In Where Winds Meet, sects are less like a simple talent tree and more like roleplay contracts. Each one comes with its own combat theme, social rules, and progression systems. You can only belong to one at a time, you can leave (with a cost), and you can eventually sample them all—so the real question isn’t “What’s strongest?” but “Which rules do you want to live under?”
How sects actually work in Where Winds Meet
Sects in Where Winds Meet behave like a hybrid of class, faction, and social club:
| System | What it does |
|---|---|
| Sect affiliation | Defines your faction, reputation track, cosmetics, and special privileges. Only one sect at a time. |
| Signature martial arts | Each sect favors specific weapon styles and ultimates. You can unlock all weapons, but sects discount and theme certain ones. |
| Rules / precepts | Behavioral conditions that raise or lower your standing. Align with them and you gain value; violate them and you lose it. |
| Sect shop & cosmetics | Exclusive outfits and items unlocked by ranking up. Some players join mainly for the drip. |
| Reputation & Commands | Errand-style activities that grant reputation to climb ranks, with a weekly cap on reputation currency. |
| Switching sects | You can leave via the sect menu, pay a “penance” (often coin), wait a cooldown, then join another sect. |
| Sectless state | Default at the start. No rules, higher martial arts learning costs, and its own cosmetic path. |
When choosing the “best” sect, think less about raw power and more about three things:
- How you like to play (PvE, PvP, healer, trickster, social butterfly, solo wanderer)
- How comfortable you are living under each sect’s rules
- Which cosmetics and themes you care enough about to grind reputation for
Quick comparison of all sects and who they suit
| Sect | Signature style | Core fantasy | Best for players who… | Join status (launch) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Well of Heaven | Thundercry Blade | Rogue heroes, street justice, gifting wealth | Run lots of chivalrous deeds and like “good guy” RP | Joinable |
| Silver Needle | Panacea / Inkwell Fans | Doctors of Jianghu, paid healers | Play support, co-op often, and enjoy healing others | Joinable |
| Raging Tides | Heavenquaker / Stormbreaker Spears | Drunken spear legion | Love spears and the idea of fighting while drunk | Unavailable / not yet recruitable |
| Midnight Blades | Infernal Twinblades | Asura-like assassins, open-world PvP | Want constant PvP and negative karma gameplay | Joinable |
| Velvet Shade | Ninefold / Vernal Umbrella | Charm, relationships, spies | Lean into romance, social play, and stylish umbrellas | Unavailable or limited access |
| Nine Mortal Ways | Mortal Rope Dart | Tricksters, con artists, pranksters | Enjoy disguise, social tricks, and making coin creatively | Joinable |
| The Masked Troupe | Unknown | Performers, musicians, dancers | Want RP around performance more than combat | Unavailable |
| Hollow Vale | Soulshade Umbrella | Poison-healers, life–death balance | Like dark healer or necromancer aesthetics | Unknown how to join |
| Lone Cloud | Strategic Sword | Scholar tacticians, logic and riddles | Enjoy puzzles, math tests, and “brainy” play | Unavailable / gated |
| Inkbound Order | TBD | Legalists, scribes, bounty judges | Like law, order, and judiciary RP | Temporarily unjoinable |
| Mohist Hill | TBD | Engineers and idealists of the greater good | Prefer crafting, public welfare fantasy | Temporarily unjoinable |
| Sectless | Nameless Sword & Spear | Free wanderer with no code | Want maximum freedom and basic weapon styles | Always available |
Well of Heaven: best sect for heroic PvE roamers
Well of Heaven is the classic “wandering hero” fantasy: a faction of swordsmen who prioritize protecting commoners over respecting formal law. They favor the Thundercry Blade style and lean into chivalrous deeds and sharing wealth, including a red-envelope system that lets you gift coin to other players.
Their rules push you toward:
- Keeping weekly earnings within a certain range—grinding too much coin in a week can reduce your precept value.
- Refusing to harm fellow sect members; fratricide is punished.
- Accepting that the sect can dock a sizeable chunk of disciplinary points if you stray too far from its ethos.
Well of Heaven fits best if you:
- Focus on PvE, exploration, and helping weaker players.
- Like the righteous swordsman archetype more than the edge-lord assassin or trickster.
- Don’t mind earning money at a more moderate pace to stay within their rules.
To join, look for San Qian’er in Harvestfall Village in Qinghe and follow the lead about the “hero who gives wealth away” to unlock the entry path.
