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Discover how to increase your combat effectiveness as a Beginner in Black Myth: Wukong as we share tips and guide on skills, talents, UI, and more!
Best Beginner Tips Guide – Black Myth Wukong
Black Myth Wukong is complex for a beginner because of the various skill trees, talents, and combat elements that aid your build performance. In this guide, we break down the game’s various elements and how new players can optimize their builds for increased effectiveness. Black Myth Wukong won’t feature a map unlike other RPG exploration games, so exploration is key. Below are beginner tips and trick Guide for progression in Black Myth Wukong:
- Curious: two more elements to your build that provide passive bonuses.
- Level: gain one spark per level by killing enemies and bosses.
- Sparks: you gain sparks by leveling or mediation spots, and should use to progress your talent trees.
- Talents and Skills: four spell trees, stance, and foundation giving you a massive amount to pick from. Start with passive bonuses and focus on increasing your focus attack.
- Spells: four spells can be used at a time, one being a Transformation. Upgrade Immobilize and Cloud Step as they are universally good in nearly all situations.
- Gourd: used to heal, upgrade needed to collect spirits. Max your soaks with what you need in combat, burst healing, passive bonus, healing over time, etc.
- Spirits: using Qi, these items give a passive bonus along with instanced combat skill. Collect Blessed Gourd firs to unlock.
- Transformations: using the Might resource, Transformations turn you into a character changing your attacks briefly.
- Stances: Three stances ideally used in specific situations; smash for mobility, pillar for defense, and thrust for range.
- Relics: provides one passive bonus which can be changed at any time.
Sparks and Level
Sparks are used to obtain new skills in the Self-Advanced Tab. Black Myth Wukong features six skill trees, each with many options, and it can get overwhelming. You gain Sparks by defeating bosses and Meditation spots. Meditation spots are secret areas where you can meditate once and gain a spark permanently. Once you gain a spark, you can reset them at the Keeper Shrine for no cost. Thus, respecing is easy and free to do.
The biggest tip to spending sparks is to increase your Focus Points. This is done in the Staff Stance tree by spending time on either stance or focus talents. Once you have reached the threshold, you will gain an additional focus point. This is critical to use for heavy attacking and other mechanics. For instance, the Collapsing Gale skill in Pillar Stance deals damage in proportion to the number of focus points consumed. Therefore, the more you have, the greater the burst damage as you progress as a beginner in Black Myth Wukong.
Best Beginner Skills and Talents
The best skills to unlock early in the game are passive bonuses that increase stamina, stamina recovery, or reduce dodge costs. At level 5, you can access Pillar Stance, and at 20, access Thrust Stance. The Survival skill tree becomes available at higher levels, beyond 45, and helps amplify damage defense and max stats. Meanwhile, Immobilize is the best spell to level because it works on bosses and Cloud Step for mobility and survival. Below are our favorite beginner skills and talents to unlock in Black Myth Wukong:
Smash Stance Talents and Skills
- Force Unbound: Enable charging the Staff while Sprinting.
- Peace from Peril: when charging, perfect dodges retain any focus that has been built up.
- Resolute Counterflow: allows for counterattack during a massive damage combo.
- Ironbound Resolve: Increase defense (damage reduction) upon landing a heavy attack.
- Smashing Force: Increases the damage caused by a charged heavy attack in Smash Stance.
Foundation Talents and Skills
- Simian Agility: Reduces Stamina’s cost upon dodging.
- Endurance: Reduces Stamina cost of Sprinting.
- Deft Evasion: makes each initial dodge more agile and flexible.
- Everlasting Vigor: Increases Stamina Recovery Rate.
- Robust Constitution: Flat increase to base HP.
- Rampant Vigor: Flat increase to base Stamina.
Keeper Shrines
The Keeper Shrine serves as your primary means to restore your health fully and replenish your gourd (healing), but it will also trigger enemies to respawn. There is a progression system with Keeper Shrines, and as it is upgraded, here’s what you can do:
- Rest: restores health, replenishes gourd, but respawns enemies.
