How to defeat Tian Ying in Where Winds Meet

Where Winds Meet’s Tian Ying is the final boss of the Qinghe side quest saga. Each region has its own series of important side quests, and at the very end, you’ll find a final quest, which has a boss. In this case, it’s Tian Ying, waiting for players at the end of The Promised Light. He’s certainly worthy of essentially being the final boss of the Qinghe region. None of the other fights in this region will be even close as powerful, except perhaps the Shadow Puppet World Boss.

A brutal fight, it can take several minutes to get through, and failure during any one of the phases means you’ll have to start over from scratch. Make sure to bring plenty of healing items, and perhaps a partner, whether NPC or PC. Here’s what you need to know to defeat Tian Ying in Where Winds Meet.

Tips to defeat Tian Ying in Where Winds Meet

Tian Ying waits for players at the very bottom of a cavernous area, found at the end of Where Winds Meet’s The Promised Light side quest. An incredibly powerful assassin, Tian Ying has access to all kinds of tricky attacks. From clones, to summoning the power of statues to pound the ground, he’s not going to be a pushover.

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(Battle begins at 29:49)

I personally recommend bringing an NPC ally or a player, to take some of the heat off of you and allow you to take less damage. Either a Healer, Damage Boost/Damage Dealer, or Qi Breaking NPC to go with you.

This can be a long fight, so make sure you’ve been to the Clinic, or crafted your own collection of healing items, and upgrade your healing as much as possible first. Also, bring Meridian Touch to this fight, because you can cancel one of his more powerful attacks in phase 1.

1) Phase 1

Phase 1 attacks

Golden Pulse: Tian Ying raises his staff and it glows golden. He’ll smash it into the ground to do an AOE shockwave. Meridian Touch will get a prompt to counter this.
Palm the Ground: He can charge his hand gold and smash the ground with it to create tremors. Parry or Dodge.
Shockwave: Raises his staff and creates a slash of golden energy that fires at you. Parry or Dodge.
Big Swing Combo: A powerful two-swing combo with his staff, it starts with a tiny gold meteorite. Parry or Dodge.
Four-hit combo: A series of devastating staff attacks, and the fourth is a big spin move. Parry or Dodge.
Midas Touch: Smashes the ground with his staff to make gold spray. It also has a follow up tremor attack. Parry or Dodge.

Having Meridian Touch makes phase 1 much easier (Image via NetEase)

The most important thing to have in Phase 1 of Tian Ying in Where Winds Meet is to have Meridian Touch. It can counter hit the Golden Pulse. You’ll see a button prompt when he’s charging his staff. If Meridian Touch is on cooldown when this happens, get away as far as you can, or hover with the Umbrella.

Another thing to keep in mind is you want to take as little damage as possible in these first two phases of this Where Winds Meet boss fight. Focus on Parrying, and if you have a Qi Breaking NPC helping you, even better. I didn’t for my first win, but I did it again with one, and found life to be much easier.

His attacks are pretty quick, but just parry, and damage when you can. I found it easier to play with the Vernal Umbrella and stay at a decent distance, so I could force him to come to me. Your Spring Sorrow attack also knocks him down and away.

2) Phase 2

Phase 2 attacks

Assassin Combo: A four-hit combo that goes from a jab, spinning elbow, jab, and before he punches, he’ll briefly turn around. Parry or Dodge.
Ora Ora Ora: Tian Ying and his sand statue both punch the ground, creating a powerful AOE attack. Parry or Dodge.
Sand Wave: Tian Ying’s Sand Statue fires off a sand projectile, and then the boss smashes the ground for another AOE. Parry or Dodge.
Ruffian Kick: The Sand Statue delivers several attacks, creating an AOE, and Tian Ying rushes in with an Axe Kick. Parry or Dodge.
Planetary Devastation: Tian Ying will float in the air as the Sand Statue swipes an arm across. Then it does a hammer smash into the ground, creating a massive AOE. Get to the side of the stage to avoid.
Retreating Tatsumaki: Tian Ying flies at the player with a spin kick, before retreating. Parry or Dodge.
Rapid-fire Kicks: Tian Ying does a series of spinning kicks, and follows up with an uppercut from the left and a punch from the right. Parry or Dodge all of these.
Asura Grab: After briefly glowing red, Tian Ying rushes in and his Sand Statue grapples and smashes. Perfect Parry before being grabbed for a counterattack, or dodge back.

When Tian Ying floats in Phase 2 of this Where Winds Meet boss fight, flee fast (Image via NetEase)

Phase 2 only has one red glowing attack during the Tian Ying fight in Where Winds Meet, but it’s a doozy. If you get grabbed, it’s going to take a massive chunk of your health. The goal in this phase is to also take as little damage as possible, because there’s a third phase coming up.

If at any time, Tian Ying begins to float in the air (what we’ve called Planetary Devastation), you need to run to one of the bosses’ blind spots. Essentially, run to the side of the screen, as far from him as possible. This one isn’t quite a one-shot, but it’s going to feel like it.

The strategy during this phase of Tian Ying in Where Winds Meet is to stay away from the Sand Statue and all of its very annoying AOE/ranged attacks. Tian Ying doesn’t really get stronger in this phase, he just changes up the kinds of attacks he uses, and he’ll do it again when you deplete his health bar a second time.

3) Phase 3

Phase 3 attacks

Sword Dance: After dashing at you with an attack, Tian Ying will attack another five times, with the final strike being from behind and briefly delayed. Parry or Dodge.
Sand Clones: Tian Ying will hover, and summon a trio of sand clones. Each time you parry an attack from him during this time, a Sand Clone will disappear.
Switch ‘em Up: When the Sand Clones rush you down, Tian Ying will attempt to attack you from behind. Parry or Dodge.
Two-Hit Combo: Tian Ying will rush in, use an aerial attack and then do a spin attack with his blades. Parry or Dodge.
Dash Combo: Tian Ying dashes in quickly with sand flowing around him. He’ll teleport attack three times. Parry or Dodge.
Now You See Me: Tian Ying walks around, and teleports in a different direction to where he’s walking for a sneaky attack. Parry or Dodge.
Jumping Combo: Tian Ying leaps in with a swordward strike and then does a pair of spinning slashes. Parry or Dodge.
Dagger Combo: Tian Ying does a jumping strike, strikes again on the way down, and then rushes in to do another powerful attack.

The Sand Clones plus the teleport attacks can be really frustrating (Image via NetEase)

Phase 3, in my experience, is where I took all the damage for this Where Winds Meet boss fight. A lot of his combo attacks can be tricky, but the hard part is when he summons the Sand Clones. You want to stay away from them but they’re very aggressive.

Focus on parrying them, and waiting for Tian Ying to show up and parry him. That gets rid of one of the clones. This phase also doesn’t have any red attacks to Perfect Parry, so while it’s good news, it also means you don’t have ways to deal extra damage.

Play defensively and let him come to you, and parry away his Qi Meter, so you can get those big-damage Executes in. Once he’s finally been bested, if you’re on The Promised Light, you’ll receive several rewards. The Campaign rewards depend on what level you’re fighting the boss on in Where Winds Meet: