Tai Chi is one of the earliest Mystic Skills you gain in Where Winds Meet, and it quietly becomes one of the most useful tools in both combat and exploration. The game explains it briefly during a bear encounter, then expects you to understand how to recreate that interaction on enemies, puzzles, and even fish.
How to unlock Tai Chi at the start of the game
Step 1: Progress the opening until you learn how to shoot arrows. After that tutorial, head toward the large golden flame icon on your map. Near this marker, you’ll find a man who can both unlock your map and point you to Tai Chi.
Step 2: Talk to him and go through his dialogue. He offers to unlock the map, then mentions he can teach you something else for 50 coins. You can pay him or haggle; either way, he will eventually direct you to a bear nearby.
Step 3: Approach the bear at the beehive west of the golden flame. You’ll enter an “observe and learn” event where golden rings appear on screen. Press the prompted button as each ring closes to successfully “observe” the bear’s movements and learn Tai Chi.
Step 4: Once the event ends, you gain the Tai Chi Mystic Skill. Equip it to a Mystic slot so that it appears on your Mystic ability wheel when you hold your Mystic modifier (for example, right trigger) and press the assigned button.
Where Tai Chi actually comes from in the story
In the lore, Tai Chi is a subtle Inkbound Order technique devised by Master Feng Dao after studying the I Ching with Elder Chen Tuan. It is built on redirecting an opponent’s force so that even stronger enemies can be unbalanced or thrown without directly striking them. Story events mention that Tian Ying’s betrayal caused both the technique and the associated tomes to disappear from the Jianghu, which is why encountering it through a random bear and a shrine feels almost like stumbling onto a lost art.
How to trigger Tai Chi correctly in combat
Many players press the button and see only a “failed” animation. Tai Chi is a directional throw; it needs a valid target and the right distance, and it has a short cooldown. The core behavior is always the same: pull the target in, spin them, then fling them where your camera is pointing.
Step 1: Lock onto a single target that is not a Mighty Enemy or boss. Tai Chi does not work on main bosses and often fails on special “Mighty” foes.
Step 2: Move into medium close range. If you are too far, your character will gesture and whiff. If you are jammed into the target, the game can also reject the cast. Aim for roughly weapon range or just inside it.
Step 3: With the target locked and Tai Chi off cooldown, hold your Mystic modifier and press the Tai Chi button once. If it connects, the enemy will be pulled into a spin in front of you instead of your character doing the “failed” flick.
Step 4: While the enemy is spinning, rotate the camera toward where you want to throw them. When the brief spin animation finishes, the target is hurled along your camera direction into the ground, a wall, a cliff, or another enemy.
When Tai Chi connects, it deals “Dragging Damage” during the pull and “Shield Breaker Damage” on impact. Upgrades increase both of those values.
Using Tai Chi on bears and breakable rocks
The first practical test of Tai Chi is the bear by the beehive. This encounter also hides an early chest behind destructible rocks.
Step 1: Equip Tai Chi on your Mystic bar and fight the bear normally until you are ready to throw it. You do not need any special on-screen prompt; just use Tai Chi as you would on any enemy.
Step 2: Lure or circle the bear so that when you cast Tai Chi, your camera is facing the nearby pile of stacked rubble-like rocks. Cast Tai Chi at medium range to pull the bear into a spin.
Step 3: While the bear is spinning, keep the camera locked on the rock pile. When the throw triggers, the bear will slam into the rocks, dealing massive damage and breaking the formation, revealing a chest underneath.
Any time you find a bear in the world, it is worth checking nearby for similar rock piles. Tai Chi does bonus damage to bears and is far more effective at ending those encounters quickly than trading blows with normal attacks.
How Tai Chi works against shield-bearing enemies
Tai Chi is flagged as especially strong against enemies with shields. When it lands, it can crack or fully remove a shield and break an enemy’s guard, leaving them exposed.
Step 1: Identify a standard shield-bearing enemy (not a boss or clearly marked Mighty foe). Lock on, close distance, and cast Tai Chi as described above.
Step 2: If the first throw does not remove the shield, repeat the process a couple more times. Some shielded targets need multiple hits before their guard breaks and their shield is disarmed.
Step 3: Once their shield breaks, immediately follow up with your highest-damage combos or Weak Point attacks while their defence is compromised.
Upgraded Tai Chi gets significantly stronger in this role. At higher tiers, the second phase of its Shield Breaker Damage increases, and it applies a defence debuff after a Weak Point Break, making follow-up attacks from any weapon hit harder for a short window.
