Players of Raft who look at what the research table can give them will notice that they need materials like wool to get a bigger backpack and items like eggs to create a healing salve. But where can players find these items when none of the wild animals in Raft drop them? The answer is to tame an animal and house it on the raft.
Of course, taming an animal isn't an easy process, and the raft needs to have the proper facilities to keep an animal safe and well-fed. That's why this Raft guide will take players through step-by-step instructions that end with a steady supply of wool, eggs, and milk.
Equipment and Facilities
Before trying to catch a wild animal, players should first make sure they're researched all the equipment they'll need and have a place on their raft where they can put their livestock.
- The net launcher is the only item in the game that will let players capture livestock. The launcher itself needs plastic, scrap, metal ingots, and bolts, and players will also need to research the net cannisters it fires. Cannisters use rope, stone, and the explosive powder players can only get from poison-puffers.
- Other research topics include shears for gathering wool, buckets for gathering milk, and grass plots for livestock to eat from. Grass plots require dirt, and so players will also need to research and craft shovels to gather this material from large islands.
- Livestock on the raft need to stay in an enclosed space so they don't fall off the side and drown. Players can rescue drowning livestock, but it's much easier to not have to. A room of full-size walls can contain livestock, but a fence or half-wall is good enough and easier to move around.
Catching Livestock
The three animals Raft players can tame are goats, llamas, and cluckers. Goats produce milk, llamas produce wool, and cluckers are large, flightless birds that produce eggs. Players can find all three animals randomly on large islands, including a few rare variants that give players the "Some Look Different!" Achievement when caught but which are mechanically identical.
To catch a livestock animal, players must hit it with the net launcher. These animals tend to spook and run around when players get too close, and the net has an arc and travel time that make it hard to aim over long distances. That means the best way to hit an animal is to chase it and try to shoot when it's moving directly towards or away from the player.
Once the net has caught an animal, players must pick it up and bring it back to their raft. Players can swim while holding an animal, but the shark will attack even when players' arms are full. Once on board, players should wait until they're inside their livestock enclosure to let the animal go. Players can also name or rename their animals while holding them.
Tending Livestock
- Each animal needs to eat grass every 8 minutes or so, and grass plots regrow over the course of 5 minutes. This means players can safely keep one animal per grass plot.
- Grass plots sit directly on the floor and are exactly one square big, so players can cover the entire enclosure with them.
- Grass plots need water after each time livestock eat them. Sprinklers can keep grass wet, but they require batteries.
- Livestock that aren't fed won't produce new wool, eggs, or milk. Luckily, unlike in early builds livestock won't starve to death if players leave them unfed for too long.
- While players can collect eggs directly from the ground, they need to use shears to gather wool and buckets to gather milk. Players can get the bucket back after drinking the milk, but if they use the milk in a recipe the bucket is gone for good.
- Goats and llamas show bucket and shears icons when they're ready for milking and shearing.
- Keep in mind that livestock can walk through gates and doors and keep them closed.
Raft is available now on PC.