Windrose Bosses: All 3, Loot, Weak Spots & Attacks

Updated 2026-10-20: We rechecked every boss against game.wiki's boss and quest pages and Windrose DB. The High Priestess section no longer teaches a pustule-and-mouth loop or a mace bonus, Richards no longer has a rifle phase, and the Soul Eater isn't boss-only (correction at the end).

Earlier versions of this guide also covered an optional "Ghost Captain" boss in a "Temple Dungeon". No source we checked supports that fight, so it stays removed. The name does appear in the game, on the Soul Eater's lore text: "It is said this sword once belonged to the Ghost Captain."

All Windrose bosses at a glance

A fourth boss for the Ashlands is planned for a future update and isn't in the Early Access build; our Windrose Ashlands guide tracks what's confirmed.

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How Windrose bosses work

Every boss runs on the same rules as normal combat, just with more health. The row of shields under a boss's health bar is its Posture. Hits and blocks wear it down, and when it breaks the boss staggers and takes full damage. game.wiki's Boatswain data shows why Perfect Block matters so much here: a Perfect Block costs you 20 Posture and takes 20 from him, while a held block costs you 30 and does nothing to him. Over a long fight, Perfect Blocks drain his guard while held blocks only drain yours. If your weapon is a Club or Halberd you can't Perfect Block at all, which our Windrose combat guide explains.

Each arena has an altar that sets the difficulty. Easy is free, Normal costs 160 Power and Insane 400 Power. Per-hit damage stays the same on every setting; only boss Health and the co-op multiplier change. With more players, Health climbs about 2.2 times per extra player and the boss deals 15% more damage with two players, 25% more with three. One kill at any difficulty moves the story on, so there's no reason to start above Easy.

Thomas Richards, the Coastal Jungle boss

The Coastal Jungle, home of the first boss and the place to learn Posture breaks before anything punishes a mistake hard. Screenshot: Windrose on Steam (official)

Quest: "Revenge Is Best Served Cold". Richards is holed up in his cave camp, so the quest first sends you after four Black Marks, which drop from pirates marked on your map, then into the camp to fight him.

Gear check: level 5 armor and weapons, the highest level you can reach before this fight. Dot Esports' walkthrough also recommends Rare pieces where you have them.

What he does: Richards fights with a two-handed club, a grab and bombs. His four melee combos each chain three to five hits, and the third hit of a combo is the big one, enough to kill a character in starter armor. There's no rifle phase and no cover route to plan around; it's a close-range fight.

After the fight: the Foothills open, along with tier-6 crafting. His journal tells you Israel Hands has the artifact you came for, which starts the next chapter.

Israel Hands, the Foothills boss

Quest: "Needle in a Haystack". He isn't sitting in the open: the quest walks you through the Foothills pirate camps, aboard the Unsinkable, and then to three Ritual Keys held by his lieutenants, which open the temple where he waits.

Gear check: Iron. Neonlights' guide puts the bar at level 10 for your weapon, firearm and all five armor pieces. He shares Richards' health curve, but his Attack and Defence Power are 280 against Richards' 180, so the same health bar hits harder and lasts longer.

What he does: game.wiki lists a sabre-and-pistol duellist with melee combos, a sweeping circle combo, a charge and a ranged shot. Community guides name the attacks by what you see on screen:

"Parrying doesn't work against ghosts," as Neonlights puts it, so save your Perfect Blocks for his own sword hits. He also teleports away when you close in; don't chase him on empty Stamina.

Two things that help: The Boar Whistle comes from an altar puzzle at the Ancient Village in the Foothills (offer 20 Meat) and summons Truffle, a boar that takes his attention while you hit him. The Rapier of a Thousand Cuts stacks Bleeding up to five times, so you can land a few pokes, back off and let the damage tick.

