Windrose Guide: How to Find Buried Treasure
Stop wandering aimlessly. Here is exactly how to craft a shovel, read the maps, and dig up the best hidden loot in Windrose.
Quick Answer: Before you can unearth Windrose’s best loot, you will need to craft a Shovel using Copper Ingots. From there, follow scattered maps, notes, and environmental clues like marked trees and skeletons to dig up silver, guinea, and rare ship blueprints.
Survival games love hiding the good loot, and Windrose is absolutely no exception. You can spend hours sailing around the archipelago, but the real money is buried under your boots. The game does not hold your hand here. You need specific equipment, you have to actually read the scattered notes, and sometimes you have to fight off a small army of the undead just to claim what is rightfully yours.
I have spent entirely too much time mapping out these dig sites. If you are tired of wandering the islands looking for a random patch of dirt, I have your back.
Crafting The Damn Shovel
No shovel means no treasure. It is that simple. The game does not just hand you one, so you need to build up your crafting infrastructure first. Don’t waste an hour punching trees hoping for a tool drop.
- Gather three stone and three wood to craft a Stone Pickaxe.
- Take that pickaxe to the Copper Cave and mine copper ore.
- Build a Charcoal Kiln (requires 20 clay and 25 wood).
- Build a Smelting Furnace (requires 15 clay and 30 stone).
- Smelt your raw ore into three Copper Ingots.
- Take the ingots and 10 pieces of wood to your Workbench to craft the Shovel.
Keep in mind that the Shovel is technically classified as a weapon. When you equip it, you must bring up the radial menu and manually select the “Dig” function. I have watched too many players aggressively smack the dirt in combat mode wondering why the chest is not appearing.
Fifteen Men on a Dead Man’s Chest
This is likely the very first stash you will stumble across. On the starting island, head east until you find the Pirate Remains point of interest. There is a ruined boat sitting next to a Decrepit Chest. Inside that chest is a Blurry Sketch of the Island, which officially starts the quest.
Follow the marker northwest until you spot a suspicious patch of dirt surrounded by four skeletons.
The Ambush
Do not just run up and start digging. This stash is rigged. The exact second you interact with the dirt, four Drowned enemies will spawn and try to put you six feet under.
Make sure your health is topped off and your weapons are drawn. Once you clear the mob, you can finally pry open the chest for five Guinea and four Silver Ingots.
Eyes Wide With Fear
This one is located in the Coastal Jungle and is recommended for level three characters. You need to track down three Diary Fragments left behind by a doomed castaway.
You will find these notes by looting chests at three specific locations:
- The Shipwreck Site
- The Inhabited Ruin
- The Old Cabin
Finding all three pieces of the Castaway Collection triggers a new marker to the north. Since you are already running around this area, it is highly efficient to tackle other missions simultaneously. Check out my Windrose guide on how to complete The Bitter Pill quest if you want to clear the zone of objectives.
Finding the actual dig site for this treasure is notoriously frustrating because the map marker is wildly inaccurate. Approach the northern marker from the southeast. You are looking for a very specific environment:
- A cluster of large stones
- A few Azure Dodos wandering around
- Misty Orchids growing nearby
- Slightly raised ground with scattered logs surrounding it
The chest will not sparkle when you hit the right spot, so just keep digging until “An Old Chest” pops out. You will walk away with ten Guinea, a Tumbaga Ingot, and the final lore note.
Tracking Exquemelin’s Treasures
Alexandre Exquemelin was a traveler who clearly had too much gear and a strange obsession with tying red rags to trees. You will find his journals scattered across various Traveler’s Camps.
Treasure One
Head to the empty Traveler’s Camp in the southwest sector of the first island. Loot the chest sitting outside the tent to grab the “Twist of Fancy” note. It tells you to look for a tree marked with a red rag. Face west from the camp and look for a pale tree with the cloth tied around the trunk. Dig on the southwest side of the roots to pull out gunpowder and a stack of healing potions.
Treasure Two
You will find the second note on a small island sitting just off the coast of the Blackbeard Outpost. This is the same general area you visit during the ‘Revenge Is Best Served Cold’ main quest. Grab the “Relative Cost” note from the camp chest, walk southwest to find the marked tree, and dig on the western side.
Treasure Three
The third stash is on the island featuring the Fisherman’s Hut and a Copper Deposit. You come here for the ‘Underground Network’ quest. Snag the “A Hat Worth Boarding For” note from the tent, walk straight north, and dig on the northwest side of the red rag tree.
The Blackbeard Crew Maps
Once you graduate from the starting zones, you will start raiding Blackbeard Pirate Camps. The chests inside these camps have a chance to drop treasure maps leading to high-end ship blueprints and serious cash.
Since island placement in this game is randomized per server, I cannot give you exact map coordinates. But the points of interest are always the same. Here is exactly where to steal the maps.
| Map Number | Where To Steal It |
| Map One | Found in the Blackbeard Pirate Camp northwest of Island 3 during the ‘Rescuing the Crew’ mission. |
| Map Two | Inside the Ancient Ruins Blackbeard Outpost. You have to kill Lieutenants for the chest keys. |
| Map Three | Looted from a tent chest in the Blackbeard Camp Near Shipwreck. |
| Map Four | Drops after clearing the Local Threat on the Coastal Jungle island tied to the Bitter Pill quest. |
| Map Six | Located in the Foothills region inside a Ransacked Camp guarded by a very angry Alpha Wolf. |
X Marks The Spot
When you read one of these maps, a crude marker is slapped onto your world map. Sail to the island, but do not trust the marker blindly. You are looking for a visual cue in the environment. Specifically, you want to find a makeshift grave or a mound of disturbed dirt with a skeleton resting nearby.
The skeleton is the absolute confirmation that you are in the correct spot. Whip out your shovel and claim your Piastre, Silver Ingots, and Blackbeard Style Books. Those style books are crucial for making your ship look intimidating instead of like a floating garbage barge.
For more Windrose quest walkthroughs, interactive maps, and survival tips, check out my complete collection of guides right here.
