It is finally here. It is our most ambitious update ever. It is our BIGGEST update ever. There are new destinations, new enemies, more items, voice acting, new characters, trading and so much more. It is the culmination of more than five years of development and the grand finale to the Raft story line. It is The Final Chapter, and it is ready to be played.
Before we get into the details of this massive patch, we would like to thank you all for joining us on this journey. It has been amazing to see so many people play and appreciate Raft and without you we would have never made it here. With this update, we are happy to announce that we are leaving Early Access, as we consider Raft to no longer be in need of that title. We have looked forward to this day for many years and at this point we just cannot wait to see all the Let’s Plays, streams and to simply hear what you think of it! So let us not waste any more time and dive straight into it!
New destinations!
For this update we have three new destinations to find, explore and make your way through.
First up is Varuna Point, the sunken towers of the rich. It was once set to be the salvation for the elite, but the waves came quicker than expected and it has since been abandoned and forgotten by any and all… almost.
Next we have Temperance, a snow covered piece of land still above water. Home to the researchers at Selene, it was the last hope for humanity to reverse the rising of the oceans. As the reactor malfunctioned, most fled and left the island to fight for their survival elsewhere, but for the brave, there still might be a chance to restore the reactor.
As previously mentioned, there is a third destination. The destination where the strings are tied together and you will face the final challenge. However, we think it is best you discover this one on your own.
Story overhaul
As this is the final chapter, and everything is coming together, we felt it was time to take a look at the old story while implementing the new. We have rewritten quite a lot of it to make it follow a continuous story and to fit with the new destinations. Overall, we have also streamlined the story to make it read as well as possible, by removing certain parts and adjusting others, while also delivering the most engaging narrative that we can muster.
In addition to this, we have added voice acting for all the story notes in the game. Now, when you pick up a note, it will automatically be read back to you by the author of that note. You can also disable automatic playback and listen to them whenever you want from the notebook, if that is your preference.
We hope all these improvements will provide a more clear and engaging narrative experience, and we do recommend that you revisit old destinations and give the story another go to refresh your memory! For those who want the full experience, we do recommend starting a new save!
New enemies
Throughout these new destinations you will encounter new enemies. Some are tougher than others, but one thing is for sure, they are all out to put a stop to your adventures!
To begin with, we have the anglerfish. These little creatures are quicker than expected and will bite your toe right off if you are not careful!
Next in line is the scuttler. It is not terribly quick but in tight spaces they will surely gang up on you!
You have seen the bears, but now there are also polar bears! They are not too different from their brown cousins, except that they might be a bit harder to spot against the snow.
Hyenas are known to hunt in packs, and these are no different. Be careful as they are quite fast and will grab you by the leg when you least expect it!
Those are all the enemies we are willing to disclose here, but there is more to discover in the game! So watch out, and make sure to bring your armor!
New Rafters!
Rouhi and Maya could really use some more company! It is finally time to introduce some new survivors to your rafts. Throughout the world you will be able to meet and unlock four new characters in order to play as them. Make sure to go back to previous destinations, as not all of them are found on the new ones! Let us take a look at who they are!
There are also a whole bunch of new clothing options for each character! Let us take a look at some of the new outfits!
There are many more in the game, so you should be able to find something that suits your style!
Trading Posts
The Trading Posts is a whole new way to make the most of all the resources that you do not really feel the need to keep! Trading posts can be found on many of the large islands and offer a variety of items. Some will help with survival, some will help with fighting and some will simply make you or your raft prettier. Purchasing the items in the trading posts costs Trash Cubes and sometimes Trade Coins. Trash cubes are produced in the Recycler by converting your left over materials into cubes, while Trade coins are acquired by selling rare fish to the Trading posts.
Juicer and Buffs!
If you want to improve your kitchen, the new juicer will do the trick! Provide it with ingredients and electricity and it will give you a fresh smoothie. Also, both the cooking pot and the juicer can now provide food and smoothies that give you certain buffs! For these you will need special recipes that can be bought at the Trading Posts, and they can give you speed boosts, increased lung capacity, bonus health and more.
New Items!
This update brings a bunch of new items, machines and decorations!
Juicer, Electric Grill and Electric Smelter
Advanced Anchor, Advanced Biofuel Extractor, Recycler and Wind Turbine.
Titanium Arrow, Sword, Axe and Hook.
Canteen, Advanced Battery, Advanced Headlight and Electric Zipline Tool.
Apart from this, there are now also:
- Advanced Crop plots in different sizes
- Advanced Scarecrow
- Big Backpack
- Anchor Lever on Engine controls
For building, there is now a highly requested horizontal pillar available! Gone are the times when building a large second floor required a bunch of pillars blocking the view below.
Lastly, we have also added the Detail Plank! It is a simple plank that you can place freely and stretch and rotate to your liking! Have a look!
Vending Machines
Tangaroa Tokens have been changed to Vending Machine Tokens and can be used on more than just Tangaroa. Vending machines can now be found on two additional destinations, each with their own unique inventory!
We have left some things for you to discover for yourselves and we have probably forgotten some. Apart from all these new features and additions we have also done our best to fix as many bugs as possible and there are a bunch of optimizations behind the scenes that we believe will increase your framerate and enjoyment of the game!
