Windrose Lamp Oil Guide: How to Refuel Your Lantern and Find Animal Fat

Key Takeaways

• Lamp oil comes from refilling your lantern with animal fat at the workbench's Refill/Repair tab
• You need 3 chunks of animal fat to completely refill an empty lantern
• Kill boars and sows to get animal fat - other animals don't drop it
• Savage Boars on islands south/southeast of the starter zone drop 2-3 fat chunks
• Craft multiple lanterns for longer expeditions to avoid constant backtracking

So you've been dying in Windrose caves. A lot. Don't feel bad about it. Those underground copper runs are brutal when you can't see two feet in front of your face, and cranking up your gamma feels like cheating. The good news? You probably already unlocked the lantern. The bad news? Finding out how to actually fuel the thing isn't exactly intuitive.

I spent way too long clicking through crafting menus before I figured this out. Turns out the lamp oil situation in Windrose works differently than you'd expect from other survival games. There's no separate oil recipe. No refinery. No complicated production chain. It's actually pretty simple once you know where to look.

How to Get Lamp Oil in Windrose

Here's the deal. Lamp oil isn't a craftable item you make and then apply to your lantern. Instead, you refill your lantern directly using animal fat at any workbench. Three chunks of animal fat will completely top off an empty lantern. If yours still has some juice left, you might only need one or two pieces.

1. Head to any workbench in your camp or on your ship
2. Click the Refill/Repair tab (second tab from the left)
3. Select your lantern from the list
4. Make sure you have at least 1-3 animal fat in your inventory
5. Hit the refill button and you're done

That's literally it. No cooking required. No intermediate steps. Just fat goes in, light comes out. The game doesn't really explain this anywhere, which is why so many players end up Googling it.

Where to Find Animal Fat

Okay so you know how to refill your lantern now. But what if you're completely out of animal fat? Time to go hunting. And specifically, you need to hunt pigs.

Boars and sows are your targets here. I killed everything I could find during my first few hours, wolves, crabs, those annoying birds. None of them dropped animal fat. Only the pigs. So don't waste your time on other wildlife if fat is what you're after.

The starter island has some boars wandering around, but they're pretty spread out. If you want to farm fat efficiently, set sail for the islands to the south and southeast of the beginner zone. That's where you'll find Savage Boars and Charging Boars. These guys are tougher than regular boars, sure. But they drop two or three chunks of animal fat at a time instead of just one.

The bonus? You'll also be collecting Rough Hide from these hunts. And trust me, you need a ton of that stuff for basically every crafting recipe in the mid-game. So your boar hunting trips pull double duty.

Pro Tip: Carry Multiple Lanterns

One lantern will get you through the early game fine. But once you start exploring deeper caves or sailing to distant islands, that single light source becomes a problem. You'll burn through fuel faster than you'd expect, and running back to camp for a refill every fifteen minutes gets old fast.

The solution? Craft two or three lanterns before any serious expedition. They're cheap to make and stack in your inventory. When one runs dry, just swap to the next. You can refill them all at once when you're back at your workbench.

• Lanterns are lightweight and easy to craft early
• Carrying 2-3 means longer exploration runs without backtracking
• Refill all of them in one batch when you return to camp
• Extra lanterns also serve as backup if one gets destroyed somehow

Combat Tips for Hunting Boars

Regular boars aren't much of a threat. Swing at them a few times and collect your loot. But those Savage Boars and Charging Boars on the outer islands? They hit hard and they're aggressive. A few tips to make these hunts smoother:

• Craft a shield before heading to boar-heavy islands
• Watch for the charge attack windup and dodge to the side
• Don't fight multiple boars at once if you can help it
• Bring some cooked food for healing between fights
• Wooden weapons work fine but metal ones speed up kills significantly

You don't need endgame gear or anything. Just don't roll up to a Charging Boar with nothing but a wooden stick and expect great results.

Other Uses for Animal Fat

Lantern fuel is the main use for animal fat early on, but it shows up in other recipes too. You'll need it for certain torch variants, some ship upgrades, and a handful of food recipes that provide better buffs than basic cooked meat. So stockpile the stuff whenever you can. It's one of those resources that seems plentiful until suddenly you need fifty pieces for a ship upgrade.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I get lamp oil from any source other than animal fat?

Nope. As of the current build, animal fat is the only way to refuel lanterns. No alternative fuel sources exist yet.

Do any animals besides boars drop animal fat?

Only boars and sows drop animal fat. Wolves, birds, crabs, and other wildlife give different materials.

How long does a full lantern last?

Roughly 10-15 minutes of continuous use depending on the area. Darker caves seem to drain it faster.

Can I refuel lanterns anywhere or only at workbenches?

Only at workbenches. You can't refuel in the field, which is why carrying multiple lanterns is smart.

Final Thoughts

Windrose doesn't hold your hand with tutorials, which is part of its charm but also why stuff like the lamp oil system trips people up. Now you know the secret: animal fat plus the Refill/Repair tab equals a working lantern. Go hunt some pigs, craft a couple backup lights, and those cave runs will go way smoother.

The pirate survival genre keeps growing, and Windrose brings some genuinely interesting ideas to the table. Just wish the crafting UI was a bit more intuitive. But hey, that's what guides are for.

Source: PCGamer latest