How to Beat Wo Long’s Tough First Boss, Zhang Liang
This guy doesn’t suffer fools gladly.
Generally speaking, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty gives you plenty of ways to tackle its brutal fights. Though, you wouldn’t know that based on the very first boss battle against Zhang Liang, General of Man. This encounter is wildly frustrating, since you have to master one technique to overcome the battle, which the game doesn’t specify clearly. This battle is wildly different from the rest of the game, as you cannot deviate from a a specific strategy in order to get past it. In this guide, we’ll show you how to prepare for the Zhang Liang boss and how to finish it.
How to Prepare for Zhang Liang
There are several things you should be aware of before beginning the fight.
Zhang Liang has two devastating phases that might cause frustration.
Maximize Morale
Wo Long’s Morale mechanic is a leveling system that can give you a damage and defense boost against enemies. This works if your Morale is higher than the foe you’re fighting, and you can see their Morale level above their health bar. To increase your Morale, defeat enemies and claim Battle Flags within a stage. We recommend coming to the fight against Zhang with 25 Morale to give you a large damage/defense boost.
Have Low Equip Load
The strategy for this fight is reliant on your Spirit Meter, so you’ll want to come prepared with a low equip load, so as to not drain your Spirit gauge as much when using heavy attacks. To check your equip load, open up the equipment menu and you’ll see how much weight you can carry in the bottom right. Make sure this stat is green, indicating you’ll be able to move as quickly as possible without depleting your Spirit Meter as much. This is crucial to defeating Zhang.
Level Up as Much as Possible
Just before the Zhang Liang battle are a couple of XP grinding points. There’s one at the previous rest point close to a fiery area that allows you to stealthily take down four enemies in around 30 seconds. Just before that is a deadly tiger that’s worth 500 XP, which is decent at the start of the game. Either way, level up as much as you’re willing, to make the fight against Zhang go more smoothly.
Come With the Right Gear
While it’s tempting to wear the heaviest armor, and come equipped with the biggest, most powerful hammer available, we actually don’t recommend it. Instead, we advise utilizing a fast sword that has around 100 power (the higher, the better). Likewise, we recommend wearing the best armor you can while keeping your equip load in the green. You can also use the Enhanced Defense Wizardry Spell that gives you a temporary defense boost. Finally, don’t forget to utilize different Accessories such as the Hairpin to grant extra stat boosts.
Phase One
To get through this phase, focus on quick attacks, and deflect Zhang’s critical blows to fill his Spirit Meter.
The first phase is technically easier than the second, but if you can master one, you can get through the other.
The main goal of this phase is to rush in and utilize light attacks as much as possible. Doing so will not only keep Zhang stun-locked (most of the time), but it will also push your Spirit Meter to the right, turning it blue. After it turns blue, using a heavy attack will actually deal more damage (and is indicated by a yellowish glow). So, you should only use light attacks until the meter turns blue, to maximize your damage output. Using a heavy blow before the Spirit Meter turns blue will actually consume more Spirit energy (to the left and into the orange).
While you dish out light and heavy strikes Zhang will move around the arena and charge at you from afar. The main thing you want to look out for is the critical deflect, indicated by a red glow. When he rushes at you with a critical attack, press the dodge button while moving the analog stick in any direction to deflect it. The timing is absolutely awful, but if you practice on enemies before the boss fight, you’ll eventually get it down. The key is to deflect right before his critical attack touches you — as opposed to shortly after the animation begins.
Look out for the red glow, indicating a critical blow is incoming.
If done correctly, you’ll counter the attack, causing the enemy’s Spirit gauge to turn grey, reducing his overall total Spirit meter. You can actually deflect normal attacks to do this, as well, but they don’t impact the enemy’s Spirit meter as much as deflecting a critical blow does. Deal damage and the orange part of the enemy’s Spirit Meter will fill up.
Once Zhang’s Spirit Meter fills up completely, he will temporarily be stunned, allowing you to deal a critical blow of your own. Rush in, and use a heavy attack to deal critical damage, which will take off a significant amount of his health. This is key to dealing heavy amounts of damage, as your weapons at this stage won’t hurt the boss much when using light or heavy attacks.
In short, rush in, do not stop using light attacks, and then when your Spirit Meter fills up to the right (turning blue), use a heavy attack. After you use a heavy attack, go back to using light attacks. Look out for the enemy’s critical strikes, deflect them, and dish out a critical attack of your own, which will slowly chip away at his health.
Repeat this process a couple of times, and eventually, his health will go down to zero. Make sure you only use one healing item at most during phase one, to preserve them for the second phase.
Phase Two
Khang’s second phase is slightly harder than the first, but the strategy for defeating him is the same.
While the strategy for the second phase is largely the same as the first, Zhang actually is far more dangerous this time around. The main reason is that he can now attack you from afar, either with his spiky stretchy arm, or he can spawn a series of rock formations, and hurl them toward you.
Ultimately, you’ll want to continue using quick attacks on him just like before, while deflecting his new long-range attacks. He’ll then put some distance between the two of you and attempt a critical blow, and you absolutely have to deflect it. After you do, use your own critical attack, and then after he attempts to stand up, pummel away using a Martial Art ability (used by holding the right bumper and then pressing one of the controller’s face buttons). This will deal lots of quick damage, and is tougher for your opponent to dodge.
Once Zhang’s health reaches the halfway point, you’ll be instructed to use a Divine Beast attack, which is done by pressing Square and X simultaneously on PlayStation or X and A on Xbox. This will end the fight, serving as the game’s most ridiculously challenging battle.
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