Applies to Valheim 1.0, patch 1.0.21 (released on Steam October 28, 2026). Boat stats come from the community Valheim Wiki. We also read Iron Gate's 1.0.21 notes and the post-launch patch posts back to 1.0.10, and none of them list a boat change.
Valheim has four boats, and the most expensive one isn't the fastest. The Longship tops out at 9.54 m/s, while the late-game Drakkar manages 8.79 m/s. You build the Drakkar for its 3,000 HP, its 32 cargo slots and the one thing no other hull can do, which is cross the boiling sea around the Ashlands.
This guide compares all four on cost, speed, cargo and size. It also shows how much the wind really changes your trip, how to dock each boat, and how to get your nails back when a boat ends up stranded.
Quick answer: The best boat for most of Valheim is the Longship: 1,000 HP, 18 cargo slots and the highest top speed in the game (9.54 m/s). Build a Karve first for the Black Forest and Swamp stretch (4 slots, 7.39 m/s). Use a Raft only as a throwaway. You need a Drakkar for the Ashlands, because it's the only boat immune to boiling water, and it needs The Queen dead first. Cross-tailwind is fastest, and a dead-on tailwind is slightly slower.
What are all the boats in Valheim?
There are four, and all of them are built with the Hammer near a Workbench. A Workbench doesn't need a roof for building, only for crafting and repairing items, so a bare bench on the beach is enough.
| Boat | HP | Cargo slots | Seats (plus pilot) | Ram damage (max) | Paddling | Half sail | Full sail |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raft | 300 | 0 | 0 | 20 | 1.58 m/s | 1.12–2.13 m/s | 1.59–3.02 m/s |
| Karve | 500 | 4 | 2 | 30 | 3.16 m/s | 2.75–5.22 m/s | 3.89–7.39 m/s |
| Longship | 1,000 | 18 | 4 | 50 | 3.16 m/s | 3.55–6.74 m/s | 5.02–9.54 m/s |
| Drakkar | 3,000 | 32 | 17 | 50 | 2.50 m/s | 3.27–6.22 m/s | 4.62–8.79 m/s |
The wiki's boat comparison table is the source for those numbers. The speed ranges run from the weakest wind to the strongest.
How much does each boat cost?
| Boat | Materials | What it really takes |
|---|---|---|
| Raft | 20 Wood, 6 Leather Scraps, 6 Resin | Possible on day one |
| Karve | 30 Finewood, 10 Deer Hide, 20 Resin, 80 Bronze Nails | 4 Bronze (8 Copper + 4 Tin), a Forge and a Bronze Axe |
| Longship | 40 Finewood, 40 Ancient Bark, 10 Deer Hide, 100 Iron Nails | 10 Iron, so Swamp crypts first |
| Drakkar | 50 Finewood, 25 Yggdrasil Wood, 30 Ceramic Plates, 100 Iron Nails | Black Metal Axe, plus a Queen kill for the Artisan Press |
A few of these catch people out.
Finewood doesn't need a Bronze Axe if you find a wreck. Birch and Oak do need one, but shipwrecks on Black Forest, Swamp and Plains shores can be dismantled with a Stone Axe. Large pieces yield 10 to 15 Finewood each.
Nails are cheap and portal-safe. One Bronze makes 20 Bronze Nails, and one Iron makes 10 Iron Nails. Metal can't go through a wood Portal, but nails can. Smelt at home, carry nails to any beach, and build there.
The Drakkar's Ceramic Plates are gated by The Queen. They come from an Artisan Table with the Artisan Press upgrade, at 5 Black Marble for 5 plates. That's six crafts and 30 Black Marble. Our Mistlands guide covers that stretch of the game.
Which boat is best at each stage?
Raft: skip it once you can. It has no cargo and tops out at about a third of Longship speed. The wiki calls a Raft too slow and fragile for a solo player to survive a Serpent, so keep it for hopping across a channel.
Karve: your first real boat. Four slots sounds tiny, but ore stacks to 30, so that's 120 ore per trip plus whatever you carry yourself. It's the smallest boat that makes metal runs worthwhile. It's nimble too, with a 20 m turning radius at full sail against the Longship's 60 m.
Longship: the one to build and keep. You get double the Karve's HP, 4.5 times the cargo (540 ore) and the top speed in the game. It carries you to every biome except the Ashlands.
Drakkar: a specialist. Compared with the Longship, it gives up about 8% of top speed and 21% of paddling speed. In return it has triple the HP, 14 more slots and 17 seats. Build one for the Ashlands or for a full crew. The in-game description sums it up: "A massive ship, sturdy enough to sail on even the most dangerous seas."
