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Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty features a level-up system, unlike anything we saw in Team Ninja's previous Nioh games. In Wo Long, there are only five main stats to increase as you spend your Genuine Qi. If you want to know about the best build and Virtue, we've got you covered.
Genuine Qi is your currency for levels in Wo Long, and you have the option to spend them on five Virtues. These are Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. Each Virtue controls a specific stat and the idea is that the Virtues will work together to complement the build you create in Wo Long.
The Five Virtues Overview
Each Virtue in Wo Long represents a way to improve your stats, whether that's increasing how much equipment you can wear before being over-encumbered, increasing your damage with a certain element, or how much your Spirit Gauge is reduced when you deflect or dodge. The Virtues are also tied to Spells in Wo Long.
With only five main parameters, levelling in Wo Long is streamlined, and there's no wrong answer with stat investment. You might focus on Wood, but you also might want to put a few points into Earth to wear heavier armour.
The best build is a fluid concept in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty.
This is due to the randomised nature of weapons and gear, which may have differing Virtue scaling despite being a copy of gear you already own.
Generally speaking, the gear gets in the way of forging proper builds.
If you don't want your Wizardry to cost so much of your Spirit Gauge, you can invest points into Metal. It's all about mixing and matching to find your perfect playstyle. You can respec your point investment for free in Part Three of the game, but bear in the mind the max level in Wo Long is 150, spread across all the Virtues.
Each of the Virtues should be raised, but you will gravitate towards one or two more than others.
Increasing any stat will also let you deal more damage, but this is dependent on the weapon you have, and if it happens to scale with the element you're investing more in.
Weapons with an A-rank scaling in Wood, for example, will buff your damage depending on how many points you've invested in Wood. As you can imagine, this changes based on the gear you have.
Increasing your stats in any Virtue will also increase the scaling damage bonus you receive from weapons tied to each of the elements while also providing more defence to the opposite Virtue.
Wood Virtue
- Main Stats - Spirit defence, Spell duration, Earth defence.
- Build focus - Lightning spells, losing less Spirit on being hit.
Wood Virtue is something of a utility style. This phase affects your overall Spirit Defence, spell duration, and resistance to Earth Wizardry. Depending on your gear and weapons, this could be the best choice to invest in.
Spirit Defence in Wo Long is not the same as your regular Defence, with the former being tied to how much of your Spirit Gauge is decreased by when you take a hit. Wood Wizardry focuses on Lightning magic, buffs, and summoning thorns from the ground.
Putting points into Wood Virtue will let you take more hits and not be in much danger of having your Spirit Gauge broken, leaving you vulnerable to attacks.
Spell duration will increase how long your beneficial spells last, which is a big part of the spells offered in Wood, giving you and your Followers buffs and damage negation.
Increasing your level in any of the Virtues will also give you more HP.
Fire Virtue
- Main Stats - Attack Spirit gain rate, Martial Arts Spirit consumption rate, Metal defence.
- Build focus - Getting more spirit per attack, is generally good for aggression and attacking.
The Fire Virtue is more about being aggressive in fights. As such, Fire governs how much Spirit is gained when you attack an enemy.
Attacking slowly builds your Spirit normally, but the faster this charges, the better it is for you because your Spirit Gauge will enhance your charged attacks if you use them with a full gauge. This is the same with Martial Art attacks and spells.
Martial Arts are also included in Fire, and the more you pump into this Virtue, the less Spirit your arts will cost to use. Martial Arts are strong attacks tied to all the different weapons.
Some are unique, but most weapon types will have the same Martial Art on them. If you don't invest in Fire and use loads of Martial Arts, you might find your Spirit Gauge is constantly in the red, which puts you in danger of having your stance broken and leaving you open to a killing blow.
Earth Virtue
- Main Stats - Deflect Spirit gain rate, Maximum equipment weight, Water Defence
- Build focus - Deflecting to gain more spirit, wearing studied armour to lower the risk of missing a deflection.
The Earth Virtue dictates your overall equipment rate and focuses on defence since it increases the amount of Spirit you gain from successfully deflecting an attack.
Wearing heavier armour will give you more resistance overall, so this is the stat you want to invest in to survive a few more hits. It's crucial to increase this if you find you can't wear heavy armour without being over-encumbered.
When levelling, it's great to focus on one main Virtue, but you shouldn't neglect the others.
Deflecting is an important playstyle in Wo Long, to the point where the game almost forces you to master it and use it in nearly every situation. Deflecting will increase your Spirit, and if you love doing that, you'll want to ensure your deflections are netting you the most Spirit by putting points in Earth.
Metal Virtue
- Main Stats - Spirit sustainability, Wizardry Spell Spirit consumption, Wood defence.
- Build focus - Keep your positive Spirit for longer, and reduce the Spirit cost of spells.
Metal governs spell casting and general Spirit Gauge maintenance.
If you want to have a sorcerer build, you'll want to have some investment in Metal, simply because it means you can cast more spells without putting yourself too far into a dangerous level in your Spirit Gauge. Spells are rarely useful in Wo Long, as such they can be more of a risk if casting one will put you immediately into negative Spirit, meaning the next hit will break your guard.
The other main benefit of Metal is that it increases your Spirit Sustainability. This only applies to when you have a high Spirit Gauge, which is when it's in the blue section of the bar.
If you have positive Spirit, the gauge will be blue and stay that way for a few seconds before it naturally depletes. Spirit Sustainability increases the window your Spirit Gauge will stay before it starts to decrease.
Water Virtue
- Main Stats - Ranged attack power, Stealth detection, Deflection Spirit consumption rate, Fire defence.
- Build focus - Using bows to score criticals, deflecting to gain more Spirit per deflect.
Water affects how easily enemies will detect your presence if you're trying to walk up behind them, and it dictates how much Spirit is drained when you attempt to deflect attacks.
If you want to create a build around deflecting, you'll want to focus on points in Water. There is a generous window for deflecting attacks but if you miss the timing, you will lose some Spirit.
This means if you keep spamming it without timing it properly, you'll push yourself into negative Spirit and be vulnerable. Reducing the amount of Spirit required to deflect and dodge will help keep you on top of managing Spirit, especially if you're a spammer.
Stealth isn't too important since there's no sneaking or crouching to be seen, but if you walk toward an enemy without being detected, you can hit them with a fatal strike.