Last Updated: September 2026 | Prices, badges and both places checked against the game itself.
Build and Defend Your Raft puts you on a few planks in open water with a harpoon and nothing else. You drag wood, scrap and metal out of the sea and build the raft up around you. Then you bolt guns to the edges, because other players turn up to take what you have gathered. It is a building game and a fighting game at the same time.
The game’s own page describes that loop in nine short lines and then stops. It does not name a single gun, it does not mention that anything takes time, and it does not tell you there is a second place to play or a character to find. All of that is real, and this page is where it is written down.
| Genre |
Survival and raiding |
| Studio |
Raft Pirates |
| Released |
28 July 2026 |
| Players per server |
18 |
| Places in the game |
Two, including a separate start for new players |
| Game passes |
None |
| Private servers |
Not available |
How to Play Build and Defend Your Raft
- Spawn on your starting raft. It is a handful of planks and nothing else.
- Get your harpoon out and start pulling wood and scrap out of the water around you.
- Build the raft outwards with what you gather. More floor means more room for everything else.
- Upgrade your crafting table. Better gear is locked behind it, and it is what turns scrap into useful parts.
- Put defenses down before you go hunting for metal. An undefended raft is the one people pick.
- Go and raid somebody else once you can afford to lose a fight.
Build and Defend Your Raft Overview: The Three Materials
Everything you build comes out of wood, scrap or metal. The game never tells you which is the difficult one. The shop does, because it sells all three and the prices are not the same.
| Material |
Small |
Medium |
Large |
What the price tells you |
| Wood |
49 |
249 |
499 |
The one you start on, and the cheapest to buy |
| Scrap |
49 |
249 |
499 |
Priced exactly like wood at every size |
| Metal |
99 |
399 |
799 |
Double the price at the small size. The hard one |
Wood and scrap are the same price at all three sizes. Not close, the same. The studio treats them as worth exactly as much as each other, so there is no point favoring one when you are out gathering.
Metal breaks that pattern. It is double the price at the small size and about sixty per cent more at the other two. Nothing on the game’s page says metal is harder to find, but the shop has been saying it since the day these went on sale.
Read the shop when the game says nothing
A studio prices things by how hard they are to get. When two items cost the same and a third costs double, that is the game telling you where your evening is going to go.
Build and Defend Your Raft Gameplay: Defenses, Waits and the Shop
There are no game passes on this game at all. Everything it sells is bought from inside, used up, and gone. Here is what is on offer besides the materials.
| Item |
Robux |
What it is |
| Skip 1 |
9 |
Skips the shortest wait |
| Skip 2 |
19 |
Skips a longer one |
| Skip 3 |
29 |
Skips the longest |
| Starter Pack |
19 |
A one-off bundle for new players |
| Unlock Raft |
149 |
Opens up a raft you cannot otherwise use yet |
| Mortar Tier 3 |
99 |
The top version of one of the two named guns |
| Tesla Tier 3 |
149 |
The top version of the other, priced half again as high |
| Pirate Bundle |
299 |
A mixed bundle added in September |
Two things in that list are worth pausing on. The first is that there are three separate items for skipping a wait, priced 9, 19 and 29. Three waits, getting longer. The game’s page does not mention that anything takes time at all.
The second is the pair of guns. The page promises powerful defenses and never names one. The shop names two, the Mortar and the Tesla, and it only sells the top version of each. The lower versions must be something you build yourself.
It also prices them against each other. The Tesla costs half again as much as the Mortar for the same tier, which is the only ranking of the two that exists anywhere.
Frank, and the Badge That Proves He Is There
The game has two badges and both went up on the same day, which makes them easy to compare. One is called Welcome and 3.7 million people have it. The other is called Meet Frank and about 1.1 million do.
So roughly a third of the people who showed up ever met Frank. Two out of three never did.
Frank is not in the game’s description. He is not named in the shop and he is not mentioned by the studio’s group. The badge is the only place he is written down at all, which makes finding him the nearest thing this game has to a secret.
Both badges are free
Neither one costs anything and neither one needs an item. The first arrives the moment you load in. The second needs you to go looking.
There Are Two Rafts, Not One
The game holds two separate places. One is the main game. The other is a starting area set aside for new players, and its name is the shorter, older version of the game’s own title.
That is useful to know for two reasons. If the main game feels like everybody already has a fortress, you may be in the wrong one. And if a friend says the game looks nothing like what you are seeing, you are probably in different places.
Tips for New Build and Defend Your Raft Players
- Metal is the bottleneck, not wood. The shop charges double for it, which tells you how the game rates it.
- Wood and scrap cost the same in the shop, so do not go out of your way for one over the other.
- Build a floor before you build a gun. Guns need somewhere to stand and a bigger raft gives you more firing angles.
- Find Frank. Only about a third of players ever do, and he is not mentioned anywhere on the game’s page.
- New players get their own starting area, so if the main game feels crowded you are probably meant to be elsewhere first.
- Turn up once and the Welcome badge is yours. It costs nothing and over 3.7 million people have it.
Build and Defend Your Raft FAQ
Does it have codes?
One is going around and the studio has never confirmed it. Our codes page has the details and the one big trap to avoid.
Are there game passes?
No. Not one. Everything the game sells is a one-off buy from inside it, so there is nothing permanent to own.
Who is Frank?
A character you can find. The game’s page never mentions him and there is a badge for meeting him, which is the only place the studio admits he is there.
Why are there two rafts in the game list?
One of them is a separate starting point for new players. The other is the main game.
Can I get a private server?
No. The studio has them switched off, so everybody plays on public servers.
About Build and Defend Your Raft
Build and Defend Your Raft is made by Raft Pirates, a group of about 984,000 members that is not a Roblox-verified group. The account that owns the group does carry a verified badge, which is a separate thing from the group itself.
The group is unusually quiet for its size. It has nothing written in its description, it has never posted a message, and this is the only game it has published. Nearly a million people have joined something that has never said a word.
The game opened on 28 July 2026 and has passed 9.3 million visits, which is roughly 204,000 a day. About 6,300 people are playing as this is written, and with 18 to a server that is at least 354 servers running.
Players have voted it up 28,881 times and down 1,603, so nearly 95 in every 100 votes are positive. It has 30,898 favorites, which works out at about one favorite for every vote cast.