As an action RPG with some Soulslike elements, Black Myth: Wukong has a deep and expanding skill tree to explore. Unlike a lot of other skill trees, this one only has a few stat-buffing skills while the rest add or modify your existing moves. This makes each skill feel more impactful, but also puts a lot more pressure on you to make good choices early on to know what will or will not help you beat the early bosses. And make no mistake, these bosses won’t go easy on you. You have a long journey ahead of you in Black Myth: Wukong, so make sure you get off on the right foot by knowing which are the best skills to get first.
Robust Construction/Rampant Vigor
The easiest stats to recommend putting a few early points into are Robust Construction and Rampant Vigor. These are the only two pure stat-increasing skills, with the former being one of the few ways to increase your health and the latter adding more stamina. It will be a while before you find more options to increase either of these stats, or improve your healing gourd, so these are a safe way to muscle your way through tough bosses.
Crash
The first spell you get access to in Black Myth: Wukong is Immobalize, which almost feels overpowered from the start. It allows you to freeze any enemy or boss in place so you can wail on them without fear of retaliation, or give yourself a moment to heal and regain your composure. It is best used offensively, and the Crash upgrade makes it even more effective. You can invest two levels into this skill that each increase the amount of damage you deal to an enemy you have frozen with Immobilize.
Composure
Composure will take a little bit of investing to reach in the Stamina branch of the skill tree, but it is well worth it. Normally when you dodge while in the middle of a combo, you will start over once you start attacking again after the dodge. This prevents you from doing the powerful finisher to your combo in most cases since bosses don’t generally hold still long enough for you to get through the entire string of hits. Composure gives you what is sometimes called dodge-offset, where dodging in the middle of your combo and immediately attacking will continue from where you left off in the combo to more easily land finishers.
Simian Agility
There’s no blocking or parrying in Black Myth: Wukong, so dodging is your one and only defensive option. Naturally, that means you’re going to be dodging almost all the time. Stamina management is key during boss fights where you need to avoid long attack strings before getting a chance to counterattack. If you dodge too much, though, you might not have any stamina left to attack. Simian Agility lets you cut down on the stamina cost of dodging so you are always able to dodge or attack when needed.
Mobile Spin
You might write Mobile Spin off when you first look at it, but this will become an almost essential skill after the first few hours and ranged enemies start showing up more often. You can always hold down the spin button to deflect incoming arrows like a Jedi, but it locks you in place. Mobile Spin lets you keep moving while knocking arrows away so you can make a safe approach. It won’t be long before multiple rangers are shooting at you in an almost constant stream that you can’t break through without this skill. Snag it early, and you’ll be happy you did when the archers start spamming you.
