Windrose Hunting Guide: Farming Rough Hide and Bird Meat
Punching trees only gets you so far, eventually, you have to introduce yourself to the local wildlife if you want to wear decent clothes and stop starving to death.
Survival in Windrose is incredibly reliant on your ability to process animal byproducts. You cannot craft the crucial early game backpack upgrades without leather, and you absolutely cannot survive major boss fights without the massive health buffs provided by cooked meat. If you just wander the jungle aimlessly hoping to stumble across a pig, you are wasting valuable daylight.
I spent hours mapping out the spawn behaviors of the local fauna because I kept running out of inventory space right when I needed to craft new armor. This guide covers the most efficient ways to farm the two most important early game animal drops: Rough Hide and Bird Meat. If you are struggling with keeping yourself alive long enough to actually hunt anything, take a quick detour and read my Windrose healing guide.
The Essential Rough Hide
Rough Hide is the primary bottleneck for your early game defensive progression. You need it to craft boots, gloves, and, most importantly, the Sailor Backpack.
Where to Hunt for Hide
The Coastal Jungle biome is your primary hunting ground. You are specifically looking for Boars and Sows. These aggressive pigs spawn in massive numbers all across the starting islands.
The drop rates here are incredibly generous. Every single Sow or Boar you kill has a 100% chance to drop at least one piece of Rough Hide. If you manage to survive long enough to reach the later biomes, you will encounter Savage Boars which drop 5 hides per kill, but for the early game, standard pigs are your best bet.
If you are trying to maximize your haul, do not just run around randomly. Find a large cluster of pigs, wipe them out, and then head back to your base. Resting at your Bonfire or simply waiting a few in-game hours usually forces the spawns to reset, allowing you to run the exact same hunting route over and over. Need more room to carry all these pelts? Read my inventory expansion guide to get your backpack sorted.
Farming Bird Meat and Eggs
While hide keeps you armored, meat keeps you alive. Consuming cooked food gives you a temporary segment of extra health and various stat buffs. Bird Meat is the easiest protein to farm early on.
Hunting Coastal Dodos
You are looking for Coastal Dodos and their slightly stronger Azure variants. These flightless birds are completely harmless, but they are fast.
To find massive clusters of Dodos, look for islands that feature Ancient Ruins. These specific points of interest seem to attract huge flocks of birds. The added benefit here is that Boars and Sows frequently share these exact same spawn locations, meaning you can farm your Rough Hide and your Bird Meat simultaneously.
Hunting Efficiency Tips
Do not waste your precious gunpowder shooting Dodos. It is a massive waste of resources.
Equip a two-handed sword or a halberd. These weapons have wide, sweeping attack arcs that allow you to kill two or three birds in a single swing if they group up.
Also, do not ignore the eggs. Dodos frequently drop Dodo Eggs alongside their meat. These eggs are crucial ingredients for advanced cooking recipes.
What to Craft and Cook
Once you have a chest full of raw materials, you need to process them.
For the Rough Hide, your absolute first priority should be taking 5 hides and combining them with 2 Copper Ingots to craft the Sailor Backpack at your Level 2 Workbench. It doubles your carrying capacity. After the bag is secured, start crafting your basic leather armor set. If you are confused about how to unlock that Level 2 Workbench, I explain the add-on system in my base building and crafting guide.
For the Bird Meat, you need to head to your Cooking Fire. Raw meat is useless.
Always keep at least two different cooked meals active at the same time before running into a dangerous point of interest. A well fed pirate is a live pirate. Be sure to check our Windrose Hub for more targeted guides.
