How to beat the First Prince of Flowing Sands in Black Myth: Wukong
This an even bigger rat.
As the Destined One, you must face all sorts of enemies from common frog folks to a huge wrestler bear, but the biggest challenge you face in the early hours of Black Myth: Wukong's Chapter 2 is the First Prince of the Flowing Sands.
The larger and even more deadly son/brother of the King and Second Prince of Flowing Sands, this First Prince is a force to be reckoned with, as he's not only much larger than the others, but he hits that much harder as a result. Here, we explain what you must do to beat the First Prince of Flowing Sands in Black Myth: Wukong.
How to prepare for the First Prince of Flowing Sands
Due to where this confrontation takes place within the general pathing of Chapter 2, there isn’t much to be done in terms of preparatio here. If you’re about to battle him, it means you came out victorious from the encounter with the Second Prince and the King of Flowing Sands. However, let’s go through a few points just to be sure you haven’t forgotten anything before jumping straight into this battle.
First, upgrade your gear. The Ebongold armor set is the strongest you have access to at this point of the game and you should craft all the parts of the set if you're able. In case you haven’t done that before fighting the Second Prince and the King, now you probably have enough Will and materials to craft them. By having at least three parts, you not only gain more defense, but the gear adds an effect to the Cloud Step skill.
You should spend the Sparks you gained after the previous fight before this one, too. Focus on upgrading your stances and damage output. Increasing the power of your attacks makes your life easier when facing the First Prince of the Flowing Sands who is fairly resistant. A good idea is to also upgrade your spirits or transformation.
An interesting – and fun! – spirit to use against the First Prince is Guangmou. Using this spirit invokes snakes that will stay on the field shooting poison to the enemy. Inflicting them with poison is a solid strategy to keep your uptime and be always causing damage.
How to beat the First Prince of Flowing Sands
Despite his size and his capacity to quickly kill someone in front of him as the initial cutscene shows us, the First Prince of Flowing Sands is a simple foe to defeat. As a general instruction for the fight, avoid staying in front of him when the prince gets some distance from you and take advantage of the moments while he's positioning himself to attack him. The First Prince’s moves are clearly telegraphed, giving enough time to dodge whatever attack he tries to use.
The First Prince of Flowing Sands’ most dangerous attack is when he rushes extremely fast in your direction. He is a large enemy, so initially you might not be expecting the prince to move that fast. Luckily, he is a diligent rat who makes sure to prepare well before rushing toward you. The prince always raises both arms before the attack. When you see him with his arms up, you know it’s time to run sideways.
One of the common attacks this boss uses is a sweep attack, which has two variations. In one, the prince sweeps his arm outwards, while in the other, he raises his right arm before attacking. While dealing with the former is easy via dodging, you should pay attention to when the prince uses the latter. Every time he uses this longer variation, the prince falls and stays on the ground for a few seconds. This will give you the opportunity to smash the attack button and take some chunks from his health bar.
While less common than the aforementioned moves, there are other attacks to learn about. The First Prince of Flowing Sands may perform a sequence of two top-down arm attacks or charge if you’re in front of and close to him. In case you try to stay behind him, the First Prince can also use his tail to push you away.
Now that you learned his moves, it’s time to think about hitting him to win the fight and the best strategy when it comes to attacking the prince is to hit him right on his face. This might sound counterintuitive. Nevertheless, the frontal part of his body is the best place to strike him since he wears armor on his rear. To force some windows to attack the prince, don’t waste time and use Immobilize.
First Prince of Flowing Sands rewards
Facing the First Prince of Flowing Sands after having bested his father and brother comes with the expectation of gaining shiny and powerful rewards. This time you do receive some nice rewards. Besides 1102 experience points and 1010 Will, you earn 2x Yarn and 2x Silk.
Now, the reason why you want to face this boss is because it gives you the Arhat Gold Piece. This is a key item which you need in order to access the secret area in Chapter 2. Similar to the Chapter 1 Three Bells secret quest, the Yellow Wind Ridge also has a hidden boss which you can only access after completing a secret mission from the Pig NPC near Rockrest Flat in Fright Cliff.
Now, it's time to continue forward and tackle an altogether harder boss, the formidable Yaoguai King, the Tiger Vanguard.