OSRS Ships Guide: Best Ships for Early, Mid, and Late Game

Onur Author

Created - 18.12.2025 Updated - 18.12.2025

10037 0

Sailing is the OSRS’s newest skill, and the main part of Sailing is the ships. Different ships have different uses and can completely change how you are training and progressing through the skill. Each ship should be built for the specific task that you want to do; this could be confusing as you are progressing through the skill, and building the wrong ship can cost you millions of gold. In this guide, we will take a look at and explain every type of ship build that a player will need for the entirety of Sailing. If you are looking for a comprehensive Sailing guide, you can check out our 1-99 Sailing guide!

Raft

This boat type requires level 1 Sailing, and it is the boat type that every player starts with. At first glance raft might seem like a piece of junk that won’t be useful later on, but we disagree. Just like any other boat in the game, you can upgrade it all the way up to rosewood, and it has the cheapest upgrades out of any ship type in the game.

Advantage

Rafts are extremely fast for travel, making them a strong choice for exploring the seas, and some charting locations can only be accessed by a raft since larger boats cannot fit. Another advantage of a raft is the cheap recovery fee. You can use this boat as a disposable, and recover it from any port for 700 gold. The only disadvantage of a raft is the fact that it does not have a keel upgrade, making it impossible to travel in rough waters.

Early Game

Have a cargo hold built and make sure to upgrade your sails and hull whenever you can. You will be mainly using this boat for cargo missions and sea charting.

Late Game

Upgrade the boat to have a rosewood hull and sails. Replace the cargo hold with a teleport focus to use the raft as a way to traverse the sea as quickly as possible. Having a teleport focus will also make charting some locations easier, as not every dock possesses a ship recovery option.

Skiff

This is our medium-sized ship, and it requires level 15 Sailing to use. This boat will be your main boat for a long while. It is not great for salvaging or ship combat, but it is the best for barracuda trials and late-game cargo deliveries. Because of this, it is important to prioritize upgrading this ship first.

Early Game

For the early game, the only things that you would want to upgrade are the core ship parts. Upgrade your hull, keel, sails, and helm, and nothing else until level 33.

Mid Game

Mid-game starts after reaching Level 30 Sailing and completing the first barracuda trial. At this point, you should start adding some facilities to your ship in the following order:

1. Keg: Requires level 33 Sailing and 25 Construction. Allows the storage of various drinks that grant passive buffs. After obtaining this, your goal is to chart 70 oceans to obtain the Horizon’s lure drink. Put 25 of these drinks on your keg to receive a 2.5% Sailing experience boost.
2. Inoculation Station: Requires level 40 Sailing and 37 Construction. This facility allows your ship to enter fetid waters safely.
3. Salvaging Hook (optional): This is not recommended, but if you get tired of doing Barracuda Trials, you can add a salvaging hook to your ship. If you take this route, you should upgrade your cargo hold as well.

Late Game

The late game for skiffs starts at level 53 Sailing. You should start adding some facilities to your ship in the following order:

1. Wind Catcher: Requiring level 53 Sailing and 47 Construction, this upgrade requires you to obtain a captured wind mote from the second barracuda trial. It can store winds and release them whenever you please, giving you a speed boost. This is a mandatory upgrade for future Barracuda trials.
2. Crystal Extractor: Requiring level 73 Sailing and 67 Construction, this upgrade requires you to obtain a captured wind mote from the third barracuda trial. This upgrade should be built next to the helm; otherwise, the player can’t use it while helming the ship. It generates a wind charge every 60 seconds and also provides 250 Sailing experience each time you harvest the generated wind.
3. Eternal Brazier: This is the last upgrade that you need to build on your boat. It unlocks at level 78 Sailing and 72 Construction. This allows your ship to traverse in icy oceans and is required for charting.

Sloop

The sloop is the most complex of the three boats and unlocks at level 50 Sailing. It is primarily used for ship combat, shipwreck salvaging, and deep-sea trawling. Most players build two sloops to cover all content, while hardcore players can build three to fully min-max with specialized setups.

Salvage & Combat Sloop

This is the most common combo that players go for. It covers both the combat and salvaging needs of the player.

Mid Game

Combat is pretty useless until late game, so your boat should look like this:

1. Salvaging Hooks: Build 2 adamant salvaging hooks at the front of your ship at level 59 Sailing and 52 Construction. It is better to skip doing salvaging until the adamant hook.
2. Camphor Cargo Hold: Upgrade your cargo hold to camphor at level 60 Sailing and 53 Construction, to hold more salvage.
3. Inoculation Station: Requires level 40 Sailing and 37 Construction. This facility allows your ship to enter fetid waters safely.
4. Salvaging Station: Requiring level 52 Sailing and 34 Construction, this station allows you to salvage your loot from shipwrecks without needing to return to a dock. Increasing your experience gains while providing loot.
5. Teleport Focus: Requiring level 55 Sailing and 49 Construction, this facility allows you to teleport your boat to any port for easier access.
6. Wind Catcher: Requiring level 53 Sailing and 47 Construction, it can store winds and release them whenever you please, giving you a speed boost.
7. Keg: Requires level 33 Sailing and 25 Construction. Fill it with either Horizon’s lure or Whirlpool surprise. If you are using the cannons in the late game, switch it with Perildance bitter.

