Meow Meow is one of the most distinctive systems in Where Winds Meet: a roaming cat NPC that turns environmental puzzles into a dedicated currency and, eventually, access to hidden temples and shops. The structure is simple — solve puzzles, earn bells, cash them in — but the game spreads key locations across Qinghe and Kaifeng, and buries one of the shops underground.
What Meow Meow Is and Why the Temples Matter
Meow Meow is a sentient cat NPC type that appears across the world as a “Sentient Being.” Each region of Jianghu has its own Meow Meow, and each encounter is a self-contained challenge:
| Element | What it does |
|---|---|
| Meow Meow NPC | Starts a puzzle or challenge when you interact. |
| Challenge type | Tasks such as running through wisps, cutting bamboo, rotating statues, or chasing the cat. |
| Reward currency | Special bells (Cat Bells) and standard rewards like Echo Jade, Zhou Coin, EXP, and exploration points. |
| Temple | Dedicated shops where bells are traded for cosmetics and high-value materials. |
Clearing Meow Meow content does three useful things at once: it grants exploration XP, provides materials like Oscillating Jade, and unlocks cosmetic or utility items through the temples. The first temple you encounter is in Qinghe; a second, tied to Kaifeng, hides in the Ghost Market beneath the city.
How Meow Meow Challenges Work
Every Meow Meow encounter fits into a small set of templates. The difficulty varies, but the logic remains consistent.
| Challenge type | Core objective | Typical mechanics |
|---|---|---|
| Will-o'-the-Wisp Collection | Run through a required number of blue flames (wisps) before the timer ends. | Parkour, lightness movement, reading the route ahead. |
| Unstoppable Bamboocut | Cut down a set number of bamboo stalks within a time limit. | Fast weapon swings, targeting dense bamboo clusters. |
| Puzzle (statues, lamps, offerings) | Manipulate objects until a configuration matches a hint at the site. | Rotate statues, move small statues to pedestals, toggle specific lamps, place offerings. |
| Cat Chase | Follow and catch Meow Meow as it flees. | Use Lightness Skills to fly and dash through airborne checkpoints. |
| Gift of Gab & interaction puzzles | Resolve a situation involving Meow Meow through dialogue or item use. | Debate mini-games, giving fish, rescuing kidnapped cats. |
Introductory encounters are designed to teach this language. Near the General’s Shrine, for example, Meow Meow stands before a row of statues with one conspicuously missing. Picking up a small statue nearby and placing it in the empty spot completes the puzzle and pays out your first bells.
From there, the game iterates on the same idea: each puzzle has a physical clue — a stele, a ledger, a lit lamp, a missing item — and your job is to read the environment rather than the UI.
Rewards and Meow Meow Bell Payouts
Each completed Meow Meow challenge pays out a bundle of rewards. Exact numbers depend on the specific puzzle, but there is a common baseline that appears repeatedly:
| Reward | Typical quantity per challenge | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Echo Jade | ≈ 5 | Used in various upgrade and progression systems. |
| Bell (Cat Bell) | ≈ 5 | Primary currency for Meow Meow temples. |
| Zhou Coin | ≈ 2500 | Standard monetary reward. |
| Oscillating Jade | ≈ 2 | High-value material needed for certain upgrades. |
| EXP | ≈ 2500 | Character experience. |
| Exploration points | ≈ 30 | Region exploration progression. |
Individual Wandering Tales tied to Meow Meow, such as Will-o'-the-Wisp Collection in Crimson Cliff, add their own quest-specific rewards on top of this baseline.
Where to Find a Meow Meow Temple in Qinghe
Qinghe hosts the first Meow Meow temple most players will see. It is tied to the Sundara Land sub-region and Halo Peak.
| Region | Sub-region | Named location | Function |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qinghe | Sundara Land | Meow Meow Temple | Landmark shop that accepts bells. |
| Qinghe | Sundara Land | Halo Peak / Path of Void boundary stone | Nearest fast-travel and reference point. |
In practical terms, you reach the Qinghe temple like this:
- Work through early Qinghe content, including General’s Shrine and nearby Meow Meow puzzles, to earn your first bells.
- Activate the Path of Void boundary stone at Halo Peak in Sundara Land so you can fast travel into the area.
- From that stone, move toward the marked Meow Meow Temple landmark near Halo Peak. It appears on the map once you are in the region and have the Meow Meow filter enabled.
Once inside, you interact with the main Meow Meow to open the shop interface. Here, bells turn into a mix of cosmetics and high-end materials.
| Qinghe Meow Meow Temple item | Category | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Oscillating Jade | Upgrade material | Used for gear growth that otherwise demands rarer activities. |
| Lingering Melody | Special item | Tied to higher-end rewards and systems. |
| Softweave Dye Powder | Cosmetic resource | Feeds into hair or clothing recolor systems. |
| Wiggling Fish | Novelty item | Used in some cosmetics or themed interactions. |
| Boxes of Commerce Coin | Currency pack | Converts bells into large amounts of regular coin. |
| Hundred Acts Avatar | Cosmetic / profile | Customizes your account appearance. |
These temple items are notable because they shortcut grinds that would otherwise require time-limited promotions or targeted farming.
How to Unlock and Reach the Kaifeng Meow Meow Temple in Ghostlight Market
Kaifeng has its own Meow Meow temple, but it is tucked into the Ghost Market beneath the city. The game never points to it as directly as Qinghe’s Halo Peak temple, and reaching the underground zone is what confuses most players.
