Bitter Seasons is an Inner Way in Where Winds Meet that quietly turns every hit you land into a chance to strip enemy armor. It’s a universal passive that works with any weapon, and becomes especially valuable in long boss fights where enemies feel tankier than they should.
What Bitter Seasons actually does
On paper, Bitter Seasons looks like a simple poison passive. In practice, it’s an armor-shredding engine built for high-defense targets.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Type | Inner Way (Internal Art), Epic rarity |
| Path / Weapon | General / Universal (works with all weapons) |
| Tag | Attack, Debuff, Stacking |
| Base effect | 10% chance on any damage to apply Poison |
| Poison duration | 5 seconds, ticking once per second |
| Defense debuff | −0.6% Physical Defense for 10 seconds per stack |
| Max stacks | 5 (duration refreshed when you add a stack) |
The direct poison damage is minor. The real value comes from layering up to five stacks of reduced Physical Defense and, at higher tiers, even cutting Physical Resistance and pushing your general Physical Damage Bonus.
How to unlock Bitter Seasons (Gleaming Abyss and the Void King)
Unlocking Bitter Seasons is tied to the Gleaming Abyss campaign in Qinghe. Expect a full optional chapter with puzzles, exploration, and a multi-phase boss at the end.
| Step | What to do | Key details |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Start the Gleaming Abyss campaign | Open the journal, go to Campaigns, then select Gleaming Abyss. The clue leads you to Moonveil Mountain in southwest Qinghe. |
| 2 | Reach Wraith Village | Follow the campaign marker into the poisoned, eerie area often referred to as Gleaming Abyss or its entrance region. |
| 3 | Imitate the statue to open the secret path | In Wraith Village, copy the pose of a strange statue. This unlocks a hidden route deeper into the “Unknown Mysterious Colossus” style shrine area. |
| 4 | Track the deer using Wind Sense | Use the Wind Sense Mystic Skill to follow a spectral deer through the poisoned landscape. |
| 5 | Freeze the worshippers with Meridian Touch | Use Meridian Touch (acupoint striking) on villagers posed in worship to lock their posture and progress the ritual puzzle. |
| 6 | Enter the secret shrine and gather spirits | Gaining access to the inner shrine opens three separate paths. Each path ends with a spirit you must find and return. |
| 7 | Return to the stone coffin and clear the arena | Bring all spirits back to the central stone coffin, fight waves of enemies, then continue deeper. |
| 8 | Defeat the Void King | Face the campaign’s main boss, The Void King. Survive its patterns, including dangerous “gold” telegraphed attacks. |
| 9 | Enter the Mist Gate behind the arena | After the Void King dies, a fog door opens at the back of the arena. Go through it into the Mist Gate section of Gleaming Abyss. |
| 10 | Find the house with purple trees | Follow the Mist Gate path until you reach a house surrounded by lavender or purple trees and plants. |
| 11 | Open the chest inside | Open the chest in this house to receive Bitter Seasons: Tome, which unlocks the Inner Way once you have the full tome set. |
Bitter Seasons poison and debuff mechanics
Bitter Seasons attaches a chance to apply Poison every time you deal damage. That includes light attacks, heavy attacks, and other damage sources, making it scale naturally with faster weapons and multi-hit strings.
| Mechanic | How it works |
|---|---|
| Trigger chance | 10% base chance per hit to apply one Poison stack (raised to 15% at Tier 4). |
| Poison tick | Deals a small amount of damage every second for 5 seconds. |
| Defense reduction | Each stack reduces the target’s Physical Defense by 0.6% for 10 seconds, up to 5 stacks. |
| Stack behavior | New stacks refresh the duration, so sustained hitting keeps the debuff running at or near 5 stacks. |
Players often underestimate the skill if they focus only on the poison tick damage, which is intentionally modest. The debuff is what matters: at full stacks, even before upgrades, you are shaving off a notable chunk of Physical Defense for the entire party.
