Windrose has finally been released into early access after a highly successful demo on Steam earlier this year. It looks to be a hit right out of the gate, as the pirate survival theme mixed with the RPG elements and story is resonating with the PC community so far. While Windrose looks like your run-of-the-mill survival game at the start, you’ll quickly learn that the pirate world isn’t easy to live in. Between dealing with survival, enemies that deal huge chunks of damage, and exploring the land and sea, you could wind up seeing the death screen a few more times than you’d like.
To try and help with avoiding that altogether, we have put together a list of seven beginner tips to get you started in Windrose. These tips should make your first few hours much more tolerable and set you up nicely for what’s to come down the line.
Block, block, and block again
You’re immediately introduced to the combat system in Windrose, and it relies heavily on a blocking mechanic. This is the main way you can avoid taking damage from enemies, and that’s crucial given how much health enemies can take from you with just a single hit.
Unfortunately, you can’t just infinitely block an enemy’s attacks during combat, as you have a set number of blocks you can do before the mechanic is on a cooldown. This is indicated by the tan shield icons that appear in the lower middle part of your screen during combat. You start a fight with multiple of these shields, and it’s important to learn when to block and how to use the mechanic in conjunction with attacking and your stamina meter. Basically, though, block enemies when you know an attack is coming, and don’t be afraid to run away for a second so you can recoup some of your blocks.
Don’t forget about your Stat Points and Talents
It can be easy to forget that Windrose is actually an RPG as well as a survival game. While the RPG elements are limited, your character does have a set of Stat Points that you can increase as you level up. You also have a Talents menu, which allows you to unlock various upgrades that help customize the kind of pirate you want to be.
Every time you level up, you’ll earn a set of rewards. These mainly include a certain number of Stat Points and Talent Points. To use them, just go into your inventory and then use “D” to scroll to different menus. The second one you’ll see is called “Progression,” which shows you your Stat Points, and then you’ll see the “Talents” menu. Windrose allows you to reset your Stat Points, but it requires a rare resource to do so. Here are the Stat Points you have access to:
- Strength
- Agility
- Precision
- Mastery
- Vitalty
- Endurance
Guns are high risk, high reward
As soon as you crash onto the starting island in Windrose, you’ll have a sword and a gun at your disposal. While it might be tempting to keep the gun in your hands at all times, that’s not an efficient decision. Guns in Windrose are very accurate for the time period in which the game is set, and they are extremely difficult to use. Pistols and blunderbusses can deal a significant amount of damage at close range, but after firing, they take several seconds to reload.
More often than not, those extra seconds is all it takes for an enemy to hit you once or twice, lowering your HP to dangerous levels. Ideally, you should use guns to finish off enemies instead of trying to use them to initiate fights.
Only loot the essentials
Like any survival game, Windrose features a slew of resources that you can pick up within the first five minutes of the game starting. Of course, you want to grab as much as possible so you can get your base started and begin making early game tools and gear.
However, once your base is set up and you have an early inventory of items, you want to be a little more selective about what you’re looting. Windrose doesn’t give your character a sizable inventory whatsoever to start out, meaning you’ll be fighting for space if you pick up every item you find. This can be quite annoying if you’re far away from your base and have to start making decisions about what items to leave behind.
Fortunately, you can store all resources in storage containers around your base and still be able to access them while crafting or in building mode. This can save several slots of space in your inventory for rarer items that you find while out exploring.
Always follow your map
It sounds a little cliché to say follow your map while playing a pirate game, but it’s something you might overlook in Windrose. The map, by default, features plenty of helpful markers that guide you along during the early game. There’s a difficulty setting to turn these markers off, but if you have them enabled, you can look at your map to see where certain resources are located, where your next quest objective is, and the areas you’ve already explored.
Healing items are a priority
As we’ve mentioned before, combat can be unforgiving in Windrose, especially before you’re able to craft effective weapons and armor. A few hits from a boar or drowned enemy can mean death, and things get even more challenging when there are multiple foes to deal with.
You’ll still have to muster through the early game combat, but to make your life easier, take as many healing items with you as possible at all times. You can either craft your own bandages with Coarse Fabric or loot some Healing Potions from chests out on the island, specifically at Ancient Ruins. You can stack Bandages and Potions to give you more healing options, but there’s a cooldown after using them, so you can’t use the same item in succession to restore your entire HP bar quickly. Regardless, having multiple healing items gives you a much stronger chance at surviving multiple combat engagements and getting back to your base in one piece.
Destroy objects in building mode to move them
It’s important to remember that Windrose is still in early access, so there are bound to be some missing features that might be added in later down the road. One noticeable missing feature is the ability to move objects that you’ve already built at your base. In building mode, there’s currently no way to move an object after you place it down.
Of course, this is frustrating, but there’s an easy way to solve the problem for the time being. All you have to do is go into building mode, press your middle mouse button, and then destroy the object you want to move. This returns all of the object’s resources to you, allowing you to build it again in the location you want. It’s a patch job for now, but it really doesn’t take more effort than moving an object like normal.
