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After 4 hours of pirate survival in Windrose, I'm reinstalling Sea of Thieves

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Pirates? Great. Survival? Ehhhh.

Sea of Thieves pirate offering up a coin
(Image credit: Rare)

I've been a pirate in Windrose for four hours now, and I've been up to all sorts of classic pirate activities in that time: Chopping down trees, picking up sea shells, making huts out of grass, and getting killed by boars, elite-tier dodos, and giant crabs.

There's not much in the world of Windrose that can't kill me in a couple hits, but I'm marooned on a small archipelago and need to rescue my crew from around the islands before I can actually get to the life of sailing that stepping into the boots of a pirate should offer. So I get in a tiny boat and put up its sail—which actually just means pressing the W key like it's a throttle, since there's seemingly no wind system in Windrose—and putter over to one of the pirate camps where my crewmates are held hostage.

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After spending a few minutes trudging around the beach picking up rocks, I use my workbench to craft a handful of crude bullets for my pistol, hoping I can pick the pirates off one-by-one. But wouldn't you know it—I haven't progressed far enough in the tech tree to craft gunpowder yet, so the only way to get it is to kill some of the pirates that just wiped the floor with me. Guess it's time to fight more boars and pick up more grass so give my armor a trivial defense buff!

Windrose: Early Access Release Trailer - YouTube Windrose: Early Access Release Trailer - YouTube
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Official Sea of Thieves 2026 Edition Launch Trailer - YouTube Official Sea of Thieves 2026 Edition Launch Trailer - YouTube
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While Sea of Thieves launched many years ago without all that much guided progression—no grand skill trees to level up through, no campaign, not much to unlock beyond cosmetics—from the jump it nailed being a pirate, from the tactile rigging of the sails to fixing leaks in the ship to climbing the mast to sweep a spyglass over the horizon. I used to hate Sea of Thieves' awkward swordplay, but a couple hours of Windrose, which has the stilted feel of an MMO, had me missing Sea of Thieves' slapstick physicality. From the jump Windrose offers a whole lot to do and even more to unlock, but none of it actually feels good, and precious little shouts "now this is pirating."

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