Rill's water rides

Rill the Otter never stopped playing pretend. Two of the quests in his Make-Believe Workshop turn a childhood game on the water into a real ride. Each one starts after the quest before it in Rill's list, and each ends in a proud moment: the controls rest for about half a minute while your ride takes a little lap on its own and the camera watches from outside, like a film (see the Sky Rower in Getting around, and animal friends).

The Washtub Boat

"When I was a pup, the laundry basket was my pirate ship and the kitchen floor was the whole wide sea!"

A storm has washed Pico's mail sack out across the water, and the whole village is waiting for its letters. Rill has a plan: a tin washtub, a broom for a mast and a tea towel for a sail.

1. Talk to Rill at the pier (from level 6, after the Crate Rocket).
2. Build the Washtub Boat at a Workbench: 2 iron ingots, 2 sticks, 3 wheat for the broom's bristles, 2 cloth and 2 rope.
3. Launch it: hold it and press use on water at least 0.35 m deep. E climbs in and steps ashore. Crouch and E on an empty tub packs it back up.
4. Sail to Pico's red flag. Rill marks it on your map. The mail sack is under the flag; walk or sail close and it's yours.
5. Take the sack home to Pico. Talk to him with the sack in your satchel.

Sailing with the wind

• The wind blows the same way for everyone and slowly swings round. The little yellow flag on the broom always points the way the wind is going.
• Hold forward to keep the sail up; hold back to furl it and slow down. Left and right steer.
• With the wind behind you the tub goes fastest, up to 3.4 m/s on a breezy day (a bit more in a storm). Across the wind it still goes well.
• Into the wind the sail catches nothing (within about 145° of the wind's way it's no use). Then each press of Space (A on a gamepad) is a stroke of the big wooden spoon, up to 1.3 m/s. A full stamina bar pays for about 30 strokes.
• Like real sailors, you can zigzag across the wind instead of fighting it.

The proud moment: the tub sails a slow circle with its sail full, then comes in to the shore, and Rill walks over. If you stepped ashore, you climb back in first.

The Barrel Diver

"When I was a pup, the bathtub was my submarine and a snorkel was all I needed!"

Rill has a letter from Nana Purl. Fifty years ago she dropped her gold wedding ring into the deep water near the village, and she has missed it ever since.

1. Talk to Rill at the pier (from level 10, after the Puppet Theatre).
2. Build the Barrel Diver at a Workbench: 8 planks, 2 iron ingots, 2 glass for the porthole, 1 copper ingot for the snorkel, 4 rope and 6 stones for weight.
3. Lower it in: hold it and press use on water at least 3 m deep. E climbs in.
4. Sink to the bottom where Rill's pin is, at least 4 m down.
5. Find the ring. It glints on the bottom. Reach out of the bell with E, then bring the ring to Rill. Pico flies it home to Nana Purl.

Diving in the bell

• Hold crouch (Ctrl, or B) to let the rope out and sink (1.1 m/s). Hold jump (Space, or A) to haul it up (1.5 m/s). Let go and it hangs where it is. The move keys walk it along slowly.
• Air: the bell holds 60 seconds of air while its lid is under water, shown in a bar above your belt. Your own breath stays full inside. At the surface the air comes back 12 times as fast.
• Safe: if the air runs out, Rill's rope hauls the bell up to the surface by itself.
• The rope is 30 m long.
• At the surface the lid opens and you stand in the barrel, head out. E climbs out onto the shore, or into the water to swim.

The proud moment: the bell circles at the surface, dips under and bursts back up with a splash, then drifts in to the shore where Rill is waiting.