Windrose: How to Get A Real Ship Fast (Need A Bigger Boat)

Windrose is a pirate game, and a pirate game needs a nice ship to call home. While we start life out on a ship, we quickly get thrown into the sea to live our new life on an Island. Thankfully, the game does give us a little rowboat to travel between the islands; however, we yearn for a real ship, and thankfully one will come our way in the first few hours. With some good preparation, we can get this done fast.

In this guide, we'll walk you through exactly when you get your first ship, what quest triggers it, and how to come fully prepared so you can get it as quickly as possible.

How to Get Your Ship as Quickly as Possible

The game will begin by teaching you the basic aspects of the game: How to craft, place objects, mine ore, upgrade your gear, etc. During this time, you also get a small boat, allowing you to travel to small islands. However, the first real Ship comes a little later, thanks to the quest "Need a Bigger Boat."

This quest chain kicks off when Doc Galen returns to camp and explains that he also survived the wreckage. This sets us up with two clear goals: Find the missing crew and search nearby shipwrecks to find a suitable ship. These will then populate on your map, with the first two being duds, but make sure to loot these areas for some nice items anyway.

Before you head out, you can make this process even quicker by doing some prep work before you leave:

1. Bring the following, or find them on your way: 100 Wood - 20 Nails - 10 Rope ( 30 Plant Fibre) - 20 Coarse Fabric (60 Plant Fibre).
2. Place a Fast Travel Point at your main base. This requires 20 Wood and 1 Fast Travel Bell. You will find these in chests, either located in ruins or Smuggler's Caches. They can also be crafted (10 Copper Ingots + 3 Rope).
3. Be level 2.
4. Craft your first Copper weapon and have a full set of crafted gear.
5. Bring food and bandages, or speak to Doc Galen and claim a free Health Potion.
6. Find the first missing crew member. Once you have the resources to repair the ship, it will trigger the second part to find the remaining crew.

If you don't bring enough, all of the resources can be easily farmed in the area where you find the correct shipwreck. Just loot all the smaller shipwrecks along the coast until you have the Nails, then farm Plant Fibre and Wood.

Finishing the Repairs and Finding the Crew

Once you've found all the resources you need (100 Wood, 20 Nails, 10 Rope, and 20 Coarse Fabric), you can complete the repairs to claim the ship. However, there is still the issue of the missing crew that we require to man the ship.

Saving the Crew

You'll need to round up 7 crew members before you can get underway. To do this, switch your attention back to the Rescue the Crew quest, which tasks you with tracking down and freeing the other sailors scattered around the island. Work through that quest, and once your crew is assembled, you'll finally be ready to set sail.

Pro Tip: All three missing crew camps are fairly easy, but the last one will be the hardest. The best method is to use a range weapon to pick one off and fight them, outside crew first, before engaging the boss. Once you fight the boss, use range attacks to break his guard (armour points).

Getting Your First Ship

Once you rescue the crew, head back to the shipwreck again and "Examine" it once more; this will let you repair the ship and complete the quest. Your new ship will then appear in the sea, shipshape, to start your adventures proper. From here, take the ship back to your first base and talk once again to Doc Galen, who will reveal the next part of the story.

Check out our other content for more in-depth Windrose content and expert tips.