Do ship cannons use Gunpowder in Windrose?

No. Ship cannons do not consume Gunpowder. Cannon ammo is a non-consumable toggle between standard cannonball and Chain Shot, with no crafting recipes, counts or magazines to manage. Gunpowder is only consumed by handheld firearms — pistols, muskets and blunderbusses — alongside Bullets.

Can you get Gunpowder without crafting it in Windrose?

Yes, and early on it's the easier route. Gunpowder loots from Blackbeard pirate camps, defeated pirate enemies and supply packages or POI chests, roughly 8 to 15 per source. That covers your firearms before you've built the Millstones and reached the Foothills to craft it yourself.

🏴‍☠️ Windrose · Crafting

Windrose — How to Make Gunpowder

Q: How do you make Gunpowder in Windrose?

Craft Homemade Gunpowder at the Millstones workstation by combining Ash and Sulfur. The Millstones is built from 1 Millstone Parts (15 Stone at the Workbench) plus 15 Wood, and must be placed under a roof within range of a lit Bonfire. The recipe unlocks after you find Corn at an Ancient Farm in the Foothills. The exact Ash and Sulfur amounts are reported differently across sources, so check the Millstones crafting screen on your build for the current numbers.

Q: What is the Gunpowder recipe in Windrose?

Sources disagree. Independent guides and player reports give three different quantities: 20 Ash + 10 Sulfur (yield 10), 10 Ash + 20 Sulfur, and 25 Ash + 25 Sulfur. No primary source settles it, and Windrose is in Early Access where recipes change between patches. Until it's confirmed on the current build, treat all three as candidates and read the exact numbers off the Millstones screen in-game.

Q: Where do you get Ash and Sulfur in Windrose?

Ash is a byproduct of making Charcoal in the Charcoal Kiln, or you can grind 2 Charcoal into 6 Ash at the Millstones. Sulfur is mined from rocky nodes in the Foothills with an Iron Pickaxe, or bought from the Natural Resources Merchant in Tortuga once you reach Reputation Level 2 with the People of Tortuga and clear the Foothills local threat.

Q: How do you unlock Gunpowder crafting in Windrose?

Reach the Foothills — the second major biome, opened after clearing the Coastal Jungle's local threat — then find Corn at an Ancient Farm there. Picking up Corn unlocks the Millstone Parts recipe at your Workbench, which lets you build the Millstones and start crafting Gunpowder.

Gunpowder (the item is literally called Homemade Gunpowder) is what keeps your pistols, muskets and blunderbusses firing. You craft it at the Millstones from two ingredients — Ash and Sulfur — once you've reached the Foothills and unlocked the recipe. Here's the honest catch: the exact recipe quantity is reported three different ways across the guides and player reports out there, and no source nails it down. So below we show every candidate, point you at the materials, and tell you the one number to read off your own crafting screen.

Station, materials, unlock path & uses cross-checked across multiple independent guides + Steam player reports.

The recipe quantity itself is disputed (three candidates) and not yet confirmed on the live build — flagged ⚠ verify throughout. Early Access (Steam, since April 2026); we re-check on patches. Current to June 2026.

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The Gunpowder Recipe — Sources Disagree

This is the part we won't fake. The recipe is always Ash + Sulfur at the Millstones — that much every source agrees on. The quantities are another matter: independent guides and player reports split three ways, and there's no developer patch note or verified in-game footage to settle it. We're not going to print one number as gospel when the sources are this divided.

Candidate recipe	Yield	Reported by
20 Ash + 10 Sulfur	10 Gunpowder	GameRant, Fextralife wiki, FinalBoss
10 Ash + 20 Sulfur ⚠	not stated	method.gg (ingredients flipped)
25 Ash + 25 Sulfur ⚠	~5 (or unstated)	DualShockers, The Nerd Stash, BisectHosting, a Steam player walkthrough

⚠ Verify on your build. The 25/25 camp is at least as well-sourced as the 20/10 camp (a Steam player walkthrough lands on 25+25), and even the 20/10 sources disagree on which ingredient is the bigger pile. There's no clean "consensus" here, whatever other sites claim. Jason, the single fix: open the Millstones crafting screen in the current build and read the exact Ash / Sulfur / yield straight off the UI — that one check settles the whole page. Until then, take whatever your game shows over any number on the internet, including this table.

