So you’ve made your way through Cloudspire and have now finally entered the stunning Snowfall Palace in WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers. Here, you’ll find plenty of enemies, our old friend Panda, as well as some other characters such as the Plain Warrioress and Huang Yan. Mistress of the Night Huang Yan might seem alright at first, but once you venture beneath the Palace, you’ll soon find her geared up for a fight against you.
The fight against Mistress of the Night Huang Yan isn’t the most challenging fight you’ll have had yet, but she can still be quite troublesome to counter, especially as she enters her chaotic second phase. To help you with taking her down, here’s our WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers Mistress of the Night Huang Yan boss fight.
WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers Huang Yan boss guide
Mistress of the Night Huang Yan is a character and eventually, boss, that you’ll run into in WUCHANG: Fallen Feather’s Snowfall Palace. This particular foe isn’t too troubling given that she utilises spellcasting and kicking above all else – rather than super fast swords like the very challenging Commander Honglan – but she still poses a threat.
While she might not have a sword, her kick attacks can be damning, especially if you’re unfortunate enough to recover from one to be knocked back down again (this, embarrassingly, happened to me more than once). On top of that, her second phase – which sees her regularly but temporarily transforming into the white wolf scarf she is wearing – is hard to keep up with.
In this Mistress of the Night Huang Yan boss guide, we detail Huang Yan’s moveset, some strategies for taking her down, and what rewards you’ll receive from defeating her.
WUCHANG Mistress of the Night Huang Yan moveset
Your time dealing with bosses that inflict both Frostbite and Corruption in WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers is not over yet, given that Mistress of the Night Huang Yan uses a mixture of Spells that can inflict both. As a result, popping any consumable items that aid with Frostbite or Corruption build-up to your toolbelt is a good idea, though you don’t need to worry about these too much if you’re consistently dodging attacks.
During the first phase of the fight against Huang Yan, her moveset is surprisingly simple, but a little bit annoying. She uses a lantern to cast spells, and her melee attacks consist of kicking and stomping. So, if you were hoping to parry Huang Yan into the next life, I’m sorry. There’s no such opportunities here.
Instead, melee builds will need to consistently attack her while avoiding her kicks, while spellcasters will have a much easier but longer time during this fight. This is because it’s very easy to take Huang Yan down using Magic given that she’s not a fast, sword-wielding boss, but because of this, building up Skyborn Might can take quite a while unless spellcasters are confident enough to get up close and personal with Huang Yan and dodge her attacks (thus, stacking Skyborn Might needed to cast spells).
Huang Yan’s initial moves consist of kicking combos if you get close to her, but a lot of the time, she’ll be slinging Corruption-inflicting projectiles – books, ornaments, and more – at you from around the room that are easily avoided. Try dodge them where possible to build up your Skyborn Might, unless your build is capable of naturally stacking it quickly.
At other points, and if you’re keeping your distance from Huang Yan, she’ll conjure a huge orb of Corruption that then slowly sends smaller Corruption-inflicting orbs at you, or she’ll cast a wide arc of Corruption-inflicting orbs. In both instances, the orbs are quite slow and easily dodged or ran away from.
To close the distance on occasion, Huang Yan will summon a cloud of Frost around her before vanishing and reappearing beside you. While she doesn’t always go in for an attack after this, you should prepare to dodge her kicks, as there’s a chance she will immediately kick at you. You can recognise when she is about to do this as she raises her leg before coming in for the kick.
Similarly, Huang Yan won’t always phase around the room when coming to melee attack you; sometimes she will raise her leg and simply lunge at you before unleashing her kicking combo. This combo is also occasionally concluded with a stomp, so while the end of the combo can be a good opportunity to attack, you want to be cautious of her wrapping things up with a stomp and staggering you.
Last, but not least, Huang Yan occasionally stops to breathe Frost at you, and the attack has pretty good reach. That said, it’s the least threatening of her attacks as you can just sprint to the side of the Frost, and maybe even run behind her and attack if you’re close enough to her when she uses this attack.
