23 critical errors in Windrose: the guide to not ruin your game

Windrose, it's the kind of game where you think you're clever for 20 hours, and then you realize you've been doing anything since the beginning. The final boss fell after almost 50 hours of play. Victory, yes — but at what price? Between the poorly distributed stats, the boar whistle that I ignored for 30 hours, and the enchantment table that I discovered after the final boss , there is enough to make a whole article. Which is convenient.

Here are the 23 errors that cost me the most in Windrose — classified by theme, with each time what should have been done instead. If you are a beginner or in mid-game, it will save you a lot of hours.

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Somewhere in the foothills, you will come across an old village marked by a blue icon on the map — specifically the one with the mention 0/1 (the others are at 0/4, it's not the same). You spot a giant statue, impossible to miss. By interacting with it, the game asks you 20 pieces of meat and 3 ritual oils recoverable in the area.

My mistake: I went there too early, I didn't have the meat, I closed the menu and I forgot. Later, going back there and completing the offering, I obtained a whistle that summons Truffle, a pet boar Not the best fighter in the world, but he serves as a distraction when you're overwhelmed by enemies - and in Windrose, that happens often.

Comfort is a passive buff that accumulates by crafting an object from each decorative category. And the list is longer than one might think: boar trophies, crocodile, dodo, large goat, sink, kamatti, blades, wolf, and crab. Total: +7 comfort .

Beware of the crab trap. I spent 20 minutes farming the big Thorn Fiddlers thinking they were the ones dropping the trophy. No. It's the small orange crabs on the beach, visible only during the day . Interact with them, it's not a drop of combat.

At the end of the game, after having killed 200 crocodiles (yes, 200), you unlock the last comfort category in the statue for two additional decorative pieces. The maximum achievable is 31 comfort .

Well, this one, everyone pointed it out to me in the comments. There is a floor lamp special, designed specifically to illuminate caves without a campfire. It is placed outside the area of a bonfire and its description clearly states this. I just... didn't read it. The weird thing is that it is completely separate in the construction menu, which doesn't help.

Important precision: no, the bonfire does not prevent the ore from respawning. However, it blocks the respawn of creatures in the caves. So, is it really a mistake? It depends on what you prefer - peaceful ore or enemies in a loop for loot.

For a long time, when the ore was stuck to the ceiling of a cave, I left it there. Result? Lost resources with each passing. The solution is simple: install a quick ladder with a platform , mine the ore, and dismantle everything when you're done. It takes 30 seconds and changes everything.

I thought sulfur was exclusive to foothills. False. In the jungle biome, some white rocks have green embedded traces — it's sulfur. You can't mine it without an iron pickaxe, so you'll still have to go through the foothills first. But once equipped, going back into the jungle to farm sulfur safely is much more enjoyable.

As you go through dungeons and quests, you accumulate tons of weapons and armor that you will never use. I've stuffed everything in chests "just in case." Spoiler: the case never came up.

The right approach: recycle everything you don't use . Each weapon or armor for which you find or buy the recipe becomes craftable at the corresponding workbench. By defeating bosses, you unlock higher crafting tiers (level 6, then 11). If you change your mind later, you can recraft everything.

Warning: unequip your active gear BEFORE recycling. The game does not warn you if you recycle what you are wearing, and you only get the base cost - not the invested upgrades. Put your stuff in a separate chest, then recycle the rest.

I destroyed my kitchen fire to move it and I forgot to reassign the worker on it. Result: for hours, I did not benefit from the additional craft bonus. When you demolish a station, the worker is left unassigned — remember to reattach it.

In naval combat, hitting an enemy ship from the rear inflicts systematically critical damage . And it also works from the side edges, as long as the angle remains towards the stern. Also, the more you keep the aiming button in the same place, the tighter the dispersion cone of your shot gets - you can see it visually on the screen. In short, take your time to aim.

No need to climb on every boat you sink. Look above the enemy ship: if there is no chest icon, the extra loot is not worth it Pour cela, récupérez les dépouilles dans l'eau et passez à la suivante. Le rapport temps/récompense est bien meilleur ainsi.

You're getting smashed at sea and you're out of boards? Find an island nearby, jump on it, set up a temporary wharf and interact with: it repairs your ship for only 20 wood , whatever the size of the boat or the damage suffered. You can repeat the operation as many times as necessary. Always keep some wood and raw fabric on you for this.

Do you want to discreetly pass in front of an enemy fleet to reach a quest island? Take your dinghy. Bug or intentional design, I don't know — but in a dinghy, enemy ships shoot at you without ever hitting you. In 50 hours, not a single impact. It's infinitely safer than charging through a hostile brigade with your frigate.

Your boat is a floating chest — but I wasted a lot of time swimming to reach it. In fact, as long as you are nearby, simply open the ship's menu from the shore to add or remove items. However, it does not refresh your rest buff - for that, you have to go on board.

For a long time, I thought the best way to farm wood was to collect the floating loot at sea. After 50 hours? No. Park your boat near the coast and fire your cannons at the trees. It knocks them down directly, and you just have to go cut the logs. It works particularly well for tar trees, which are not found in oceanic loot.

