How to make Gunpowder in Windrose

Windrose pirate holding a long gun — (Image credit: Kraken Express)

I looked down the barrel of my pistol, pulled the trigger, and click—silence. I knew I had plenty of Stone Bullets for my Windrose enemies, but for some reason, my gun wouldn't fire a thing. And that's when I remembered I needed one other key ingredient, gunpowder.

It was embarrassing for me, but a good time for the friends that heard the frantic click-click-click of my pistol until the roaming hordes of Drowned tore me to shreds. I've since learned how to make my own gunpowder in Windrose, and can offer a little guidance to spare you from the same ordeal.

How to make gunpowder

You'll need sulfur, ash, and a Millstone to make gunpowder

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The Millstone crafting menu in Windrose showing the recipe for gunpowder, 10 sulfur and 20 ash — Making sulfur at the Millstone. (Image credit: Kraken Express)

You make gunpowder in Windrose by combining (10) sulfur and (20) ash at a Millstone, but you won't be able to make it until you've completed the main quest Revenge is Best Served Cold. Sulfur deposits require an Iron Pickaxe to mine, and if you haven't fought the first boss, then there's quite a bit left to do in Windrose before you can make gunpowder.

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What you'll need to finish to make gunpowder in Windrose:

Complete the main quests Rescuing the Crew and I Need a Bigger Boat
Kill Thomas Richards and complete Revenge is Best Served Cold
Travel to the Foothills and mine Foothills Iron Ore for ingots
Travel to the Foothills and discover corn, unlocking the Millstone recipe
Make an Iron Pickaxe so you can mine sulfur

Defeating Thomas Richards at the end of Revenge is Best Served Cold unlocks the Discover page for the Foothills and a ton of new resources. Without that step you can't smelt raw iron into ingots, make a Millstone, or craft the Iron Pickaxe.

How to get sulfur and ash in Windrose

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Windrose - A sulfur deposit that looks more like regular stone than sulfur — If you're running by, this Sulfur deposit may look more like regular stone. (Image credit: Kraken Express)

Despite being unavailable to mine until you reach the Foothills, you can find sulfur in both the Coastal Jungle and Foothills biomes. Sometimes sulfur looks like regular stone with yellow marbling that's easy to miss—you may need to get closer and inspect the boulder. Then there's also a clumpy, more gravely version that's covered in yellow and far more obvious.

Ash is the easy part, since you should have plenty left over from burning wood at the Charcoal Kiln. You can also grind up (2) charcoal at the Millstone and turn it into (6) ash, but I'd avoid wasting that much charcoal since it's a requirement for processing ingots.

Andrea has been covering games for nearly a decade, picking up bylines at IGN, USA Today, Fanbyte, and Destructoid before joining the PC Gamer team in 2025. She's got a soft spot for older RPGs and is willing to try just about anything with a lovey-dovey "I can fix them" romance element. Her weekly to-do always includes a bit of MMO time, endlessly achievement hunting and raiding in Final Fantasy 14. Outside of those staples, she's often got a few survival-crafting games on rotation and loves a good scare in co-op horror games.

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