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Players of Raft who finish exploring Caravan Town will learn the code to reach Tangaroa, a location with a strong connection to the overarching story about sea levels rising out of control. Tangaroa is an attempt to solve this problem, but much like the other story islands players can visit, something has gone wrong.
Tangaroa isn't as physically big as Balboa Island, but it's even more vertical and hard to navigate than Caravan Town. Raft players who want to explore every corner and uncover every note, blueprint, and secret within will need to get themselves ready for a long trek.
Preparations
- Tangaroa contains no dirt, no hidden treasures, and no catchable livestock or bees. Players can safely leave the tools for these activities on their raft.
- One thing Tangaroa has in abundance is trees, including the game's first and only set of banana trees. Axes will definitely come in handy.
- At least two machetes are recommended. Tangaroa is full of respawning enemies known as Butler Bots, and the lurkers from the Vasagatan are back and bigger than before. There are also barricades that only a machete can cut through, making it the best weapon to take.
- Tangaroa's underworks are dark and unlit. To help see, players should bring along a head light.
- The artificial island has several places to get food and water, so players won't need as much of these items as they would on earlier story islands. However, that's only true once players reach the upper levels, so consumables are still useful when exploring the underworks.
The Underworks
The first problem players need to solve is finding a way into Tangaroa. Fortunately, several yellow arrows along the base of the dome point the way to a sea-level entrance on one side of the structure. The player's raft will likely be too big to go inside, so players will need to swim up to the door. Keep an eye out for the shark, because it can get into the loading bay.
Once inside, players will see a lit sign with helpful arrows that point left and right. The door on the right is locked, so players should head left and go down the ladder they find. After that, follow the signs to the cafeteria to find the first note on a table. Then in the kitchen next door players can find a generator part surrounded by crates.
The rear exit to the cafeteria has a sign pointing right to the generator and storage area, but players should go straight from here to find a second generator part at a dead end. Players can then follow the signs to the storage area, and under the broken ladder to the plantation is the third generator part.
The other ladder in the storage area still works, and at the top is a generator that needs three parts. Plugging them in will activate a puzzle. The goal of this puzzle is to create a way to the surface access door by moving the crates, but players can only move crates into adjacent empty spots. The red crates are impassible, and the ones with yellow and black electrical tape show which sides of the crates are open. Players can't rotate these crates, but they can move them around to create a tunnel.
Before solving the puzzle, players should open a path to a hidden room directly below the controls. Doing this will give them access to a room full of titanium ore, two suitcases, a machete, and the achievement "Boxed In!"
Once players have solved the puzzle, their reward is a blueprint for water pipes and the second note. Past it is a ladder with a hatch marked "Surface Access," but this hatch is a trap. Instead of letting players up, it floods the area players are in. This means the real way forward is to head back to the storage area and use the water to reach the broken ladder up to the plantation. Once there, players can open a door that was locked from the other side and pick up the third note.
The plantation itself is full of dangerous, electrified water. Players can move through it between shocks but should stand on something solid when they strike. A broken door needs three tape rolls to fix, and players can find the first bit of tape and note four next to it. The other two tape rolls are in a connected storage room.
Players should also take a moment to gather all the strawberries and chop down all the banana trees growing in the plantation. This area is the only place in the entire game where players can find these fruit and fruit seeds.
The room on the far side has an electrical box that will open another door, but players will need three more tape rolls and there's no more in the plantation area. So for now players should take the fifth note and leave through the door marked "Surface Access."
The Floating City
As players take the stairs up from the lower decks, they'll find themselves on the main level of Tangaroa looking at a giant statue. Note six is at the base of this statue. Players will also encounter Butler Bots, and the best way to avoid their tasers is to strafe to the right. The only items they drop are keycards, which open the doors with red lights in the city area of Tangaroa.
Players will also see several openings along the edge of the dome. Interacting with these openings will deploy inflatable ramps down to the water below, which is a great way to bypass the underworks during future visits. In fact, now is a good time to head back to the raft and sail it close to one of these ramps.
Once players have rested and resupplied, their obvious goal should be to enter the giant tower at the center of town, but the door is locked. However, surrounding the door is a set of useful vending machines, machines that take coins that players don't yet have. Instead, players should head to the building marked "1," which is left from the staircase.
Many doors in Tangaroa are locked and will stay that way, but the ones with red lights can be opened with Butler Bot keycards. In Building 1 the elevator still works, but it only goes to floor 8. The apartment on the right has a vending machine token on the couch, another token in a pot in the bathroom, and one of the big lurkers is hiding in a corner. There's also some tape in the bedroom.
The apartment on the left has several lootable drawers and cabinets, and in a room barricaded by tape players will find a second roll of tape. The bathroom has another token, and careful players can climb up the balcony to get onto the roof. From here players can jump across to another broken balcony with a crate, a token in a plant pot and an open door.
