If you are just getting started with ShipCrafter, building your first ship can feel a little confusing. There are quite a few things to understand, especially when it comes to buoyancy, armor, engines, weapons, and keeping your ship stable.
In this beginner guide, we will go through the basic things you need to know to build a ship that actually works. I’ll explain how buoyancy works, how to create a basic hull, where to place your engines and propellers, and how to add armor and weapons.
We will also look at submarines, some simple ways to make your ships look better, and how you can use Steam Workshop ships if you don’t want to build everything from scratch. So, if you are new to ShipCrafter, this should give you a good starting point.
ShipCrafter Beginner Guide – Buoyancy, Build Ship
Before building a ship, the first thing you should understand is buoyancy.
Buoyancy is the upward force created by the water displaced by an object. In simple terms, the more water your ship displaces compared to its weight, the better it will float.
For example, imagine a 1×1 meter cube that weighs 200 kg. Since water weighs approximately 1 kg per liter, the cube needs to displace around 200 liters of water to balance its weight.
ShipCrafter makes this easier to understand because you can check your ship’s density directly in the editor.
If the density is:
- Below 1 g/cm³: Your ship will float.
- Above 1 g/cm³: Your ship will sink.
This is one of the most important numbers to keep an eye on when building.
Empty Space Does Not Provide Buoyancy
One important thing that can confuse new players is that simply creating an enclosed empty space inside your ship does not make it buoyant.
In ShipCrafter, components are what provide buoyancy.
Because of this, you should focus on filling your ship with hull blocks rather than assuming that an empty enclosed room will automatically make your ship float.
How to Build a Basic Ship Hull
Now let’s build a simple ship.
The easiest way to get started is by using Zoop Mode. Select your hull block and use the tool to place multiple blocks at once.
This allows you to quickly create the basic shape of your ship instead of placing every block individually.
Build the Main Hull
Start by creating a basic blocky hull and make it around 3 meters high.
It doesn’t need to look perfect at this stage. The goal is simply to create a stable structure that you can shape later.
Once you have the basic hull, you can start giving it a more ship-like shape.
Use Mirror Mode
For shaping the hull, Mirror Mode is extremely useful.
Mirror Mode allows you to add, delete, or paint elements symmetrically. This means you only need to work on one side of the ship while the game mirrors your changes onto the other side.
This saves a lot of time and also helps keep your ship symmetrical.
Carve the Hull
Turn off Zoop Mode and use the deletion tool to remove blocks from the hull.
You can hold Left Control and left-click on blocks to delete them.
Start removing blocks around the front, back, and sides until your blocky structure begins to look more like an actual ship.
Don’t worry about making it perfect immediately. You can always adjust the shape later.
Painting Your Ship
Once your basic hull is ready, you can start adding some color.
Activate Color Mode and turn Zoop Mode back on.
Choose your desired color and click and drag across the hull to paint multiple blocks at once.
This is much faster than painting every block individually.
Use the Isometric View
There is also a useful gizmo in the upper-right corner of the screen.
Clicking the gizmo with the three colored arrows allows you to switch to an isometric view.
This gives you a different perspective of your ship and makes it easier to see the overall shape.
You can also use the box deletion tool from this view to quickly remove unwanted blocks.
The tool works similarly to the color tool, except it deletes all selected elements.
Once you’re finished, click the gizmo again to return to the normal view.
Adding an Engine and Propeller
At this point, you should have a basic hull that is stable enough to start turning into a functional ship.
Now you need an engine, propeller, and rudder.
There are some important placement rules to remember.
Engine Placement
Your engine needs to stay above the water surface because engines lose power when they are underwater.
So, when designing your ship, make sure the engine has enough space above the waterline.
Propeller Placement
Propellers need to be underwater to work properly.
This means you need to position your engine and propeller setup carefully so that the engine remains above the surface while the propeller is below it.
Rudder Placement
The rudder also needs to be underwater to function.
Once you have an engine, propeller, and rudder properly positioned, your basic ship should be functional.
How Armor Works in ShipCrafter
Once your ship can move, the next thing I recommend working on is armor.
Armor is important because it protects your ship from incoming shells.
One of the interesting things about ShipCrafter is that the angle of your armor affects how much protection it provides.
Angled Armor
The effective thickness of armor increases when a shell hits it at an angle.
The basic relationship is:
Effective Armor = Armor Thickness × 1/cos(angle)
For example, a 100 mm armor plate hit at a 45-degree angle effectively gives the shell more material to penetrate than a flat 100 mm plate.
This means that carefully angling your armor can make your ship more resistant to enemy fire.
Armor Can Also Bounce Shells
At high impact angles, shells can potentially bounce instead of penetrating the armor.
Because of this, armor isn’t simply about making every plate as thick as possible.
The angle of your armor can be just as important.
During battles, positioning your ship correctly can also help you take advantage of these angles.
How to Add Armor Quickly
ShipCrafter provides a useful tool called Block Replacer Mode.
With Mirror Mode enabled, you can use the block replacer to quickly replace hull blocks with armor.