- Travel: fast travel to previous locations where incense has already been offered.
- Self-Advance: Change spells, respect talents, upgrade Spirits.
- Craft: create or upgrade weapons and armor.
- Brew: replenish your drink and add soaks, which are passive bonuses.
- Store: buy and sell items for Will, currency resource.
- Make Medicines: create long-duration buffs.
The Keeper Shrines are also where you return to when you die. There is no penalty for death, incentivizing you to try hard bosses repeatedly without fear of progression regression.
User Interface
The User Interface in Black Myth Wukong contains many symbols and graphics, including your Focus, Health, Mana, Stamina, Spells, and Stance. Below are all the various components of your User Interface:
- Spells: three spells use mana, while one is a transformation changing your appearance and combat style using Might resource.
- Focus: resource gained through hits, charging, perfect dodges, and they can be spend with a heavy attack dealing more damage depending on focus points spent.
- Stance: Smash, Pillar, Thrust change your heavy attack mechanic, charging and talents being used.
- Health: your HP determines when you die.
- Mana: resource for casting spells, not transformations.
- Stamina: used for dodging, sprinting, and attacking.
- Spirit: unique ability that cost Qi and is a limited time attack.
- Vessel: special equipment with bonuses for short duration using Qi resource.
- Gourd: your healing tool with soaks that are bonuses.
- Consumables: buffs and drinks that give you long duration bonuses.
Your eyes want to scan from left to right, looking at your overall resource with your primary attention being the bottom left. You health, mana, and stamina.
The next spot you want to look is your bottom right for Focus Attack, stance, and two unique short-term skills, Spirit and Vessel. Your UI will not look like this at the start, but as you progress and acquire new systems, expect an unfolding of more UI elements to be aware of.
Best Beginner Stances
Your stance determines your heavy attack, charging, and general combat gameplay. Three stances are available: Smash at Level 1, Pillar at Level 5, and Thrust at Level 20. Smash is geared towards mobility, while Pillar is defensive, having the player perched up high while charging. Thrust gives you increased range but sacrifices the Smash stance’s mobility while charging heavy attacks.
Ideally, you want to unlock each stance as they become available. Beginners should maximize their stance and talents while swapping when the situation dictates. You can swap stances seamlessly in combat and utilize the range or defenses. However, save the sparks for Smash when you start out, then take Pillar or Thrust at higher levels once your passives in Foundations are acquired. A guiding beginner tip is to focus on upgrading Smash Stance only in Black Myth Wukong.
Heavy Attacks
In Black Myth Wukong, Heavy Attacks can be used in one of two ways. First, you can hold a heavy attack to charge, which uses stamina and quickly generates focus. You can then release the heavy attack to do a massive damage attack. The second option is via a Varied combo, which is a light attack into a heavy attack.
Heavy attacking directly correlates your Focus Points (total and usage) and damage. Thus, this is the centerpiece of combat. Learning to generate focus, not lose it, charge when appropriate, and unload combos for maximum damage.
Gourd
Your Gourd is a reusable drink that heals 33% of your maximum health with every sip. The pre-order bonus Trailblazers Scarlet Gourd gives you full health on the first sip. Your Gourd User Interface shows draining cups as you continue to drink and dots as you acquire soaks, which are upgrades to your drink, providing passive buffs.
Your Gourd has a progression system built into it as you progress throughout the game. The ideal combination of Gourd and Soak will tailor your build if you need healing over time vs. burst healing or additional elemental resistance depending on the boss fight.
The most important aspect of upgrading your Gourd is that it can absorb spirits. Early on, you’ll get a popup message that cannot absorb spirit without guidance. You can obtain the Blessed Gourd in the Bamboo Grove as you progress through the game. Beat the Lingxuzi boss, who rewards you with the Gray Wolf Mask, and then return to the Old Wise Man in the Bamboo Grove to complete the upgrade.
