Ghostly Steps is an Offensive Support Mystic Skill in Where Winds Meet that turns defensive footwork into a short window of near-intangible movement. Used well, it makes dodge-heavy builds far more sustainable in long fights.
Ghostly Steps effect and basic stats
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Type | Offensive, Support Mystic Skill |
| Core tag | Dodge |
| Base Effect | Grants Mirage status |
| Mirage duration (base) | 20 seconds |
| Endurance cost change | -40% Endurance cost for ground dodge skills while Mirage is active |
| Untargetable frames | Slightly increased duration during dodges while Mirage is active |
| Vitality cost (Tier 1) | 50 |
| Vitality cost (Tier 4) | 40 |
| Cooldown | 60 seconds |
Once activated, Ghostly Steps does not deal damage on its own. Instead, it modifies how your existing dodge moves behave for a fixed window:
- Ground dodges become cheaper, costing 40% less Endurance.
- The brief untargetable window during dodges lasts slightly longer, making it easier to slip through attacks.
Practically, that means more frequent evasive maneuvers before you run out of Endurance, and more forgiving timing on each dodge.
How to unlock Ghostly Steps (Ghostlight Market and Cloudwalk Spire)
Ghostly Steps is tied to the eerie Ghostlight Market hub and a Divinecraft Dungeon hidden nearby. The route is straightforward but easy to overlook if you only follow main story markers.
| Step | Action | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Travel to the exploration event south-east of Kaifeng (often referred to in-game as Kiang City). | Reaches the building that serves as the entrance to Ghostlight Market. |
| 2 | Enter the building and interact with the coffin inside. | Teleports you to the underground Ghostlight Market area. |
| 3 | From the starting point in the market cave, follow the paths to the upper-left section of the area. | Arrives at a mechanical contraption that controls a hidden cave entrance. |
| 4 | Use the contraption to open the cave. | Unlocks access to the deeper cavern route. |
| 5 | Descend through the cave by dropping between platforms and ledges. | Progresses toward the Divinecraft Dungeon entrance tied to Ghostly Steps. |
| 6 | Continue until the game warns that you cannot go back, then push forward through the crumbling sections. | Reaches the final area with a reward chest. |
| 7 | Open the final chest at the end of the route. | Obtains the Ghostly Steps Mystic Skill scroll and other loot. |
In the wider world layout, this final chest sits at the end of the Cloudwalk Spire Divinecraft Dungeon. The dungeon entrance is accessed by climbing the cave walls east of Ghostlight Market; from there, the dungeon culminates in the chest that yields Ghostly Steps.
Ghostly Steps breakthrough tiers and upgrade materials
Like other Mystic Skills, Ghostly Steps levels through Ranks and Tiers. Rank upgrades improve its baseline effectiveness, while each Tier promotion adds a discrete bonus that changes how the skill feels to use.
Ghostly Steps tier bonuses
| Tier | Bonus | Impact on play |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 | No special bonus beyond base Mirage effect; can be ranked up to Rank 9. | Standard 20s Mirage, 40% ground dodge Endurance reduction. |
| Tier 2 | Extends Mirage duration by 10 seconds. | Total Mirage uptime rises to roughly 30 seconds, giving a much longer low-cost dodge window. |
| Tier 3 | Grants an additional 10% Endurance reduction for all skills. | Makes every skill in your kit slightly cheaper while Mirage is active, not just dodges. |
| Tier 4 | Reduces Vitality cost by 10 points. | Drops the activation cost from 50 to 40 Vitality, making Ghostly Steps easier to weave into rotations. |
The Tier 2 upgrade is the biggest swing in feel: Mirage now comfortably outlasts many encounter phases, letting you commit to an extended dodge-focused pattern instead of treating Ghostly Steps as a short panic button. Tier 3 and Tier 4 shift the skill from “defensive luxury” to “economy tool” by trimming Endurance and Vitality costs across your entire kit while Mirage is active.
Ghostly Steps breakthrough costs
Advancing Ghostly Steps consumes Ebon Iron and a dedicated Mystic Art material, Frost Mushroom Mycelium. The pattern mirrors other Tier 1 Mystic Arts, scaling both the quantity and level of Ebon Iron as you move up.
| Tier | Rank range | Required materials |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rank 0–9 | Lv. 1 Ebon Iron ×2 per rank |
| 2 (promotion to Rank 0) | Rank 0 | Frost Mushroom Mycelium ×5, Lv. 1 Ebon Iron ×2 |
| 2 | Rank 1–9 | Lv. 2 Ebon Iron ×4 per rank |
| 3 (promotion to Rank 0) | Rank 0 | Frost Mushroom Mycelium ×15, Lv. 2 Ebon Iron ×4 |
| 3 | Rank 1–9 | Lv. 3 Ebon Iron ×10 per rank |
| 4 (promotion to Rank 0) | Rank 0 | Frost Mushroom Mycelium ×18, Lv. 3 Ebon Iron ×10 |
| 4 | Rank 1–9 | Lv. 4 Ebon Iron ×20 per rank |
Mystic Arts share a common structure: push through nine Ranks in a Tier, then spend higher-grade materials plus Frost Mushroom Mycelium to unlock the next Tier and its unique bonus. Because Ghostly Steps provides a large practical benefit as early as Tier 2, it is usually worth prioritizing its first promotion once you have a steady supply of Ebon Iron.
How Ghostly Steps fits into combat builds
Ghostly Steps is built for players who lean on movement and timing instead of hard mitigation. Its strengths become most obvious in three situations.
| Playstyle | Why Ghostly Steps helps |
|---|---|
| Dodge-heavy melee | Lower Endurance costs mean more dodges between stamina breaks, and the extended untargetable frames make it easier to roll through multi-hit combos. |
| Deflection and counter builds | While deflection is still timing-based, Mirage gives extra margin for error when you mix dodges and parries, reducing the penalty for slight mistimings. |
| Endurance-starved setups | Tier 3’s global 10% Endurance reduction softens the strain of heavy skills, letting you maintain pressure without constantly hitting zero. |
Because Mirage only improves ground dodges, airborne movement, and certain lightness skills do not benefit directly. It pairs best with grounded combat styles where you are repeatedly circling bosses, sidestepping telegraphed swings, and slipping under projectiles instead of relying on big shields or purely ranged play.
Lore flavor and identity
In the game’s fiction, Ghostly Steps comes from a Daoist master in Jiangnan who studied how energy moves between yin and yang. By aligning body and shadow, he developed a movement art that blurs presence and absence. That theme is reflected mechanically: the skill does not change raw damage numbers, but it shifts how you occupy space, threading between attacks instead of absorbing them.
For players already comfortable playing close to danger, that identity is the appeal. Ghostly Steps does not rescue sloppy positioning so much as reward deliberate, rhythmic evasions, turning long boss duels into a dance of near-misses where your character moves “like a shifting shadow.”
Once unlocked from the Ghostlight Market route or the Cloudwalk Spire chest and raised through a few breakthrough tiers, Ghostly Steps becomes one of the most reliable ways in Where Winds Meet to make aggressive melee play safer without dulling its pace. If dodging is already second nature, investing in Mirage uptime and cheaper Endurance is an easy way to turn that instinct into a defining part of your build.
