Shrimp - Hovercraft

EDIT (16.07.2026): I became aware of a bug(?) that in survival mode when sitting in a chair, you cannot control the lectern controller. I updated the schematic to use a floor lime chair instead. Craft performance is unaffected.

EDIT (16.07.2026): after some more testing and designing, I found a way to make the hovercraft slightly faster and smaller. The current schematic contains the updated version. If you need to access the original (slower) Shrimp, it is available as a variant as well. The only downside to the new version is that it can't perfectly hover in place on regular fuel any more.

Description

A simple survival-friendly all-terrain hovercraft. Features brass-less construction, autocruise for long trips and ability to traverse most biomes.

Startup procedure:

Place the schematic (or build it in survival) and assemble the craft (assembler not included). Then add fuel to the portable engine. It can work on regular coal, but best results are achieved with blaze cakes.

Controls:

• Lever on the barrel activates the nozzles.

• Binds on linked controller: W - activate main propellers, A/D - reverse left/right propeller respectively. So, to W goes forward, W+A/W+D turns and W+A+D goes backwards.

• To save fingers from constantly pressing W, there is a lever at the top of the cabin; when toggled, it continuously sends a signal to activate propellers. Then controls become A/D to turn and A+D to go backwards otherwise you go forward.

Additional info ans tips

The main goal for this craft was to make it cheap. As such, it doesn't use brass components and can be built before entering the Nether. However, on regular fuel it struggles to climb up hills and is quite slow. When fed with blaze cakes, it basically becomes twice as fast (and now actually can climb up hills).

Speaking of hills, to climb one you should back off just a bit after ramming into it, wait for the nose to tilt up and then full throttle forward. Turning when climbing might result in you sliding down the hill; the hovercraft usually can't make it on just one propeller pushing it forward.

Shrimp is very stable even without gyroscope and levitite and is (almost*) perfectly balanced; it is probably impossible to flip it over on flat terrain. On bumpy terrain it is possible, but very unlikely. If you do end up upside down, just try going over the hill that caused you to flip over. When sufficiently tilted, the craft will correct itself.

Built for Goshva's hovercraft community challenge.

* it can hover in place when powered with blaze cakes; on regular fuel it very slowly drifts backwards, unfortunately.