Wukong holding a staff in Black Myth Wukong

Image via Game Science

Best Skills to unlock first in Black Myth Wukong

These Skills make the early game substantially easier.

Tom Foley

Published: Aug 20, 2024 04:35 am

In Black Myth: Wukong, you level up after you collect enough XP, which grants you one Skill Point. You can invest your Skill Points into many different Skill trees, most of which you unlock from the get-go, so working out which Skills to buy is easier said than done.

Best early-game Skills in Black Myth Wukong

Best early-game Foundation Skills

The Skill tree interface menu in Black Myth Wukong — A solid Foundation is crucial for every Monkey King. Screenshot by Dot Esports

Most of the Skills you should target in the early game are in the Foundation category. These Skills give you simple but valuable bonuses like more health, stamina, and Critical Hit chance, and you can’t go wrong by giving yourself more damage and survivability.

Skill	Tree	Effect	Notes
Simian Agility	Stamina	Moderately reduces the Stamina cost of Dodging.	Running out of Stamina stops you from chaining dodges or using finishers, and you’ll be dodging a lot, so this Skill is a godsend.
Deft Evasion	Stamina	Makes each initial Dodge more agile and flexible.	Your first dodge goes further and has more i-frames. Doesn’t apply if you keep chaining dodges. Helps survivability.
Endurance	Stamina	Moderately reduces the Stamina cost of Sprinting.	This one isn’t too important, although it’s nice to have. Importantly, getting this Skill is a prerequisite to unlocking Composure.
Everlasting Vigor	Stamina	Slightly increases Stamina recovery rate when depleted.	Attacking and dodging consumes Stamina, and this Skill gives you more gas in the tank.
Composure	Stamina	Dodging no longer interrupts Light Attack Combo.	This is an excellent Skill that lets you dodge mid-combo without having to start your attack chain again, so you’ll be flipping around like a true monkey ninja. It also applies to Perfect Dodges.
Swift Engage	Martial Arts	Significantly increases the engage distance of Light Attack Starter.	This Skill makes your Light Attack act as a gap-closer, which is especially important against Black Myth: Wukong’s agile enemies and bosses.
Effortless Finisher	Martial Arts	Grants more Focus when the second move of your Light Attack Combo hits an enemy.	You almost always attack more than once with your Light Attack, so this Skill gives you lots of extra Focus—ideal for using Resolute Strike often.
Robust Constitution	Survival	Moderately increases Maximum Health.	More Health lets you survive more hits—simple as that. You can invest up to six points in this Skill (and all the following ones), and it’s well worth it.
Rampant Vigor	Survival	Moderately increases Maximum Stamina.	Like Everlasting Vigor, this Skill lets you attack and dodge more before you need to back off and let your Stamina recharge.
Wrathful Escalation	Survival	Moderately increases Critical Hit Chance.	Wrathful Escalation is probably my favorite early-game skill. Each level gives you an extra one percent Crit Chance, or six percent if you max the Skill—that’s nothing to scoff at.
Rough Skin	Survival	Moderately increases Defense.	Don’t sleep on Defense. Enemies from Chapter Two and onward deal tons of damage, especially bosses. The less damage you take, the easier it is to learn bosses’ movesets and overcome the odds.

Best early-game Staff Stance Skills

A few early-game Staff Stance Skills are very useful, particularly the one that gives you Resolute Strike. This lets you mix Heavy Attacks into your Light Attack combo, which deals lots more damage and can stagger enemies—even bosses.

Aside from these two important Skills, at the very start of your journey, you’re better off investing your points into the Foundation Skills in the table above. If you’re happy with your character’s damage and survivability, feel free to start investing in new Staff Stances.

Skill	Tree	Effect	Notes
Resolute Counterflow	Smash Stance	Performing a Heavy Attack during a Light Attack combo lets you perform Resolute Strike.	Resolute Strike lets you see through enemy attacks and nullify their damage, and also makes them easier to stagger—a lifesaver against bosses.
Exhilaration	Smash Stance	Slightly increases Health recovery upon consuming a Focus Point.	After spending three points in the Staff Stances tree, you unlock Focused Attack II, which gives you an extra Focus Point. This lets you perform an extra Resolute Strike.

Best early-game Transformation Skills

I advise you not to invest your Skill Points into Transformation until you’ve gained substantial power from the Foundation and Staff Stances trees. Your Transformations are kind of like an Ultimate ability—they take a long time to recharge, and in the beginning, you can usually only use them once per boss fight. For this reason, you get more mileage out of your Skill Points in the early game by investing them into basic stat increases and combo enablers.

Skill	Tree	Effect	Notes
Moon Roam	Transformations	Moderately increases the damage of the next attack after a Perfect Dodge.	This effect seems to apply to your character at all times, not just while transformed. Once you git gud, you’ll be Perfect Dodging a lot, so the extra damage is nice.
Steadfast	Transformations	Moderately increases Defense.	You can’t go wrong with more Defense, especially after you reach Chapter Two, because enemies deal lots more damage.

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Author

Tom Foley

Tom is the UK Associate Editor for Dot Esports. He's the former TCG Editor for CBR and holds a Master's degree in Chemistry from the University of Edinburgh. Tom spent six years as a Science Editor for the Royal Society of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, and AstraZeneca before leaving science to pursue his dream career in games journalism at the start of 2023. He loves MMOs, RPGs, TCGs, and pretty much every game by FromSoftware—especially Dark Souls.