Art of Resistance is an Epic Inner Way (Internal Art) in Where Winds Meet, built around HP shields. It extends the duration of your own shields and, at higher tiers, amplifies both their protection and your damage while they are active. For tank and Stonesplit - Might builds, it is one of the core defensive tools.
Art of Resistance effects and tier bonuses
Art of Resistance always does one basic thing: it makes your HP shields last longer and strengthens the skill that created them. On top of that, each breakthrough tier adds further defensive and offensive bonuses.
| Aspect | Details |
|---|---|
| Type | Inner Way (Internal Art) |
| Rarity | Epic |
| Path | Stonesplit - Might |
| Tags | Defense, Buff |
| Base effect | Increases the duration of your own HP shield and the bonus effects of its source skill by 4 seconds. |
Breakthrough enhancements:
| Tier | Bonus |
|---|---|
| 1 | All HP shields absorb 10% more HP damage. |
| 2 | Rock Splitting Attack increased; scales with Solo Mode level. |
| 3 | While protected by an HP shield, all damage and healing you deal is increased by 2%. |
| 4 | Shield duration and bonus effects are extended by another 2 seconds (6 seconds total). |
| 5 | Rock Splitting Penetration increased by 6 points. |
| 6 | If the shield ends without breaking, you immediately recover HP equal to 25% of the remaining shield value (5% in Duels). Does not work with immune damage shields. |
For tank builds, this means:
- Longer windows where you can ignore direct HP loss.
- Higher total damage soaked by shields.
- Small but permanent damage and healing bump whenever you are shielded.
- A sizeable self-heal if you manage your shields so they time out instead of shattering.
Quest chain overview: how Art of Resistance is unlocked
Art of Resistance is not tied to the main story. It drops from a specific Encounter quest in Qinghe, and that Encounter is locked behind an Exploration quest and some fussy spawn conditions. In short:
| Stage | What you must do |
|---|---|
| 1 | Reach Harvestfall Village in Qinghe. |
| 2 | Talk to San Qian at the tavern to begin the Initiation: Well of Heaven Elder Exploration quest. |
| 3 | Complete Initiation: Well of Heaven Elder, including retrieving a Large Pile of Jewelry from Zhang Yihao. |
| 4 | Return to Zhang Yihao on the cliffs east of Harvestfall Village to unlock the Scammer Victims Encounter. |
| 5 | Finish Scammer Victims; the Art of Resistance: Tome is the reward. |
Step 1: reach Harvestfall Village and pick up the legacy
The Art of Resistance chain is treated as a Jianghu legacy with a set of clues. The first clue is satisfied simply by arriving in Harvestfall Village in Qinghe. Once you have regular access to the village:
- Locate San Qian in the tavern in Harvestfall Village.
- Speak to San Qian to unlock the Exploration quest Initiation: Well of Heaven Elder.
San Qian’s role is to point you toward the Well of Heaven Elder outside the village, which then becomes the main quest giver for this chain.
Step 2: complete “Initiation: Well of Heaven Elder”
Initiation: Well of Heaven Elder is an Exploration quest that introduces the Well of Heaven sect and its scammy counterpart. It is also the direct prerequisite for the Scammer Victims Encounter that holds Art of Resistance.
Key beats in Initiation: Well of Heaven Elder:
- Meet the Well of Heaven Elder just outside Harvestfall Village.
- Follow the initiation objectives and pay the Coin fee when prompted.
- Travel to the mountain path where Zhang Yihao is camped on a cliff east of the village.
- Use the Mystic Skill Celestial Seize behind Zhang Yihao to grab the Large Pile of Jewelry without alerting him.
- Return to the Well of Heaven Elder to wrap up the initiation.
Once this Exploration quest is fully completed, the game is allowed to spawn the Encounter Scammer Victims on the same mountain route that leads to Zhang Yihao.
Step 3: trigger the Scammer Victims Encounter
The most confusing part of getting Art of Resistance is that Scammer Victims does not appear as a normal exclamation mark on the map. It triggers as you physically walk the path up to Zhang Yihao, and it is blocked if you are already at the Encounter cap.
The intended flow is:
- After finishing Initiation: Well of Heaven Elder, advance time a few in-game days using the rest mechanic if needed.
- Make sure you are not overloaded on Encounters (details in the next section).
- Start any other Encounter or Exploration quest and complete at least one objective in it.
- From the Harvestfall Village side, walk down the path toward the cliff area where Zhang Yihao stands, roughly near the Mysterious Outpost.
- Then walk back up toward Zhang Yihao. Before you reach the tree near his camp, the Scammer Victims Encounter should auto-trigger.
When Scammer Victims starts, you follow a series of objectives that send you to find and help people who were taken in by the same scam. After completing all objectives, you receive the Art of Resistance: Tome, which unlocks the Inner Way.
