You need engines to travel quickly between islands on the vast seas of Raft.
However, unlike other structures, the Engine has a lot of interactable parts. It also has a special placement requirement and a technique that you must know in order to make your raft go faster.
Recommended Read: What to Do After Radio Tower in Raft
In this guide, we’ll show you everything you need to know about engines in Raft, including how to make an Engine, how to place it, how to use it properly, and how you can calculate your raft speed when using engines.
Table of Contents
How to Make an Engine
To make an Engine in Raft, you need to acquire the Engine blueprint in the cockpit located on the second story island – Vasagatan.
To get there, you must learn how to build a second floor to set up the Receiver and complete the Radio Tower to unlock Vasagatan’s coordinates.
After acquiring the blueprint, return to your raft and use the Research Table to research the following materials to unlock the Engine recipe:
- 1x Metal Ingot
- 1x Rope
- 1x Circuit Board
- 1x Plank
The Engine recipe can then be found in the Navigation tab, which is the seventh tab with a sail icon on it.
Each Engine costs 5 Metal Ingots, 5 Ropes, 1 Circuit Board, and 20 Planks.
A single Engine can only push 100 foundations, so make sure to craft some extra ones if you have a large raft.
You can check how many foundations your raft has by simply counting yourself or using a Foundation Counter, which can be purchased from the Trading Post for 3 Trash Cubes and 4 Trade Coins.
How to Place Engine
You need a 2×3 area for each Engine.
One row (1×3) within this area must be solid foundations, while the other half must be open water with no foundations.
When players first unlock the Engine and figure out how to place it, they often place it on the outermost area of the raft, which works fine.
However, engines are quite expensive, and since the shark will attack the outer foundations and destroy every structure built on the attacked foundation, it’s not recommended to build engines there unless you already fortified the outer foundations.
Instead, we recommend destroying some of the inner foundations and building engines inside.
This way, the shark will take some time to reach the foundations with engines on them. Plus, you can always rebuild the destroyed foundations to protect your engines.
Small tip: You can rotate engines by pressing “R” when building them so they face in your desired direction.
How to Use Engine in Raft
An Engine has 3 interactable parts:
- The fuel tank
- The direction lever
- The power barrel
To turn the Engine on, you must put fuel in the fuel tank by pressing the “E” key.
Fuel can be either Planks or Biofuel. Each Plank lasts 36 seconds, while a single Biofuel canister lasts up to 720 seconds.
The Engine’s fuel tank can only hold a maximum of 600 seconds worth of fuel. So, by this stage, using Planks instead of Biofuel is recommended to save resources.
To change direction, press “E” while looking at the direction lever.
Finally, to turn on the engine, look at the red barrel and press “E”. You will start hearing a mechanical noise, indicating that the Engine is working.
Later on, you’ll unlock more blueprints found on Balboa Island to fully automate the Engine fueling process.
By setting up a Fuel Tank and a Fuel Pipe system, you can start using Biofuel without worrying about resource waste, as the system will provide only what the Engine needs.
In Caravan Town, you’ll unlock another useful item to control all the engines at once – the Engine Control.
This device also has 3 interactable parts.
The small button is used to turn all the engines on or off, while the big lever is used to change the direction of all engines on your raft.
There are some cases where you cannot turn the Engine, or nothing happens, when you turn it on. They are:
- Your raft is anchored
- The engine doesn’t have fuel
- Two engines are running in the opposite direction
How to Calculate Raft Speed
In Raft, the default speed of your raft is 1.
With engines, your raft speed varies, depending on the number of engines you use and how many foundations your raft consists of.
However, your raft speed cannot go below 1.5 or exceed 2.5.
One Engine can push 100 foundations and increase the raft speed by 2. It can then carry another 10 foundations with a reduced speed increase at half of the original speed boost, which is 1.
To calculate the raft speed, count the number of foundations and number of engines on your raft first.
For example, let’s say your raft has 221 foundations, and you use 3 engines.
Since 3 engines can push 300-330 foundations and your raft only has 221 foundations, your raft speed is:
2 (speed of one Engine) x 3 (number of engines) = 6
However, because the speed can’t exceed 2.5, your raft speed is limited down to 2.5.
If you only have 2 engines, they can only push 200-220 foundations. With 221 foundations, their speed boost is reduced in half, resulting in:
2 (speed of one Engine) x 2 (number of engines) / 2 (the speed penalty) = 2
If you only have 1 Engine, your raft speed is:
2 (speed of one Engine) x 1 (number of Engine) / 2 (the speed penalty) = 1
Again, since the speed can’t go below 1.5, your raft speed is 1.5.
If you put 6 engines on your raft, you will achieve the maximum raft speed no matter how many foundations it consists of.
Now you know how to make, place, and use engines in Raft.
Have any suggestions for this guide? Let us know in the comment section below.
