OFFICIAL Beginner's Guide to Windward

Everything to get a new player started in Windward. Also can give people an idea what to expect from the game. Updated 9 Feb 2016.
Made official January 14, 2015!

Introduction

Windward is the kind of game that may appeal to a wide range of gamers. Those that prefer to sail around and enjoy the atmosphere can do that by focusing on trading, questing and exploration. On the other hand those that like the intense ship-to-ship combat can hop into an Instance or simply travel to a pirate-controlled region and go at it.

Main Menu

• To play solo, click on Single Player, choose a name for the world you're about to create and your character name, then click "Create" to proceed to the next screen.
  
• To play multiplayer with other players, click on the Internet button then choose a server from the list.
  
• To play multiplayer with your friends, have one player start a game via Single Player and make sure he checks the "Allow friends to join" checkbox when doing so. The other players will then be able to right-click their friend's name on their Steam Friends list and get game info. From there everyone should be able to join the game. Note that for this to work the player that created the game should have his computer be accessible to the internet -- meaning no firewall, or a firewall with UPnP enabled (most routers do).

New Map

Assuming this is your first time playing Windward, you'll be taken to a series of options that are mostly self-explanatory.

From here, click "Accept" to get a view of what the randomly generated map looks like. If this is your second time creating a map, it may look the same compared to your first one; this was done intentionallyhttp://steamcommunity.com/app/326410/discussions/0/624075036505308769/. You can either pick a start location and then press "Play", or "Edit" to change the map details.

Note: The "Play" button will not appear until you select a start position.

Map Editor

The map editor can be accessed by clicking on the "Edit" button as mentioned above. You can then click on any of the 81 squares on the 9x9 grid to make it solid land (a land border will be made on the map to its side) or click on it again to make it a playable region (an island chain of some sort).

Once you're happy with this selection, click "Next" to add the factions.

You have to add the factions in the order of Red (Valiant), Green (Consulate), Blue (Sojourn), and Yellow (Exchange). It is possible to remove any of the factions by clicking on their start location or any area under their influence (tinted in their colour). It is possible to make a map lacking one of the four factions, or even a map that contains just one faction (PvE servers usually do this).

In the screenshot shown above, the crossed cutlasses indicate that PvP is enabled for those sectors. Scroll down to the PvP section for additional details on it.

Game Difficulty

Each region's difficulty is determined by its challenge level, which in turn is determined by the distance from your team's starting location (although you can change this using the mouse's Scroll Wheel when hovering over any region). A higher challenge level results in stronger enemies (Pirate Captains and Pirate Lords appear only in high challenge level areas), area-specific rewards (Pirate Captains and Pirate Lords will drop higher tiered loot and other items), as well as higher rewards from questing and trading.

Adding land via the map editor is a good way of increasing the difficulty level of regions, and remember to fine-tune it using the Scroll Wheel if you're trying to create that perfect map.

The challenge level for the region is shown upon entering it, and can be viewed at any time via the fast travel menu (the screenshot above shows a challenge level of 38)

Additionally, each region requires you to be at a specific level in order to access it via Fast Travel. Pressing K for your talents will show you how many points are available to spend (zero in the screenshot above) and how many total you've gained (55 in the example). A player must gain a total of 101 talent points in order to be able to travel to the challenge level 38 region shown.

Regardless of the challenge level of each region, it's possible to sail there from the starting region manually just by sailing from one edge of the map into another. Although unless the pirates have already been driven out, this can be quite dangerous.

Choosing a Faction

Once the start locations have been set up (and it is possible to begin a map with one or more factions missing altogether), you can then choose which of the four factions you want to join. The main differences between the factions are:

• How they best gain experience (factions receive more experience when doing a specific kind of task than others)
  
• Discounts on vessels (applies to their towns; purchasing a Galleon from an Exchange-affiliated ports is cheaper than buying it from a Valiant-affiliated one, for example).
  
• Starting items and abilities. Sojourn players start with a Diving Suit equipped, letting them salvage shipwrecks for additional loot and experience, for example -- while other factions will need to fine one in their own adventures first.

Also shown are the starting vessels for each side. It is possible to change the cosmetics of your vessel - specifically, the hull, the deck, the sails, the embroidery (symbol) color, and the embroidery itself. Towns will sell paints and embroideries for you to choose from. It is possible to make your ship look like another faction's vessel, though your pennant will remain showing your true allegiance.

Regardless of your chosen faction on start, it's possible to change sides later by performing quests and tasks for another faction. Eventually they will offer you membershiphttp://steamcommunity.com/app/326410/discussions/0/624076027721996937/. There is no penalty for switching factions other than a cooldown timer, and is often advisable to do so before buying certain ships as this can save the player quite a bit of gold.

Valiant (Red)

The "combat" faction, Valiant ships are better suited for combat at the expense of the profit they can earn via trading. Valiant get a Volley that ability that has a faster cooldown timer than other factions, but it also does a bit less damage. Valiant members gain an experience bonus from defeating enemy ships.

Valiant players get a 20% discount when buying a Ship of the Line -- the toughest ship in the game ideally suited for Defensive specialization players.

Consulate (Green)

Maritime Consulate, or just Consulate as it appears in the game, is a fairly balanced faction that gets a notable bonus to diplomacy. If you aren't sure what kind of activities you might enjoy in Windward, Consulate is a good choice to pick -- especially considering that Consulate players gain an experience bonus from questing which comes in handy early in the game. In addition to the Diplomacy bonus that aids with trading, Consulate players will start with a Grappling Hook -- an accessory that greatly increases the grabbing range of nearby crates and barrels.

Consulate players get a 20% discount when buying a Royal Brigantine -- a mid-level support vessel.

