After making your way through most of Black Wind Mountain in Chapter 1 of Black Myth: Wukong, you’ll eventually come across its ruler: the Black Wind King. With a variety of deadly melee combos and some tricky magic moves, he’s far more powerful than the Lingxuzi and Whiteclad Noble bosses you’ve faced thus far. He’s also quite a bit faster, too, which introduces you to the pace you can expect from most future boss fights.
Undoubtedly, he’s one of Black Myth’s hardest early roadblocks, and you’ll likely be stuck on him for a bit. However, his health pool isn’t that large, so once you learn how to deal with his attacks and maximize your offense, you’ll take him down surprisingly quickly. Here’s a full overview of his moveset and how to best defend against it, along with some helpful tips and suggestions for counter-attack opportunities and other aspects of the battle.
Boss guide: How to beat the Black Wind King
Here’s a complete look at the fight against the Black Wind King, including each of his moves, how to best counter them, and more.
- The Black Wind King doesn’t have much health, so you should play as aggressive as possible. Provided you have the stamina, you should always be attacking if you’re near him. Remember that dodges can interrupt and animation cancel your basic melee combos, so don’t worry too much about overcommitting to your assaults.
- The boss typically attacks in three-to-four hit melee chains with his polearm, with the final hit in these combos often delayed for a moment. Be ready to dodge quickly for most of the chains, then patiently wait a second before dodging their finishers.
- At the start of the battle, the boss will likely run towards you before leaping, spinning, and trying to stab you with his polearm before picking it up and doing two spinning slashes. Dodge to the side for these, and note that unlike most of his moves, this one has a delay on the first attack in the combo instead of the last one.
- The Black Wind King can use this move multiple times throughout the fight, so keep that in mind. He typically only initiates it when you’re at medium range.
- A common move the boss does is a triple spinning slash, telegraphed by him lifting his right foot into the air and preparing his first swing from his right side (your left). Dodge laterally to avoid damage while keeping yourself in melee range so you can follow up with counter-attacks, and remember to wait a moment before dodging the delayed finisher.
- Another similar attack sees the Black Wind King lift his left leg before performing a slash from the right, followed by a quick thrust and then a final sweeping cut. Dodging this works the exact same way as the previously mentioned move, though the delay on the final stroke is a little shorter. Make sure you take that into account.
- If the boss starts backstepping while spinning, he’s about to thrust at you. This move is very easy to dodge, though is delayed a bit. I recommend dodging forward and through the attack so you can stay on top of the boss easily, keeping up your offensive pressure.
- If the boss starts drinking one of the two red flasks on his belt, two things can occur:
- If he leans forward after drinking: He will breathe a cone of fire at you shortly afterwards. Dodge laterally as it travels towards you to stay safe. If you do get hit and catch fire, spam a few dodges or use an anti-fire consumable to put yourself out.
- If he simply drinks and puts the flask back: He will regain a small portion of his health. Make sure to attack him aggressively as he does this to counteract the healing. Alternatively you can use the Immobilize spell before he drinks, then melee combo him while he’s frozen to stagger him out of the animation.
- One tricky, but highly punishable attack sees the boss transform into a ball of wind energy, fly at you after a visible burst of energy three-to-four times, then create a cyclone of energy in the center of the arena that he explodes as he goes back to human form. Dodge to the left or right each time the wind energy flies towards you, then stand back from the cyclone and charge a Focus-powered heavy attack. After it explodes and the Black Wind King appears in human form once more, immediately hit him with this charged strike to do some huge damage.
- Thrust Stance is excellent for this in particular, since its charged attacks have long range. By using it, you won’t have to put yourself in danger of the cyclone blast.
- Another deadly move is a five-hit combo in which the boss bashes you with his left elbow, slams the end of his polearm down, uses the weapon to vault himself into a kick at you, and then ends the chain with a slash and an explosive fist slam. This move is capable of killing you from full health if you get hit by all or most of its parts, so it’s a good one to interrupt and stagger him out of with Immobilize. Another thing to know is that the kick is delayed a bit, so don’t dodge it too early.
- He also has a six-hit chain in which he sweeps from his right side, then from his left, then does two fast follow-up slashes before performing a very delayed body slam, ending with a final spinning sweep around him as he gets back up. I recommend dodging forward and past the boss for the first two attacks since it makes the third and fourth miss, then being patient with your evasion of the slam so you aren’t caught by the delay.
- The Black Wind King may also become invisible for a few seconds before reappearing and performing one of three follow-up moves:
- A single vertical slam on your position: Very easy to avoid by dodging to the side.
- A quick combo of double spinning slashes that ends with a delayed slam: Dodge this like you’d avoid his common melee attacks.
- Finally, if you see the boss attempting to kick you with his right leg, you have to dodge it or else you’ll be caught in an impaling charge with his polearm. This attack is easily avoided by dodging laterally, but deals a lot of damage if it lands. Watch for the tell carefully.
Play as aggressively as possible while successfully avoiding as much damage as you can, and this fight will be over a lot faster than you’d think. Your time battling against the Black Wind King isn’t over yet, though, as you’ll soon find out by progressing further…
Black Myth: Wukong is one of 2024’s biggest games, and arguably one of the best PC games to play if you’re an ARPG fan looking for something new (for my full thoughts on it, check out my review). It’s available on Windows PC and PS5 (an Xbox Series X|S version is coming, too) for $59.99, though right now it’s actually on sale for just $54.39 at CDKeys.