Ocean Advice for Newbies?

[D_Good_Fellow]

My husband and I are getting ready to set sail for the first time in DST. I've done research on all the items and everything and watched/read a few guides, but neither of us have actually engaged with ocean content before. We don't plan to necessarily spend a lot of time surviving at sea; we mostly just want to explore and find the various islands. I was wondering if anyone had any beginner's advice to offer us?

This is split screen on the Switch btw. I'm playing as Willow and he's playing as Wigfrid. The plan is currently to have a boat with three sails (+lightning rod), a steering wheel, an anchor, a fire pit, an ice box, a crock pot, think tank, alchemy engine, and a chest.

[Ulisesvolador]

Get boatch patches and an extra boat kit.

[finn from human]

My advice would be to start with just rowing and no sails, just for a little while. It'll be important to feel out how boat physics work, the general way things generate out there, and especially to develop that sort of active cooperation that isn't usually required anywhere else. Better to mess up rowing a bunch now than to crash your boat full-speed into sea stacks later!

[gamehun20]

Keep an eye out for driftwood when you are on the water it can be used to make the good oar

[Antynomity]

Have high sanity, the last thing you want happening is a fight and wavey jones at the same time on your boat.

[themightyone]

Just remember that the anchor is your friend when your careening towards disaster.  Deploy it and you can pause things and get your camera right ,etc.

[Ohan]

I recommend against using sails, (anchor) and steering wheels.

Theyre really clunky to use and can do more harm than good imo.

Especially if u havent yet cleared sea stacks to and from locations ud like to visit ur gonna be forced to constantly lower and raise ur sails to deal with them. 

Without these sailing structures wavey jones will also have a much harder time trolling u . 

drift wood oars are pretty fast and more importantly give u MUCH better control of ur raft. If u get a malba bill from klaus like i frequently do, even better. 

Other than that; dont build too close to the edge of ur raft, bring a panflute and icestaff/watering can/luxury fan. 

[nimzowitsch10]

download a client mod called "Auto Row". You can sail the ocean with only a driftwood oar. It basically makes it so you can never mess up rowing and it does the rowing for you. There are maaaany broken client mods in this game if you already didn't know.

[astroapyr]

Three sails is overkill, 2 is enough, even more if you change one with a malbatross sail later.

Build crockpot and firepit first, these demand a lot of space to be built. If possible discard the think tank and the alchemt engine.

Use the aerial view mod or the Zoom+ mod for a better view when sailing at high speed, build anchor close to the steering wheel and sail close to the shore just to be safe.

One chest may not be enough, if possible build 3-4 chests and/or a scaled chest when you can.

Leave some space between your solid structures (crockpot, firepit, sails, etc) and the boat's border to scare away Wavey Jones.

In case of wonkey raids: Willow is excellent to fight the monkeys: just equip a helmet, drop Bernie, equip a nightmare amulet and let Bernie aggro/attack the powder monkeys while you two tank the Prime Ape.

Put bumpers on the boat, those are some life savers, even more if you are sailing in wonkey territory.

Sail/steer with lag compensation off, I had many times some kind of bug where I got stuck in the steering wheel when the boat went too fast.

In case the boat sails out of control, discconnect both from the server. This will stop the boat and even raise the sails. Or at least this worked for me.

Go treasure hunting. The loot from this isn't usually great but the hunt itself is fun, you can get some boat patches like this too and with enough luck you could get some ruins loot. Ofc you will need a pinchin wrinch for this.

Have fun!

 

[Hornete]

1 hour ago, D_Good_Fellow said:

My husband and I are getting ready to set sail for the first time in DST. I've done research on all the items and everything and watched/read a few guides, but neither of us have actually engaged with ocean content before. We don't plan to necessarily spend a lot of time surviving at sea; we mostly just want to explore and find the various islands. I was wondering if anyone had any beginner's advice to offer us?

This is split screen on the Switch btw. I'm playing as Willow and he's playing as Wigfrid. The plan is currently to have a boat with three sails (+lightning rod), a steering wheel, an anchor, a fire pit, an ice box, a crock pot, think tank, alchemy engine, and a chest.