Sojourn (Blue)

Sojourn is the explorer faction. Sojourn players start with a Diving Suit, allowing them to salvage shipwrecks, gaining resources, experience, and potentially even items by sacrificing some stone. Sojourn also gain experience from discovering new towns for the first time. Sojourn ships have faster speed and better accuracy, as well as a special Volley ability that has a longer cooldown timer but does more damage. The downside is that their ships will not be as tough up close as those of other factions, so keeping their enemies at a distance is advised (this is where the accuracy bonus comes in handy!)

Sojourn players get a 20% discount when buying a Schooner (low level fast offensive style ship), as well as a Corvette (high level version of the same).

Exchange (yellow)

Exchange faction focuses on trading. Players that choose to side with the Exchange will start with more gold than other factions and will gain bonus experience when completing trades. The innate boost to Diplomacy also comes handy when seeking to maximize profit (although it's not as large as that of the Consulate players).

Exchange players get a 20% discount when buying the Galleon -- a higher level support ship with the largest cargo hold in the game (5 slots).

Comments

Each faction is ideally suited to their preferred task. Valiant players will find Combat to be easier due to the higher combat-related stats of their ships in addition to a 25% experience bonus from combat, for example. Since it's possible to switch factions (unless Permanent War is enabled), it's not a big issue to start as one faction, only to realize that you should have chosen another.

Other Factions

Aside from the four factions described in the previous section and Pirates, there are two other playable factions available, although they are not open to new players to start with.

The 6th faction is Syndicate -- a shadowy organization that you may encounter in your adventures. Syndicate won't offer membership lightly. In addition to requiring players to have at least 50 talent points, Syndicate seeks players to obtain at least 1000 reputation with their organization before they (reluctantly) accept you as one of their own. Syndicate players get several useful perks. First, they don't necessarily follow the same rules as other factions. They are able to challenge control of regions regardless of whether they have a friendly region nearby or not. They are also able to Fast Travel to any region that's not controlled by pirates, provided the level requirements have been met. It's also not possible for other players to establish embassies in Syndicate-controlled territory. Last but not least, Syndicate players get bonuses to their ships' Hull, Speed, Damage and Diplomacy, with none of the penalties that the first four playable factions have to live with. All in all, Syndicate is a solid choice for higher level players.

The only other faction that's even more powerful is going to be even more difficult to obtain a membership in, as it requires 150 Talent Points. This faction, called Aequitas, gets even better base stats than Syndicate. They too can Fast Travel to any region that's not controlled by pirates, but their true power lies in their other unique perks. Aequitas players always travel with an escort, and are able to summon ships at will to help them out. Additionally, Aequitas players are able to create and gift rewards to other players for aiding them in some fashion. Aequitas powers grow as the player keeps gaining Talent Points, learning to summon more powerful ships and grant increasingly better rewards.

The Basics

The controls are easy enough: use WASD to move around and hold the Space Bar to drop anchor. Alternatively you can use the Left Mouse Button to sail in the direction of your cursor and Right Mouse Button to stop.

If you are playing with a controller, Left Thumbstick steers your ship, Right Trigger accelerates, Left Trigger slows down. Holding the Left Bumper will drop anchor, letting you stop much faster. The "Back" button chooses the menu, while the Start button either brings up options or enters the town you are docked in. Use D-Pad to select skills, examine them and rebind them, should you choose. Watch the screen for which keys to press as they will generally be highlighted for you right next to the action they will trigger.

Going back to the Keyboard/Mouse controls, there are a few more buttons to keep in mind, found at the top-left part of your screen:

• Inventory (I): Simply put, a list of the items currently available to you. It is divided into two segments: your inventory and your cargo hold. The cargo hold contains active quest items, and is reset when you die. The rest of your inventory remains the same.
  
• Talents (K): Talents are essentially abilities unlocked with experience. There are no levels in the game, but rather every certain amount of experience, you gain a talent point that unlocks another passive or active ability. These are covered in further detail later.
  
• Fast Travel (T): Allows the player to immediately warp to any location which has at least one friendly town. Cannot be used in battle (obviously).
  
• Menu (Escape): Provides language options and graphics, music, and sound sliders.
  
• Instance: 'Instance' button will create a private "outdoor dungeon" for you that you can then invite friends to if you so choose. This private region will always be level-appropriate for your current ship, and is perfect for those that seek to jump into some combat action.

You can rebind all of these buttons by right-clicking on them. Even the minimap in the top-left corner can be rebound from its default "M" key to something else.

Speaking of Right-Click... it's a very important action in the game. You can right-click friendly ships to hire them, right-click pirates to bribe them to join your side, right-click items to equip them, right-click quest items to track their target, etc...

In short, be sure to experiment with right-click as you play the game.

Quests

All towns located in regions where the players have driven out pirates will offer tasks for players to perform in exchange for gold, resources and sometimes even items. All players will want to start by performing a few of these first in order to earn some capital for trading, but even high diplomacy players will want to use quests as a supplemental form of income when focusing on trading later. If Port Alpha has a demand of a resource that Port Bravo demands, check to see if there are any quests that take you along the same route; this will help maximize your profits for minimal effort.

Construction quests

In addition to common "go there, do this" tasks, there are also consignments that prompt you to construct structures or even establish a new town entirely. Construction quests can be great for giving you both sight of the area around them as well as defending the region from nearby enemies.

The quests that offer these buildings require them to be built within coverage of the town that issued them. It's possible to erect these structures elsewhere, but doing so won't grant you the quest's reward. The structure will still be built, however -- so building them in remote areas or checkpoints is still a good idea, even if you won't get the promised rewards.

"Establish a New Town" type quests direct you to a specific spot on the map to deploy and set up a new town. A dialog box will indicate the available resources there. You will be asked to name the town, after which the town will be built with a size 1. It can then be interacted with like any other town and will also grow like any other town as you attend to its needs. Note that this quest can be completed in any region, not just the one you are in. It's often a good idea to bring some colonists with you when heading to the next pirate-controlled region, as having a town to call your own from the start will give you a solid leg up. If you can't find a good place for a town and aren't ready to adventure forward, try going into a Questing / Trading instance and placing it there (top-left of your screen, Instance button).

