Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty Beginner’s Guide – Tips & Tricks to Help Fight Demons

by Mike Alexander / Game Guides, Tips & Tricks / 08 Mar 2023

It’s been a few days since Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty arrived to claim your souls along with your free time. So, how’s it going? Pretty rough, huh? Many people are saying this is the easiest version of a Soulslike yet, but those are the same people who breezed through Sekiro.

For normal people like you and me, Wo Long is TOUGH. Even with all of the concessions it makes for less experienced players, it’s still grinding us into the dirt and saying mean things about our moms. Which is fine, I guess. That’s what a Soulslike is supposed to do until you “get it”.

But what if you don’t get it after hours of playing the game? What if you bash your head on the same boss over and over again with seemingly no progress made? Well, there’s only so much I can do to help you, but I’ll damn well do my best with this Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty Beginner’s Guide. So wipe your tears, it’s going to be ok, we’re going to get through this together. Just pick up your sword and what’s left of your dignity, and let’s get started.

Don’t Worry About Getting Lost

If you’re anything like me, you probably spent the opening minutes of Wo Long paralyzed with fear that you would go down a path and miss some kind of special equipment hidden down a different one that would make the game easier. That’s never going to happen.

Wo Long’s many stages are designed to look expansive, but are basically straight lines to the boss at the end of it. There is the occasional side path that will look promising, but it will usually loop back onto the main path to act like a kind of shortcut. Odds are you won’t miss anything regardless of how you proceed, so you can focus more on surviving and less on missing something helpful.

Hunt Down Those Marker Flags

The Battle Flags in Wo Long act as your bonfire, where you can rest, refill on healing charges, and learn/equip new skills. MARKER Flags, on the other hand, look similar but serve a much different, arguably even more useful purpose.

You’ve probably read (or glanced over) the game’s explanation of Morale, which is the number that determines how strong you and your enemies are. As you kill enemies your Morale goes up, but when you die it goes down and whoever or whatever killed you gets a good boost. If you manage to find all of the Marker Flags in an area, your Morale won’t be able to drop below 20, which is usually enough to take on the boss at the end of the stage.

Yes, no matter how much you die, it’s really great.

So make sure you’re taking the time to find as many Marker Flags as you can if you’re having trouble getting through a stage.

Run Side Missions for Upgrade Materials

Whenever you rest at a Battle Flag, you’ll see an option to Travel. When presented with the map, you’ll also notice some Sub Battlefields that you can visit. These areas act as side missions, and running through them will earn you pretty good rewards, such as crucial upgrade materials and new equipment.

The Sub Battlefields are always much smaller than standard ones as well, so you won’t waste too much time going through them. And honestly, who doesn’t want their weapon of choice to have the biggest numbers possible?

Deflecting Your Fears

Alright, here it is. You knew we had to talk about it, it’s basically the core mechanic of the entire game.

Most Souls games have a parry system, but Wo Long has the deflection system. Instead of blocking & retaliating. Deflecting successfully will have the player character smoothly slip by an attack, which will open up the opponent for a heap of damage while simultaneously taking a chunk out of their spirit gauge.

There’s no getting around it. If you want to make progress in Wo Long, you’re going to need to learn enemy patterns and master this deflection system. For smaller enemies, it’s not so bad, but you’re going to be facing the same boss for a while unless you get really good with your timing (which I would also suggest).

Keep An Eye on Your Weight

There are no limits to equipment based on weight or class, but don’t go throwing on all the heaviest armor you have willy-nilly. The overall weight of your character is actually incredibly important. It not only affects your speed but also the rate at which your spirit gauge drains which is something you want to manage as much as possible..

There’s a whole convoluted process to checking your weight for gear and equipment, but it’ll be easier if you remain conscious of what you equip to your character. Try to stay as light as possible while also protecting yourself, because a nimble fighter is one that stays alive. Oh, and the more Spirit gauge you have access to, the more awesome spells and martial arts you can use, which are handy when you need to level the playing field a little bit.

Mike Alexander

Mike has been playing video games since he was able to hold a controller, having been fascinated by Sonic 2 on his mom’s Sega Genesis. That fascination and passion for the art form has grown exponentially nearly 30 years later, and he doesn’t see that fading away anytime soon.
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