Drunken Poet is one of the more memorable mystic skills in Where Winds Meet: an offensive, single-target burst art that turns self-inflicted intoxication into rapid strikes and status effects. It sits in the offensive mystic toolkit but has clear defensive and combo potential once its breakthroughs are unlocked.
How to unlock Drunken Poet
Drunken Poet does not drop from a boss or come from a quest reward. It is tied to drinking wine until your character crosses into a severe intoxication state.
| Step | What to do | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Reach the Honest Merchant | Find the Honest Merchant NPC and open his shop. | He appears first in Blissful Retreat, later relocating to Harvestfall Village as the story progresses. |
| 2. Buy wine | Purchase multiple bottles of wine from his shop. | Plan for roughly 8–14 bottles; the exact number needed is random. |
| 3. Drink repeatedly | Use the wine items and drink them one after another with no long gaps. | Watch your status effects as they stack. |
| 4. Trigger debuffs | Continue until you gain the “Wasted” debuff and then “Alcohol Poisoning” or an overdrunk status. | The first time you hit this severe intoxication threshold, Drunken Poet unlocks. |
| 5. Recover | Travel to Evercare Clinic and speak with the healer to cleanse the illness. | Removes the debuff without needing to wait it out. |
The key condition is reaching that high intoxication state once. Some runs unlock the skill after around eight bottles; others can take closer to fourteen. The exact threshold has random variance, so treat the numbers as a guideline rather than a fixed requirement.
On the current global build, players typically gain access around level 30 once the relevant story beats are cleared. The Honest Merchant is present in the city before a story event leaves it burned; after that point he moves to Harvestfall Village. If he is not in the burned-out version of the town, check Harvestfall instead.
Evercare Clinic and status recovery
Unlocking Drunken Poet almost always means accepting “Wasted” plus an alcohol-related illness. That is punishing if you intend to keep playing immediately, but it is reversible.
| Issue | Fix | Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Wasted debuff | Visit Evercare Clinic and speak with the healer NPC. | Cleans up the temporary intoxication penalties. |
| Alcohol Poisoning illness | Use the same clinic interaction for medical treatment. | Removes the longer-lasting illness so you can return to normal combat. |
Drunken Poet core stats and effect
Drunken Poet is classified as an offensive, single-target burst mystic skill. It is built around entering a special intoxicated state and then chaining a small flurry of attacks.
| Property | Value (Tier 4) |
|---|---|
| Type | Offensive mystic skill |
| Category | Single-target burst |
| Base Vitality cost | 10 Vitality |
| Cooldown | 0.1 seconds |
| Follow-up strike cost | 6 Vitality per strike (up to 5 strikes) |
| Key status | Intoxicated, Drunken Haze |
Using Drunken Poet has two layers of effect:
- The initial cast makes your character enter an Intoxicated state, mimicking the loose, unpredictable movement of a “poet immortal.”
- While Intoxicated, you can recast Drunken Poet repeatedly in quick succession, up to five strikes, each consuming additional Vitality and applying damage plus Drunken Haze.
At higher ranks, Intoxicated lasts around 30 seconds. During that window, both Drunken Poet and Dragon’s Breath can be used without actually drinking wine again, so the initial binge is a one-time prerequisite rather than a constant cost.
Drunken Poet lore and design intent
Drunken Poet is a direct nod to classical Chinese poetic myth. The technique is described as being inspired by Li Bai’s famously erratic drunken movements. Companions such as Cen Fuzi and Dan Qiusheng are credited in the lore with turning those unsteady steps into a formal martial style, and the name Drunken Poet is framed as a memorial to Li Bai’s death while grasping for the moon’s reflection from a boat.
In practice, that flavor translates into a kit that blends risk (self-intoxication) with a strangely composed, high-damage rhythm once you are in the Intoxicated state.
Drunken Poet breakthrough tiers and bonuses
Like other mystic skills in Where Winds Meet, Drunken Poet progresses through four tiers, each split into nine ranks. Ranks mostly scale the raw numbers of the art, while tiers add new mechanical hooks.
| Tier | Rank span | Tier bonus |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0–9 | Base version of Drunken Poet with Intoxicated and multi-strike behavior. |
| 2 | 0–9 | Casting skills grants 15% damage reduction and Tenacity. |
| 3 | 0–9 | Hits inflict Drunken Haze; if a target with Drunken Haze is Ignited, the haze detonates for bonus damage. |
| 4 | 0–9 | Further strengthens the Tenacity effect when casting skills. |
Tier 2 is straightforward: every time you cast skills, you gain a 15 percent damage reduction plus Tenacity, making Drunken Poet much safer to weave into melee strings. Tier 3 is where the art becomes a combo tool, turning Drunken Haze into a detonator when paired with Ignition effects. Tier 4 leans back into survivability by improving Tenacity further.
For players leaning into DPS paths, those tier bonuses are the bridge between a simple single-target nuke and a more involved playstyle that manipulates debuffs and explosions while staying on their feet under pressure.
Materials needed to upgrade Drunken Poet
Advancing Drunken Poet’s ranks and tiers requires the same upgrade resources used for other mystic arts: Ebon Iron of various levels for rank-ups and Vicious Fruit for tier promotions.
| Tier | Rank | Materials required |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0–9 | Lv. 1 Ebon Iron ×2 per rank |
| 2 (promotion) | 0 | Vicious Fruit ×5, Lv. 1 Ebon Iron ×2 |
| 2 | 1–9 | Lv. 2 Ebon Iron ×4 per rank |
| 3 (promotion) | 0 | Vicious Fruit ×15, Lv. 2 Ebon Iron ×4 |
| 3 | 1–9 | Lv. 3 Ebon Iron ×10 per rank |
| 4 (promotion) | 0 | Vicious Fruit ×18, Lv. 3 Ebon Iron ×10 |
| 4 | 1–9 | Lv. 4 Ebon Iron ×20 per rank |
Since Vicious Fruit is used only on tier breakpoints, it makes sense to plan those promotions around your broader mystic skill priorities. Ebon Iron is the ongoing sink as you chase rank 9 in each tier.
How Drunken Poet fits into builds
Drunken Poet is positioned as a damage tool first, but its fully developed version provides a mix of offense and self-protection:
- The base art hits quickly in a small window, ideal for punishing staggered enemies or creating burst in single-target boss fights.
- The Tier 2 and Tier 4 Tenacity bonuses reduce incoming damage and keep you from being knocked out of your own animations as often.
- The Tier 3 Drunken Haze and Ignition interaction rewards builds that can reliably apply fire or other Ignition sources, turning the skill into a trigger for large explosions.
It pairs naturally with Dragon’s Breath, since Intoxicated allows both skills to be used without repeated drinking. That relationship makes Drunken Poet more than a novelty: it becomes a keystone in any path that wants to weave in Dragon’s Breath and play around with intoxication states without constantly managing consumables.
Once unlocked and upgraded, Drunken Poet embodies exactly what its name suggests: a style that looks reckless on the surface but hides a deliberate rhythm of damage windows, defensive timing, and status-driven detonations.
