FREE · NO DOWNLOAD · DISTRESS SERIES EPISODE 3

Life Raft Survival Game: Can You Last Until Rescue on 18 Liters of Water and 10 Flares?

▶ PLAY FREE NOWNo download · Phone or PC · 3–5 minutes per run · 10 languages

Life Raft Adrift: 72 Hours to Rescue is a free, choice-based life raft survival game you play right in your browser. It is 9:40 p.m. on a Friday in May. Seongsu Team 3, who survived the mudflat and the winter Seoraksan accidents, is on a “workplace injury consolation” reward cruise that their company gave them, in the sea south of Jeju. Before the toast at the awards ceremony is even over, the emergency alarm sounds: seven short blasts and one long. Fire in the engine room. Minutes later the ship is listing, and you have to jump into the night sea.

The ship, company, characters and dates are all fictional. The choices and outcomes are built from the IMO life raft survival guidance and materials from the Korea Coast Guard, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and the US Coast Guard (USCG).

How the game works

The clock only stops when you have to decide (⏱ running / ⏸ paused). Days adrift are compressed into minutes.

1. Alarm to abandon-ship order (about 6 minutes): Do you grab your life jacket from the cabin and wake a sleeping coworker, take the elevator, or head to the muster station? Smoke fills the corridor.
2. Abandoning ship: The moment the ship tilts, you hold the rail and choose: stay dry down an evacuation chute, or hold your life jacket down and jump feet first.
3. The first minutes on the raft: cut the painter, pull people out of the water, deploy the sea anchor, close the entrance, take seasickness pills, a VHF channel 16 Mayday, the SART.
4. Three days adrift: water rationing, shade at midday, the temptation of seawater, passing ships and planes, and surprises in the night.
5. Rescue or landfall: a Coast Guard patrol ship arrives, or, if no one comes, the raft washes up on an unnamed island.

The handheld VHF radio

In the Distress series you use a communicator instead of a phone. In this episode it is the handheld VHF from the raft kit. You have to turn between CH 16 (distress and calling), CH 06 (ship-to-ship safety) and CH 13 (ship-to-ship navigation) to hear clearly, and the battery drains while it is on. The sooner you send a Mayday on channel 16 and give your position, the faster rescue comes. When thirst gets bad, you may hear voices on the radio that shouldn't be there.

The villain: Jay, a travel YouTuber with 800,000 subscribers

Jay (real name Jang Jae-ik), on the same raft, seems kind and cheerful. But in front of the burning ship he goes live, uses everyone's power banks for the stream, fires flares into an empty sky for views, drinks water in secret at night, and urges everyone to pull in the sea anchor and paddle, shouting “That light is Jeju!” Can you gather clues and expose who he really is? See Jay's fate on the result screen.

Jump scares and time limits

The core of this game is screen shake, vibration and time pressure. At every urgent moment (a smoke-filled corridor, burning debris, a whistle in the dark, the lights of a passing freighter) a card pops up with 3 to 6 seconds to choose. At night the screen darkens, you hear a heartbeat, and then a jump scare hits: a shadow thumping the raft floor, a fin, lightning, a black wave. You can turn the jump scares down on the start screen.

Perks and crewmates

Each run gives you one perk, and each perk changes what you can do.

• 🩺 Company clinic nurseProperly treats hypothermia and wounds in people pulled from the water · Remembers to hand out seasickness pills on time
• 🔧 Facilities technicianPumps up the raft and patches tears · Gets the sea anchor down fast
• 🦺 Safety Team Assistant ManagerHas run the company's abandon-ship drills · Nails the jump posture in one go · Very persuasive
• 📦 General affairs asst. managerKnows the survival kit list by heart · Put in charge of water and flares, nothing slips through
• ☕ In-house café baristaBoarded with extra water and snacks · Keeps people calm
• 🔦 Security guardAlways carries a flashlight · Great at night lookout and keeping order
• 💻 IT developerReads out phone GPS coordinates accurately over the radio · Stretches the battery to the very end
• 📢 PR team stafferCounters Jay's livestream incitement with calm words · Keeps morale up
• 🛋️ A jobless guy who tagged along for the empty seatNothing to lose, so stays calm · Three years of pool-lifeguard part-time work
• 🚴 A delivery rider on a Jeju-bound shipStrong enough to last long in the water · A fast swimmer
• 🧹 Cruise cabin cleaning staffKnows the ship's layout and the life-jacket lockers · Gets out of smoky corridors fast

Your companions on the ship are timid Team Lead Park (who left his laptop in the cabin), Jiwoo the new hire, who fell asleep in headphones and missed the alarm, Manager Do, filling kids' life jackets at the muster station, and Seo-jun the intern, one of Jay's devoted subscribers. Trust hearts rise and fall with your choices.

