Revision 2

The Shovel is a tool in Windrose, crafted at the Workbench. It is used primarily for buried treasure quests and for digging up worm bait for fishing.

Recipe

How to Use

Equip the Shovel from your inventory or hotbar. Press X to toggle Dig mode. While in Dig mode, interact with marked dig sites or valid ground to excavate. Press X again to exit Dig mode and return to normal interaction.

Primary Uses

• Buried Treasure Quests - the Fifteen Men on a Dead Man's Chest quest requires digging under a leaning dead white tree with a red rag on the starting island

• Fishing Bait - dig for worms in damp ground; worms are used as bait on the Fishing Rod

• General treasure spots - other Traveller's Camp notes and map hints direct players to Shovel-required dig sites throughout the archipelago

Progression Gate

Because the Shovel requires 3 Copper Ingots, it is gated behind the smelting pipeline (Copper Ore cave > Charcoal Kiln > Smelting Furnace). Most players unlock the Shovel during the Islander tutorial once they have reached Copper, but early treasure-hunt triggers (notes in Traveller's Camps) cannot be completed until the Shovel is crafted. Prioritize the smelting pipeline specifically to unlock the Shovel if you are hunting for the Rapier of a Thousand Cuts.

See Also

• Workbench - crafting station

• Buried Treasure - buried treasure mechanic

• Fishing - fishing system

• Fifteen Men on a Dead Man's Chest - treasure quest

Four Shovel Modes

The Shovel is not a single-function tool. Once equipped, it cycles through four distinct modes, each bound to a different interaction with the environment. Only Dig interacts with buried treasure and fishing worms; the other three modes matter for base building and self-defense.

• Weapon: swings the shovel as a two-handed bludgeon. Damage is well below a dedicated Saber or Club, so treat it as a last-resort option if the primary weapon is broken, reloading, or out of stamina.

• Dig: the mode used for the Fifteen Men on a Dead Man's Chest buried chest, Traveller's Camp dig sites, and Fishing worm bait. Hover over the marked patch of ground and the dig prompt appears.

• Raise: builds the terrain up under the cursor. Useful for closing gaps in a base foundation, leveling a shallow pit before placing a building, or extending a cliff edge slightly when a structure footprint overhangs the ground.

• Flatten: levels a sloped patch of ground down to a uniform height. The most common use is smoothing rocky or uneven terrain around a Bonfire before placing foundations, since buildings snap cleanly to flat ground but fight the physics on rough surfaces.

Cycle through the four modes with the key bound to Shovel: Next Mode (2 by default on keyboard) or Shovel: Previous Mode (3 by default). The currently selected mode is displayed near the hotbar while the shovel is equipped. Switching modes does not cost stamina and can be done mid-exploration.

When Raise and Flatten Actually Help

Most players never touch Raise or Flatten because the starter beach is already reasonably flat. Two situations bring them back into rotation later in the game.

• Building on a new island with rocky or uneven terrain. A quick Flatten pass clears the awkward rises that would otherwise force the build grid to tilt or reject a placement.

• Recovering a partially collapsed tile edge, for example when a cliffside ramp erodes below a planned Wharf or Fast Travel Bell placement. Raise restores the lost elevation without needing to relocate the structure.