DO NOT PLACE STRUCTURES WITH PHYSICAL COLLISION ON THE EDGE OF THE BOAT

Sorry for yelling, but this one is such a crucial tip and I'll give you 3 reasons

• The physical collisions you place on the edge of the boat could prevent you from stepping on Wavey Jones, meaning you'll be forced to deal with him and only wade him off by stepping on his hands til night passes
• You can drown by jumping onto a boat if there's a physical collision at the position you'll get on the boat, as it will push you out and off the boat.
• Leaving the entire circumference of the boat free to run around makes kiting/running away from sea dangers much easier. Boats are a tiny space and having as much distance to run as you can on a boat is crucial

Make sure you place structures with a large hitbox first, as you'll be able to place smaller structures, if you place the small structures first, the large structures won't be able to be placed as closely.

I generally like to place 4 "big" structures on my boat then do all the small stuff like masts, chests, ice boxes, etc. Masts are super lenient in where they can be placed

Spoiler

In this image I have the alchemy engine, fire pit, crockpot and fish tank as my 4 "big" structures which were placed down first (The fish tank really is not necessary, I just needed an example big structure haha). Then all the masts, steering wheel, storage spaces and anchor were placed down after. I'm able to run around the circumference of the boat freely and weave in and through between the structures without getting stuck on anything

I see in your list you have the think tank, I personally would not place this as it is a "big" structure that takes up space, and it's really not necessary? There isn't much you need to prototype after you get the basic boating structures other than things like the magnet kits and upgraded malbatross masts, which you can just prototype once later on anyways,

I personally don't like to use a 3rd sail either, adds up to the maintenance of handling them and the more sails you add, the less speed they give. The third one in my experiences don't give enough of a benefit in speed to be worth dealing with.

I've started to forego alchemy engine from my boat builds recently because there really isn't all that much you need to prototype at sea that require an alchemy engine from my experiences. The game does a fairly nice job of giving yourself the tools you need to survive out there.

Last few tips. Get a driftwood oar as soon as you can, requires no prototype and is a great tool to control your boat, fishing is really valuable if you know how to do it(Which unfortunately it is quite an unintituive mechanic learn, I'm free to expand on this/teach if you want to know how to fish), Surf n Turf is a great dish that provides 60 health.

P.S. If you're curious, the maximum amount of large structures you can place on a boat is 8.

This is completely insane though, please don't do this to yourself.

Spoiler

 

 

[Pig Princess]

1 hour ago, Hornete said:

DO NOT PLACE STRUCTURES WITH PHYSICAL COLLISION ON THE EDGE OF THE BOAT

Sorry for yelling, but this one is such a crucial tip and I'll give you 3 reasons

• The physical collisions you place on the edge of the boat could prevent you from stepping on Wavey Jones, meaning you'll be forced to deal with him and only wade him off by stepping on his hands til night passes
• You can drown by jumping onto a boat if there's a physical collision at the position you'll get on the boat, as it will push you out and off the boat.
• Leaving the entire circumference of the boat free to run around makes kiting/running away from sea dangers much easier. Boats are a tiny space and having as much distance to run as you can on a boat is crucial

I have to disagree with some points.

It's true that physical collisions prevent player from stepping on Wavy Jones if Wavy spawns under structure, however, Wavy always spawns at opposite direction than player in relation to boat center, and it spawns up to 3 times maximum before he leaves player alone for this night. That means player can just ward him off 3 times while making sure to not stand at opposite direction to structure with collision.

I'm pretty sure now player can't drown because of structure collisions. It's still possible with some objects, such as lureplant, knobby tree nut, shell junk from Pearl's island, but I saw myself character sidestepping a bit when I land on top of structure - instead of drowning. Player could drown because of structures in the past, but it was changed at some point, and quite long ago already.

While leaving boat edges free is a good advice (+ you can place bumpers there later as well), it's totally not necessary. If you plan to put some big structures on boat anyway and know how Wavy spawns (or maintain your sanity) putting structures at the edges actually leaves much more place for kiting on boat, and most importantly, it's not 4-5 relatively free areas that are small, but one big area in the center of the boat.

