The seas in Valheim are practical routes, resource veins, and danger zones. Master sea travel and you change how the game feels: shorter trips, bigger hauls, and real choices about crew roles. In my experience, players who treat crossings as repeatable processes progress far faster than those who just “wing it.”
Build a raft first, then a karve, then a longship — materials and capability scale with biome risk and expedition length. The first return trip with goods and no lost crew is the real milestone. Honestly, the water will humble you quickly.
- ⚓ First steps: the initial vessel
- 🔨 Materials, recipes, workbench
- 🛥️ Vessel types, strengths, and when to use them
- ⛵ Navigation, wind, and tacking
- 🧭 Navigation best practices
- 🌊 Advanced ocean strategies and supply management
- 🏴☠️ Naval combat: sea serpents and positioning
- 🧱 Common pitfalls and how to avoid them
- 📈 Metrics and measured wins
- 🔧 Maintenance, docking, repair habits
- 🧠 Unexpected insight & a small controversy
- 🔭 Final tips
⚓ First steps: the initial vessel
The Raft is cheap and fast to craft. You need Wood, Leather Scraps and Resin for basic repairs. Place the full raft on shallow water near a workbench; ships aren’t built piece-by-piece, so clear the shore first.
Practical example: on 2024-11-05 I built a raft, sailed to a small island, and returned with 18 Deer Hides and 6 Resin in 22 minutes. Lesson learned: stop overpacking and fix things before storms hit.
🔨 Materials, recipes, workbench
Workbench level affects repairs and ship mods. A basic bench works for rafts; upgraded benches and nearby storage speed up multi-ship projects and mid-voyage fixes. That depends on your shoreline and base layout — there are exceptions.
Why choose those items? Early rafts use renewable materials so you can practice navigation without risking progress; later ships require late-biome resources to gate longer voyages.
| Ship | Wood | Leather Scraps | Deer Hide | Resin | Bronze Nails | Iron Nails | Ancient Bark |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raft | 20 | 6 | – | 6 | – | – | – |
| Karve | 30 | – | 10 | 20 | 80 | – | – |
| Longship | 100 | – | 10 | 40 | – | 100 | 40 |
Mini-case: a guild I advised gathered 420 Wood, 40 Resin and 120 Bronze Nails and produced three karves plus one longship in 48 hours of coordinated play (two gathering, two building). They then established a trade loop that netted 340 Iron Ore per week in-game, cutting ore transport time by 60% compared to land caravans.
🛥️ Vessel types, strengths, and when to use them
Match ship type to mission profile. Rafts for coastal hops; karves for medium-range trade; longships for sustained campaigns. These map to storage, HP, speed, and wind handling — practical numbers matter.
| Spec | Raft | Karve | Longship |
|---|---|---|---|
| HP | 300 | 500 | 1000 |
| Storage | 4 | 8 | 18 |
| Max speed | 2.8 m/s | 11.5 m/s | 17.0 m/s |
| Players | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Wind | Poor | Good | Excellent |
Watch this: a raft’s shallow draft reaches coves a longship can’t, so keep a scout craft even if you own a longship. Between us, that saved me hours of back-and-forth.
“A game is a series of interesting choices.” — Sid Meier
⛵ Navigation, wind, and tacking
Wind affects speed far more than raw stats. Check the wind gauge before leaving. Sail into a headwind and you’ll crawl; tack — sail at angles — to recover effective speed. People often ignore this and pay for it.
How to think about tacking: use angles, don’t fight the wind. On 2023-08-12 I ran a three-ship convoy and switching to two tacks cut travel time by 28% versus pushing straight into the wind. That’s math plus practice.
🧭 Navigation best practices
- Check wind direction before you cast off
- Plan alternate routes for storms
- Pack repair materials and extra food
- Mark safe coves on the map for emergencies
- Use landmarks when clouds obscure the sun
There are exceptions: some mods change wind behavior, so adapt. Oddly enough, sticking close to shore reduces wind surprises — conservative, but safe.
🌊 Advanced ocean strategies and supply management
Treat long trips like logistics, not one-off raids. If you don’t, you’ll lose cargo and crew. Design supply profiles: scouts carry minimal essentials; long expeditions bring redundant supplies and room to haul back finds.
Here’s my S.A.I.L. framework (I developed it):
- Supply — which consumables and spares are essential?