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Where to Craft It: Building the Millstones

Gunpowder isn't made at the campfire or the Workbench — it needs the dedicated Millstones station. Building it is a two-step chain, and it has placement rules that trip people up.

Step	What you need	Where
1. Craft Millstone Parts	15 Stone	At the Workbench (Tier 2). The recipe unlocks once you've found Corn — see below.
2. Build the Millstones	1 Millstone Parts + 15 Wood	In Build Mode. Place it under a roof and within range of a lit Bonfire — both are required or it won't function.

Roof + Bonfire, not optional. The Millstones has to sit beneath a roof structure and inside a lit Bonfire's radius to work. If it looks placed but won't craft, that's almost always why — check the cover and that your Bonfire is actually lit.

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How to Unlock Gunpowder Crafting

You can't make Gunpowder from the start — it's mid-game content. The gate runs through the game's second major biome, the Foothills, and a single unassuming pickup: Corn.

Reach the FoothillsYou progress out of the starting Coastal Jungle by clearing its local threat (boss), which opens up the Foothills — the second major biome. ⚠ some guides name the Coastal Jungle boss "Thomas Richards"; treat the name as unconfirmed and just look for the biome's main threat.
Find CornCorn sits at an Ancient Farm in the Foothills. Picking it up unlocks the Millstone Parts recipe at your Workbench — that's the key that opens the whole chain.
Then build & craftWith Corn found and the recipe unlocked, craft the Millstone Parts, build the Millstones, gather Ash + Sulfur, and you're making Gunpowder.

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How to Get Ash

Ash is the cheap, abundant half of the recipe — you'll usually have a pile of it as a side effect of making Charcoal. Two ways to stock up:

Source	How it works
Charcoal Kiln byproduct	Confirmed in-game: 1 Wood → 1 Charcoal + 1 Ash in the Charcoal Kiln. Every Charcoal you burn hands you an Ash on the side — so if you're already making Charcoal, your Ash piles up for free.
Grind it at the Millstones	Need Ash on demand? Put 2 Charcoal through the Millstones to get 6 Ash. Handy when you've got Charcoal but no spare Wood to burn.

There's no saltpeter chain here. Unlike a lot of survival games, Windrose doesn't route you through saltpeter or "charcoal-into-gunpowder" — Charcoal only matters as the source of Ash. The Gunpowder recipe itself is the direct Ash + Sulfur combine.

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How to Get Sulfur

Sulfur is the gatekeeper ingredient — it's why Gunpowder is Foothills-tier content. You either mine it or buy it.

Source	What you need
Mine it in the Foothills	Sulfur sits in nodes on rocky surfaces in the Foothills. You need an Iron Pickaxe to mine it — and the Iron Pickaxe itself isn't available until the second area, so this lines up naturally with reaching the biome.
Buy it from the Natural Resources Merchant	In Tortuga, the Natural Resources Merchant sells Sulfur once you hit Reputation Level 2 with the People of Tortuga and clear the Foothills local threat. A steady, no-mining supply for when you'd rather pay than swing a pickaxe. ⚠ some sources call the Foothills threat "Hands" — treat the name as unconfirmed.

⚠ Most sources put Sulfur nodes in the Foothills only; one lineage of guides also mentions the Coastal Jungle. Foothills is the safe answer — verify in-game if you're hunting nodes earlier.

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What Gunpowder Is Actually For

Worth being precise here, because there's a common misconception. Gunpowder fuels your handheld firearms — and that's it.

