Windrose players can finally stop worrying about their SSDs being pushed to the limit. Developer Kraken Express has rolled out a major update aimed at reducing the pirate survival game’s unusually heavy disk usage, along with a huge list of gameplay fixes, performance improvements, and quality-of-life upgrades.

When Windrose launched into early access on April 14, players quickly noticed something unusual happening behind the scenes. Reports from Eurogamer and TechSpot revealed the game was constantly reading and writing massive amounts of data to SSDs during normal gameplay. According to those reports, Windrose could read and write roughly 30MB/s while simply exploring the world, with total disk activity reportedly climbing beyond 108GB per hour during regular sessions.

That level of constant storage activity immediately raised concerns among players. Like any piece of hardware, SSDs have a limited lifespan based on how often data is written to them. Excessive read/write operations can gradually wear them down over time, so many users feared prolonged Windrose sessions could negatively impact drive health.

Thankfully, Kraken Express addressed the issue with Patch Version: 0.10.0.4.268-9d2ca277, released on April 30. One of the update’s biggest improvements specifically targets disk usage during gameplay, while also reducing unnecessary CPU load on idle servers and clients.

The developer followed that patch with another smaller update on May 4 that introduced a brand-new save storage and backup system. The studio also reworked cloud save synchronization to minimize syncing problems and improve reliability overall. Together, these changes should significantly reduce the strain Windrose places on SSDs during long play sessions.

Major Windrose Patch Highlights

The latest update includes much more than SSD optimizations. Kraken Express packed the patch with gameplay tweaks, bug fixes, balancing changes, UI improvements, and new building pieces.

Performance & Stability Improvements

• Reduced disk usage during gameplay
• Fixed unnecessary CPU usage on idle servers and clients
• Improved ship performance while hosting multiplayer servers
• Fixed multiple crashes, including issues tied to invalid inventory slot IDs and ship cannon kills on Drowned enemies
• Addressed VRAM spikes when opening certain UI windows
• Fixed Frame Generation stuttering tied to inventory and map screens

New Networking Feature

A new Force Relay Connection option has been added for players struggling with multiplayer connectivity.

According to Kraken Express:

“Sometimes players are unable to connect directly to their friends’ games because P2P traffic is blocked along the route.”

The feature routes players through relay servers instead of direct peer-to-peer connections. While this can improve stability, it may also increase latency.

Building & Farming Additions

Builders received a healthy batch of new construction pieces and farming improvements, including:

• Around 40 missing wall triangle pieces
• Additional floor triangle pieces
• Four new Seedbed variants
• New visual and sound effects for crop growth and harvesting
• Extended ambient music tracks for bonfires and ship travel

Terraforming and structure placement also received multiple fixes, solving snapping, collision, clipping, and integrity calculation issues across several building sets.

Combat & Gameplay Fixes

Combat balancing and enemy behavior saw several important adjustments:

• Boar combo attacks now have clearer telegraphs
• Alpha Wolf bleed effects now apply correctly
• Bleed damage no longer affects grappled players
• Jewelry bonuses tied to Special Attacks now function properly
• Multiple quest progression bugs were fixed

Resource gathering was also improved:

• Hardwood drop rates increased by roughly 20%
• Tainted Bile now drops more frequently
• Ore respawn bugs were corrected

Interface & Accessibility Updates

The patch also introduced a wide range of control and accessibility upgrades:

• Expanded key remapping support
• Improved support for accented characters in names
• Fixed mouse inversion issues for ships and cannons
• Added safe-zone settings for widescreen monitors
• Corrected several controller navigation problems

Full Windrose Patch Notes

Important Changes

• Added Force Relay Connection setting for multiplayer stability
• Fixed connection issues tied to non-English Windows usernames
• Reduced unnecessary CPU usage
• Lowered disk usage during gameplay
• Improved server ship performance
• Fixed rare inventory-related crashes
• Reduced crafting costs for many building pieces

New Content

• Added dozens of missing building components
• Added new Seedbed variations
• Added new farming sounds and visual effects
• Added audio cues for Drowned ranged attacks
• Extended ambient music tracks

Interface Improvements

• Fixed FrameGen stuttering
• Fixed VRAM spikes in UI menus
• Improved fast travel map visibility
• Added expanded key remapping options
• Improved accented letter support
• Added widescreen safe-zone settings

Building & Terraforming Fixes

• Decorative Canopies now count as roofs
• Fixed floating trees caused by terrain digging
• Corrected shovel flatten tool behavior
• Improved structure integrity calculations
• Fixed snapping and collision issues across multiple building pieces
• Increased sapling planting density

Gameplay & Bug Fixes

• Improved Tainted Bile drop rates
• Increased Hardwood drops by approximately 20%
• Prevented ship disassembly item loss
• Fixed multiple combat and quest bugs
• Corrected ore respawn behavior
• Fixed ship interaction animation issues
• Fixed several audio bugs tied to ship cameras

Visual Improvements

• Fixed distorted weapon visuals on low settings
• Prevented grass removal in certain building situations
• Updated Wolf Head Trophy textures
• Improved decorative beam visibility
• Fixed fireplace and clay wall visuals

For Windrose players, this patch is one of the game’s most important updates yet. Not only does it address the controversial SSD usage concerns that surfaced shortly after launch, but it also delivers a massive round of stability fixes and gameplay polish that should make life at sea much smoother going forward.