Floor-Standing Torch
The Floor-Standing Torch is Windrose's cheap light source. It costs only 2 Wood and can be placed almost anywhere through the Build menu, making it the fallback for cave exploration when the Oil Lamp is empty or the copper budget is committed elsewhere.
Recipe
Cost — 2 Wood.
Placement — anywhere reachable through the Build menu (B key).
Roof — not required.
How to Use
Torches deploy through the standard Build mode. Walk into a dark section of cave, press B to open Build, select the torch, and drop one wherever you need light. The torch stays lit once placed and can be dismantled on the way back out with a middle-click in Build mode to reclaim the wood (or simply leave it if the cave is worth lighting permanently).
Torch vs Oil Lamp
The two main light sources serve different use cases:
Floor-Standing Torch — stationary. Cheap. Good for segmenting a dark cave into lit rooms you can retreat to.
Oil Lamp — handheld. Travels with you. Good for deep exploration where dropping torches would be impractical. Requires 3 Animal Fat to refill.
Early-game players without the copper for a lamp can rely exclusively on torches. Mid-game players typically carry a lamp as the primary light and drop torches only for marking extraction routes.
Why Lighting Matters
Windrose caves and ruins are dark enough that combat becomes difficult without a real light source. Enemies like Drowned and Thorn Fiddlers spawn in dark areas, and misjudging range in pitch-black combat is a common cause of surprise deaths. Torches also help navigation on night surface exploration, especially in the Foothills where wolves ambush in low light.