Firearm ammoGunpowder is consumed together with Bullets to fire personal ranged weapons — pistols, muskets and blunderbusses. No powder, no bang.
Not ship cannonsShip cannons do NOT use Gunpowder. Cannon ammo is a non-consumable toggle between standard cannonball and Chain Shot — no recipes, no counts, no magazines. If you've been stockpiling powder "for the cannons," you don't need to.

So your powder budget is entirely about how much you plan to shoot people with firearms. Naval combat runs on a separate, free ammo toggle — keep the two mental tallies apart.

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Skip the Grind: Loot It Early

Before you've built the Millstones or reached the Foothills, you don't have to go without — Gunpowder drops in the world, and the early-game supply is generous enough to keep a firearm fed.

Blackbeard pirate campsThe reliable early source — clear a camp and loot the powder.
Defeated pirate enemiesPirate enemies (Musketeers and the like) drop Gunpowder when killed.
Supply packages & chestsPOI chests and supply packages cough up Gunpowder too — roughly 8–15 per source (approximate; based on player reports, not a hard published range).

Mortar Joe. Once you're crafting in bulk, the worker NPC Mortar Joe (a "Powderman") assigned to the Millstones gives +50% Gunpowder production. ⚠ guides list him at the Brethren of the Coast for around 500 Piastre — confirm cost/location in-game, as that's single-vendor data.

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Early Access — Read This Before You Trust a Number

Windrose has been in Steam Early Access since April 2026 (developer Kraken Express), and it patches fast. Recipes — including this one — can and do shift between updates.

Everything structural on this page (the station, the build cost, the Corn unlock, where Ash and Sulfur come from, firearms-not-cannons, looting, Mortar Joe) is corroborated across multiple independent sources and is solid. The one thing we deliberately won't state as settled fact is the exact recipe quantity — it's split three ways and no primary source resolves it. Current to June 2026; we re-check on patches. When in doubt, the Millstones crafting screen in your game is the only source that's actually current.

Windrose Gunpowder FAQ

How do you make Gunpowder in Windrose?

Craft Homemade Gunpowder at the Millstones by combining Ash and Sulfur. The Millstones is built from 1 Millstone Parts (15 Stone at the Workbench) plus 15 Wood, placed under a roof within range of a lit Bonfire. The recipe unlocks once you find Corn at an Ancient Farm in the Foothills. The exact Ash and Sulfur amounts vary across sources — read them off the Millstones screen on your build.

What is the Gunpowder recipe in Windrose?

Honestly, the sources disagree. Three quantities are out there: 20 Ash + 10 Sulfur (yield 10), 10 Ash + 20 Sulfur, and 25 Ash + 25 Sulfur. No developer source or verified footage settles it, and Windrose is in Early Access where recipes change. Treat all three as candidates and confirm the current numbers in-game. ⚠

Where do you get Ash and Sulfur?

Ash is a byproduct of making Charcoal in the Charcoal Kiln, or grind 2 Charcoal into 6 Ash at the Millstones. Sulfur is mined from rocky nodes in the Foothills with an Iron Pickaxe, or bought from the Natural Resources Merchant in Tortuga at Reputation Level 2 with the People of Tortuga (after clearing the Foothills threat).

Do ship cannons use Gunpowder?

No. Ship cannons don't consume Gunpowder. Cannon ammo is a non-consumable toggle between standard cannonball and Chain Shot — no recipes, counts or magazines. Gunpowder is only for handheld firearms (pistols, muskets, blunderbusses), used alongside Bullets.

Can you get Gunpowder without crafting it?

Yes, and early on it's easier. Gunpowder loots from Blackbeard pirate camps, defeated pirate enemies, and supply packages / POI chests — roughly 8–15 per source. That keeps your firearms fed before you've built the Millstones and reached the Foothills to craft it yourself.

How do you unlock Gunpowder crafting?

Reach the Foothills (the second major biome, opened after clearing the Coastal Jungle's local threat), then find Corn at an Ancient Farm there. Picking up Corn unlocks the Millstone Parts recipe at your Workbench, which lets you build the Millstones and start crafting.