Loot: The Ancient Chest at the back of the arena holds the Soul Eater, Undead Essence and a Charon's Obol, and the quest pays out 550 XP in total. The Soul Eater is a Rare greatsword whose special attack (F) drains Health from nearby enemies on a 3-minute cooldown; the Epic version's special also scales with Vitality. The chest isn't the only copy: game.wiki lists a Weaponsmith Workshop recipe and chests in the Cursed Swamps crypts.

GODEEPER: Every Israel Hands attack, the Truffle setup and the bleed plan in one fight guide. Windrose Israel Hands Boss Guide →

High Priestess, the Cursed Swamps boss

The High Priestess is the toad of the Cursed Swamps (game.wiki's data name for her is SwampToad) and the last boss in Early Access. Her opening dialogue summons a Cursed Plant, and the fight is the end of the current main quest.

Quest: "Forgotten Relics". John Doe sends you to the priestess's chambers, then after clay tablets, three murals and an Enchanted Ritual Dagger, before you find her resting place. The quest's last line is "To be continued...", because the story stops here for now.

Gear check: Mire Metal gear. Mire Metal Ingots smelt from two Ancient Scraps and one Quagmire Powder at a Large Smelting Furnace; Ancient Scraps come from chests deep inside Senkamati ruins. Clear one or two ruins before you go.

Her numbers: the biggest health pool in the game, roughly 1.87 times the other two bosses, with Attack and Defence Power of 380. Her Armor is 0, and the Codex Wiki's boss stat table lists no Crude, Blunt or other damage-type weakness. The one stat that helps you is Posture recovery: 2 per second against 5 for the other bosses, so once her guard breaks it stays broken long enough to empty your Stamina into her.

Older guides, including earlier versions of this one, teach a loop of popping yellow pustules to open her mouth, plus summoned Plague Thralls. game.wiki's move data has neither, so we've left them out; if your build shows something new, trust what's on your screen.

Level 12 and 13 Plague enemies on the way into the Cursed Swamps, each with five Posture shields: the biome tests the same skills as its boss. Screenshot: Windrose: Early Access Release Date Reveal Trailer (official, 0:51)

Weapon loadout: no weapon type gets a bonus against her, so bring the one you can Perfect Block with. A Greatsword's high Posture damage suits her slow recovery. Drake's Double-Barreled Pistol fires two quick shots, and its Epic version applies Vulnerability, which raises all damage the target takes.

Consumables: Great Healing Potions restore 80% of your Health each; bring a full stack. Drink an Elixir of Pain Relief for the Damage Resistance before you enter, not mid-fight. In co-op, every player carries their own.

Co-op: spread out so one tail sweep or spin can't catch everyone, and remember her Normal health more than doubles with a second player.

Rewards: the second Charon's Obol from the quest, the main-story resolution, and Ancient Metal tier crafting, per game.wiki. Our Windrose endgame guide covers what to do next.

Step-by-Step: prepare for a Windrose boss

1. Finish the biome's crafting chain first. Copper for Richards, Iron for Israel Hands, Mire Metal for the High Priestess. The kill is what unlocks the next tier, so the gear you can make now is the gear you fight with.

2. Get the Rested buff. Resting at a camp regenerates Health and speeds up Stamina recovery for 9 minutes at Comfort 0, one minute longer per Comfort level, up to 25 minutes at Comfort 16. Our Windrose comfort level guide covers raising it.

3. Eat two different dishes and drink one elixir. Two different foods stack; a second copy of the same dish adds nothing. The Windrose crafting guide has the recipes.

4. Drop a respawn point near the arena. Neonlights recommends a Tent or Fast Travel Bell outside the boss room so a wipe doesn't cost a long walk back.

5. Start on Easy. The story only needs one kill at any setting. Spend Power on Normal or Insane once the pattern feels routine.

6. In co-op, decide roles before the pull. One player with reliable Perfect Block timing holds the boss; the others break shields from the side.

