10 COMMON Mistakes New Raft Players Make (and how to avoid them)

I know I made plenty of mistakes when I first played Raft. Maybe if you watch this, you can avoid some of those mistakes.

tiktok: @alidove

[Alidove_]

For everyone who keeps asking/commenting: Yes, I call the shark Jeremiah. That's the name I gave him when I started streaming Raft, way before I ever reached the Radio Tower for the first time to tell me his name is Bruce. I know that his canonical name, but I'm going to continue to call him Jeremiah because that's what his name is in my heart.

[NXValiant]

That barrell slowing floating past at 0:43 while she's doing something in the inventory almost killed me...

[Syberian]

If you want to have even more "alone time" after killing the shark, take the meat (4 of them) but leave the head (5th item), that way the shark won't disappear right away and the respawn timer doesn't start till it does, gaining precious minutes

[sha]

Another worth noting - Mark your original foundations! I set my first grill and purifier right in the center (as you did) and as soon as I get my hands on paint, I slap some on those first four. They're literally the center of our Raft worlds, all debris spawns around them. Should someone happen to build out all in one direction, confusion will ensue when debris is only flowing towards one side later on.

Good stuff!

[TheWizardKs]

One tip that can really help is the storage, all of them can be mounted on walls. So plop down a single wall and you can put like 12 of the default ones on it ( 6 each side ). It really helps to declutter the center.

[JohnClarkW]

I would say 14 clay and 19 sand. Prioritizing the advanced water purifier was a big one for me. That frees up enough wood to offset some of the smelting use.

[wickedgoddess]

One tip that helped me is knowing that the shark is centered on your raft. If you park a little ways from an island, throw a bait off the far side from the island and swim a bit you have more time to explore under water because the shark is still by your raft a ways away. I got a lot more done with the cost of a bit more swimming. Also learn the timing of the shark bite. When he opens his mouth stab, you have a good chance to hit him and then I swing around and try to stab his tail as he leaves sometimes I get 2 hits in that way.

[tayamanan]

Now that the full game out you need A TON of seaweed for the 6th story island so collecting a lot of it is important. However a tip I see a lot of people miss out of involves Bruce(She calls him Jeremiah). When you finally kill him at an island and start collecting his corpse, stop collecting after the forth shark steak. This way you get 5 minutes of him being gone instead of the traditional 3 minutes.

[kuro_neko]

I disagree on the seaweed. It's used to make the diving gear, which greatly speeds up the underwater looting of large islands. Also, I don't tend to bother with sharkbait. Killing him gives you more time and it gives you food. Once you have the bow, especially with metal arrows, killing him becomes really easy, no more miss-timing the stab and getting bit.

[Vrxiz]

I started playing 3 hours ago. I can confirm that I made all of these mistakes (that were available to make) and I went through 7 worlds and multiple deaths so far :D

[damiankirishima]

I feel like another useful tip is properly conserving raft reinforcements, if you have a reinforced piece just jutting out every 4 squares (on one side of the raft, not in a radius) then Bruce won't attack anything, since reinforced parts are invincible and for some reason his AI works like that

[Matt__just_a_guy]

great video! essential tips! To add to the island resource tip... don't decide to not pick up something because you think you have enough... YOU NEVER HAVE ENOUGH. Pick up everything you can no matter if you are currently overflowing with it.

[kuru]

Quick collection basket tip; if the shark is attacking it you can actually just remove it and place it back down to instantly get the shark off of it. Comes back full hp as well. (Note: you should still protect/fortify your collection baskets, this is just an early game thing where you dont really have/want to spend the resources to do so)

[ohshiznitsongaming]

Scrap is kinda rare out of crates and often hard to keep up with your tools and building solely from crates so scrap from islands can be pretty important

[JadeAnnabelArt]

Thank you for keeping this spoiler free. I've been playing for a long time but I love looking at beginner tips because there's always more to learn.

[HazielBlack]

honestly I think the best option right away is to just learn real fast how to hunt the shark, its really easy and saves lots of resources, in fact gives more resources

[ZeroGravitas]

I guess not many other made my mistake of fully deconstructing their raft, when it got stuck early on... Found out the hard way that it can't be rebuilt and this soft locks the world. 😐

[notme]

After 14 in-game days in Raft I'm only now finding out that potato and beets are plantable. I've been planting watermelons and assuming I need to find seeds at some point.

[blueclaws]

One of the best beginner tips videos I've come across. Just got the game, got a 9x9 fortified base, building vertical from there. Would love to see a few tips about future proofing. Like, maybe let people know WHY to save beets and potatoes, as they are used in soup recipes. That kinda thing. It may spoil some mechanics, but shouldn't reveal any story. Thanks again for the video! 💚💛

[blind]

Hey :) When I began playing Raft I totally fell for the immediate survival problem and basically consumed all the beet and potatoes I found, either raw or cooked. Concerning the sharkbait: I almost entirely stopped using shark bait at all. It either needs about 2 to 3 floating rafts to get the necessary 3 vine goo for a bow (one for research, 2 for the actual recipe of the bow). Alternatively it is also possible to go for as little as 2 sharkbaits. Usually 2 baits give enough time to farm 14 sand/clay and 3 seaweed to get to a bow that way. from then on, it's shark hunting season and I never bother about needing food or getting attacked at an island anymore :)