Windrose - Things You NEED To Do After Leaving Your First Island

As you exit the Coastal Jungles in Windrose and move on to the Foothills, you'll unlock a whole heap of new content and ways to experience the game. With it come extra challenges and ways to optimise to make sure you're getting the most out of your base, money, and ship.

Here are a few tips for things you should be doing to excel!

Windrose may be a game with fantasy elements like undead sailors and magical life saving artifacts, but you still can't escape the very real reality of the importance of cash. Chief among the pirate dosh is a Spanish silver coin called Piastre .

You will want to farm and grind this currency as much as possible, and use it to unlock key upgrades, equipment, and resources. These are the best ways to do it:

Collect and Sell Artifacts

While exploring the many islands in the game, you’ll frequently come across ruins or points of interest, and these areas contain valuable Artifacts that can be sold to vendors for money. Since you’ll be exploring islands and other areas of interest frequently, this is an easy way to consistently earn money without going too far out of your way.

Take Down Pirate Ships

Arguably the best way (and certainly most fun) to earn Piastre is by taking down pirate ships, especially the ones that are marked with a pirate chest icon, as these ships drop the most money.

Other ships can be boarded for their haul but have much smaller yields in comparison, so it might just be more worth your time to sink them to the bottom of the ocean.

On top of the currency rewards, you’ll also earn pirate insignias which are another important resource to increase your Faction Reputation. With more faction reputation, you’ll unlock better recipes and more upgrades, too - which is why farming Piastre and Faction Reputation go hand in hand.

What to Upgrade First

Once you’ve built yourself up a nice little nest egg it's time to spend some of it! You should prioritise upgrading your ship first; a stronger ship allows you to defeat enemies faster, take on higher-level threats and enemies, and earn more Piastre and Insignias. Upgrading the ship first allows you to snowball and become even richer as the game progresses.

The next option is to unlock Trader Contracts. Trader Contracts are obtained from the People of Tortuga faction and have some of the strongest upgrades available. They allow you to invite vendors to your base who sell shipments of essential resources, such as Wood, Clay, Food, Seeds, and Animal Goods. Trader Contacts is a game-changer and will help you passively gather supplies and resources without doing it all yourself.

The next thing you’ll want to do is buy your first full gear set. Equipment in Windrose is really important, and they offer powerful bonuses when matching sets are worn. There is no universal one-size-fits-all, and the set you pick should empower your playstyle. However, the key thing is that set bonuses provide a major power spike, which makes combat easier.

Setting up a farm is one of the best long-term investments you can make in Windrose, as it effectively doubles your plant resource generation over time. Plants grow very quickly and will return the seeds you used to plant them once harvested. Get enough plants and you'll never have to leave your base for your organic material and food needs ever again.

Getting Fertile Soil

A lot of plants need Fertile Soil. You can harvest this much like Clay in the first island by heading over to the ruins at different points of interest. Look for dilapidated flower beds around buildings and get gatherin'! Pick up as much as you can - Fertile Soil is surprisingly rare (although it will respawn after some time has passed) and its usefulness in farming cannt go understated.

Planting the Seeds

A rich soil bed is nothing without the plants to grow in it. Finding seeds is a simple yet potentially frustrating task - all you need to do is harvest the plants in the wild for a chance of their seeds to drop, but the operative word here is "chance". It may take some time plucking bananas and picking peppers before their respective seeds actually drop.

Once you get them however, it's as simple as opening the build menu, navigating to the Farming tab, and putting your green thumb to use!

All in all this is a crucial method of retaining a steady supply of useful items such as materials and food without having to even leave home.

You should start implementing these things when you reach the Foothills, which can be considered the beginning of the mid-game. If you do everything we’ve suggested, you will not run out of resources, your income will remain steady, and you’ll have a more optimised mid-game. Do all these things, and you’ll have a much more enjoyable and less-grindy mid-game.

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