In Black Myth: Wukong, the Monkey King has many cool skills and abilities, each of which will help in battle. At first glance, the player might get overwhelmed by the possibilities, but it's not worth unlocking everything thoughtlessly. In this guide, we will tell you about the best and most useful skills that you definitely need to level up first.
Ability points in Wukong are called «sparks.» They can be spent on purchasing and upgrading abilities among several trees. An important point is that skills can be purchased at any time, not just at rest places — Guardian Shrines. However, what you can do at the local «bonfires» is to completely redistribute already invested sparks for free to rebuild your build. This way, the game encourages experimentation and allows you to find the optimal build for the monkey.
All skills are divided into abilities and spells. The former are responsible for basic physical capabilities and staff stances. The latter give access to magic, respectively.
At the beginning of the game, most of the skill tree is locked. The «Basic», «Staff Combat Stances», and «Mysticism» will be open. The «Basic» section is divided into «Endurance», «Martial Arts», and «Survival». In these skill groups, you will find abilities that reduce stamina consumption, increase health, and improve your standard attacks.
«Staff Combat Stances» include the «Strike Stance», «Pillar Stance», and «Lunge Stance», although the latter will only unlock after level 20. The Strike Stance is your starting stance, and the Pillar Stance can be unlocked by awakening the first node in the corresponding skill tree.
To the left of the stances, there are several uncategorized skills. They will increase the number of focus points.
Some abilities will be automatically unlocked when you invest more points in the category. They will give additional focus points, a total of four.
When you reach level 20 and above, you will start unlocking even more skill groups. By the end of the second chapter, you will be able to unlock all tabs (provided you thoroughly explored the world and defeated optional bosses). It's important to understand that unlocking tabs does not mean learned abilities.
Gaining access to «Alteration» will allow you to improve the decoy's health, movement speed, and unlock the ability to reflect attacks with parrying.
The «Transformation» menu applies to any transformation spells you collect, and you will find skills to improve stamina recovery, maximum health during transformation, enhance defense, and much more.
In the «Weave» section, you will find one of the most effective spells — «Courage of Many». Thanks to it, the hero creates his copies that also attack enemies and use available skills. In this section, you will also be able to increase the clones' health, attack power, and more.
At the beginning of the game, this category of skills will be especially useful. First, get bonuses to health and stamina, as well as reduce stamina consumption and increase dodge distance.
Pay special attention to skills that help perform combo attacks without interruptions and accumulate focus faster.
The main goal of stance leveling is to improve your combat skills. When you spend 20 points, you can unlock the 4th level of focus and have 4 points accordingly. In our opinion, the strike stance is the most effective, although the other two should not be ignored. At the very least, they need to be unlocked.
The pillar stance is relatively useless except for its heavy move. The hero jumps onto the staff, making him invulnerable to most melee attacks. After a few seconds, the Monkey King attacks with a sweeping blow. The staff is longer the more focus points you have.
However, the lunge stance is much more useful. Its ability allows you to strike precisely with the staff at a distance beyond the range of most enemies. This way, you can relatively safely interrupt their combos.
Here, all abilities will improve your spells. It is not necessary to do this from the start, but make sure to improve the immobilizing spell and the fire ring over time.
This skill group consists of two spells that can be improved — «Cloud Step» and «Solid Stone.»
This entire branch is related to clone casting. First, spend sparks on improving their strength and survivability, and only then can you upgrade their utility.
The different forms of the Monkey King can greatly change the course of battle. The main goal in this branch is to make the transformation last as long as possible and deal as much damage as possible.