Encounter cap and why Scammer Victims often fails to appear
There is a strict limit on how many Encounter quests can be active at the same time. If you hit that limit, Scammer Victims will not spawn even if all other conditions are met.
| Condition | Impact on Scammer Victims |
|---|---|
| More than two active Encounters | Scammer Victims will not appear, even if you walk past the trigger area. |
| “?” Encounters left unaccepted or half-done | These still count toward the Encounter cap until removed or completed. |
| Clearing unused Encounters from log | Often causes Scammer Victims to start working immediately once you revisit Zhang Yihao’s path. |
To avoid being blocked:
- Open your quest log and look at the Encounter category.
- Abandon any Encounters you are not actively doing, especially those with the “?” icon.
- Try to leave yourself with no more than two active Encounters.
- If one particular Encounter cannot be abandoned (for example, an ongoing story chain), complete it fully so it no longer occupies a slot.
Once you have freed Encounter slots, walk the cliff path around Zhang Yihao again, and the Art of Resistance chain should finally move forward.
Common bugs and workarounds for Zhang Yihao and Scammer Victims
Even with the prerequisites done, players run into a few common issues:
Zhang Yihao only offers jewelry or apprenticeship
Sometimes, after finishing Nine Mortal Ways content or earlier scam scenes, Zhang Yihao’s dialogue becomes stuck. You can talk to him, but you only see options to ask for jewelry or take an apprenticeship. Scammer Victims never appears.
Known workarounds include:
- Clearing out extra Encounter quests so you are under the Encounter cap, then revisiting the path up to Zhang Yihao rather than talking to him directly.
- Using the Mystic Skill Meridian Touch on Zhang Yihao to reset his state so he behaves normally again.
- Advancing time several in-game days, then starting and partially progressing another Encounter or Exploration quest before returning to the cliffs.
- Switching briefly to a multiplayer world and then back to a solo world to force a world reset, then walking past his trigger area again.
Joined Nine Mortal Ways by mistake? You can still get Art of Resistance
The scam around the Well of Heaven often ends with players accidentally joining the Nine Mortal Ways sect. That does not permanently lock you out of Art of Resistance.
If you want to leave Nine Mortal Ways and proceed with Well of Heaven content:
- Open the Sect menu.
- Select the Betray Master option for Nine Mortal Ways.
- Follow the short breakup quest and pay the required 50,000 Coins to sever ties.
After leaving the sect, you can return to the Well of Heaven Elder and Zhang Yihao area and continue toward Scammer Victims and Art of Resistance as usual.
Where Scammer Victims sends you and what you actually do
Once Scammer Victims is active, the quest plays out as a fairly straightforward Encounter with a few combat and interaction beats:
- Track the Encounters marker to Feinsteed Hamlet and other locations to locate the scam victims.
- Fight off enemies harassing them; expect relatively tough opponents that hit hard, especially if you are undergeared.
- Pay small amounts of Coin and perform simple tasks like cooking noodles or removing obstacles (including blowing up explosive barrels) to free or aid each victim.
- Return to the highlighted NPCs to wrap up conversations and reveal the culprits.
The quest plays with the idea that you may also be getting scammed again while “helping,” but in gameplay terms, there are no failure branches that block your reward. Finishing all objectives ends the Encounter and grants the Art of Resistance: Tome.
Equipping and upgrading Art of Resistance
Once you have the Tome, Art of Resistance becomes available in your Inner Ways list.
- Open the Develop or Talents / Inner Ways menu.
- Locate Art of Resistance in the Inner Ways list and equip it in one of your Internal Art slots.
Upgrading Art of Resistance requires progression in Solo Mode and special advance items:
- Reach Solo Mode Level 4 (also called Level 4 Roaming). Before that, you cannot raise its tier.
- Collect Art of Resistance: Notes, which are Internal Art advance items. These can be obtained through multiple activities, with Tips Exchange being one notable source.
- Spend Notes to increase its tier and unlock the bonuses listed earlier, up to Tier 6.
How Art of Resistance fits into tank and Stonesplit - Might builds
Art of Resistance is tagged as a universal Inner Way but is clearly tuned around Stonesplit - Might and shield-centric play. It works best when you are already generating large shields regularly.
| Synergy | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Stonesplit - Might | Leans heavily on big HP shields; longer shield duration and extra absorb keep the Stonesplit rotation safer. |
| Rock Splitting skills | Directly buffed at Tier 2 and Tier 5, giving extra attack and penetration scaling with your Solo Mode level. |
| Other tank Inner Ways (for example Rock Solid, Vendetta) | Stacking HP shield buffs and damage bonuses creates a build that can sit under shields for long periods while still dealing respectable damage. |
| Boss fights and long encounters | The 6-second shield window at Tier 4 and the Tier 6 heal shine when enemies deal steady chip damage instead of one-shots. |
On a practical level, you feel Art of Resistance most when:
- You cast a shield right before a boss telegraphs a combo and notice it persists through the whole sequence.
- You leave fights with a small shield still active and watch it convert to a chunk of HP rather than disappearing unused.
- Your Stonesplit attacks hit slightly harder and pierce more defense than your gear alone would suggest.
Once you have it and start ranking it up, Art of Resistance quietly turns every shield into a longer, stronger defensive window and a small offensive buff, which is exactly what tank builds in Where Winds Meet need.