Combat quests

These quests involve combat against a pirate ship or a pirate captain. Captains are easily identified by having "Captain" in front of their name - they also sport heavily upgraded equipment and are tough nuts to crack. One recommended strategy involves kiting pirates into gun towers and other obstacles to weaken them first. Regular pirate ships are far easier to deal with.

Upon accepting the quest, a pirate vessel will spawn a short distance away from the town you took the quest from. Sinking the targeted vessel will net you experience, resources, and gold.

Other quests have you disable and then escort a far larger pirate ship back to base to face justice. Simply attack the targeted vessel and get its health down low enough for it to submit, at which point it will become your follower that you have to escort back to the original town where you've obtained the quest. The quest will complete when the pirate ship reaches the port. The pirate ship will remain friendly and will attack its former comrades when they appear.

Bonuses

All quests have random bonus objectives that can be completed or ignored. Each quest can have up to 3 objectives, and completing at least 1 objective before handing in the quest will reward you with an item. The quality of the reward increases as additional bonuses are completed.

Trading Commodities

Trading commodities is the main way of gaining money in Windward. Each port has one set of commodities in abundance, and another in shortage. Buying resources from one town and then selling them to another is a good way to make profit.

Players that start as the Exchange faction will begin with more money, allowing them to start trading faster than other factions.

Pressing the M key and then mousing over a town will tell you which commodities are in demand and which are in supply for that town, although simply hovering your mouse over the commodity's name will tell you where it can be acquired or sold. Checking the Rumors tab is also a good way to figure out what should go where.

Once you've found a commodity that is in demand, go to a port that has the resource in supply. Purchase the resource by clicking on the cost of the item. Then go to a port that has the same resource in demand and sell the resource by clicking on its cost. You'll sell the resource and gain some profit.

After a port's demands have been fully met, the port will grow in size and offer additional resources. It also will demand more, have more items for sale and grant you access to new ships.

Note that towns in regions that have not yet been cleared of pirates will not offer anything for trade.

Climates

Each region has a particular climate attached to it. Each of the nine rows on the map has a different climate. Starting at the top of the map and working downward:

• Arctic
  
• Boreal
  
• Maritime Subarctic
  
• Maritime Temperate
  
• Dry Subtropical
  
• Humid Subtropical
  
• Tropical Monsoon
  
• Tropical Savannah
  
• Arid

Each climate has different supplies and demands; some climates that demand one resource will not demand another.

Reputation and Rumors

Your reputation determines which quests are available to you, as well as any rumors available at the town. Rumors can help point you in the right direction if you can't seem to find a match of supply and demand anywhere on the map. The rumors only look at the map the port is in, and seem to prioritize resources that directly affect that city (Resource A is in demand in Port B, and is supplied here).

Sinking enemy vessels, capturing towers, and securing maps can help improve your standing with your current faction.

Unlike real rumors, these ones are never wrong. That said, however, it's often wise to double-check them regardless; when a port's demand changes, the rumors may take some time to update properly.

Reputation proceeds along the following levels (all players start as Neutral; Disliked and Hated appear if you sink vessels belonging to that faction):

• Hated
  
• Disliked
  
• Neutral
  
• Courier
  
• Associate
  
• Lieutenant
  
• Commander
  
• Captain
  
• Admiral

Reaching Admiral rank nets you the eponymous achievement in addition to a unique looking pennant replacement.

Account Bank (the Vault)

No relation to the Vault from a more famous FPS game, the Vault in Windward is used to store items. It’s a private 120-slot extra inventory space that’s shared between all characters on the same Steam account. Use it to store useful items or to simply transfer items from one character to another with ease.

It can be accessed via any town, and can be located at the bottom of the list of tabs.

Ships (Part 1)

These are the ships available to players. As towns grow in size, they will offer more and more ships for sale. First level towns can only offer Sloops. Second level towns will offer a Sloop of War, 3rd level -- Schooner, and so on. Note that in order to unlock ships past the Schooner you will need to find that ship in the world and defeat it first anywhere from 1 to 10 times. You can obtain the blueprints both from the pirates and from other players.

Sloop

• Defense: 100
  
• Offense: 100
  
• Support: 100
  
• Mobility: 100
  
• Speed: 100
  
• Cargo: 2 cargo slots
  
• Cost: Starting ship

The quickly obsolete, twin-sailed sloop is every player's starting ship. It isn't the strongest but it is quite maneuverable for its tier. Despite its agility it is quite difficult to remain in the blind spot of a larger enemy warship for a long period of time, especially against an experienced helmsman.

Official Description: Sloop is highly agile and quite fast as far as ships go. Just keep yours out of direct line of fire.

Sloop of War

• Defense: 120
  
• Offense: 130
  
• Support: 110
  
• Mobility: 110
  
• Speed: 110
  
• Cargo: 3 cargo slots
  
• Cost: 2000 gold

This slightly improved version of the sloop is often skipped by new players in favor of the more flexible schooner.

Official Description: What do you get when you take an agile Sloop, reinforce the hull and add more sails? A better Sloop!

Schooner

• Defense: 150
  
• Offense: 170
  
• Support: 150
  
• Mobility: 100
  
• Speed: 120
  
• Cargo: 3 cargo slots
  
• Cost: 10,000 gold (Sojourn get a 20% discount)

A solid step up from the default Sloop, the schooner is among the most agile of ships, beaten only by the corvette. As such, the schooner is a great ship for making money. Sojourn-affiliated towns give a 20% discount when purchasing this ship.

Official Description: Light ship favored by the Sojourn, Schooner is incredibly fast and packs some solid firepower.

Brigantine

• Defense: 200
  
• Offense: 180
  
• Support: 150
  
• Mobility: 85
  
• Speed: 90
  
• Cargo: 3 cargo slots
  
• Cost: 15,000 gold

Brigantine is a medium-sized vessel that sacrifices mobility and speed to gain a significant boost in defensive and offensive capabilities. Players that hold off or skip buying the Schooner can get a much more combat-focused ship, albeit at a 50% markup in price. Players that do obtain a Brigantine are advised to try ramming smaller ships in combat to quickly inflict a good amount of damage that scales with the force of the impact.

