Daunting Strike is one of the earliest Martial Arts skills you use in Where Winds Meet, but the game never clearly labels it during the Little Master’s Legacy I encounter. That lack of clarity is why so many players get stuck when Xiao Ping’an asks to see the “Noname Sword’s Daunting Strike.”
There are two parts to solving this: knowing how the Nameless Sword Martial Art is set up, and understanding exactly which button combination fires Daunting Strike on your platform.
What Daunting Strike is in Where Winds Meet
Daunting Strike is a Martial Arts Skill attached to the Nameless Sword martial art. It sits on a short cooldown and behaves as a gap closer with follow-up hits and a brief defensive payoff.
| Property | Daunting Strike |
|---|---|
| Martial Art | Nameless Sword |
| Type | Martial Arts Skill (active) |
| Recovery | 12 seconds |
| Core effect | Hurl a flying sword, then dash along its path |
| Follow-ups | Up to two Relentless Chase strikes, each dealing higher damage |
| Defensive bonus | Qi shield for ~3 seconds after the second Relentless Chase |
In practice, the animation looks like this:
- Your character sends a sword flying forward, dealing light damage.
- You dash after the sword, closing distance.
- Tapping the skill again during the follow-through adds up to two extra lunges.
- After the second follow-up, a short Qi shield appears.
There are currently no Inner Ways that specifically modify or amplify Daunting Strike, so what you get is the base behaviour: mobility, pressure, and a small defensive window.
How to unlock Daunting Strike
Daunting Strike does not need to be found or purchased. All Martial Arts Skills, including this one, are unlocked from the start once you have access to the Nameless Sword martial art.
The only requirement is that you have Nameless Sword selected in your Martial Arts setup and that Daunting Strike is slotted into one of its skill slots.
How to equip Daunting Strike on Nameless Sword
Before trying to perform the move for any quest, make sure it is actually assigned to your Nameless Sword layout.
Step 1: Open the in-game menu and choose the Develop option.
Step 2: Move to the Abilities tab, where your Martial Arts loadouts live.
Step 3: Select Nameless Sword from the list of Martial Arts.
Step 4: In the Nameless Sword panel, check the skill slots. Daunting Strike is normally mapped to the left-most active skill slot.
Step 5: If another skill is occupying that slot, replace it with Daunting Strike so that the correct button combination will trigger the move.
Once Daunting Strike is in a slot, its button tooltip appears on your HUD, which is what the Little Master’s Legacy I encounter expects.
Little Master’s Legacy I: how to trigger the encounter
The first Little Master’s Legacy encounter appears very early in the Qinghe region, around the main story objective that sends you toward the General’s Shrine.
Step 1: Progress the main story until you have met Feng Jisheng (the bow tutorial), spoken to the Wayfarer, and fought the bear to learn Tai Chi. Your next major target is the General’s Shrine in Qinghe.
Step 2: On the way to the General’s Shrine, cross the short bridge over the river. On the right-hand side, there is an enemy camp in a clearing. Head there.
Step 3: Clear the camp. With a controller, you can hold the left stick when prompted to eavesdrop, but that part is optional to trigger the encounter.
Step 4: Once the camp is cleared, wait a moment. A new objective appears, asking you to find a nearby child who was watching the fight.
Step 5: Track the new objective or simply walk a short distance north of the camp into the clearing. You will find Xiao Ping’an there. Speak to him to formally start Little Master’s Legacy I.
There is one wrinkle: Xiao Ping’an can appear after other camps as well, since his encounter can spawn when you clear camps in the area. The specific camp may differ from player to player, but the interaction and requirement stay the same.
How to perform Noname Sword – Daunting Strike for Xiao Ping’an
Once you finish the initial dialogue with Xiao Ping’an, the quest objective changes to something along the lines of: go to the designated spot and perform Noname Sword’s Daunting Strike. This is where many people get stuck, because the quest text does not spell out which button press that refers to.
Make sure Nameless Sword is active
Step 1: Check the weapon shown in your HUD. If you are holding a spear, fan, umbrella, or any other weapon, you need to swap back.
Step 2: On controllers, press down on the d-pad to cycle through your weapons until the sword icon (Nameless Sword) is active. On keyboard and mouse, use your bound weapon swap key.
Daunting Strike only works when Nameless Sword is the current martial art. If you try to use the button combination with another weapon out, it fires that weapon’s skill instead, and the quest will not update.
Button inputs for Daunting Strike
With Nameless Sword active and Daunting Strike slotted, the input varies by platform:
| Platform | Input for Daunting Strike |
|---|---|
| PC (keyboard) | Q |
| Xbox | LT + X |
| PlayStation | L2 + Square |
On the controller, it functions as a modifier + face button skill: you hold the left trigger and tap the attack face button shown in the HUD. On the keyboard, it is a direct single-key skill on Q.
Step 1: Stand in the marked circle or designated area associated with the quest. The quest tracker should show that you are in position.
Step 2: Press the platform-specific input to fire Daunting Strike once. You should see the flying sword followed by your dash toward its path.
Step 3: Wait a moment after the animation plays. The quest objective should tick off as complete, and the tracker will update to send you back to Xiao Ping’an.
What to do if the quest does not register Daunting Strike
Sometimes the encounter does not update even when you feel you have done everything correctly. There are a few common causes.
1. Weapon or skill slot desync
If you swapped weapons a lot just before or during the encounter, the quest logic can fail to recognise the move.
Step 1: Swap to a different weapon briefly (for example, your spear or fan).
Step 2: Swap back to Nameless Sword using the d-pad or your weapon hotkey.
Step 3: Confirm in the Abilities screen that Daunting Strike still occupies the expected slot for Nameless Sword.
Step 4: Return to the marked spot and perform Daunting Strike again.
2. Wrong skill bound to the button
Daunting Strike can be moved to a different slot, which also changes the button it is bound to.
Step 1: Open the Develop > Abilities menu.
Step 2: Select Nameless Sword and look at the slot that corresponds to your trigger + face button (on controller) or Q (on keyboard).
Step 3: If you see any other skill name there, replace it with Daunting Strike.
Step 4: Once you see the Daunting Strike name associated with that input in the HUD, perform the move again in the quest area.
3. Out of position
The encounter expects the move to be demonstrated inside a specific zone.
Step 1: Check your minimap for the quest ring or marker and move into the centre of that area.
Step 2: Stay still for a second, then cast Daunting Strike once.
Moving too far out of the zone during the animation can sometimes prevent the completion flag from firing, so staying planted helps.
Rewards for completing Little Master’s Legacy I
Once you successfully perform Daunting Strike and speak to Xiao Ping’an again, the encounter ends quickly. For finishing Little Master’s Legacy I, you receive:
- Qinghe Exploration points: 5
- Coins: 2000
- Character XP: 2000
Exploration points contribute to regional progress in Qinghe, unlocking additional rewards over time, while the coins and character experience provide a useful early-game boost. Little Master’s Legacy I is also the opening part of a longer story thread that continues in later encounters with the same character.
Once Daunting Strike is set up correctly and mapped where you expect it, the Xiao Ping’an request becomes one of the quickest encounters in Where Winds Meet—and doubles as a straightforward test of how comfortable you are with your Nameless Sword kit.
