How to beat Yellow Wind Sage in Black Myth: Wukong
Is this a wind up?
You’ll have taken on some pretty fierce bosses in Black Myth: Wukong, but the biggest challenge is saved for the end of Chapter 2 where you'll face the Yellow Wind Sage, a huge rat lord who wields a trident and a shield that’s actually a statue’s head (whose head? You might be able to make an educated guess). In fact, he is arguably the toughest of the Yaoguai King bosses you’ll have faced so far.
Although you’ll have gained a greater suite of powers by this fight, this boss not only hits hard, but his wind spells make fighting him a proper nightmare if you don’t know his weakness. Fortunately, you’ve come to the right place, as there's more to this fight than meets the eye. You’ll be rewarded for uncovering the game’s secrets, even if we’d argue the secret in Chapter 2 is almost mandatory if you want to stand a fair chance of succeeding.
This guide will provide all the information you need on how to beat Yellow Wind Sage in Black Myth: Wukong.
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How to prepare for Yellow Wind Sage
Yellow Wind Sage can be found at the end of the area called Yellow Wind Formation. There’s actually two nearby shrines you can reach him from: 'Windseal Gate' and 'The Cellar', and you'll need to have beaten both the Tiger Vanguard and Stone Vanguard to open the gates leading to his boss arena - the gates which require Sterness of Stone, Keeness of Tiger, in case you've forgotten.
Defeating Tiger Vanguard will also unlock the Rock Solid spell, which allows you to parry attacks at the cost of some mana, which we highly recommended for this fight. Equipping this spell will replace Cloud Step, so any Spark points used for upgrading that spell should be reallocated to Rock Solid instead. Ideally, you want to focus on skill points that reduce Rock Solid's cooldown, as well as recover mana upon a successful parry. Also make sure your Smash Stance has been upgraded so that you can use Skyfall Strike, while you should be at the point where you build up to two Focus points.
If you had helped Xu Dog retrieve his formula by defeating Lang-Li-Guhh-Baw, an optional frog boss earlier on in the chapter, you’ll also find him at The Cellar shrine. It’s highly recommended you do complete this request because he will unlock the ability for you to use Mind Cores to make Celestial Medicines that can permanently upgrade your personal stats, including maximum health, mana, stamina, defence as well as resistances.
While there are many optional challenges in this chapter, by far the most important one you should complete is Pig’s side quest (pictured above), which leads to this chapter’s secret area and secret boss. Completing this quest will give you the Wind Tamer Vessel, making your life significantly easier against Yellow Wind Sage's final phases. You’ll also be able to craft the superior Insect armour set to increase your defences.
With all this preparation in mind, let's move on to how to defeat the Yellow Wind Sage and bring him to his knees.
How to beat Yellow Wind Sage
The fight against Yellow Wind Sage is made up of three phases. For the first phase, you just have to deal with his trident attacks, as he swings big and heavy combos that you’ll need to dodge. These are pretty fast and wide swings, though if you get in close enough to his side he can sometimes miss as well. What you most have to watch out for is he ends a combo with a big horizontal swing or vertical slam that also leaves a phantom trail of tridents poking out from the ground with a larger spread that also inflicts heavy damage.
A quick way to get through this phase is to use Immobilize on him during one of his attacks, then pile on the light attack combo to build up focus (only use the spell once during this phase as you want to conserve your mana, though you should have moved on his next phase before its cooldown is done anyway). If you’ve equipped Wandering Wight’s spirit, you can also use this transformation to stun him again.
While you can use Rock Solid to parry his attacks, we don't recommended doing this during this first phase, as there’s a chance his erratic swings means his attacks can actually miss you, putting the spell to waste before you have to wait for the cooldown before you can use it again.
Do your best to dodge Yellow Wind Sage’s attacks and then perform your light attack combos when there’s an opening. When you build up two focus points (remember that perfect dodging will also help raise focus), then you can go for a combo and end with a heavy Resolute Strike (in the upgrade path, enemy attacks shouldn’t interrupt even if you will still absorb some damage) and then follow up with a Skyfall Strike, which should also stun him so that you can get in some more hits. Just a word of warning that in the time between executing the Skyfall Strike, he can also backstep away so that your attack misses.
