How to Sail in Valheim – Build a Boat and Navigate

If you know anything about Vikings, you’d know that they love sailing the brave seas more than anyone. Being a Viking game that it is, Valheim also allows you to do just that. The game gives you the freedom to travel at your own pace. It enables you to sail from one island to the next, discovering what each has to offer. In this article, we will be showing you how to sail in Valheim. In addition to that, this Valheim sailing guide will also tell you how to build your boat and promptly navigate it.

How to Sail in Valheim

Although you’d be spending most of your time traversing Valheim’s gorgeous open world by foot, the game gives you periods to feel the cool breeze of the sea as you sail its ocean biome. That said, to travel between said islands, you’d first need to build a boat. 

At its current state, Valheim allows players to build and subsequently sail three kinds of boats. These are the Raft, Karve, and Longship. Each boat variant has its own requirements to build as well as its own parameters. This includes a dedicated HP, seats or capacity, sailing speeds, and storage slots.

With that out of the way, let us proceed with how you can build yourself a boat.

Building a Boat in Valheim

To build a boat in Valheim, you need to place a workbench near the ocean biome. Take note that you need to be within the set radius of the workbench to start building your boat. Furthermore, the boat, of course, needs to be built on water. We highly recommend setting up a camp near your chosen shore to make everything much more manageable.

As you would expect, the type of boat you can build depends on the resources you currently have with you. To give you a bit of a preview of what you would need to build each of them: the Raft can be built in no time, the Karve requires a lot of bronze, while the Longship needs boatloads of iron.

How to Build a Raft

Let us start with the easiest of the bunch, the raft. After all, a raft is just a series of wooden logs tied together with a sail on it. The raft is only recommended for first-time Valheim sailors. Although it takes no time and little effort to build, it is painfully slow and definitely won’t last long. On top of that, the raft is also hard to handle. Nevertheless, it should be more than enough to serve you in the early game.

Building a Raft requires 20 pieces of wood, 6 leather straps, and 10 resins. 

How to Build a Karve

Karve is the medium-tier sailing vessel you can get in Valheim. It is a significant upgrade from the Raft but is certainly lower in quality than the longship. That said, striving to build a Karve right after the raft should always be on your priority list. Not only does this vessel allow you to move faster in water, but it also enables the transport of goods. This includes raw metal, which cannot go with you on portals.

Building a Karve requires 30 pieces of fine wood, 10 deer hide, 20 resin, and 80 bronze nails.

How to Build a Longship

Longships are the premium sailing vessels players can get in Valheim. There is no better boat to have than this and it certainly shows. In addition to being the fastest variant, the longship can also hold the most people and transport resources most efficiently. 

Longships can carry goods more than 4x the Karve! This convenience and great benefits come at a price though. Longships are notoriously hard to build in Valheim mainly due to its demanding requirements.

Building a Longship requires 40 fine wood, 40 ancient bark, 10 deer hide, and 100 iron nails.

How to Sail in Valheim – Tips and Tricks

To help you navigate the open seas more effectively, we have also come up with a simple how-to-sail in Valheim guide. Of course, owning a boat is just the start of it. You’d also have to learn how to operate it smoothly and use its components optimally.

• The Rudder: the rudder is perhaps the boat’s most important component. It is where you go to navigate the boat itself! Just head to the back of your boat and an interaction prompt should appear. Once on the rudder, your HUD should change and you’d get a couple of new icons to play with.

• Steering: steering your boat in Valheim is pretty much the same as other games with the same feature. You just move left or right as if you are walking. That said, remember that the rudder remains where you left it. For instance, if you swayed to the left, the boat will remain going left up until you straighten the rudder.

• Speed: after interacting with the rudder, the speed indicator of your boat should appear just below the minimap. Take note that there are multiple speeds to pay attention to. These are rowing (represented by an oar or rudder icon), half sail, and full sail.

• Wind Direction: any effective sailor should be aware of the current wind direction. Just below the speed icon is a yellowish ring that has a pointer inside. This points to the direction of the wind. Go in the direction of the wind with your sails up to go faster. Inversely, if you go against the wind, you’d go much slower.

• The Sails: use your forward and back buttons as if you are walking on land to lower and raise the sails when interacting with the rudder. The sails are responsible for the speed of your vessel. The more you push backward the slower it gets while pushing forward means you want to go faster. Moreover, this directly correlates to the speed indicator discussed just a while ago.

And that is it. That is how to sail in Valheim and how to build a boat. Now go out and explore each island this wonderful game has to offer! For more helpful articles just like this, stay tuned to our website and make sure to follow our respective socials.