Crafting is an essential activity in Raft. Players must add to the size and complexity of their rafts to survive and thrive on the high seas, and through research and exploration they can build better and stronger tools and equipment.
One important item on the equipment list is the smelter. The smelter in Raft applies heat to a wide variety of materials to convert them into other, more useful materials, but players will need some unusual materials to craft it in the first place. This guide will explain how to get a smelter up and running, what players can use it for, and what makes the electric smelter different.
Smelter Basics
The first thing players have to do to get a smelter is research it at the research table. Once they do, they can build one for the relatively low price of 4 planks, 6 dry bricks, 4 scrap, and 6 nails.
The dry bricks deserve special mention because the smelter and electric smelter are the only items in the game that need this material. The way players get dry bricks is by combining 2 sand and 2 clay, and both materials are found in the reefs close to islands. However, this combination creates wet bricks, and to dry them out players must put them in the active inventory bar and place them on an open spot on the raft. Several minutes later, the bricks will dry out and players can collect them. Note that weather has no impact on how fast bricks dry out, so players can place them out in the open during a storm with no issue.
Once players have built and placed the smelter, they can feed it up to four planks at a time and add one resource to the bowl on top to convert it into new materials. Here's what the smelter can do:
- Metal ore becomes metal ingots.
- Copper becomes copper ingots.
- Titanium ore becomes titanium ingots.
- Seaweed becomes vine goo.
- Sand becomes glass.
- Explosive goo (from poison-puffers) becomes explosive powder.
Each material needs a specific amount of time in the smelter to convert into the new resource, and a plank in the smelter will burn up after every 50 seconds the smelter runs. Be sure to keep the smelter fed to keep the heat coming.
The Electric Smelter
On the story island Temperance, players can find a blueprint for the electric smelter. This advanced item needs 10 dry bricks, 6 metal ingots, 6 titanium ingots, and 1 circuit board to craft.
The electric smelter doesn't process materials any faster than the regular smelter, but there are two things that make it an improvement over the standard design. First, the electric smelter can process three materials at once, and it takes up less space than three regular smelters. Second, the electric smelter runs on battery power instead of planks, and by this point players should also have a wind turbine that recharges batteries for free. So while the electric smelter costs more materials to build, it uses fewer materials in the long run.
Raft is available now on PC.