The Spirit mechanic in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is at the heart of your combat experience in the game. It’s important that you understand how this works early on and make the most of it, especially during tough boss fights. We’ll take you through everything you need to know about it on this page.

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How Spirit Works in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty.

What Is Spirit in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty?¶

Positive and Negative Spirit¶

The easiest way to understand Spirit in Wo Long is to think of it as a combination of a stamina and power bar. You can see your Spirit bar just beneath your health bar, and you can see the same thing for most enemies that you encounter. The Spirit bar is divided into two sections: positive (right) and negative (left). You will see your Spirit increasing as the positive section begins to be filled by a blue bar, from left to right. You’ll see it decreasing as the negative section is filled with an orange bar, from right to left.

There are multiple ways that you can increase your total Spirit during a fight. The simplest way is to perform normal attacks by pressing , since each one will slightly contribute to the positive section of the Spirit bar. It can take a while to fill the bar in this way, but so long as you keep attacking you’ll be able to fill the bar reasonably quickly. Alternatively, a more efficient way to fill the Spirit bar is to focus on deflecting enemy attacks by pressing . Just one successful deflection can give you a good chunk of positive Spirit, but you’ll need to make sure that you time it correctly by executing the deflection at the very last moment, before an enemy attack hits you.

The only other way to avoid damage (outside of the Guard stance, more on that below!) other than deflecting attacks is to dodge by double tapping . However, you can’t spam dodge without consideration, since each time you perform a dodge you’ll consume a significant amount of Spirit. In this way you can easily lock yourself into a state of Spirit Disruption, which we’ll explain more about below.

Yin and Yang Spirit¶

The Spirit mechanic essentially follows the main principle of the Yin and Yang concept in Chinese mythology. Your character has a Spirit bar which is capable of being in a positive (Yang) or negative (Yin) state, and so does your enemy. The more you gain the upper hand in a fight by inflicting damage to an enemy or successfully deflecting their attacks, the more Spirit you will gain. At the same time, with each successful attack that you inflict, the enemy will sustain damage to their Spirit bar, making it negative. Once the Spirit bar of your enemy is entirely negative (aka fully depleted), they will be stunned for a brief moment, making them vulnerable to a Fatal Strike. At the same time, you will have gained enough Spirit by this point to empower your attacks, making the FT inflict more damage than it normally would as it consumes some of your positive Spirit.

Spirit Disruption¶

The state of being stunned once the Spirit bar is entirely depleted is known as Spirit Disruption. This can also happen to your character, so it’s important to avoid taking damage while playing more cautiously if you’re close to Spirit Disruption. In the same way that you can execute a Fatal Strike against an enemy once you’ve depleted their Spirit, you can succumb to Critical Blows from enemies if you’re locked in Spirit Disruption. Keep in mind that Spirit Disruption only occurs for a brief period, and if you don’t take advantage of this state by executing a Fatal Strike before it expires, the enemy will recover a small amount of their Spirit and you’ll have to reduce it again using attacks or deflections.

Martial Arts and Wizardry Spells¶

In terms of how you can make use of your positive Spirit, some of the best ways are utilizing Martial Arts and Wizardry Spells. You can gain more of these as you play through the game and level up, and to use them you’ll need to press and hold or , then select the button which a specific martial arts move or spell is assigned to. However, the relevant point here is that you will need to have gained enough Spirit to execute a martial arts move or spell, since each one consumes an amount of positive Spirit.

You’ll need to learn how to balance making use of melee attacks such as Spirit Attacks (which also consume positive Spirit) with martial arts moves and spells. There will be different use case scenarios depending on the type of enemy that you’re fighting, and immediately spamming a Spirit Attack may not always be the best option. Read your chosen arts and spells carefully and take the time to become familiar with them. You should aim to reach a point where you can make a split decision about the best way to spend your positive Spirit based on the combat options available to you.

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(1 of 3) You’ll see the enemy’s Spirit Bar flashing red when they’re in Spirit Disruption.

Guard Stance and Spirit¶

The final thing to note about the use of Spirit is that it’s required to use Guard. You can hold to assume the Guard stance for as long as you want, but each time you’re hit by an enemy attack while your Guard stance is active, you’ll sustain a significant amount of Spirit damage. It’s also important to note that Guard does not protect you from Critical Blow attacks from enemies. In general, you should use this stance only in emergencies, such as when you’re ambushed by multiple enemies who are about to hit you with regular attacks in quick succession.

If you want to learn more about the basic mechanics in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, be sure to check our page on the best tips for beginners.