All you need to know about the Elemental Virtue system in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty.
Koei Tecmo’s Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty does everything a good Soulsborne title should do. Great combat, weapons, enemies, bosses, and a great story inspired by the Chinese War of the Five Kingdoms. You can use magic, cast spells, and call on your Companions to take out both humans and demons in glorious combat. Lastly, you also need to focus on your character’s growth by leveling up and strengthening your stats.
While most RPGs’ level-up system has a similar concept of adding special points to different common attributes like Health, Strength, Dexterity, etc., Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty does things differently by introducing Chinese philosophy elements. This gives you a feeling of always staying within the game’s theme and universe, even when leveling up your character and scrolling down menus.
In Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, you level up by the Elemental Virtue system. Here, you spend points on five Elemental Virtues, each of which is tied to a specific stat and the power scaling of weapons tied to that Virtue. You can increase your HP, strength, magic, and more by leveling up Virtues.
Each Virtue develops other secondary stats that define a character build. So for a preferred playstyle, you’ll focus on one Virtue more than the others with some mix and matches, and things can get confusing here.
Hence, this guide outlines everything you need to know about the Elemental Virtue leveling-up system in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty and how it affects your character and gameplay.
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What are Elemental Virtues in Wo Long Fallen Dynasty?
Taken from Chinese Philosophy, the Elemental Virtues dictate how you interact with your surroundings and the universe around you; it dictates who you are. Hence, your character grows by raising the level of these Elemental Virtues.
Genuine Qi is needed to raise your stats through the Virtues. To obtain Qi, you need to defeat enemies. The usual way to collect xp points, or in this case, Genuine Qi. There are 5 Elemental Phases. They are:
- Wood
- Fire
- Water
- Metal
- Earth
Each Virtue holds three stats. Every time you spend Qi on a Virtue, your HP 2 stats and damage bonus of a weapon with the same Virtue increase. Furthermore, Elemental Virtue has type matchups through weaknesses and strengths. Consequently, leveling up Virtues also changes defence/resistance with other Virtues.
For beginners, you should start by leveling up your Wood to quickly raise HP and Spirit Defense and increase your Fire Virtue to raise Attack. Furthermore, raising your Virtues that match your preferred weapons for maximum damage and skills would be best.
Elemental Phases
The game’s magic system is also tied to this, called the Elemental Phase. Similar to Elemental Virtue, Elemental Phases let you cast magic from the five Elemental Virtues. Likewise, magic spells are stronger or weaker according to the Phase Virtues. Meanwhile, weapon damage is reflected by Elemental Virtues.
- Wood is strong against Earth
- Earth is strong against Water
- Water is strong against Fire
- Fire is strong against Metal
- Metal is strong against Wood
To unlock and use Wizardry Spells, you need to increase your Elemental Virtue to specific levels.
So by now, it’s clear that each Elemental Virtue reflects different character build and playstyle. Read below to know more about each Elemental Virtue and what stats they consist of to build your perfect warrior in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty.
Wood Elemental Virtue
- Stats:
- HP
- Spirit Defense
- Wood Affinity
- Earth Resistance
- Spell Duration
- Weapon: Swords
- Weak Against: Metal
Wood Virtue revolves around keeping you standing longer as it increases your HP, Spell Duration, and Spirit Defense. Increased Spell Duration is particularly useful as most spells from Wood Virtue grant various buffs and resistances, and increased Spirit Defense means you lose less Spirit when attacked.
Spells from Wood Virtue include casting wind or lightning spells or spells that use plants and trees to fight or defend. Wood spells also inflict a shock status effect, lowering resistance to Toxins and passively decreasing Spirit.
Water Elemental Virtue
- Stats:
- HP
- Stealth
- Spirit Consumption Rate from Deflect
- Water Affinity
- Fire Resistance
- Weapon: Dual Swords, Ranged Weapons
- Weak Against: Earth
If you’re more of the stealth and silent takedown kind of player, you should invest some Qi in Water. Water raises your stealth by making you silent and decreasing enemy awareness of your presence.
Moreover, Water Virtue also decreases the rate of spirit consumption from deflection. This lets you deflect more often without getting drained of Spirit when you fail and become completely vulnerable as failing deflection lowers Spirit.
You should spend your Qi on Water the least, as you’ll hardly get to play with stealth. Focusing on deflection will not always be a good idea. If you cannot time it right, you can spend these points raising Attack and defensive-based stats instead.
Spells from Water Virtue let you manipulate Ice and perform powerful Ice magic and inflict Chill
Fire Elemental Virtue
- Stats:
- HP
- Spirit Gain Rate for Attacking
- Spirit Consumption Rate from Martial Arts
- Fire Affinity
- Metal Resistance
- Weapon: Straight Sabre
- Weak Against: Water
Fire Virtue is for the players who want to go on an offensive spree. It raises all the stats needed to let you fight close-up with powerful blows and combos.
Raising Fire means you gain Spirit by attacking faster, and Spirit consumption from Martial Arts is lowered. This allows you to quickly perform powerful Martial Arts quickly.
As usual, Fire spells include casting or summoning fireballs or large blazes of Fire. Fire Wizardry spell casts Burn, reducing Ice resistance and passively decreasing HP.
Metal Elemental Virtue
- Stats:
- HP
- Spirit Stability
- Spirit Consumption Rate from Wizardry Spells
- Metal Affinity
- Wood Resistance
- Weapon: Curved Sabres
- Weak Against: Fire
Metal Virtue is for players who want to play with a sorcerer/magician/caster build, and it raises everything needed to make sure you can consistently cast spells.
It increases Spirit Stability, which means your Spirit Meter will stay positive longer, allowing you to cast powerful spells quickly. This is useful when fighting against multiple enemies or quick bosses. Metal also reduces Spirit drained from casting spells, letting you cast more spells.
Metal Virtue uses poison-based spells that inflict status effects more than doing raw damage.
Earth Elemental Virtue
- Stats:
- HP
- Spirit Gain Rate from Deflecting
- Max Equipment Weight
- Earth Affinity
- Water Resistance
- Weapon: Curved Glaives
- Weak Against: Wood
Increasing Earth raises the maximum weight you can wear, hence letting you wear heavier equipment which in turn offers more protection. Additionally, successful deflection increases your Spirit gain, letting you block and then finish off enemies with a few powerful strikes. Combining Earth and Wood or Earth and Water is a good option. The first combo will give you a more tank build. The second combo lets you retain more Spirit while deflecting.
Earth spell casts magic attacks using the ground around you and stones, and can also inflict a status effect to slow-down enemies.
More guides and tips on Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty to follow: Divine Beasts Guide, All Weapons Location, Companions Guide.
