Welcome aboard, survivors! If you’re just starting out in Raft and don’t know what to do with your 2×2 float and a plastic hook, this early game guide is here to get you on solid footing (or… floating). Covering the first two hours of gameplay, this guide walks you through essential controls, crafting priorities, shark management, basic survival, and how to begin the main story. Whether you’re going solo or your friend’s as helpful as a broken paddle, these tips will anchor you to a successful start.

Getting Comfortable With Controls

Knowing your controls is step one. Raft has intuitive movement and interaction, but a few details make a difference:

• Movement: WASD to move, Shift to sprint, Space to jump, Ctrl to crouch
• Swimming: WASD to move, Space to swim up, Ctrl to swim down
• Inventory/Crafting: Tab to open crafting/inventory, Q to drop items, 1-9 to quick-select
• Use/Place/Interact: Left-click to use/place, E to interact, hold X to remove placed items
• Story: Press T to open your journal and view coordinates

Understanding Crafting

Crafting in Raft is surprisingly user-friendly. Hit Tab to bring up your inventory and crafting menu. Your inventory is in the middle, crafting recipes on the left. Click a category and item to view the recipe.

A helpful shortcut: if a recipe has a component you can craft (like Rope from Leaves), hover over it, click the green plus sign, and it crafts it automatically. Saves a lot of time in the early scramble.

What to Craft First: Your Early Game Checklist

You start with a plastic hook and not much else. The early game is about survival—food, water, and basic defense. Here’s what to build and in what order:

ESSENTIAL – Build Immediately:

• Wooden Spear – For defending against the shark
• Building Hammer – Needed to expand and repair your raft
• Simple Purifier – Provides clean water
• Empty Cup – For drinking and watering crops
• Small Crop Plot – Grows potatoes or beets
• Simple Grill – Cooks food for more efficiency

NEEDED, BUT NOT RIGHT AWAY:

• Paddle – To reach islands
• Stone Axe – For chopping trees
• Small Storage – For inventory overflow
• Plastic Hook – Upgrade if yours breaks
• Research Table – Unlocks advanced recipes

OPTIONAL (But Helpful):

• Collection Net – Automatically collects floating debris
• Simple Bed – To skip night and respawn point
• Wooden Fishing Rod – Extra food source
• Throwable Anchor – Temporary island docking

Gathering Resources: Tips for Success

Hold left-click to charge your hook, aim slightly up and in front of the debris, then reel it back. If you miss, right-click to cancel immediately. Also, press E to grab floating items as they pass your raft.

Don’t forget: barrels are gold mines. They often contain planks, plastic, food, and rare components.

Dealing With the Shark

Every 5 minutes, the shark attacks your raft. Hit it three times with a Wooden Spear to drive it off. If you’re too slow, it’ll destroy that part of your raft—along with any item placed on it. After it leaves, use your hammer to repair the damage.

Want to know how to kill the shark? That’s a topic for another guide—but for now, focus on defense.

Building Your Raft (and Where to Place Items)

Once you have the basics, start building outward. Center your essential structures—grills, purifiers, crop plots—so they’re harder for the shark to reach. Place two of each critical station (grills and purifiers) to stay ahead of your hunger and thirst needs.

Make sure you always have planks stocked; both purifiers and grills burn fuel. If you’re low, use the hook or head to an island.

Island Encounters: What to Look For

Islands are the jackpot of early game resources—trees for wood and leaves, fruits for food, and underground resources like scrap and stone. Use a Paddle or Throwable Anchor to reach and stay at islands.

Once ashore, chop down Palm and Mango Trees with your Stone Axe. Pick up watermelons and pineapples, but discard their seeds until later. Ignore flowers for now—they’re decorative.

Below the waterline, use your hook to gather scrap and stone. If you can, grab metal ore, clay, sand, and seaweed—but beware the shark.

Becoming 100% Sustainable

With food, water, and materials secured, it’s time to craft a Research Table. Drag in items like planks, plastic, rope, or scrap and click Research. Unlock Collection Nets as soon as possible.

Collection Nets passively gather floating debris and stack up to 10 items. Place them on the raft’s edge and you’ll get a steady stream of planks, plastic, and crates. To protect them, later on you’ll want to upgrade to metal foundations or surround them with buffer pieces.

Beginning the Main Story

With sustainability locked in, it’s time to start the story. You’ll need to build a Receiver and three Antennas to start tracking story islands.

That’s a topic for a future guide, but if you’ve made it this far—you’re ready. Congratulations on surviving your first few hours. Your raft’s a little bigger, your belly a little fuller, and your odds of survival? Much, much better.

Thanks for reading, and good luck out there. The sea is wide, but with the right tools, it’s yours to master.