So essentially putting and not putting structures at the edges are 2 strategies with both advantages and disadvantages.

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I recommend to use driftwood oar for movement (or Malbatross beak if available) instead of sails in general or at least in the beginning, and among sails to use only winged ones because they are safer.

That being said, I like to put a lot of big structures on boat because they are helpful, and I find it more fun and even safe - in a way - for group. For example, drying rack on boat (0 collision, by the way) allows to produce up to 40 sanity per day on spot via drying kelp (each kelp fronds dries for 0.25 day and gives 10 sanity), which alone can take care of sanity of 1 or 2 players (more, if people use clothing as supplement, and even weak things like top hats/fashion goggles are enough).

Another helpful structure is crock pot, especially for group. Allows to minmax food on spot; aside from good old meaty stew one can cook stuffed fish heads for 75 hunger (1 barnacle, 1 raw fish, 2 twigs), barnacle pita for 37.5 hunger (but recipe is very cheap: 1 barnacle, 1 kelp, 2 sticks), plus other recipes if one took some ice or honey to the boat. By the way, drying rack makes it easier to cook meaty stew because raw fish and fish morsel turn into jerky and small jerky respectively; otherwise player would need to cook meaty stew from monster meat (cookie cutters), raw fish and leafy meat (grass gators) to avoid monster lasagna, surf'n'turf or leafy meatloaf. Mentioned surf'n'turf is good for health and sanity though, requires 1.5 fish, 2.5 meat, gives 60 hp, 33 sanity and has priority over monster lasagna, so 2 monster meat + 2 raw fish works, for example.

Fire pit is obvious structure to maximise food freshness and keep oneself warm in winter.

Lightning rod doesn't have collision, so it's a good idea to put it in the center, and as a bonus it lights entire boat when charged. I wouldn't rely on it for navigation though because light radius is just big enough to make boat safe from Charlie, but it's nice if you decided to stop anyway, for example, to find something in the chests or to cook food. Keep in mind that at the very edge of boat sanity drain could still be increased because light radius is barely enough to cover boat.

Bird cage is totally optional, and while it's extra collision on boat, it adds variety to list of dishes player can make and allows to use eggs as a filler in already used recipes (such as turning 4 monster meat into meatball if one has excess of it). Namely, bacon and eggs, perogie, breakfast skillet are new options (although you could cook plan omelette and barnacle nigiri if you really want to, for example, if you are Warly and need variety).

If there is Wickerbottom in group placing bookcase on boat is also a good option, so one can use books and recover their durability. I find synergy of boat bookcase with Practiical Rain Rituals, Lunar Grimoire, Angler's Survival Guide being very worth is, and although I didn't use it, Apicultural Notes should be quite good as well. I also used fire book with fiery pen to aggro ocean mobs instead of ice staff and extinguishing fires from wildfires, but watering can can be used just as well to extinguish fires, and ice staff/boomerang to aggro mobs, so it's up to player to choose.

For summer sailing ice flingomatic is ok to have, although it's only useful for time when boat doesn't move and player can't extinguish things manually, for example, if one is fighting something or during ocean fishing. If boat is moving, snowball just misses fire, so I recommend to just have watering can for extinguishing on the move.

Order of structure placement is really important, and as was said earlier in this thread, one should put big structures first, then those that require medium amount of place, and then small things like chests.

Among medium structures I like to have are: anchor, pinching winch, steering wheel. As long as there are no sails on boat, Wavy doesn't target anchor, but it can still be useful for fighting enemies that create waves (Malbatross, gnarwhale) to prevent boat from moving. Pinching winch is for sunken chests and knobby tree nuts; optionally one can place rudder as well, as pinching winch on the boat edge + rudder is best combo to retrieve sunken objects, including those than spawned too close to shore or other unbreakables, but Wavy starts to rotate it at pretty high sanity, so I find it not worth the hassle and just put pinching winch close to boat center. Steering wheel has no impact if boat has no sails, but I put it preemptively because eventually I want to build winged sails. By the way, unlike regular sails, winged ones are closed once Wavy tries to mess with them, and monkeys from raids don't break them (as far as I remember).