Bitter Seasons breakthrough tiers and upgrades
Upgrading Bitter Seasons through breakthroughs turns it from a niche poison effect into a full physical damage support passive. You’ll need to reach Solo Mode Level 4 (Level 4 Roaming) to start upgrading Internal Arts, then feed Bitter Seasons: Notes and other advancement items into it.
| Tier | Breakthrough bonus | Impact on gameplay |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Physical Defense reduction per Poison stack becomes 1.2% | Doubles the armor shred. At 5 stacks, you hit −6% Physical Defense instead of −3%. |
| 2 | Increases Precision Rate based on Solo Mode Level | Gives a scaling boost to landing Precision Hits, which you need for critical hits and affinity-focused builds. |
| 3 | 10% chance to apply one Poison stack to an attacker when you are hit | Adds a defensive component: getting struck can help keep stacks rolling on aggressive bosses. |
| 4 | Poison application chance on hit rises to 15% | Speeds up stacking, especially for slower weapons or ranged builds. |
| 5 | +2.5% Physical DMG Bonus | A small but global buff to all physical damage, independent of Poison stacks. |
| 6 | At 5 stacks, Poison also reduces target’s Physical Resistance by 10 | On top of Defense reduction, you now cut Resistance too, pushing your and your team’s physical hits even higher. |
The key breakpoints are Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 6:
- Tier 1 is where it becomes a serious armor shred tool.
- Tier 2 makes it attractive for crit and affinity builds because of the Precision Rate scaling.
- Tier 6 finally layers Resistance reduction on top of Defense reduction, which is extremely strong against bosses with huge health pools.
How to upgrade Bitter Seasons
Internal Arts, including Bitter Seasons, upgrade through a mix of character progression and specific materials rather than traditional weapon forging.
| Requirement | What you need |
|---|---|
| Solo Mode Level | Reach Solo Mode Level 4 (also called Level 4 Roaming) to unlock higher-tier upgrades. |
| Core material | Bitter Seasons: Notes — used to push the Inner Way through its breakthrough tiers. |
| Main acquisition method | Tips Exchange and other progression rewards that hand out Internal Art advance items. |
The Tips Exchange becomes your primary sink for Notes once you are committed to a particular Inner Way. If Bitter Seasons is part of your long-term build, prioritize its Notes over more niche passives.
Best ways to use Bitter Seasons in builds
Bitter Seasons comfortably fits into many physical builds because it doesn’t bind you to a specific weapon path. Its value scales with how frequently you can apply hits and how long fights last.
| Build type | Why Bitter Seasons works | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Fast melee (Dual Blades, rapid strings) | High hit count quickly ramps to 5 stacks and keeps them active, maximizing Defense and Resistance debuffs. | Pairs well with Flamelash-type stances and other damage amplification effects. |
| Ranged DPS (bows, fans, umbrellas) | Frequent light shots steadily reapply Poison from a safe distance, keeping armor shred rolling on bosses. | Helps compensate for slower heavy shots by front-loading debuffs via constant poke damage. |
| Strategic Sword / bleed-focused builds | Armor shred makes bleed and other physical damage-over-time effects bite harder. | Nice-to-have rather than mandatory; other Inner Ways may compete here. |
| Tanky frontline | Tier 3’s “Poison on being hit” lets tanks feed stacks simply by holding aggro. | Works well in group content where a frontliner soaks hits while DPS capitalize on the debuff. |
In general, swap Bitter Seasons in when:
- A boss feels unusually spongy or shows low physical damage taken.
- Your group composition is heavily physical, so a shared armor shred benefits everyone.
- Your build cares about Precision and crits, and you want an additional Precision Rate source.
Bitter Seasons is one of those passives that rarely steals the spotlight on its own, but once it’s running at higher tiers, bosses start melting faster than their HP bars suggest. Unlocking it means committing to the Gleaming Abyss chapter and the Void King fight; investing in it turns that effort into a long-term advantage for almost any physical build you decide to run.
