The Foothills opens up after defeating Thomas Richards in the Coastal Jungle, and it introduces a sharper difficulty curve alongside the materials you need for iron-tier gear, linen fabric, gunpowder, and the Brigantine upgrade. The zone is populated with wolves, goats, and armed pirates such as Musketeers, Sergeants, and Grenadiers, so an Iron Pickaxe and Iron Axe are worth rushing before deep farming runs.
Foothills entry requirements
Foothills access is gated behind the Coastal Jungle's main questline, which ends with the Revenge is Best Served Cold quest. You collect four Black Marks, infiltrate Richards' camp, defeat him, and speak with Doctor Glen. Clearing Richards awards two unlocks at once: Foothills exploration and crafting for Level 6 and higher items.
The biome's own storyline is Needle in a Haystack, which sends you through pirate camps, onto the Unsinkable, and eventually to the second boss, Israel Hands. Beating Hands unlocks Cursed Swamp exploration and Level 11+ crafting.
Key Foothills discoveries
Key discoveries are the materials tied to major building and recipe unlocks. Each one is needed to open up a new workstation or crafting chain, so treat them as priority pickups on your first visits.
| Discovery | Where to find it | Unlocks |
|---|---|---|
| Fertile Soil | Dig at Ancient Farm landmarks with a Shovel | Foothills Patch, Potato, Pepper, Flax, Aloe, Corn, and Tomato saplings |
| Foothills Iron Ore | Mine at Iron Deposit landmarks | Anvil, Cookware Shelf, Regent Table, Iron Ingot, Iron Axe, Iron Pickaxe, 24- and 36-Pounders, Nails, Iron Nails |
| Hardwood | Chop Divi-Divi trees and stumps | Toolbox, Fishing Rod, Master Combat Repair Kit, Seafood Platter, Chowder, Seafood Skewer, Timber |
| Tree Bark | Chop Divi-Divi trees and stumps | Tanning Rack, Tannin, Tanned Leather, Bosun Backpack |
| Flax Fiber | Low clusters with purple flowers across grassy areas | Spinning Wheel, Shoemaker's Bench, Linen Fabric |
| Corn | Fields near Ancient Village landmarks | Millstones, Millstone Parts, Cornmeal, Burrito, Banana Muffin, Tortilla, Pastechi, Tangy Nut Roll |
| Silver Ingot | Ancient chests and containers | Jeweler's Bench |
Divi-Divi trees are the only source of Hardwood and Tree Bark. They grow in small, twisting copses scattered across the interior of Foothills islands, and wolves often patrol nearby. A single chopping run usually yields both materials, so one trip covers the Toolbox and Tanning Rack chains at once.
Flax Fiber is the most tedious key discovery to stockpile in the wild. Plant Flax Seedlings in Fertile Soil at your base as soon as you have a Foothills Patch, since Linen Fabric feeds into gear, decorations, and the Brigantine ship.
Major Foothills discoveries
Major discoveries come from enemies, trees, and caches, and they primarily unlock consumables such as elixirs, grog, and food recipes you'll lean on through the biome.
| Discovery | Where to find it | Unlocks |
|---|---|---|
| Sulfur | Yellow deposits on rocky outcrops | Homemade Gunpowder |
| Wolf Fang | Dropped by Wolves | Elixir of Precision |
| Bezoar | Dropped by Goats | Elixir of Concentration |
| Coffee Beans | Ocean crates and ship caches | Coffee, Deadeye Grog |
| Nuts | Dropped by Musketeers, Sergeants, Grenadiers | Fish and Tostones, Sunmilk Tonic |
| Lime | Harvested from Lime Trees | Hard Grog, Sweet Lime Juice, Refreshing Tomato Juice |
| Tomato | Harvested from Tomato plants | Crab with Diced Tomatoes, Meat Salad |
| Lime Seeds | Dropped when harvesting Limes | Lime Sapling |
Sulfur deposits sit on rocky ridges with two or three clumps attached to the same formation. Because Sulfur unlocks Homemade Gunpowder, which also requires Corn-based Cornmeal through the Millstones chain, pairing Sulfur runs with Ancient Village detours is efficient.
Other Foothills resources
These items round out cooking, ship boarding loot, and trophy decoration unlocks. None of them gate major buildings, but the trophies are the only way to complete your Discovery page for the region.
| Discovery | Where to find it | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Aloe Leaf | Aloe bushes across the biome | Cooking and elixir recipes |
| Salt | Ocean crates and ship caches | Cooking |
| Cane Sugar | Ancient chests and containers | Cooking |
| Wolf Head | Dropped by Alpha Wolf | Wolf Trophy |
| Head of a Mountain Goat Leader | Dropped by Goat Leader | Elite Mountain Goat Horn Trophy |
Landmarks that gate the hardest discoveries
Three named landmarks decide how quickly you finish the Foothills Discovery list. Learning to recognize their map icons saves a lot of pointless sailing, since Windrose worlds are procedurally generated and the Foothills can spawn in any direction from your starter islands.
Ancient Farm: The only place Fertile Soil spawns. You need a Shovel to dig it up, and one farm usually yields enough soil for several patches back at base.
Iron Deposit: Marked with a pickaxe icon on the map, similar to the Copper Caves in the Coastal Jungle. Iron Ore can also appear in the wild on some islands, but the named deposits are the densest source.
Ancient Village: The only reliable spawn for Corn. Corn can be stubborn to find; if your first Foothills island has no Ancient Village, sail to another island rather than grinding the same map.
Recommended pickup order
You do not need to farm the Foothills in a strict sequence, but the crafting chains reward a specific priority if you want to minimize backtracking.
Step 1: Mine Foothills Iron Ore, smelt Iron Ingots, and craft an Iron Pickaxe and Iron Axe. Sulfur and Hardwood both benefit from the upgraded tools, and the Anvil you unlock here feeds the rest of the tier.
Step 2: Chop Divi-Divi trees for Hardwood and Tree Bark in the same trip. This simultaneously unlocks the Toolbox and the Tanning Rack, which gate the Bosun Backpack and fabric-adjacent recipes.
Step 3: Collect Fertile Soil from an Ancient Farm, build a Foothills Patch at base, and plant Flax Seedlings. Wild Flax is slow to harvest, so starting a supply line early pays off by the time you need Linen Fabric for the Brigantine.
Step 4: Track down Corn at an Ancient Village to unlock Millstones, then farm Sulfur on rocky outcrops. Together, they enable Homemade Gunpowder, which you'll want stocked before the Israel Hands fight.
Step 5: Clean up the remaining drops, elixir materials, and trophies (Wolf Fang, Bezoar, Nuts, Lime, Tomato, Aloe Leaf, Salt, Cane Sugar, Silver Ingot, and the Alpha Wolf and Goat Leader heads) as you continue the Needle in a Haystack questline.
How to know a discovery registered
Every new material triggers a Discovery pop-up and adds the item to the Foothills page of your character menu. If a resource is not appearing in your list, the most common reasons are that you picked up a variant from another biome or that the item is a rare drop (Palm, Ficus, Bezoar, trophy heads) that simply has not rolled yet. Keep chopping, fighting, or harvesting; drop rates are low but consistent.
Once every Key, Major, and Other entry in the Foothills section is filled in, you have the full Level 6 to 10 crafting lineup available. From there, finishing Needle in a Haystack and defeating Israel Hands opens the Cursed Swamps and Level 11+ recipes.