Raft: Island Harvesting for Scrap and Ore

Diving underwater near an island in Raft among coral and seabed resources, with a breath gauge

Running low on scrap? Anchor at an island

Scrap comes in from crates, and once you’ve built a wall of nets they pull in a little more on their own, though slowly. So when your rope is piling up faster than your scrap and you want to keep adding nets, that trickle falls behind. The quick fix is a small island: a few minutes harvesting the seabed around one gets you a big pile of scrap fast. Islands are also the place to get metal and copper ore, sand, clay, and seaweed at this stage of the game, so one stop tops up your scrap and stocks the rest at the same time.

A wide row of collection nets along the raft with a small island on the horizon in Raft
The net row running along the raft, with a small island on the horizon. Scrap has dried up even with good net coverage, so it’s worth sailing over to a small island.

To actually stop at one you need the Throwable Anchor. It’s a Navigation-tab craft (two planks, four rope, four stone) and its description notes it “can only be used once.” Sail toward an island, throw the anchor, and your raft holds in place instead of drifting straight past. When you’ve finished harvesting, hold X to pull the anchor back up, which destroys it (that’s the “used only once” part) and sets the raft sailing again. If you plan to island-hop, craft a few.

The Navigation crafting tab showing the single-use Throwable Anchor recipe in Raft
The Throwable Anchor: two planks, four rope, four stone. Single-use, so keep a couple on hand.
The Throwable Anchor sitting on the raft before being thrown overboard in Raft
The Throwable Anchor sitting on the raft before you throw it. It does nothing until it goes over the side.
The deployed Throwable Anchor on the raft edge with a hold X to remove prompt, island in the distance, in Raft
The deployed anchor on the raft’s edge. Hold X to pull it up when you’re ready to move on, which uses it up and sends the raft sailing again.

The safe way to run an island: anchor well away from it, not right up against it. The shark hangs around your raft, so if you park right on top of the island it’ll be there attacking you the entire time you dive. Drop anchor at a distance instead and swim in from there. The shark stays back with the raft while you work the island and its underwater materials, then you haul your scrap and ore back to the raft when you’re done. Keep an eye on your breath gauge while you’re under.

The raft anchored well away from a small island in Raft to keep the shark away while harvesting
Anchored at a distance, island out ahead. Keeping the raft (and its resident shark) well back means you can harvest without getting bitten.
Diving underwater near an island in Raft among coral and seabed resources, with a breath gauge
Down on the seabed, where the scrap, ore, clay, and sand are. The gauge up top is your breath, so grab what you can and surface before it runs out.

The main thing to grab down here is metal ore. You pull it off the sides of underwater rocks and reefs with your hook, the same way you grab flotsam. While you’re at it, sweep up the clay and sand around you with the hook. Seaweed is different: you gather it by hand from the tall kelp plants growing off the seabed, swimming up to one and pressing E with nothing equipped (the hook isn’t used for it). And keep an eye out for crates and barrels half-buried in the seabed.

Metal ore can’t be used raw, it has to be smelted into metal first, and that means building a Smelter, which is built from Bricks made from Clay and Sand. The clay and sand for those Bricks are scattered around that same seabed.

A metal ore node on the side of an underwater rock near an island in Raft, grabbed with the hook
Metal ore: the shiny bluish-silver blobs on the sides of underwater rocks. Early on this is the most valuable thing down here, so grab it first.
Digging out copper ore underwater with the Plastic Hook near an island in Raft
Copper ore is the other resource to collect down here. Note the hook doing the digging: this kind of work is what wears it out.
A loot crate on the seabed near an island in Raft with a Press E to pick up crate prompt
Islands hide loot on the seabed too. Grab any crates and barrels tucked among the coral while you’re down here.

One thing to pack before you dive: spare Plastic Hooks. The hook is what you use to dig these underwater deposits loose, and harvesting wears it out fast, much faster than reeling in flotsam does. A single hook won’t survive a whole island dig, so craft a few before you set out. We brought three on this run, which is about right for a solid harvesting trip.

Inventory full of scrap, metal ore, copper ore, sand, clay and seaweed from an island harvest in Raft, raft anchored in the distance
The haul from one small-island run: a stack of scrap, plus metal and copper ore, sand, clay, and seaweed. Net shortage solved, and a solid start on the sand and clay a Smelter needs. The raft is parked safely out on the horizon.

Avoiding large islands for now

You’ll also start spotting much bigger islands on the horizon, like the mountainous one visible in the dusk here. Steer clear of them for the moment. Large islands are guarded by wildlife you’re not equipped to fight yet, and what they hold isn’t what you need this early anyway. Keep working the small islands for your scrap, ore, clay, sand, and seaweed, and leave the big ones for later, once you have proper weapons and a reason to go ashore.

A large mountainous island looming on the horizon at dusk seen from the raft in Raft
A large island at dusk. Note it for later, but don’t make for it yet, the small islands are still where your early materials come from.