The pirate survival adventure Windrose is officially a smash hit, surpassing 1.5 million copies sold in just over two weeks. Since its Early Access launch on April 14, the game has immediately climbed the most-played charts on Steam. Developer Kraken Express recently confirmed this massive sales milestone, signaling a huge win for the title.
A Major Milestone for Kraken Express
"The team at Kraken Rex is incredibly grateful to all the captains that have set sail on their pirate adventures so far and excited to continue growing the game during the journey through Early Access," the developer stated in an official announcement. This surge in popularity has quickly turned Windrose into a standout title in the survival genre.
Expanding the World of Windrose
Alongside the sales news, Kraken Express released an update (patch 0.10.0.4.268-9d2ca277) featuring over 50 fixes and quality-of-life improvements. Players can now utilize over 40 new building pieces to create more consistent structures. The developers also addressed critical issues regarding connectivity, stability, and reduced SSD load.
Looking ahead, the roadmap for the game is already taking shape. While a full roadmap will arrive in the coming months, the team confirmed that the first major content drop will introduce the Ashlands. This new biome promises a dangerous environment overrun by the undead and covered in thick volcanic ash.
For those new to the high seas, the current Early Access version offers a deep co-op experience. Players can explore three diverse biomes filled with quests and engage in souls-lite-inspired combat against epic bosses. The game features:
- Procedurally generated worlds with handcrafted points of interest.
- An armory including sabers, maces, and muskets.
- Faction reputation systems, trading, farming, and fishing.
- Thrilling naval battles involving boarding actions and vessel command.
Detailed Patch Notes for Update 0.10.0.4.268-9d2ca277
Important Fixes and Connectivity
- Added a new Force Relay Connection setting (does not work with Direct IP) to improve stability when P2P traffic is blocked by routers or ISPs.
- Fixed a bug causing connection issues for players with non-English Windows usernames.
- Fixed unnecessary CPU usage on idle servers and clients.
- Reduced disk usage during gameplay.
- Implemented several improvements to ship performance when hosting a server.
- Fixed a rare crash caused by invalid inventory slot IDs.
- Fixed a crash that occurred when killing Drowned with ship cannon fire.
- Reduced the crafting cost of various building pieces across all sets (construction costs only).
New Content and Visuals
- Added approximately 40 missing wall triangle pieces for various roof angles.
- Added 3 missing floor triangle pieces to different building sets.
- Added 4 new Seedbed variations.
- Added new sound effects and visual effects for crop growth transitions and harvesting.
- Added audio cues for Drowned ranged attacks (they now yell before projectile launch).
- Extended the Bonfire ambient music track by 3 minutes and the Ship travel track by 40 seconds.
Interface and Controls
- Fixed FrameGen stuttering when closing the inventory or map.
- Fixed a VRAM spike when opening certain UI windows.
- The Disassembly station no longer displays equipped items in the list.
- Fast travel markers now appear on the top layer of the map when available.
- Fixed remapping issues for the O and L keys, and added support for secondary interactions, inventory management, and HUD toggles.
- Two-handed firearm controls can now be remapped.
- The "Hide UI" toggle no longer affects the inventory, journal, or menus.
- Added a dedicated setting to adjust safe zones for widescreen monitors.
- Improved support for accented letters in player and ship names.
Building and Terraforming Improvements
- Decorative Canopies now count as roofs for crafting station requirements.
- Fixed cases where digging under trees caused them to "hang in the air."
- Fixed a bug allowing players to dig under Divi stumps or certain swamp trees.
- The shovel flatten tool now correctly uses the ground under the character's feet as a baseline.
- Building integrity now correctly recalculates if a destructible support is destroyed.
- Fixed collision issues for 26-degree and 45-degree railings, allowing correct placement on foundations.
- Fixed visual offsets for pier pillars and square pillar collisions (existing structures are unaffected).
- The Signal Fire now shares the Comfort buff with other fire-related entities.
