Windbound is an adventure/survival game with the emphasis being on the survival side. Though the game has a tutorial it doesn’t go into great detail. I reviewed the game (find that here) and loved it. And as we often do for games we love: we make a guide. So here’s the one for Windbound, providing you with some hints, tips and tricks for playing Windbound that might help you out.
Crafting and Resources
Each time you start a game or a new chapter, the islands are randomly generated and this affects the resources you can find. Some resources are bountiful like Thick Grass and others are scarce and are harder to find such as Bamboo which is only found on islands after the first chapter. Not all items are available to you from the get-go and you will have to wait to be able to craft some items later in the game.
You could easily fill your item back up with lots of resources and then you will find you have no room left for the important items such as food!
Thick grass and rocks are handy to have on hand in your bag, but they are also plentiful on all the islands, the choice is yours if you want the carry them in your bag. I always have both in my bag, as you never know when something like your slingshot will break in the heat of the moment and you must craft another one right away.
To craft, you press the R shoulder button to bring up the menu and use the R shoulder button to switch between your inventory and the crafting menu then use the left stick to move onto the item you want to craft and press A.
Hunting And Gathering Food
In Windbound food comes in two varieties, food you can pick from bushes and trees or food from an animal you have to hunt and kill.
On most islands, you will find KojiBerry, a small edible fruit that can be found in small green bushes dotted about the islands. A Rust Cap Mushroom can be found on some islands, these grow on the side of tree trunks. You can usually see them on the side of trees without any problem as they give off a slight shine.
To gather food you hit the X button quickly to put the food into Kara’s bag and if you want Kara to eat the food instead of placing it in her bag you press and hold the X button and she will eat it.
At the base of some large trees, you might also find a Raw Truffle. Now you know why there are hogs on the islands, they are after the truffles too!
You’ll need to hunt for food and gather any food you do find, so Kara should be equipped with at least a spear at all times to be ready to defend herself. Most weapons break after a certain amount of uses, it can be to your advantage to carry some extra resources to be able to craft a new weapon when one breaks.
Weapons
A few of the first weapons you make are a Grass Slingshot and a basic Stick Spear.
To make a Sling Shot you need 1 x thick Grass which is plentiful and found on most islands and 1 x Grass Rope. Grass Rope is made using 2 x thick Grass. Rocks are used as ammunition, rocks are everywhere so at the very start of Windbound this is your basic ammo and weapon.
Later in the game, you will get recipes for a Leather Slingshot which is slightly more durable than the Grass Slingshot, it requires 1 x Leather and 1 Grass Slingshot to make.
You’ll get a recipe to craft Scatter Rocks ammo for your Slingshot but you will need to have crafted a Hammer and killed one of the large beasts that roam the island first to get an ingredient for the recipe for the Hammer so that will come later in the game.
By chapter two you might have another recipe to craft: a Poison Bomb (1 x Poison Gland and 3 x clay pot). A Poison Bomb disorientates and damages your prey during attacks. And to make a clay pot you need 3 x clay dug out of holes in the ground, 1 x stick, and 2 x thick grass. Of course in a typical game style you will need a Bone Shovel before you can dig up clay, isn’t there always a catch! A Bone Shovel requires 1 x Bone, 1 x Gorehorn crest and 2 x Thick Grass.
Kara has her Unbreakable Knife and it’s great for gathering resources but it’s much better to use a Spear or Bow and Arrow for catching prey.
You can make a basic Stick Spear, a wooden pole with a pointed tip. To make a basic Stick Spear you will need 1 X stick and it always handy to carry more than one stick since your spear will break.
Later on in the game, you will get a few recipes for better stronger weapons, such as a Bone Tipped Spear 1 x bone, 1 x stick spear, and 1 x leather are needed to craft a Bone Tipped Spear.
Kara can craft a Stick Bow 1 x stick and 1 x silk thread and after you receive the recipe and killed a PlainStaker you can craft a PlainStaker Bow using 1 x Leather, 2 x PlainStaker Horn and 1 x Slik thread.
Hunting and Prey
While hunting, Kara can crouch and sneak up to prey by pressing and holding the L shoulder button. To Lock-on to the prey you press ZL and you press Y to use the spear. And use A to dodge and roll out of the way.
Prey you will find on the islands comes in all shapes and sizes, from the Bleenk a small long-eared bunny to the enormous Gorehorn and in later islands the Pondwomper, here’s a bit more detail about a few of the animals you will see on the islands…
The Bleenk is easy enough to kill with a Slingshot or one stab of a Spear, and if you’re lucky you might get some meat from it or a Bleenk Frond which is used in crafting. Whereas the Gorehorn which is a large bull-like creature with a horn will charge at and if it makes contact Kara is tossed into the air. And if she happens to be standing behind the Gorehorn it will also kick her.
The Pondwomper is a large frog-like creature, with a shell that it hides in and you can’t damage it when its in its shell. Once it pops out of its shell it releases a cloud of green poisonous gas which reduces Kara’s health so your best dodging out of the way for that.
Plainstalker looks like a cross between a deer and a mountain cat, with large horns on its head. The Plainstalker lashes out with its front paws, and Kara is best to roll out of the way of its claws.
Gloomharrow is a large purple lizard creature, it lunges at Kara with its tongue and it also has a nasty habit of disappearing in a cloud of grey smoke and reappearing not too far from its original spot.
On other islands, you will find a group of Silkmaw, small round critters with menacing teeth, Slikmaw fall from trees in groups of five. Even if you don’t see them right away the attack music will start to play so you know you are under attack from these mean fur balls. They attack Kara by bouncing towards her and lunging open-mouthed at her. A quick stab with the Spear will take each one out.
On the same environmental island you find the Bumbler Bee, these pink bees fly around then swoop in to attack and sting Kara. Using your Bow and Arrow is advisable to attack the Bumbler Bee as they fly around and can be hard to keep track of.
In the sea lurks a Hookmouth Shark, its very prehistoric looking and again you won’t necessarily see it right away, but you will know it’s close as the attack music starts to play. The Hookmouth Shark will ram the boat that Kara is using. It can tip the boat over knocking Kara into the sea or it can destroy your boat depending on how damaged your boat is already from sailing the seas.
If Kara is knocked from her boat you might be able to swim to shore and if not well it usually results in a game over. Of course, you can attack the Hookmouth Shark by using your Bow and Arrow.
Cooking
To cook the meat you collect from hunting you need to build a fire and you can also build a drying rack as this allows you to cook more than one piece of meat at once.
To build a fire you need 1 x Thick Grass, 1 x Stick, and 2 x Rocks.
Once the fire is alight, get Kara to interact with it and it will bring up your cooking menu, place the meat on the fire by highlighting it with the L stick and Kara will place the meat on the fire.
To know if the food is cooked or not the top squares in the cooking menu will change colour from green to brown and once the square is filled with brown the meat is cooked and can be removed from the fire.
Any food you have automatically appears in the quick menu and you can use the up direction button for Kara to eat. You can only use the quick menu on land, you can use it while sailing by you need to stop Kara sailing to be able to eat.
Using a fire the same way as you cook meat is how you make leather out of the skin you receive from animals you have hunted and killed.
That’s all for our hints and tips for Windbound, if you have any questions feel free to leave a comment. Have fun!
nice
If you leave cooked meat on the fire drying rack it never rots. It’s a best practice to have multiple drying racks on your ship used for food storage in this way.