8 tips for starting out in Windbound

When the trailers for Windbound first appeared, the game appeared to be a cross between Zelda Breath of the Wild and Disney’s Moana movie. Windbound bears a visual similarity, but the aesthetic is really the only parallel; This game is pure survival. On my first go, I didn’t understand the game mechanics and had a couple of frustrating deaths. So here’s eight (story spoiler free) tips to help you through your first go:

1. In the beginning, slow equals death by hunger; Progress is essential
On your first playthrough, you may be expecting the stamina bar to fill… and indeed it does. But you will rapidly discover the game has a concept of hunger. This will cause the stamina bar to shrink over time. When it is critically low, it will begin to eat your health rapidly. Then you die. Your instinct to take it slow when you begin is definitely wrong; You have to keep moving and find a way of feeding yourself.

2. Keep an eye out for Mushrooms; They grow on trees

In my first playthrough I found a few berry bushes, but they were few and far between and not enough to keep my character satiated. It was only on my third attempt that I spotted mushrooms growing off the side of the big trees. Note: It is only the oak-tree-esque tree that has these mushrooms — not the palms... but that makes sense right?

3. Get the wooden spear as quickly as possible
On your third or fourth island, there will be sticks growing out of the ground. These can be crafted into wooden spears. These are by far better than the knife for killing boars.

4. Cooking the meat is not optional… almost.

In Zelda, cooking makes food more nutritious and improves the healing capabilities. So if you’re coming across from that game, you may be inclidned to think that it’s ok to eat raw meat, but it would be better no to cook it. It is in fact essential to cook the meat in the game.

If you don’t cook it, it makes you kind of drunk for a little while. Indigestion I guess. There was a situation where I was so close to hunger death, that eating it raw was the only route, but basically don’t eat raw meat.

To build a fire, you’ll need a stick, stones and long grass.

5. Leather is just animal skin that’s cooked on a fire
Again, this is something I missed initially. I was getting frustrated that I had all the bits to build the bone tipped spear except the leather. I had Skin, which seemed similar, but not right.

You need to expand your fire with two additional sticks (via it’s crafting menu) and then you can dry leather on it.

This has the added benefit of allowing you to do three things at once on the fire.

6. Upgrade the Sling to Leather Sling
Now you have access to leather, you can upgrade the sling. The sling is essential for taking down the bigger enemies as you’re going to want to snipe and hit and run. The level 2 sling is just a lot more effective.

7. Learn to sail

The sailing in the game is pretty accurate. Look for the wind. You can’t sail towards it, but you can sail 45 degrees into it. So if you want to go upwind (towards it), you need to zig zag to the left and right of the wavy wind lines. Generally, the closer to the wind you are, the tighter the sail needs to be. When the wavy wind lines are coming from behind you, the sails need to be eased all the way out.

8. Food degrades quickly… but there is a loophole

Food degrades in your inventory giving it less and less healing power. Trouble is this happens really quickly. But there appears to be two ways of avoiding this. The first is just to not pick it up until you need it. So if you’re working an island and stripping it of respources to upgrade your boat, just leave it until you need it. The second loophole is that you appear to be able to leave food on the fire after it’s cooked indefinitely which is super useful.

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What did you think? Did I miss anything out? Anything you found frustrating in the opening hour? Reply and I’ll add it to this article (and credit you of course)