Second phase
When a third of his health bar is gone, Yellow Wind Sage will move onto his next phase. The cue for this is he stomps his foot on the ground and then swings his trident around like a tornado four times, literally channeling his wind powers. This is also your cue to back away as those swings will hurt and their reach increases with each swing. You’ll also probably notice at this point that it’s gotten a lot windier with a drop in visibility.
As if it’s not already difficult to see, Yellow Wind Sage will also have an attack phase where he turns into a sand spectre. Don’t try to attack him like this, just be prepared to dodge. He’ll first run towards you, creating phantom tridents from the ground and then swing his trident around at you three times. Next he’ll disappear then reappears jumps over you while performing a swing attack, from one side and then the other. This culminates with him returning to his physical form from behind to ambush you where he raises one leg up like a high kick before bringing it down as a stomp.
If you use Rock Solid against this kick, the parry is powerful enough to knock him over on his back, allowing you to go in for a free combo. If you manage to get two focus points during this, then ending the combo with a Skyfall Strike will knock him over for a second time.
He will use this raised stomp on its own during this phase too, though if he tries it immediately again afterwards you’ll have to just dodge as it will take time for Rock Solid to finish its cooldown. The worst attack of this phase to watch out for is he will also just come in for a running kick, which doesn’t just punt you into the air but he’ll then launch his trident as you come back down so that you’re stuck to the ground before he comes over and grabs you for another dose of punishment. Needless to say that getting caught in this whole sequence will more or less kill you if you’re not at full health. While it can be parried with Rock Solid, it won’t actually knock the rat back for you to counter, and given the tiny window you have to dodge, it’s better to keep your distance when you anticipate he’s going to give you the boot.
Apart from Yellow Wind’s Sage feet, you still have to worry about his trident attacks during this phase. One is an AOE attack where he sticks his trident in a glowing spot in the ground, causing a kind of sparking explosion around him. If you’re at a distance, he may charge up his trident, swing it around and then slam it down on the ground, emitting a shockwave trail of phantom tridents. You can also dodge this, though the trick is to not dodge too early and wait for the trident to hit the ground first.
For his other swings, Rock Solid will be just as effective at knocking him down. Just only use this parry against him when he’s attacking from the ground as it’s not effective if he’s performing a jump attacks over you. You could try to Immobilize him as well but be wary that if you use this, you may find yourself with less mana for parrying.
During this phase, he will also summon the giant insect Fuban, who will appear from the air and drop onto you. While you can also parry this, it's much easier to just dodge it just as it's about to hit the ground on your head.
Third phase
Once Yellow Wind Sage is down to the last third of his health bar, his third phase kicks in, and it’s the most annoying one yet. Not content with bad visilbilility, he summons a tornado into the arena, which will cause damage while also flipping you up in the air. So you have to not only avoid this but the sage’s attacks, repeating much of what he had been dishing out previously.
By all counts, the tornado makes this final phase a ridiculously unfair fight. However, if you had completed the secret quest and defeated Fuban, this is where the Wind Tamer vessel comes in. Activate it during this phase and it will not only disperse both the wind and tornado but also momentarily stun Yellow Wind Sage while also giving you a temporary defence boost. It’s payback time, so rush in and get in your free combo and a focus heavy attack if you can.
You’ll still have to survive his regular attacks from before, but you should have a considerably easier time now that you’ve got better visibility. If you’ve been saving it until now then also remember to use a transformation, since these other forms have their own health bar so you can conserve your own, and that should be enough to help finish him off.
Yellow Wind Sage rewards
With the Yellow Wind Sage finally defeated, Chapter 2 of Black Myth: Wukong comes to its conclusion. You will also receive your second Relic, Fuming Ears, which grants you one of the following three boons:
- All Ears - extends invincibility duration of the first move of all varied combos.
- Sounds as a Bell - narrows the window of Rock Solid parries.
- Whistling Wind - temporarily increases your attack after a perfect dodge.
Of course, there’s other in-game rewards too. You’ll earn:
- 2583 XP
- 1944 Will
- 1x Samadhi Wind Agate
- 2x Yaoguai Core
- 1x Refined Iron Sand
- 2x Cold Iron Leaves
- 5x Silk
- 1x Mind Core
At long last, it’s time to leave the Yellow Wind Ridge and continue the journey as we move onto Chapter 3 of Black Myth: Wukong.