One of the first boundaries for building up your Raft are metallic — bolts and hinges are required to build some of the most important parts of your floating home. You can’t create a permanent Stationary Anchor or a Storage box without hinges. Bolts are required for any tools made of metal. You won’t get Shovels, Machetes, or even the Bow without plenty of bolts.
Before you can even begin crafting these items, you’ll need to create Metal Ingots. Metal Ingots are the real starting challenge for early players. You’re stuck with crummy Wood Spears and basic crafting until you’ve found your first Metal Ingot. You’ll need to locate Metal Ore — itself something that isn’t easy to get — and combine in a Smelter. After that, you’re finally on your way to researching and unlocking Bolts and Hinges.
This is just the start of a very long explanation. Here’s how to get Bolts and Hinges from the very start of your journey.
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Bolts & Hinges | The Basics
Bolts and Hinges are a crafting resource that have to be crafted from Metal Ingots. Here’s a quick overview of the process from nothing to crafting Bolts & Hinges.
- Metal Ore is converted into Metal Ingots with a Smelter.
- Metal Ingots are then researched at a Research Table to unlock Hinge and Bolt crafting.
Once you have Hinges and Bolts, you can unlock so much more. You can even start building Metal Foundations to stop shark attacks. You’ll need to be able to access islands to begin your search for Metal Ore.
How To Get Metal Ore
Metal Ore is a rare resource you’ll have a hard time finding early in the game. You can play for dozens of hours without finding it.
- Metal Ore Location: Metal Ore is found near Islands underwater, on rock walls in groupings of 2-3. A Hook can be thrown and used to collect Metal Ore.
You’ll need at least a Sail to steer your raft and reach an island. A Paddle can also help. If you’re close to an island, the shark is more likely to leave you alone — but you may need Shark Bait to draw it away while you explore and collect Metal Ore.
The Sail and Paddle are automatically available to craft right from the start.
Crafting Hatches & Bolts
Once you have Metal Ore, the rest of the process becomes much easier. Now, we need a Smelter and a Research Table to begin crafting Hatches and Bolts.
- Making Metal Ore Into Metal Ingots: Built a Smelter — press [E] to load planks, then place Metal Ore to begin cooking. Metal Ore takes 80 seconds to become a Metal Ingot.
Smelter is available in your crafting tab in the “Other” section. To craft a Smelter need x4 Plank, x6 Dry Brick, x4 Scrap, and x6 Nails. All of these resources are available automatically — Scrap can be crafted into Nails. Dry Bricks are the trickiest — Dry Brick making is convoluted in the early game.
- Making Dry Bricks For The Smelter: Land on an Island and collect Sand and Clay. Combine to create Wet Bricks — place Wet Bricks on your raft and let sit in the sun for 5 minutes to become Dry Bricks.
Research Dry Bricks to craft the Smelter — once the Smelter is crafted, you’ll be able to transform Metal Ore into Metal Ingots.
- Unlocking Hatches & Bolts: Finally, research a Metal Ingot at the Research Table to unlock recipes and finally reach a new level of construction.
Using Metal Ingots levels up your crafting capabilities, jumping your raft base into a whole new world of crafting recipes. The tricky part is just finding consistent Metal Ingots. Once you’ve found enough, you finally begin the story quest. Metal Ingots are required to create the blueprints for the Antennae and Receiver. Create those, and you’ll be on your way to a new world of adventure.