Among small structures I usually have 1 ice box near crock pot, 1 salt box (I leave place for it to put as soon as I can), a lot of tin fishing bins and chests. I'm quite satisfied with my boats, especially because while it seems cluttered, in reality medium and small structures I use don't add collision, and big ones I place in a way that boat has a lot of space to move. Enough to be comfortable even for 2 players that both took their beefalos on boat.

As for general sailing tips, I didn't anyone mentioning salt collection via ramming grass boat into salt formations. It's so much better than mining that I never mine those once I discovered ramming method. Another bonus is that grass boat is leak-immune and leaves 6 grass once it's destroyed, so for all the ramming I'm essentially paying 2 grass and 2 twigs per 200 boat hp.

It's also a good idea to prototype tree jam and bring some glommer goop on boat: tree jam repairs leaks without trace, so Wavy won't be able to unplug them, and one can refill jam supply with figs from waterlogged provided one has glommer goop on boat. Be careful about repairing leaks with jam when Wavy already spawned: before animation of reparation completes, Wavy can unplug hole that is in the process of disappearing and it gives boat patch instead of tree jam (definitely a bug, but it's there).

Other than that I find body slot items be really good for sailing: rain coat to keep head light and oar/weapon in head and arm slot respecively instead of relying on lanterns and eyebrellas, thulecite suit for free sanity recovering (gives +3.3 per minute) and armor for fights; for managing weather I find thermal stone + ice box be enough for summer and thermal stone + firepit enough for winter, eventually I catch sunfish and use that for winter.

Among resources for long sailing trips I recommend to bring 50+ damage weapon and materials (crucial for cookie cutters and monkey raids), extra silk to make bug nets and catch fireflies in waterlogged for lantern/miner hat fuel, extra twigs to repair boat (each twig gives 12.5 boat hp, which I find much cheaper than repairing with logs, boards or driftwood), hammer (to collect boards from ocean debris and hammer sunken chests), ocean fishing rod if you want to fish, razor (for collecting barnacles by shaving sea weeds at night). Optionally one can bring fuel for winter, in which case I recommend beefalo whool or beard hair (easy to amass, is of same fuel value as logs or manure, but stacks up to 40).

Technically you can get away with barren boat with no structures to get from point A to point B, but I find it much more fun when I bring resources to interact with various content here despite it being not that strong compared to mainland.

[Hornete]

2 minutes ago, Pig Princess said:

It's true that physical collisions prevent player from stepping on Wavy Jones if Wavy spawns under structure, however, Wavy always spawns at opposite direction than player in relation to boat center, and it spawns up to 3 times maximum before he leaves player alone for this night. That means player can just ward him off 3 times while making sure to not stand at opposite direction to structure with collision.

I'm pretty sure now player can't drown because of structure collisions. It's still possible with some objects, such as lureplant, knobby tree nut, shell junk from Pearl's island, but I saw myself character sidestepping a bit when I land on top of structure - instead of drowning. Player could drown because of structures in the past, but it was changed at some point, and quite long ago already.

While leaving boat edges free is a good advice (+ you can place bumpers there later as well), it's totally not necessary. If you plan to put some big structures on boat anyway and know how Wavy spawns (or maintain your sanity) putting structures at the edges actually leaves much more place for kiting on boat, and most importantly, it's not 4-5 relatively free areas that are small, but one big area in the center of the boat.

So essentially putting and not putting structures at the edges are 2 strategies with both advantages and disadvantages.

That strategy for Wavey certainly works. Though I would personally rather not have to keep track of something like that and always make sure that I'm on a specific position on my boat when under a certain sanity threshold during the night.

Not an impossible thing to do, but for my personally it would be an annoying thing to keep track of.

Collisions can still push you off to drown, nothing changed in this regard. Just depends on if the Physics engine wants to be nice to you or not and push your player collision off the boat or sidestep the collision pushing you, this aspect has always been "RNG" heavy.

I don't personally agree that putting structures at the edge leaves more place for kiting on a boat, but to each their own.

