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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
3. Out of position
The encounter expects the move to be demonstrated inside a specific zone.
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.
