Revision 9

Piastres are the everyday currency of Windrose, modeled on the historical Spanish silver piece (peso de ocho or "piece of eight"). They are the primary medium of exchange for Tortuga's faction Provisioners, NPC workers (farming contractors, merchants), and most goods on the trader stalls. Guineas (English gold) are a separate higher-end currency for premium gear and ship upgrades.

Currency Comparison

Earning Piastres

The most reliable Piastre sources, ranked roughly by income per hour:

• Selling trade crates: Naval Supplies, Medical Crates, and Contraband sell to Tortuga's Provisioners. Contraband sells for the most per unit but draws faction rep penalties at certain factions if you sell to the wrong one.

• Looting Blackbeard ships: Boarding a Blackbeard's Pirates' Ketch yields 50 to 100+ Piastres per kill plus Insignias (faction rep) and Naval Supplies (resellable).

• Faction quests: Each of the four player-facing factions offers Piastre-paying quests at Tortuga. Reputation rewards stack on top.

• Pirate Camp clearing: Pirate Camps respawn daily and contain supply boxes with Piastres, gunpowder, and trade goods.

• Buried Treasure: Mostly pays in Guineas and Silver Ingots, but also drops some Piastres.

Spending Piastres

Common Piastre sinks at Tortuga and at your bases:

Smugglers of Port Royal Currency Exchange

The Smugglers of Port Royal faction operates a currency exchange between Piastres and Guineas at their hidden base. The exchange rate favors the smugglers (you lose value when converting), so it is best used only when you specifically need one currency and have a surplus of the other. Building Smuggler reputation does not improve the exchange rate.

Currency Tips

• Stash trade crates (Naval Supplies, Medical Crates, Contraband) at your base before Tortuga is accessible; sell them in bulk once Tortuga is unlocked

• Save Insignias and Letters of Favor for the faction Bounty Agent rather than discarding them; they directly raise faction rank

• Convert Piastres to Guineas only when you specifically need to buy a Guinea-priced item and lack Guineas; the exchange rate makes daily conversion wasteful

• Silver Ingots are useful both as crafting material and as Piastre fuel; build a stockpile from treasure chests rather than buying them

See Also

• Trading and Merchants - Tortuga's trader system and trade goods

• Factions - the four player-facing factions and their reputation system

• Tortuga - the hub town where most spending happens

• Contraband - the highest-value trade good

• Naval Supplies - standard trade cargo

• Medical Crates - mid-tier trade cargo

Hauler Ship Hunting

Hauler vessels, identifiable by the small golden icon that appears next to their ship silhouette on the minimap and in middle-distance scans, carry substantially more loot than standard patrol ships. A successful board yields a full inventory of trade crates, ship cannon ammo, and faction reputation drops in a single engagement.

Higher-level haulers escalate the reward curve. The difference between a low-level hauler and an upper-tier one is roughly an order of magnitude in total Piastre return once the crates are resold to their preferred buyers. Fully upgraded hull bracing, boarding party gear, and at least one grog in the hold make the highest-level haulers approachable without constant near-death retreats.

• Confirm the gold icon before engaging. Patrol ships without it drop a fraction of the cargo and are rarely worth the hull damage.

• Stock four to six Combat Repair Kit in the ship hold before the hunt. Hauler escorts hit hard enough that the first repair window usually arrives mid-chase.

• Board from the wind side to close the distance quickly. Crew NPCs armed with an upgraded Boarding Party Gear slot carry the hauler fight the rest of the way.

• Sell crates to their preferred faction rather than the nearest vendor. A mismatched sale drops the return per crate to the baseline rate.

Top Per-Unit Sell Values

For players deciding which crates to prioritize when cargo space is limited, the per-crate payout at the preferred faction's Trade Goods Merchant ranks them cleanly.

Trophy heads like Crocodile Head and Dodo Head are hunting drops rather than faction crates, so they travel outside the usual trade-goods stack size and should be batched during hunting runs rather than crate-smuggling runs. Delivering a crate to the wrong buyer drops the return to the standard 100 Piastre baseline, regardless of rarity, which is why the Epic-tier crates (Luxuries, Specialized Tools) benefit the most from routing to the correct faction.