There is a lot to do in Where winds meet. Sure, you can continue with the main story, which is genuinely heartfelt at times, or you can play the Doctor in online mode. Or fishing. Or play card games. Or go and fight in the arena. Steal from random citizens. Debate people.
The point is, there's a lot you can do. Although one particular activity you can participate in is wrestling. Like many other activities, it can improve your attributes, although it also has a bit more mechanical depth than some of the other minigames, so it can take some time to wrap your head around it.
What is wrestling?
First and foremost, the wrestling minigame doesn't exist in Qinghe at allso you must have advanced the main story far enough to have unlocked Kaifeng, as that is exclusively where wrestling occurs at the moment.
The first real instance of wrestling can be found in Kaifeng Citywhere thankfully you'll be able to get a practice match whenever you want to introduce or reacquaint yourself with the mechanics.
Like other minigames, wrestling gives you plenty of rewards upon victory, although the majority are only achieved on your first victory. These include Jade coin, five dynasty coin (your typical spending money), Trade Coins, Experience, Exploration Pointsand Constitution attribute score.
Where Winds Meet: Complete Guide to Oddities
Well isn't that unusual?
Mechanics of Wrestling
Many of the mini-games in Where Winds Meet tend to be simple and just take time to master, like the different instruments you can play or the Pitch Pot. Wrestling, however, is more of a game of anticipation. if anything, it is most comparable to a slightly more complex Rock-Paper-Sax.
The goal of wrestling overall is to drain your opponent's fighting spirit completelywhich is done by using techniques, or moves, against them. Actions are predetermined before they are performed, so neither you nor your opponent know what you are doing until it is taken.
Let's take a closer look at each mechanic below.
Builds momentum
This is the core of how you use moves in wrestling. When you choose to build momentum, your turn is used to gain a Momentum point. Momentum is used exclusively to perform damaging techniques.
While you choose to build momentum, you are vulnerable to all forms of attack. As such, if your opponent chooses to attack you, you will take the full damage of the attack no matter what. That said, even if you get attacked you will still gain speed.
You also only lose Momentum when you use it yourself. Your opponent has no way to take away your Momentum points.
Block attacks
When you are attacked, you will of course want to block the attack, but since you cannot know when your opponent will attack, you can only guess when to block.
NPCs generally tend to be quite zealous in their crimeand will attack when they even have a single momentum. As such, it's always a safe card to block after they build momentum. Successfully blocking an attack will negate the damage completely and cause your opponent to use up the momentum they used on the attack.
There are also two types of blocks:
- Block – This is used to defend against all forms of attack except Vajra Toss.
- Vajra Block – This can only block against Vajra Toss, and all other attacks will bypass it.
NPCs tend to unleash their strongest attacks when available, so if they have three Momentum points, you should probably use Vajra Block to counter Vajra Toss. In all other circumstances, however, you should ensure that the regular block.
Execution techniques
If you want to drain your opponents Fighting Spirit, you will need to perform techniques on them. Yoyour opponent will never lose Fighting Spirit without being directly hitso you can't stay through a match, as there are only 20 rounds for you to finish in.
There are four techniques you can perform. One of them requires no Momentum, while the next three each require more and more Momentum. Here are all:
- Thrust Attack – Deals light damage but does not require momentum.
- Insertion technique – Deals decent damage, requires a Momentum point.
- Pushing Attack – Deals significant damage, requires two Momentum points.
- Vajra Toss – Will instantly drain all Fighting Spirit when it lands, requires three Momentum points.
As you can see, getting three Momentum points to unleash a Vajra Toss should be the ultimate end goal. ending the match immediatelyalthough all opponents will also be on the lookout for this move as soon as you have at least three Momentum points. This is where wrestling's mind games come into play.
Action priority
Then you and your opponent both choose your actions at the same timeyou cannot plan your actions. And this also means that there must be a priority of actions to determine who wins in a given round.
Generally, more powerful moves are prioritized over weaker ones. If you perform a push attack and your opponent does a charge technique, your move will take priority. This means that your opponent's attack is canceled and only yours deals damage.
When you choose to build momentum, all attacks will have priorityalthough you will still gain momentum. If you block against Build Momentum, nothing happens.
Block takes priority over all attacking moves except Vajra Tosswhile the opposite is true for the Vajra Block. This takes priority over Vajra Toss, but loses to all other actions.
How to win in wrestling
In general, winning in wrestling is something you can do fairly consistently, regardless of the difficulty of your opponent, and it depends on the predictability of NPC behaviors.
NPCs are very reactionary, and will usually use their next turn to counter what you did in a previous turn. So if you build momentum, they will usually block in anticipation of an attack. This makes it a good choice to build momentum again.
Consequently, if your opponent builds momentum, they are almost guaranteed to immediately follow up with an attackso you should almost always Block. After this, they will likely try Build Momentum again or perform a Thrust, giving you the opportunity to claim a technique that costs Momentum to overpower them.
If you manage to build up three Momentum points, NPCs will almost always assume you will perform Vajra Toss and will in turn use Vajra Block. Because of this, it's usually a very good idea to use Pushing Attack when you have three Momentum Points to catch them.
As said, Wrestling can also be played online against other real players. All of these tactics don't apply so strictly in these circumstances because humans are quite a bit more unpredictable than a computer. You just have to play mind games and be a little more tactical in your actions under those circumstances.
Where Winds Meet: Zheng E Boss Guide
Zheng E is probably one of the best designed bosses you'll fight in Where Winds Meet, and he also gives you quite a challenge.
