Thomas Richards is the first major boss encounter in Windrose, fought inside a Coastal Jungle cave during the Revenge Is Best Served Cold questline given by Doctor Galen Skelton.
He combines heavy two-handed axe swings with thrown grenades and a posture guard that must be broken for reliable damage. Beating him comes down to the right gear, the right consumables, and a clear read on his attack rhythm.
1. How to Prepare Against Thomas Richards in Windrose
Preparation carries more weight than raw reflexes in this fight. Thomas is tuned for gear tier 1 to 5 and expects a late Coastal Jungle loadout, so walking in with starter pieces will stretch the encounter into a long, frustrating grind.
1.1 Best Gear and Weapons
Rapier of a Thousand Cuts
The highest gear level available before this boss is Level 5, since iron-tier crafting is gated behind defeating Thomas himself. Upgrade your primary weapon, firearm, and all five armor pieces to Level 5 before attempting the fight.
Two weapons stand out for this encounter:
- Rapier of a Thousand Cuts: Applies stacking Bleed on each hit, letting a three-hit-and-retreat loop tick damage during dodges and shortening the fight significantly.
- Greatsword: A more forgiving option if you prefer rhythm over parry timing. Heavy strength attacks chip his posture guard faster, and the reach keeps you outside the axe arc.
A Blunderbuss or pistol is also worth bringing for opening shots and posture pressure, since ranged fire strips his guard faster than melee. Keep in mind that gunpowder is scarce this early, so use it selectively.
1.2 Best Armor Sets and Set Bonuses
Avoid wearing random Uncommon pieces. Aim for Rare-tier armor and stack set bonuses, which activate at two and four equipped pieces.
The best sets for this fight are:
- Conquistador Set (2P): Increases Damage Resistance by 15%.
- Conquistador Set (4P): Grants Bulwark, so the first few hits you take do not interrupt your actions.
- Flibustier Set (2P): Attacks consume 20% less Stamina.
- Flibustier Set (4P): Increases one-handed weapon Damage by 15%.
- Pikeman Set (2P): Increases maximum Health by 160, roughly a 30% health increase this early in the game.
- Privateer Set (2P): Increases Critical Hit Chance by 10%.
The standard hybrid recommendation is two Conquistador pieces combined with two Flibustier pieces, providing a flat 15% mitigation and a 20% attack stamina reduction, increasing the number of dodges per combo.
An alternative is two Pikeman plus two Privateer split trades mitigation for extra health and crit chance, which closes the fight faster once you are comfortable dodging his swings. Blueprints for these sets drop from pirate camps and are also sold by faction Provisioners in Tortuga.
1.3 Consumables and Buffs
Elixir of Cruelty
Your base health pool is low without food buffs, making cooked meals mandatory before entering the cave. Windrose supports multiple stacking food bonuses at once, so pair an Endurance-boosting dish with a Health-boosting dish at a Cooking Fire before heading out.
Fully cooked meals provide longer-duration buffs than raw ingredients and are always worth the extra preparation time.
For alchemy, bring the following into the fight:
- Healing Potion: Restores 55% of maximum Health. Minor Healing Potions only restore 35%, which is too weak for Thomas’s heavy combos.
- Bandages: Use these for calm recovery between exchanges. Bring at least ten since they are the cheapest bulk healing available.
- Elixir of Cruelty: A Rare alchemy consumable that increases damage by 8% for 15 minutes, brewed from an Alchemical Base, 1 Boar Tusk, and 1 Pearl at the Alchemy Table. If you have a Distiller available, the Infused Elixir of Cruelty extends the same 8% buff to 30 minutes.
Before leaving base, spend a brief moment near your Bonfire to trigger the Rested buff, which boosts stamina regeneration. It disappears on death, so it benefits your first attempt most, but it is a free advantage that should not be skipped.
1.4 The Tent Trick
Tent outside Thomas Richards’ location
Thomas’s arena is instanced, meaning a tent placed inside will not function as a respawn point. To avoid the full corpse run after each failed attempt, drop a Tent at the cave entrance and set it as your active revival point before going in. This keeps each new attempt cycling in seconds rather than minutes.
