Black Myth: Wukong is a game filled with hidden secrets and challenging quests. One of the essential NPCs you’ll encounter on your journey is the blacksmith, Yin Tiger. If you hate watching cool armor with nice effects getting outscaled, then Yin Tiger will upgrade your Armor and unlock new weapons for you. Here’s how you can unlock the Blacksmith NPC Yin Tiger in Black Myth: Wukong.
How to Find Blacksmith NPC Yin Tiger
To access Yin Tiger, you’ll need to complete a side quest that unlocks the Painted Realm, a vibrant hub area where you can find various merchants and NPCs. Here’s how to proceed:
- In Chapter 2, after the Village Entrance checkpoint in Sandgate Village, jump into the Ravine on the left and into the cave at the end.
- Find medicine expert Xu Dog. and complete his short quest by defeating the optional boss Lang-Li-Guhh-Baw, a giant yellow frog who uses lightning attacks in the pond Xu Dog points to.
- You will find Xu Dog again at the building at Cellar Checkpoint in the Crouching Tiger Temple as a merchant, but you only need to mark his location because you will be coming back later.
- Meet Chen Loong: After defeating Kang-Jin Star, jump off the turtle’s head, locate Chen Loong on the left side of the beach, and defeat him.
Complete Chen Loong’s Quest: Engage in a conversation with Chen Loong and agree to help him. Complete the quest by obtaining a special pill from Xu Dog and returning it to Chen Loong.
Once you’ve completed Chen Loong’s quest, you’ll be teleported to the Painted Realm. This bustling area is filled with merchants and other important NPCs. To find Yin Tiger, follow these steps:
- Enter the Painted Realm: As soon as you arrive in the Painted Realm, you’ll see a path leading to the right.
- Follow the Path: Continue following the path until you reach a large, open area.
- Locate Yin Tiger: In this area, you’ll find Yin Tiger, a burly blacksmith with a distinct appearance.
Now that you’ve found Yin Tiger, you can begin upgrading your armor. He can enhance the defensive stats of your equipment, making it more effective against enemies. To upgrade your armor, you’ll need to provide him with specific materials and Will. He can even upgrade your common rarity materials all the way up to Mythical Rarity, meaning every Armor in the game can remain relevant by the endgame. This makes Yin Tiger one of the most important NPCs if you want to maintain your Armor selection choices.
How to Unlock More Curio Slots
Yin Tiger actually lets you increase your Curio Slots as a reward for defeating him along with providing you with his weapon to unlock the Ebon Flow transformation. To increase your Curio Slots, pick the option to Challenge Yin Tiger and then defeat him in what is an incredibly difficult fight. However, the reward is worth it as you can speak to him after the fight to gain an additional Curio slot. Note that you can only do this once per cycle, so completing the game 3 times allows you to increase your Curios slots up to a maximum of 3.
Yin Tiger Boss Fight
You can actually challenge Yin Tiger to a battle making him one of the secret bosses of chapter 3. This fight is one of the hardest so far at this point in the game as Yin Tiger barely gives you any opening to make attacks. Here are some tips and tricks to keep in mind:
- The Spell Binder spell you can get later in this chapter can be very useful due to the massive attack buff it provides.
- Yin Tiger floats away once you land your first hit after Immobilizing him. However, you can use this as an opportunity to charge up a heavy attack.
- The best place to Immobilize him is when he leaps into the air for his 3-hit combo, this breaks his entire string of attacks.
- Pillar Stance charge attacks are surprisingly effective as his moves don’t have too many vertical hitboxes.
- Mastering counter timings is the key to dealing damage. Figure out combo strings where you can definitely get a parry leading to a Skyfall Strike. Due to the lack of openings, this is the best way to deal damage.
- Don’t get greedy with your attacks and only hit him 2-3 times whenever you dodge his attacks.
- Rock Solid is a good safety measure since his attacks come out fast and you’re almost always guaranteed a counter.
After you defeat him, he throws down his weapon and you unlock the Ebon Flow transformation that lets you turn into Yin Tiger. This is one of the strongest transformations in the game and holds up in later chapters as well. You get the option to challenge him again but it’s just for practice purposes.
Completing the quest lets you find Yin Tiger, unlock the blacksmithing feature, and the Ebon Flow Transformation spell in Black Myth: Wukong. Upgrading your armor is essential for surviving the game’s toughest challenges, so be sure to take advantage of this valuable NPC’s services. Note that Armor upgrade services automatically become available in New Game Plus.
For more guides, learn how to complete the 4 Captains quest and the snow fox brush quest in Chapter 3.
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