Zhang Liang is the first boss you encounter in the very first mission of Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty – Village of Calamity. It’s proof that the game doesn’t make it easy for you right from the start, especially when you’re still struggling with its mechanics.
Indeed, as the first boss in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, this General Yellow Turban can seem nearly impossible if you don’t know what you’re doing. But Zhang Liang is a useful lesson in mastering deviation, and also a lesson in paying attention to a very specific prompt that will make your life much easier.
This guide will walk you through everything you need to know to prepare for and triumph in this brutal fight against the first of three powerful Zhang Brothers of the Yellow Turban Rebels.
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How to prepare for Zhang Liang in Wo Long Fallen Dynasty
As this is Wo Long’s first mission, there isn’t much preparation to do aside from the basic weapons you have and the three uses of the Dragon Healing Pot for healing. You will have had the opportunity to learn a few basic sorcery spells, so it is highly recommended that you learn the enhanced earth phase spell defense, which will temporarily reduce the damage you take. You will need to have increased your Earth Virtue to at least two to do this, while your Morale must be at least three to cast it.
You should also have practiced the deflection mechanic which will be important to survive this fight, since your only help comes from the blindfolded boy, who unfortunately isn’t much help at all. Every attack can be deflected but, more importantly, you should parry glowing red unblockable critical hits as this will diminish his spirit which can break his stance, leaving him open to a fatal strike.
What you need to make sure to do is plant flags in every possible spot on your way to the boss, which increases your courage rank, the value below which your morale won’t drop if you die . Having such high morale also makes enemies tougher and more manageable. For this mission, your maximum courage rank is 10 when you have planted all possible flags, which matches Zhang Liang’s starting morale of 10.
The most important thing to know is that there is an essential gadget, which introduces you to the mechanic of the divine beast. This will end the fight early and save you a lot of moaning and gnashing of teeth.
How to defeat Zhang Liang in Wo Long Fallen Dynasty
You will fight Zhang Liang in an arena overlooking a cliff. Rock pillars surround the arena and can serve as cover. Although he will probably crush them with one blow with his intimidating big club, which he wields with both hands in the first phase.
The good news is that any attack he attacks you with can be deflected (there’s even a tutorial prompt encouraging you to deflect), which then gives you a brief window to land certain attacks to both chip his health and put his spirit gauge in the red. While the Spirit Gauge starts out long, you can also reduce its upper limit (indicated by the gauge whitening from the edges) by deflecting or using Spirit Attacks (i.e. Heavy Attacks ), which makes it easier to scale.
It should be noted that Spirit attacks are also more likely to interrupt his attacks than just a standard attack. Once you punish him with a killing blow, his morale will drop by one point, although the spirit gauge also resets.
His standard attacks consist of knocking the club down from above, sometimes followed by an overhead attack. He also has an animation where he swings the club horizontally, as well as a much higher jump attack. In all of these cases, the animation ends long enough for you to anticipate; so the smart way to play is to anticipate the deflection, rather than trying to score a quick hit.
For his unblockable attack, he’ll power up his club, while there’s also a red glow coming from inside his chest, so it’s very clear you should anticipate that. This attack can fill in the gaps, but if you’re having trouble closing time, it’s worth giving yourself some distance as it will still take a while for the attack to connect.
With the health you’ve reduced while lowering his Spirit Gauge, staggering him twice and landing a Lethal Strike both times should be enough to complete this phase.
However, he has another new health bar for his second phase, resets his morale to 10, and is much fiercer as he now has a demonic left arm that can be extended for quite damaging attacks while he is strong enough to swing his club. with just his right hand.
With his demon arm extended, Zhang Liang swings it once, which can grab anyone around him within range, before wrapping it up with a short pause before swinging it again. His club consists of a combo of two swings, with a short break before the second swing, as well as a charged thrust that also has a wind-up animation.
He also has a ranged attack where he drives his club into the ground, which then releases a trail of spikes to shoot in front. Luckily, this, along with the aforementioned attacks, can also be deflected.
His unblockable here comes from his demon arm, which coils up and then pulls towards you, and given how long he can extend, there’s no escape from that, so be prepared to deflect otherwise it will grab you and smash you for some nasty damage.
When you have taken a third of his health, he becomes even more enraged, as a red demonic aura shoots out in his surrounding area and boosts his morale. He also gains an additional combo with his club, where he swings it up and down, as well as another unblockable attack where he performs a three-hit combo with his club. If you manage to deflect them, he can still finish the previous unblockable attack with his demonic arm.
Suffice to say, it’s a lot to endure when you have so few resources at this point. However, what you should pay attention to is the blindfolded boy who actually gives you a gift which means you don’t really need to knock down Zhang Liang’s entire health bar to beat him.
At the start of the second phase, the boy will mention something about “that jade”, which might give you the power to overcome this challenge. It refers to the Divine Beast mechanic that unlocks during this phase, which is represented by a gauge in the lower right corner above the Sorcery spells.
As you fight Zhang Liang, this gauge increases slowly but increases sharply when you land a killing blow after stunning him. Our estimate is that two kill strikes will be enough to fill the gauge, so the boss will be reduced to about half health.
When the Divine Beast Gauge is on, you will receive a prompt from the Blindfolded Boy to unleash the power residing within the jade, while the display of the Deflection Tutorial will change to that of Summoning the Divine Beast with Triangle + Circle /Y+B.
In the stress of combat, as well as if you’re playing with non-English audio, it’s easy to miss this prompt as you continue to struggle. You can always do it the hard way by stripping all of Zhang Liang’s health, but our advice is to do this summon the moment you see the prompt, which will then trigger a cutscene of a dragon spirit coming to save the day.
If you need help getting started in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, check out our beginner tips and tricks. As for bosses, we have strategies for Zhang Liang, Zhuyan, and Fengxi. Don’t forget to take a look at our marking flag locations and revenge flags.
Zhang Liang’s Reward in Wo Long’s Fallen Dynasty
Although you have defeated Wo Long’s difficult first boss, it might not feel rewarding as you fail to stop the mysterious Taoist in black from getting his hands on the blindfolded boy and your protagonist is also sent to the edge of the arena.
Nonetheless, defeating Zhang Liang will net you his General of Man Bandana (2 stars) and his Great Club of Polaris weapon (3 stars), while you will also receive 3,000 Qi and 3,000 Brass. Be sure to use Qi to level up at the start of the next mission!
The journey to Wo Long has just started and you will soon face the other two Zhang brothers. But don’t worry, you’ll also get more help along the way.