Late Game

For the late game, you should upgrade your mid-game ship to the following:

1. Crystal Extractor: Requires level 73 Sailing and 67 Construction. Unlike the skiff, you should build this facility near your salvaging stations for extra Sailing experience whilst salvaging.
2. Eternal Brazier: For accessing frozen seas, where the most profitable krakens reside.
3. Dragon Salvaging Hooks: Requiring level 86 Sailing and 78 Construction, these hooks are the best ones that are currently available. They are quite expensive compared to rune ones, so if you don’t have the money for them, you can either opt for rune ones or check out our OSRS Gold Store.
4. Rosewood Cargo Hold: Requires level 89 Sailing and 84 Construction. This will maximise your capacity for salvaging.
5. Double Dragon Cannon: Skipping straight to Dragon cannons will be the most optimal choice to get the most out of your cannonballs. This requires level 92 Sailing and 84 Construction.
6. Greater Teleport Focus: Requiring level 75 Sailing and 69 Construction. This allows you to teleport to your boat for quicker access to both sea creature hunting spots and salvaging spots.

Having Separate Ships for Combat and Salvaging

If you want to have two ships instead of one (one focused on combat, the other on salvaging), the only difference you have to make is adding additional kegs to hold more than one buff inside them. Doing so will use up the space for either salvaging hooks or dragon cannons.

Deep Sea Trawling Sloop

Deep-sea trawling is a fishing activity to catch the best fish in the game. If you want a detailed guide on it, you can check out our Deep Sea Trawling Guide!

Mid Game

Here is how your ship should look in the mid-game:

1. Double Linen Trawling Net: Requiring level 68 Sailing and 61 Construction, this will be your net to catch mid-level fish.
2. Advanced Chum Station: Requiring 68 Sailing and 61 Construction. This station can be used for cutting fish into off-cuts and spreading them in the sea, which increases your chances of catching more fish.
3. Fathom Stone: Requiring level 70 Sailing and 62 Construction, this facility is used for locating the nearest shoal to fish from, and it is a much-needed time saver.
4. Inoculation Station: Requires level 40 Sailing and 37 Construction. This facility allows your ship to enter fetid waters safely.
5. Camphor Cargo Hold: Upgrade your cargo hold to camphor at level 60 Sailing and 53 Construction, to hold more caught fish.
6. Teleport Focus: Requiring level 55 Sailing and 49 Construction, this facility allows you to teleport your boat to any port for easier access.
7. Wind Catcher: Requiring level 53 Sailing and 47 Construction, it can store winds and release them whenever you please, giving you a speed boost.
8. Double Keg: Requires level 33 Sailing and 25 Construction. Fill one of them with Trawler’s trust for a chance to catch more fish, and the other with Horizon’s lure for more Sailing experience.

Late Game

For the late game, you should upgrade your mid-game ship to the following:

7. Crystal Extractor: Requires level 73 Sailing and 67 Construction. Unlike the skiff, you should build this facility near your nets for extra Sailing experience whilst salvaging. Wind charges are especially important if you are trying to catch a shoal that is moving faster than your ship.
8. Eternal Brazier: For accessing frozen seas, where the most profitable marlin shoal resides.
9. Double Cotton Trawling Net: Requiring Level 84 Sailing and Level 73 Construction, these are the highest-tier nets currently available, and thankfully, they don’t cost any dragon materials.
10. Rosewood Cargo Hold: Requires level 89 Sailing and 84 Construction. This will maximise your capacity for raw fish.
11. Greater Teleport Focus: Requiring level 75 Sailing and 69 Construction. This allows you to teleport to your boat for quicker access to shoals.
12. Fathom Pearl: Requires level 91 Sailing and 83 Construction. This is the upgraded version of the fathom stone and directly points you to the nearest shoal.
13. Chum Spreader: Requiring level 82 Sailing and 74 Construction, this is the upgraded version of the advanced chum station.
14. Greater Teleport Focus: Requiring level 75 Sailing and 69 Construction. This allows you to teleport to your boat for quicker access to sea shoals.

That pretty much covers everything you need to know about picking the right ships as you progress through Sailing. As long as you build with a purpose and upgrade at the right times, you’ll save yourself a lot of gold and headaches down the line. Now it’s just a matter of setting sail, tweaking your setups as you go, and getting the most out of every voyage. If you need further assistance with Sailing, you can check out our Sailing Services for safe and fast Sailing aid.