This apartment is part of Building 2. Inside players will find the third tape roll on the kitchen counter and another token on a chair in the bedroom. The opposite apartment has a couple lootable drawers, and the balcony has an electric wire players can zipline across to get some scrap on top of building 5. However, players should first check out floor 6 for two more rolls of tape on the left and a safe full of goodies on the right.
From the zipline players can carefully jump across a set of pillars to find a broken window that lets them into a new apartment in Building 5. The apartment contains tape and not much else, but the one across from it has a lurker, tape by the bed, a token on the bookshelf, and another token in the bathroom. The balcony has a third token, but there's no way to reach another building. Instead, players who want to continue taking the high road should head back to the pillars and jump across to a ledge covered in plastic.
From this ledge players can climb onto the roof of Building 4 to get scrap and a roll of tape. They can then jump down onto the roof of Chi's Burgers, which unfortunately doesn't have a way inside. What it does have, though, is a way for players to safely reach the ground without taking falling damage.
Another building players can enter is Building 3. The door to this building is in a tunnel on the right side of town next to a Butler Bot. There's only a single apartment on floor 8, but players can find a token in the bathroom, a safe and some tape in the barricaded bedroom, and a balcony that provides access to the roof. From this roof players can jump across to the next building and find a crate and a dangerous two-part zipline that goes to another rooftop with a suitcase. From here players can drop to a balcony, pick up a second suitcase, and safely drop to the ground.
There's another Building 2 across from the Sea Side Barber. On floor 4 the right apartment has some tape on a bookshelf and a safe in a barricaded bedroom. The left apartment doesn't have much, but it does have a broken window with a path leading to the roof where players will find piles of salvage and a toolbox.
The next building players should enter is Building 9, which is in the rear of the dome. The left apartment on floor 11 has a token on the kitchen counter, and the right apartment has a token and a crate in the bathroom behind a tape barricade.
Up on floor 13 players can find a token in the bathroom of the left apartment and a safe behind a barricade. The bedroom of the right apartment has a roll of tape, and it has a broken window players can use to get onto the roof. From this roof players can zipline across to the next building.
Players get into Building 8 from a broken window as usual, but this time what they enter is a meeting room. Players can get two rolls of tape off the table, and there's a token next to the coffee machine. They should also look carefully at the cubicles, because many of the desk drawers have goodies inside. Elsewhere on this floor is another set of cubicles with a roll of tape on a spare office chair, and there's a second meeting room with some tape on the whiteboard and another broken window careful players can use to reach a different part of the roof. This roof contains a crate, but not much else.
Players should then explore floor 12. In the waiting area of a barricaded meeting room there's a token on a desk, while inside the room is a crate and a suitcase. Then there's another token in a fallen wastebasket in a cubicle area, plus a roll of tape on a desk nearby.
By this point, players should have enough tape to finish exploring the plantation area. Players need to fix a total of three electric boxes to open three doors, using nine rolls of tape in total, and once they fix them all the water will stop being electrified. This will also open the door that leads to the elevator for Building 6, and by going past it players can open a shortcut back to the loading bay.
After stopping on floor 0 to open the door, players should press the secret button on the top-left corner of the elevator door. This leads down to floor -20, which has three safes, one suitcase, and a cassette tape full of elevator music. Players will also get the achievement "You Should Not Be Here!"
Players should now head up to floor 8, where someone was having a birthday. There are three vending machine tokens in a present box, and three more on the balcony bar. From here players can climb some stairs, walk through a corridor, exit through a broken window, and then climb some boxes to the roof where a new zipline is waiting.
The zipline leads to a higher area in Building 2 and a four-story lounge. There's a token on the piano in the center and a set of stairs players can climb up but not down. The next floor has a token on a table, the third floor has a briefcase and a token, and the top floor has a token on the bar and a broken window with a zipline that goes straight to the main tower.
Going Up?
From where they land, players must climb a ladder before they can go inside and call the elevator. They should then go down to floor 0 to open up the locked door and collect note seven. This is also a good time to cash in some tokens: one vending machine is full of cooking pot food, and another has a radio that plays cassette tapes. Be sure to spend every token since there's nowhere else to use them. Players can then hit the button for the second floor.
At the top, players will find note eight and the blueprint for a large storage container. Unfortunately, the only ladder to get to the top is out of reach, and the emergency bridge needs a four-digit code. This is where note eight comes in handy: the note indicates four locations, and each location has a building number that matches the code. In order, players should look for:
- V Are Arcade (4)
- Chi's Burgers (8)
- Sea Side Barber (1)
- Floating Fashion (3)
Putting the right code in will cause something rather unexpected to happen, and players must now head to a location on the far side of the Tangaroa from the landing bay. Players can sail their rafts over, but it's close enough to swim across and the shark always stays close to the raft.
A ladder and a hatch lead into the new location, and the first things players will see are a safe, the new playable character Elaine, note nine, and a blueprint for a water tank. This note points the way to the next story island, but to finish off this location players should look for another safe and one last note.
Raft is available now on PC.