Official Description: Brigantine's heavily reinforced hull can take quite a beating, at the expense of speed and mobility.

Royal Brigantine

• Defense: 250
  
• Offense: 200
  
• Support: 250
  
• Mobility: 90
  
• Speed: 100
  
• Cargo: 4 cargo slots
  
• Cost: 30,000 gold (20% discount for Consulate)

Excellent upgrade to the Brigantine, Royal Brigantine improves on the older design in every way, making it an excellent choice for players who seek a balanced mid-level ship to call their own.

Official Description: Consulate-designed flagship is a work of art designed to impress, or when that fails -- intimidate.

Ships (Part 2)

These vessels are available for size 6-10 towns.

Brig of War

• Defense: 250
  
• Offense: 280
  
• Support: 200
  
• Mobility: 90
  
• Speed: 120
  
• Cargo: 3 cargo slots
  
• Cost: 45,000 gold

Brig of War is a medium-sized combat vessel that's more powerful than all its predecessors when it comes to firepower, and equally strong in defense as the Royal Brigantine. It's not as suitable for Support roles and has a smaller cargo hold, gaining a 20% bonus to Speed instead.

Official Description: Improved Brigantine design with even more firepower.

Galleon

• Defense: 350
  
• Offense: 280
  
• Support: 450
  
• Mobility: 80
  
• Speed: 110
  
• Cargo: 5 cargo slots
  
• Cost: 85,000 gold (20% discount for Exchange)

Galleon is the first Large class ship that becomes available for purchase. While slow, their massive cargo hold of 5 items, strong defense and offense is overshadowed only by the Galleon's Support capabilities, making their Water Barrels and area effect abilities like Inferno much more powerful.

Official Description: Plenty of cargo space and powerful weaponry makes Galleon a fantastic shipping vessel favoured by the Exchange.

Frigate

• Defense: 360
  
• Offense: 360
  
• Support: 360
  
• Mobility: 85
  
• Speed: 110
  
• Cargo: 4 cargo slots
  
• Cost: 100,000 gold

Frigate is a powerful multi-role ship that balances Defense, Offense and Support while still offering excellent speed and maneuverability. This balance makes the Frigate a popular choice for captains that favor versatility. The extra bonus damage from ramming enemies is a nice plus!

Official Description: Frigate is a balanced warship with a reinforced bow for increased ramming damage.

Corvette

• Defense: 250
  
• Offense: 500
  
• Support: 300
  
• Mobility: 100
  
• Speed: 120
  
• Cargo: 3 cargo slots
  
• Cost: 150,000 gold (20% discount for Sojourn)

The perfect blend of speed and firepower, the Corvette is a favorite combat vessel of many players. This small vessel, no larger than a schooner, packs some serious heat. In skilled hands, it can easily stay in the blind spot of other ships while firing broadsides, making for an easy win. Its incredible speed, mobility and low profile make it easy for skilled players to avoid AoE fire and use hit-and-run tactics to win fights while taking little damage themselves.

Official Description: Truly a marvel of ship design, the Corvette is a light, agile hunting vessel with a frightening amount of firepower.

Royal Corvette

• Defense: 250
  
• Offense: 300
  
• Support: 500
  
• Mobility: 100
  
• Speed: 120
  
• Cargo: 3 cargo slots
  
• Cost: 150,000 gold (20% discount for Sojourn)

Much like the Royal Brigantine alternative to the Brig of War, Royal Corvette focuses on Support rather than Offense -- offering a much increased AoE skill damage and better Water Barrel healing, at the expense of reduced damage from cannons. Players specializing in support will naturally gravitate to this highly agile support ship.

Official Description: Because even Pirate Kings need a touch of velvet in their lives.

Ship of the Line

• Defense: 450
  
• Offense: 300
  
• Support: 220
  
• Mobility: 75
  
• Speed: 85
  
• Cargo: 4 cargo slots
  
• Cost: 125,000 gold (20% discount for Valiant)

The capital ship of choice for players, the Ship of the Line is very slow but has the highest amount of health of all the ships. The strong Defense stat makes this ship especially fearsome for players that specialize in Defense, causing the bulk of the ship's Hull stat to apply to Damage while stationary.

Official Description: Valiant's motto of 'bigger is better' holds true in this improved Frigate design with even more firepower.

Ships (Part 3)

Turtle Ship

• Defense: 450
  
• Offense: 200
  
• Support: 400
  
• Mobility: 100
  
• Speed: 100
  
• Cargo: 3 cargo slots
  
• Cost: 500,000 gold

Support-specialized tanks will find this ship particularly interesting as it sports a Fire Breath ability that does 200% damage of Inferno. Combined together with high Diplomacy and Support specialization it can make quick work of most enemies.

Official Description: Superbly armored and yet surprisingly agile.

Drekkar

• Defense: 300
  
• Offense: 400
  
• Support: 350
  
• Mobility: 80
  
• Speed: 110
  
• Cargo: 3 cargo slots
  
• Cost: 500,000 gold

The Viking Ship, also known as the Drekkar, is a small vessel that has a special ability that shoots a storm of arrows at the closest nearby enemy, slowing them down. The slow effect is identical to that of Chain Shot, making it much easier to get behind enemies and blasting them away.

Official Description: Elegant, ornately decorated and crewed with archers.

Clipper

• Defense: 400
  
• Offense: 400
  
• Support: 250
  
• Mobility: 80
  
• Speed: 140
  
• Cargo: 3 cargo slots
  
• Cost: 500,000 gold

Clipper is a sleek looking vessel that's also incredibly fast. With its balanced defensive and offensive capabilities it's a popular choice among players, even if it doesn't offer any special skills.

