The best harbor starts with a clear route from boat to storage. A handsome pier loses its charm when a loaded crew has to jump over its railing, squeeze past chests and turn the longship between two posts. Plan the walk and the sailing approach first; let the building pieces give that plan a shape.
This is a dock layout guide for a raft, Karve or longship. It does not promise that a wall will calm the sea or that one floor height will survive every storm. The water and the shoreline need to be judged where you are building, with the boat you actually use.
Choose the landing before you place a floor
Stand on the shore and trace two routes: the boat's approach from open water and your character's walk from the landing to the base. Look for a clear entrance, a bank you can reach without a complicated stair run, and room to turn after unloading. A narrow, pretty inlet can be awkward if the ship must thread past rocks on every trip. Mark a second candidate if your first choice offers no easy way in or out.
Take the intended boat through the approach before committing resources. Enter at a comfortable speed, turn toward the proposed berth and leave again. If the hull catches an underwater rock or the turn feels cramped, move the landing. Building a wall around the problem will leave the problem inside the wall. Repeat the approach in poor weather before deciding on rooflines or posts near the boat. That observation is a local design check, not a universal clearance number.
At the shoreline, choose where the cargo will go. Put the working edge of the dock beside a path to storage, a work area or a smelter setup, according to what you bring home. Place decorative buildings beyond that route. A roofed shack looks better when people can still carry things past it.
Build a berth with an open side
Start with a short walking platform from stable ground and keep one long side of the berth open for boarding and unloading. Use temporary pieces if the final floor level is uncertain. Bring the boat alongside, step between boat and platform, and check that you can reach its storage without awkward jumps. Move or rebuild the edge until it works. This is more reliable than copying a pier height from another world.
The current Valheim build-piece database records a Wood Floor 2x2 and Wood Beam 2 m at two wood each, made with a hammer near a workbench. Those pieces make a modest first pier easy to extend or reshape. A Log Pole 2 m and Log Beam 2 m each use one round log; they offer a different visual rhythm once you have core wood. Use the shore as the start of the structure, then extend only as far as your boarding and cargo route requires. A long line of flooring over deep water costs material and makes every later change harder.
Keep posts outside the boat's approach and leave space around the hull for its movement. The companion data identifies raft, Karve and longship as water pieces; it gives no safe gap between a hull and a post. Check that gap with the vessel itself, then revisit it in rough water. If a post is struck, move it rather than treating the collision as an inevitable repair bill.
For a small solo landing, one open-sided berth and a shore-side cargo area can do more work than a symmetrical pair of piers. In a co-op base, separate the boat-to-storage walk from the path used by players running to the boats. The advantage is circulation, not a hidden ship-speed bonus: people can unload while another crew prepares to leave.
Give the three boats different jobs
A raft landing can be simple. The database's raft entry calls for 20 wood, 6 leather scraps and 6 resin, and records 300 health. A short platform that reaches the boat is usually a better first investment than a large enclosed boathouse. Keep the entrance obvious and the shore path clear.
The Karve asks for 30 fine wood, 10 deer hide, 20 resin and 80 bronze nails, with 500 health in the same pinned data. It is worth testing a berth with the Karve before building permanent side walls. Leave enough room to approach, pause, unload and depart without a series of sharp turns. Put a storage point on shore where a returning crew can empty the boat before somebody launches it again.
A longship uses 40 fine wood, 40 elder bark, 10 deer hide and 100 iron nails and has 1,000 health in the current companion. Its berth deserves a clear approach more than an ornamental gate. If the Karve and longship share a harbor, set out the larger vessel's route first. A smaller boat may fit an opening that forces the larger one into a wall. You can give each boat a separate landing, or keep one broad working edge and park only one beside it at a time. Neither arrangement needs an invented standard width; the boats are the measuring tools.
These costs describe building a new vessel, not an amount to store in a repair chest. Keep spare building material near the dock for alterations, and check the actual boat and piece condition in game before making a repair plan.
Keep structure and weather claims in their place
The companion marks ordinary wood beams, floors and log pieces as supporting structures. It also records their material and health. That is useful for choosing pieces, but a piece's health is not a promise that an unsupported span will stand, nor does it measure the wave forces at your shore. Extend the platform in stages and inspect the game's placement feedback as you build. If the end of a pier is poorly supported, bring the structure back toward firm ground or add a support where the game accepts it.
Later, stone walls and floors offer a different material and appearance. The current data lists a Stone Wall 2x1 at four stone and a Stone Floor 2x2 at six stone, both requiring a stonecutter. Use stone where it gives your harbor the mass and layout you want. A raised earth wall or stone wall can also define the edge of a yard. The build-piece records do not establish that such walls attenuate Valheim's waves. Do not spend a quarry's worth of stone on that promise.
Weather makes a dry working spot pleasant, so a small roof over storage and the shore-side bench is a reasonable design choice. The pinned piece data has individual weather traits, and those traits differ across materials and pieces. Check the condition of exposed parts on your own build instead of assuming every wood piece decays the same way or that a covered pier is immune to all damage. Keep the boat's berth open enough that its moving hull cannot be trapped under a low decorative roof.
Finish the working edge, then dress the harbor
Put light where it helps you see the boarding edge and the path home. Set chests where they do not narrow that path, and leave a clear place to stand while sorting cargo. If you add a workbench, keep its use and access in mind; the current companion confirms that the boats and early wood pieces are built with a hammer and a workbench, but the best position for that station depends on your shoreline.
Only after the approach works should you add banners, a dockmaster's hut or a frame of log poles. Repeated beam lengths can give the pier a deliberate line; a stone landing can make the transition from water to base feel solid. These choices are aesthetic, and they should frame the movement through the harbor rather than obstruct it.
A useful dock is easy to approach, easy to unload and easy to leave. Test those three actions with the largest boat that will use it. Then build the smallest structure that supports them and let the rest of the harbor grow around a route that already works.