[Pig Princess]

7 minutes ago, Hornete said:

Though I would personally rather not have to keep track of something like that

Totally understandable, but I just place my structures in hexagon pattern, so I never can be directly opposite to structure if I'm rowing unless I'm on top of drying rack (which I don't spend much time near) because structure collision blocks me from dangerous locations. Considering I don't use regular sails at all and until winged sails I don't even have sails, Wavy just can't do anything to me aside from extinguishing firepit (lantern/miner hat/moggles easily counter that).

[_zwb]

2 hours ago, Hornete said:

DO NOT PLACE STRUCTURES WITH PHYSICAL COLLISION ON THE EDGE OF THE BOAT

Sorry for yelling, but this one is such a crucial tip and I'll give you 3 reasons

• The physical collisions you place on the edge of the boat could prevent you from stepping on Wavey Jones, meaning you'll be forced to deal with him and only wade him off by stepping on his hands til night passes
• You can drown by jumping onto a boat if there's a physical collision at the position you'll get on the boat, as it will push you out and off the boat.
• Leaving the entire circumference of the boat free to run around makes kiting/running away from sea dangers much easier. Boats are a tiny space and having as much distance to run as you can on a boat is crucial

Make sure you place structures with a large hitbox first, as you'll be able to place smaller structures, if you place the small structures first, the large structures won't be able to be placed as closely.

I generally like to place 4 "big" structures on my boat then do all the small stuff like masts, chests, ice boxes, etc. Masts are super lenient in where they can be placed

  Reveal hidden contents

In this image I have the alchemy engine, fire pit, crockpot and fish tank as my 4 "big" structures which were placed down first (The fish tank really is not necessary, I just needed an example big structure haha). Then all the masts, steering wheel, storage spaces and anchor were placed down after. I'm able to run around the circumference of the boat freely and weave in and through between the structures without getting stuck on anything

I see in your list you have the think tank, I personally would not place this as it is a "big" structure that takes up space, and it's really not necessary? There isn't much you need to prototype after you get the basic boating structures other than things like the magnet kits and upgraded malbatross masts, which you can just prototype once later on anyways,

I personally don't like to use a 3rd sail either, adds up to the maintenance of handling them and the more sails you add, the less speed they give. The third one in my experiences don't give enough of a benefit in speed to be worth dealing with.

I've started to forego alchemy engine from my boat builds recently because there really isn't all that much you need to prototype at sea that require an alchemy engine from my experiences. The game does a fairly nice job of giving yourself the tools you need to survive out there.

Last few tips. Get a driftwood oar as soon as you can, requires no prototype and is a great tool to control your boat, fishing is really valuable if you know how to do it(Which unfortunately it is quite an unintituive mechanic learn, I'm free to expand on this/teach if you want to know how to fish), Surf n Turf is a great dish that provides 60 health.

P.S. If you're curious, the maximum amount of large structures you can place on a boat is 8.

This is completely insane though, please don't do this to yourself.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

Remember that time when placing a structure on the edge would completely stop any boat motion? Not even Malbotross can push your boat.

Definitely don't put structures on the edge. Who knows when will the devs implement another bug like this

[lakhnish]

5 hours ago, D_Good_Fellow said:

I was wondering if anyone had any beginner's advice to offer us?

The plan is currently to have a boat with three sails (+lightning rod), a steering wheel, an anchor, a fire pit, an ice box, a crock pot, think tank, alchemy engine, and a chest.

I recommend going with 2 sails instead of 3, since 3 is a bit overkill.

Bring like 10-20 Boat Patches. They fix leaks on your boat.

You also don't really need the Think Tank since it sounds like you are already prototyping everything you need from the Think Tank.

Also bring some food and armor along, since it helps not having to rely on the ocean for that stuff.

Also try to get Driftwoid as you're sailing for the Driftwood Oar. It really is just as good as sails and if your sails end up breaking, the last thing you want is to be stuck on the boat or be forced to dive off the plank so you all don't die.

Otherwise, good luck sailing!

