Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty Tips & Tricks

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty mixes old Team Ninja Soulslike staples with some new mechanics and twists along the way. It can be a little intimidating getting used to this style of gameplay, especially for those not familiar with Nioh or Stranger of Paradise. With that in mind, we’ve put together this Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty Tips & Tricks guide with a few things to help you out on your journey through Ancient China.

Parry everything

The parry is by far the most important part of your toolkit to learn quickly in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty. The timing for parrying attacks is surprisingly generous, and it is able to negate damage from any attack (outside of things like lingering fire or frost). You can block sword strikes, arrows, and even magic, taking no damage in the process. You even get Spirit back in the process, the resource used for parries and most of your more damaging abilities.

Parrying regular human-type enemies will even stagger them, opening them up to a few hits for free. Most other enemy types will still be able to act after you parry them, but you’ll still build up Spirit to unleash a Spirit Attack or spell. You’ll run into all enemy types many times across the game, so there’s plenty of time to learn the attack patterns for each — most won't learn any new moves, though a few get new variants as you progress.

Exploration leads to many rewards

Each level in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is relatively small, though each hides lots of items and other secrets to uncover. Items are represented by shining orbs on the ground, and can be interacted with to get loot, ammo for your ranged weapons, or sometimes collectables. Of these collectables, there are Dragon Vein Crystals and Dragon Vein Essences. Both will improve your main healing item, giving you an easier time against tougher levels and bosses.

Exploration is also recommended even if you don’t need loot, as you’ll want to find all of the flags in each level. These grant you Fortitude, determining your minimum Morale for the rest of that level. Morale determines the damage you deal and take against enemies, so raising it to the max before taking on bosses is a must. For the default difficulty, the final boss of a level will always be equal to the max Fortitude you can get (usually 20).

Pay attention to Morale

In a similar vein to the previous tip, you’ll always want to keep an eye on your Morale relative to the enemies you encounter. Having far lower Morale than an enemy will make the fight much tougher, making it best to avoid that enemy until later. This is generally used in levels to guide you to the right path, and you’ll always have the opportunity to backtrack or find shortcuts to areas with high Morale opponents.

Fighting tougher enemies is not always a bad idea though. They’re not invincible, and having parry timings down will mean that you’ll still take no damage. It’s also good practice for Wo Long’s higher difficulty, which unlocks after beating the game once. All enemies have increased Morale and stats, with bosses usually being 5 Morale higher than you even if you find all flags.

You don’t need to interact with battle flags straight away

Battle flags are the larger of the two flags found in levels, letting you recruit allies or level up. While these functions are useful, it’s often best not to interact with one straight away after unlocking it. This is due to the fact that interacting with battle flags causes all enemies in the level to respawn. Since unlocking a battle flag for the first time fully heals you and restores all uses of your healing item, you’re sometimes better off just continuing into the level. This lets you backtrack without having to fight through previous enemies again.

Of course, there’s also the threat of dying and potentially losing the Qi you need to level up if you continue. If you keep an eye on the Qi count in the bottom left, you’ll know if you have enough to level up if the icon has turned gold. Use this as a rough idea of when to take a break and spend your Qi at battle flags.

Visit the Hidden Village between levels once it’s unlocked

The Hidden Village is unlocked very early on in Wo Long, giving you access to a number of useful features that are worth using between each level. This is where you’ll hand in the tablets and golden cicada shells found in levels, and upgrade gear to give you an edge later on. A few levels after unlocking the Hidden Village, you’ll even get the ability to change your stats, giving you an easy way to change builds and test out new weapons.

The forge is definitely the main reason to visit though, as it also gives you a way to clean out your ever growing inventory of equipment. Most 1 and 2 star rarity items can be dismantled without worrying, giving you some extra upgrade materials in the process.