Windrose surpasses Crimson Desert and Slay the Spire 2 as players are driven to stranger tides

Windrose, a co-op pirate adventure game that came out into early access a few days ago, is already one of Steam’s most popular titles, having surpassed giants like Crimson Desert and Slay the Spire 2 to claim a spot among Valve’s top three most-played games.

With a concurrent player peak of 204,000, Windrose lags behind only Valve’s own games, Dota 2 and Counter-Strike 2 at the time of writing, which are almost always the top two spots on the platform. What’s surprising about this number isn’t that it’s an indie game made by a small but dedicated team, but that it launched to a quarter of that number on release day, continuously growing since.

Windrose puts you in the boots of a pirate captain who, amid mysterious events, was deprived of their ship and thrown onto a desolate island. Your task, and that of your three or more friends, is to find out what happened and reclaim your former glory as a true king of the seven seas. The game is set during the Golden Age of Piracy, i.e., the early 1700s, and has incredibly immersive naval navigation and combat and simulation that truly makes it feel like you’re a sailor from that era.

Windrose is also a survival crafting game, which could at least partially explain why it’s so popular, as you’re tasked with discovering and creating your own pirate cove using deep building and crafting mechanics. Whether it’s a small log house by the shore or an elaborate pirate castle built around a mountain, you can make it in Windrose. On top of that, you get and make boats, fight other pirates and strange creatures, and go on adventures across the West Indies either alone or with your own crew (of up to eight members).

Ever since I played its exceptional demo, Windrose has kept me interested to no end, and I continue having fun in the game despite its early access model. There is so much content in there that you’re going to get updates way before you run out of stuff to do, meaning you can just get stuck in and enjoy and worry not about ever seeing the game over screen.

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We now have confirmation about Infinity Nikki‘s 2.5 update and when it will be available worldwide. The upcoming update, titled Where All Souls Return, will have several pieces of new content for players to enjoy. The existing map of Itzaland will be expanded with the update, but that’s not all.

But first, let’s find out when the next major update goes live.

Infinity Nikki 2.5 release countdown

Update 2.5 for Infinity Nikki will be released worldwide on Thursday, April 23. The date and time have been officially confirmed, so there’s no chance of a change this late. The following countdown will expire once the update goes live.

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The countdown is based on the following timings.

8pm PT
10pm CT
11pm ET
3am UTC (April 24)
4am CET (April 24)

The timings are based on the maintenance we had during update 2.4, when the maintenance ended at 8pm PT. The schedule for the 2.5 update is yet to be confirmed as of writing. We should have more information before the update goes live worldwide. A brief window should also be available for you to pre-download and install the files related to the update.

The upcoming update should set up a showdown between Lady Medael and Nikki as the former is all set to offer real salvation to Itzaland. The map will have a brand new area of Boneyard post the launch of the update. There will also be new cosmetics, potential cosmetics, and more to enjoy.

We will have more information once the full reveal happens later tonight, on April 19. This guide will be duly updated with all the new information as they’re revealed by the developers.

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