The Wuxia RPG Where Winds Meet can feel overwhelming at first. Our walkthrough highlights the key systems, weapons, and tips you need for a successful start.
Where Winds Meet offers far more depth than you might expect from the first few hours. To get off to a powerful start, you’ll want to understand its complex systems as quickly as possible. That’s where this ultimate beginner’s walkthrough comes in: we’ll walk you through the most important early-game tips.
In this Where Winds Meet guide you’ll learn:
- Which game modes are available and when to use them
- Which weapons and martial arts are best for beginners
- Where to find key resources and upgrades
- How to use movement efficiently
- Which systems you should unlock early
- How to manage healing effectively
How Solo Mode and Online Mode Differ in Where Winds Meet
Where Winds Meet clearly separates two types of experience, each with its own content and rewards.
Solo Mode (available from the start)
In solo mode, you play through the main story, complete side quests, and explore the world at your own pace. You can still invite up to three friends to join you and tackle missions together. Your progress in solo and co-op is tracked separately, making this mode ideal for learning the basics.
Online Mode (from level 10)
Online mode turns the game into more of an MMO-style experience. Main quests are disabled here; instead, you’ll find guilds, group dungeons, world bosses, and optional PvP. This mode becomes important later for endgame gear and special rewards.
- Our tip: Focus on solo mode at the beginning to learn the fundamentals and level up your character.
Where Winds Meet: Which Weapon to Choose From Qi Sheng?
At the beginning you receive the Nameless Sword and the Nameless Spear – a solid foundation for melee combat. The sword comes with two useful skills: Daunting Strike (a gap-closing charge) and Shadow Step (an evasive move with a counterattack).
In the Verdant Wilds, you’ll run into Qi Sheng very early on. After a short task, he offers you one of four special weapons:
- Panacea Fan – recommended for beginners
- Thundercry Blade (tank)
- Infernal Twinblades (melee DPS)
- Vernal Umbrella (ranged DPS)
Why the Panacea Fan is the best choice:
Healing is heavily limited in Where Winds Meet, and your medicine only refills at teleport stones. With the Panacea Fan, you can heal yourself at any time in combat by switching to the fan at the press of a button. This flexibility makes tough fights much easier and makes you extremely valuable in co-op groups. You’ll unlock the other three weapons later on, while the Panacea Fan normally wouldn’t be available until many hours into the game.
- Ideal combo: Panacea Fan + Nameless Sword
Collect Oddities and Unlock Permanent Bonuses
All over the world you’ll find Oddities: small animals, insects, plants, and nests. You can turn these collectibles in to Qi Sheng and other NPCs for permanent attribute boosts. Over time, these passive bonuses add up to a significant power increase. Gathering also grants exploration points that unlock regional bonuses. Each curiosity appears on your minimap with an insect icon.
Oddities Collecting Tips
- Purple plants release a cloud you need to capture – timing is crucial.
- Toxic plants require you to shoot away the poison cloud with your bow first.
- Hidden insects are tucked away in ceramic pots that you have to smash.
- White birds are easiest to take down using the Mystic Art “Still Water” – slow time, then shoot them with your bow.
Uncover the Map Systematically
Whenever you enter a new region, look for the campfire icons on the map first. There you’ll find wanderer NPCs who, for a small fee, will reveal the entire region map. Only then will you see fast travel points, fortresses, world bosses, and quest givers at a glance. Also activate every Boundary Stone you find – these act as additional fast travel points and make navigation much easier.
- Co-op trick: Fast travel to a friend in co-op to instantly copy over any areas of the map they’ve already revealed. That way you can split up the exploration work and save a lot of time.
Where Winds Meet: Healing Tips
Upgrading Your Medicine Chest
Your Medicine Chest can only hold a few healing items at first, and it only refills at teleport stones. The Evercare Clinic (northwest of the Verdant Wilds) should therefore be one of your first major stops. Turn in Medicinal Tales to Yao Yaoyao there to increase both the capacity and effectiveness of your medicine. You’ll earn Medicinal Tales from main and side quests, cleared outposts, and world boss kills.
Healing Outside of Combat
Outside of combat, you automatically regenerate health as long as you have healing dishes in your inventory. Cook them yourself by gathering herbs and hunting animals like deer or rabbits. Alternatively, you can buy dishes from vendors, though that quickly becomes expensive.
Treating Serious Injuries
Serious injuries like broken bones or illnesses are indicated by a red icon next to the minimap. These debuffs reduce your stats and cannot be cured with basic ointments. Visit the Evercare Clinic for treatment (for a fee), or ask in chat for players with healing abilities (often free).
Where Winds Meet Character Development Tips: The Four Pillars
Character growth is driven by four parallel systems that together determine your combat power.
1. Martial Arts
Martial arts are weapon-bound skills with their own talent trees. You improve them by using them, and you can level all interesting styles up to 20. If you reset a tree, you’ll get back 80 percent of the resources you invested.
