Bullets Boats

Vanilla gives you a two-seat rowboat. This one you keep building.

Bullets Boats turns the boat into something you assemble. Put a boat in a crafting table, surround it with planks, and it comes out bigger. Do it again and it comes out bigger still. Every hull segment you add gives you two more seats, and nothing in the mod stops you. How far you take it is a question of your plank supply rather than a limit imposed by the mod.

Two purpose-built boats come along with it: one that fishes while you sail, and one that sails on lava.

The Large Boat

Start with any vanilla boat and a handful of matching planks. There are three expansion patterns, all made in a normal crafting table:

Surround it with 8 planks     A U of 5 planks         A C of 5 planks

  P  P  P                       P  B  P                  P  P
  P  B  P                       P  P  P                  P  B
  P  P  P                                                 P  P

Bigger both ways              One segment longer       One segment wider

Seats scale with the hull. A boat that is X segments wide and Y segments long carries X × Y × 2 riders, following the same two-riders-per-boat-body rate as vanilla.

• Vanilla boat: 2 seats
• 2 segments long or wide: 4 seats
• 2 × 2: 8 seats
• 3 × 3: 18 seats
• 4 × 5: 40 seats

There is no built-in ceiling.

Grow it lengthwise and it looks like a train of boat bodies, one behind the next. Grow it sideways instead and the segments merge into a single broad deck. Most crews end up building some of both.

Choosing the wood

All the planks used in one craft must match, but they do not have to match the original boat.

Give an oak boat a ring of spruce planks and it becomes a spruce boat. This means you can change the appearance of the entire hull at any point in its life.

Large Boats are available in:

• Oak
• Spruce
• Birch
• Jungle
• Acacia
• Dark Oak
• Mangrove
• Cherry

Seats and Steering

Boarding works much like you would expect. Right-click an empty boat anywhere along the hull and you take the helm, regardless of which segment you clicked.

If somebody is already driving, you enter the free seat nearest to where you are aiming. Sneak and right-click to board as a passenger even when the helm is available.

Once aboard, you can move between seats using these keys:

• R: Move to the next seat, wrapping around the boat.
• J: Move one seat toward the bow.
• K: Move one seat toward the stern.

J and K stop when you reach the ends instead of looping around.

Trying to enter an occupied seat swaps you with the person or creature sitting there. This is how a passenger can take the helm and how a driver can hand control to somebody else.

A boat with nobody at the helm is completely valid and will happily drift.

Animals enter the nearest free seat that is not the helm. They also keep their assigned seats after reloading the world, so your livestock barge should still have everyone exactly where you left them.

Fish Boat

Crafting recipe: Place a fishing rod directly above any boat.

Sail it and it fishes for you. While you are at the helm, moving through water, fish periodically appear in your inventory.

You can catch:

• Cod
• Salmon
• Tropical fish
• Pufferfish

Cod is the most common catch, followed by salmon. Tropical fish and pufferfish are less common.

You do not need to hold a fishing rod or watch a bobber. Simply keep sailing. The Fish Boat catches roughly one fish every five seconds while moving.

If your inventory is full, the catch drops near you instead of disappearing.

Lava Boat

Crafting recipe: Place a boat with five obsidian around it.

  O  B  O
  O  O  O

It sails on lava.

It does not merely survive lava. It moves across it with the same paddling and handling you would expect from a normal boat on water.

The boat rides directly on the surface, with smoke curling from the hull and the occasional lava pop. The item itself is also fireproof, so accidentally dropping it in the Nether is not a disaster.

Frequently Asked Questions

How big can it actually get?

There is no cap in the code. The limit is how many planks you feel like crafting.

Can I mix different woods?

Not within a single craft. All the planks used in one recipe must match.

You can use a different wood during a later expansion, however. The newest planks determine what the entire boat looks like.

Do the Fish Boat and Lava Boat come in different woods?

Not yet. Those two boats use their own dedicated recipes. Wood variants currently apply only to Large Boats.

Does the Lava Boat still float on water?

Yes.

Do I have to hold a fishing rod in the Fish Boat?

No. Steering it through water is the entire mechanic.

What happens when the driver gets off?