Spirits
Spirits are a component to your build that adds an active skill with a passive buff while equipped. You will need the Blessed Gourd first to unlike the collection of spirits by beating the Lingxuzi boss and returning to the Old Wise Man in the Bamboo Grove.
When you defeat bosses who leave behind spirits, you can collect their spirits if obtainable. Spirits are not equipped within your user interface menu next to the Vessel. You will see the ability, Qi cost, unique resource, and passive bonus. On the left of your Stance and Focus UI, you’ll see Qi; as it fills up, the Spirit can be activated.
The Wandering Wigh is one of the best to collect early, which passively increases defense and provides a burst stun when activated. Pair Wandering Wight with an Immobilize spell for back-to-back crowd control.
Transformation
Transformations are unique forms taken from bosses you’ve defeated, allowing the player to transform briefly into another character. Once active, your light and heavy attacks will change in addition to your combo. Like Spirits, this is meant to give the player another form of burst or utility to add to their build.
While Transformation is a spell, the resource to transform is Might, which is required to transform and continuously drains when used. You can de-transform manually or it will automatically happen when you run out. It might gradually recover over time, allowing you to use Spirits and Transformations back to back.
Vessels
Vessels are special equipment that gives a temporary boost in combat. Fireproof Mantle, obtained after defeating Elder Jinchi in Chapter 1, gives a passive and active benefit.
- Active Effect: For a short duration after activation, grants Burn Immunity and gradually increasing Focus. Highly effective in specific environments and against specific enemies.
- Passive Effect: Significantly increases Burn Resistance, and grants immunity to Scorch Damage from lava-covered terrain.
Like Spirits, Vessels also use the Qi resource. Even if you don’t use the active effect, the passive benefits aid your overall build and progression and should be a core component.
Combat
The three elements of Combat in Black Myth Wukong are Dodging Spells and Heavy Attacks:
Dodging: you can do a normal dodge or a perfect dodge. To dodge, you must use stamina, which that cast can be reduced in the stamina talent tree. Dodging, sprinting, and cloud steps are the three basic ways to avoid incoming damage with attacks. The benefit of dodging is, you can perform a perfect dodge by perfectly timing the dodge just as the enemy attacks. If you get a perfect dodge, you will jump out of the way, but a shadowy remnant of your character will remain. Many talents and skills aid in perfect dodge or give you more focus.
Spells use mana with limited duration and a cooldown. Immobilize and Cloud Step are the two best to use. You can swap spells and experiment at Keeper Shrines; they have talent trees. Each talent tree can extend the duration, increase damage, etc. Use Immobilize on bosses to hold them in position and Cloud Step to avoid attacks.
Heavy Attacks: your goal is to build focus and use heavy attacks with combos or charging. As your overall focus points increase, your damage and combos will be more significant. The trick is to learn and time the heavy attack and or swap stances for the appropriate fight. Smash is helpful because you can charge a heavy attack while sprinting with Force Unbound passive.
Weapons and Armor
You can acquire weapons and armor by beating specific bosses or through crafting. Weapons have one or more stats, such as attack and critical and unique effects. Armor has set bonuses, defense, other stats, and unique effects. Most armor comes in 2-, 3- or 4-piece set bonuses, which can be mixed and matched. Unlike other game elements, weapons and armor are straightforward, with most of the crafting material needed coming through boss kills. Thus, play the game and linearly upgrade the gear as you progress.
Relics
Relics are additional elements to your build that provide a passive bonus. These can be swapped out in your equipment, and the first can be obtained in Chapter 1, Craving Eyes. The Opportune Watcher passive is a great benefit to have due to increased Focus Gain from Light Attacks.
Curios
Curios are equipment that grants useful passive buffs and effects. They can be obtained through the various chapters and increase your defense, stamina, recovery, etc. For beginners, Fine China Tea Bowl stamina recovery is helpful, as is Back Scratcher, which increases max stamina. Curios are also obtained by boss kills, thus seeking out as many as you can and spending time exploring secret areas and double backing.
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