Silver Needle: best sect for healers and support mains
Silver Needle is the medical guild of Jianghu. Members wield fans—Panacea and Inkwell—for both combat and healing, and act as traveling doctors. Their worldview is utilitarian: every treatment has a price, and being a healer is both a calling and a profession.
The rules emphasize:
- Payment for services: you are expected to charge for diagnosis and rescue rather than spam-free heals.
- Multiplayer healing: using your skills to heal other players in co-op content boosts sect value.
- Social feedback: You need a steady stream of weekly “likes” from other players to avoid penalties.
Silver Needle is one of the strongest early picks if you:
- Like to main a support or healer role.
- Spend time in multiplayer content where healing others is frequent.
- Enjoy the idea of being a recognizable doctor NPC for your friend group or guild.
To start their path, find Dr. Sun Yuan near Sage’s Refuge in Moonveil Mountain (Qinghe) and pass the admission test.
Midnight Blades: best sect for dedicated PvP players
Midnight Blades is where the game stops pretending you are a neutral adventurer and leans into full Asura-path PvP. Members worship combat and karma: you gain power by killing other players and lose it by dying.
Under their rules you are expected to:
- Hunt “wanderers” in open-world PvP to accumulate karma points.
- Participate in specific modes like Midnight Judgement, where you defeat Sufferers and climb an Asura-like ladder by stealing their identities and karma.
- Travel to key locations such as the Perception Forest to rake in large karma rewards.
- “Spare no lives” in open-world fights; hesitation is not part of the fantasy.
Midnight Blades is the best sect if you:
- Want your entire endgame loop built around PvP kills and negative karma.
- Are comfortable being targeted and hunted by others in return.
- Love the Infernal Twinblades aesthetic and the idea of being feared on sight.
If you are nervous about open-world PvP, this is not the place to start, even if the outfits are some of the most striking in the game.
Nine Mortal Ways: best sect for tricksters and social engineers
Nine Mortal Ways is the rope-dart sect—and the playground for anyone who thinks “griefing” is only fun when it’s clever. Members use the Mortal Rope Dart and specialize in disguise, deception, and elaborate pranks.
Their rules reward:
- Jianghu Fun: teasing and tricking others to accumulate weekly “Fun Points.”
- Disguise systems: blending in as members of other sects and living “diverse lives,” which adds a social-engineering layer to your play.
- Staying out of jail: failed tricks and prison time cut into your virtue or precept values.
Nine Mortal Ways fits if you:
- Prefer clever mechanics and social interaction over direct DPS racing.
- Like the idea of stealing rather than donating via red-envelope mechanics.
- Are willing to risk occasional penalties when schemes backfire.
Entry usually starts by talking again to San Qian’er in Harvestfall Village and completing quests tied to street dealings and disguise, leading you into the sect’s orbit.
Raging Tides: strong spears, but wait-and-see for now
Raging Tides is all about spears and alcohol. The faction stands as a semi-military order whose disciples fight best while drunk and lose some of their edge when sober. They favor the Heavenquaker and Stormbreaker spear styles.
The rules are currently light on detail publicly, but one clear expectation exists: disciples should regularly fight to “keep the spear sharp,” treating constant battle as a form of daily maintenance.
As of the initial global rollout, Raging Tides is referenced as unavailable to join; in-world, the explanation leans on everyone having become too drunk at a banquet, including the leader. Treat this sect as a future project if you:
- Plan to main spear long-term.
- Like the vibe of martial revelers perched over water.
- Enjoy roleplaying a drunk fighter who must keep a bottle handy.
Velvet Shade: best sect for romance, RP, and umbrella enjoyers
Velvet Shade takes the relationship systems in Where Winds Meet and turns them into an ideology. It’s a sect built around charm, marriage, and sometimes polyamorous connections, framed in poetic language and spycraft. Umbrellas—particularly the Ninefold or Vernal styles—are part of their visual identity.
Its known rules emphasize:
- Projecting charm and trading affection for “hearts.”
- Visiting specific social hubs such as the Windtail Lounge.
- Collecting hearts liberally rather than focusing on a single bond, while still avoiding outright heartbreak.
Velvet Shade is attractive if you:
- Care more about social RP and relationships than raw minimaxing.
- Want umbrella-focused fashion and animations.
- Enjoy a spy-like, seduction-driven narrative around your character.
In early international builds the sect is flagged as not fully available, so it is more of a medium-term option than a day-one pick.