Only exception: the Divvy Divvy trees. They only grow inland, out of reach of cannons. For hardwood and bark, buy crates from the merchant — it's the most tedious resource to grind in the whole game.

These enemies do a lot of damage to their environment when you fight them, and even more when they die. As a result, they knock down the tar trees around them. They respawn in the same place, so mark them on your map and come back to see them regularly. It's almost free tar wood.

I ignored fishing for almost the entire game, and it was a huge mistake. Fish fillets are a key ingredient in the seafood platter , one of the best foods in the game. The fishing mini-game is boring, I'm not gonna lie to you. But you can do it while you navigate : launch your line from the bridge, look back, and click when you see a big white splash. Downtime turned into resources.

If you catch the 10 species of fish, you unlock a ring that gives you 15% more fish. Some fish say "shallow water" or "deep water" in their description, but I caught the 10 in the open sea without any problem.

The corn for flour, the tomatoes, the flax for fabric — if you fall behind on crops, you'll end up stuck in the late game. Order seeds from the merchant to increase your yield. And do not eat food when you do your basic chores. Food does not affect your survival or stamina regeneration at camp — save your dishes for combat.

Leaving your bandages at home is slow suicide. Same goes for repair kits at sea. Neither one instantly heals, but they are. inexpensive alternatives for out-of-combat regeneration . Keep it on you at all times.

Changing your keybinds to switch targets remains a good idea, but know that you can also change targets simply by reorienting your mouse. It's often faster in open combat, but it can betray you in a boarding — you end up aiming at the mast instead of the pirate charging at you. It's up to you to see what suits you.

Long-range weapons can hit targets 100% of the time under one condition: aim for the head . It works on animals, pirates, anything that moves. And a little reminder: weapons have a passive reloading . Start the fight with a shot, switch to your melee, and a few seconds later your ranged weapon is ready again. No need to reload manually.

The critical damage in the late game is absolutely broken if you stack the right stuff. The jaguar and cutthroat rings, the foods that boost mastery, the concentration elixir, and the dedicated talents — combine all of this with the Privateer armor set and you process writings in a loop. It is the best armor in the game for a critical build, by far.

It's probably the mistake that cost me the most on the whole run. I put a max of points in agility hoping to boost the damage of my two-handed sword. And technically, it works — each point gives a fixed bonus based on the weapon's scaling. Except that after level 20, diminishing returns hit hard The gain per point above 20 is significantly lower. Vitality is the only stat that escapes this rule.

The right strategy: raise all your interest stats to 20 before going further . In my case, with the active tacos and coffee, my mastery and endurance were already at 20 thanks to the buffs, and agility at 15 via the necklace. So I completed agility at 20, pushed vitality to 20, and the remaining points in mastery for the additional crit. Respec is free, so don't hesitate to experiment.

Normally, an A grade should scale better than a D grade with the corresponding stat. In practice? It doesn't work like that. It's probably a bug, and it may be fixed one day. For now, choose the weapon you prefer the effect of, not the rank .

What really matters is the weapon level . A level 15 weapon against a level 15 creature deals 100% of its displayed damage. Against level 16+, less. Against 14 or less, more. Upgrade your weapons first.

That one, it hurts. I discovered the enchantment table. after defeating the final boss . Throughout my game, I ignored the cursed wood at the smelter because I didn't know it gave arborum essence — the key resource to unlock the table and, by extension, the best metal in the game.

I had found some arborum ingots in dungeons, but I assumed it was an unused asset since the game is in early access. Mistake. These ingots are used to upgrade certain plague weapons and to craft a new bullet that hits like a truck — but it costs a lot in resources. Save them for the bosses.

To build the table, you need 3 Mire Metal ingots, 10 cut stones, 10 plant fibers, and 2 arborum essences. Place it under a roof and within the heat radius of your bonfire. The main craft: 1 Mire Metal ingot + 1 obsidian + 2 arborum essences = 1 arborum ingot in 45 seconds.

The main quest takes between 50 and 70 hours depending on your play style. If you avoid the mistakes described here, you can easily save 10 to 15 hours.

Yes, completely free. You can redistribute your points at any time at no cost. Feel free to experiment.

In the Foothills, look for an ancient village marked by the wheat icon with the mention 0/1 on the map. Offer 20 meats and 3 ritual oils to the central statue.

31 comfort, by making all the trophies (9 categories) and completing the challenge of 200 crocodiles to unlock the last two decorative pieces.

In 50 hours of play, not a single enemy shot has hit the dinghy. Bug or feature, no one knows — but it works. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Only vitality, which has no diminishing returns. For the other stats, first raise everything to 20 then invest the remaining points in vitality or mastery according to your build.

Plague Wood in your foundry to obtain arborum essence. This unlocks the table recipe in the Refining section of the construction menu. You need 3 Mire Metal ingots, 10 cut stones, 10 fibers, and 2 arborum essences.