Once Huang Yan reaches approximately half of her HP, she enters second phase. During this phase, she will regularly transform into her white wolf scarf, hovering around the room, until plunging at you with a large Frost attack, and this can happen multiple times. Once you see the wolf lean its head back and prepare to go in for the attack, that’s your cue to dodge to the side.
After attacking once or twice, Huang Yan returns to her usual form and continues to use her first phase attacks. She will, however, continue to transform into the wolf and back during this phase. Given the aerial and fast nature of the wolf, he can be quite hard to successfully attack – both melee and as a spellcaster – if you’re also focused on dodging his slam attack or the trails of Frost he leaves behind, so I recommend saving your Skyborn Might for attacking Huang Yan’s human form.
WUCHANG Mistress of the Night Huang Yan strategy
There are two main strategies for taking on Mistress of the Night Huang Yan in WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers: melee and magic.
Melee strategy
Many of our other boss guides (see Commander Honglan or Liu Cheng’en) highly recommend that melee builds use a mixture of parrying and Clash and Deflect attacks to take down bosses. This same strategy sadly can’t be applied to Huang Yan as she does not wield a conventional weapon for us to parry, Clash, or Deflect. Instead, melee users want to attack relentlessly when there’s opportunity – which there is quite a lot of during this fight – and try to backstab Huang Yan at the end of her combos.
Relentlessly attacking Huang Yan where we can means we’ll be building up her Obliterate Value, and soon enough, she’ll be open for an Obliterate Strike (which is essentially a Critical Hit). If you instead manage to successfully backstab her following a combo of hers, you might even be lucky enough to pull off an Obliterate Strike immediately, dealing a chunk of damage to the boss.
Melee weapons with long reach – such as the Lashing Whip Longsword or Steampowered Spear – will work particularly well here, allowing you to poke at Huang Yan while also maintaining just enough distance that you can easily dodge away from, or to the side of, her attacks.
Magic strategy
Whenever bosses are particular fast and tough in WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers, I’ve been recommending the same, slightly cheesy strat: using Spells with Alacrity (which allows you to negate some incoming damage if attacked while casting) and the Darkfrost Edge One-Handed Swords’ weapon skill, Evasive Maneuver.
Evasive Maneuver, when used, causes you to dodge sideways. It then also allows you to automatically dodge the next incoming attack, which is great for survivability against more relentless bosses and stacking Skyborn Might quickly. That said, we don’t actually need the Evasive Maneuver skill here at all, as we don’t have all that much to dodge really (especially if keeping distance between you and Huang Yan), as long as you have the timing of Huang Yan’s kick attacks – and her second phase fox’s plunge attacks – down.
Instead, I recommend the Astral Blade One-Handed Sword, which should help you with quickly regenerating Skyborn Might passively, while also dealing more Spell damage than Darkfrost Edge. On top of that, decide exactly which Spells you’re going to use, and unlock Skill Nodes in the Impetus Repository that correspond with their damage type (to boost your attack power). This could be Magic or Feathering, but I personally prefer Magic Spells such as Burning Flames.
With this build, you simply need to play around Huang Yan and her attacks patiently while your Skyborn Might regenerates. Once you have enough to sling a Spell of your choice at her, do it, and if that Spell has Alacrity – which will help you negate some damage if she attacks while you’re casting – then even better! I also recommend using Spells that inflict the same status ailment (whether that’s Burn, Blight, or Leech) so you can fully build-up these ailments on her quickly.
WUCHANG Mistress of the Night Huang Yan rewards
After successfully defeating Mistress of the Night Huang Yan in WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers, you’ll receive the Shell Cup item that you can give to Merchant Tao Qing to expand his inventory. On top of that, you’ll also receive the Echo of Huang Yan Spell, and the Research Journal – Scrap 1 story item.
For more on WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers, take a look at our tips and tricks to help you during your journey through the land of Shu, check out how to upgrade your weapons and maximise their potential, and if you’re curious as to who you’re fighting next – or which bosses you may have missed – then take a look at our boss list.