Black Myth: Wukong — How to beat the Lingxuzi boss

Black Myth: Wukong.

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The start of your journey to the west in Black Myth: Wukong is fairly relaxed overall, with many simple, easy-to-defeat enemies and generous checkpoints to help you get acquainted with the ARPG's core combat mechanics. Eventually, though, you'll come across a temple in the Black Wind Mountain that's home to your first true challenge: Lingxuzi, a vicious wolf demon eager to tear you apart and feast on your remains.

Lingxuzi has far more health than any yaoguai you've faced thus far, and deals significantly more damage as well. However, once you learn its moveset and understand how to take advantage of its counter-attack openings, you'll defeat it in no time at all. To help you do just that, I've written up a boss guide below that goes over the fight in detail.

Boss guide: How to beat Lingxuzi

Many of Lingxuzi's attacks are delayed, designed to catch players that dodge as soon as they see a boss doing something. Make sure you're patient with your evasions. (Image credit: Windows Central)

Here's everything you need to know about the battle with Lingxuzi, including how to dodge its moves and when the best times to maximize your offense are.

• Many of Lingxuzi's attack animations have a delay before they land, so try not to dodge too early. You'll often be caught by the hit as you're coming out of your evasions if you do, so be patient with your timing.
• Lingxuzi gives you generous windows to counter-attack between its own moves, so make sure you play aggressively. Dodges override any basic combos you're doing, so you can still use them even if it starts attacking while you're in the middle of one.
• Throughout the fight, Lingxuzi will occasionally stop to lick its right paw; this is a fantastic opportunity to get in tons of attacks. You'll be surprised at how fast the fight goes if you effectively take advantage of these telegraphed openings.
  • This is a great time to charge up a Focus-powered heavy attack, especially if you have some Focus built up already from recent melee hits and perfect dodges.
• Lingxuzi is likely to begin the fight with an attack immediately, so watch out for that. Be ready to dodge this, or else you'll start the battle wounded and will have to use one of your gourd heals right away.
• A common attack Lingxuzi does sees it leap at you and slash with one claw before following up with the second one after they land. I recommend dodging towards the direction these swipes are coming from to reduce the number of invincibility frames (iframes) you need.
  • A similar move involves Lingxuzi spreading both claws out as it jumps and trying to land on and crush you. This attack is less dangerous and easy to dodge, but it does have a delay.
  • There's another variation in which it slashes at you with both claws instead. Avoiding it works the same way, though.
• If Lingxuzi backs up and raises its left claw, it's about to do a large sweep attack. When it comes, dodge through it for maximum iframe coverage.
• If you see or hear Lingxuzi breathing in (look and listen for wind effects), it's about to perform a damaging area-of-effect roar. Simply sprint away from the boss when this happens, as the range of the attack is quite short.

Whenever Lingxuzi starts licking its right paw like this, start getting aggressive immediately. (Image credit: Windows Central)

• One of Lingxuzi's trickier attacks is a bite in which it rushes forward, then stretches its head towards you to chomp you. Dodge to the left or right to avoid this effectively.
  • This is one of the best attacks to use your Immobilize spell to interrupt because of how quick it comes out. By doing this and then landing several melee attacks, you'll stagger Lingxuzi out of the move.
• Another noteworthy move is one where Lingxuzi, from medium range, bares its fangs before sliding across the ground and attempting to throw you into the air with its right claw. If this lands, it will then leap up after you and smash you back into the ground, dealing heavy damage. Watch its mouth for the telegraph whenever you're not right up close to it, and be ready to dodge right after you see it.
• A third sees Lingxuzi drag its right claw through the ground for a full second before slashing up at you. This is the most delayed move in Lingxuzi's repertoire, and is best avoided by dodging laterally multiple times since the dragging animation can also hit and stagger you.
• Finally, Lingxuzi will occasionally leap onto the roofs of the temple you're fighting in, eyeing you up for a second or two before leaping to land on you, then follow up with a slam with its paws. The initial jump at you isn't delayed once Lingxuzi commits to the move and needs to be dodged immediately, but the follow-up slam is. Keep that in mind when avoiding this attack.

And that's it! As long as you're patient with your dodging and stay on offense as much as you can, you'll take down Lingxuzi in no time. It's a tough boss at first, but once you learn how the fight works, you shouldn't have much trouble. Steel yourself, though, because your struggles in Black Myth: Wukong's first chapter are far from over.

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Black Myth: Wukong is one of 2024's biggest games, and arguably one of the best PC games to play if you're an ARPG fan looking for something new (for my full thoughts on it, check out my review). It's available on Windows PC and PS5 (an Xbox Series X|S version is coming, too) for $59.99, though right now it's actually on sale for just $54.39 at CDKeys.