The combat mechanics in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty can take a while to get used to, especially if you’re new to souls-like games! The trouble is, you don’t get all that much time to test them before you’re met with a challenging boss battle (see: Zhang Liang). You’ll need to master the basics of combat systems available to you up to this point, and Fatal Strike is among the most important. We’ll tell you everything you need to know about when and how to use it effectively on this page.

How to Use Fatal Strike in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty¶

The first thing to understand about the Fatal Strike mechanic is that you won’t always be able to use it at the beginning of a fight. The only exception to this is that you can use it if you surprise an enemy from behind, or from a position of stealth where the enemy is unaware of your presence. However, if you’re facing an enemy and they’re already aware of your presence, they’ll have their defenses up and, more importantly, they will have a pool of Spirit which is what effectively blocks them from being hit with a Fatal Strike.

How to Inflict Spirit Damage in Wo Long¶

The only way to perform a Fatal Strike in combat is to deplete the enemy’s Spirit bar. You can see this on most enemies (including bosses) just beneath their health bar. If the enemy hits you enough times, their Spirit bar will begin to fill. You’ll see this represented by a blue bar filling from left to right. However, if you hit the enemy consecutively, or if you successfully deflect one of their attacks, you’ll notice the bar moving from right to left, and it’ll change color to orange.

What Is Spirit Disruption?¶

In the simplest terms, a filled Spirit bar allows the enemy to perform more powerful / special attacks, and a depleted Spirit bar results in Spirit Disruption, which means that the enemy will be stunned briefly, while making them vulnerable to a Fatal Strike. A Fatal Strike will inflict a significant amount of damage in just one hit. In addition, you will gain some Morale Points while lowering the Morale Rank of an enemy whenever you Fatal Strike them, and if you have surplus Spirit of your own, it will be consumed when you execute a Fatal Strike to increase the damage further.

How to Know When You Can Use Fatal Strike¶

You can see in the screenshots below how Zhang Liang’s Spirit bar is almost entirely depleted. At this stage, all it will take is a few more hits to trigger Spirit Disruption, at which point you can execute a Fatal Strike. You’ll notice the entire Spirit bar flashing in red when an enemy is in Spirit Disruption, so it’s difficult to miss, but you only have a small window of opportunity to execute the Fatal Strike.

Once you properly understand the Spirit Disruption mechanic and how to execute Fatal Strikes, you can pay attention to not only the enemy’s Spirit bar, but also your own. This will give you a good idea of when you need to retreat a bit to recover some Spirit, and you can improve your Spirit recovery by investing in certain traits or skills as you level up. It will also help you to capitalize on executing Fatal Strikes, since you’ll have a better idea of when it’s worth going on the offensive (if an enemy’s Spirit bar is almost fully depleted), or when you might want to be a bit more patient and take your time in a fight.

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(1 of 3) You can see that the Spirit bar is almost entirely depleted for the boss here.

One of the best ways to inflict Spirit damage to an enemy is actually to be more reactive in a fight, and by this we mean to wait for the enemy to attack you, giving you an opportunity to perform a successful deflection. Keep in mind that if you deflect an attack from an enemy, it will generally deplete their Spirit bar more than you would by spending the equivalent amount of time trying to land a hit of your own, although this does depend on which attack you might use. It’s a matter of knowing the best time to play defensively or offensively.

You can see Fatal Strike in action in the video below:

If you’re looking for more tips on the basics of combat in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, be sure to check our page on the Best Beginner Tips for New Players.