Windrose has crossed 1.5 million wishlists on Steam, and the team says the response has been far beyond what it expected after the game climbed to the top demos during Steam Next Fest. They also said more than 800,000 players have tried the demo, which will remain available until the Early Access launch.

The team said the demo has given it a large amount of feedback to work through, including more than 12,000 completed surveys, over 7,500 Steam reviews, in game reports, and messages across social media. Based on that response, the developers are now shaping a number of changes for Early Access. They also made clear that the list is still in progress and could change before release.

One of the biggest updates is co-op on one ship, which will let players man ship batteries and give each crew member a more direct role in battle. The developers are also testing a larger multiplayer limit and hopes to raise support from 4 players to 8, although they say performance will still depend on connection quality and server limits. Even so, the developers believe the strongest experience will likely remain in the 1 to 4 player range.

Loot is also getting a rework. Instead of fixed rewards, armor and weapons will be randomized so players do not know exactly what they will find in each chest. Enemy drops are being improved as well, with the goal of making dangerous fights feel more rewarding. The studio said this should strengthen the balance between risk and reward and make exploration feel less predictable.

Several quality of life changes are in the works, and include an optional hold to gather resources setting, an FOV slider, DLSS and FSR support, controller improvements, a dismantling workbench for unwanted items, and a target lock switch that lets players cycle through enemies more easily. Windrose is also adjusting its shanties, adding rougher backing vocals to give them a more pirate like feel, and introducing a signal fire building piece that can be seen from much farther away than a regular bonfire.

The developers said they are still working through all of this with Early Access in mind, and that some of the features may change or never arrive in the final form. Even so, Windrose is still being shaped by player feedback, and the team says it plans to keep building around it.