Getting Started in Build and Defend Your Raft

You join Build and Defend Your Raft on a tiny wooden boat, not on the multi-story fortress from the thumbnails. The first hour is a race: harpoon enough junk to expand, find the Crafting Table upgrade path, and put something between your loot and the rest of an 18-player server before someone raids you. This page is that hour in order. It does not invent recipes, unpublished keybinds, or fake codes. For stick-and-HUD detail, keep controls open beside it.

The experience is live (released 28 July 2026), not upcoming. Online PvP is the point. You will raid, and you will be raided. Play like the loot is already being watched.

Minute 0–10: spawn, look, harpoon

Land on the starter raft and read the HUD before you sprint. Left side: red basket Shop. Top: a countdown timer (examples in screenshots look like 01:58) and a purple Crew button. Center/world: the prompt Click to shoot harpoon when you can fire. Objectives often look like Gathered 0/5. Right side: a Free Reward cannon you can claim. None of those widgets are decoration. Shop is where codes and Scrap packs live. Crew is how you stop playing as a one-person island. The timer is your reminder that the server is not a peaceful sandbox.

Shoot the harpoon at floating resources. That is the official gather loop. Fill the gather counter instead of decorating the starter deck. A pretty Hour 1 boat with 0/5 still unfinished is a boat that has not started.

Joining grants the Welcome badge. Meet Frank is a separate badge earned by a large share of players (about 55 percent). This wiki will not invent who Frank is or where he stands; if you bump into the requirement, you will know. Neither badge replaces walls.

ROBLOX BUILD AND DEFEND YOUR RAFT gameplay

Minute 10–25: Shop, codes, and the table

Open Shop once so you know the panel. You will see Scrap packs at 50 / 150 / 500 for 49 / 249 / 499 Robux, a Redeem Codes field (Enter code here..), and the line that codes are posted in the Community Server. As of 31 August 2026 the Codes Hub is empty — do not stall here typing guesses. Close Shop and go back to the harpoon.

Find the Crafting Table on your raft and treat upgrades as the first real spend. The official description is explicit: upgrade the table to unlock better gear. That is the multiplier for every later wall and raid. The dedicated Crafting Table page is the spend-order deep dive; the first-hour version is simpler: if the table can eat Scrap, feed it before you add a long pier of empty floor. How to build explains why sprawl is a liability.

Minute 25–45: walls before ego

Official art sells Hour 100 forts with cannons, spikes, chests, and flags. Your first-hour job is a closed core around loot and the table, not a replica of that skyline. Place walls and spikes so a raider cannot walk onto the chest in a straight line. Put cannons where they cover the approach, not the empty ocean behind you. How to defend is the full shell; here the rule is one sentence: loot is covered before the raft looks impressive.

If Crew is available, use it. A second pair of hands on an 18-player server is worth more than a flag. If you are solo, do not swim off to how to raid until the core is closed. Naked home decks are how first-hour players donate their first chest.

Minute 45–60: peek outward, then keep gathering

Only after the table has a level, the chest has walls, and the harpoon still has junk to hit should you look at other rafts. Raiding is the end of the official loop, not the start. Steal when you can afford to lose a fight at home. Watch the top timer while you decide. Then come back and gather again. The Hour 100 fortress is a hundred of these hours stacked, not a single lucky code.

First-hour checklist worth repeating: harpoon, gather counter, Shop once, table fed, walls on the loot, Crew if you have it, raid only if the deck is not naked. That is getting started — everything else on this wiki is a magnification of one of those lines.