Windrose Thomas Richards Boss Guide: How to Beat Richards

Thomas Richards is the first story boss in Windrose and the gate check for the entire mid-game. Get past him and you have Iron crafting, the Foothills biome, and the next 10 hours of content. Get stuck on him and you're farming Coastal resources until the gear check passes.

The fight is not complicated. Richards has one central mechanic: poise shields: and one environment mechanic: cover: and the entire encounter is built around those two things. The players who lose to Richards repeatedly are either underleveled or standing in the wrong part of the arena.

TL;DR: Get all 5 armor pieces + primary weapon to level 5 (Copper tier). Start the fight behind cover to break rifle line of sight. Cross to melee range using the arena objects. At melee range, use heavy attacks to break poise shields, then dump all damage during the stagger window. Defeating Richards unlocks the Foothills biome and all Iron-tier crafting.

Key takeaways

• Gear check: all 5 armor pieces + primary weapon at level 5 before attempting the fight
• Poise shields are the fight mechanic: Richards resists damage until shields break, heavy attacks break shields faster
• Greatsword recommended: breaks shields significantly faster than light weapons
• Arena cover exists for a reason: use it to cross to melee range without eating rifle shots
• Stagger window: when shields break, Richards staggers: use everything in that window
• Post-fight: unlocks Foothills biome + all Iron-tier crafting simultaneously

Quest setup: Revenge Is Best Served Cold

Richards doesn't just appear on the map. The fight is gated behind the quest "Revenge Is Best Served Cold," which triggers after collecting 4 Black Marks from encounters in Blackbeard's waters. You'll know you have enough when the quest activates and marks the Coastal camp.

Once triggered, Richards is behind a wooden gate at the back of that camp. He won't be there before the quest is active. If you're looking for him without the quest, you're wasting time.

The Black Mark collection is part of standard Coastal progression. If you've done the main quests in the biome and cleared the primary camps, you're likely close. Check your quest log before making a dedicated run for the boss.

Gear check: what level 5 actually means

Richards has a hard gear check. All 5 armor pieces and your primary weapon need to be at level 5. This is Copper-tier progression: the same materials you've been farming throughout the Coastal biome.

Below level 5 gear, two things go wrong. First, your heavy attacks don't have enough stagger to break his poise shields within a reasonable window, which means you're spending most of the fight doing almost no damage. Second, his unblockable attack deals enough damage to one-shot players at lower armor ratings. Both of these are fixable with the correct tier, and neither is forgiving without it.

The crafting chain is explicit about what Copper-tier gear requires. Check your workbench. If any piece of your armor is below 5, finish it before the attempt. The Coastal biome has all the materials you need.

Weapon choice matters beyond just level. A greatsword breaks Richards' poise shields significantly faster than light weapons like a saber or dagger. If you're running a light weapon build, you can still beat him, but the poise break windows are shorter and you need to land more hits to stagger him. Greatsword or mace makes the fight cleaner.

The Richards arena: wooden barriers and crates throughout. Cross from cover to cover to break rifle line of sight before closing to melee range.

The arena: cover isn't decoration

Richards fights in two phases that depend entirely on your range from him.

At long range, he uses a rifle. The rifle is accurate, deals real damage, and has range that makes open-ground crossing a bad idea. Players who try to sprint across the open arena floor without using cover take 2-3 rifle shots before they close the gap, which is frequently enough to end the attempt at lower health pools.

The arena has cover objects: wooden barriers, crates, structural elements: placed throughout. These block his rifle line of sight. The intended path is to use cover to cross from the arena entrance to melee range without exposing yourself to sustained rifle fire. Move from cover to cover. Break his sightline at each position. Cross the final gap when you have a clear melee window.

Once you're at melee range, Richards stops using his rifle and switches to his melee attack patterns. This is where the fight actually happens. The rifle phase exists to make sure you pay attention to the arena geometry.

Attack patterns

Once in melee range, Richards uses four attack patterns. The poise shield mechanic layers over all of them.

