Black Myth: Wukong build guide – the best skills to Self Advance

The best skills to spend your Sparks on in Black Myth: Wukong

Game Science

Black Myth: Wukong doesn’t let you specialize in a class like Dark Souls – there’s no ranger, warrior, or mage here – but you can focus on bringing up certain stats and abilities first to get an advantage and make bosses easier. 

Black Myth: Wukong's best skills

After over 60 hours playing Black Myth: Wukong and re-speccing dozens of times, here’s my list of the best skills to unlock. You can also check our Black Myth: Wukong tips for more. 

Mysticism – focus on Immobilize

One of the first spells you should focus on is Immobilize, which never loses its effectiveness. Every boss can be frozen in place with Immobilize, allowing you to get in some free hits and heal up without the risk of taking another hit. 

The upgrades on this allow you to deal more damage and freeze enemies in place for longer. 

Crash is one of the first skills you can unlock for Immobilize, and it allows you to deal more damage when you crash them out of the freeze – you do this by dealing damage in a short space of time, so spam those light attacks and crash them out for a big finish. 

Staff Stances – focus on Smash Stance

It might be the first stance you unlock in the game, but Smash Stance was still my go-to when the credits rolled. 

One early unlock worth getting is Force Unbound, which allows you to hold heavy attacks and charge up while moving. This is especially useful for landing those heavy attacks without exposing yourself – it’s worth getting unlocked to deal with the Wandering Wight, which is particularly susceptible to stagger. 

Once you’ve maxed Smash Stance out, you’ll unlock four pips of Focus – the Focused Attack skills are unlocked automatically by spending up to 20 points in Staff Stances – granting you a massive downward slam when you trigger a heavy attack with four pips charged. I’ve seen this attack take off half the health from bosses in one swing – just make sure you land it. 

Additionally, skills such as Exhilaration allow you to earn back health when you expend a focus point by pulling off a charged heavy attack. 

Resolute Counterflow is another handy skill, allowing you to continue combos through enemy attacks without being staggered. While this means you must be more aware of your health situation, you won’t miss that big slam at the end of a light combo, which usually staggers opponents. 

Foundations – focus on health, attack, and critical hits

It goes without saying but survivability is important in Black Myth: Wukong. It’s beneficial to expend the majority of your Spark points in the Survival tab, granting you more health with Robust Constitution, stamina with Rampant Vigor, mana, stronger critical attacks with Wrathful Might, more chance of landing a critical attack with Wrathful Escalation, and stronger attacks with Surging Momentum. 

It’s also worth investing some points into the Stamina tree, with Simian Agility being an early favorite. This skill reduces the stamina cost of dodging, and you’ll be dodging a lot. While running out of stamina isn’t the catastrophe it is in something like Dark Souls, it allows you to hit harder and remain agile since you lose the ability to perfect dodge when stamina is depleted. 

Stamina – work towards Composure

Composure is an essential skill in Black Myth: Wukong. During harder boss fights, you’ll often have to dodge away in the middle of a combo. Composure remembers where you were and lets you continue the same combo after any kind of dodge, including a perfect dodge. That means you can duck and weave while spamming those light attacks and always finish with a big pound for the stagger. 

Ignore Mobile Spin

While Mobile Spin might seem useful since it allows you to block projectiles on the move, it becomes obsolete once you unlock the magical ability Cloud Step. During Cloud Step you can move in on enemies without them being aware, allowing you to quickly close distance with archers. 

Max out A Pluck of Many

A Pluck of Many is unlocked some way into the game but it’s one of the best spells you can use. It costs a lot of mana but it creates multiple copies of you who attack your enemy together. If you join the fray, you can deal massive damage and destroy even the strongest enemies in a few seconds – especially when paired with a maxed-out Immobilize and Smash Stance. 

Completing the A Pluck of Many skill tree allows you to create more copies, make them more robust with Longstrand and Synergy, and make them deal more damage with Tyranny of Numbers. 

Meanwhile, Harmony allows your copies to charge up your focus, allowing you to dish out more big heavy attacks. The final skill in the tree, Volition, allows your copies to use spells like Immobilize on their own, which offsets the heavy mana cost of using A Pluck of Many in the first place. You can also find a special gourd later on that heals your copies when you drink it. Those Loongs don’t stand a chance.