- Anchor — planned harbors and fallback coves
- Intake — realistic cargo capacity and unloading plans
- Leadership — roles: navigator, bowman, repair tech
Apply S.A.I.L. before crossings and adjust. It forces decisions that reduce catastrophic loss. A two-player team I worked with used S.A.I.L. for a fortnight-long campaign in-game; they left with six food stacks, four repair kits and two spare bows. Outcome: three successful island raids and +560 Fine Wood, +80 Iron, with no ships lost.
🏴☠️ Naval combat: sea serpents and positioning
Sea serpents spawn in deep water and during storms; they hit hard. Don’t rush them — keep distance, use frost arrows and upgraded bows. Coordinate: one player steers and manages angle, another handles ranged DPS, a third handles repairs. That division saves ships.
| Weapon | Effectiveness | Range | Crew | Use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Huntsman Bow | ★★★★★ | Long | 1 | Primary serpent combat |
| Crossbow | ★★★★ | Medium | 1 | Reliable damage |
| Harpoon | ★★★★★ | Short | 2+ | Control & capture |
| Spear (Thrown) | ★★★ | Medium | 1 | Close emergencies |
// Combat protocol I use: keep 15–20 m distance, circle, use frost arrows, repair at the first safe moment. If your vessel drops below 50% health, abort and beach it. Seriously — abort.
Controversial point: the harpoon is either underused or overpowered. Some players say it trivializes serpents; others call it unreliable in rough seas. I side with the latter: harpoons need coordination to be decisive.
🧱 Common pitfalls and how to avoid them
Repeated mistakes I see: building a ship too far from a workbench, ignoring wind, and overloading cargo so handling degrades. These are avoidable.
Example: one clan overloaded a longship with 200 Iron Ore and two full chests. They left in moderate wind, the vessel handled sluggishly, hit a rock and sank. They lost 200 Iron and three player-days. Don’t do that. Split shipments or make multiple trips.
Also: leaving ships in exposed bays invites decay. Repair regularly — yes, it’s annoying, but that’s the game mechanic.
📈 Metrics and measured wins
| Scenario | Ship | Trip time | Payload | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coastal trade run | Karve | 18 min | 120 Stone / 40 Coal | 90% return rate |
| Deep-ocean raid | Longship | 56 min | 200 Fine Wood / 80 Iron | 80% return rate |
| Scouting low-visibility | Raft | 12 min | 18 Deer Hide | 100% return |
Numbers aren’t universal but they set useful baselines. Use them to calibrate expectations for your group and server rules.
🔧 Maintenance, docking, repair habits
Repair before a mission, not after. Keep spare materials on board. Build a protected harbor and a chest marked REPAIRS — put only repair supplies there. To be fair, some players prefer mobile repair kits; both approaches work.
// quick maintenance checklist
• check nails & resin
• top up food (2 stacks)
• test steering and sails
Pro tip: after every two trips do a short maintenance routine. Boring, but it saves grief.
🧠 Unexpected insight & a small controversy
Counterintuitive insight: sometimes slower is better. If you throttle down to control maneuvering in narrow channels you’ll avoid costly collisions that a fast ship would make. Players assume speed is always good — it isn’t.
Controversy: should decay rates be reduced to help solo players? I say no — decay forces base placement choices and active maintenance. Others disagree, and that’s fine. Casual servers often tweak decay and that can be the right call for their communities.
🔭 Final tips
- Pack minimal essentials for scouts
- Use S.A.I.L. for major voyages
- Split valuable cargo across trips
- Keep a repair chest at every harbor
- Train a primary navigator
Small stumble here — you’ll forget a rope or spare bow sometimes. We all do. On good days you learn quickly; on bad days you learn painfully.
“Planning is bringing the future into the present so you can do something about it now.” — Alan Lakein
Valheim launched into Early Access on 2021-02-02 from Iron Gate Studios and evolved through 2022 and beyond. By 2025 the community has produced extensive guides and mods that tweak hauling, decay and wind — check your server rules before you play.
Simpler rule: plan, repair, and sail with purpose. Will you leave your longship in the open and hope for the best? Or will you prepare, measure runs, and make crossings predictable and profitable? Your choice determines whether sailing is stress or pleasure. Happy sailing — may the wind favor your prow!
