I interrupt this post series progression to write a short bit about my raft in Valheim. I don’t know if I’ll ever actually go back and use it, but I learned some important lessons from the experience.

Our very first base was built right on the shores of the ocean. Out the front door was a bit of wetlands that led up to rocks and then the ocean beyond. We had Necks at the gates for quick eating and enough flint to get us started in the beginning.

I got it into my head that because there was water, it was a good idea to craft a raft. After all, I had the materials and our workbench influence stretched out into a bit of the wetlands. I had a pickaxe for digging out a short channel to deeper water, too.

This seemed like a great idea until I actually did it. The water gave the sneaky appearance of being deep enough to sail a raft, but it wasn’t. I also learned that rafts need a wider area for navigation (which is still a mystery to me) than it seemed at first.

So, here I was with a beached raft. If your feet can touch the ground, the raft cannot sail in that water.

What I should have done from the start was plunk down another workbench at the edge of the ocean so I could build the raft there in water of a proper depth. But I didn’t think about that when I was doing it.

Instead, I stubbornly began to dig out the shallows and make a channel deep enough for my raft to break free. Only, due to the strange stamina usage and swimming in this game, that was also easier said than done.

I learned quickly that not every place on the shore that looked like you could jump up out of the water was actually that. And swimming is apparently hard in Valheim. It must be all the armor.

So this became not just a structural challenge of finding the spots that were too shallow and digging them out with my pickaxe, but also the challenge of staying alive in water. I also learned that you can shove the raft around a bit, which became helpful as I herded it out of the shallow towards the deeper water.

I’m not sure how long I spent digging, struggling to swim and shoving my raft around before I finally got it where it needed to be. I messed around with the sailing controls a little once I had the freedom of movement, but didn’t want to get too far from the base.

At that point, most of the interest had begun to shift to the new outpost we’d built near to the Black Forest. With the growing realization that the original base wasn’t going to be a main home base anymore, I decided it was best to dock my raft for the time being and head where everyone else was going.

So I nudged it up into the shallows of the wetlands and said my farewells to the little raft.

Now that we’ve progressed much further into the game, we have the option to build a larger boat. I doubt that I’ll have much use for the poor little raft that I spent so much effort digging out, but it was still a fun day in Valheim.