Steam Community Assets
We have added trading cards, badges, profile backgrounds and emojis to use on your Steam profiles! Here are a couple examples!
Badges
Trading Cards
Emoticons
Backgrounds
More Community Main Menu Rafts
A while back we had another event over on our Discord where everyone had a chance to get their raft featured as a main menu raft in the game. We had a bunch of beautiful submissions and it was a tough choice, but in the end we were able to narrow it down to three winners. Congratulations to;
Potatie
Melisses
And Awoodsman
As always, we love to hear what you think about the update and we hope you have a great time playing it!
That is all for this time! Have a great summer and good luck out on the ocean!
//Raft HQ
P.S. Don’t forget to follow us on our social media!
Discord: https://discord.gg/raft
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RaftGame/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/raftsurvivagame
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/RaftTheGame/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/redbeetinteractive/
CHANGELOG
- 3 new story destinations: Varuna Point, Temperance and one secret destination
- 3 new small islands
- 14 new achievements
- Added Trading Posts to most large islands
- Added food and drinks buff system with 6 different buffs
- Added 4 new playable characters
- Added 30 alternate character outfits
- New enemies: Angler Fish, Scuttler, Polar Bear, Hyena and 2 secret enemies
- New item: Juicer
- New item: Drinking Glass
- New Item: Electrical Grill
- New item: Electrical Smelter
- New item: Advanced Stationary Anchor
- New item: Advanced Biofuel Extractor
- New item: Wind Turbine
- New item: Recycler
- New item: Titanium Axe, Arrow, Hook and Sword.
- New item: Water Canteen
- New item: Advanced Headlight
- New item: Electrical Zipline Tool
- New item: Advanced Battery
- New item: Advanced Crop Plots in 3 sizes
- New item: Advanced Scarecrow
- New item: Big Backpack
- New item: Advanced Collection Net
- New item: 8 new hats
- New item: Trading Post Cassette
- New item: 5 new enemy trophies
- New item: 3 placeable honk horns with different sounds
- New item: Foundation Counter
- New item: Tic-Tac-Toe
- New item: Fridge
- New item: Compass
- New item: Wardrobe
- New item: 28 vending machine decorational items
- New item: Added Turmeric, Juniper and Chili for recipes
- Updated Engine Controls: Added anchor lever
- New building piece: Horizontal Pillar
- New building piece: Detail Plank
- New building piece: Draw Bridge in 2 sizes
- Added fishing bait menu and 3 different fishing baits
- Adjusted all solid building block textures
- Added voice playback for all story notes
- Notebook now displays a different first page depending on which character you play as
- Added a sort button to storages
- Added Exclusive Fullscreen mode in settings
- Seagull functionality has been rewritten to reduce bugs
- Added 3 new community made rafts to the main menu
- New feature: Bonus thirst
- New feature: Bonus health
- Big Islands now start spawning without requiring receiver
- Recipes now say Cooking Pot or Juicer at the top
- Adjusted Cooking Pot recipes ingredients and outputs
- Each battery slot now has a charge indicator
- Bow shot can now be cancelled while charging by pressing RMB
- You now have to hold RMB to pour liquid from cup and bottle
- Scarecrows now remove themselves after being completely destroyed by seagulls
- When in a storage, crafting now takes into account the amount of items in the storage as well
- Added setting to invert mouse cursor icon
- Fuel Tank can now receive fuel through the pipe socket
- Adjusted Easy and Peaceful damage multipliers
- Renamed Tangaroa Tokens to Vending Machine Token
- Flower seeds now have 100% drop chance
- UI performance improved
- Updated UI for oxygen
- Reduced time to remove placeable items with ‘X’ from 3 to 1 seconds
- New Feature: Auto run toggle button
- Added prompts informing players if they are not connected to Steam
- Added 144 FPS cap as settings option
- Recoded the raft collision system to greatly improve performance (most notable on big rafts)
- Added lantern particle effects LODs to improve performance
- Changed recipes from UI to textures to improve performance
BUG FIXES
- Landmarks despawning when raft is far away
- Placeable items appearing to be blocked by something invisible
- Floating items spawning to the side of the raft while having a big raft
- Upgrading foundations with hammer could make it lose collision
- Seagull flying through walls
- Seagull ignoring scarecrows
- Entering bed from climbing on a ladder could make you fly
- Jump animation issues
- Paint brush couldn't paint after aiming at a scarecrow
- Players could enter non discovered frequencies in receiver
- Players unable to join very large rafts
- Tangaroa Cockpit being locked after launching and relogging
- Eggs unable to be picked up if they are on a collection net
- A lot of typos
- Being soft locked when getting charged by a Warthog
- Paintbrush accidentally painting objects when aiming at them
- Water pipes not working above floor 9
- Animals disappearing (should be a lot more stable)
- Metal detector not always working
- Hook sometimes stuck in throw state
- Stormy weather causes issues with hook and sounds
- Toggle sprint setting is not saved between sessions
- Dying from hunger in a bed leaves the screen black
- “Bee Keeper!” and “Artistic Collection!” achievements not getting unlocked
- Pipe connecting issues
- Roof L- and X-junctions did not have any cost
- Couldn’t place diagonal walls on half floors