40 Best Skills in Black Myth Wukong

Black Myth Wukong features a robust and incredibly flexible skill system. The game is chock full of impressive skills that augment every part of the combat system while giving you a surprising amount of build diversity. This is a pretty rare occurrence these days in the action game genre.

Related:

Black Myth Wukong All Controls List (PC/Controller)

The game generously rewards skills points or Sparks Points, yet choosing where to spend them will still be a struggle. Thus, we have curated this list of the best skills, which is undoubtedly a cut above the rest in Black Myth Wukong.

Skills or Self-Advance in Wukong

First things first, it’s vital to understand how these skill points, also known as Sparks, work in Black Myth Wukong.

You’ll receive a Spark Point every time you level up by accumulating XP as you progress through the game and face its many foes. Additionally, you’ll receive one for free every time you interact with a Meditation Spot.

To spend these points, pause the game and navigate to the Self-Advance tab. Here, you’ll see the menu divided into two sections: Abilities and Spells. We will cover each section individually with their respective best skills below.

Some skill options will be unlocked from the start, while others will unlock at certain points in the game or by reaching a specific character level. The number next to the skill indicates what level you have to be before you can unlock it.

Some will require you to buy pre-requisite skills to unlock them. Many skills have multiple ranks, so you can make them more potent by dumping more points into them.

The best part about Wukong is that you are not stuck if you invest in specific skills. At any given time, you can interact with a Keeper’s Shrine, go to the Self-Advance option, and select Reignite the Sparks. This will immediately refund all your Spark Points to reinvest as you please. I don’t know how often I did this to experiment with different build varieties.

Now, let’s look at which skills I found to be the best investments in Black Myth Wukong.

Abilities

Abilities cover Wukong’s core stats and staff stances. This section is further divided into two categories, each with its own respective number of skill trees.

• Foundation has all the core attributes that impact Wukong’s fundamental stats and combat effectiveness. It includes three skill trees: Stamina, Martial Arts, and Survival.
• Staff Stances is catered towards improving the three staff stances and perhaps focusing on one stance over another, depending on your preference and combat approach. This section includes four skill trees: General, Smash Stance, Pillar Stance, and Thrust Stance.

We’ll go over each category and its subcategory’s best skills.

Stamina Tree – Foundation

1. Simian Agility: Invest two points in this skill. This reduces the stamina cost of dodging. Since the game has no parry or block mechanic, you’ll spend most of your time dodging, which is why this is a no-brainer.
2. Deft Evasion: This boosts the distance of your initial dodges. With more distance, you can safely plan your next move or see the incoming attack more clearly.
3. Composure: The previous two skills are a pre-requisite. This allows you to dodge while still maintaining your light attack combination. This is essential for dealing that extra bit of damage because the attacks at the end of your combination hit harder, and you can easily out-maneuver the enemy.

Martial Arts Tree – Foundation

1. Swift Engage: This is another no-brainer as it allows you to close the gap much easier with enemies. You’ll be using this skill throughout your adventure.
2. Effortless Finisher: This gives you Focus on the second attack of your light combo. Focus, for those who might not know, is required to use your heavy attacks. The quicker you accumulate the resource, the more damage you can dish out.

Survival Tree – Foundation

This is a more personal preference skill tree. Investing in this tree boils down to your requirements and how you play Wukong.

1. Robust Constitution: Increases overall HP.
2. Wrathful Escalation: Each point invested in this skill will boost your chances of landing a critical hit. Since I like to output maximum damage at all times, this skill seems right up my alley.
3. Rough Skin: Strengthens your defenses. It comes in really handy for survivability when facing later bosses.
4. Spiritual Awakening: Gives you more Mana to cast more spells.

Smash Stance Tree – Staff Stance

Disclaimer: The Destined One has three distinct combat stances. You can lean into one or all three of them as you see fit. There’s no right or wrong choice in the following skills.

1. Resolute Counterflow: With this skill, you can use a heavy attack during a light attack combo and spend a Focus point to unleash a powerful attack while also ignoring an incoming enemy attack. This is great for tricky encounters, and boss fights where the enemy attack pattern is fast, and you have smaller windows of opportunity.
2. Skyfall Strike: The previous skill/attack can be amplified even further with this skill. It adds another high-damaging move into the sequence if you have a second Focus Point available.

Pillar Stance Tree – Staff Stance

1. Sweeping Gale: Adds a spinning kick heavy attack in the combo to deal damage to more enemies in the vicinity. Suitable for crowd control.
2. Churning Gale: Adds another horizontal AOE attack to the previous skill attack. It’s a must-have if you are getting overrun by mobs.

Thrust Stance Tree – Staff Stance

1. Borrowed Strength: Your stamina will regenerate faster with each successful attack landing on the enemy. You can never go wrong with stamina regeneration.
2. Offense in Defense: This skill gives you a tactical retreat, letting you jump backward during a light attack combo and follow it up with another heavy attack that extends your staff to hit farther enemies. There’s a bit of a learning curve here, as the timing is weird.
3. Deadly Dance: This skill allows you to perform the fully charged deadliest thrust heavy attack right after a dodge roll without charging the staff, provided you already have four Focus Points. This mixes a potent attack organically into your moveset.

