Fivefold Bleed is a rare Inner Way in Where Winds Meet that adds a stacking damage-over-time effect and a burst of piercing damage to any weapon. It is especially valuable for fast, multi-hit styles and bleed-focused builds such as Strategic Sword and Heavenquaker Spear.
What Fivefold Bleed Does
Fivefold Bleed is a general Inner Way, so it works with every martial weapon and style.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Rarity | Rare |
| Path | General (no sect/weapon restriction) |
| Tags | Attack, Damage, Stacking |
| Core effect | Hits have a chance to apply Weeping Blood, a stacking DoT that explodes into piercing damage at 5 stacks |
In practical terms:
- Whenever you deal damage, there is a 10% chance to apply one stack of Weeping Blood for 5 seconds.
- Each stack deals damage once per second and can stack up to 5 times.
- Landing another stack refreshes the 5-second timer on all existing stacks.
- When a target reaches 5 stacks, Weeping Blood is removed and deals a single hit of piercing damage.
Weeping Blood is its own status effect. It does not overwrite traditional bleed effects from Strategic Sword or other skills, which means you can have those DoTs running separately while Fivefold Bleed builds and detonates in the background.
Fivefold Bleed breakthrough bonuses
Upgrading the Inner Way unlocks a set of tier bonuses that progressively make it more reliable and more rewarding for high-hit-count builds.
| Tier | Bonus |
|---|---|
| 1 | Increases the final piercing damage by 100%. |
| 2 | Increases Max Physical Attack based on Solo Mode level. |
| 3 | If Weeping Blood expires before 5 stacks, there is still a 20% chance to trigger the piercing damage. |
| 4 | Increases the chance to apply Weeping Blood to 15%. |
| 5 | Increases Critical DMG Bonus by 3.5%. |
| 6 | After the piercing damage is dealt and Weeping Blood is removed, 1–2 stacks of Weeping Blood are retained. |
The first and fourth tiers are the most impactful for raw damage: doubling the detonation hit and making procs more common. Tier 6 keeps the bleed “rolling” on longer fights, which is especially valuable on bosses where you can safely maintain uptime.
Tier upgrades require reaching at least Solo Mode Level 4 (Level 4 Roaming) and feeding Fivefold Bleed with its specific advance item, Fivefold Bleed: Notes.
How to reach Kaifeng and the Grand Imperial Temple
Fivefold Bleed is locked behind progression into Kaifeng, so you cannot grab it early in the story.
- You must finish the first chapter (Blissful Retreat and Still Shore campaigns) and reach roughly level 32.
- Travel by boat from the ferrymaster near Harvestfall Village to Kaifeng’s outskirts.
- Follow the main story in the outskirts until the game lets you enter Kaifeng City itself.
Inside the city, the objective is the Grand Imperial Temple, a large complex on the eastern side of Kaifeng. Fivefold Bleed is tied to an Exploration/Wandering Tale quest that takes place entirely in and around this temple.
How to start A Faltering Flame (Fivefold Bleed quest)
Fivefold Bleed is rewarded by the Wandering Tale A Faltering Flame, which plays out as a multi-day quest in the Grand Imperial Temple.
Step 1: Enter Kaifeng City and head to the Grand Imperial Temple in the central-eastern part of the city. Look for the Exploration/Wandering Tale marker named A Faltering Flame near the temple complex.
Step 2: Go to the northeast or top-right corner of the temple grounds. Inside a smaller shrine area, there is a Lamp-lighting Monk. Speak to him to formally start A Faltering Flame and receive your first set of clues.
From here, the quest loops through a simple pattern: find a disciple, return to the monk, solve a lamp minigame, then advance the in-game day.
A Faltering Flame walkthrough (NPCs, time changes, and lamp puzzles)
Only one disciple can be progressed per in-game day. To avoid waiting in real time, the quest expects you to manually change the time.
Day 1: Benevolent Li and the first lamp
Step 1: After speaking with the Lamp-lighting Monk, track A Faltering Flame from your journal. A marker appears just outside the temple, leading you to Benevolent Li, usually standing under a large tree west of the monk.
Step 2: Talk to Benevolent Li. Dialogue choices do not appear to change the outcome, so you can pick any options.
Step 3: Return to the Lamp-lighting Monk. A short conversation leads into the first lamp alignment minigame. You are presented with a board of lamps; your goal is to move the glowing lamp into the glowing empty slot.
Step 4: Once the minigame is complete and the scene ends, open the main menu, select the time/clock icon on the right side, and advance time to the next day after midday. This forces the second disciple to appear.
