Getting Started Guide - Complete Beginner Tutorial

Where Winds Meet is a massive open-world wuxia action RPG set in 10th-century China during the tumultuous Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. This guide will help you navigate your first hours in the game and set you up for success.

Initial Settings

When you first launch the game, you’ll be presented with several configuration options. Here are the recommended settings for beginners:

Recommended Settings

Exploration Guidance: Set this to Detailed. This option improves visual cues during quests and shows nearby chests and points of interest on your minimap. You can always disable it later once you’re comfortable with the game.

Control Mode: Choose ARPG. This mode provides the most responsive combat experience and is better suited to the game’s action-oriented gameplay. The MMO mode is available but less intuitive for combat-heavy encounters.

Difficulty: Select Recommended. This balanced difficulty lets you experience the game’s challenges without overwhelming frustration. You can choose Story mode if you prefer a relaxed experience focused on exploration and narrative. Note that Legends difficulty (the hardest mode) can only be selected at the start and cannot be changed later.

Social Preference: Choose Shared Journey. The game features extensive social systems and co-op content. Starting in this mode allows you to experience multiplayer features while still being able to switch to solo play at any time.

Character Creation

Take your time with character customization. Your character’s appearance is permanent and cannot be changed later without using premium items. The character creator offers extensive options for facial features, body type, hairstyles, and accessories.

Starting Weapon Choice

You’ll choose two starting weapons from the available options. This is one of the most important early decisions.

Recommended Starting Weapons:

Umbrella: Excellent defensive weapon with shield capabilities and versatile attacks
Spear: Long-range melee weapon with strong crowd control and high damage potential

Alternative Options:

Sword: Balanced weapon suitable for all situations
Fan: Ranged support weapon with healing capabilities (advanced players)
Dual Blades: High attack speed with berserk mode for aggressive playstyles
Rope Dart: Complex weapon with unique mechanics (not recommended for beginners)

Don’t worry too much about this choice—you’ll unlock all weapon types within the first few hours of gameplay.

Understanding Combat Fundamentals

Combat in Where Winds Meet is deliberate and skill-based. Button-mashing will get you killed quickly, especially on higher difficulties.

The Three Defensive Pillars

Blocking: Hold the block button to reduce incoming damage. While useful for chip damage mitigation, blocking alone won’t save you from serious threats. Use it to buy time and study enemy patterns.

Dodging: Provides invincibility frames during the animation, completely negating damage when timed correctly. Perfect Dodges trigger slow-motion effects (disabled in PvP), giving you positioning advantages and opening windows for counterattacks.

Parrying: The most crucial defensive mechanic. Successful parries against Red Attacks trigger devastating counterattacks that deal massive stagger damage. One perfectly timed parry can negate an entire multi-hit combo sequence.

Attack Types and Visual Cues

White Attacks: Standard attacks that can be blocked, parried, or dodged. These are the most common enemy attacks.

Red Attacks: Unblockable attacks with red visual indicators. These MUST be parried or dodged. A successful parry results in a Perfect Parry with an automatic counterattack.

Golden Attacks: High-damage unblockable attacks marked with golden indicators. These CANNOT be parried and must be dodged. Missing a dodge against these attacks results in massive damage.

Weapon Swapping Technique

Instead of cycling through your inventory manually, press Tab to perform an attack while simultaneously swapping weapons. This enables devastating combo chains and is essential for advanced play. Master this early—weapon synergy forms the foundation of effective builds.

First Steps in the World

Unlocking the Map

The game world starts with fog of war covering most regions. To reveal a region’s map:

Look for campfire icons on your map
Travel to the campfire location
Speak with the Wayfarer NPC
The surrounding area will be revealed

Fast Travel System

Unlock every Boundary Stone you encounter. These serve three purposes:

Enable fast travel between discovered locations
Grant Exploration Points for character progression
Serve as respawn points if you’re defeated

Resource Gathering

While exploring, gather every resource you encounter—plants, animals, ores, and other materials. A short detour now saves significant time later when crafting items and upgrading gear. Resources respawn regularly, so revisit areas periodically.

Time Manipulation

Many quests require waiting for specific times of day (morning, afternoon, night). Don’t stand around waiting—open your menu and manually change the in-game time clock.

Main Quest Progression

Follow the main story questline initially. The game has a daily level cap system that limits how far you can progress each day. Once you hit this cap, focus on:

Exploring the world and discovering Oddities (marked on your map)
Completing side quests and World Affairs
Gathering resources and materials
Unlocking Boundary Stones
Participating in social activities (Pitch Pot, Fishing, Chess)

Important Early Game Quest

Near the starting area, head slightly west from your first campfire. You’ll find a camp at a crossroads. An NPC there will give you a quest to retrieve a beehive. Complete this quest early—it unlocks important game mechanics.

Understanding Oddities

Oddities are special points of interest marked with colored icons on your map. Never ignore these—they’re essential for progression and rewards.

Types of Oddities:

Universal Harmony: Green icons - interaction and dialogue events
Hidden Paths: Blue icons - exploration challenges and secrets
Wild Ritual: Orange icons - combat encounters
Ghost Fire: Purple icons - supernatural events
Camp: Yellow icons - rest points and quest hubs
Martial Fellowship: Red icons - combat trials and martial arts learning
Fishing Contest: Blue icons - fishing minigame locations
Shop: Brown icons - merchants and vendors

Different oddity types are color-coded on your map for easy identification.

Progression Systems Overview

Mystic Arts

These are your primary abilities mapped to hotkeys (Q and other keys). Each weapon has unique Mystic Arts that can be upgraded. Focus on upgrading the abilities you use most frequently.

Internal Arts

Passive skill trees that enhance your character’s core stats. The middle path is critical early on—it unlocks your Heavy Attack and provides additional Mystic Skill slots (eventually four total slots).

Enlightenment Points

Earned through exploration, quest completion, and discovering Boundary Stones. These points are used to unlock and upgrade both Mystic Arts and Internal Arts.