Best Sword & Magic Build in Wuchang: Fallen Feathers

While Wuchang: Fallen Feathers has many of the iconic soulslike systems, it also includes many new features that revamp the game in many ways. From spells that don’t need mana or a resource you can use to empower your abilities, there are a lot of things that can make Wuchang the deadliest pirate warrior in the Land of Shu. But since Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is still a challenging game, even with all the weapons and skills you can use, here’s the build I used that took me all the way to the final boss in less than 40 hours.

Sword & Magic Build for Wuchang: Fallen Feathers

While there are several weapons in Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, the ones I used for this build were Longsword and Shortsword. However, you’ll only be using one to attack and the other one to build Skyborn Might and increase your magic damage. While I’ll go in-depth about each thing you need to make the build work, here are the items you need:

• Lashing Whip +10
• Darkfrost Edge +8
• Benediction Set: Skyborn Plume
  • Bu – Blocking Clash
  • Sheng – Skyborn Rejuvenation
  • Wei – Counter Force
• Armor: Flex, but you can use the Consort’s Armor set for the endgame and Fang Ling’s set for the early and midgame portions.
• Spells
  • Vorpal Blade. Replace with Crimson Edge Incantation for the endgame.
  • Divine Ward
  • Etheral Form
  • Divine Might
• Pendants
  • Dragon-Fish Pendant
  • Twin Infant Pendant
  • Wishborn Pendant for boss fights and Lifesteal Pendant for the rest of the game.
• Extra items
  • Manna Vase
  • Any other healing items, such as Steamed Bunny Buns or Health Pills.
  • Temperance

Again, this is just a quick checklist of everything you need to watch out for, but I’ll dive deep into each one of these items.

Weapons and Disciplines

To make the Sword & Magic build work in Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, you need to get the Lashing Whip from the Shu Sanctum. There are two reasons to get it. First, its innate skill, Whip Dance, lets you combine two light hits with the skill to make a high DPS combo. However, the big highlight of this weapon is its reach. Whenever you attack, it becomes a whip, which makes it hit enemies from a larger distance. This will be extremely useful for boss fights.

For the second weapon, you can use any shortsword, but we’ll go with Darkfrost Edge because it scales with Agility and Strength. You can swap it for Astral Blade if you want to use DPS spells, but you’ll be losing some survivability.

The most important part of this build is unlocking the Sword Counter discipline in the Longsword skill tree. You can find it on the left side of the skill tree. Equipping this discipline on your Longsword will change your playstyle to a more parry-oriented one. In other words, you’ll turn Wuchang into Sekiro. You might think this is only useful for normal exploration, but you can parry several bosses’ attacks, making it the most OP equippable discipline in the game.

Impetus Repository Skills

Listing all the actual skills you must buy in the game would turn this into a biblical scripture, so instead, I’ll list the most important ones, alongside the weapon upgrades, disciplines, and a few passive skills.

• Left Skill Tree that begins with ‘Illusive’
  • Buy all the middle row from Illusive to Manna Potency.
  • Buy all the Manna Vase upgrades from the top and bottom branches.
  • Unlock Rapid Temperance, as well as Bone Needle – Poise Break, and Bone Needle Lightning.
  • Get Steel Resolve, Conversion, Alacrity, and Unbroken Focus.
• Longsword Skill Tree
  • Unlock everything.
    • Seriously, you need to get everything in this skill tree, including upgrading your weapon to +10, which is the highest level.
    • If necessary, remove skill points from the left-most side that has Feathering upgrades and allocate them on the first skill tree I mentioned.
• Spear Skill Tree
  • Unlock the first two nodes and then get the two +5 Agility upgrades.
• Dual Blades Skill Tree
  • Unlock the first two nodes and then the two above that give +1 and +5 Agility.
• Axe Skill Tree
  • Unlock the first two nodes and grab the +5 Vitality and +5 Endurance upgrades.
• Shortsword Skill Tree
  • Grab all the Agility, Vitality, and Endurance upgrades.
  • Upgrade your Shortsword to +8.
  • Focus on Feathering upgrades for your last skill points.