Official Description: When 'fast' is simply not fast enough.

Ships (Part 4)

A Sealed Letter type quest, this ship's quest begins with players finding a Strange Diagram in level 36 or higher regions. Once opened, it will ask the player to locate a size 10 town in a region with level 36 or higher. Once located, this town becomes important for the rest of the quest, returning the player to it frequently. This lengthy quest has many steps and will most likely take a while to complete. Fortunately, unlike other quest items, this item is not lost when the player dies.

It's generally not advisable to start this quest until the player obtains the required components to actually finish it: 500,000 gold, 10,000 wood, 5,000 stone, and 3,000 black powder. The first step is to obtain the required amounts, followed by further resource gathering which will require having a Galleon in order to complete.

• 1 lumber
  
• 2 silk
  
• 3 coffee
  
• 4 fur

Upon delivering the final item on the list to the given town, one of the other towns in the region and its surrounding towers will become pirate-controlled. A hostile vessel, Dread Pirate Edimas, will spawn. Picking it out from the new crowd of pirates is easy; it'll be one that wanders around much farther than the new pirate bastion.

This new ship is difficult to pin down, has high-tier weaponry, and can fly over land. Luring it close to a bunch of friendly towers is advised. Sinking it unlocks the secret vessel.

ZPL-1700

• Defense: 200
  
• Offense: 250
  
• Support: 450
  
• Mobility: 120
  
• Speed: 150 (75 while landed, 225 while flying)

This ship has a unique ability to raise itself in the air and fly over land, making it extremely powerful against single targets and even groups of enemies as it allows the player to retreat easily. Its health is very low compared to other vessels of its stature, but it has the strongest Support stat of any other ship in the game making it a truly fantastic vessel for Support-specialized players, although many choose to use it for Offensive purposes due to its incredible mobility, speed, and its unique ability. The ship will become available in any size 10 town after completing the quest.
Official Description: It's difficult to comprehend this ship's unique design. No one is quite certain what it's supposed to do.

Stats and Equipment

There are ten stats that each vessel has.

• Hull: Your hitpoints. A higher Hull value results in a more resilient ship.
  
• Sails: Your sails' hitpoints. Stronger sails resist damage, and damaged sails drastically curtail ship performance (very important in combat!)
  
• Speed: How fast your vessel is in a straight line.
  
• Mobility: How agile your vessel is. A higher mobility value means you can accelerate and decelerate faster, and turn sharper at higher speeds.
  
• Damage: This affects how much damage your ship's attacks will do, both cannons and damaging Area-of-Effect abilities.
  
• Accuracy: The accuracy of the ship's cannons.
  
• Range: The range of your ship's attacks.
  
• Critical: The chance of causing critical hit (double damage or double the duration).
  
• Diplomacy: In addition to merchant prices, Diplomacy affects Support specialization talents and all Area-of-Effect abilities such as Grogolov.
  
• Armor: The higher the armor plating, the less damage your ship will take in combat.
  
• Armor Piercing: How many Armor points your shots will negate when striking a target.

It is possible to upgrade equipment at a Level 10 (fully grown) town. The level of the equipment, however, must be lower than the level of the region you're upgrading. A fully grown town in a level 15 region can upgrade equipment that is level 15 and below to its level.

Your ship has ten pieces of equipment that can be used to alter these stats. The exact effects are stated on the item itself, and can affect multiple stats (there is usually a lot of overlap).

• Hull - Mostly affects the toughness of your ship, but can also affect how fancy your ship looks (read: Diplomacy).
  
• Sails - Generally Speed, Mobility, Diplomacy.
  
• Cannon - Most commonly grants Damage, Accuracy, Range, and Armor Piercing.
  
• Ammunition - Very similar to Cannons in terms of stats, generally focusing on offense.
  
• Specialized - The items that go into this slot generally don't offer stats, but tend to add new skills and/or abilities, such as the ability to deal 30% more damage to coastal defenses or debuff enemies' armor on hit.
  
• Captain - Can affect any stat and even reduce cooldowns of skills.
  
• Specialist - Wide variety of stats, can be both highly specialized and generic. Specialists also generally grant one or more effects, such as a passive repair ability, or in-combat buffs.
  
• Crew - Much like the Captain, a good Crew can offer a wide variety of stats.
  
• Captain's Tools - Various tool items such as grappling hooks that can gather items from further away or spyglasses that can identify loot from further out. Uniquely, these items can mostly be combined together in a single item called "Captain's Tools" that will retain all of the benefits of the items within.
  
• Pennant - Wide variety of effects; the White flag allows players to opt out of PvP combat, while the Pirate flag has the player become a pirate themselves!

Captain, Crew and Specialists all gain experience on their own as you hunt in regions higher than the level of the item in question. So your Legendary level 8 item will automatically become a level 9 item after hunting and gaining talent points in a Challenge Level 9 or higher region.

Faction Multipliers

Different factions have emphasis on different stats.

	Valiant	Consulate	Sojourn	Exchange
Hull	120%	100%	80%	110%
Sails	100%	100%	80%	90%
Speed	80%	100%	120%	110%
Mobility	110%	100%	100%	90%
Damage	120%	90%	120%	100%
Accuracy	90%	90%	110%	90%
Diplomacy	80%	120%	90%	110%

Talents (Part 1)

Talents, also known as abilities, are either passive or active (the latter being marked with a star). Talents usually provide passive benefits for a ship, and can be obtained by spending talent points. Talent points are gained through experience. The game doesn't track your actual level, but you will receive a notification indicating you have a talent point you can spend.

Specialization talents are enabled only by groups, and only one set can be enabled at the same time. Designed for more dynamic group play, each specialization aims to assist both the player and his/her team with area of effect buffs, and other special skills. Check each heading for further details.

Specializations have to be explicitly chosen in order to work by clicking on the box around the specialization talents. This can only be done while docked.

