
Kara can use various materials she finds on her journey to build things like a stronger boat, new weapons, and new tools for getting better materials. Whatever choice you go with, you’re sure to make at least some progress towards making the journey a little easier. Your primary goal is to find all those shells, then, but pursuing that goal will necessarily require you to search every island along the way for goods that you urgently need.

If it runs out, her health bar starts to go instead, possibly resulting in death. Kara has a stamina gauge that governs her ability to run and do other actions, but its cap is constantly being eroded away as she goes longer without food. This unpredictability proves to be the source of the most enjoyable sort of tension that Windbound has to offer, and is sure to keep you hooked at least for a few hours. Islands are randomly generated and dotted around the map, and the resources that they hold are similarly unpredictable.

Each chapter sees Kara and her boat dropped into a big, circular cutout of the ocean, and her task is to sail between the islands to find three magical shells that unlock a gate (and a random upgrade) so she can further progress.

The typical flow of a session of Windbound consists of five chapters that are nearly indistinguishable from each other.