The boat drifts. Anyone still aboard can use J to move toward the helm and take control.

Availability

Bullets Boats 0.0.12 is available across 29 builds:

• Forge: Minecraft 1.19.2, 1.20.1, 1.20.4, 1.20.6, 1.21.1, 1.21.4, 1.21.8, 1.21.11, 26.1 and 26.2
• NeoForge: The same versions except for 1.19.2, which predates the loader
• Fabric: All ten Minecraft versions

Bullets Boats

Vanilla gives you a two-seat rowboat. This one you keep building.

Bullets Boats turns the boat into something you assemble. Put a boat in a crafting table, surround it with planks, and it comes out bigger. Do it again and it comes out bigger still. Every hull segment you add is two more seats, and nothing in the mod stops you, so how far this goes is a question about your plank supply rather than a question about the mod.

Two purpose-built boats come along with it: one that fishes while you sail, and one that sails on lava.

The Large Boat

Start with any vanilla boat and a handful of planks. Three patterns, all in a normal crafting table:

Ring it with 8 planks          A U of 5 planks          A C of 5 planks
  P  P  P                        P  B  P                   P  P
  P  B  P                        P  P  P                   P  B
  P  P  P                                                  P  P

bigger both ways               one segment longer       one segment wider

Seats scale with the hull. A boat that is X segments wide and Y segments long carries X × Y × 2 riders, the same two-per-boat-body rate vanilla uses. Three by three is eighteen people. There is no built-in ceiling.

Grow it lengthwise and it reads as a train of boat bodies, one behind the next. Grow it sideways instead and the segments merge into a single broad deck. Most crews end up building some of both.

About the wood. All the planks in one craft have to match, but they do not have to match the boat. Feed an oak boat a ring of spruce and you get a spruce boat, so a hull can be re-skinned at any point in its life. Available in oak, spruce, birch, jungle, acacia, dark oak, mangrove and cherry.

Seats, and who is steering

Boarding does what you would expect it to. Right-click an empty boat anywhere along the hull and you take the helm, whichever segment you happened to click. If somebody is already driving, you get the free seat nearest to where you are aiming. Sneak-right-click to board as a passenger even when the helm is open.

Once aboard:

J and K stop at the ends instead of looping. Stepping into a seat somebody is already in swaps the two of you, which is how a passenger takes the helm and how a driver hands it over. A boat with nobody at the helm is a perfectly legal state, and it will happily drift.

Animals board into the nearest free seat that is not the helm, and they hold that seat across a world reload, so a livestock barge reloads with everyone where you left them.

Fish Boat

Craft: a fishing rod directly above any boat.

Sail it and it works for you. While you are at the helm, in water, and actually moving, fish appear in your inventory: mostly cod, a good share of salmon, the occasional tropical fish, and now and then a pufferfish. No rod to hold and no bobber to watch. Roughly one fish per five seconds of sailing. If your inventory is full the catch drops at your feet rather than disappearing.

Lava Boat

Craft: a boat with five obsidian around it.

  O  B  O
  O  O  O

It sails on lava. Not survives lava, sails on it, with the same handling and the same paddling as any other boat on any other liquid. It rides right on the surface with smoke curling off the hull and the occasional lava pop, and the item itself is fireproof, so dropping it in the Nether is not a disaster.

FAQ

How big can it actually get? There is no cap in the code. The limit is how many planks you feel like crafting.

Can I mix woods? Not within a single craft, no. Across crafts, yes: the newest planks decide what the whole boat looks like.

Do the Fish Boat and Lava Boat come in different woods? Not yet. Those two are their own craft. The wood variants are a Large Boat thing.

Does the Lava Boat still float on water? Yes.

Do I have to hold a rod in the Fish Boat? No. Steering it through water is the whole mechanic.

What happens if the driver gets off? The boat drifts. Anyone aboard can press J to walk up to the helm and take over.

Availability

Bullets Boats 0.0.12, across 29 builds:

• Forge on 1.19.2, 1.20.1, 1.20.4, 1.20.6, 1.21.1, 1.21.4, 1.21.8, 1.21.11, 26.1 and 26.2
• NeoForge on the same list minus 1.19.2, which predates the loader
• Fabric on all ten