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Where Winds Meet Version 1.4 (Hexi) launches on March 6 and introduces the Bamboocut Dust Martial Arts path, built around the Everspring Umbrella and the Unfettered Rope Dart - a highly mobile, AOE focused path that rewards aggression, smart repositioning, and active debuff management. Alongside the two new weapons, Hexi brings four brand new Inner Ways. This guide covers both weapons, their full skill kits, and all four new Inner Ways.
Everspring Umbrella
A mobility-first weapon that doesn't win fights through raw damage but by being hard to pin down. The core loop revolves around throwing the umbrella to a location and teleporting to or from it, letting you reposition across the battlefield on demand. Its kit leans into area denial and crowd control, making it particularly effective at pressuring groups from range.
Skills
Charged Attack (Dreamwrought Bubbles): A ranged throw that hits on the way out and again on the return, leaving a Phantom Umbrella at the landing point. Only one Phantom can exist at a time.
Special Skill (Cyclone Waltz): Spin the umbrella on the ground to deal continuous damage and pull nearby enemies inward. You can move freely during it. If a Phantom Umbrella is on the field, activating Cyclone Waltz teleports you to the Phantom's position, leaving a new one where you stood. Cast again within five seconds to swap back.
Martial Art Skill (Scarlet Spin): The Everspring Umbrella's signature ability. You hurl the umbrella outward at the target and it returns to you. On activation, you enter Flower Burial for 12 seconds. During this window, your Fading Crimson charges - four petals shown near your weapon UI - stop regenerating, and each throw consumes one. You can throw the umbrella up to four times, with each throw hitting enemies twice along the return path. Flower Burial ends when the duration runs out or your charges are depleted. Timing your button press as the umbrella returns performs a Perfect Catch, enhancing the next throw and triggering extra effects based on your Inner Way tier.
Must Have Inner Way for the Everspring Umbrella: Phantom Rally
The go-to Inner Way for Everspring Umbrella, Phantom Rally is built entirely around amplifying the Scarlet Spin throw cycle. The first umbrella throw summons a Phantom, and every third throw after summons another. Each time a Perfect Catch is performed or a new Phantom appears, all Phantoms resonate simultaneously - dealing area damage wherever they stand. Higher tiers add Physical Resistance shred and a pull effect.
- Tier 1: Perfect Catch restores 10 Fading Crimson.
- Tier 2: Increases Critical Rate based on Solo Mode Level.
- Tier 3: Enemies damaged by resonance receive Phantom Chime for 5 seconds, reducing their Physical Resistance by 2, stacking up to 5 times.
- Tier 4: Resonance deals 20% more damage and pulls in nearby enemies (ineffective against bosses). The pull-in effect can only trigger once every 20 seconds, and enemies can only be pulled in once every 20 seconds regardless of the source of resonance.
- Tier 5: Physical Damage bonus +2.8%.
Unfettered Rope Dart
A close-to-mid range weapon built around stacking debuffs and cashing them out for burst damage. It's not the flashiest kit, but it applies consistent pressure through combos that stagger and pull enemies. The central mechanic is Soul Loss - stack it seven times on a target and it converts to Soulbreak, which increases the damage they take and sets up your Special Skill for a big hit.
Skills
Charging Stance (Dart Song Fills the Wild): Enter a charging stance, gaining Tenacity throughout. How long you hold determines the power of your follow-up attack, with the charge unlocking new effects at 1.5, 3, and 4.5 seconds - adding hit stagger, HP recovery, and Qi recovery respectively. The number of Tokens of Gratitude you currently hold (shown as two icons near your weapon UI) determines how powerful the follow-up Charged Skill becomes.
Charged Skill (Dart Song Fills the Wild / Piercing Dart): A multi-hit sweep whose number of hits scales with how many Tokens of Gratitude you spend.
Martial Art Skill (Soul Sweep): Enters Soulbound state and enchants your rope dart, then performs three wide sweeping strikes. While Soulbound, hits apply Soul Loss to enemies - seven stacks convert to Soulbreak, which makes targets take increased damage. After the sweeps end, you automatically enter Charging Stance, and the next Charged Skill will also trigger Soulbound, keeping the debuff cycle going. Applying Soulbreak grants Soul Return, reducing the resource cost of your Martial Art skills.
