Boats and riding

Every captain in Reel owns one boat. You make it faster, roomier and able to reach farther waters by buying upgrades on the boat tree at the Stables. Each upgrade also unlocks a new boat skin, and you can wear any skin you own: the look never changes what your boat can do.

Your boat on land

On land, your boat shrinks into a little pet and follows you around. When you arrive in the harbor, it’s already beside you on the plaza.

To set sail:

1. Walk to the water: a pier, a launch spot or any shore.
2. Grip your boat to pick it up.
3. Toss it into the water. It grows back into a full-size boat, ready to board.

When you step ashore and walk away from your boat, it shrinks back into a pet and follows you again. It does the same at sea if you leave it empty and stopped: while you’re swimming or riding on someone else’s boat, it shrinks and stays with you, floating beside you in the water. Grab it and set it on the water to sail again.

Riding and steering

You stand freely on your boat’s deck: there are no seats to lock into, and you can walk around while it moves.

• The Patchwork Dinghy look is steered with a wheel and a throttle lever. Grip the wheel to turn and slide the throttle to set your speed; pull it all the way back to stop.
• Creature boats are ridden with a saddle and steered with reins. Grip both reins: pull one back to turn that way, pull both back to slow down, and relax them to cruise.

You can also switch to pointing or the thumbstick in Settings › STEER; see Controls.

Your boat comes with the Sheltered Bay’s saddle and reins. Each passage on the boat tree gives you that region’s saddle and reins as well. Saddle and reins looks are cosmetic and chosen separately at the Stables; see Saddles and reins.

At high speed a comfort vignette darkens the edges of your view. You can change it in Settings.

Carrying friends

Other captains can step onto your deck and ride along, and you can ride on theirs. A passenger fishes with the boat’s water access, so riding with a friend whose boat has gone farther lets you fish their waters. See Fishing.

Each boat has a number of riders it can carry, which grows with boat tree upgrades. If more captains climb aboard than that, the boat is overloaded and slows to a crawl until someone hops off.

Blocking a captain (on the Lobby page) keeps them off your boat.

If your ride’s captain leaves the lobby while you’re aboard, their boat goes with them and you drop into the water where you are.

Where your boat can go

The open sea is yours to explore with any boat. The island rings of each region are different: your boat can only sail into a region’s rings once it has that region’s passage (the Reef, Storm and Outer Passages on the boat tree). If you try to launch in waters your boat can’t sail, the game tells you so.

Fast lanes

• Tide streams run out from the harbor and back. Sail with the flow and your boat goes a lot faster; sail against it and you’re slowed down.
• Hidden shortcuts are faint lanes that don’t appear on your chart. Experienced captains learn where they are.
• Deep currents are dark, glowing lanes that carry boats from the harbor out to the farthest waters at great speed. Only boats with the Outer Passage can ride them; to other boats they look grey and still and give no boost. A passenger rides with the carrying boat’s ability.

Nobody gets stuck inside a boat

Boats don’t push you around, so a boat can end up launched around you, or sail over you while you swim. If you’re ever shut inside a boat’s hull, the game notices after a moment and puts you back on top of its deck.

Swimming

You can jump in and swim anywhere. Pull your arms back to stroke, climb out onto a deck, dock or ladder, or push both hands down hard at the surface to leap out.

You can only stay in the water for a limited time, and less far out at sea than near a boat or land. A ring counts down the last seconds. When it runs out, the view fades to black and you’re returned to the harbor. The same happens straight away if you swim into waters that are too dangerous for your boat.

No teleporting

Reel has no teleporting: to get somewhere, you sail there. Boss fights are announced ahead of time so you can sail out. There are only three exceptions:

• the swim rescue above;
• appearing on the harbor plaza when you start the game;
• being knocked out in a boss fight, when you wash up at the harbor and can sail back.