Drowned
Drowned are undead humanoid enemies in Windrose. They appear most commonly in treasure-dig encounters on the starting island, notably the Fifteen Men on a Dead Man's Chest quest, and as guardian mobs at the Smuggler's Cache.
Combat Profile
Level — typically Level 2 in starting-island encounters, increasing with biome.
Type — undead humanoid.
Attacks — primarily melee with some ranged attacks that can harass from distance.
Grouping — spawn in groups of 4 at dig sites; this group-of-four pattern is documented in multiple community sources.
Where They Appear
Buried treasure encounters — opening a buried chest spawns 4 Drowned at Fifteen Men on a Dead Man's Chest and similar dig-site quests.
Smuggler's Cache — at least one Drowned guards the cache where the Fast Travel Bell recipe is hidden.
Night encounters — community reports describe Drowned spawning at night near some shorelines, though day-night patterns vary by biome.
Combat Tips
At starting-island gear tier, pick them off one at a time. Fighting all four Drowned simultaneously without copper armor is dangerous.
A Pistol or early Blunderbuss lets you weaken the pack before they close the distance.
Stand inside the buried-chest hole as a choke point so they cannot all attack simultaneously.
Level 2 Drowned individually are manageable, but the volume (4 at once) is the real threat.
Drops
Drowned drop Undead Essence, an alchemy ingredient used in the Standard Healing Potion alternate recipe (1 Alchemical Base + 2 Undead Essence). Because the Cursed Swamps biome has higher undead density, Undead Essence becomes more plentiful once that biome is unlocked.