Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty has something of a medium ceiling when it comes to skill level. There are plenty of ways to tackle enemies, regardless of how you build your character's Virtues. Despite this, much of the game revolves around deflecting enemy attacks instead of blocking or dodging.
Due to this game mechanic, there will be times you feel engagements are too unfair, and they will test your skills until you eventually overcome the challenge. With only one way to block and negate incoming damage, you need more tricks and options to get one over on the several foes you fight throughout the game.
8 Cast Magic To Remove Status Effects
As with any Souls-like, you have plenty of consumable items at your disposal in Wo Long. Several of these cure debuffs, but you might not know that all of your spells have the innate ability to remove certain debuffs, too. Using Wizardry is an effective way to dispel most debuffs you encounter, to the point where the items are almost entirely useless.
If your character has been hit with enough fire, they will become inflicted with the Blaze debuff. The Heat-proof ice item will remove it, but you can cast a spell of the opposite Virtue Phase to remove the debuff instead. In this example, casting any water magic will cleanse you of the Blaze. Wood beats Earth, Earth beats Water, Water beats Fire, Fire beats Metal, and Metal beats Wood.
7 Use Your Divine Beast To Stun Bosses
A lot of the time you're fighting enemies in Wo Long, you might often forget that you have the power of a Divine Beast at your disposal. They are far too important to be used on bog-standard enemies in the level, so you should save them for the end boss of the mission.
Not only will this give you the upper hand in all boss fights, but you can use the Divine Beast to interrupt and briefly stagger a boss, even if they're charging up a Critical Strike or in an attack animation. Remembering you even have them at hand is half the battle, but you should always use it in a pinch to create openings and turn the tables. Better yet, if you have Qinglong, using it near downed Followers will revive them back to full HP.
6 Deflect Towards Oncoming Critical Strikes
Deflecting is the primary way to defend yourself in Wo Long, and the game doubles down on this as your progress through the missions. It is almost a necessity to learn and master, which can be difficult for some, even with the lenient window on deflecting attacks. To get better at deflecting attacks, you should always try and deflect into the oncoming attack, especially if it's a Critical Strike.
More often than not – depending on whether the boss or enemy is using a Critical Strike with several attack frames – deflecting into oncoming attacks will increase your chances of the game allowing the deflection. If an enemy is charging at you, they might be lunging in one strike, which means every frame of them sticking their weapon forward will be an attack frame.
5 Use Debuffs On Enemies And Bosses To Stagger Them
Some of the better Wizardry spells you can use in the game are the weapon enchantments. Ice Weapon, Fire Weapon, and so on, are extremely useful for tackling tricky bosses because they will add a small build-up of the corresponding element's debuff with each strike.
Ice Weapon will inflict the Chill debuff, for example, and while some bosses will have different element resistance, they can all be debuffed this way. As soon as the debuff lands on the enemy, which may take a lot of hits, they will become staggered briefly. This creates an opportunity to smack them for a ton of damage. Remember this when you're fighting enemies whom you can't stagger with your attacks.
4 Salvage All Unused Gear Into Upgrade Materials
In Wo Long, you have access to a blacksmith who will sell your equipment and offer a service to dismantle any gear you have for more resources. Throughout the whole game, you should never, ever consider buying gear or selling anything to the blacksmith for money unless you are in extreme need of some coin. The money resource in Wo Long is borderline pointless, and you should never be in a position where you don't have enough for something.
Instead, you should give unused weapons, armour, and accessories to the blacksmith via the Salvage option. Based on an item's star rating, you çan get several upgrade materials that will be extremely useful to you than money. You also get Jewel Fragments, which can be used to imbue your gear with skills or change its appearance.
3 Charged Attacks Prevent Interruptions
The game doesn't do a great job of explaining to you that Spirit, or charged, attacks will give you resistance to being interrupted and staggered while you perform the strike. This is only the case when you're doing a fully-charged strike, using up the whole of the blue Spirit bar to enhance it.
When doing so, you can still take damage, but you will be immune to being interrupted as long as the attack animation lasts. This can be an excellent way to keep pressure on a boss or enemy, especially if you time it during one of their heavy attacks or a Critical Strike. You will take the hit and damage, but your attack won't be stopped. Just ensure you have enough HP to survive the hit you're tanking through.
2 Hold Block While Trying To Sneak Up On An Enemy
While stealth isn't a significant mechanic in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, you can trivialise a ton of repetitive enemy encounters by starting it off with a stealth hit. You might be trying to walk up to enemies to do this while running the risk of pressing the analogue stick too hard and rousing the enemies' attention.
Instead of relying on a sensitive stick, you should approach an enemy from behind while blocking. Run up to them as close as you can get before the bar fills up and they notice you, and then hold the block button and walk forward to approach the rest of the distance. This will let you get close without accidentally aggroing them, and you can blast them with a strong attack.
1 Extinguish Flames With Water Spells
Using an ice-infused weapon or water spell on an enemy on fire will extinguish their flames. This isn't the case for all enemies, but it is especially effective against the large and small rat demons who like to set themselves on fire and hassle you to no end.
If you use Water spells on them, you can extinguish their flames, meaning that once they're killed, they won't explode after death and blast you for unnecessary damage. There are other enemies where this strategy is useful, such as the flaming demon guys with the halberds you face later in the game, but it is most effective against any fire-imbued foe.