Phase 1: Initial Progression & Exploration

This phase focuses on establishing your character and understanding the world. It involves completing core quests and managing your initial resources.

Main & Side Quests

• Follow the Main Story: Prioritize completing the main story fragments in order.
• Opportunistic Side Content: Complete side quests and other tasks as you naturally encounter them during your travels. Do not go out of your way to find them initially.
• Finding Quests: Unlocked quests are displayed on your map. Zoom in to see square icons, which represent quests you haven't accepted yet.

Unlocking the Map

• To reveal quests and the map itself in an area, you must find and interact with the Tianya Ke (Wanderer) teleport points, marked by a small flame icon.
• Talking to them will unlock the map for that region. Areas without an unlocked Tianya Ke will remain black on your map.

Managing Regenerating Resources

Two key resources regenerate over time and should not be wasted by hitting their cap.

1. Stamina:

• Use Stamina for Cooking. Early quests and exploration will unlock recipes.
• Do not consume the dishes you cook. Instead, exchange them for Copper Coins at the Fine Sand Treasury.
• Buy Ingredients: Click on cooking materials for hints on which merchant sells them. You can travel to them or use the Battle Pass for convenience.
• Early-Game Shortcut: If you lack recipes to use all your Stamina, go to the store and directly exchange Stamina for Pouch of Treasure Coins. This is less efficient than cooking but prevents waste.
• Ultimate Goal: Both methods convert Stamina into Treasure Coins, a currency vital for improving combat power later.

2. Mental Energy:

• This regenerates 1 point every 8 minutes, up to a maximum of 600.
• When it's full, you must spend it by challenging Strongholds.
• Claim First-Clear Rewards: The first time you clear a Stronghold, you get an additional reward. It is recommended to clear all Strongholds for their first-clear rewards.
• If you have enough Mental Energy, claim multiple Stronghold rewards at once.

Exploration & Qiqiao (Seven Skills)

• After your main tasks, explore the open maps to catch Qiqiao.
• Important: Qiqiao are map-specific. Qiqiao caught in Qinhe must be handed in to an NPC in Qinhe, and so on.
• Leveling up a region's Qiqiao skill tree grants basic attributes and increases equipment/Past item drop rates for that specific map.

Phase 1 Time Estimate: Approximately 50-80 hours, depending on whether you take your time with the story or focus purely on tasks.

Phase 2: Building Combat Foundations

With the main story complete, this phase is about defining your combat style and starting long-term progression systems.

Choosing Your Martial Arts

• Join a school/faction to unlock martial arts sets. Try out different styles and use the one that feels most comfortable.
• Use Complete Sets: Martial arts are designed as sets (e.g., two Yu weapons together, two Ying weapons together). Do not mix sets.
• Do Not Chase the Meta: Before reaching Heart Method level 6, no style is particularly powerful. Balance changes with updates, so choose based on feel.

Unlocking & Cultivating Heart Methods

• Use online guides to find and unlock all Heart Methods and Qishu (Special Arts) you haven't obtained.
• For previous seasons' martial arts, simply ensure your cultivation score (the gray number) meets the requirement to claim all attributes.

Early Heart Method Strategy

• Equip Universal Sets: Early on, equip any two gold and two purple universal Heart Methods. You do not need the "correct" style-specific ones yet.
• Utilize Lifetime Chests: Each of the four styles has a limit of 600 purchasable chests. These chests contain Heart Methods for that specific style and the universal style.
• Conversion is Key: First, cultivate your universal Heart Methods. After opening the lifetime chests, use the game's free conversion feature to change universal Heart Methods into the ones you need for your chosen style. This accelerates your progress.
• Focus on Four: Initially, only level up four main Heart Methods because you will lack the necessary Bookmarks (resources). Do not try to level backup or dungeon-specific techniques yet. You can add more later when you have more Bookmarks.

Phase 2 Outcome: You will now have the basic ability to team up and run Poet dungeons. You can find a better guild (Hundred Pages) and complete your weekly Poet dungeon runs.

Phase 3: Addressing Deficiencies & Final Tuning

This phase involves targeted grinding to solve resource shortages and optimize your character for endgame.

Solving the Heart Method Level Issue

• Mental Energy is Key: Remember, consuming 20 Mental Energy grants a Heart Method chest. Consistently spending Mental Energy is the primary way to level up.
• Maximize NPC Favorability: Increase favorability with the Chess Player and the Chef to earn extra Heart Method chests.
• Complete School Guidance Tasks: Following your school's guidance tasks, using their sets, and leveling their martial arts will reward you with golden Heart Methods and chests.
• Note: Leveling other schools' martial arts can be expensive. If you are short on Copper Coins, you can postpone this.

Replenishing Copper Coins & Zhenyu

• Exploration is the Answer: The currency (like Zhenyu) you get is tied to the region you explore.
• Open Chests: While exploring and opening chests, you will naturally accumulate Copper Coins, Zhenyu, and Enlightenment Points for your basic talents.
• Invest in Talents: Use the Enlightenment Points gained from chests to level up your basic talents.

Endgame Equipment

• Once you have a solid understanding of the game from the first three phases, it's time to pursue a complete new set of equipment.
• Prioritize Affixes Over Score: Do not just chase high combat power numbers. Focus on obtaining equipment with good affixes that suit your build and result in higher actual damage.

Completion & Final Notes

After completing all the above, your character will be fundamentally cultivated. Heart Method levels will continue to grow slowly over time through consistent Mental Energy expenditure. At this point, you have experienced the core progression journey of Where Wind Meets.