The Overhead Unblockable is marked with a red glow: you get a clear visual warning. If you see red, dodge sideways. Do not try to block it. The Grab is the trickiest attack because the timing window for the dodge is tight. His rush animation into the grab looks similar to a Double Swing startup. The tell is the left-hand reach; once you can recognize it, dodge to his right.

Grenade Volley will occasionally interrupt the melee pattern. Watch the floor markers, move clear of them, then return to melee range after the detonation.

The shield break stagger: when the poise bar depletes, Richards freezes briefly. Stack heavy attacks and all skills in that window before shields regenerate.

Poise shields: the actual fight mechanic

Richards takes minimal damage while his poise shields are active. Hitting him with light attacks while shields are up produces almost no result: you're burning stamina and getting through fight phases without accomplishing anything.

Heavy attacks break shields. A greatsword heavy attack breaks a substantial chunk of his shield gauge per hit. His shields break after enough heavy hits, Richards staggers, and that stagger is your damage window.

When he staggers:

1. Switch to your highest-damage options immediately
2. Use any skills that aren't on cooldown
3. Spend stamina: shields will come back before you run out anyway
4. Continue until the stagger ends

The stagger window is time-limited. Once Richards recovers, shields regenerate and the pattern repeats. The fight is fundamentally: break shields, dump damage, survive his attacks while shields regenerate, repeat.

Players running light weapon builds can still break shields: it just takes more hits. The math on greatsword vs. light weapons in shield-breaking is significant enough that if you're losing with a light weapon, switching to any greatsword you have access to changes the fight.

Survival: managing the Overhead and Grab

Two attacks end attempts most often: the Overhead Unblockable and the Grab.

The Overhead Unblockable is the easier one to avoid once you know it exists. Red glow, dodge sideways. The difficulty is breaking the instinct to block rather than dodge. There is no block version of this attack. The red glow is your only warning.

The Grab is harder. His grab initiation looks similar to a movement attack at first. He rushes and reaches with his left hand. The dodge timing is tighter than the Overhead: you need to commit the dodge to his right as the reach begins. Too early and you dodge into a position where his right hand still hits you. Too late and the grab connects. The grab deals very high damage, sometimes one-shot territory at Copper tier. Once you've seen it a few times, the left-hand reach becomes readable.

Post-fight unlock

Defeating Thomas Richards unlocks two things simultaneously: access to the Foothills biome and all Iron-tier crafting recipes at your workbench.

The Foothills is the next 4-5 levels of content. The Iron crafting unlock is immediately usable once you have Iron ore, which the Foothills has in quantity. The gear upgrade from Copper to Iron is significant: you'll feel the armor difference in the Foothills enemy density within the first zone.

Don't leave the boss arena before checking the chest if one spawns. Loot first, then proceed to the Foothills gate.

GODEEPER: What to do immediately after beating Richards: Iron crafting priority order, first Foothills resources, and what Israel Hands requires. Windrose Foothills Biome Guide →

Frequently asked questions

What level should I be for Thomas Richards? Character level matters less than gear level. If all 5 armor pieces and your primary weapon are at level 5 (Copper tier), the fight is mechanically accessible. Below that gear floor, it's not a skill issue: it's the gear check.

Can I beat Richards with a light weapon? Yes, but a greatsword makes the poise shield phase faster and more forgiving. With a light weapon, you need more hits to break shields and the stagger window fills more slowly. Heavy weapons are the intended approach for this fight.

What if I keep dying to the Grab? The dodge needs to go to his right at the moment his left hand reaches. Practice the timing by letting him initiate the grab and dodging without attacking: get the movement right before worrying about punishing the recovery.

Does the arena reset if I die? Yes. Richards resets to full health and poise if you die. The quest stays active.

Related reading

• Windrose Bosses: All Weak Spots, Loot Tables and Named Attacks →
• Windrose Foothills Biome Guide →
• Windrose Combat Guide →
• Windrose Complete Guide 2026 →
• Windrose Beginner Guide →