What is the best Stance in Black Myth Wukong?
How to choose between the Smash, Pillar, and Thrust Stance
Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/Game Science
Guide
by
Marloes Valentina Stella
Contributor Published on Sept. 6, 2024 Follow Black Myth: Wukong
Wondering which is the best Stance in Black Myth: Wukong? Black Myth: Wukong features three different "Staff Stances" offering unique fighting styles. Each Stance comes with a different heavy attack and a passive skill tree, so by switching Stances, you can adjust your combat style to become more assertive, develop better evasive manoeuvres, improve your range, and much more.
While you can only use the "Smash Stance" at the start of a new game, the "Pillar Stance" becomes available at level 5 and the "Thrust Stance" can be unlocked at level 20. To upgrade and change between Stances, open your menu, choose "Self-Advance", and add Sparks to the skill trees.
Make no mistake though; just because Pillar and Thrust are unlocked later on, they're not necessarily better than the Smash Stance. Each Stance has its advantages, and which one's the "best" mostly depends on your personal playstyle. In this guide, we'll help you find the best Stance in Black Myth: Wukong for you.
In this guide:
Which is the best Stance in Black Myth Wukong?
Based on our experience, the best Stance in Black Myth: Wukong is the Smash Stance. Firstly, the sprinting-while-charging ability allows you to quickly smash through minor opponents, which makes exploration much faster. It also works great against bosses, as the sprinting enables you to adjust your timing and positioning before landing the blow. The best thing about the Smash Stance, however, is the Resolute Strike attack; it can nullify an incoming blow, deal a ton of damage, and even gain a massive amount of Focus - basically everything you need to defeat a powerful boss.
That said, every Black Myth: Wukong Stance has its advantages and disadvantages. Before we explore this in more detail, here's a brief overview to help you find your perfect Staff Stance:
- Smash Stance: the best option to fight bosses and (groups of) smaller enemies interchangeably. Offers high mobility but requires precise dodging and the special attacks are harder to pull off.
- Pillar Stance: has the best defensive ability, which is especially handy if you're not great at dodging. You can slam enemies far away as well as those nearby, but stamina management is a bit harder and combat may feel somewhat slow.
- Thrust Stance: offers amazing range and the most rewarding combos, but follow-up attacks can be hard to land and the heavy attack has stationary charging.
If you want, you can level more than one Stance to use in combat - given the limited number of Sparks, however, it's typically best to focus on one or two at most. Don't worry about wasting Sparks though, as you can reset them at any Keeper's Shrine for free.
Smash Stance
Twirl through the sky with the Smash Stance's heavy attack. |
Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/Game Science
The Smash Stance offers amazing mobility as you can sprint while charging your heavy attack. By running towards an unsuspecting opponent and whacking them before they've had a chance to react, you can easily gain the upper hand against otherwise tough opponents. This speedy combat style also allows you to quickly move through minor enemies while exploring. As long as you keep your distance, it's not too hard to fully charge the Smash Stance's heavy attack and deliver a devastating blow - with the help of the Peace from Peril passive, you can even keep your charged Focus while performing perfect dodges.
On the downside, Smash Stance may not be the best Black Myth: Wukong Stance if you find it difficult to dodge at the perfect moment. You also need to be quite good at anticipating your enemies' movements to time the sprinting and charging correctly. That "timing" part carries over to the Smash Stance's special attacks; Resolute Strike and Skyfall Strike. As these attacks can nullify incoming damage, triggering them at the opportune moment can allow you to avoid hefty blows and gain massive Focus (Invigoration passive) while greatly improving Skyfall Strike's damage (Vantage Point passive). It'll take some practice, but once you've learned this combo, it'll work great against bosses.
Pillar Stance
Can't touch this monkey. |
Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/Game Science
Who needs a shield when the Pillar Stance allows you to climb on top of your staff and avoid all ground damage? If you'd like to evade incoming attacks more easily, the Pillar Stance is for you; trigger a heavy attack to leap up, build Focus to climb even higher, and slam down upon your enemy with a high-range staff strike. The Pillar Stance is particularly great if you find it hard to use your Gourd in combat, as the Skylarking ability allows you to grab it from the safety of your staff seat. Timing shouldn't be much of an issue either; unlike dodging, which requires precision, you can trigger the Pillar Stance well before an enemy initiates their attack and it will still work.
Beware that if you hold the Pillar Stance for too long or if the staff takes too many hits while perching, you may run out of stamina before you can land the final hit. When that happens, you'll drop to the ground and become vulnerable to incoming attacks. You can fix this with the Towering Mountain passive, which will automatically perform a heavy attack upon stamina depletion, but beware that it's on the lower end of the Pillar Stance's skill tree. You also need to be careful around larger enemies, as you'll need to be higher up the staff to avoid their damage (the first level typically won't do).
If you have enough Focus, you can use the heavy attack during a light attack combo to perform a Sweeping Gale spinning attack. It's quick and has decent range, allowing you to take down several smaller enemies at once, but it's not very effective against larger opponents - the Churning Gale follow-up attack makes a great improvement though.
Thrust Stance
The Thrust Stance requires stationary charging. |
Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/Game Science
Although you'll have to remain stationary while charging, the Thrust Stance performs a forward thrust attack with incredible range, allowing you to easily hit your enemies from afar. Although the fully charged thrust can take a massive chunk of HP from a boss, beware that the long charging time requires expert timing, as you don't want to get interrupted by an attack.
Like the Pillar Stance, the Thrust Stance has a defensive ability: Tactical Retreat. It may not be as safe as the Pillar Stance, but this backward dodge is very quick and easy to trigger; just use a heavy attack following a light attack. What's more, you can turn this dodge into a forward follow-up attack in the form of a Forceful Thrust. This attack, as well as the charged heavy attack and the dodge, can be followed by a Whirling Thrusts attack (hold the light attack button). In other words, the Thrust Stance is a great choice if you like a variety of options and aren't afraid to study your combos.
The Thrust Stance's main downside is the possibility of messing up the combos. If you press too soon or too late, you could lose momentum. That said, you can never really miss the Tactical Retreat, so you'll be quite safe even if you don't manage to land a follow-up attack.
That concludes this guide on the best Black Myth: Wukong Staff Stances. To further develop your personal playstyle, be sure to use the best skills and don't forget to upgrade your armor and unlock more curio slots.