Special Skill (Burn and Bury): Snap your fingers to detonate the debuff, dealing damage and slowing the target.
Must Have Inner Way for the Unfettered Rope Dart: Towline Sweep
The essential Inner Way for the Unfettered Rope Dart. It tightens the weapon's loop in two ways: casting Soul Sweep immediately grants 50 Tokens of Gratitude, so your next Charged Skill hits harder. In Soulbound state, every hit of the Charged Skill combo applies 2 debuff stacks directly, and the first hit pulls enemies toward you - keeping them in range for the rest of the chain.
- Tier 1: Burn and Bury deals 15% increased damage and is guaranteed to be Critical. The finger snap refreshes your own Soul Return state, and immediately calculates and refreshes the Soulbreak state on enemies within 15 meters. When calculating Soulbreak's damage, the damage multiplier is increased to 10%.
- Tier 2: Increases Bamboocut Penetration by 6.
- Tier 3: When the Soul Drain effect ends, an additional 5% of the damage dealt by the inflictor during the effect is settled.
- Tier 4: Piercing Dart's sweeping combo deals increased damage: 5% bonus for 1st to 3rd hit, 10% bonus for the 4th and 5th hit, and 15% bonus for the 6th and 7th hit.
- Tier 5: Increases Min Bamboocut Attack based on Solo Mode Level.
- Tier 6: The duration of Soulbreak and Soul Return is increased to 18 seconds
Recommended Martial Art Combo
Start by throwing Dreamwrought Bubbles into the enemy group to plant a Phantom Umbrella in position. Activate Cyclone Waltz to swap into it, pulling enemies together, then cast it again to return to where you started. From there, go into Scarlet Spin to work through your throw cycle. Swap to the Unfettered Rope Dart, cast Soul Sweep to enter Soulbound and start stacking Soul Loss, then follow up with the Charged Skill to push those stacks into Soulbreak. Finish with Burn and Bury to detonate.
Optional Inner Ways
The following two Inner Ways are not essential picks for either of the two new weapons, but offer useful utility and can be slotted in depending on your preferred playstyle.
Light Anew
A stacking debuff Inner Way that rewards hitting multiple enemies at once. Land hits on two or more targets simultaneously and they receive Candle Shadow - up to 5 stacks, each reducing their movement speed and increasing the damage they take. Stacks build quickly since any source can contribute one every 0.5 seconds. At full stacks and higher tiers, enemies become briefly Immobilised - making this Inner Way a solid choice for crowd-heavy content.
- Tier 1: Candlelight's duration is increased to 5 seconds.
- Tier 2: Increase Min Physical based on Solo Mode Level.
- Tier 3: Damaging an enemy with 5 stacks of Candlelight Immobilises them for 2 seconds (ineffective against bosses). This effect can only Immobilise 1 enemy every 20 seconds, and this enemy can only be Immobilised once by the Light the Lantern effect from any source within 20 seconds.
- Tier 4: Candlelight can be applied when you hit no less than 2 enemies simultaneously.
- Tier 5: Increases Physical Penetration by 5.1.
- Tier 6: Deal 3% more damage to enemies with max Candlelight stacks. If they are more than 8 meters away from you when damaged, the damage increase is raised to 6%.
Song of Tang
A stacking self-buff that rewards staying on the offensive. Every Martial Art Skill hit grants a stack of Song of Tang, up to five, each adding Critical Damage bonus and HP Drain to your Martial Art Skills. Stacks decay after seven seconds, so it rewards consistent pressure. Later tiers remove the max HP restriction.
- Tier 1: Song of Tang's duration is increased to 7 seconds.
- Tier 2: Increases Precision Rate based on Solo Mode Level.
- Tier 3: Song of Tang's Martial Art Skill Critical Damage bonus and HP Drain are increased to 3%, and you can gain up to 2 stacks per second.
- Tier 4: Hitting no less than 2 enemies simultaneously with a Martial Art Skill grants 1 extra stack of Song of Tang. This effect can only trigger up to 2 times per second.
- Tier 5: Critical Damage Bonus +4.0%.
- Tier 6: Song of Tang effect is no longer restricted by current HP.