[Mike23Ua]

No offense when I say this, but your plan is a terrible one! Unless you bring lots of boat patches or can navigate the ocean carefully.. never ever EVER put that many structures on a single boat.. because when it inevitably crashes or gets destroyed by RockJaws, Cookie Cutters, SeaWeeds, Pirate Monkeys Etc- That is a MASSIVE resource loss

Now if you plan to roll your save back a lot  to “cheat” sure go ahead.. but my advice is to first build a empty grass raft, use that with a boat paddle to get out on water and collect driftwood to make the faster boat paddles with.

A Grass raft is inexpensive and Disposable, but make sure you bring a light source, and plenty of grass to repair it.

Grass Rafts will slowly sink overtime like they’re constantly leaking.. but at least you won’t lose hours worth of structures and resources you gathered and built when your raft goes down.

[Shosuko]

A lot of good advice here.

I'd second - don't start with sails.  Start with drift wood oars.  The reason for this is sails give you speed, but can't steer quickly.  You can't see far enough ahead to properly navigate, especially on split screen.  You'll have to constantly have someone watching the map ready to drop anchor in an instant to prevent crashing.  Save sails for after you've explored and you know what paths are clear.  Its also a BIG commit to build such a full boat, and you can collect boards from debris as you travel which will help you build a bigger / better boat after you've explored for a bit.

Definitely get a crock pot and lightning rod asap.  idr if it still works on Switch, but if you and another person go to place a structure at the exact same time you can build them on top of each other.  This is a good way to cheat 2 valuable structures in the middle of the boat, leaving the edges free for movement.  I don't remember if it still works or was patched out though.

5 hours ago, Hornete said:

That strategy for Wavey certainly works. Though I would personally rather not have to keep track of something like that and always make sure that I'm on a specific position on my boat when under a certain sanity threshold during the night.

Not an impossible thing to do, but for my personally it would be an annoying thing to keep track of.

Collisions can still push you off to drown, nothing changed in this regard. Just depends on if the Physics engine wants to be nice to you or not and push your player collision off the boat or sidestep the collision pushing you, this aspect has always been "RNG" heavy.

I don't personally agree that putting structures at the edge leaves more place for kiting on a boat, but to each their own.

I usually design my boats so where I stand for rowing / sailing  will always spawn Wavey in a place I can reach.  When Wavey does spawn I focus on ridding myself of him 3 times before I return to any task too.

[Silver76]

10 hours ago, D_Good_Fellow said:

My husband and I are getting ready to set sail for the first time in DST. I've done research on all the items and everything and watched/read a few guides, but neither of us have actually engaged with ocean content before. We don't plan to necessarily spend a lot of time surviving at sea; we mostly just want to explore and find the various islands. I was wondering if anyone had any beginner's advice to offer us?

This is split screen on the Switch btw. I'm playing as Willow and he's playing as Wigfrid. The plan is currently to have a boat with three sails (+lightning rod), a steering wheel, an anchor, a fire pit, an ice box, a crock pot, think tank, alchemy engine, and a chest.

Get tons of boat patches and an extra boat kit.   Sailing with 3 sails is treacherous at the very least because you'll run into rock columns that will do significant damage to your boat.   I usually try and get rid of all those by using a pick but it is tedious.   With two people one can man the anchor so stopping will be a lot faster.   Not sure you can fit all that stuff on there (why do you need a think tank and alchemy engine?).  

[Baark0]

Disable pirate monkey raids, they are by far the single worst mechanic in the game (more so than disease and wildfires)

[Dreadle]

Wendy excels in the ocean, provided you have the necessary skill.

This is a versatile boat suitable for all seasons.

