Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty beginners guide – 6 tips before you start

It takes about 20 minutes. Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, you’ll face your first boss fight. And it’s brutal.

Apart from proving how important masocore is, Wo Long: Fallen DynastyThis is because it serves as a crash-course in Many of the game’s systems. They’re just not really explained well. This will be the bulk of what you’ll experience in your early years. Wo long — overwhelming systems that you don’t understand. Yet.

Our Wo long beginner’s guide will help you figure out what’s going on, based on our roughly 20 hours of experience with the game (a shocking amount of which was just failing at the same boss fights over and over). We’ll help you understand the game’s Battle and Marker Flags, where and how you can travel, how equipment works and how much it slows you down, and how to think about your Spirit gauge.

Wo Long can be described as a linear, soul-like being.

Unlike other soulslike games, there’s not much looping and grinding in Wo Long: Fallen DynastyYou don’t have to, but you can. It was more like a lengthy walk with occasional ass-kickings. Although the story is spread across large areas called Battlefields (which are quite big), your route through them will be mostly linear. (There are branching paths and you’ll be rewarded with loot for exploring them, though.)

Image: Team Ninja/Koei Tecmo via Polygon

That linear path will lead you through a series of boss fights — those periodic ass-kickings we mentioned. You must learn to love them.

As you travel through a Battlefield — and usually right before every boss fight — you’ll find Battle Flags and Marker Flags.

• Battle Flags are where you’ll restart when you (repeatedly) die. They’re where you’ll level up and learn new Wizardry Spells, and also where you’ll rest to refill your Dragon’s Cure Pot (health flask)
• Marker Flags Although they look identical, their functions are different. They refill your health, but not your Dragon’s Cure Pot. They can also increase your energy. FortitudeWhich is similar? MoraleDifferent, yet similar.

Let’s talk about Morale.

Learn how fortitude and morale are linked

It is easy to simplify it. Wo long’s Morale system is a measure of how many baddies you’ve killed without dying. It’s more nuanced, of course, but that’s the core idea.

A character’s Morale (both yours and your enemies’) figures in to how powerful that character is — higher Morale equals a tougher fight. If you take out enough evil people, your Morale increases. Your Morale drops if a baddie takes you down. Theirs goes up — making the next time you encounter them a little bit harder.

Image: Team Ninja/Koei Tecmo via Polygon

When you are killed, you’ll also lose half of your Genuine Qi You can use your leveling currency to kill anyone or anything. The number above their heads gets the flame icon. To regain your Qi, and to increase your Morale points you must face the baddie again. Revenge.

You can prevent losing too much Morale by increasing your Fortitude. Fortitude is the lower limit to your Morale — your Morale will never fall below your Fortitude, and raising your Fortitude past your Morale will raise your Morale to match.

Every time you raise the Marker Flag, your Forttitude will increase. But, your Fortitude resets when you move to a different Battlefield or Sub Battlefield. Speaking of which…

Side missions are Sub Battlefields

At a Battle Flag (not a Marker Flag), you’ll have the option to travel. This is how you’ll replay previous sections of the game, find a replayable tutorial, and play through side missions.

Image: Team Ninja/Koei Tecmo via Polygon

The fights in these Sub Battlefields last much less time than the main Battlefields. They’re good to take on, though, because they get you new gear and new upgrade materials as rewards.

We broke down Wo long’s confusing equipment system here, but let’s talk about equipment weight.

Gear and equipment weight are more important than you’d think

In the absence of classes, there are none Wo long, so you’re free to create your own based on how you level up — determined by which Five Phases Virtues you put points into when you level up — and the gear you decide to equip.

The gear has many different upgrades and rarities. It is important to know your responsibilities early on. Equipment weight rating — basically, your character’s encumbrance. You can raise your max equipment weight by leveling up and increasing your earth virtue.

Image: Team Ninja/Koei Tecmo via Polygon

When you’re picking out armor, you’ll see a tiny icon just below and to the left of the picture. This icon is used to mark the location. Medium, lightAnd heavy armor. There’s a little gauge below the helmet icon with one, two, or three chunks filled in to indicate that.

There’s also an equipment weight displayed at the bottom of the equipment’s card. The percentage displayed here, however, is confusing. It is notThe percentage of your maximum capacity. Instead, it’s how much this piece of equipment contributes to your current load. For the percentage of your max capacity, you’ll have to look on the Status screen.

The amount you’re carrying turns into a stat you can find on your character’s Status menu tab. You’ll see the max weight of equipment you can carry, the percentage of the max weight your current armor is, and a letter grade. Your letter will be your Agility stat — A is about 0-30% of your max, B is roughly 30-70%, C is 70-100% or so, and D is anything over 100%.

Apart from the speed at which you move, Agility determines how quickly your Spirit drains. Spirit is an important factor in the game. Wo long.

Spirit is the most valuable gauge

Wo Long: Fallen DynastyThink of your Spirit as an amalgamation of a stamina and mana gauge. Each enemy and your character both have Spirit Gauges.

You’ll lose Spirit when you get hit or dodge, and you’ll spend Spirit to cast Wizardry Spells or perform Martial Arts. You’ll gain Spirit when you land regular melee attacks or when you successfully deflect an attack. Getting hit with some attacks shrinks the upper and lower limits of a character’s Spirit gauge.

If a Spirit Gauge has reached its lowest limit, the person (or demon), will be stunned for just a few seconds. Then, they can launch a devastating attack. It is your goal to make it less likely that this happens, and to ensure it does not happen to others. Those attacks when they’re stunned are invaluable in boss fights.

Managing your Spirit gauge while you deplete your enemies’ is KeyIn Wo long. Deflecting is the best method.

As important as attacking is deflecting

Wo long’s deflect is a lot like a parry in other games. You hit the B/circle button just before an enemy’s attack lands and it redirects the attack. This is different from simply guarding against an attack — something you can also do, but it’s less useful.

Image: Team Ninja/Koei Tecmo via Polygon

As opposed to guarding, that simply drains your Spirit gauge, deflecting both shrinks and damages the attacker’s gauge. And that is how you control fights — that’s why we brought it up so much in the first boss fight guide.

Some games offer perfect parry mechanisms that allow you to open up for attack. Wo long’s deflect takes that to a whole new level.