Passive Talents

Name	Levels	Description
Captain's Toy	2	Improving the ship's steering wheel, rudder, and all the parts in-between grants 5-10% Mobility. Overall, extra flexibility when attacking enemies can be extremely useful, especially given the limited firing arcs of vessels. Later in the game, any sort of mobility becomes helpful when captaining larger vessels.
Gunner Training	3	Teach the gunner crew how to use cannons properly, increasing damage by 5-15%. Extra damage never goes amiss in combat, so this can prove useful regardless of what ship you're captaining.
Common Sense	3	Train the gunner crew to aim before shooting, increasing accuracy by 5-15%. Like extra damage, this talent is useful in all situations; no one ever complained about hitting your target more often.
Reinforced Sails	3	Reinforce the ship's sails with thicker material and extra rigging, increasing the amount of damage they can endure by 5-15%. This isn't too useful for new players since enemy vessels do not often use sail-damaging abilities, but in higher challenge level areas this skill becomes extremely important. Abilities such as chain shot and groglov cocktail can prevent a larger ship from gaining a proper firing angle on a more manoeuvrable opponent.
Reinforced Hull	3	Reinforce the ship's Hull by 5-15%, increasing the amount of damage the ship will be able to take before sinking. A must-have for all ship captains, as being able to take more damage is always a good thing.
The Good Stuff	2	Countless studies have proven without a sliver of doubt that a mug full of grog works wonders for improving the art of Diplomacy. Often overlooked, Diplomacy can affect market prices for your vessel. Making money quickly can help speed the game along.
Improved Volley	3	Increases damage done by Volley and Chain Shot by 15%/30%/45% These two skills are the bread and butter of naval warfare, and this talent is tied with Gunnery Training to improve your ship's raw damage output.
Exploit	3	Improve the Critical Strike chance by having the gunner crew aim for weak spots (5-15%). A high chance to land a critical hit is always good, though there are some skills out there that may prove more useful in a pinch.
SohCahToa	3	Teach the principles of basic mathematics to the less...expendable members of the crew, improving the Range of all weapons. Perhaps more useful than Exploit, SohCahToa can help players get the first shot on enemies. It also improves the range of Volley and Chain Shot.
Windward	2	Apparently improving Movement Speed is as simple as properly aligning the sails with the wind. Who knew! Your ship will travel considerably faster if you're catching the wind effectively. You can tell which way the wind is blowing by watching the clouds travel ahead of your ship. Moving in the direction of the wind, especially at an angle, can result in lightning-fast movement speed.
Shields Up!	5	Cover parts of the ship with metal armor padding, improving damage resistance by 5-25%. This can prove useful if you're taking fire from multiple enemies.
Lucky Charm	3	Improves your luck in finding valuable loot by 20-100%. Maxing out this talent will effectively double the rate at which you find rare items.

Talents (Part 2)

These talents can be activated and are bound to a key. You can modify the key by right clicking on the icon at the bottom of the screen and choosing "Set Key Binding".

While not a talent, the I.W.I.N ability is granted to players who are in combat for several minutes. As its name suggests, it immediately destroys the targeted pirate ship.

Name	Levels	Description
Repair	0	Stop the ship and perform emergency repairs. Repairs go faster when the ship is in shallow water. Repairs done at any dock are free, but repairs done at sea require wood. A starting skill, Repair is obviously invaluable. Repair yourself whenever you can, preferably in shallow water to expedite the repair process. The faster repairs are more apparent in larger ships than in smaller ones.
Aimed Volley	0	Take careful aim and fire a powerful broadside volley at the chosen target. Only Sojourn players have this skill. The bread and butter of naval warfare, you can always count on Aimed Volley to cause a considerable amount of damage to an opposing vessel.
Reckless Volley	0	Overload the cannons with extra black powder and fire a very powerful broadside volley at the chosen target. Only Valiant players have this skill. Much like the regular Volley, you can always count on this skill in a pinch to cause a ton of damage to a given target.
Volley	0	Fire a powerful broadside volley at the chosen target Only Exchange and Consulate have this skill. This skill is very similar to Aimed and Reckless volley, but it has the longest cooldown.
Chain Shot	0	Fire a volley of special ammunition designed to shred sails. Very effective at hindering hostile ships, but has a fairly short range. Most players opt to use Volley attacks since both abilities are on the same cooldown, but until you get skills like Grogolov Cocktail to really injure a target's sails, this can prove useful as well.
Noxious Fumes	3	A forgotten barrel full of fish was recently found in the depths of the cargo hold. The crew dared not open it, but perhaps it can be thrown at the enemy instead...Reduces Defence, Speed, Mobility, and Accuracy by 5. A debilitating ability that can be a big annoyance to enemy vessels, this talent can be fired into your blind spot to cover it...at least for a short time.
Grogolov Cocktail	3	Launch a barrel full of highly flammable Grog that will break apart and spread on impact, coating the area in fire. Not as effective against buildings. 15 damage per second for 3 seconds. Upgraded, Grogolov Cocktail can be a game-changer, especially if hurled into a large group of enemies. Conversely, along with Noxious Fumes, this talent can be used to attack enemies in your blind spot, giving larger, slower vessels a chance against smaller, faster ones. Despite the description saying otherwise, it can cause considerable damage against buildings, which cannot move out of the way.
Fog of War	3	Launch a barrel full of dry ice at the target, covering the area in a thick cloud of fog. Units within cannot see others, and are immediately removed from combat. Concealment lasting 6 seconds. This versatile talent can be used to temporarily silence a large enemy ship that's giving your team problems, forcing them to move out of the fog to engage a target. Alternatively, it can be used against your own position to create a smokescreen. Since you are immediately removed from combat, this gives you a short window to repair your ship while enemy vessels are nearby.
Hasty Repairs	3	There is no sense in heroically sinking with the ship when a bit of yelling at your crew can get them to quickly patch the holes in the hull and sails, is there? Repair 10% hull and 20% Sail damage over 10 seconds. An extremely useful skill to activate when you just can't seem to get out of battle for long.
Defiance	3	Increase Hull by 200% for 15 seconds. Particularly useful if taking fire from multiple opponents and need to disengage. Alternatively great for drawing fire from smaller, more vulnerable friendlies.
Improve Structure	3	Reinforce the targeted structure, significantly increasing its offensive and defensive capabilities as well as adding the ability to repair itself. Improve the targeted structure's offensive and defensive bonuses by 15%. One of the rare uses for stone and black powder on your vessel, Improve Structure isn't too useful until you get into the higher challenge level areas. Gun towers are particularly nasty on their own; their bigger cousin, the Siege tower, can cause even Ships of the Line to think before engaging them.

