Trash Sailors is a game that is meant to keep you on your toes by constantly throwing curveballs at your raft. This comes in the form of evil hand vines, giant waves, and tons of annoying enemies. While the game isn’t combat-focused, it is part of the sailing rhythm and one you will need to master. Our Trash Sailors Combat Guide should give you some helpful tips for success!
Trash Sailors Combat - Getting Started
There is a lot going on at all times when you’re sailing your raft down the linear courses. You can choose on what part of the river you sail, but you’re not able to avoid any enemy hotbeds. Once the first enemy is introduced into the game, you will see them on every course, and it’s irritating at the best of times.
The first enemy you will encounter are spiders who will descend on your boat at night. To get rid of them, you don’t need to fight but simply need to get the light on top of your raft to turn on. The light goes out though, so it’s a process of constantly climbing up and banging on it to keep it on. After meeting the spiders, you will encounter alligators and human enemies.
Enemies set off to do one of four things to you and your raft:
- Destroy the raft itself and sink you.
- Toss or yank you and your friends off the raft.
- Deplete your health bar.
- Force your raft to sail in the wrong direction.
Despite their annoying nature, enemies aren’t random, so you don’t need to worry about RNG. There are parts of each map that enemies reside in. Many enemies will zoom around the raft before jumping on board, and you can see enemies such as alligators lounging around in the water before they decide to attack you.
Like with steering the raft, it’s best to use a controller over a mouse and keyboard as the mechanics of the game are built around controllers. This makes it much easier to deal with enemies and aim canons.

Taking down enemies
Taking down enemies is generally a pretty simple process; you wack them a few times, and they will remove themselves from your raft. Some enemies, like pirates, will attack you from motorized boats. By the time they appear, though, your raft will have cannons so you can defend yourself.
It may be best to designate one of your teammates to the job of cleaning up enemies. No matter what, your top priority should be keeping the enemies away from whoever is steering the ship. You will also want to get used to stationary threats, like the hand vines that, when sailed under, will yank your character from the ship.
- Quick Tip: Make sure to quickly take out any enemies that can weigh down the raft and change its course.
The key to dealing with enemies is learning their patterns and quickly addressing the problem. There is always more than one enemy once you have entered a hostile zone, so prepare for back-to-back fights.
Additionally, you will find that some enemies will go down with a single hit, while others will be much more persistent. If an enemy goes down easily, they seem to come in swarms, while the enemies that can take more hits will come in smaller numbers.
Either way, once you reach the second sea area of the game, you’re going to want to invest in a healthier back for your ship just in case of emergencies. You may also want to look at getting a better light as this can help with controlling things at night.
Dividing Up Tasks in Trash Sailors
More than anything, you are going to want to divide up tasks, especially once you get past the first five levels. Things really start heating up once you’ve reached the second set of levels, and you will find yourself constantly meeting new types of enemies and being attacked.
- Quick Tip: If your motor is in an enemy-filled area, it can still spawn and attack your ship.
You should always have someone ready to flip the light on on the levels where it gets dark, and this same party member is best assigned to running back and forth between the canons. You will notice that some characters are better suited to combat; the player who is in charge of protecting the raft will want to go with Herman or Francis.
Battling While Alone
If you do decide to play the game on your own, then you will still need to deal with all the enemies - check out our Solo Guide as well! In this case, we highly recommend you let your robot buddy take care of most of the combat while you worry about steering the ship. Be warned, though; the robot can neither turn on the light to get rid of the spiders nor deal with firing the cannons at pirates. This can be done, but it makes the game much harder than it was intended to be.