Spoiler

All you need are a fireplace, crock pot, icebox, and chests or fish tins for long-term survival. However, I will explain a few of my personal preferences:
- Wendy and Sisturn: These two are great for combating sanity loss which leads to Wavey Jones. It's advisable to avoid spawning Wavey Jones altogether. Sisturn serves as a passive means to increase sanity for those without a Tam o' Shanter. Abigail is excellent for dealing with ocean creatures, as she can stun-lock Jock Jaws or chase away cookie cutters, allowing you to mine for salt.
- Flingomatic and icebox: If you don't intend to travel during the summer season, you can skip the Flingomatic and Fire pump. However, by doing so, you'll miss out on seasonal fish and a way to avoid the Antlion and Red Hounds entirely (until you step off the boat and onto islands). The Flingomatic is superior to the Fire Pump and is highly recommended for beginners. To cope with the summer heat, you'll need two thermal stones. Keep one in the Icebox to keep it cool, and switch between the two as needed.
- The Pinching Winch is essential for engaging in endgame content, and it also comes in handy for picking up tree nubs and treasures.
The advice from the Pig Princess is spot on, but I'd like to add some additional tips:
- Start your ocean journey by picking up a message in a bottle. Read it and head to Pearl's island to trade for the blueprint of the Pinching Winch.
- Make sure to have a Lightning Conductor or lightning rod on your boat. Otherwise, your boat will be struck by lightning and set ablaze.
- Two-person sailing is recommended. One person can steer and handle the sails, while the other can focus on cooking food, gathering items from the ocean, and managing the anchor. Always drop the anchor first to avoid collisions.
- Bring extra boat kits and additional masts in case your mast gets destroyed by mobs. Initially, sail close to the shore to get the hang of it before venturing further. This will make it easier to return to land and restock resources.
- When it comes to food on the ocean, there are a few easy options. Use a razor to harvest barnacles at night, farm cookie cutters in salt formations for easy access to monster meat, and craft an ocean fishing rod with extra lures (as you might lose some lures). A quick way to restore sanity and health is by cooking Surf and Turf: combine 2 monster meat and 2 fish meat to gain 35 sanities and 40 health (Wickerbottom gets additional benefits).
Keep in mind that sailing on the ocean can be risky and is still an unbalanced feature. Making a single mistake can result in significant time and resource loss, so feel free to use the rollback function if needed. This will help enhance your enjoyment of the game.

[ShadowDuelist]

I am surprised that in the most recent player boat designs I've seen, be it in forums, streams, youtube videos and even playing, I never see bumpers. Of any kind.
Does anyone design their boat around those, or even use them?

[Dreadle]

10 minutes ago, ShadowDuelist said:

I am surprised that in the most recent player boat designs I've seen, be it in forums, streams, youtube videos and even playing, I never see bumpers. Of any kind.
Does anyone design their boat around those, or even use them?

I reckon the bumper is more suitable for the second boat rather than the first one, as you need to venture into the ocean to gather the necessary ingredients. Additionally, using a bumper means you have to avoid placing structures on the edge of the boat, which can be quite bothersome. It's not worth the hassle, I guess.

[Shosuko]

17 minutes ago, ShadowDuelist said:

I am surprised that in the most recent player boat designs I've seen, be it in forums, streams, youtube videos and even playing, I never see bumpers. Of any kind.
Does anyone design their boat around those, or even use them?

I haven't tried to use them much, but the main issues I run into with them are 1) they block structure placement cutting down my build room, and 2) I don't like running into things in the first place.  Maybe if you want to clear a path through some stacks you could armor up and plow through them?  But otherwise, I'm not normally looking to smash into anything out there.

[_zwb]

3 hours ago, ShadowDuelist said:

I am surprised that in the most recent player boat designs I've seen, be it in forums, streams, youtube videos and even playing, I never see bumpers. Of any kind.
Does anyone design their boat around those, or even use them?

I've only used them when I was revealing the entire ocean map. I can kinda sail recklessly around sea stacks

[Pig Princess]

7 hours ago, ShadowDuelist said:

I never see bumpers

As others pointed out, bumpers require extra space to be placed (not an option for me considering I like to use boat edge to cut additional collision from big structures), and they block further building in that area. But even if one wants to leave edges free from collision, one can use them to build structures without collision if bumpers are not used (drying rack, lightning rod, anchor, steering wheel, pinching winch, rudder (as far as I remember), chests, tin fishing bins, ice box, salt box, etc.). Tree jam satisfies need for leak reparation in rare chance I ram into stuff.

But also if I'm going to ram into things purposely, my best option is grass boat - both because it's so much cheaper (2 grass + 2 twigs for 200 boat hp) and because I don't have to backtrack to base to prototype bumpers. Plus Malbatross specifically targets bumpers and his charge breaks them just like masts, for some reason.