How to upgrade the Gourd in Black Myth Wukong

Black Myth: Wukong has lots of things in common with the Souls games, and rechargeable healing potions are among them. The Gourd is Wukong’s version of a healing potion, and it gets its charges back every time you rest at a Shrine, but this makes enemies respawn, too.

You need all the healing you can get to progress in Black Myth: Wukong, so you should upgrade your Gourd whenever you have the opportunity. You can upgrade the number of uses or mix in different ingredients to alter the Gourd’s effects, but first, you need to find Shen Monkey in Chapter One.

How to find Shen Monkey in Black Myth Wukong

To upgrade the healing Gourd in Black Myth: Wukong, you need to speak to Shen Monkey. You can find this NPC after the Bamboo Grove – Marsh of White Mist Shrine, which you reach after beating Guangmou. He’s a non-optional boss encounter, so if you haven’t found Guangmou or the above Shrine just yet, keep progressing.

From the Marsh of White Mist Shrine, proceed forward across the rickety wooden bridges. There’s a fork in the path; you can head left to collect a Celestial Pill from a small chest, directly ahead to continue the level, or right to enter a small cave where you’ll find Shen Monkey and a Meditation Spot. Shen Monkey remains in this cave after finding him, so you can freely come back to visit him in later chapters.

How to upgrade healing Gourd in Black Myth Wukong

When you speak to Shen Monkey, he gives you a few dialog choices. For now, the important ones are Upgrade Gourds and Upgrade Drinks.

Choose Upgrade Gourds to add charges to your healing potion. Each upgrade requires a certain number of Luojia Fragrant Vines, a rare medicinal herb you’ll find while exploring. By default, you start with the Old Gourd, which has four charges. If you pre-ordered, you get the Trailblazer’s Scarlet Gourd, which starts with five charges instead.

Choose Upgrade Drinks to increase the potency of your healing potion’s Drink, making it restore more health. This requires Awaken Wine Worm, another rare item you sometimes find in chests.

You can choose which Drink to mix into your Gourd—you start with 5-Year-Old Coconut Wine, which recovers a flat 33 percent health. Upgrading your Coconut Wine costs one Awaken Wine Worm per upgrade level. You’ll find more Drinks as you play Black Myth: Wukong, but in the early game, it’s worth using all your Worms to upgrade your Coconut Wine.

Shen Monkey sells an Awaken Wine Worm for 1,500 gold and a Luojia Fragrant Vine for 2,000 gold. If you have enough money, buy them both. The extra healing helps substantially during the first chapter.

How to add Soaks to healing Gourd in Black Myth Wukong

On top of this, you can augment your healing Gourd’s effects by adding Soaks—another ingredient you’ll find while exploring the world, often when picking herbs. To add Soaks, either speak to Shen Monkey or rest at a Shrine, then select the Brew option.

Soaks give you a small but helpful bonus effect whenever you heal in Black Myth. For example, the Gall Gem temporarily increases your Poison Resistance, the Goat Skull temporarily increases your maximum health, and the Celestial Lotus Seeds give your Gourd a small heal-over-time effect in addition to its base healing.

You can always change your Gourd’s Drink or Soak when you rest at any Shrine, so don’t worry about coming back to Shen Monkey unless you need upgrades.