Black Myth: Wukong – Best Foundation Talents

Discover all the best and worst Foundation talents in Black Myth: Wukong ranked, along with how to use them, progression, and upgrades.

In Black Myth Wukong, Foundation talents are skills and upgrades that enhance your core combat abilities. The Foundation talents include perks that boost stats like Stamina or the base Stamina Recovery Speed, which affect your combat efficiency and moment-to-moment gameplay. The Foundation perks primarily dictate your combat efficiency, so you’d want to unlock most of them as soon as possible. However, not all the talents under the Foundation tree are equally as important as others.

The Foundation tree can be found in the Self-Advance tab, or you can also access it via the Keeper’s Shrine. Unlike some of the Staff Stance skills, most of the Foundation tree is unlocked right from the get-go, with some of the later ones unlocking as you reach higher Spark levels. The majority of the talents under the Foundation tree cost one Skill Point or Spark; however, there are also a few that can cost more due to them being divided into multiple levels, such as Endurance.

The Foundation tree in Black Myth Wukong is quite similar to the Shinobi Arts skill tree in Sekiro Shadows Die Twice, albeit much more streamlined and focused on combat efficiency over skills. Think of it like a simplified version of the opening tier of the Shinobi Arts tree.

Foundation Talent Trees

The Foundation talents are divided into three sub-sections, Stamina, Martial Arts, and Survival. The categories are self-explanatory, with Stamina focusing on combat efficiency and Endurance, Martial Arts focusing on basic combat skills, and Survival focusing on core stats that ensure survivability as well as damage negation. While most of the perks under Foundation offer passive buffs, some do serve as active combat skills, especially those under the Martial Arts tree.

• Stamina: This tree includes skills that dictate endurance and how efficient your dodges are in and also, out of combat.
• Martial Arts: This tree is entirely focused on your core combat skills, as well as some defensive abilities.
• Survival: This tree governs perks that boost your core stats like Defense, Vigor, and Stamina.

10 Best Foundation Talents Ranked in Black Myth Wukong

Simian Agility, Everlasting Vigor, and Swift Engage are the best Foundation Talents in Black Myth: Wukong. Simian Agility buffs your most important defensive ability, perfect dodge by lowering the stamina cost. Moreover, Everlasting Vigor boosts stamina recovery, which leads to more dodging and avoiding attacks. Lastly, Swift Engage increases the distance of light attacks, which can increase your damage by avoiding missed attacks due to lack of range.

Below is a list of all the best Foundation Talents ranked in Balck Myth: Wukong from best to worst:

1. Simian Agility: the best defensive foundation talent in Black Myth: Wukong.
2. Everlasting Vigor: Increases Stamina Recovery, increasing attacking or dodging potential.
3. Swift Engage: Increases the engage distance of light attacks, helping to maintain damage after a dodge.
4. Rampant Vigor: Increases base Stamina, which ensures you have ample opportunities to attack or dodge before waiting for Stamina to cool down.
5. Endurance: Reduces Stamina cost of Sprinting, which comes incredibly handy against boss fights, where you might have to sprint away from AOE attacks.
6. Robust Constitution: Increases HP giving you a massive boost at level 6.
7. Effortless Finisher: combo extension for your light attacks and heavy attack finisher.
8. Composure: counterattack tool.
9. Intrepid Lunge: Allows heavy attack after a Mobile Spin, guaranteeing a stagger.
10. Wrathful Might: Increases Critical Damage, but only if you have unlocked Wrathful Escalation to Level 6.

10 Wrathful Might

• Description: Increases Critical Hit Damage with each level upgraded.
• Talent Tree: Survival

Wrathful Might is only effective if you already have unlocked and maxed-out Wrathful Escalation, which increases Critical Chance. Without Wrathful Escalation, there will be very few instances of Critical Hits, and as such, you’ll barely see the effects of this perk. Additionally, there are some Curios that you can equip to boost your Critical Hit Damage to the same amounts as maxed-out Wrathful Might, but without having to waste the incredibly precious Spark points.

9 Intrepid Lunge

• Description: Enables a heavy attack after a Mobile Spin combo.
• Talent Tree: Martial Arts

Intrepid Lunge is only viable once you have maxed out your Stamina gauge. The Mobile Spin combo already uses a ton of Stamina, for very little damage, and adding a heavy attack finisher at the end of it will only result in you consuming your entire Stamina gauge, necessitating a cool-down. While the skill can be useful in later stages of the game, its use cases are incredibly limited in the earlier sections of Black Myth Wukong.

