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Exploration
April 17, 2026 at 01:14 AM
Supersede pre-launch demo figures with launch-build scale and current habits
Exploration in Windrose happens across a procedurally generated archipelago of islands with multiple biomes. While the island layouts are generated, the game contains over 100 hand-crafted dungeons and points of interest placed throughout the world. Each dungeon has set encounters, loot tables, and environmental puzzles.
Every player gets their own world, and every new game generates a different island layout. This gives the game strong replayability since you cannot simply memorize the map. The developers describe it as "vast procedurally generated biomes filled with hidden mysteries" with "handcrafted dungeons and questlines layered into the procedural structure."
Character progression carries between worlds. You can start a fresh world without losing your character's levels, talents, and unlocked recipes. The demo includes 3 islands with 4 to 6 hours of gameplay, representing approximately 2.5% of the planned Early Access launch map.
Islands are populated with hand-crafted locations, each with their own enemies, loot, and mechanics:
A hidden coastal area with the entrance concealed behind vines and foliage. Players must clear the plants to reveal the path. A dangerous Drowner enemy patrols near the entrance. Inside is a Smuggler's Chest containing the player's first Fast Travel Bell. This is the earliest way to unlock the fast travel system.
A warehouse located to the west of the starting island. Contains two unique chests requiring different mechanics to access: one is located high up and requires jumping/platforming to reach, while the other requires pressing a hidden button underneath the stairs. Both chests contain a Tumbaga Ingot (weapon enchant material) and a Sturdy Saber. The camp also contains the second Fast Travel Bell. Guarded by aggressive boars that charge when provoked.
Enemy outposts scattered across islands, filled with hostile pirates. Supply boxes yield 2 to 3 units of gunpowder each. Defeated pirates also drop gunpowder. Pirate camps and their enemies respawn daily, making them a farmable source of ammunition and resources. Be cautious of enemies two or more levels above you.
Located in the center of the starting island. Serves as a landmark reference point. Between the ruins and the Copper Deposit is where clay deposits can be found. Contains loot chests with equipment and consumables.
The starting island and the other nearby Coastal Jungle Islands all contain caves with copper ore deposits inside. Ore appears as bluish-white colored stone walls. Some caves contain enemies. Players need a pickaxe and torch (torches can be built inside mines). Mining at night is recommended since it is always dark in caves regardless of time of day.
The "I Need a Bigger Boat" quest sends players to the second island to find three wrecked ships. All three must be discovered for quest progression, but only one can be repaired. The first wreck (northwest shore) is beyond repair. The second wreck (middle of island) is the repairable one, heavily guarded by patrolling enemies. The third wreck must be visited but does not require repair.
Windrose features a buried treasure mechanic that rewards careful exploration:
Find a Traveller's Camp on the island. A piece of paper (note/diary) lies on the ground.
Read the note. It directs you to dig near "the tree with the red cloth" visible from the tent.
Locate the tree: a dead tree at a slight angle, with a red rag or scarf tied around the trunk, south of the camp.
Craft a Shovel at the Workbench (requires 3 Copper Ingots + 10 Wood).
Switch the shovel to Dig mode (press X and Z to change modes; it defaults to combat stance).
Dig directly underneath the marked tree to unearth a Decrepit Chest.
The chest contains the Rapier of a Thousand Cuts, described as "an expensive Spanish rapier with a silver hilt." Its thin blade applies Bleeding (stacks up to 5 times, dealing 40 damage per second per stack). When ascended, kills apply all bleed stacks to the nearest enemy. It is one of the best weapons available in the demo.
The note and treasure location are tracked in the Curios tab of the player's menu.
The Curios tab is a section within the player's inventory menu that stores collected notes, documents, and diary entries found during exploration. Players can review discovered lore and quest information from this tab. It is easy to overlook; community members note it "took a while to even find."
Each island has a discovery system with tracked categories:
Category | Contents |
|---|---|
Key Discoveries | Fast Travel Bell, Copper Ore, Copper Ingot, Rough Hide, Misty Orchid |
Major Discoveries | Lamp, Clay, Banana, Dodo Egg, Cayenne Pepper, Sweet Potato, Rum Bottle, Healing Herbs, Steel Nails, Crab Shell |
Local Threat | A specific enemy encounter tied to the island |
NPC crew members sing sea shanties while sailing, a feature widely praised by the community. Known songs include "Drunken Sailor" (2026 Remaster), "British Tars," and "Sail the Raging Sea." The developers also released "Rolling Home" as their first official sea shanty single. PC Gamer's reviewer stated the "boisterous sea shanties my crew sings keep me coming back for more." The feature draws comparisons to Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, which is also known for its sea shanties.
The game offers multiple navigation tools:
Tool | Description |
|---|---|
Auto-navigation | Available for both walking and sailing, letting you set a destination and travel automatically |
Wind direction | A visual wind direction indicator is visible in the sky. Wind can push your boat left or right if you are not actively steering, though the effect is currently minimal |
Ship summoning | Press K to summon your ship to any coastline, eliminating the frustration of losing track of your vessel |
Fast Travel Bells: Teleport between placed bells or return home from your boat via the world map |
Traveling between islands happens by ship. The journey itself is part of the gameplay. The open world is largely composed of islands separated by vast stretches of sea. Players encounter enemy vessels, shipwrecks to investigate, and hidden locations that reward curiosity with loot or lore. Planning voyages is important: consider supplies, threats, and destinations before setting sail.
Venturing to more distant or dangerous islands carries higher risk, including stronger enemies, environmental hazards, and the distance from your base. The payoff comes in the form of rarer resources, better gear drops, and access to higher-tier crafting materials.
The April 14, 2026 Early Access launch shipped with three biomes (Coastal Jungle, Foothills, Cursed Swamps), approximately 30 procedurally generated islands per seed, over 90 hand-crafted points of interest (including dungeons, temples, shipwrecks, and Ancient Ruins), and a main campaign of roughly 50 to 70 hours. Earlier wiki phrasing that described the playable area as "approximately 2.5 percent of the planned Early Access launch map" referred only to the February 2026 Steam Next Fest demo and is no longer accurate. The launch build is the full Chapter 1 scope of Early Access.
Gear-level progression tracks biome order: Coastal Jungle covers gear tiers 1 to 5, Foothills covers 6 to 10, and Cursed Swamps covers 11 to 15. Ashlands, which appeared on older wiki pages as a third-biome candidate, remains a planned future biome and is not live in the launch build. See Procedural Biomes for the current biome tree.
The Curios tab inside the inventory menu is easy to miss. It aggregates every discovered note, diary, and lore fragment collected during exploration. New players should open it after each Traveller's Camp or Ancient Ruins visit to confirm the current journal trail (for example, the Alexandre Exquemelin buried-treasure leads) is being tracked.
On crowded dedicated servers, copper, rough hide, and other early bottlenecks can be stripped by overlapping players within hours. The common community-developed habits that came out of launch weekend: check the Discoveries icons on the map before traveling (the map indicator dims when POI chests are exhausted for your character), save overnight trips for biomes where your tier is lower than the local threat, and coordinate who is farming which island so two players do not sweep the same copper vein within the same respawn window.