Our take

None of the three is a mechanics puzzle with a secret weak point. They're Posture fights with a gear check bolted on, and the High Priestess is the same fight with twice the health. If a boss feels impossible, we'd check gear level and weapon type before blaming your timing.

Frequently asked questions

How many bosses are in Windrose? Three in Early Access, one per biome: Thomas Richards (the Boatswain) in the Coastal Jungle, Israel Hands in the Foothills and the High Priestess in the Cursed Swamps. A fourth boss for the Ashlands is planned for a later update.

What is the weak spot for the High Priestess in Windrose? Her stat data lists no weak spot and no damage-type weakness, with 0 Armor. What helps is her slow Posture recovery, 2 per second against 5 for the other bosses, so a broken guard stays broken longer. The pustule-and-mouth loop in older guides is not in the move data.

What does Israel Hands drop in Windrose? The Ancient Chest at the back of his arena holds the Soul Eater greatsword, Undead Essence and a Charon's Obol, and the Needle in a Haystack quest pays 550 XP in total. The Soul Eater can also be crafted at a Weaponsmith Workshop or found in Cursed Swamps crypts.

What gear do you need to beat each Windrose boss? Level 5 Copper gear for Richards, Iron gear at level 10 for Israel Hands, and Mire Metal gear for the High Priestess. Each boss unlocks the next crafting tier, so you can't skip ahead.

What are Israel Hands' attacks in Windrose? A pistol shot from a spectral ghost, a three-hit melee combo, a red-glint halberd charge, a spinning whirlwind and a levitating Soul Barrage of skulls. Parrying the ghost attacks does not work; dodge sideways instead and block only the first two hits of his combo.

What consumables do I need for the High Priestess in Windrose? Bring a full stack of Great Healing Potions, which restore 80% of your Health each, and drink an Elixir of Pain Relief (+15% Damage Resistance for 15 minutes) before you enter the arena. No anti-plague item exists in the current item databases, so skip any guide that calls one mandatory.

How we checked this

Boss stats, attack data, quest steps and item recipes come from game.wiki, Windrose DB and the Windrose Codex Wiki's boss stat table, read on October 20, 2026; the Israel Hands attack names, the Boar Whistle altar and his chest loot from Neonlights' boss guide; Richards' gear advice from Dot Esports. We haven't fought these bosses ourselves, so the counters are built from that data, not from our own runs.

Correction (2026-10-20): Earlier versions of this guide said Crude weapons (maces and halberds) deal a flat damage bonus to the High Priestess, built her fight around pustules, an open-mouth weak spot and Plague Thrall adds, made anti-plague consumables mandatory, and called the Cursed Swamps gear tier "Steel". Her stat table lists no damage-type weakness, game.wiki's move data has no pustules or adds, no item database lists an anti-plague consumable, and the Swamps metal is Mire Metal. We also removed a rifle-and-cover phase from the Richards fight, corrected the Soul Eater (not boss-only, and Vitality scaling is on the Epic version only), replaced the old Rested figure with the documented 9 to 25 minutes, and renamed the Coastal Islands to the Coastal Jungle.

Related Reading

• Windrose Armor Guide: 6 Rare Sets, Bonuses and Upgrade Order: six rare sets, their two- and four-piece bonuses, and the upgrade order for each slot.
• Windrose Talent Tree Guide: Best Talents and Builds 2026: talent branches and where the points go.
• Windrose Foothills Guide: Camps, Iron Gear, Israel Hands: the Iron crafting chain and the camps before the second boss.
• Windrose Best Weapons Tier List 2026: every weapon type ranked, with the Soul Eater and special-attack weapons.

References

• game.wiki: Windrose bosses, Boatswain, Israel Hands and High Priestess: health tables, attack data, altar costs
• Windrose Codex Wiki: boss stats: full attribute list per boss
• Neonlights Media: Windrose Israel Hands boss guide
• Dot Esports: Thomas Richards boss guide
• Windrose DB: weapons: Soul Eater stats and cooldown
• Windrose on Steam