2. All Attack Patterns
Bomb Toss
Thomas fights with a two-handed axe supplemented by thrown grenades, forcing you to manage both melee spacing and area denial at the same time.
His standard swings can be blocked with a Perfect Block, but several attacks carry a red glow telegraph, marking them as unblockable. Learning the difference is the foundation of this fight.
| Attack | Description | How to Handle It |
|---|---|---|
| Two-Swing Combo | Two axe swings with a brief pause before repeating | Walk backward through both swings, or Perfect Block them |
| Heavy Overhead | Slams the axe into the ground with a red glow telegraph | Cannot be parried; dodge sideways |
| Forward Grab | Forward lunge with a red telegraph and longer wind-up | Dodge sideways, not backward; dodging back can still catch the lunge |
| Bomb Toss | Throws grenades that detonate after a short delay in a tight radius; Thomas freezes in place until they explode | Step roughly two body-widths outside the marker and use the idle window to heal |
The Bomb Toss is frequently misread as a threat, but it is actually the safest healing window in the entire fight. Thomas remains completely idle until detonation, so use that pause for a Bandage or Healing Potion and re-engage once the blast resolves rather than chasing hits through the explosions.
3. How to Beat Thomas Richards
Richards’ Heavy Overhead attack
With preparation complete and his moves memorized, the fight comes down to patience and stamina management. The encounter is built around punishing greed, and the two-swing read carries you through from his full health bar to empty without the core pattern fundamentally changing.
3.1 Core Combat Loop
- Enter the arena and press T to lock on so dodges and blocks automatically face him throughout the fight.
- Walk backward through his Two-Swing Combo. Thomas cannot outpace your backward walk, so this is the safest way to avoid chip damage.
- After the second swing lands, step in for one heavy attack, then disengage before the pattern repeats.
- When the red glow telegraphs a Heavy Overhead or Forward Grab, stop attacking entirely and dodge sideways.
- When he throws Bombs, step outside the blast marker and use the idle window to heal rather than pressing the attack.
- Never fully empty your stamina bar. Recovery from zero stamina takes significantly longer than from partial depletion, leaving you unable to dodge incoming hits.
Do not attempt three or four hits when the window only offers one or two. His recovery out of the pause is faster than a full combo, and getting caught mid-animation during one of his unblockable attacks usually cascades into a death.
3.2 Posture Guard and the Stagger Window
Damaging Thomas Richards
Thomas carries a posture guard displayed as small icons beneath his health bar. Every clean hit chips it down, and breaking it outright for a critical stun typically requires five or six consecutive Perfect Blocks without a miss.
For most players, the practical path is landing damage in the cooldown windows between combos while Bleed from the Rapier of a Thousand Cuts or the 8% bonus from the Elixir of Cruelty gradually compresses Richards’ health bar.
As his health drops, the two-swing pattern speeds up and hits harder, but the shape of the fight does not change.
3.3 Avoid Richards’ Grab Attacks
Richards’ Grab Attack
Thomas’s Forward Grab is the most dangerous move in his kit, and the lateral dodge window is tight. Read the longer wind-up on the red telegraph and commit to a sideways dodge rather than backward, since dodging back occasionally catches the lunge’s hitbox.
Keep Healing Potions on a hotbar slot so they are accessible without opening the inventory mid-combo. Use the Bomb Toss idle window as your primary healing opportunity throughout the fight, and rely on Bandages between exchanges to save potion charges for genuine emergencies.
4. Thomas Richards Rewards
Thomas Richards’ Rewards
Beating Thomas Richards wraps up the Revenge Is Best Served Cold questline and opens up the next stage of the game.
Here is everything you unlock after the fight:
- Foothills biome access, unlocking the next area to explore
- Iron Ingot recipe and full iron-tier crafting, raising your gear level cap beyond 5
- 50 Experience Points
- Discovery of the Silver Ingot
- Thomas Richards’ Journal
- 1 Seafood Platter
After the fight, return to Doctor Galen Skelton in Tortuga to continue the questline.
