Can you transform back into a Cicada in Black Myth Wukong?

When you reach the Outside the Forest Keeper’s Shrine in the Forest of Wolves in Black Myth: Wukong, the Keeper turns you into a Golden Cicada so that you can scout the area ahead. This is useful, so you might be wondering if you can transform into a cicada again.

I actually figured that Outside the Forest Keeper’s Shrine would be a good point to take a break, so I quit the game pretty much as soon as the transformation cut scene finished. When I reloaded my save, I was standing by the shrine in monkey form. To be honest, I had completely forgotten about the Cicada by then.

Other Black Myth: Wukong players have had similar experiences, with many reporting that they accidentally de-transformed, and then wanted to transform back into a Cicada, but couldn’t. So, is there a way to turn back into a Cicada? Or is this just a one-time thing?

Can you transform back into a Golden Cicada in Black Myth Wukong?

The short answer is that you can’t transform back into a Golden Cicada once you’ve de-transformed or, in my case, quit the game. It seems weird that Game Science put time, effort, and cost into putting a playable (and easily missable) Cicada scouting mode into the game, only to implement it just once, but no one has found any way to transform back yet. And that includes Dot Esports’ reviewer, who got the game early and has explored it pretty thoroughly already. But, of course, this wouldn’t be the first time Game Science has done something a bit weird.

My guess is that at some point in the game’s development process, the Golden Cicada was going to be a scouting spell that you could use whenever you liked, but for some reason, it was taken out—but not before the developer built the whole feature, so it included this one-off instance so that all that work didn’t go completely to waste. This is just speculation, however.

I can see why the feature would have been cut, too. The environment designs generally aren’t that complex, so it’s pretty easy to find your way without scouting and the aid of a map or compass.

The good news is that you can transform into a variety of other things using transformation Spells and Spirits, and these start unlocking pretty soon after the Cicada incident. Oh, and if anyone does discover a Golden Cicada spell somewhere, we’ll be sure to update this guide.