Defense Specialization Talents

Defensive specialization is for "tanking", making the ship much more resistant to incoming damage. A fully Defensive-specialized player will be able to take damage from multiple sources and remain in the fight while dealing a greatly improved amount of damage while anchored.

Defensive specialization's abilities scale with the Hull stat, meaning the higher the ship's Hull, the more effective its Defensive specialization talents will be. As such, the ideal ship for a Defensive-specialized player is a Ship of the Line.

Name	Levels	Description
Usable Debris	5	Use debris to raise armor by up to 20-100% as the ship's Hull condition deteriorates. This passive ability makes you tougher to kill the more damage you actually take. In a Ship of the Line with 2000 Hull at 50% health this means up to 1000 extra Armor, which can greatly reduce incoming damage and improve resistance to Corrosive ammunition and Noxious Fumes.
Instil Confidence	5	Your exceptional experience improves durability of all allies near you by 4-20% of your hull. If you want to be a team player, grab this skill and support your allies with more health. Like other Auras it affects your ship as well, so there is really no reason to be without it. No friendly captain will ever complain about having even more health than before, especially considering that it scales with your ship's Hull stat. The 20% of your Ship of the Line can easily double the health of a nearby Corvette.
More Struts!	3	Install strategic struts throughout your ship, reducing ramming damage by 20-60% and cooldowns on defensive skills by 10-30%. The ramming reduction can help a lot, especially since this allows you to ram in turn and take less damage in the process. Defensive skills specifically include Hasty Repairs and Defiance.
Indomitable	3	Special crew training reduces damage from area of effect abilities, improves turning speed, and increases damage by 25-75% of your Hull stat while anchored This talent turns your ship into a powerful "turret" while stationary, greatly increasing your ship's damage output while also adding a strong resistance to AoE abilities. Just remember to drop anchor for this effect to work! (hold Space Bar, Right Mouse Button or the Left Bumper)

Offense Specialization Talents

For those that prefer to deal a lot of damage quickly, specializing in Offense is the obvious way to go.

Offensive specialization's talents scale with the ship's Damage stat. The higher the ship's damage, the more effective the Offensive abilities are going to be. As such, the best ship for an Offensive specialized player is a Corvette.

Name	Levels	Description
Bet that Hurt!	4	Special gunner training reduces enemy armor by 2-8% of your Damage on hit. This skill gives all your regular cannonballs the ability to apply an Armor Piercing debuff on your enemy. 8% may not seem like a lot at first, but in a ship with 2000 Damage this provides a 160 Armor debuff, often greatly increasing the overall damage. The best part is that this debuff isn't limited to just your ship: all allies attacking your target will benefit.
Viciousness	5	Your bloodthirstiness inspires your allies, raising their damage by 4-20% of your own. Along with its counterpart Instil Confidence in the defensive tree, boosting the damage of multiple allies is the true benefit of this skill. 20%, especially when multiplied across multiple ships, provides a very noticeable damage boost.
Drill Master	4	Repeated practice reduces cooldown of offensive skills by 8-32%. Very useful in enabling the rapid use of skills like Grogolov Cocktail - which is very useful at disabling an opponent's sails and reduces their effectiveness in bringing weapons to bear. Faster offensive skills mean more damage, and more damage means your opponents have less time to think about their next move before sinking.
Bullseye	3	Grogolov and Noxious Fumes will now cling to enemies and reduce their repair effectiveness by 0-80%. Absolutely invaluable if you use either of these skills (you should, as you're an offensive ship when you use these). This way an enemy will not be able to fully escape the effects of either skill, and its effects will linger even if they successfully leave its initial area of effectiveness.

Support Specialization Talents

Support is a perfect specialization for players that prefer to hang back from combat as one of the key features of going Support involves a decreased "aggro" range where enemy ships need to get much closer before they start firing on the player. Support specialization talents scale with the ship's Diplomacy stat, making them more suitable for players sailing the Royal Brigantine (250% multiplier), Galleon (350%) and the ZPL-1700 (400%). In addition, Diplomacy also affects the damage of Area-of-Effect abilities such as Grogolov, so even those players that stack Diplomacy over Damage will not be left defenceless. Indeed, a highly Diplomacy specialized ship that also stacks Offensive timer-reducing Captain, Crew and Specialist can deal an obscene amount of damage with Grogolov that will also happen to have a mere 14 second cooldown timer.

In common fantasy RPG terms, a high Support-specialized ship can be both a priest as well as a mage.

Name	Levels	Description
Diplomatic Immunity	3	Your reputation reduces the desire for enemies to engage you in combat until you get closer by up to 3-10% of your Diplomacy. Useful if you want to avoid a fight, which you may want to do if you're choosing the Support specialization. This specialization enables you to lend your support to a pitched fight by throwing cleansing water barrels to your friends and fog to assist your teammates' repairing without having to engage enemies in combat yourself.
The Great Provider	5	Your mere presence reduces the cost of abilities, encourages nearby allies to repair themselves and raises their Diplomacy by 4-20% of your own. In addition to the boost to Diplomacy, this is basically a "regen aura" for you and your nearby allies. Much like the other auras (Instil Confidence and Viciousness) this skill is most useful in a pitched battle where multiple friendlies can be assisted by it. Better still, this aura provides additional stats for nearby AI-controlled ships, boosting their damage resistance and damage output.
Elite Training	4	With enough training, the cooldowns of all support skills and capture timers can be reduced by 8-32%, while damage output increased by the same amount. Improved damage, reduced cooldown timers on key skills and faster capture timers. What's not to like!
Crowd Control	4	Fog cloud will now cling to enemies and last longer. In addition, all Area Effect abilities will be up to 8-32% more effective. The bonus to Water Barrel ability greatly improves the "heal" effect, and throwing fog at a particularly strong enemy at the start of a fight can help divide multiple enemies.

