Sailing and Ships

2:41 Sailing is how a Viking crosses the Ocean between the islands of Valheim. There are four ships, each bigger, faster and sturdier than the one before: the Raft, the Karve, the Longship and the Drakkar. They matter for more than travel. A standard portal will not carry ore or metal, so for most of a playthrough the metal comes home by ship or by a long haul overland (Valheim Wiki; see Portals). PCGamesN's review of the Valheim 1.0 Release says the sailing "feels heaven-sent" (PCGamesN).

Quick facts

The four ships

3:33 A ship is placed with the hammer near a Workbench, and its recipe follows progression: Meadows materials for the Raft, bronze nails from the Black Forest for the Karve, iron nails and Ancient Bark from the Swamp for the Longship, and Yggdrasil Wood from the Mistlands plus Ceramic Plates, unlocked by The Queen, for the Drakkar.

Source: Boats, Valheim Wiki and its pages on each ship.

The Raft is a throwaway way across a strait: slow and holdless, but it never capsizes, and it anchors itself when the last player steps off. The Karve, ten meters long, is the first boat fit for open water, though the wiki calls it "deceptively fragile" against Serpents. Any number of passengers can "hold fast" aboard any ship.

0:14 The Longship is 22 meters long and the workhorse of the middle and late game, with four stools for the crew and a boarding ladder on each side, so a Viking who falls overboard does not have to swim round to the only ladder. It turns wide: at full sail its turning radius is about 60 meters, against 20 for a Karve (Valheim Wiki).

1:56 The Drakkar came with the Ashlands Update in May 2024. It is 30 meters long and 12 wide, with a scaled hull, a carved figurehead, and walkways and ladders on both flanks. It is nearly as fast as a Longship but turns far worse. It is the only ship that can cross the boiling water around the Ashlands without damage (Valheim Wiki).

Damage and repair

Ships cannot be taken apart with the hammer. A hull loses health when it rams rocks or the shore, harder the faster it goes, when it slams down off a wave, and at 20 points a second while capsized; fire does half as much damage again. A sunken ship's cargo floats up in a crate, but the heavier materials it was built from, such as its nails, sink (Valheim Wiki). Repairs are free: with the hammer equipped near a Workbench, one click restores a ship to full health (Corrosion Hour). A Workbench costs ten wood, so wood in the hold makes any beach a repair stop.

Steering

1:06 A player takes the helm at the rudder. Forward and back step through five settings: reverse, stop, paddle, half sail and full sail. Left and right swing the rudder. A ship turns only while moving, and always in arcs: turning left swings the stern out to the right, so a ship needs room on both sides, and one that turns while running along a shore will ground its stern. Putting the rudder hard over at paddle or reverse makes the ship pivot, which usually frees it.

7:54 A dial beside the minimap shows the wind across the ship: a white wind icon means the sail is drawing, a black one that it is not. One arrow is the paddle, which needs no wind; two and three are half and full sail. Slower settings turn tighter, so sailors paddle in harbors and rivers.

Wind and tacking

4:59 The wind shifts direction and strength every so often; an arrow at the corner of the minimap shows it. Dead upwind a sail cannot move a ship at all and only the paddle makes headway (Valheim Wiki), but elsewhere the sail draws over a wide arc. In the wiki's tests a Longship made 9.5 m/s with a strong wind astern or abeam, 9.75 m/s with it on the quarter, and still 6.2 m/s with it forward of the beam, about twice its paddling speed (Valheim Wiki). A ship bound into the wind can therefore tack, zigzagging with the wind on alternate bows.

9:13 Moder's Forsaken Power turns the wind to blow from astern wherever the helmsman points. It changes direction but not strength, only while that player steers, and like every Forsaken Power it lasts five minutes on a twenty-minute cooldown. Since the Call to Arms Update of 2025 it also gives 300 carry weight, 10% movement speed and 50% frost resistance (Game Rant; see Forsaken Powers).

Weather, rocks and shallows

2:59 More ships are lost to the land than to the sea. At night and in fog, visibility drops to a few boat-lengths, too short for a ship at full sail to stop or turn, so experienced sailors slow down and wait out thick fog. Storms raise the sea (see Weather, Cold and Wet), and Karves and Longships can capsize in heavy waves, though rarely; the wiki advises heading into the waves at less than full sail. Rivers have their own traps. Black Forest rivers hide rocks just under the surface, and Plains rivers have sandbars, often marked by reeds, that are almost invisible at night, so the rule is to keep to mid-channel.

Serpents and the Bonemaw

3:06 The Serpent is the sea's only hostile creature. It appears in deep open water at night and in storms and bites for 70 slash damage every ten seconds (see Ocean). A Karve running before the wind can outrun one, and a Longship at full health can outlast one while the crew shoot it (see Bows, Crossbows and Arrows). The Bonemaw of the Ashlands waters is bigger, with 1,100 health, a 140-point bite and fireballs (Valheim Wiki; see Ashlands Creatures).

