Patching leaks and bailing water
The boat takes damage and lets water in. Two separate jobs follow from that: plug the hole, and get the water that is already inside back out. They need different items, and neither is optional for long.
Last checked against the developer's patch notes and recorded demo runs on
What a repair takes
- 01
A hammer, and not every hammer works
Hammers lie around the boat and the world. One player found two next to each other and could only pick up one of them: “I can’t use that one. I can use this one.” If a hammer will not lift, look for another rather than assuming the mechanic is broken.
Seen in footage from Nocstriker, Gaming for Funzie and KeysJore
- 02
Wood scrap and metal scrap are separate, counted items
They are not interchangeable. One crew ran short mid-repair — “we need wood scrap now, I’ve got the last iron scrap”. The opening objectives ask for three pieces of metal scrap and three pieces of wood scrap, which is the game telling you the going rate before it charges you.
Seen in footage from Gaming for Funzie, Nocstriker, ScitxoExtracts and TwinMinds
- 03
Duct tape is a third repair material
Tape turns up alongside the buckets and hammers, and players are shown applying it to the boat. It is stored and carried like everything else, which means it costs you your one item slot to bring it anywhere.
Seen in footage from KeysJore, ScitxoExtracts and Nocstriker
Getting the water back out
The bucket is the whole answer
“There’s also duct tape and a bucket — I think that’s important too, so you can bail out water.” Buckets are common; there are usually several aboard. Bailing does not stop the leak, so a crew that only bails is losing.
Seen in footage from KeysJore, DecoTheRobot and Nocstriker
The developer has fixed bailing bugs repeatedly
Hotfix #1 fixed a trigger that stopped clients pouring water out, and fixed buckets being unable to remove water once the level was very low. Hotfix #3 fixed the flooding effect playing when the boat was not actually flooding and sped up the water-bucket animation. If bailing felt broken in old footage, it was.
What the release build adds
There is a Boat Health readout
Patch 06.09G clamped “the Boat Health UI to prevent it from displaying incorrectly”. So the hull has an overall condition you can read, rather than only a set of individual holes. Hotfix #5 also added a notification when the boat is on land, and fixed items that were wrongly damaging the hull.
Official · Patch 06.09G and Hotfix #5
Repair materials and checkpoints were made more forgiving
Hotfix #4 added more navigation signs, more stairs on an island, teleport recovery volumes for players who fall out of the world, and reduced the time to restart after the boat is destroyed. The developer has separately said in the Steam discussions that more repair materials and checkpoints were coming — see the developer’s own answers.
Official · Hotfix #4
Not confirmed
We cannot tell you how much scrap a given hole costs, or whether tape and planks fix different damage types. Nobody stated it on camera and the patch notes do not break it down. That is a release-day measurement, not a guess we are willing to publish.
Why repairs are the reason for a crew
One item at a time is what makes this hard. The person carrying wood scrap is not carrying the hammer, and neither of them is at the helm while the boat drifts. Every crew that ran smoothly in the footage had someone who stopped sightseeing and just ferried materials. See multiplayer and the boat’s systems.
Repair questions
+How do you repair the boat in Water You Doing?
You need a hammer and repair material. Footage shows wood scrap and metal (iron) scrap being carried to holes, and duct tape used as a separate repair item. Because you can only hold one thing at a time, repairs mean repeated trips.
+How do you get water out of the boat?
With a bucket. Buckets are found around the boat and the world, and bailing is a manual, repeated action. The developer has fixed bucket bugs more than once, including buckets failing to remove the last of the water.
+Where do you find wood and metal scrap?
Scattered around the islands and shorelines you stop at, and sold at the shop. An early objective asks for three pieces of each, which is the game teaching you the supply run before it starts punishing you for skipping it.
+What is the Boat Health UI?
An on-screen readout of the hull's condition. The developer referred to it in patch 06.09G when clamping it to stop it displaying incorrectly, which confirms the release build tracks overall boat health, not just individual holes.