Where Winds Meet gives you the full wuxia playground: rooftop chases, flowing combat, and a dozen different weapon-based martial arts to master, you don’t start with them, and merely picking up a new weapon doesn’t unlock its style. Instead, you’ll be stealing techniques, cracking puzzles, infiltrating sanctums, and making a few key choices early on.
Below is a clean, easy-to-read breakdown of each martial art in the game and how to unlock them, in addition to the necessary steps you should take prior to tracking them down.
Before You Start: Essential Mystic Arts
You’ll need a couple of key Mystic Arts before most infiltrations become possible.
Veil of Stillness (Stealth Tool)
Once you attain Level 8, head to the southwest of Qinghe at Peace Bell Tower. A mini-game for skill theft awaits you there; observe the movement of an NPC and press F after the gold rings appear. Passing this sequence will teach you Veil of Stillness, your stealth entry ticket for many sanctums.
Touch of Death (Assassination Skill)
Head to the next side quest in the Northern Vow Ruins southeast of Qinghe. Purge the courtyard with the circular symbol, then light up the flame mechanism that’s there. Light another atop a nearby tower. Solving the puzzles below rewards a gold chest containing the Touch of Death, allowing lethal backstabs to be performed.
Dragon Key (Sanctum Access)
Some of the deeper sanctums will require a Dragon Key, which you earn when clearing outposts. It doesn’t drop every time, but you will naturally get one as you explore.
With these tools, you are ready to hunt down weapon martial arts.
Nameless Sword (Starter)
Your default martial art. It’s a fast, mobile style built around lunges, quick DPS, and evasive backflips. You have it from the moment you begin your adventure.
Nameless Spear (Early Unlock)
Unlocked almost immediately through early progression. It’s another fast DPS style with a powerful thrust and a skill that roots the enemy while restoring your endurance.
Panacea Fan
Support-oriented martial art that has options for ranged skills and healing. It is great in groups, as it has strong AoE heals and long-range poke.
You can unlock it by:
- Obtain a reward from the bear after learning Tai Chi from it and delivering a beehive to Qi Cheng
- Stealing it from an underground sanctum near Bamboo Abode, near the starting region.
Thundercry Blade
Slow and hard-hitting sword style, centered on generating a shield worth 25% of your HP, dragging in enemies, and detonating a large AoE strike.
Unlock it by:
- Picking it as an early reward from Qi Cheng
- Infiltrate the Well of Heaven’s martial camp in Kaifeng: surface-level, but traversal skills are disabled.
- Beware of rooftop disciples – they see everything.
Infernal Twinblades
A fast, aggressive style powered by the Karmic Flame meter: instead of a heavy attack, filling the meter gives you a self-buff that increases crit rate and provides partial damage immunity.
Unlock by:
- Choosing it as an early Qi Cheng reward
- Infiltrate the Midnight Mercy Sanctum southwest of Battlecrest Slope in Qinghe.
Vernal Umbrella
Ranged DPS umbrella style: one of its skills makes it an auto-turret, floating in place while you switch to other weapons; another skill can immobilize standard enemies so you can reposition or punish safely.
Unlock by:
- Choosing an early one from Qi Cheng
- Complete the Temporal Pavilion quest in Kaifeng.
This will involve some detective work in speaking with Jiang Ting’er on the third floor, gathering five clues around the pavilion, deducing the location of the warehouse key, stealing it, and recovering the keepsake needed to enter the private banquet.
Stormbreaker Spear
Created with players in mind who like to taunt enemies, absorbing damage while dishing out heavy hits, one such skill also knocks down targets for bonus follow-up damage.
You can easily unlock it by checking your letter tab at Level 3; you’ll find a message from the Raging Tides General containing the martial art.
Heavenquaker Spear
A far-reaching melee style focused on spinning thrust combos; one of the skills creates a buff, depending on how many hits you can land, while the second consumes that buff in exchange for a stronger spinning attack, which can inflict bleed.
Unlock it by infiltrating the Raging Tides Sanctum in eastern Qinghe, just north of Verdant Wilds.
Inkwell Fan
A hybrid ranged-melee martial art, the wind blast knocks enemies back while boosting your dodge and ranged damage; another skill launches foes into the air.
Get it through the skill theft at the Silver Needle Sanctum in northern Qinghe near the Bodhi Sea.
Soulshade Umbrella
A support-oriented umbrella with smart-heal capabilities that automatically prioritizes teammates in a weakened state. Generates a healing turret when you switch to another weapon.
Unlock it:
- In Kaifeng, head west into a village on the outskirts of Mistveil Forest.
- You’ll find a building upstairs with an open entry: follow inside, then head downstairs to find the master of this art.
Mortal Rope Dart
Fashionable Melee DPS based on rapid attacks and mobility: Pull enemies to you, fling yourself at bosses, and even summon rats with the help of Token of Gratitude, resource unique to this art.
To unlock it:
- Try to enter the Nine Mortal Ways martial hall in southern Kaifeng.
- A guard stops you. A mystic elder intervenes and insinuates disguises.
- Head to Wuyan at Lin’s Cosmetics in the Fairgrounds, southeast Kaifeng.
- Finish her request to learn disguise crafting.
- Go back to the martial hall and paint the disciple sitting outside.
- Bring this portrait to Wuyan to craft your disguise.
- Approach from a different path to the martial hall in order to avoid bumping into the same disciple, as bumping into him breaks the disguise.
- Once inside, follow the rest of the steps for obtaining the rope dart, which will eventually lead to the martial art.