Cargo

12:12 Cargo weight has no effect on a ship's speed or handling, so a hold full of ore sails like an empty one. A Longship's 18 slots can be multiplied with carts, pushed up the boarding steps from flat ground: each adds its own 18 slots and can be repaired along with the ship. Loaded carts do slow a ship a great deal, and they sit less securely in multiplayer (Carts, Mounts and Vehicles). Ore and metal travel this way because a standard portal refuses them. The Stone Portal of the Ashlands Update carries everything, and a world's portal modifier can lift the restriction (World Modifiers).

The boiling sea of the Ashlands

2:12 Since the Ashlands Update the Ashlands has been cut off from the other biomes and reachable only by sea (Iron Gate, patch 0.218.15). The water around it boils, and a Raft, Karve or Longship takes more damage the further in it sails. The Drakkar is the answer: The Queen's Majestic Carapace upgrades the Artisan Table with the Artisan Press, which makes the Ceramic Plates for its hull. Rock spires and the Bonemaw guard the approach.

Ice at the Deep North

4:32 The Deep North lies across the sea at the top of every world, and unlike the Ashlands it needs no special ship: the water is cold but harmless to hulls. Guides still recommend a sturdy ship, and landing on the larger central islands, where new locations are likelier to spawn.

2:14 Iron Gate's 1.0 notes warn that "on frozen seas and pond alike you had better watch your step" (Iron Gate). A ship can push through the loose floes off the coast at the cost of a little hull damage, but it stops against the solid shelf ice, and the crew step off onto a surface so slippery that a running Viking keeps sliding.

6:24 Old longships stand frozen into the shore ice, and Munin explains that earlier Vikings reached this coast and found no way home. The water is deep right up to the ice, so anything lost from a wreck here is gone for good. Guides suggest building the first portal on the sea ice, because the snow inland is too deep to build on until shoveled (Tools). The voyage home matters too: Petrified Tissue, the Deep North ore that smelts into Bloodgold, cannot pass through a standard portal, so it leaves by ship unless the player has Stone Portals or a relaxed portal modifier (Metals and Smelting).

History

The Raft, Karve and Longship have been in the game since early access began on Feb 2, 2021 (IBTimes). Iron Gate's launch roadmap promised a third update, "Ships and the Sea", to build on them. In June 2021 the studio withdrew that roadmap to concentrate on the Hearth & Home Update and the Mistlands Update, and the sea update never shipped (Iron Gate, Feb 2, 2021; Iron Gate, Jun 10, 2021; see Development History).

Sailing changed piecemeal instead. The Ashlands Update (0.218.15, May 14, 2024) brought the Drakkar, the Bonemaw and the boiling sea; Call to Arms strengthened Moder's power; and the Deep North Update (1.0 Patch Notes) of Sep 9, 2026 froze the northern sea but left the open Ocean alone, with "nothing that is specifically focused on the Oceans" (Iron Gate 1.0 FAQ).

Frequently asked questions

What is the best ship in Valheim? The Longship is the workhorse of the middle and late game: 1,000 health, 18 cargo slots, four stools for the crew and the highest top speed of the four. The Drakkar is sturdier and carries more, but turns far worse; it is the only ship that can cross the boiling water around the Ashlands without damage.

How do you repair a boat? Equip the hammer near a Workbench and click once: the hull returns to full health at no cost. A Workbench costs ten wood, so wood in the hold makes any beach a repair stop. Ships cannot be taken apart with the hammer.

Can you sail against the wind in Valheim? Not directly. Dead upwind a sail does nothing and only the paddle makes headway, but the sail draws over a wide arc either side, so a ship bound into the wind tacks, zigzagging with the wind on alternate bows. Moder's Forsaken Power sets the wind astern wherever the helmsman points.

Why can't you take metal through a portal? A standard portal refuses ore and metal, which is the reason most Vikings own a ship at all. The Stone Portal added by the Ashlands Update carries everything, and a world's portal modifier can lift the restriction (World Modifiers).

How do you reach the Ashlands and the Deep North? The Ashlands only in a Drakkar, whose Ceramic Plate hull survives the boiling sea. The Deep North needs no special ship, but its coast is sea ice: loose floes cost a little hull damage, the solid shelf stops a ship altogether, and the crew step off onto ice slippery enough to keep a running Viking sliding.

Sources

• Boats, Raft, Karve, Longship, Drakkar, Valheim Wiki (weirdgloop)
• Wind, Portal, Bonemaw Serpent, Valheim Wiki (weirdgloop)
• Boats, Valheim Wiki (Fandom)
• How to Repair Boats in Valheim, Corrosion Hour
• Valheim Boat Building Guide, International Business Times, February 2021
• Valheim Release and Roadmap!, Iron Gate Studio, Feb 2, 2021
• Roadmap changes, Hearth & Home content, & reddit AMA, Iron Gate Studio, Jun 10, 2021
• Patch 0.218.15 – Ashlands, Iron Gate Studio, May 14, 2024
• Valheim 1.0 Has Arrived!, Iron Gate Studio, Sep 9, 2026
• Valheim 1.0 FAQ, Iron Gate Studio, 2026
• Valheim Call to Arms update patch notes, Game Rant, 2025
• Valheim 1.0 review, PCGamesN, Sep 8, 2026
• Valheim on Steam, Valve (store screenshots)