Hollow Vale: the dark healer sect with a strict balance
Hollow Vale is a niche fantasy: necromancer-adjacent healers obsessed with maintaining a balance between life and death. Members wield the Soulshade Umbrella and live among ancient graves, isolated from the living world.
Their rules are some of the most demanding conceptually:
- No Living Puppets: transforming living beings into “sleeping” or nightmare puppets is strictly forbidden, except when experimenting on yourself.
- Balance of Life and Death: for every life you heal, you must apply poison elsewhere. Ignoring this balance is said to trigger self-inflicted suffering.
- An additional hidden rule only revealed upon joining.
Hollow Vale is ideal if you:
- Like edgy support roles that mix healing and poison.
- Enjoy managing a balancing ledger rather than blindly spamming heals.
- Prefer an isolated, graveyard-based aesthetic.
At launch, the path to formally join Hollow Vale is left deliberately unknown, so expect it to act more as a late-game discovery or expansion content.
Lone Cloud: best sect for puzzle enjoyers and “smart swords”
Lone Cloud is the hyper-intellectual sect. Swords are part of the package—the Strategic Sword style in particular—but the core identity is scholar-strategist rather than brawler. Think of it as a home for players who like numbers and plans more than improvisational chaos.
Its rules lean hard into this theme:
- Old comrades’ blessings when reuniting, highlighting loyalty and continuity.
- The riddle of love: you are expected to commit to one romantic solution, with penalties for infidelity that can lock out marriage for a while.
- Streetwise Strategist: you are pushed to interact with dubious get-rich-quick offers on the street; ignoring them hurts your sect value.
Lone Cloud fits if you:
- Enjoy in-game math and logic tests.
- Want a sect that tangibly cares about your relationship choices.
- Prefer gameplay events that feel like brainteasers instead of pure reflex checks.
Joining requires passing an entrance exam built around math and logic, which is consistent with the sect’s character.
The Masked Troupe, Inkbound Order, and Mohist Hill: future-facing picks
Three of the named sects are more like promises than current homes, each with strong thematic hooks but limited practical access early on.
| Sect | Theme | Known rule highlight | Why you might wait for it |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Masked Troupe | Musicians and dancers; grace and simplicity | Rules and combat style not yet disclosed | Ideal if you’re a musician IRL or want to center performance and aesthetics over combat. |
| Inkbound Order | Scholars of law, close to the imperial court | “Writing and Scholarship” — sages’ words become law | Potentially attractive if you want to impose or lift bounties and inhabit a magistrate fantasy. |
| Mohist Hill | Craftsmen and technologists for the public good | “Universal Love” — mutual benefit for all | Compelling if you care about building things and improving the world around you, not just yourself. |
All three are explicitly described as not currently joinable or “temporarily unable to join” at launch, so treat them as slots to revisit once updates land.
Sectless: the best option if you’re overwhelmed or undecided
Being Sectless isn’t a failure state; it’s its own path. Every character starts this way, and some players plan to stay Sectless long enough to unlock unique cosmetics tied to that identity before picking a faction.
Sectless gives you:
- No behavioral rules, no precepts to violate, and no internal politics.
- Access to basic weapon styles like Nameless Sword and Nameless Spear.
- Higher costs in martial arts learning compared to sect members.
Sectless makes sense if you:
- Are still learning the game’s systems and don’t want extra constraints.
- Primarily play solo and don’t care about sect roleplay yet.
- Want to grind out Sectless-exclusive cosmetics as a first long-term project.
So which sect is “best” to start with?
If the goal is to play efficiently and still leave the door open for switching later, a few options stand out as strong first homes:
- Silver Needle for anyone who plays co-op regularly and doesn’t mind healing—its healing tools and co-op incentives make early progression smoother.
- Well of Heaven for players focused on PvE exploration, street-level justice fantasies, and a straightforward heroic identity.
- Nine Mortal Ways if you want a unique social and disguise toolkit plus the Mortal Rope Dart, without committing to constant PvP.
- Sectless if you’re still lost in menus or want to delay big choices while you experiment with weapons and systems.
Midnight Blades is objectively “best” only for one specific group: players who want to live in PvP queues and open-world ambushes. For everyone else, it’s smarter as a second or third sect once you understand how much PvP stress you’re willing to absorb.
The nice thing is that there is no permanent trap here. You can switch sects, rejoin old ones after a cooldown, and eventually collect all the cosmetics and weapon ultimates you care about. Start with the faction whose rules most closely match what you’re already doing in-game, and treat the rest of the sect system as a long-term tour of Jianghu cultures rather than a one-time class pick.
