Guide to Ashen Lords and the Ashen Winds Skull

How to defeat the Ashen Winds Cloud Battle

The Ashen Winds Cloud, a fiery tornado on the horizon, marks a dangerous new World Encounter: a battle against a fierce Ashen Lord! These new foes introduce unique abilities and attacks, and defeating them yields bountiful treasures- including a valuable Ashen Winds Skull that doubles as a Flamethrower in combat!

Along with this new threat are new commendations to complete and cosmetics to unlock. Read on for a complete walkthrough of the Ashen Lords battle and all of its rewards and commendations!

Getting Started

1. Ashen Lords are powerful skeleton bosses, similar to Skeleton Lords that have appeared before. However, they have all new attack patterns and abilities. These new fights are more engaging and balanced, and have exclusive dialogue and music.
2. The Ashen Winds Cloud is a new Event Cloud, similar to those that mark Skull Forts, Skeleton Ship Battles, or Burning Blade Battles. It takes the form of a fiery red tornado. This new cloud marks a fight with an Ashen Lord, and spawns above a random island on rotation with the other Event Clouds.
3. To Battle an Ashen Lord simply sail in the direction of this tornado cloud and go to its island. You will discover one of the four possible lords being summoned here by a ritual (Captain Grimm, Red Ruth, Old Horatio, or Warden Chi), and they will attack you on sight!

Ashen Lord Basics

• Ashen Lords are very large, but also slow. However, they can lunge long distances quickly.
• Ashen Lords do not wield Weapons! Instead they have a number of unique attacks that involve lunging, hurling Fire Rocks, breathing fire, etc
• The Battle has Three Phases! After dealing enough damage, the Ashen Lord will hunch over and be highly vulnerable for a limited time before launching into the next phase of the battle.
• Progress Feedback: the Ashen Lord’s heart will beat faster when they are low on health. They enter their hunched over “vulnerable state” before beginning the next battle phase. Their dialogue and music changes throughout to show that you are making progress and getting closer to defeating them.

Attacks and Abilities

• Swipe and Lunge: the Ashen Lord will swipe at Pirates that are standing close, or lunge forward (leaping towards a player and closing a distance instantly) dealing damage and Knockback
• Fire Breathing: the Ashen Lord spits a jet of fire out from side to side, setting players on fire
• Fire Rocks and Boulders: the Ashen Lord can chuck smaller Fire Rocks directly at Pirates which deal damage and set players on fire, or hurl larger Fire Boulders up into the sky that come falling down, damaging Pirates and setting an area of ground on fire for a limited time

NOTE: Fire Rocks and Fire Boulders thrown by Ashen Lords can do damage and set fire to ships that are parked too close to the fight !

• Summon Skeletons: The Ashen Lord will summon small bands of Ashen Skeletons to fight beside them, though these have relatively low health and won’t have Flintock Pistols
• Cloud of Ash: The Ashen Lord launches a cloud of Ash out of the spores on its back, drenching the battlefield in a temporary blanket of near-darkness

Phase 2:

After dealing enough damage, the Ashen Lord will hunch over and stop attacking, leaving themselves highly vulnerable for a limited time. If you attack them out of this state, they will begin Phase 2 of the fight, where they’ll use all of the same attacks as above as well as:

• Knockback Shockwave: The Ashen Lord can pound the Earth, unleashing a wide radius shockwave that deals damage and knockback, and sets Pirates on fire.

Phase 3:

Once again, after you deal enough damage the Ashen Lord will become incapacitated and vulnerable, before entering the final phase of the battle. They will use all of the above attacks as well as:

• Roar of the Devil: when the Ashen Lord thrusts their arm into the ground and begins breathing fire around them, they call down a rain of Volcanic rocks from the sky that will pelt the surrounding area like an eruption in the Devil’s Roar, as well as geysers that will erupt in the surrounding area and launch Pirates sky high.

Victory!

When the Ashen Lord is defeated, a series of geysers will bring Ashen loot items to the Earth’s surface. Search around the area for all the loot, as a large number of items will appear and can be easily missed. This loot may include Ashen Chests, and Open Chests filled with small-sized loot items.

The greatest prize of all however, is the Ashen Winds Skull that is guaranteed to drop each time an Ashen Lord is defeated.

The Ashen Winds Skull

• It can be sold to the Order of Souls for a large sum of gold and reputation (~5000 gold) or it can also be used as a Flamethrower Weapon
• When holding the Skull and using the “attack” key, it will breath a long stream of fire directly in front of your Pirate, which can be aimed to set fire to skeletons, Pirates, and even Ships!
• The Skull has a finite supply of fire, marked by the glow of its crystals. When it is low it will sputter and misfire until no charge remains. Depleting the fire supply gradually reduces the sale-value of the skull. (~2000 gold when ‘empty’)

Commendations

A new page in the Bilge Rat Reputation Tab contains a list of new commendations to earn, rewarding you with titles, doubloons, and access to exclusive cosmetics. The Cosmetic Items are not time limited!

DEFEAT ASHEN LORDS
There are Four Different Ashen Lords to defeat, and the one you’ll face is entirely randomized.

• Hunter of the Ashen Lords — Defeating an Ashen Lord 5 total times will earn 20 Doubloons each, and unlock a Tattoo Set themed to that Ashen Lord.
• Banisher of the Flame — Defeat any combination of Ashen Lords 25 total times to earn 30 Doubloons and the Banisher of the Flame Title.

SELL ASHEN WINDS SKULL
Each Ashen Lord Battle only drops one Ashen Winds Skull

• Hunter of the Ashen Winds — Sell 25 total Ashen Winds Skulls to earn 30 Doubloons and unlock the Sails of the Ashen Winds
• Skull of Fire — Sell an Ashen Winds Skull at 100% full Flame charge (don’t use it as a Flamethrower before selling it) to earn 5 Doubloons

USE THE ASHEN WINDS SKULL
Flip the tables, and use the Ashen Winds Skull against its own skeleton-kind

• Ashen bones — Set fire to 20 total skeletons with the Ashen Winds Skull (5 Doubloons), and then to 100 total skeletons with the Ashen Winds Skull (10 Doubloons)
• Warsmith of the Flame — Set 20 skeleton ships on fire with the Ashen Winds Skull to earn the Warsmith of the Flame Title and 20 Doubloons

And that’s everything you’ll need to arm yourselves against the combustive new commanders in Flameheart’s ashen army. All of these Gameplay additions, Commendations, and Cosmetics are PERMANENT ADDITIONS to Sea of Thieves.

If you’re looking for more reading, take a look at our rundown of Every New Feature in the Ashen Winds Update, or a quick guide to new cosmetics in our monthly Shopper’s Guide