About 20 minutes into Wo Lengthy: Fallen Dynasty, you’ll face your first boss combat. And it’s brutal.
Except for driving house simply how masocore Wo Lengthy: Fallen Dynasty is, it additionally serves as a crash course in many of the sport’s techniques. They’re simply probably not defined properly. And that, frankly, goes to be loads of your expertise early on with Wo Lengthy — overwhelming techniques that you simply don’t perceive. But.
Our Wo Lengthy newbie’s information will assist you determine what’s occurring, primarily based on our roughly 20 hours of expertise with the sport (a surprising quantity of which was simply failing on the identical boss fights again and again). We’ll enable you to perceive the sport’s Battle and Marker Flags, the place and how one can journey, how tools works and the way a lot it slows you down, and the way to consider your Spirit gauge.
Consider Wo Lengthy as a linear soulslike
Not like different soulslike video games, there’s not a lot looping and grinding in Wo Lengthy: Fallen Dynasty (except you need to). We described it as extra of an extended stroll punctuated by periodic ass-kickings. The story performs out throughout a collection of areas, referred to as Battlefields, which might be fairly large, however your path via them is usually linear. (There are branching paths and also you’ll be rewarded with loot for exploring them, although.)
That linear path will lead you thru a collection of boss fights — these periodic ass-kickings we talked about. Be taught to like them.
As you journey via a Battlefield — and normally proper earlier than each boss combat — you’ll discover Battle Flags and Marker Flags.
- Battle Flags are the place you’ll restart whenever you (repeatedly) die. They’re the place you’ll stage up and study new Wizardry Spells, and likewise the place you’ll relaxation to refill your Dragon’s Treatment Pot (well being flask)
- Marker Flags look comparable, however work in another way. They refill your well being, however not your Dragon’s Treatment Pot. Extra importantly, they improve your Fortitude which is like Morale, however totally different.
Let’s speak about Morale.
Perceive how Morale and Fortitude work
To oversimplify it, Wo Lengthy’s Morale system is a measure of what number of baddies you’ve killed with out dying. It’s extra nuanced, in fact, however that’s the core concept.
A personality’s Morale (each yours and your enemies’) figures in to how highly effective that character is — greater Morale equals a more durable combat. Once you kill sufficient baddies, your Morale goes up. When a baddie kills you, your Morale goes down and theirs goes up — making the subsequent time you encounter them just a little bit more durable.
If you find yourself killed, you’ll additionally lose half of your Real Qi (your leveling up forex, kinda like souls in Darkish Souls video games) to whoever or no matter killed you. That baddie will get a flame icon round their Morale (the quantity over their head). So that you can reclaim your Qi and your Morale factors, you must face them once more and get your Revenge.
The way in which to forestall your self from shedding an excessive amount of Morale is to lift your Fortitude. Fortitude is the decrease restrict to your Morale — your Morale won’t ever fall beneath your Fortitude, and elevating your Fortitude previous your Morale will increase your Morale to match.
Your Fortitude will increase each time your increase a Marker Flag. Nonetheless, it resets every time you journey to a brand new Battlefield or Sub Battlefield. Talking of which…
Sub Battlefields are facet missions
At a Battle Flag (not a Marker Flag), you’ll have the choice to journey. That is the way you’ll replay earlier sections of the sport, discover a replayable tutorial, and play via facet missions.
These Sub Battlefields are smaller, shorter fights in comparison with the principle Battlefields. They’re good to tackle, although, as a result of they get you new gear and new improve supplies as rewards.
We broke down Wo Lengthy’s complicated tools system right here, however let’s speak about tools weight.
Gear and tools weight are extra vital than you’d assume
There are not any courses in Wo Lengthy, so that you’re free to create your individual primarily based on the way you stage up — decided by which 5 Phases Virtues you place factors into whenever you stage up — and the gear you determine to equip.
Gear has a complete system of upgrades and rarity. Crucial half to grasp early, although, is your Gear Weight score — principally, your character’s encumbrance. (You’ll be able to improve your Max Gear Weight by rising your Earth Advantage whenever you stage up.)
Once you’re selecting out armor, you’ll see a tiny icon slightly below and to the left of the image. It is a marker for mild, medium, and heavy armor. There’s just a little gauge beneath the helmet icon with one, two, or three chunks stuffed in to point that.
There’s additionally an tools weight displayed on the backside of the tools’s card. Confusingly, the share proven right here is not the share of your max capability. As a substitute, it’s how a lot this piece of kit contributes to your present load. For the share of your max capability, you’ll need to look on the Standing display.
The quantity you’re carrying turns right into a stat you will discover in your character’s Standing menu tab. You’ll see the max weight of kit you’ll be able to carry, the share of the max weight your present armor is, and a letter grade. The letter is 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 something over 100%.
Except for how rapidly you progress, that Agility stat determines how briskly your Spirit drains. And Spirit is a giant deal in Wo Lengthy.
Spirit is a very powerful gauge
In Wo Lengthy: Fallen Dynasty, consider your Spirit as a mixture of a stamina gauge and a mana gauge. Each your character and each enemy have Spirit Gauges.
You’ll lose Spirit whenever you get hit or dodge, and also you’ll spend Spirit to forged Wizardry Spells or carry out Martial Arts. You’ll acquire Spirit whenever you land common melee assaults or whenever you efficiently deflect an assault. Getting hit with some assaults shrinks the higher and decrease limits of a personality’s Spirit gauge.
When a Spirit Gauge is drained to its decrease restrict, that individual (or demon) shall be surprised for a number of seconds, opening them as much as a strong assault. Your aim is to keep away from that occuring to you, and, extra importantly, ensure it occurs to your enemy. These assaults after they’re surprised are invaluable in boss fights.
Managing your Spirit gauge when you deplete your enemies’ is key in Wo Lengthy. And one of the simplest ways to do it’s by deflecting.
Deflecting is simply as vital as attacking
Wo Lengthy’s deflect is lots like a parry in different video games. You hit the B/circle button simply earlier than an enemy’s assault lands and it redirects the assault. That is totally different from merely guarding in opposition to an assault — one thing you may also do, however it’s much less helpful.
Versus guarding, that merely drains your Spirit gauge, deflecting each shrinks and damages the attacker’s gauge. And that’s the way you management fights — that’s why we introduced it up a lot within the first boss combat information.
Different video games have (excellent) parry mechanics that provide you with a gap to assault. Wo Lengthy’s deflect takes that to a complete new stage.