How to Get to Tortuga in Windrose

2 hours ago 3

Published Apr 21, 2026, 7:01 PM EDT

Laurence is an avid writer, gamer, and traveller with several years of journalistic writing experience under his belt. Having helped create a student-focused magazine at university, he is keen to reach the gaming community with his guides and game reviews.

Whether it's trudging through the world of Elden Ring, or grinding out raids in Old School Runescape, Laurence is always up for a challenge. However, in real life, his current challenge is learning how to speak Spanish and cooking authentic Mexican cuisine.

If you’ve put a few hours into Windrose by now, you’ll realise, quite like the real ocean, it’s absolutely massive!

Whether it’s trekking across brush-covered islands, through dank black caves, or, of course, blasting across the tumultuous currents of the open water, it takes quite a while to get anywhere. Tortuga is no different!

Windrose Thomas Richards Attacking and Throwing Bombs

If you were looking for a hub area, somewhere you can buy and sell goods, buy ingredients or recipes and the like, well, look no further. Let's take a quick look at how to get to Tortuga and what we can find there!

Miles of Open Water

Before you make the voyage to Tortuga, you first need to get your hands on a bigger boat! What you need is a Ketch.

Follow the main storyline quests until you come across a large wreck on a nearby coastal island. You need to repair this boat and then free the men on the surrounding islands. Once you’ve done this, you can access the Ketch, which is a lot larger and travels a lot faster than your normal tiny boat.

At this point, you can either head straight for Tortuga or first complete the “How My Sea Adventure Began” Tutorial Quest. Not only will this quest teach you the basics of ship combat, but it will also highlight Tortuga on your map after sinking your first vessel, giving you experience when you finally arrive there.

Crossing the Waves

Once you’ve done this, you’ll finally be ready to set sail. This is quite a long trip, being far to the northwest, so before you go, make sure you’ve got plenty of repair kits for your Ketch.

On your way to Tortuga, you’re going to have to cross several different kinds of ocean. One of the most dangerous is Blackbeard Waters, which has dozens of pirate ships just waiting to blow you to smithereens. In addition, you’ll also have to cross the Undead Waters, which have level 6-10 vessels. Whatever you do, don’t engage; simply avoid the ships as often as you can. Full speed ahead!

As soon as you reach Tortuga, you will unlock a fast travel point, so you won't have to make that perilous journey again!

Tortuga

You’ll know you’ve reached Tortuga when you see the huge horizontal mass of blue flame cutting the small island hub off from the rest of the landmass.

Ignore those mysterious flames for now and head into the town square. Lining the stalls, you’ll find several different factions that you can interact with. For example:

The Rogue Buccaneers
The Brethren of the Coast
The Smugglers of Port Royal

These factions each have a Bounty Agent, with whom you can trade Insignias and Letters of Favour. This will increase your reputation with that faction and allow you to buy more powerful items over time.

The factions also have a Provisioner, who is just a simple merchant. Each faction sells different wares from its Provisioners, with some specialising in ingredients, some in clothes and others in devastating artillery for your ship!

Look for items with Set Bonuses. These will give you a serious edge in combat!

You can also find crew members waiting around the square. You can hire these for a price. Each crew member has a speciality, such as Alchemist or Tailor, and will assist you in preparing for your next outing.