How much does wind change sailing speed?
More than the choice of boat in many cases. Wind strength runs from 0.05 to 1, and the game gives you no number for it. These top speeds come from the wiki's physics tables, at full sail on calm water and the best point of sail, so real trips run a little slower.
| Boat | Strongest wind | 50% wind | Weakest wind | Head-crosswind (strongest) | Paddling |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raft | 3.02 m/s | 2.38 m/s | 1.62 m/s | 1.94 m/s | 1.58 m/s |
| Karve | 7.39 m/s | 5.84 m/s | 3.96 m/s | 4.76 m/s | 3.16 m/s |
| Longship | 9.54 m/s | 7.54 m/s | 5.11 m/s | 6.14 m/s | 3.16 m/s |
| Drakkar | 8.79 m/s | 6.95 m/s | 4.72 m/s | 5.66 m/s | 2.50 m/s |
Here's what that means for a 5 km crossing, using our own arithmetic from the table above:
| Boat | Strongest wind | 50% wind | Weakest wind | Paddling |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raft | 27.6 min | 35.0 min | 51.4 min | 52.7 min |
| Karve | 11.3 min | 14.3 min | 21.0 min | 26.4 min |
| Longship | 8.7 min | 11.1 min | 16.3 min | 26.4 min |
| Drakkar | 9.5 min | 12.0 min | 17.7 min | 33.3 min |
A Karve in a strong wind beats a Longship in a dead calm. With a full day and night lasting 30 minutes, a slow crossing can easily run into dark, which is when Serpents appear.
Do you actually want a tailwind?
Not especially. The wind icon on your minimap makes a tailwind look ideal, but the Longship's table tells a different story at full wind:
- Cross-tailwind: 9.54 m/s, the fastest point of sail
- Crosswind: 9.40 m/s
- Dead tailwind: 9.35 m/s
- Head-crosswind: 6.14 m/s
- Within about 37° of a direct headwind: the sail gives no push at all
So anything from side-on to behind you is effectively the same. Only the wind ahead of you costs real time.
Should you paddle or sail into the wind?
Sail if the wind is at all off the bow. In a strong head-crosswind a Longship still does nearly double its paddling speed. The exception is calm air. At the weakest wind, a Karve's head-crosswind speed drops to 2.55 m/s, which is below its 3.16 m/s paddling speed.
When the wind is straight ahead, paddle or tack in a zigzag. The wiki's sailing section notes that paddling may simply be easier.
When should you use Moder's power?
Save it for a headwind. Moder's in-game text reads, "You shall always have tailwind while sailing," and the wiki's notes add the details that matter. It changes wind direction but not strength, it only works while you're steering, and crosswinds were already fine. It lasts 300 seconds on a 20-minute cooldown, which is about 2.8 km in a Longship at the strongest wind and 1.5 km at the weakest. Our Moder guide covers the kill.
What sinks boats in Valheim?
Serpents. They have 400 HP and a 70 Slash bite on a 10-second cooldown, and they're weak to Frost and immune to Fire. They spawn in the middle of the ocean at night or in heavy rain. A zone has a 5% spawn chance when one of those is true and 10% when both are, rolled at most every 1,000 seconds. If you want to hunt one, drag it to the shallows with an Abyssal Harpoon first, because Serpent Meat floats but the other drops sink.
Capsizing. An upside-down boat takes 20 damage per second. The Karve can tip under full sail in strong wind, and Longships can too, though rarely. Rafts won't capsize at all. If a storm hits, drop to half sail and point the bow into the waves. Half sail costs about 30% of your speed, which beats losing the boat.
| Weather | Waves per minute | Average height | Max height |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clear | 2.5 | 0.5 m | 1.5 m |
| Rain | 2.5 | 2 m | 3 m |
| Thunderstorm | 5 | 3 m | 5 m |
Rocks and shores. Ramming hurts your boat as much as the target. The damage scales with impact speed from 1.5 m/s up to 7 m/s and is checked every half second. Enemies can also attack a beached boat, and even Boars will go after a Raft.
Boiling water. This is the big one for late-game sailors, so it gets its own section below.
How do you get to the Ashlands by boat?
Take a Drakkar. Other boats take 1 to 30 Blunt damage per second in the Ashlands ocean, reaching the maximum 300 m in. At that rate a Longship lasts about 33 seconds and a Karve about 17. The Drakkar is immune to boiling water and very resistant to Fire, while other hulls are vulnerable to it.
