Best Defensive Builds In Black Myth: Wukong

Key Takeaways

• The early-game defensive build focuses on key items and abilities in Chapter 1 for an advantage.
• Mid to late-game defensive build enhances survivability with spells, spirits, and curios.
• New game plus offers an ultimate defensive build with the Fortune’s Favor armor set for high defense.

There are several ways to play in Black Myth: Wukong. Players can focus on offense, spells, nimble doges, or damage mitigation and there are many ways to augment each of these aspects. From passive bonuses from spirits to relics to a player’s gourd and soaks, a lot of choices go into making an effective build.

A player’s access to build options is limited by how far into the game they’ve progressed, as plenty of key items and spirits require defeating certain enemies, and armor sets need crafting materials to complete. These builds will help players who want to play defensively from the start of the game and into multiple new game-plus cycles.

1 Early Game Defensive Build

Clearing Out Chapter 1

• Weapon: Wind Bear Staff
• Armor: Ebongold Armor, Grey Wolf Mask
• Spirits: Wandering Wight
• Vessel: Fireproof Mantle
• Curios: Cat Eye Beads, Agate Jar
• Soaks: Gall Gem, Steel Ginseng
• Spells: Cloud Step, Immobilize

This build isn’t totally focused on defense, but when players start out in Black Myth: Wukong, they’re going to want every advantage they can get. Assembling this build involves being very thorough in Chapter 1, taking out all the available optional enemies to get some key items and abilities.

Taking out the Wandering Wight to get its spirit should be the player’s first priority, as this will grant a passive defensive buff as well as access to a powerful attack. Immobilize from the Bullguard and Cloud Step from the Black Wind King are two spells that have both defensive and offensive utility.

The next step will be to defeat Elder Jinchi to get the Fireproof Mantle, and then take out Wind Bear Guai, so players can craft the Ebongold Armor and Wind Bear Staff. Players now have the basics of the build and can head into the rest of the game with a slight advantage.

As for healing, players will only have access to the old gourd and coconut wine. Augment this with the Gall Gem when the Snake Patroler blocking the Shen Monkey Store is defeated for a small poison resistance boost. Steel Ginseng is also available from Aged Ginseng plants but requires getting a lucky drop to obtain early.

2 Mid To Late Game Defensive Build

Spells, Spirits, And Focusing A Defensive Playstyle

• Weapon: Jingubang
• Armor: Gold Souzi Armor (Heaven’s Equal 4-piece set)
• Spirits: Flint Chief, Wandering Wight
• Vessel: Wind Tamer
• Curios: Gold Spikeplate, Agate Jar, Boshan Censer
• Soaks: Bee Mountain Stone, Iron Pellet, Purple-Veined Peach Pit
• Spells: Ring of Fire, Rock Solid, Azure Dust, A Pluck of Many

It will take players a while to get to the point where they can truly focus on defense as a build strategy in Black Myth: Wukong. Once they’ve reached Chapter 6, though, there are plenty of ways to boost defensive stats, as well as focus spells, spirits, and curios more toward survivability.

Even at this point, the Wandering Wight still has the best passive for damage reduction, but players may want to try the Flint Chief for its active ability, which hardens the player and deflects attacks, similar to the rock-solid spell. Its passive will also help when a little more bane resistance is needed. There’s also Top Take Bottom, Bottom Takes Top, but the attack debuff outweighs the large defense increase at this stage.

The curios are particularly important for players wanting to focus on defense. The Gold Spikeplate is an epic curio that significantly increases defense and damages enemies when they attack. It’s powerful but easy to miss, as players need to farm the Dark-faced Overlord enemies in Chapter 3 and hope for an item drop. The Agate Jar from Chapter 1 offers a smaller defense boost, but stacks.

The armor and weapon tie this build together. They’re not exactly defense-focused, but players will get the best base defense stat out of this set, and the Jingubang completes the cooldown-reducing set bonus. Players will need to get the common set from the Verdant Path in Mount Hauguo and beat the Gold Armored Rhino at Rhino Watch Slope to be able to craft the mythic set.

3 New Game Plus Defensive Build

The Bull King Set And Dark Iron Staff

• Weapon: Dark Iron Staff
• Armor: Bull King Armor (4-piece set)
• Spirits: Flint Chief / Top Takes Bottom, Bottom Takes Top / Wandering Wight
• Vessel: Plantain Fan
• Curios: Amber Prayer Beads, Gold Button, Gold Spikeplate, Agate Jar
• Soaks: Turtle Tear, Celestial Lotus Seeds, Tender Jade Lotus, Steel Ginseng
• Spells: Ring of Fire, Rock Solid, Azure Dust, A Pluck of Many​​​​​​​

In new game plus, players that focus on defense get to turn this into offense, too. The Dark Iron Staff is only available in new game plus, but the staff’s effect increases the player’s attack based on their defense stat. This makes it objectively the best weapon for high-defense builds.

The Bull King’s Armor set is unlocked in Chapter 5 in a player’s first playthrough, but they can’t craft it until they get to Chapter 5 again in new game plus due to material requirements. Once it’s craftable, it offers the best defensive stats in the game (for now). Players will need to consider its set bonus, though, which disables the perfect dodge ability. It compensates by essentially making players’ attacks uninterruptible, but it’s a trade-off players will have to account for to play effectively.

This can be assisted by using the Rock Solid defensive spell in combination with the Flint Chief active skill to reliably deflect enemy attacks. Players may want to balance the defensive nature of the build here using the Plantain Fan for increased stamina recovery, over the Wind Tamer as a vessel.

4 Ultimate Defensive Build

Fortune’s Favored

• Weapon: Dark Iron Staff
• Armor: Fortune’s Favor (4-piece set)
• Spirits: Flint Chief / Top Takes Bottom, Bottom Takes Top / Wandering Wight
• Vessel: Wind Tamer
• Curios: Amber Prayer Beads, Gold Button, Gold Spikeplate, Agate Jar
• Soaks: Turtle Tear, Celestial Lotus Seeds, Tender Jade Lotus, Steel Ginseng
• ​​​​​​​Spells: Cloud Step, Ring of Fire, Rock Solid, Life-Saving Strand

Once players navigate multiple new game plus cycles, there’s an interesting quirk that can take defensive builds even further. The Fortune’s Favor set, which can be obtained in Chapter 6, eclipses the Bull King Armor set for defense, once a player has all their relic abilities fully upgraded. Players will easily end up with over 750 defense, which pushes up the damage of the Dark Iron Staff even further.

Unlike the Bull King set, this frees up the use of the perfect dodge ability while maintaining even higher defense. This can be further augmented by stacking curios like the Agate Jar and the Gold Spikeplate. Note that a vessel like the Wind Tamer increases damage reduction, not defense, so this won’t affect the bonus despite being a worthwhile vessel to use.

Defense in Black Myth: Wukong can only take a player so far. No build can soak up every hit from a boss in those new game plus cycles. Playing defensively is often about finding the best way to avoid or mitigate damage in relation to the current playstyle, whether that’s high defense stats or nimble dodging.