Revision 3

Thomas Richards is a named boss encountered in the Coastal Jungle biome of Windrose. He is the primary boss of the "Revenge Is Best Served Cold" questline, which is given by Doctor Galen Skelton after the player completes I Need a Bigger Boat. He is tuned for gear tier 1 to 5 and serves as the first named major boss players encounter during the early hours of Early Access.

Questline: Revenge Is Best Served Cold

Thomas Richards lives in a Coastal Jungle encounter tied to the Black Marks quest chain. The fight pairs heavy two-handed axe swings with thrown grenades, and he carries a poise guard that must be broken before you can open a reliable damage window. Because the arena is generous and he does not regenerate health between your retreats, attrition strategies remain viable. In co-op play, one player should hold aggro and absorb the axe windups while the rest of the group focuses poise and flank damage.

The quest structure requires the player to collect 4 Black Marks scattered across the Blackbeard Waters region before the encounter opens; each Black Mark ties to a small Coastal Jungle objective and progresses Doctor Galen's intel on Richards's location.

Discovery Tracker Context

Community-built discovery trackers (such as windrose.tools/discovery) list a "Local Threat" discovery slot for each biome. There is community discussion about whether the Coastal Jungle Local Threat is Thomas Richards or a separate, currently-locked entry tied to 1.0 release. A Steam forum thread titled "Anyone found the Local Threat?" reports that the Local Threat discovery item is gated behind release-version content in some players' experience. Treat Thomas Richards as confirmed via his boss guide, but do not assume he is the Local Threat entry without in-game verification.

Gear Tier and Recommended Preparation

Combat Approach

Thomas Richards wields a two-handed axe as his main weapon and supplements it with thrown grenades, forcing the player to manage both melee spacing and area denial. A poise guard covers his early health bar and must be broken before melee strikes connect for full damage. General Soulslite combat principles apply:

• Lock onto the boss with T so your dodges and guard track the enemy

• Watch for telegraphed windups; each axe swing has a visible animation before impact, and grenade throws have a distinct overhand tell

• Use Perfect Blocks (parries) to stagger him when possible; parries do not consume most weapons' poise

• Do not fully deplete stamina; recovery from zero stamina takes significantly longer than from partial depletion

• Retreat to recover stamina between aggressive windows rather than trading blows

• Red-glow unblockable attacks must be dodged, not blocked

• Enemies do not regenerate health between your retreats, so attrition strategies are viable

Rewards

Defeating Thomas Richards advances the "Revenge Is Best Served Cold" questline and unlocks progression toward the next biome (Foothills). Specific drop data for his loot tables continues to be refined by the community during Early Access.

Lore Context

Thomas Richards is not a historical figure; he appears to be an original character created for Windrose's alternate Age of Piracy setting. The "Revenge Is Best Served Cold" quest name suggests a personal grievance motivation, likely tied to the player's shipwreck prologue or to one of the secondary characters encountered in the early game.

See Also

• Procedural Biomes - biome progression and boss placement

• Enemies - full enemy roster

• Israel Hands - Foothills boss, next in the gear-tier progression

• High Priestess - Cursed Swamps boss at the final tier

• Combat - core combat mechanics

• Doctor Galen - quest-giver for Revenge Is Best Served Cold

Consumable Checklist

On top of the armor and gear-tier guidance above, the actual in-fight resources decide most Thomas Richards attempts. The player who walks in with too few heals burns attempts on the last third of his bar, where the combat window tightens and mistakes become expensive. A working checklist for the fight:

• Bandages, at least ten. Bandages are the fastest mid-combat heal and the cheapest to craft in bulk. Solo runs tend to use all of them by the time poise breaks consistently, so going below ten is self-sabotage.

• Health potions. A small alchemy bench investment yields Minor Healing Potion stacks that restore a large chunk of the bar. Brew three before the fight as emergency cover when bandages run out.

• Damage buff drink. Elixir of Cruelty layers a flat damage multiplier on top of your weapon's base output. Every extra point of damage accelerates the poise break, which means fewer windows spent dancing in range.

• Stamina / endurance food. Stacking an Endurance-boosting dish (cooked at the Cooking Fire) before entry keeps heavy attacks available deeper into each exchange. Food buffs can stack up to three simultaneous bonuses.

• The Rested buff. Decorating the base to apply the Rested buff increases stamina regeneration. It is free damage and free dodges; leaving without it is the most common avoidable mistake.

Weapon Rationale: Why Greatsword

The Greatsword is the recommended weapon for this fight, not because it is the strongest weapon in Windrose overall, but because strength-based heavy attacks are the most reliable way to deplete Thomas Richards's poise guard without needing to land perfectly timed parries. The reach of the weapon keeps you outside his axe swing arc, and its block stability trims chip damage during the double-swing pattern.

The Saber and Rapier are faster and more forgiving in general combat, but their lighter hits chip poise more slowly, which extends every safe window and compounds the total hit count needed per phase. If you are confident with parries, they remain viable. If you are relying on rhythm rather than reflexes, the Greatsword is the shortcut.

Guns are the fastest option if you have the ammunition budget. Gunpowder is scarce in the early game and is usually better saved for dungeon bosses, but Thomas Richards is a dungeon-class encounter, and ranged shots deal both poise and health damage against a target that cannot effectively retaliate at distance.

Reading the Two-Swing Pattern

The core of the fight is a simple loop around his primary melee rhythm: two axe swings, brief pause, repeat. Watch the two swings, step back through the second, move in for one heavy attack, then disengage before his next combo begins.

• Lock on first. Press T to lock on as soon as the encounter begins. Dodges and blocks automatically face him, which matters when his second swing tracks your movement.

• Walk backwards, do not run. Thomas cannot move faster than your backwards walk. Baiting both swings by retreating is safer than attempting to parry them cold, and leaves stamina available for the counter.

• One heavy, then out. Two or three heavy attacks in the counter window is greedy. His recovery out of the pause is faster than a full combo, and the first hit that catches you during your animation lock tends to cascade into a death.

• Phase compression, not phase change. As his health drops, the pattern speeds up and hits harder but does not fundamentally change shape. The two-swing read carries you from full bar to empty if you do not deviate.