Group control and environmental throws
Because Tai Chi lets you choose throw direction, it doubles as crowd control.
Step 1: In a group fight, lock on to one target at the edge of the pack and cast Tai Chi. While they spin, point the camera away from the main cluster so you throw that enemy out of the fight, briefly reducing pressure.
Step 2: When fighting near cliffs, rooftop edges, or deep pits, angle the throw so that the enemy flies off the edge. Many standard foes will be killed outright by the fall, bypassing the need to chip down their health.
Out-of-combat Tai Chi uses: leaves, puzzles, and fish
Although it is built as an offensive Mystic Skill, Tai Chi also interacts with several world objects.
Leaf circles and “leaf swirl” puzzles
On the ground, you will sometimes see circular patches covered in leaves. Casting Tai Chi on these spots gathers the leaves into a swirl, clears the circle, and grants a small amount of EXP. Leaf swirls also appear in quests such as “Tale of the Gold Leaves” / “One Leaf, One Life,” where you must “return the leaf” by using Tai Chi in front of a specific golden leaf location to advance the quest.
Fishing with Tai Chi
Casting Tai Chi on the surface of deep water creates ripples that send fish leaping out. Position yourself along the bank, then:
Step 1: Face the water and cast Tai Chi at a patch of deep water, ideally where you see signs of fish activity.
Step 2: When fish are flung into the air or onto the shore, move quickly to collect them before they disappear.
This interaction is most reliable along deeper stretches rather than shallow puddles.
Co-op quirks and common Tai Chi problems
Players frequently run into issues where Tai Chi seems inconsistent or simply refuses to work, especially in multiplayer.
In co-op
Many co-op sessions exhibit a bug where Tai Chi fails on enemies or specific scripted bears, even when performed correctly. The caster plays the “failed” animation or, in sparring, the other player may freeze instead of being thrown. Some players report that only the host can perform certain Mystic interactions; others note that even as host, Tai Chi can still fail in co-op, likely due to latency.
When you are stuck on a Tai Chi requirement in a quest such as “Cries in the Distance” or a Foundations Trial, switching to solo play often allows the interaction to work normally.
On shielded enemies in challenges
In some trials, such as Foundation Trials Chapter 5 and its Divine Challenge, players are told to remove shields with Tai Chi, but find that the shields do not come off even after multiple throws. In those cases, Tai Chi still deals damage and can help control positioning, but the intended “strip the shield” behavior may not trigger reliably.
Basic sanity checks when Tai Chi “does nothing”
- Confirm Tai Chi is equipped on your active Mystic bar.
- Make sure it is off cooldown; it has a 12-second recharge.
- Lock on to a non-Mighty target and stand at medium range, not point-blank.
- Aim the camera somewhere open; trying to throw into awkward geometry can cause weird behavior.
How to upgrade Tai Chi (Ranks, Tiers, and materials)
Tai Chi is a Mystic Skill with four Tiers divided into nine smaller Ranks. Each Rank upgrade improves its general effectiveness, such as base and Shield Breaker Damage, while Tier Breakthroughs add extra effects.
Step 1: Open the character development menu and go to the Develop tab. Scroll down to Mystic Skills.
Step 2: Highlight Tai Chi, select “View,” then choose “Upgrade.” Early Rank upgrades cost 2 Ebon Iron each until you reach a Breakthrough point.
Step 3: At each Tier Breakthrough beyond Tier 1, you gain additional effects. Tai Chi uses Ebon Iron and Vicious Fruit when moving up through higher Tiers.
| Tier | Breakthrough effect |
|---|---|
| Tier 2 – Damage Enhancement | Increases Phase-Two Shield Breaker Damage by 20% on Weak Point Break. |
| Tier 3 – Strategy Enhancement | Reduces the target’s defence by 20% for 10 seconds after a Weak Point Break. |
| Tier 4 – Damage Enhancement | Further increases Phase-Two Shield Breaker Damage by 30% on Weak Point Break. |
Once you reach these higher tiers, Tai Chi becomes a powerful setup tool. A successful Weak Point Break into a Tier 3 or Tier 4 throw softens the target’s defence and amplifies the throw’s impact, setting up very high burst damage from your martial arts skills or weapon combos.
Used correctly, Tai Chi is more than a one-off bear throw. It is an early-game Mystic Skill that stays relevant: it deletes bears and breaks rocks, pulls shields off regular enemies, knocks threats off cliffs, feeds you fish, and quietly powers several environmental puzzles. Once it is upgraded a few tiers, it becomes one of the most efficient ways to open enemies up for punishment across the whole of Where Winds Meet.