General Tree – Staff Stance

1. Exhilaration: This skill grants you some health whenever you spend Focus Points. You will be passively healing yourself while chaining your combos.
2. Versatility: This increases the damage dealt during all varied combos. This means you will see increased damage if you mix in light and heavy attacks.

Spells

Wukong will earn new spells during his journey. This section is designed to enrich these spells even further. The Spells section includes the following tabs, each with their own sub-trees:

• Mysticism: It is there to boost the potency of Immobilize, Ring of Fire, and Spell Binder.
• Alteration: This section is for Cloud Step and Rock Solid spells.
• Strand: The skill tree is specifically for A Pluck of Many spell.
• Transformation: The skill tree is tailored around the potency of the many transformations you’ll progressively unlock.

Immobilize Tree – Mysticism

1. Crash: Whenever you immobilize an enemy, this skill will let you deal more damage to them. This skill is essential if you rely on this spell a lot like me.
2. Stagnation: This lets you add time to your next immobilize usage as long as you hit the current target with light attacks. This skill will prove highly advantageous due to the many bosses in this game.
3. Time Bargain: Extends the time the enemy stays immobilized. The extra Mana requirement is nothing compared to the additional time you gain to do free damage, especially for the troublesome bosses.

Side Note: I would invest in this entire tree if I were you. Immobilize is one of the best tactical tools under your belt.

Ring of Fire Tree – Mysticism

1. Burning Zeal: Gives a temporary boost to your overall stamina. You must stay within the fire ring to reap this. This is perfect to keep the punishment and not tire out mid-fight.
2. Flame’s Embrace: You will receive lesser damage while standing in the ring. If you want to tank hits and keep up the pressure, this is the skill for you.
3. Boundless Blessing: Even after stepping out of the ring, the buffs remain active. This applies to all the other skills you unlocked, too. The Ring of Fire’s “standing within the ring” requirement severely limits this spell’s effectiveness, and with the help of this skill, you can go beyond the border while maintaining those nifty buffs.

Spell Binder Tree- Mysticism

1. Light Heart: Not only will you get a damage boost, but you will also utilize less stamina with this skill. Running out of stamina while you are in the zone comboing is a bummer, and this skill helps mitigate that.
2. All or Nothing: If you want to seriously increase the Critical Hit Chance, this skill will do just that at the cost of stamina. This is a high-risk high-reward skill. This is necessary if you are assembling a raw damage build.

Cloud Step Tree- Alteration

1. Converging Clouds: If you like using this skill and setting up ambush scenarios, this skill will give you more time in the invisible state.
2. Concealed Observation: The more time you stay hidden, the more Critical Hit Chance you amass for the follow-up Unveiling Strike. This skill goes hand in hand with the previous skill, and it’s only sweetened by that worthwhile critical hit.

Rock Solid Tree – Alteration

1. Rock Mastery: You’ll be using this spell often, as it is the only defensive option other than regular dodging. It doesn’t hurt to have it readily available, as this skill reduces the spell’s cooldown.
2. Ironclad: If this spell leads to Defelction, you will receive more damage reduction for a short while. Less damage taken is a good choice, obviously.
3. Bold Venture: This skill grants you Mana back on a successful deflection. This is huge because Mana management is a major element for chaining spells into your fighting repertoire.

A Pluck of Many Tree – Strand

1. Tyranny of Numbers: Each of Wukong’s duplicates will deal extra damage with this skill active. This helps remove a chunk of a boss’s HP when you unleash your clones on them, making these clones more than just mild distraction ready to be swatted like flies.
2. Longstrand: It increases the duration of the duplicates. The more time they help you out, the better.
3. Harmony: You will generate Focus with each duplicate’s attack. This will help pull off massive plays without worrying about building Focus on your own.
4. Volition: This skill will transform your duplicates into the real deal. Your clones can use spells like Ring of Fire, Immobilize, and Rock Solid, making them valuable parts of the battle.

Transformations Tree

Note: Only invest in this category if transformations are a big part of your playstyle. You are more likely to benefit from other skills directly impacting Wukong since they are not limited to transformations. Also, only sink Spark Points in the transformations you like most.

1. Ferocious Form: While transformed, your damage output will increase. If you rely heavily on these forms, you might as well get the most damage out of them.
2. Evergreen: With this skill active, your Might consumption will be lowered. This gives you more time while transformed.
3. Moon Roam: Even while transformed, you will be dodging a bunch, so getting a boost to damage with perfect dodges will only uplift your altered state.
4. Hidden Might: Increases your Might reserves, allowing you to stay transformed for longer.
5. Might Reserve: After transforming back to Wukong, you will retain some Might. This will help activate subsequent transformations.

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The Self-Advance section in Black Myth Wukong is filled to the brim with really useful skills. In my playthrough, I opted for more damage-oriented skills, while I have seen people who choose to be stealthy and create ambush attacks. The build diversity is nothing short of a miracle in this game. Kudos to Game Science for perfecting this essential part of an action game.