Houseboat
Guide to the Houseboat in Starsand Island. Covers how to unlock and access the Houseboat, its customization options including deck crop plots, animal pens, pet spaces, crafting stations, sea fishing, preset layouts like Floating Oasis, and tips for using it as a mobile farming and fishing base.
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Houseboat
The Houseboat is a unique property in Starsand Island that gives players a fully customizable floating home docked off the coast of the island. Unlike the fixed homestead locations (Hopeland, Cloudrest Lake, Blue Beach, Windflute Island), the Houseboat sits on the ocean and serves as a secondary base with its own farming plots, animal pens, crafting stations, and fishing access. It can function as a party boat with a pool and water slide, a floating farm with crops growing on deck, or a cozy maritime retreat.
How to Unlock
The Houseboat becomes available through the Island Life progression system on your phone. As you complete Island Life goals and advance through its ranks, the Houseboat unlocks alongside other property milestones. You also need to progress through the Crafter profession to gain access to the building tools required for construction. Once unlocked, the Houseboat is docked off the coast and you can travel to it at any time.
Floating Oasis Preset
The Houseboat comes with the "Floating Oasis" preset layout, one of eight pre-made house designs available in the game. Like other presets (Countryside Haven, Retreat, Classic Courtyard, and more), Floating Oasis arrives fully furnished with decorations, furniture, and functional features already in place. Presets are purchased at Lex Woodworks in Starsand Town after reaching the Island Pro rank in the Island Life app. You can use the preset as-is or dismantle and rearrange everything to your liking.
Features
The Houseboat combines living quarters with functional outdoor spaces, making it a self-contained secondary base.
Feature | Details |
|---|---|
Interior Rooms | Fully customizable indoor living space. Place furniture, decorations, appliances, and change wallpaper and flooring the same way you would in any land-based home. |
Deck Crop Plots | Grow crops directly on the Houseboat deck while it sits in the ocean. Plots function identically to land-based farmland: plant seeds, water them, and harvest when ready. |
Animal Pens | Raise small animals on board. Chickens, rabbits, and bees fit comfortably. Larger animals like horses and cows are not compatible due to space constraints. |
Pet Space | Bring your adopted pets along for the voyage. They do not take up functional space and add personality to your floating home. |
Sea Fishing | Cast your line directly from the Houseboat deck to catch ocean fish species without needing to find a shore fishing spot. |
Place workbenches, cooking stations, and other processing equipment on the boat for mobile crafting. | |
Pool and Water Slide | Build leisure amenities on deck. The Houseboat supports decorative and recreational structures including pools and water slides. |
Blueprint Saves | Save your Houseboat design as a blueprint to reuse across save files or quickly rebuild after changes. |
Building and Customization
Construction on the Houseboat follows the same grid-based building system used for land structures. Open the build menu with C and place walls, floors, windows, roofing, and decorative elements. Building pieces consume materials upon placement rather than requiring pre-crafting. Many structural pieces like blocks are resizable using yellow arrows, while decorative items must be crafted beforehand at a Worktable.
The Houseboat has a fixed hull footprint, but the interior layout and deck arrangement are fully customizable within that footprint. You can change wall colors and materials, swap flooring styles, and place nearly 1,000 different decorative items spanning classic, modern, European, traditional, and whimsical aesthetic styles. The Decoration and Paint System applies to Houseboat rooms just like land buildings. A perspective preview system lets you visualize your design under different weather conditions, times of day, and lighting before committing.
Farming on the Water
One of the Houseboat's standout features is the ability to maintain crop plots directly on the deck. These plots function identically to land-based farmland: plant seeds, water them with your Watering Can, and harvest when ready. The deck plots are smaller than a full land expansion, so they work best for growing a few high-value crops or ingredients you need regularly for cooking.
Small animals can also be raised on the deck in compact pens. Chickens, rabbits, and bees are compatible with the Houseboat. Larger livestock like cows, alpacas, and ostriches require land-based ranching at your main homestead. If you have beehives on deck, they produce honey passively while you fish or sail.
Sea Fishing
Fishing from the Houseboat gives access to ocean fish species without needing to travel to a specific shore fishing spot. You can cast your line directly from the deck and reel in catches while your crops grow behind you. Combined with the Parrot Ship for deep-sea zones and the yacht for rental fishing trips, the Houseboat provides a convenient home base for dedicated fishing sessions. Keep a cooking station on board to prepare your catches immediately for higher sell value.
Comparison with Land Properties
Starsand Island offers several property locations, each with different unlock requirements and characteristics.
Property | Unlock Requirement | Key Feature |
|---|---|---|
Starting property (free) | Main farming base with 8 expansion tiers | |
6,000,000 Coins + 750 Starsand | Premium lakeside property | |
Bright Star rank (Island Life) | Beachfront location | |
Starsand Legend rank (Island Life) | Island property | |
Houseboat | Island Life progression + Crafter rank | Mobile ocean base with deck farming, fishing, and leisure features |
Tips
Use the deck crop plots for ingredients you cook regularly. Having a small supply of commonly used crops on hand saves trips back to your main farm.
Place a cooking station on the Houseboat so you can prepare dishes while fishing or tending deck crops. Cooking raw ingredients into meals dramatically increases their sell value.
Build beehives on deck for passive honey income. Bees work on the Houseboat just like on land.
The Houseboat is a great complement to your main homestead, not a replacement. Use it for focused activities like fishing and small-scale farming while keeping your main crop and ranch operations on land at Hopeland.
Save your favorite Houseboat layout as a blueprint so you can quickly restore it after experimenting with different designs.
Decorate the interior with themed furniture to make it feel like a proper home. Try creating a party boat with a pool and water slide, or go for a practical floating farm setup.
If you want to preview your Houseboat design under different lighting conditions, use the perspective preview system before finalizing placement of decorative items.