Watch for Bonemaw Serpents on the way in. Unlike regular Serpents, they also spawn during the day. They have 1,100 HP, a 140 Slash bite and a spit attack that adds Fire and Poison. Frost Arrows work well against them. Our Ashlands guide covers what happens after you land.
You also don't need the Drakkar to bring metal home for long. Portal – Stone becomes available soon into the Ashlands and carries ores and metal, so you don't have to sail them out.
The Deep North works differently. The wiki says it has no equivalent of the boiling sea, so a Longship can reach it. Our Deep North guide explains why you still need Fader dead before you can progress there.
How big should a Valheim dock be?
| Boat | Length | Width | Height (hull bottom to mast top) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raft | 6.3 m | 4.1 m | 7.4 m |
| Karve | 10.1 m | 3.0 m | 9.3 m |
| Longship | 22.6 m | 5.6 m | 12.5 m |
| Drakkar | 35.2 m | 12.5 m (15.2 m at the sail yard) | 19.7 m |
Allow extra room beyond those figures, since a boat keeps its momentum after you furl the sail. A Longship berth won't fit a Drakkar, which is more than twice as wide. Remember the height too if you're roofing a boathouse.
You can also build a dry dock. The wiki notes that boats can be raised out of the water by building underneath them, and they won't take damage unless water pushes them into terrain or building parts. Our building guide has the basics for piers and foundations.
How do you get materials back from a boat?
Sailing one-way trips leaves boats stranded, and that costs real materials. A r/valheim thread titled "I never want to see a Karve again" had 197 upvotes on November 1, 2026: the poster made it to Moder, then a wolf hunt arrived before they could build a portal. Most of the replies were about salvaging nails.
A boat can't be dismantled with the Hammer. You have to destroy it and collect what drops, and the wiki's wording is the key: resources "can be recovered if a player is standing or swimming in range to pick them up before they sink." Wood and some trophies float. Nails, pelts and coins sink. Destroying a boat at sea can make them unrecoverable.
So move the boat as shallow as you can first, and then:
- Run it onto the beach. Players report that the Karve gets further into the shallows than larger ships.
- Stand on the boat by the mast while you break it. One r/valheim player's advice: "Best to stand right by the mast so that you catch the nails before they sink."
- Keep inventory slots free so nothing is left in the water.
- If nails still sink, one reply suggests building stairs by the water and jumping in from high up to reach them.
Cargo is safer. A destroyed boat leaves a floating crate with its stored items, so a sunk ship doesn't automatically mean lost cargo.
Where did my boat go after a disconnect?
Check your draw distance first. Another r/valheim player thought a boat full of silver was gone after a server disconnect, then found it by raising draw distance, a setting added in 1.0. Boats stop immediately once nobody is on deck. With two or more players aboard, though, a boat keeps sailing after one person logs out.
FAQ
What is the best boat in Valheim? The Longship. It has the highest top speed at 9.54 m/s, 18 cargo slots and 1,000 HP, and it costs far less than a Drakkar. Build a Drakkar only for the Ashlands or a big crew.
Is the Drakkar faster than the Longship? No. The Drakkar tops out at 8.79 m/s against 9.54 m/s, and it paddles slower too, at 2.50 m/s against 3.16 m/s. It's the only boat in the game that's slower than the one before it.
Does cargo weight slow down boats in Valheim? It doesn't appear to. The wiki notes cargo weight doesn't seem to affect handling or speed on the Karve and Longship. You can't steer while Encumbered, though, so move the load into the hold first.
How do you repair a boat in Valheim? Treat it like a building piece. The Hammer repairs structures for no resources, only stamina, when you're in range of a Workbench, so a bench on the shore does the job. Build one near any harbor you use often.
Can you sail to the Deep North in a Longship? Yes. The Deep North has no boiling sea, so a Drakkar isn't required to reach it.
Do Serpents attack during the day? Only if rain brought them. Serpents that spawn at night despawn in the morning, but ones spawned by heavy rain stay around in calm weather.
Build a Karve as soon as you have a Forge, move to a Longship the moment you have iron, and save the Drakkar for the boiling sea. Then watch the weather, keep the wind anywhere but your bow, and break your boats in the shallows.
More Valheim guides? Keep your run moving with our biome and boss coverage.
- Valheim boss order: all bosses and how to beat them
- Valheim ores guide: where to find every metal
- Valheim portals guide
- Valheim fishing guide
Stats come from Valheim Wiki boat, creature and biome data, checked against Iron Gate's Patch 1.0.21 notes for Valheim 1.0.21 (2026-10-28). Crossing times and survival times are our own arithmetic from those figures, on calm water at a constant speed.
