story is done.
- Developer
- Redbeet Interactive
- Publisher
- Axolot Games
- Release
- Early Access (PC): 2018-05-23 · Full release (PC): 2022-06-20 · PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S: 2024-12-04
- Platforms
- Windows, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
Game data
Recipes
Raft's recipes are the ingredient combinations that turn fish, meat, fruit and vegetables into dishes and drinks. Dishes are cooked in the Cooking Pot and mainly restore hunger, while smoothies from the Juicer mainly restore thirst. A few recipes add a special effect, and most recipes come from loot boxes and barrels.
Animals
Raft's animals fall into three groups: hostile animals, bosses and livestock. The Shark circles your raft and attacks anyone in the water, while Screechers, Warthogs and Poison-Puffers make exploring islands and water risky. Mama Bear, the Rhino Shark and Alpha are the bosses, each tied to a fixed location, and Cluckers, Goats and Llamas can be caught and kept on your raft for eggs, milk and wool.
Tools
Raft's tools fall into a few main groups: hooks for collecting floating materials and mining underwater, axes for chopping trees, fishing rods for catching fish, and utility tools such as shears. Hooks and axes come in three tiers, and higher tiers last longer. Most tools are crafted after researching their materials at the Research Table, while the titanium versions also need a blueprint found late in the story.
Weapons
Raft's weapons come in three groups: melee weapons from the wooden spear up to the titanium sword, the bow with stone, metal and titanium arrows, and the net launcher, which catches animals rather than fighting. The melee weapons and bow keep you safe from the Shark and hostile island animals, while the net launcher supports livestock. Materials come from floating debris, reefs and the smelter, researching them at the Research Table unlocks most weapons, and the titanium gear comes last.
Collectibles
Story Islands
Story islands are the hand-built locations in Raft that carry the game's storyline. Each one holds notes, puzzles and clues that lead to the next, starting at the Radio Tower, and a Receiver with three Antennas is how you find them.
Raft Controls
| Action | Desktop |
|---|---|
| Move | W, A, S, D |
| Jump | Space |
| Sprint | Shift |
| Crouch or swim down | Ctrl |
| Use held item (throw hook, attack, place) | Left mouse button |
| Secondary action (open build menu with the hammer) | Right mouse button |
| Interact | E |
| Rotate placed item | R |
| Remove placed item | X |
| Drop item | Q |
| Open inventory | Tab or I |
| Open Notebook | T |
| Select hotbar slot | 1 to 0 |
Raft gameplay tips
- Carry a spare hook. The Plastic Hook breaks after 40 uses, and it's your main source of early materials, so running out leaves you stuck with nothing to build with.
- Drop the Anchor before you dive or explore an island. An unanchored raft keeps drifting with the current, and swimming back to it from far away wastes time and puts you in the Shark's water.
- Keep key structures away from the raft's edge. The Shark destroys edge foundations, and losing one takes everything built on it. Keeping your grill, purifier and storage near the middle means an edge loss won't take them too.
- Craft a Wooden Spear before the first Shark attack. It deals 5 damage per hit, and dealing 15 damage during an attack drives the Shark off. It comes back roughly every five minutes, so patch any bitten foundation with a Plank right away.
- Cook your fish instead of eating it raw. Cooked fish restores more hunger, and raw fish also costs you thirst, so a grill early stretches every catch.
- Build a Research Table early and unlock the Smelter. The Smelter turns ore into Metal Ingots, and you need those ingots for metal tools, stronger weapons and many of the parts that lead you to story islands.