In a pirate game like Windrose, your character’s life revolves around your ship. It’s the primary way you navigate the world, allows you to engage in naval combat for rare loot, and serves as a constant form of progression. However, at the start of Windrose, you’re a captain who’s left without a ship, forcing you to survive without one for some time.
As you might expect, the game’s story involves you acquiring a ship, but it doesn’t happen automatically. Find out more about how to get your first ship and start upgrading it in Windrose in the guide below.
How to get the first pirate ship in Windrose
Technically, you can actually get your first ship fairly early on in the main story. After you complete the tutorial mission, you’ll find Dr. Galen, whom you met in the opening minutes of the game, at your base. He survived the boarding of your previous ship and found his way back to you in the hopes of getting a crew together to go after the pirates who shot you.
Fortunately, Dr. Galen has a boat that you can use to travel the high seas for the first time. However, this ship barely counts, as it’s more of a raft that can only reach 10 knots and has zero redeeming qualities.
Still, you need to use this ship to reach other locations for the main story. After speaking with Dr. Galen, you’ll get two new main quests: “I Need a Bigger Boat” and “Rescuing the Crew.” You need to complete both of these quests in order to secure a much larger and more traditional ship.
The I Need a Bigger Boat quest is ultimately what rewards you with a larger ship. However, when you finally reach the location of this ship, which requires you to visit several random locations on the map, you’ll find that it’s in need of repairs. It requires 100 wood, 20 nails, 20 coarse fiber, and 10 rope to fix. You need to bring all of those materials to the boat, interact with it, and then choose to repair the ship.
As luck would have it, there’s another step involved in repairing the ship. You need seven total crewmates before you can take the boat out to sea and take its helm. This is where the Rescuing the Crew mission comes into play. This quest requires you to sail to five different locations, infiltrate pirate camps, and rescue seven crew members from jail cages.
Once all seven have been rescued, return to the large boat’s spot on the beach, interact with it, and choose to have the crew tow it out to sea. You now have ownership of your first proper ship in Windrose, and you’re able to hop aboard and take the wheel to sail it wherever you want.
How to upgrade your ship in Windrose
Now that you have your ship and crew, you want to take it back to your base’s location. Here, you can speak with Dr. Galen to progress the main story, but you also have some boat upgrades to make as well.
There is a new tutorial quest available, and it walks you through the basics of owning a ship. You first have to defeat a Blackbeard ship near your camp, and then you can go back to base and make some upgrades.
To make any kind of upgrade, you need two base stations: a Shipwright’s Workbench and a Wharf. The Shipwright’s Workbench allows you to craft cannons, a better hull, and boarding equipment. However, you can’t equip any of those upgrades without a Wharf, which is essentially a small stand that you want to place near the water.
At the Wharf, you can select your new ship and see its inventory as well as its current equipment slots. Once you craft something from the Shipwright’s Workbench, place it in your character’s inventory and then run it over to the Wharf. Now, drag the ship item from your inventory to the right slot in the middle of the screen. This equips that item to your ship. You can also drag other items from your inventory to the ship’s inventory and vice versa.
The Wharf also allows you to rename your ship and make further upgrades down the line. It only works when the ship is docked near the Wharf, though. You can always recall your ship to your current location by pressing Esc and then “K.”
That’s all you need to know about getting and upgrading your own ship in Windrose. With that out of the way, make sure you keep your character healthy by learning all of the ways to heal yourself.
