Ashen Winds (World Event)
The Ashen Winds (also known as the Ashen Lords) is one of the World Events in Sea of Thieves Adventure Mode, indicated by the Ashen Winds Cloud, a fiery-red tornado marking the site of a summoning ritual performed by Ashen Skeletons led by Flameheart. After the ritual is complete, one of the four Ashen Skeleton Lords will be summoned to take on crews. These rituals are generally performed on Large Islands in one of the three main regions of the Sea of Thieves. When defeated, the Ashen Lords leave behind a wealth of Devil's Roar Treasure and an Ashen Winds Skull that can either be used as a Flamethrower type weapon or sold to the Order of Souls (or Reaper's Bones) for Gold and Reputation (and Emissary Value when sold as Trading Company Emissaries).
The World Event
The Ashen Winds Encounter is one of the rotating World Events in Sea of Thieves. The appearance of the event is indicated by the Ashen Winds Cloud in the skies above a Large Island. Players will hear ominous music when approaching the island. On the island, Players will find a handful of Ashen Skeletons performing a Summoning Ritual. Once approached, the ritual will be automatically completed and one of the four Ashen Lords will rise to take on any player crews.
Only one World Event can be active at one time and as such, the Ashen Winds Event rotates with other World Events (all signified by some sort of large markers in the skies). Between two World Events, the Kraken will seek out one Ship at the seas to attack. Once the Kraken has found a target, the next World Event will appear in the skies. Therefore, if an Ashen Winds World Event is not present, the crew may have to finish the currently active World Event, or if no World Events are active, they may have to lure out the Kraken on open seas for a new Event to spawn.
The Battle
When player crews get close enough to the summoning ritual on the marked island, an Ashen Lord will rise. The Ashen Lords are mechanically very similar to Skeleton Lord fights from Tall Tales or Forts, but have a different fire related set of moves. There are four different Ashen Lords that Players can encounter as a part of the Event. The main difference between the lords is their dialogue and appearance, with all of them sharing the same health pool and moveset.
Ashen Lord Battles can be categorised into three phases. The phase switches are signified by the Lords kneeling down from weakness to gather strength. During these moments of weakness, the Lords are immobile and cannot attack, allowing players to get easy hits in. The second phase begins when the Lord is at ~75% health and the third phase at ~50%.
The Lords will become more aggressive and powerful with each phase, gaining access to new moves. In the second phase, the Lords gain access to their powerful Shockwave attack. The final phase is the longest phase, during which the Lords unleash their true power by gaining an attack that effectively summons a Volcano eruption over the island. The Lords also seem to get chattier with each phase.
Tests suggest that Ashen Lords have 8000 Health: 2000 Health in the first phase, 3000 Health in the second phase and 3000 in the third phase. The phase switches, where the Ashen Lords kneel down in weakness require players to do roughly 400-600 damage to progress to the next phase. Note that the Lord will progress to the next phase on their own after half a minute and the damage dealt during the phase switches does not add up to their total health pool.
Possible Locations
The following section lists all the Large Islands that can host the Ashen Winds World Event. All of these locations match the spawn areas of the Skeleton Lords Briggsy and Graymarrow from the Tall Tales.
- Kraken's Fall - Right in the middle of the island, between the two bays. There is an Ammo Chest by a pond nearby.
- Shipwreck Bay - Right next to the inner bay. There are two Ammo Chests nearby: one south of the bay by a large rock and one close to Grogsoaked Ed in a fenced area.
- Marauder’s Arch - in the Eastern fortified area. An Ammo Chest can be found inside the fort itself.
- Cannon Cove - On the beach area of the Cove. There is an Ammo Chest in the beach Camp.
- Wanderers Refuge - On the beach south of the northern cave. There is an Ammo Chest on the Western shore of the island.
- Mermaid's Hideaway - Next to the inner pond area. There is an Ammo Chest by some Barrels under the Northern arch.
- Devil's Ridge - Next to Martha the Fierce by the waterfall pond. There is an Ammo Chest close to Martha.
Ashen Lord Attacks
Not only do the Ashen Lords have access to any moves of Skeleton Lords (aside from Teleportation), but they also have various other fire-related moves at their disposal:
- Melee Attack - The most basic out of all the attacks, the Ashen Lords will strike any Players who get too close to them by causing damage and knocking them back.
- Fire Breath - The Lord tries to distance nearby Players by spewing Flames out of their mouth akin to a Flamethrower. Any Players inside the breath attack take heavy damage. This attack also sets the Lord on fire, dealing fire damage all around them.
- Lunge Attack - The Lord attempts to close the distance between them and the Player by jumping towards them, dealing damage and knocking them back when hit.
- Boulder Throw - There are two versions of this attack: a small quickly thrown rock or a larger boulder that can reach remarkable distances. The smaller rock throws do not have voice lines. The larger boulders deal considerable damage and set hit players on fire. It seems that both of these attacks can be cancelled with damage. If there are no players in range or all nearby players are dead, this attack can be used against a player ship if it is in sight and in range.
- Summon Skeletons - The Lord summons a handful of Ashen Skeletons to fight for them. The Lord seems to be able to spawn two groups of Skeletons. These Skeletons are relatively weak and can easily be taken out with a Cutlass lunge. The summoned Skeletons can spawn with no Weapons, a Cutlass, Blunderbuss or Flintlock.
