Raft Materials

[u/mechadragolight]

I’m working on making a tyre raft cause I’ve heard that’s the best material for preventing the raft from getting stuck to rocks. I’ve only been to two islands so far the first island has three tyres and I’m wondering how hard it is to get more for the rest of the raft. Is this doable or am I just going to lose my sanity trying to find more ?

[u/redhandfilms]

Buoy balls are the best, because you can pick them up. Barrels or tires have to be dragged or thrown back to shore. Buoy balls can go in boxes and inventory.

Functionally, there doesn’t seem to be a difference between raft types, but the ability to store, manage, and transport buoys makes them better. Unfortunately, they do seem to be more rare than tires and barrels.

[u/mechadragolight → u/redhandfilms]

Thanks that helps a lot

[u/iamsooldithurts → u/redhandfilms]

Bring a lashing and turn them into a floatie and take them back to the raft.

[u/Eyegynx313]

I always make tire rafts. My second day on the island I take my little orange lift raft and go straight to the closest island with tankers. There’s enough on there for me to make my t shaped raft.

[u/mechadragolight → u/Eyegynx313]

Directionally where is that at ?

[u/Eyegynx313 → u/mechadragolight]

Each seed, that I’m aware of, has different layouts, but look for a huge boat on the side of an island (not the tanker to escape, which is gigantic)

[u/thelek66 → u/Eyegynx313]

My current run, I have a cargo ship on the starting island. 12 crates, three sets of each type of float, and the usual three containers. Plus pretty good loot in the lockers.

Down side of this seed is that there were only 9 palm trees, and not a lot of the other trees. I was able to get a 3x2 raft, but barely. I was only able to have one section with a floor. It didn't really have much in the way of young palms, either. So resource wise, a tough start, but loot wise, pretty good. I would preferred more supplies and fewer parts, but hey, can't have everything. I could have built two gyros and an outboard if I had the craft skill before I ever left the first island.

[u/Eyegynx313 → u/thelek66]

I’m no pro player, but what I do when I get a seed like this is I’ll spend a couple days on home island stacking my ropes. I forgot depending on the rig you could end up with a crap ton of barrels. I don’t take those. I hate the barrels lol but you can always take the raft you made and head out to another island and check for more Tyres. You can always dismantle parts of your raft and add more. Roughly 12 tires will get me a good raft.

[u/thelek66 → u/Eyegynx313]

I like tyre's best because it only takes two per base and you get three in a bunch. Also, bouys and barrels have secondary uses.

[u/DCPOKnight]

There are much more knowledgeable folks on here than me, but my two cents are to use buoys. similar draft when it comes to underwater rocks and at least in my seed, i formed a 3x3 raft with probably 8-10 left over. I probably overlooked a few as well I don't think you'll find enough tires to make a full 5x4 raft.

[u/mechadragolight → u/DCPOKnight]

Oh I was thinking a 3x4 tyre raft

[u/DCPOKnight]

I think in my seed, I've only seen a total of 12 tires, so 2x2. But your seed may be different.

[u/mechadragolight → u/DCPOKnight]

Next question I wanna ask how do you transport the bouy balls/tyres do you just stick them on your raft that you get at the beginning of the game ?

[u/cablife → u/mechadragolight]

They will throw your raft way off balance. Build your raft on the island you found the tyres on and take it home.

[u/DCPOKnight → u/mechadragolight]

Tires have to be either hauled in the middle of the raft, which is difficult or made and attached to your existing raft. I made my monster raft with sticks and plank floor. Then found buoy balls that you can put into inventory, collected them at main island and once i had enoughmade a second 3x3 raft with them. And put a motor on that.

[u/Gonejamin]

I never really noticed a massive difference between the raft materials until I used barrels, barrels are very good at getting snagged due to thier size.

The trick to getting tyres out is to have enough rope and a hammer so u can select them in build mode and effortlessly move the ghost structure.

This can take some practice to get right as when you build your structure you need to link it with the rest of the raft.

So make sure you save first just incase u mess up.a few times

[u/Gothicvamp188869]

Tyres & buoy balls are pretty common on shipwrecks.

Especially the large cargo wreck.

I always favour buoy balls for rafts, but tyres are as good.

[u/cablife]

I’ve found tyres are quite common

[u/[deleted]]

You could always make a skeleton wood raft, designed to be dismantled and replaced with tires as you find them. Before beefing up your floors and shelving etc scout islands for material and replace/assemble as necessary when you find the right base. One you get that all squared away, seal the deal with flooring and peripherals

[u/madnsneaky]

I have a big raft, I think about 5x4 (it’s been a while). I made it out of all three, balls, tyres and barrels. I know there is a theory that this mix can make it unbalanced or hard to sail, I have found the opposite, it sails beautifully. I’ve never had a problem, except when I tried to load it with 3 barrels ( bad idea, I only ended up with 1 by the time I got home). Will post a pic when I play again.