Ships take a beating in Windrose. Whether you've limped home after a cannon fight or sailed too far beyond the map boundary and watched your vessel auto-destruct, you'll need to know how to get back on the water. The repair system actually covers several different situations, and each one works a little differently.
Quick answer: Walk up to your damaged ship and interact with it. You'll need 100 Wood, 20 Nails, 20 Coarse Fabric, and 10 Ropes to complete the repair. If your ship was destroyed entirely, visit your Wharf, spend 20 Wood, and press K to respawn it.
Repairing a damaged ship on the spot
When your ship has taken damage but hasn't been destroyed, you can fix it by approaching the vessel on foot. A repair prompt appears once you're close enough. Selecting it will consume the following materials from your inventory:
| Material | Quantity | How to get it |
|---|---|---|
| Wood | 100 | Chop trees with an axe |
| Nails | 20 | Craft at a Workbench (5 nails per Copper Ingot) or smash shipwrecks and barrels along the shore |
| Coarse Fabric | 20 | Craft at a Workbench (3 Plant Fiber per fabric) |
| Ropes | 10 | Craft at a Workbench (3 Plant Fiber per rope) |
If you want to gather everything in a single trip, the total raw materials break down to 100 Wood, 90 Plant Fiber, and 4 Copper Ingots. Plant Fiber is abundant on most islands — just harvest bushes and tall grass. Copper Ingots come from smelting Copper Ore, which you'll mine early in the questline.
Respawning a destroyed ship at the Wharf
A ship that's been fully destroyed — whether from combat or from sailing outside the map boundary — doesn't leave a repairable wreck behind. Your loot drops at the destruction site, but the hull is gone. To get the ship back, you need a Wharf.
Step 1: Open the build menu by pressing B. Navigate to the Workshops category and select Wharf. It costs 10 Wood and 10 Coarse Fabric to construct, and it must be placed near the shoreline.
Step 2: Interact with the completed Wharf and open the ship selection screen. Your destroyed vessel will appear here. Respawning it costs 20 Wood — roughly three palm trees' worth.
Step 3: After respawning, press K to recall the ship to the Wharf if it doesn't appear nearby. You can also use the Wharf to manage cargo, equip gear like cannons, and install Combat Repair Kits.
Repairing a shipwreck during the "I Need a Bigger Boat" quest
Early in the main story, Doctor Galen tasks you with finding and repairing a wrecked ship on a nearby island. Three shipwreck sites are marked on your map, but only one of them can actually be repaired — the largest of the three. The other two are unsalvageable husks. Since maps are procedurally generated, exact locations vary, but tracking the quest from the menu reveals the correct sites.
The repairable wreck requires the same materials listed above: 100 Wood, 20 Nails, 20 Coarse Fabric, and 10 Ropes. Before you can launch the repaired ship, though, you also need to complete the Rescuing the Crew quest and free seven captured sailors from pirate camps on surrounding islands. Enemies at these camps are around level 2, so come prepared with decent weapons.
Once the crew is rescued, return to the shipwreck and select the option to launch the ship with the crew aboard. This completes the quest, earns you 50 XP, and unlocks the Seafarer tutorial, opening up proper ocean exploration.
Combat Repair Kits for mid-battle fixes
Repairing at shore is fine between voyages, but you'll also want a way to patch your hull during a fight. Combat Repair Kits serve that purpose. Crafting one requires a level 2 Workbench, which you get by upgrading your basic Workbench with a Sawhorse (20 Wood, 10 Copper Ingots).
| Material | Quantity | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Wooden Planks | 5 | Craft at a level 2 Workbench (2 Wood each) |
| Rum Bottle | 1 | Looted from enemy pirates |
| Steel Nails | 1 | Quest reward or loot drop |
Once crafted, load the kit onto your ship through the Wharf's Manage Ship screen. Drag it into the ship action panel so it's usable during combat. Having at least one kit on board before any serious voyage is strongly recommended.
Reducing repair frequency with ship upgrades
If you're tired of constantly gathering repair materials, upgrading your ship's durability is the long-term solution. You'll need a Shipwright's Workshop, which can be built with 15 Wood, 10 Coarse Fabric, and 5 Copper Ingots.
Through the workshop, you can improve components like Hull Bracing, which increases the ship's total health, and weapons, which let you end fights faster and take less cumulative damage. Stronger hulls mean fewer emergency repairs, and better cannons mean you can engage tougher enemies without retreating.
Ship gear crafted at the Shipwright's Workshop is equipped through the Wharf's management interface — the same place you install Combat Repair Kits and manage cargo. You can also press D at the Wharf to rename and customize your ship's appearance.
Between walk-up repairs, Wharf respawns, Combat Repair Kits, and hull upgrades, Windrose gives you several layers of ship maintenance to manage. The core loop stays simple: gather Wood, Nails, Coarse Fabric, and Ropes, keep a Wharf built near shore, and always carry a Combat Repair Kit before heading into dangerous waters.