- Ash Cloud - The Lord will cast a thick and wide cloud of Ash that drastically lowers visibility around the Lord and outside. Everything inside the Ash Cloud will have an auditory echo to it.
- Shockwave - The Lords gain access to this attack during the second phase. They will gather strength and pound the ground with a fiery blast, setting any nearby Players on fire, dealing heavy damage and sending them flying in the air. The closer Players are to the Lord, the more damage this attack will deal. Since Players are thrown high in the air, they will also receive fall damage unless they have their back to a wall or are in water. Unlike the Skeleton Lord shockwave attack, this attack also damages the Masts, Capstan and Wheel of any nearby ships.
- World's End - The Lords gain access to this attack during the final phase. They will kneel and summon a volcanic eruption out of the sky, while also using the Fire Breath attack the whole time. Making any close attacks risky. During this attack, like under a Volcanic eruption, all the surrounding water will become superheated, Geysers will appear on the Island itself and volcanic Rocks will fly from the skies, often instantly killing any hit Players. This attack is also devastating to any nearby ships. The range of the volcanic eruption is noticeably shorter than that of a real volcano in the Devil's Roar, only covering a portion of the island and the nearby waters.
Rewards
Upon the defeat of an Ashen Lord, they leave behind a selection of Ashen/Devil's Roar treasures:
- Guaranteed treasure:
They also leave around 15 varied Ashen/Devil's Roar treasures raised up out of the ground by Geysers in the surrounding area.
- Treasures of varying types and amounts:
- Any type of Ashen Treasure Chests
- Any type of Devil's Roar Artefacts
- Any type of Ashen Bounty Skulls
- Any type of Devil's Roar Trade Good Crates
- A Collector's Chest with Gold and 0-3 Devil's Roar Artefacts inside
- An unlocked Ashen Chest with Gold and 0-3 Ashen Chest reward pool items inside.
The Ashen Lords
Player Crews can encounter 4 different Ashen Lords during this fight. They all share the same attacks and health pool. The only difference between them is their dialogue and appearance. These Lords each held a special position in Flameheart's army.
| Ashen Lords | |
|---|---|
Captain Grimm 
|
Captain Grimm was responsible for constructing the Fortresses and Flameheart's Lairs to defend and hold all the Treasure that they stole. Grimm himself has a rather playful personality. |
Red Ruth 
|
Red Ruth was an alchemist by trade, responsible for designing Weapons as well as Cursed Cannonballs for the Burning Blade. Her manner of speech and dialogue also indicate that she was the main planner and tactician of the Army. |
Old Horatio 
|
Old Horatio was the Army's Shipwright and recruiter, responsible for constructing Flameheart's Fleet and press-ganging Skeletons to fight for them. |
Warden Chi 
|
Warden Chi was Flameheart's prison warden. Her job entailed capturing and interrogating prisoners, keeping them alive but unable to interfere in Flameheart's plans. |
Notes
- Ashen Lords spawn in areas that are close to bodies of water and an Ammo Chest, allowing players to have easy access to both water (to douse any Fires) and to a way to reload their weapons.
- The safest Weapons to use against Ashen Lords are the Eye of Reach and the ship's Cannons, as both allow the Player and Crew to keep their distance from the Lord. This is beneficial due to the Lord having more attacks available from nearby with many of them also dealing more damage the closer Players are. The ship should be kept at a relatively safe distance, as the Lord can still damage ship parts with the Shockwave, Boulder Throw and Volcanic Eruption attacks.
- Do be aware if the Ashen Lord has no one to attack, and detects players on a nearby ship, it will begin to throw boulders at it which will poke holes and start fires. Always have someone keeping the Ashen Lord's attention.
- The Lords take damage from Gunpowder Barrels, but many of their attacks can easily blow the Keg before one gets close to them.
- Skeletons do not emergently spawn on the island while the Ashen Lord event is active, however Emergent Skeleton Captains may occasionally still spawn on Crews.
- As expected, Fire does not seem to affect the Ashen Lords in a major way.
- It seems that Battlegills cannot be caught by the Islands of the Ashen Lord encounter.
- Cursed Cannonballs do affect Ashen Lords when shooted from a ship's cannon.
Patch history
- 2.9.0.1 (October 30, 2023)
- Crews approaching an Ashen Lord encounter should no longer see placeholder text within the approach banners.
- 2.8.0 (March 16, 2023)
- The Ashen Winds World Event now dynamically scales in difficulty in relation to the number of Player Pirates participating in the encounter.
- 2.6.1 (September 1, 2022)
- When Ashen Lords lunge at players, their movements are now smoother.
- 2.5.0.1 (March 24, 2022)
- Crews will now find a steady rotation of World Events taking place across the seas.
- 2.5.0 (March 10, 2022)
- Ashen Lords using lunge attacks should no longer be prone to getting stuck inside rocks.
- 2.2.1 (August 17, 2021)
- Killing an Ashen Lord during a Fort of Fortune encounter should now correctly progress Ashen Winds Commendations.
- 2.0.17 (July 29, 2020)
- Introduced.