How Skill Theft works in Where Winds Meet

Where Winds Meet features a wide array of Mystic Arts, Weapon Skills, and other great techniques that require you to use Skill Theft to claim them. Your first experience with this will likely come pretty early if you start exploring the Verdant Wilds as soon as you can.

Whenever you first come across a skill that requires Skill Theft, the game will explain it to you, so it’s likely going to be Tai Chi, Meridian Touch, or Toad Leap.

While it’s not incredibly challenging to do in Where Winds Meet, Skill Theft is incredibly important if you plan on unlocking a good amount of powers and skills for your character. Here’s everything you need to know about this all-important technique.

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How to use Skill Theft in Where Winds Meet

Skill Theft is a Where Winds Meet mini-game that involves you watching an animal or person and imitating/learning their technique. It’s almost always done without that person or beast knowing you’re there, so it’s important to get a good position.

There’s typically going to be a location on the ground you’ll need to stand on to trigger Skill Theft. Sometimes, like with the Rope Dart martial art, you'll need to perform some extra steps to get into position, such as using the Disguise skill first.

Just get into the circle, activate Wind Sense, and get ready to steal! (Image via NetEase)

Once you’re on a quest or mission that requires you to Skill Theft, stand in the blue circle that the game gives you and activate Wind Sense. You’ll then get a meter and a timer on the screen to keep an eye on. The goal is to fill the meter by succeeding in pressing the button at the right time (when a Gold Ring is on screen). Failure will lower your Skill Theft meter (pressing the button when a Gray Ring is on the screen).

As long as you press the correct button before the Gold Ring goes away, the meter will increase. For keyboard/mouse players, it’s F on the keyboard and for PlayStation 5 controller users, it’s X on the controller. Each time you succeed in pressing the button at the right time, the bar at the bottom will fill up and indicate that a portion of the art or skill you’re learning has been understood.

Gold Rings are are good, while Grey Rings are bad (Image via NetEase)

For example, each success when learning Tai Chi will be tied to a set of the movements you make when the skill is active. For more complex things, like Skill Theft of a martial art such as Panacea Fans or Rope Dart, each success will involve one of the skills that martial art uses. Typically, you need four successes with no failures to fill the meter, though some may require fewer, such as the Tai Chi Mystic Art.

Another thing to keep in mind about Skill Theft in Where Winds Meet is that sometimes, especially on more difficult skills, you’ll have combos that can trigger. You will occasionally have several back-to-back Gold Rings pop up, and this will make sure you fill the meter much faster.

If you fail, you can try again, but as long as you keep focused on the Gold Rings, you should have no issue unlocking a wide assortment of skills in-game.

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Check out our other Where Winds Meet guides and features

• Where Winds Meet walkthrough: How to complete Volume VII - Ruins of a Thousand Buddhas
• How to change time in Where Winds Meet (and why you should want to)
• Where Winds Meet walkthrough: How to complete Volume VI - Twelve Years of Grudges