3 hidden missions

Each run picks 3 hidden missions you can't see. They are drawn from: wake Jiwoo, life jacket before abandoning ship, board the raft dry, deploy the sea anchor, seasickness pills before you feel sick, hold off on water on day one, keep the flares, expose Jay's recorded video, Mayday within the first hour, hold on to Seo-jun, stay with the raft to the end, and don't hesitate.

12 survivor types and 12 casualty types

Your survivor type depends on how you stayed alive.

The one who went by the bookCut the line, sea anchor, seasickness pills, no water on day one, flares only when something's in sight. You followed the raft survival guidelines line by line.

Jay's whistleblowerHis own action cam accused him. The water pouches were everyone's again.

The last flareNot a single shot fired into an empty sky. Saved for the moment a ship appeared.

The water pouch keeperNobody drank on day one. That's why there was still water on day three.

The channel 16 radio operatorMayday three times, the ship's name, the headcount. Short and clear, saving the battery.

The one who deployed the sea anchorEven when black waves crashed down, the raft did not capsize.

The one who heard the whistleYou didn't dismiss the tiny whistle in the dark as the sound of wind.

A dry escapeStraight onto the raft by chute. Those few seconds spared you the cold of the first night.

Patience in placeEven at “That light is Jeju!” you didn't paddle. The raft is what's easy to find.

The one who reached the islandFor three days, no one came. The raft reached an unnamed island. The story isn't over yet.

Survivor on the wavesThere were mistakes, but you kept the raft to the end.

The lucky-break survivorMistake after mistake, but alive. The sea let you off.

The mistakes that really cost lives in maritime accidents become the casualty types.

Packing bags in the smokeThe suitcase and laptop sank into the sea. The smoke in the corridor didn't wait.

The stuck elevatorIn a fire, an elevator becomes a box.

Jumped without a life jacketThe life jacket was hanging in the wardrobe.

Filmed the flamesThe view count went up. The time ran out.

One sip of seawaterYou thought water is water, salty or not. The sea took the water out of your body.

Paddled after Jay“That light is Jeju!” The light never got closer; only water and strength disappeared.

A night without a sea anchorA big wave hit with not a single drogue down. The raft flipped easily.

A wet first nightA May night sea is colder than you'd think. You should have shut the entrance and huddled together.

Water drunk all on day one“We'll be rescued by tomorrow.” The water pouches ran out on the second night.

The one who left the raftRescue looks for the raft. A single human head on the sea is far too small.

Flares into an empty skyThe flares burned out in a sky with no one in it. When the ship passed, nothing was left in your hands.

The incredibly unlucky oneNearly everything right. The sea was cruel anyway.

10 tips for surviving the game (and real life)

1. When the alarm sounds, life jacket first. Leave your bags and go to the muster station.
2. Stay low in smoke. Cover your nose and mouth and follow the floor-level escape lights. Don't take the elevator.
3. Stay dry if you can. Board the raft directly by evacuation chute or ladder.
4. If you must jump, go feet first. Look down, hold your life jacket down with one arm, pinch your nose and keep your legs together.
5. The first five things on the raft. Cut the painter → pull people from the water → sea anchor → close the entrance → read the survival instructions.
6. Take seasickness pills before you feel sick. Vomiting costs you water.
7. Hold off on water for the first 24 hours. Except for the injured. After that, small amounts at set times.
8. Never drink seawater.
9. Flares only when you can see something. Orange smoke and a mirror by day, flares at night.
10. Don't leave the raft. Don't paddle or swim toward a distant light.

The full reasoning is in Life raft survival tips.

The Distress series and sharing your result

This game is the third episode of the Distress series, in which Seongsu Team 3's reward vacations keep ending in accidents (West Sea Mudflat → Seoraksan in Winter → Life Raft Adrift → Desert Island 72 Hours → Amazon Crash). When a run ends, send the result card to a friend.

FAQ

▶ PLAY: LIFE RAFT ADRIFT, 72 HOURS TO RESCUE