The constant attacks by the shark make this game annoying AF

[Whip]

I don't get why the shark is early-game content. It's hard enough for a new player to just get a handle on food and water. I'm literally constantly eating and drinking and on top of that the shark is there attacking every 5 to 10 minutes like clock work. Why? Twice the shark ate a piece that destroyed my raft and at that point "surrender and respawn" does nothing but spawn you in the water to get killed by the shark, its and endless cycle. Where is there even an option to respawn when you don't have a raft to respawn on? And even when you do... when you respawn on a small raft with no inventory, half health, food, and water... you're pretty much done anyway.

I just don't get it. There is no in-game tutorial, but there is an annoying shark. I played for the first time tonight after watching others play... for an hour and a half it was mostly me cussing, I don't see how this is fun.

It would be better if the shark didn't even appear for the first couple hours, let players get a handle on basics first, THEN introduce the shark. But not as a constant annoying pest, maybe have him randomly appear at the players location every couple hours or so.

And the difficulty options are too extreme, from "Normal" which means constant threat of shark, and attacks on raft every ~7min to "Peaceful" which then disables ALL mobs from being aggressive. Why does it have to be a choice between top speed and full stop, there should be a middle ground setting for that, and there is none.

[Xas]

Be it Peaceful, ' Easy ', Normal, Hard,
Poor Bruce still often finds itself(s) difficult in pleasing everybody.

First 10~20 mins can be harsh, hectic in collection, diving in and out, a certain pattern to keep yourself alive, till you ' dock ' yourself at an appropriate island with shallow waters, ' where ' Bruce now no longer be able to launch its 'attacks' on the raft, while you dodge, gather your resources and improvise.

Life is now so much easier, compared to the ' launch ' of the game.

' Adapt ', ' Learn ', ' Cope '.

[Whip]

Easy, Normal, Hard doesn't say anything about shark behavior.

The only option that does is Peaceful but that changes the game for ALL mobs when the problem is the ever present annoying shark that someone thinks makes the game fun. Between the constant gather, constant need to eat and drink and constant shark attacks, this is more an arcade game than a survival game. So as I said, the choices for the shark in the setting is one extreme to the other, it's nonsensical and pretending that 4 game options means there are 4 shark options is simply not true.

[Shikabane屍]

Shark goes from being a pain in the butt early game to a minor annoyance in the late game, and once you armor the edge of your raft you can ignore him entirely. Although thats moreso an end-game activity.

[Grem™]

The shark is the last thing that bothers me in the game. I would say she is far at the end of the list of what bothers me in the game.

[nasojjr]

Cause this topic hasn't been brought up enough times yet...hopefully the devs can patch it so this topic can be auto-deleted going forward...

[Menzagitat]

No no, the shark is good, especially in the early phase.
People just have to learn to survive.
Is also a good source of food.
Annoying is when the player cannot run due to hunger or thirst, or he doesn't hear the shark or the spear breaks or he hits all the items and walls he built on his raft and the shark goes away with a piece of the raft :)
But all these are player's fault too.
Experienced players can fight him under water with a spear too.

[Jack Kenseng]

The shark attacking the raft is insignificant to my wood supply. Hopefully I've softened him up real nice to try kiting him for the first time at this island.

[Producer K]

Once you get a few spears, kill the shark at an island. Then go diving for resources. You have at least two minutes of no Bruce.

There's also bait, but I think that's a waste of food early game.

Even better, if you anchor your raft on one side of a island, you can loot the other without any worries. Bruce stays with the raft. (if it still attacks you using this method... your raft is to close to where you are looting) I use this method every time I play, unless I feel like I need another box full of shark meat.

[Sexy Saxman Sergio]

Armor the base, if all foundations are armored, the shark will never attack. Fun tip: you can put 4 pillars on top of a foundation and build a 3x3 floor on top of it so you only need 1 armor for every 9 tiles of floor. Build high, not large.

[Ghost of Razgriz]

Just get up to metal spear, and two pokes gets him off. 15 kills em for a few minutes.

Or you can add a mod that'll stop him from attacking the raft. It won't stop him from attacking you in the water, but it'll stop him from eating your raft, my only complaint I have against him.

https://www.raftmodding.com/mods/raft-is-not-shark-food

[Fairchild]

Once you unlock bow and arrows, Bruce is starting to be a little annoyance rather than a threat. Get the bow with arrows along with any pointy spear or sharp machete and own him. When he is close, shot with the arrow and switch to spear/machete and follow him, hitting him. He will swim away to return to you, do same again. Should take 3-5 rounds to kill him. Loot the meat and your arrows back and youll have few minutes before he respawns. I always kill him before I go pillage the island. I kill him again on return. His meat is good source for biofuel.

[strippolka]

I mean if the shark is pissing you off that much just play the game on peaceful.>.>

[Shikabane屍]

Originally posted by Fairchild:

Once you unlock bow and arrows, Bruce is starting to be a little annoyance rather than a threat. Get the bow with arrows along with any pointy spear or sharp machete and own him. When he is close, shot with the arrow and switch to spear/machete and follow him, hitting him. He will swim away to return to you, do same again. Should take 3-5 rounds to kill him. Loot the meat and your arrows back and youll have few minutes before he respawns. I always kill him before I go pillage the island. I kill him again on return. His meat is good source for biofuel.

Yo tbh never considered how good of a biofuel source that would be nice tip.

but yeah once you get a bow and arrows Bruce goes from being kinda scary to a minor annoyance since with a bow and arrow its a game of wait till he charges you, shoot as he's about to bite so he misses, rinse and repeat till dead then loot whatever island you're moored at.

[Grem™]

Never used a bow against a shark. A wooden or metal spear was always enough.

As for the islands, just park away from them, jump into the water and swim to the island, it's okay if the shark follows you, as soon as you get on land it will return to the raft.

[Shikabane屍]

Never could get the timing right with the spear myself, bow and arrow was easier for me. occasionaly i'd get a spear hit but was never able to quite master it