When it comes to the order of unlocking skills, focus first on Longsword until you unlock Sword Counter. After that, go for the Shortsword Skill Tree, and then complete the rest. For the “General” Skill Tree, upgrade it as you get Manna Vase materials.

Armor, Pendants, and Benedictions

For armor, it will depend on the boss. Some will require you to swap armor pieces that have a specific element’s resistance. However, one of the best armor sets in the game that feels versatile and has good resistances is Fang Ling’s set. You’ll have to swap it for the Consort’s armor set, though, especially in the game’s final area.

The important part here is Benedictions, and the best set you can use is the Skyborn Plume. This set does the following:

• After gaining Skyborn Might, the power of your next attack is increased.

To make it happen, you’ll need these three Benedictions:

• Bu – Blocking Clash
  • Increases the potency of blocks and clashes.
• Sheng – Skyborn Rejuvenation
  • Gaining Skyborn Might endows your attacks with life leech for a very short moment.
• Wei – Counter Force
  • Increases the potency of counter moves.

Gameplay Explanation: While the set is great, we won’t be needing the actual 3/3 set bonus. Instead, we want the Skyborn Rejuvenation and Counter Force effects. The former lets you leech life after getting Skyborn Might, which happens often with Sword Counter. And guess what? Counter Force increases the potency of your counters, making this one of the deadliest builds in Wuchang: Fallen Feathers. I’ll go over how to play the actual build in a bit, but you can already see how these effects go along perfectly.

Lastly, Pendants. For Pendants, you want the two that increase your overall Stamina and then Stamina Regeneration. For the latter, you’ll swap between Wishborn Pendant and Lifesteal Pendant. The former is great for boss fights, as it increases your healing effects, including leeching. The latter will let you heal when defeating enemies in the world.

Spells and Items

For the spells, we’ll stay away from the DPS ones, except for two: Vorpal Blade and Crimson Edge Incantation. You’ll use the first to kite enemies to you. It only costs one Skyborn Might. However, as soon as you get Crimson Edge Incantation, this will be your kiting spell, but also a healing one, as it restores a small amount of HP with each hit.

Divine Ward is an expensive spell, which costs three Skyborn Might, but it can be useful for certain situations where you get hit by one or more enemies. It mitigates some of the damage.

The best spell of the build, however, is Etheral Form. This one gives you one to two free instant dodges. By instant dodges, I mean it also recovers Skyborn Might, meaning you can spam this spell to avoid almost all damage from any boss. If you’re struggling with a fight, try spamming Etheral Form until you figure out the boss’s pattern. Be careful, though, because your Stamina can run out fast if you spam it a lot, so make sure to use it just when a boss throws a deadly combo at you.

The final spell is Divine Might, which increases the damage of your next attack. This one is only useful if you’re about to Obliterate a foe, or in other soulslike terms, land a critical hit. Outside of that, don’t use that much.

Lastly, for items, just make sure to equip all your healing objects and Temperance. For Temperance, always swap between Poise Break and Lightning. The former works with all enemies, while the latter is great against most human foes.

How To Use the Build

With every item out of the way, here’s how to play this build in Wuchang: Fallen Feathers.

• Perform two light attacks to build up Skyborn Might. Repeat until you fill your Skyborn Might.
• If the enemy is too challenging, swap to your Shortsword and let it build Skyborn Might over time thanks to the Biding Time passive.
• For normal enemies, do the easy combo of two light attacks plus the weapon’s skill. This usually kills most enemies with one combo.
• For boss fights, stick to landing two light hits, then casting Etheral Form. Repeat until you defeat the enemy.
  • Etheral Form dodges every attack in the game, so use it constantly, as long as you have Stamina.
• Your Longsword lets you execute charged attacks instantly by spending one Skyborn Might. Do this often, especially if you can position yourself behind an enemy. It will trigger a backstab and will let you Obliterate any foe.

It takes a while to get used to the build, but it can take you to the endgame and even New Game Plus if that’s something you want to do. Just make sure to fully upgrade your Longsword and use Etheral Form as often as you can.