8 Composure

• Description: With this upgrade, the light attack combo isn’t interrupted by performing a dodge.
• Talent Tree: Stamina

The Composure talent is an excellent counterattack tool, as it lets you finish your light attack combo after a dodge. However, without a Focus point or additional Critical Hit Damage, this skill isn’t all that useful. The only use case this skill has is during battle against multiple enemies, which isn’t all too common in Black Myth Wukong. It’s best to unlock this upgrade after you’ve gone through the more essential skills in the Foundation tree.

7 Effortless Finisher

• Description: Increases Focus gained upon a light attack combo finisher.
• Talent Tree: Martial Arts

Effortless Finisher is incredibly useful in maintaining the combat follow, without having to resort to manually charging the Focus gauge. The light attack combo is already quite damaging; however, with a full Focus gauge, you can end the combo with a charged-heavy attack, which deals significantly more damage and can also stagger bosses. The only downside of this upgrade is that it’s not very useful in the earlier section of Black Myth Wukong where you don’t have more than 2 Focus nodes.

6 Robust Constitution

• Description: Increases base HP with each level upgraded.
• Talent Tree: Survival

Robust Constitution acts as a flat upgrade to your base HP, which while isn’t necessary in the opening hours of the game, should not be skipped out on. However, if you’ve already upgraded your Defense, there’s not much reason to spend 6 Spark points on this upgrade, until you reach the later half of the game. It’s best to use those Sparks for the Stamina upgrade, i.e., Rampant Vigor.

5 Endurance

• Description: Reduces Stamina cost of Sprinting and Sprinting attacks.
• Talent Tree: Stamina

Endurance is one of the most essential skills that you need to upgrade as soon as possible, especially if you plan to stick with the Smash Stance. While dodging is your primary defensive tool in Black Myth Wukong, sprinting is also an option, especially against bosses and big groups of enemies. Additionally, in Smash Stance, you can charge your heavy attack while sprinting, and with lower Stamina cost, you can do so without having to worry about the Stamina cool-down.

4 Rampant Vigor

• Description: Increases base Stamina with each level upgraded.
• Talent Tree: Survival

Rampant Vigor is a Survival skill that is more or less a necessary unlock, regardless of your playstyle. Much of Balck Myth Wukong’s combat revolves around Stamina management and having access to more Stamina right from the get-go helps a lot with executing combos and charged-heavy attacks. Additionally, some Spells, as well as Perfect Dodges, also cost Stamina, and having more of it means you can stay active on the battlefield much longer, without having to retreat to regenerate Stamina.

3 Swift Engage

• Description: Increases the engage distance (gap-closer) of the light attacks or combo finishers.
• Talent Tree: Martial Arts

Swift Engage is another essential unlock that should be prioritized in the early hours of Black Myth Wukong. While dodging does help you close the distance between the Destined One and the enemy/boss, it’s not nearly as efficient as Swift Engage, which also lets you instantly counterattack with a gap-closer. Additionally, with each upgrade the distance from which you can initiate a Swift Engage is reduced, making it an excellent tool to use in boss fights.

2 Everlasting Vigor

• Description: Increases Stamina Recovery Rate.
• Talent Tree: Stamina

Everlasting Vigor is quite an important upgrade in the early hours of the game, simply because it boosts Stamina Regeneration, which otherwise can only be done with end-game Curios or upgrades. Couple this with Rampant Vigor, and you will seldom run out of Stamina during combat, making Black Myth Wukong feel a lot like Sekiro Shadows Die Twice, albeit, without the deflection and parry mechanic.

1 Simian Agility

• Description: Reduces Stamina cost of dodge and Perfect Dodge with each upgrade level.
• Talent Tree: Stamina

Simian Agility is one of the very first skills that you should unlock in the Foundation talents. Not only does it reduce the Stamina cost of regular dodges, but it also increases the efficiency of the Perfect Dodges as well. Simian Agility is also tied to upgrades like Endurance, Evasion, and Composure, which are integral to combat efficiency and Stamina management. Unstocking Simian Agility as soon as you get your first few Spark points is highly recommended.

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