Smugglers of Port Royal

The Smugglers of Port Royal are the most secretive of Windrose's four player-facing factions. They operate from a hidden base discovered through exploration and through specific quests like Underground Network. The Smugglers deal in contraband, rare relics, and currency exchange between Piastres and Guineas. Their faction inventory specializes in heavy plate armor (Conquistador's and Pikeman's sets), ship hull bracing, and Smithing Flux for advanced metallurgy.

Faction Overview

How to Find the Smugglers

The Smugglers' hidden base is not marked on the player's map. Two paths lead to discovery:

• Exploration: Following rumor trails in Tortuga's taverns and finding lore notes at Pirate Camps eventually points to the hidden base location

• Underground Network quest: A specific side quest chain that explicitly leads the player to the Smugglers' base. Triggered by NPC dialogue or by finding specific lore items at Pirate Camps

Once discovered, the Smugglers' base remains visible on the map and the player can return at will to trade and accept faction quests.

Faction Trader Inventory

The Smugglers' Provisioner sells faction-locked plans and high-tier crafting materials:

Currency Exchange

The Smugglers operate the only Piastre-to-Guinea currency exchange in the game. 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; it stays unfavorable as a faction-flavor design choice.

Practical exchange use cases:

• Selling a load of Piastres for Guineas to afford a high-end Tortuga armor plan you cannot otherwise reach

• Converting Guinea windfalls from buried treasure into Piastres for everyday faction trader purchases

• Avoid daily conversion; the cumulative exchange loss is significant

Windrose Naval Tactics (Rank 3 Reward)

At Rank 3 reputation, the Smugglers unlock Windrose Naval Tactics: a set of ship passive bonuses unavailable through any other faction. These passives boost cannon reload speed, sail efficiency, and crew morale during boarding actions. The exact bonus values continue to be community-documented during Early Access.

Building Reputation

Smuggler reputation is earned through:

• Selling Contraband to the Smuggler Provisioner (the highest-paying contraband buyer in the game)

• Completing Smuggler-specific side quests (Underground Network, plus follow-on quests at higher rank)

• Recovering specific lore items from Pirate Camps and turning them in to the Bounty Agent

Insignias of a Blackbeard Lieutenant (dropped from boarding actions on Blackbeard ships) can also be turned in to the Smuggler Bounty Agent for reputation, though selling Contraband and completing quests is more efficient.

Lore Connection: Port Royal

The historical Port Royal was a famous English pirate haven on Jamaica, infamous for hosting Henry Morgan and other 17th-century buccaneers before being mostly destroyed by an earthquake and tsunami in 1692. In Windrose's alternate history, the Smugglers maintain the Port Royal name as a brand of illicit commerce, even though their physical base of operations has shifted to a hidden location somewhere in the Caribbean archipelago.

The Smugglers do not pursue Blackbeard for ideological reasons. They oppose him because his undead fleet disrupts trade routes and threatens the entire Caribbean economy. Their interest in the player is transactional: they want a pirate hunter who can keep shipping lanes open and recover rare materials from places too dangerous for ordinary smugglers.

See Also

• Factions - the full faction system overview

• Bounty Agents - faction reputation turn-in NPCs

• Conquistador's Armor - Smuggler-locked heavy plate set

• Pikeman's Armor - Smuggler-locked two-handed damage set

• Guinea - the gold currency exchanged at the Smuggler base

• Piastres - the silver currency exchanged at the Smuggler base

• Contraband - the highest-value trade good for Smuggler reputation