The new pirate game Windrose is currently conquering Steam with hundreds of thousands of captains. One of them is MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus, who fell in love with the sandbox game in the first hour. Now he has encountered a real blocker for the first time, and it packs a punch.
It’s been a while since a game has captivated me so much. Right now I’m playing Windrose every evening and as much as I can in my free time. I even ignored a directive from my boss for this.
From the gameplay to the excellent shanties, Windrose does a lot right. I don’t want to gush too much right now; you can read my praise in the preview report, which hasn’t changed much.
What I have realized, however, is that the game can be really nasty. It’s not just a little: at one point after about 12-13 hours, I died more times in a few minutes than in the entire previous time.
After over 100,000 players logged into Windrose at the beginning, there are now over 220,000 (according to SteamDB). So maybe one or the other captain can learn something from my suffering…
Windrose suddenly gets tougher and really hits me hard
Like most survival games, Windrose has different biomes where you can find different materials. After the “coastal jungle” comes the “foothills,” which can only be unlocked after a boss fight.
The boss itself was surprisingly easy. However, I quickly ran out of quests in the “old” area and had to move on. Right here, Windrose threw me in the dirt, kicked me while I was down, and spit on me before laughing at me.
In the foothills, there are plenty of new rewards, but also challenges:
- Here I find materials to craft better gear or cook food.
- Certain “Points of Interest” bring small puzzles for special rewards and treasures.
- And finally, the area is teeming with totally overpowered wolves and hyper-aggressive goats.
Seriously, who the hell thought up these nasty creatures?! The wild boars in the jungle were already tough but at least somewhat predictable. These damn goats? Every attack from them looks exactly like they’re backing off. Totally unpredictable (just like in real life).
And the wolves are on steroids. One of them can jump at me and tear my throat out – which costs nearly 60% of my health and leaves me bleeding. The only help is a bandage, but try bandaging yourself when three more mutts are gnawing on you.
[The following remarks are from an insult book for pirates and are not suitable for publication on Mein-MMO]
My real nemesis was my own stubbornness
These wolves are a true plague, especially in ruins where you can hardly avoid them. In just such a ruin, I found my masters. Not animals, but just pirates.
I don’t know what stimulants the developers gave them, but I died multiple times under a hail of musket balls and grenades (why not?) and a whirlwind of sabers.
With the rapier, I’m actually using one of the best weapons in the game, but it has the drawback that I can only hit multiple enemies with difficulty. Without counter hits, they just keep attacking cheerfully.
Moreover, the pirates deal a lot of damage. I mean not just a little: a saber hit can easily take a quarter to a third off a large health bar, and a musket ball almost half. And now try to fight 5 of those crazies at the same time.
In the end, I used up about 30 high-quality foods and even more healing potions just to conquer this mini-dungeon. I quit the game with Alt+F4 in between and only returned the next day. I could have made it easier for myself…
The simple trick: just farm
This probably sounds particularly stupid now since I just gave the tip on Saturday, that you should definitely upgrade your gear when you get smashed. But that’s exactly what I didn’t do.
Why? Because my gear was actually already in a good state, I was just at the beginning of the “new chapter” and the new materials needed a lot of farming work. I wasn’t in the mood for that.
But when I finally got through the ruin after far too long of “pushing my head through the wall,” I got iron, flax, and hardwood to improve my weapons and armor, and behold: suddenly I don’t die constantly anymore. Maybe I should read my own articles more often. A little upgrade in the gear with the help of our guide to the best armors in Windrose also helped.
After my little outburst and a new digression into the new expansion of Diablo 4 (where you can read the preview report on April 21) I am now building my second ship, a proud brig with the majestic name Triomphante. And despite my own stupidity, I am not the only one who apparently has to take a beating first before things get better: Players first notice how to parry in Windrose after 20 hours, sharing valuable tips for beginners
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