Day 2: Mingniang and the second lamp
Step 1: With time advanced, track A Faltering Flame again. A new quest marker appears in a building close to the temple. Follow it to meet the second disciple, commonly described as a woman inside the large temple building, hugging the wall.
Step 2: Talk to her, then head back to the Lamp-lighting Monk.
Step 3: Complete the second lamp minigame. The puzzle layout can change, but the objective is the same: move the glowing lamp into the target slot without getting stuck on unmovable pieces.
Step 4: After the dialogue, open the time menu again and advance to the following day after midday to unlock the third disciple’s marker.
Day 3: Deng Santong, the duel, and the final lamp
Step 1: Track the quest once more. The marker now points to the third disciple, often Deng Santong, who stands across from the previous NPCs in the temple area.
Step 2: Speak to him, then return to the Lamp-lighting Monk.
Step 3: This time, the quest escalates into a fight against the third disciple. Defeat him in combat.
Step 4: After the duel, interact with the lamp for the final, slightly more complex puzzle. Once the glowing lamp reaches its target slot, A Faltering Flame is effectively complete.
Step 5: Finish the remaining dialogue with the monk. Conversation options here also do not appear to affect the reward.
How to claim the Fivefold Bleed: Tome
Finishing the story portion of A Faltering Flame does not immediately unlock the Inner Way. The actual reward is delivered through the journal.
Step 1: Open your Journal.
Step 2: Go to the Wandering Tales tab. Look for the entry for A Faltering Flame or its associated Fairgrounds part.
Step 3: Select the quest entry and hit the claim button (often bound to the T key on the keyboard). One of the listed rewards is Fivefold Bleed: Tome.
Step 4: Once claimed, go to your Inner Way menu, select Fivefold Bleed, and use the tome to comprehend/unlock it.
Many players overlook this final journal step and assume the quest is bugged. If you finished A Faltering Flame but do not see the Inner Way, the reward is almost always still waiting in Wandering Tales.
How Fivefold Bleed plays in real combat
Fivefold Bleed shines on weapons and builds that can apply stacks quickly:
- Fast, multi-hit weapons such as Infernal Twinblades or Rope Dart generate far more Weeping Blood stacks than slow, heavy styles.
- Strategic Sword benefits from having a separate bleed-like DoT ticking while its own bleed stacks are managed and consumed by skills like Sober Sorrow.
- Heavenquaker Spear can amplify the DoT component thanks to its affinity with ongoing damage effects.
The numeric damage of the DoT ticks themselves is modest compared with normal light attacks, especially at low Inner Way rank. The primary value comes from:
- The piercing burst at 5 stacks, which ignores armor-type defenses better than raw physical hits.
- The reliability upgrades (higher proc chance, partial retention of stacks) at higher tiers.
- The side stats such as increased Max Physical Attack and a small Critical DMG Bonus.
On bosses, where you can keep attacking consistently, stacks are much easier to maintain, and the Tier 3 and Tier 6 effects help ensure that you still get value even if a stack window closes before reaching five.
Fivefold Bleed vs. Bitter Seasons
Players often compare Fivefold Bleed with another Inner Way, Bitter Seasons, because both add a stacking damage-over-time debuff on hit.
| Inner Way | Stack effect | At max stacks | Key extra benefit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fivefold Bleed | Weeping Blood DoT, up to 5 stacks | Removes stacks and deals one hit of piercing damage | Higher burst potential, general attack and crit bonuses via tiers |
| Bitter Seasons | Poison-like DoT, up to 5 stacks | Reduces enemy Physical Defense (around 6% at max stacks) | Armor strip utility, better for PVP and slower, heavy builds |
From player testing and community discussion:
- The raw DoT ticks from both Inner Ways are small compared to weapon attacks.
- Fivefold Bleed’s piercing detonation adds a noticeable, if not enormous, chunk of extra damage whenever you can reach five stacks repeatedly.
- Bitter Seasons offers a defense shred that benefits all physical damage, but it appears to do little in PvE boss fights where armor behaves differently.
- On slow, big-hit styles where reaching five stacks quickly is difficult, Bitter Seasons can be slightly more consistent for longer fights, but either option is underwhelming without high hit frequency.
For PvE and fast weapons, Fivefold Bleed generally edges out Bitter Seasons on pure damage, especially once higher tiers are unlocked. In PvP, Bitter Seasons’ defense reduction has more impact, so some competitive builds prefer it over Fivefold Bleed.
Once A Faltering Flame is cleared and the tome is claimed from the Journal, Fivefold Bleed becomes a straightforward way to add background damage and a bit of burst to almost any build, especially those that are already leaning into rapid strikes and bleed-style pressure.
