If you play your cards right, Guangzhi will be the first boss fight you run into in Black Myth: Wukong. This unfortunate creature began life as a wolf but yearned to be so much more. This is how to beat him.
How to beat Guangzhi in Black Myth: Wukong
The key to beating any boss in Black Myth: Wukong is to understand their moveset. If you are not surprised by the things they do, you can easily control the fight. It is worth highlighting here one of the largest differences between early Black Myth: Wukong gameplay and other similar games. If you over-commit, you are dead. Definitely don’t spam the dodge button, and don’t spam heavy attacks. If you get caught up in those animations, you are gonna lose a lot of health.
Another thing to keep in mind about Guangzhi is that he will build up fire procs on you as he lands shots, and if he lands enough, it will cause a lot of fire damage.
- Guangzhi will open the fight by charging you, then doing a jumping spin attack that he will follow up with another jumping spinning attack but from the opposite direction. You can actually jump over these to disrupt them, as it seems to be designed to punish you off a dodge roll.
- Spear Throw – Guangzhi will regularly try to generate space between the two of you, and he does this to set up a spear throw. The spear flies out, spinning, and then returns to him. This can be easily dodged.
- Spinning Tornado attack – if Guangzhi does a summersault to the left, then he is just about to come spinning across the screen at you while twirling his flaming spear around. He fakes coming out of this, then hits a single swing of his spear roughly a second later, so wait for that, then punish him as he gets his bearings.
- Double Spin, Double Swipe – if you stay close to Guangzhi for too long, he will almost always default to a double spin, then quickly follow it up with a double swipe. A single backward dodge is enough to clear it all, as long as you stay walking backward after the initial dodge.
- Pole Vault – Guangzhi will stick his spear in the ground and talk a flag position, spinning through the air to try and impale you. He will do this a total of three times and will try to swipe when he dismounts. You can interrupt him here with an attack, then follow up with your freeze to really punish him as we will not be coming out of it straight into another attack.
- Backing Up Spear Throw – if you put a lot of pressure on him, the AI seems to like falling back with a double swipe and then concealing a throw. The spear spins less than the first throw attack we detailed, and it moves much faster, doing damage on the way out and the way back. The spear will not track, so dodge to the left or right, and you’ll be clear.
- Flaming Charge – If you see him suddenly pause with his spear held behind him, pointing straight up, then he is just about to charge forward. This is almost like a dash attack and is very quick. The first part does the least damage, so you can let that hit you and then save the dodge for the follow-up, which hits harder.
At this point, it is worth pointing out that Guangzhi does have a second moveset that comes into play when he hits half-health. This is not telegraphed in any way, but he will just start rolling out some very aggressive aerial moves.
- Aerial Spin – If he suddenly launches himself up in the air, then it’s an aerial spin coming. He will air-dash low to the ground, spinning through you. It’s an easy dodge and will end with a flourish that eats up some time. Do a backward dodge to avoid it and end up close to him, then punish him with some heavy attacks.
- Two Swipes and a Sudden Dash – this attack is actually a problem because it staggers. The two swipes are designed to eat your dodge rolls, then the dash is the punish, and it is lightning fast. You can really just eat it, either, as it staggers, and the follow-up is usually brutal. I’d suggest you save your Immobilize for this, then punish with heavy attacks.
The best overall advice for this fight is to always let the boss have the space it wants and then give it a little more. The whole point of it backing up is normally to sucker you into a spin, dash, or throw that will eat your health up. If you just back off and act patient, you can give yourself more time to dodge the incoming attack and then punish because you will be close to where they stop moving.