Step 1: Reach Ghostlight Market from Qinghe
Ghostlight Market is an underground hub linked to the Unbound Cavern and Witherwilds content in Qinghe. Several paths converge here:
| Route | Where it starts | What to look for |
|---|---|---|
| Witherwilds side quest | Witherwilds, southeast of Blissful Retreat in Qinghe | A foggy village and a quest tied to “Bounty Trouble” or other Lost Chapters referencing Unbound Cavern. |
| Bounty board near boundary stone | Far southeast boundary stone in Qinghe | A bounty-board quest that explicitly pulls you into Ghostlight Market. |
Working through these quests eventually drops you into the Ghostlight Market itself. Once there, you can activate the local boundary stone. If you then adjust the in-game time to evening (around 17:00–19:00), the Ghostlight Market fast-travel point reliably becomes accessible for return visits.
Step 2: Enter Ghostlight Market From Kaifeng City
After you have been to Ghostlight Market once, there are in-world entries from within Kaifeng itself. Two primary methods stand out, both anchored in the Corner Gate District:
| Entry method | Location detail | Trigger |
|---|---|---|
| Main story quest (Find Xiao Fu) | Corner Gate District, roughly central | Main chapter quest that directs you to “find Xiao Fu,” leading to a large hole in the district. Fighting through this path drops you into the underground. |
| Coffin shop shortcut | Hidden coffin shop in Corner Gate District, in the southwestern part of Kaifeng City’s rectangle | Interacting with a coffin and choosing to “enter” or “sleep” in it teleports you down to Ghostlight Market. |
The main story route is the most straightforward: simply follow the questline, and the game will force an introduction to the subterranean half of Kaifeng. The coffin shop is more of a flavor shortcut, and may not be active before you have progressed the relevant main quest.
Step 3: Locate the Meow Meow Temple in Ghostlight Market
Once you are physically in Ghostlight Market and have its boundary stone unlocked, the Meow Meow temple is nearby:
- Stand at the Ghostlight Market boundary stone and turn around.
- Look for two distinct blue flames close together behind you.
- The Meow Meow temple entrance is positioned at or between those blue flames.
Interacting with the cat opens the Kaifeng Meow Meow shop interface, which draws from the same Cat Bell currency you earned across the world. Functionally, it behaves like Halo Peak’s temple: you trade bells for cosmetic items and powerful materials, now themed to Kaifeng’s underground market aesthetic.
Qinghe Meow Meow Puzzles and the Path to Temple Access
Qinghe contains the densest cluster of early Meow Meow content, and much of it indirectly prepares you for temple access by teaching puzzle logic and lightness movement.
| Category | Number in Qinghe | Representative locations | Key skills or ideas |
|---|---|---|---|
| Will-o'-the-Wisp Collection | ≈ 14 | Bamboo Abode, Stonewash Strand, Starfall Spring, Crimson Cliffs, Peace Bell Tower, Sage's Knoll, Twinbeast Ridge, Kilnfire Ridge, Riverside Station | Route planning, sprinting, simple parkour. |
| Puzzles (static) | ≈ 11 | General’s Shrine, Stonewash Strand, Crimson Cliffs, Kilnfire Ridge, Sage’s Knoll, Twinbeast Ridge, Witherwilds, Riverside Station, Still Shore | Reading stele hints, Mystic Skills like Glow of Fireflies, Meridian Touch, Celestial Seize. |
| Unstoppable Bamboocut | 4 | Bamboo Abode, Peace Bell Tower, Twinbeast Ridge, Blissful Retreat | Fast melee output and target selection. |
| Cat Chases | 2 | Crimson Cliffs, Witherwilds | Lightness Skills for flight, timing on jump prompts through smoky rings. |
Some Qinghe Meow Meow puzzles directly grant Mystic Skills required by later challenges. For example:
- Collecting fireflies around a small site unlocks the Mystic Skill Glow of Fireflies, which then lets you revive drooping plants by standing near them with the skill active.
- Another puzzle chain unlocks Meridian Touch, which then appears as the explicit solution to a later Meow Meow challenge involving cats that can only be affected by that skill.
- In Witherwilds, a Meow Meow puzzle demands Celestial Seize to remove poisonous plants without dying; the skill itself is tied to the “Foul Play” side quest at Heaven’s Pier.
None of these are strictly required to unlock the temple, but they dramatically increase the bell income that feeds the Halo Peak and Ghostlight Market shops.
Tracking Meow Meow Across the Map
The game provides basic support for locating Meow Meows, so you are not reduced to blind exploration.
- You can toggle Meow Meow icons on the world map via the legend, which overlays their locations as cat-head markers.
- Boundary Stones like Crimson Cliff, Starfall Spring, Path of Void, and the Ghostlight Market stone serve as fast-travel anchors, letting you clear clusters of puzzles efficiently.
- Sentient Being filters group Meow Meow together with boundary stones, oddities, and other systems, making it easier to sweep a region methodically.
Seen as a whole, Meow Meow temples are less a side gag and more a spine for exploration in Where Winds Meet. Qinghe’s Halo Peak temple gives you a clear, above-ground destination for your first bells; Kaifeng’s Ghostlight Market shop turns the same currency into an excuse to dive through story quests, bounty boards, and a hidden coffin parlor. The cats may be whimsical, but the rewards are serious enough that it’s worth following every meow you hear.
