Best Black Myth: Wukong skills to unlock first for early game builds

Even though you’re stuck with one weapon for the entirety of Black Myth: Wukong, you can still spice up combat by unlocking skills and abilities that fit your playstyle. Some boss fights in this game are incredibly tough, but certain skills make things a whole lot easier.

When you factor in that you can respec and reset your abilities as often as you like in Black Myth: Wukong, you’ll become very familiar with the skill tree and all of the upgrades the game has to offer as you fine-tune your build and tweak your playstyle. Not all skills are created equal, though, so this guide will walk you through the best skills to unlock first in Black Myth: Wukong.

Best early game skills in Black Myth: Wukong

The first three skills that you should unlock in Black Myth: Wukong are Simian Agility, Deft Evasion, and Composure in the Stamina section of the Foundation page. Simian Agility makes dodging cost less stamina and Deft Evasion makes each dodge more agile, but the really important one is Composure, which lets you continue your light attack combo after performing a dodge. Since light attack combo finishers do a ton of damage, this ability will help you take down bosses faster.

Best Staff Stance upgrades in Black Myth: Wukong

After obtaining those, head to the Staff Stances page. You can upgrade whatever you like here, but the important thing to note is that spending skill points on this page will increase the number of Focus Points that you have access to during fights. Getting at least three skill points on this page will increase your total number of Focus Points to two, and putting 10 skill points on this page will get you a third one.

We recommend unlocking Force Unbound, which allows you to charge attacks while sprinting, as well as Resolute Counterflow, which lets you essentially perform a powerful parry by executing a heavy attack at the right time during a light attack combo. This will let you remain aggressive during battles and stagger bosses more easily.

It’s also a good idea to dump skill points into Exhilaration and Instinct. The former increases the amount of HP recovered by performing a heavy attack and consuming a Focus Point, while the latter reduces the stamina cost of charged heavy attacks. You can upgrade these skills multiple times to increase their effectiveness, so they’re a great place to put skill points if you don’t need any new abilities.

Should you unlock Pillar Stance?

Unlocking Pillar Stance is also a good idea, but only after you’ve upgraded Smash Stance enough. You don’t need to switch stances as often as you’d think in Black Myth: Wukong, and you can get by with just Smash Stance for the majority of the game.

If you do decide to obtain Pillar Stance, then get Sweeping Gale as your first skill for it. This is a great AOE ability that will help you make some space if you’re getting swarmed by enemies. It’s not so great for bosses, though. Steel Pillar is another good option if you’re going to use Pillar Stance a lot since it will reduce the stamina cost of perching on your staff.

Best Transformation skill upgrades

We also highly recommend upgrading your Transformations, as these can deal a ton of damage during combat. They always seem to expire just as you’re getting into the flow of things, though, so upgrading their Might via Evergreen and Hidden Might is a solid choice.

The only problem with investing in the Transformation skill tree early in Black Myth: Wukong is that each skill needs multiple skill points in order for their effects to become noticeable, so make sure that you’ve unlocked some other core abilities first before you dump all your skill points into these upgrades. They do help, though, so don’t neglect them.

Best Mysticism skill upgrades

Upgrading Immobilize, the first spell that you get access to in Black Myth: Wukong, is another way to get stronger faster. We recommend unlocking Crash, which increases the damage dealt to frozen enemies. After that, you should unlock Evanescence, which adds a perfect parry window to Immobilize and greatly increases the spell’s effectiveness if you freeze an enemy right as they attack.

If you really like Immobilize, then unlock Spirit Shards after that. This will recover some of your Mana after the spell ends, which is a huge help. Once you’ve upgraded your maximum Mana enough, investing in Stagnation is a good idea. This will make subsequent Immobilize casts last longer if you hit a frozen enemy enough. It’s hard to take advantage of it with a small Mana bar, but it’s a huge help if you have enough Mana.

Best Foundation skill upgrades

In addition to upgrading your abilities, don’t forget to dump points into the Survival section of the Foundation page. Robust Constitution and Rampant Vigor increase your maximum health and stamina respectively, and we recommend adding a few points into Wrathful Escalation to boost your critical hit chance as well. These small upgrades go a long way, and if you dump multiple skill points into each of them, you’ll really feel the buffs during boss battles.

How to respec in Black Myth: Wukong

You can respec your skills at any time in Black Myth: Wukong if you’re unhappy with your current build. Just head to any Keeper’s Shrine and select Self-Advance. Then, select Reignite the Sparks.

This will bring you to the respec menu where you can manually reclaim skill points one by one or reclaim every Spark at once to completely redo your build from scratch. There is no cost to respec, and you can do this as often as you like. If you find that one skill is especially helpful against a certain boss, there’s nothing stopping you from visiting a Shrine to respec and upgrade it specifically for that one fight.

Don’t be afraid to respec in Black Myth: Wukong. You’ll obtain new abilities throughout the game and you only have so many available spell slots, so there’s no shame in visiting a Shrine to remove all upgrades from one spell and applying those skill points to another one. Just like there’s no shame in getting the best settings for the game squared away.