2. Internal Arts
Internal arts are mostly passive abilities that boost damage, healing, and resource generation. Choose arts that match your preferred playstyle.
Recommended combos for sword + fan:
- Sword Morph– more sword attacks
- Water Totem – improves fan-based healing
- Morale Chant – damage plus HP regeneration
- Trapped Beast – protection below 30% HP
3. Mystic Arts
Mystic Arts are active abilities that work independently of your weapons. You can equip up to eight at once, with four mapped to quick slots. Unlock them by completing side quests and discovering hidden interactions.
- Must-haves for beginners: Tai Chi (for shielded enemies), Meridian Touch (counters boss abilities), Cloud Steps (pulls riders off their horses), and Celestial Seize (disarms enemies).
4. Talents
Talents are a separate skill tree that grows with your character level. These mainly passive perks increase your Mystic Art slots and enhance core stats like damage, HP, and crit chance. Spend points strategically to create synergies across all four systems.
Complete Breakthroughs Right Away
Every five to ten levels, you’ll need to complete a breakthrough – a short combat trial. Breakthroughs raise your level cap, improve your attributes, and boost the quality of your rewards. You’ll also receive new gear that noticeably increases your combat power.
Important: Do every breakthrough as soon as you meet the requirements. The upgrades are always worth it.
Manage Your Gear Smartly
The Arsenal system
Don’t dismantle old gear too early. Later, you’ll unlock the Arsenal – a collection system where stored pieces permanently increase your damage and HP. Hold off on recycling gear until you’ve unlocked this feature.
Use Slot Upgrades
In the development menu, you can upgrade martial arts and improve equipment slots. Slot upgrades boost your stats regardless of which item you equip in that slot. Invest in these upgrades early.
- Stat priority: Focus on Minimum Physical Attack, Maximum Physical Attack, and Affinity Rate. The faster enemies go down, the less often you’ll need to heal.
- Recommended sets: Jadeware set and Formbend set
Master Movement and Lightness
Movement goes far beyond simple running. Lightness skills let you pull off classic Wuxia moves like triple jumps, wall running, and gliding. You unlock them separately in each region by reaching exploration level 4.
In Qinghe you’ll obtain the Afterglow Pendant, and in Kaifeng the Flight Medallion. Use Meteor Flight and Fan Glider to quickly cross large distances. The water-walking ability doubles as a super sprint across rivers and lakes.
Heads up: A red icon in the top left indicates restricted zones where these abilities don’t work.
Understanding Combat Basics in Where Winds Meet
Combat revolves around precise timing and reading enemy animations correctly.
- Red-glowing attacks can be parried – press the parry button at the right moment to break enemy posture.
- Gold-glowing attacks must be dodged; they can’t be parried or blocked.
Deflection Assistance
Deflection Assistance widens the parry window and slows down time during parryable attacks. This aid is enabled in story mode but always disabled in multiplayer content.
- Tip for aspiring multiplayer players: Practice parrying without assistance early on so you’re ready for raids and PvP.
Breaking Stance
Successful parries reduce enemy stance. Once it hits zero, the enemy is briefly stunned – use that window to land regular attacks before finishing them off for maximum damage.
- Watch your stamina: Dodging consumes stamina. Never let it run completely dry, or you’ll be unable to evade at all.
Where Winds Meet: 5 Quick Tips
Redeeming codes: After the tutorial, you can enter codes via the settings menu under “Miscellaneous.” These grant free currencies and items. You’ll receive rewards via the in-game mailbox.
- Click here for the latest codes in Where Winds Meet
Changing the time of day: In solo mode, you can fast-forward the in-game clock using the clock icon in the menu – handy for time-sensitive quests.
Swimming without drowning: When your stamina bar is empty, don’t keep swimming forward. Stay in place instead – stamina will still regenerate while you’re in the water.
Use the compendium: Hover over items to see where they drop. Click on currencies to learn what they’re used for. You can even pin information for quick reference.
Save Pillow Powder: This item immediately restores 60 energy. Save it for the endgame, where it shines in tougher dungeons.
More guides for Where Winds Meet
- Where Winds Meet: How to start romances – marriage, bonuses, and more
- Where Winds Meet: Twitch Drops – how to claim all free rewards
Summary of the most important tips for Where Winds Meet
Where Winds Meet offers exceptional depth that you won’t grasp in just a few hours. Keep the following in mind for a successful start:
- Use solo mode to learn the basics
- Pick the Evercare Fan from Qi Sheng
- Collect curiosities consistently
- Reveal the map via wanderer NPCs
- Visit the Evercare Clinic early
- Don’t delay breakthroughs
- Wait for the Arsenal before recycling gear
- Unlock Lightness movement skills
The world of ancient China is full of secrets waiting to be uncovered. With these foundations, you’ll be well prepared for your Wuxia adventure.
