Today we are going to be running through some of the methods you can use to keep your boat from ‘running’ away from you in Valheim. With the lack of a real anchor feature or mechanism you will have to get rather creative if you want to keep your boat in one place. Luckily we have a few tips for you so you will never lose a boat again!
Why You Should Always Try to Anchor Your Ship
Valheim is a very unforgiving game. From large sea creatures to giant tree-wielding trolls there is always something waiting around corner to destroy you. The environment and world of Valheim is no exception to this rule. Falling trees can kill the player when cut down and the waves of the sea can be a vicious rival. If the player is to swim out in the water and lose all of their stamina they will start to drown and can be easily killed by hanging around in the water. Being out at sea without a boat is one of the easiest ways to die in Valheim. Who is going to defeat the forsaken when you drown out at sea?
Valheim has a great amount of in-game mechanics already at play. The sea will sometimes be calm but if a storm hits you can expect the waves to come crashing down from the ocean. If you are not in control of your raft or ship it can become lost in the waves and can be moved to a different location. Devastating and upsetting if it took you hours to grind the resources to build the darn thing!
Keeping your ship where you left it shouldn’t need an explanation of importance. Being the only way you can travel the archipelagos of Valheim, it is important to know where your ship is docked.
How to Anchor a Ship and Stop it From Moving
There are a few different methods you can use to keep a ship exactly where you left it. When a storm comes it is possible that the ship can not only be taken away in the waves, but there’s a chance that the waves can make the ship crash against rocks nearby and slowly break it down. It is vital to look after your ship. We are going to explore a few different methods with a few different items that you can use to anchor your ship.
Method 1: Build It In!
One of the most simple things you can do to anchor your boat is to build it in with a simple design. Using 10 units of wood at my dock, I am able to secure my Karve so it won’t float away when a big storm comes. The water is generally shallow near the beach so if you are in deep water you can build a dock out and build something across.
This isn’t very passive as you will have to have a hammer at the ready in order to build something and an amount of wood. You could just keep these items on your person or find the crafting materials on the way. Hammers don’t require a crafting table to craft so it should be relatively easy to source the materials you will need to build this. Another great method is to have one side of the dock the area you drive into, and the other having posts just over water level. That way you can push the boat up out of the water when it is not in use.
Method 2: Dry Docking
Being the most authentic badass method of docking a ship, dry docking is the act of just ramping your ship up onto the beach. This isn’t as safe as building the boat in as in a very rough storm the waves may rise up onto the coast.
To get the boat even further up onto the beach you can go behind it and push but remember, the larger the boat the harder it is to push. In the current version of the game it is impossible to use the Abyssal Harpoon on the boat, otherwise that would be a great way to pull the ship up onto the shore. This could be a great way of getting the ship moored.
Method 3: Break It Down
If all else fails and you really don’t want to lost your boat to a storm you can always just break it down. If you break down the boat with an axe you will get all of the materials back to build a new one. That way, you essentially have a ship in your pocket, ready to deploy wherever you want. No more complicated ship storage!
You could theoretically have a storage box on your dock for each ship you want to break down. Then destroy them, throw the materials in the box you have assigned for it, to deploy another time.
Those were the three methods we’ve used for anchoring our ships in Valheim. Until a real anchor mechanic has been implemented in Valheim you’ll have to rely on good old ingenuity to keep your ships from escaping.
Has your clan built a nice dock and anchor system at your base? We’ve seen some really ingenious designs over on the Valheim subreddit for people wanting to get ideas.
Related: How to Get Coordinates and Teleport in Valheim | 20 Must-Know Tips and Tricks for Valheim