Valheim guide — How to use boats, longships, and carts to transport ores

Exploring Valheim‘s world with limited inventory slots and carrying capacity (even with the Megingjord belt) can be quite a hassle. As such, you’ll need to use boats and other means for transporting goods. Examples include rafts, karves, longships, and carts. Here’s our Valheim boats guide to help you out.

Note: Valheim is currently an Early Access title. As such, mechanics and content may change in due course. For more information, check out our Valheim guides and features hub.

Transporting items in Valheim: Using boats, rafts, karves, longships, and carts

Let’s face it, no matter how many portals you have to help you with fast travel, you’re bound to run into some mishaps. By the time you start collecting copper and tin, or iron scraps, your character would often be over-encumbered that they’d barely be able to walk. Worse, ores and metal bars are considered heavy items, and you can’t use portals when they’re in your inventory.

This is where carts and boats come in. Just remember that you do need a Workbench nearby if you want to construct them.

Carts

Carts (20x wood and 10x bronze nails) are your option when traveling by land. You’ll need to position your character between the two bars, then press “E” to use the cart. Your character will then pull it as you go along (you can even attack with your melee weapons or bows).

Carts don’t have a weight limit, and each one has an 18-slot capacity for items. Stored items appear as boxes and, if the cart is destroyed due to damage, these boxes would drop all over the ground. Containers that break could potentially destroy some items (i.e., Dragon Eggs for the Moder boss fight).

Rafts

A raft (20x wood, 10x resin, and 6x leather scraps) is the first kind of boat you can make in Valheim. It’s also next to useless since you can’t store items. You could consider building a raft if you really need to cross an Ocean-type biome to reach another landmass.

Karves

Thankfully, you’ll soon learn how to make a karve (30x fine wood, 80x bronze nails, 20x resin, and 10x deer hide). A karve, at the very least, has four inventory slots. There are, likewise, a couple of extra seats in case you’re playing with buddies via co-op.

Longships

Valheim won’t be true to its Viking themes if you couldn’t sail a longship, eh? Longships (100x iron nails, 40x fine wood, 40x ancient bark, 10x deer hide) are ridiculously expensive to craft, but they’re worth it. You’ve got 18 inventory slots and several seats for you and your friends.

How exactly do you sail these boats in Valheim?

As mentioned earlier, building these boats requires a nearby Workbench. That means bringing the necessary materials close to the shore, constructing a Workbench, and plopping down your craft in the water.

Regarding sailing controls and general tips:

• Hover the cursor over the rudder and press “E.” This lets you control the vessel.
• Check the wind’s direction. If your vessel’s bow (front) is facing the same way (i.e., you’re sailing with the wind), you can fully unfurl the sails. This is done by pressing “W” several times until you see three arrows/chevrons denoting the speed. When you’re sailing with the wind, there’s no need to use the rudder since the boat will automatically move in the direction that the wind is blowing.
• You may also press “S” to decrease the boat’s speed/furl the sails. This helps you back up a bit (i.e., you’re too close to shore).

• Likewise, it’s possible to sail at a slower speed even with the sail at its rigging (i.e., only one arrow/chevron). This is done if you want to change the boat’s direction.
• Speaking of changing directions, use the “A” and “D” keys to steer the boat. The semi-circle represents how much force is used to steer it in a particular direction that’s relative to your camera’s viewpoint.

• There are other parts of a ship that you can interact with by pressing “E.” You can hold on to the mast, take a seat (for karves and longships), or climb the ladder in case you go overboard.
• Even if your vessels are seaworthy, they can still take damage if you run aground. It’s also possible for your ships to sink if they suffer a lot of damage from enemies on the shoreline, or from sea serpents waiting in the depths.

Note: After you defeat Valheim‘s fourth boss, Moder, you can select her Forsaken Power. Once activated, the ability lets your ship have a tailwind (aka. sailing with the wind) for five minutes.

Valheim is available on Steam as part of the Early Access program. For more information, check out our guides and features hub.