Player vs. Player

Player vs. Player, of PvP, is done considerably differently in Windward than other games. By default, all four factions (Sojourn, Exchange, Consulate, and Valiant) are neutral to each other, and hostile only to the pirates. However, you can challenge another faction for control of a specific region, which enables PvP for 10 minutes (and this timer gets extended every time something gets captured). Each team has that long to secure the region.

It is possible to opt out of PvP by equipping the White Flag item.

On certain servers, PvP is globally enabled across all sectors. This is toggled by the "Permanent War" option when the map is first created.

Sectors that have PvP enabled are marked with crossed swords (scroll up to the Main Menu section to see an example of Permanent War).

Appendix: Commodities Availability & Cost

The base cost is the relative cost of the commodity - actual price will vary depending on a variety of factors, such as your Diplomacy stat, the size of the town, and the challenge level of the region you are in.

Which resources are in demand at a given town is determined by which resources can be found in a given climate (towns located in arid regions will never have a demand for fur) or nearby climates in the case of larger towns.

	Base Cost	Arctic	Boreal	Subarctic	Maritime	Mediterranean	Subtropical	Monsoon	Savanna	Arid
Marble	600	☒	☑	☑	☒	☒	☒	☑	☑	☒
Lumber	350	☒	☑	☑	☒	☑	☑	☒	☒	☒
Iron	300	☑	☒	☑	☒	☒	☒	☒	☑	☒
Coal	450	☑	☒	☑	☒	☒	☒	☒	☒	☑
Glass	750	☒	☒	☒	☒	☒	☑	☑	☒	☑
Crafting Tools	600	☑	☒	☒	☑	☑	☒	☒	☒	☑
Crafts	1000	☑	☒	☒	☑	☒	☒	☑	☒	☒
Jewellery	500	☒	☑	☑	☒	☒	☒	☒	☑	☑
Fishing Tools	300	☑	☑	☒	☒	☑	☑	☒	☒	☑
Meat	300	☑	☑	☒	☑	☒	☒	☑	☑	☒
Wheat	300	☒	☒	☒	☒	☑	☑	☒	☑	☒
Produce	300	☒	☒	☑	☑	☑	☒	☑	☒	☒
Spices	450	☒	☒	☒	☑	☒	☒	☒	☑	☑
Rice	350	☒	☒	☒	☒	☑	☑	☑	☒	☒
Salt	350	☒	☒	☒	☑	☒	☒	☑	☒	☑
Tobacco	600	☒	☒	☒	☒	☑	☑	☒	☒	☒
Fur	1800	☑	☑	☒	☒	☒	☒	☒	☒	☒
Leather	500	☑	☑	☒	☑	☒	☒	☒	☑	☒
Wool	400	☒	☒	☑	☑	☑	☒	☒	☒	☒
Silk	750	☒	☒	☒	☒	☑	☑	☒	☒	☒
Cotton	500	☒	☒	☒	☑	☒	☒	☒	☒	☑
Incense	1000	☒	☒	☒	☒	☒	☑	☒	☑	☑
Diamonds	1800	☒	☒	☒	☒	☒	☒	☑	☑	☑
Coffee	1200	☒	☒	☒	☒	☒	☑	☑	☑	☒

Appendix: Item Quality Descriptors

Sails	Hull	Cannons	Ammo	Crew	Captain	Specialist	Special Item
Torn	Damaged	Damaged	Damaged	Insubordinate	Untrained	Inept	Broken
Tattered	Cracked	Cracked	Rusted	Undisciplined	Inexperienced	Inexperienced	Damaged
Old	Weathered	Weathered	Reclaimed	Demoralized	Novice	Novice	Weathered
Standard	Modern	Standard	Standard	Average	Aspiring	Trained	Modern
Tailored	Reinforced	Reinforced	Polished	Experienced	Experienced	Experienced	Improved
Fine	Ornate	Ornate	Customized	Seasoned	Seasoned	Seasoned	Ornate
Exceptional	Exceptional	Exceptional	Exceptional	Distinguished	Distinguished	Distinguished	Exceptional
Extravagant	Extravagant	Finest	Finest	Renowned	Renowned	Renowned	Extravagant
Legendary	Legendary	Legendary	Legendary	Legendary	Legendary	Legendary	Legendary

[n.j.thecrazyshark]

/summon0 6 is the summon for Aequitas-1st summon

[thugernot]

Think the game is broken myself. I need like 22k exp and each quest in my zone gives 15xp to 20xp at most. I have 19 star points to spend and the next zone requires 3 but still won't let me travel to it. Anyone know what is up? the first three zones are all captured.

[Justin]

I think it's difficulty.

[wizcave]

Can someone help me know how the newer ships appear in the game. I know you have to kill off newer ships to get blueprints, but I can't find any of the newer ships to fight. What triggers them? Thanks.

[L.E.O]

Thanks for guide

[RubADuck]

Can someone here explain how to "summon" ships as Aequitas?

[Jeeronides]

Thanks for the guide, I started playing today. Still not sure how territories work, but enjoying it so far :)

[Justin]

Truth be told it hasn't been updated in a while. I don't really have anyone still playing this game, and I think Aren has moved onto other projects.

[§¢ɅЯↁɅ₪]

Two ships are missing in this guide. Flying fortress and smaller version of this with 600 offensive.

[Kallaste]

Also thanks for the guide. Very informative!