For example, you can select 50 mm armor and drag the mouse over the outside of your ship to create an armored belt.
The tool replaces blocks on the surface of the ship rather than filling the entire interior.
Don’t Waste Armor Inside the Ship
One important thing to remember is that stacking armor does not work in the way you might expect.
Only the first block encountered is counted when calculating shell penetration.
Because of this, putting additional armor behind the first armor block does not provide the same benefit as simply making the outer armor stronger.
Extra internal armor can therefore add unnecessary weight.
After adding armor, check your ship’s density again to make sure it is still comfortably floating.
Adding Weapons to Your Ship
Once your hull and armor are ready, you can start adding weapons.
Weapon caliber is important because larger shells deal significantly more damage.
For example, an 80 mm shell has much more volume than a 40 mm shell. Because shell volume increases in three dimensions, the damage difference can be substantial.
Generally, using the highest caliber available to you can be a strong choice, assuming your ship can support the weapon.
Protect Your Turrets
Your turrets can be damaged or destroyed just like other ship components.
If a turret reaches zero health, it can no longer fire.
A damaged turret may still work, but its rotation speed will be reduced.
The same general idea applies to engines. Damaged engines lose power, so protecting important components is important when designing your ship.
Primary and Secondary Weapons
When you place weapons on your ship, they will initially appear under the Primary section.
Primary weapons are manually controlled.
You can click the weapon’s icon to switch it into Secondary mode.
Secondary weapons can automatically aim and fire at a locked target, but they sacrifice some accuracy compared to manually controlled weapons.
This gives you a choice between manually controlling your weapons or letting the game handle some of the targeting for you.
Ship AI Behaviors
If you want to test your ship as a bot in custom battles, you can also choose its behavior.
Some of the available behaviors include:
- Broadside
- Approach Target
- Align With Fixed Torps
- Flee
A traditional warship will generally benefit from the broadside behavior because it allows the ship to bring its side-mounted weapons into action.
If your ship has fixed torpedo launchers, the Align With Fixed Torps behavior is more appropriate.
You can also use Approach Target if you want your ship to move directly toward its enemy.
How to Build a Submarine
Submarines require more careful planning than regular ships.
The main goal is to create a submarine that can:
- Float when the ballast is empty.
- Sink when the ballast is full.
- Move properly while underwater.
The density of the submarine is especially important.
You want the submarine to have a density below 1 when the ballast is empty and above 1 when the ballast is filled.
This allows you to control whether the submarine floats or sinks.
Submarine Propeller Placement
When building a submarine, try to keep the propellers roughly aligned with the center of mass.
This helps the submarine behave properly when moving underwater.
Only the Uboot Engine Works Underwater
There is also an important limitation to remember.
Only the Uboot engine can operate underwater.
So if you’re building a submarine, make sure you use the correct engine rather than trying to use a normal ship engine.
How to Make Your Ship Look Better
Once your ship is functional, you can start working on its appearance.
The basic hull can look quite blocky, but ShipCrafter provides cosmetic blocks that can make your ship look much smoother.
Use Cosmetic Half Blocks
Go to the cosmetic section and select a half block.
You can rotate, resize, and shift the cosmetic pieces to fit different slopes and shapes.
This is useful for smoothing out the front and sides of your ship.
One important thing to remember is that cosmetics do not have colliders.
That means they don’t provide the same physical protection as actual structural blocks.
So use cosmetics for appearance rather than relying on them as armor.
Adding a Wooden Deck
You can also give your ship a better-looking deck.
Activate the Color Tool and enable Deck Mode.
Deck Mode only paints the upper face of the selected blocks, which makes it much easier to create a proper deck without accidentally painting the sides of your ship.
You can then choose a different color for the deck.
A wooden or slightly orange color can work well if you want a traditional ship appearance.
Using the Steam Workshop
You don’t always have to build your entire ship from scratch.
ShipCrafter also supports ships from the Steam Workshop.
If you find a ship you like, you can subscribe to it through the Workshop.
After subscribing, refresh the build scene by leaving and joining it again.
Then select the Workshop option and choose the ship you subscribed to.
Why a Workshop Ship Might Not Load
If copying the Workshop ship fails, you may not have enough supplies or you may be missing some of the required parts.
You also need to have the necessary components unlocked before you can load certain ships.
So if a Workshop design doesn’t load, check whether you have all the required resources and parts.
Building a good ship in ShipCrafter is mostly about finding the right balance between weight, buoyancy, protection, weapons, and movement. You don’t need to create an incredibly detailed warship immediately. A simple hull with the correct engine, propeller, rudder, armor, and weapons is already a great starting point.
The biggest thing I recommend to new players is to keep checking your ship’s density as you build. It is very easy to keep adding armor and weapons until you suddenly create a ship that is too heavy to float.
Once you understand those basics, you can start experimenting with angled armor, different weapons, submarines, cosmetic blocks, and Workshop designs. From there, you can gradually turn your basic ship into something much more advanced and impressive.