Healing in Where Winds Meet is built around the Medicine Chest. Out of the gate, you only get a single use, which is not enough for long dungeons or early bosses. Upgrading the Medicine Chest increases both the number of charges you can carry and the strength of your main healing item.
What the Medicine Chest does
The Medicine Chest is the slot that powers your primary healing item in combat, such as Wound Balm or other medicines you equip in the quick-use bar. Each rank of the chest determines:
| Medicine Chest rank | Healing charges in quick slot | Healing effectiveness |
|---|---|---|
| Base (start of game) | 1 charge | Basic heal value |
| Early upgrades | 2–3 charges (example shown in videos) | Increases with each upgrade |
| Higher ranks | Up to 5 charges in the quick slot | Further increased recovery per use |
Upgrades do not happen automatically when you level up. You have to visit a clinic NPC and spend a specific currency to push the chest to the next rank.
Where to upgrade the Medicine Chest (Evercare Clinic)
The main place to upgrade the Medicine Chest is the Evercare Clinic in Qinghe:
| Requirement | Details |
|---|---|
| Main story progress | You reach Evercare Clinic during Chapter 1 while moving through Qinghe. |
| Region | Moonveil Mountain area of Qinghe, near Heaven's Pier and the Far Shores dungeon entrance. |
| Fast travel | Activate the Courier Post near the clinic so you can quickly return for future upgrades. |
Once you arrive at Evercare Clinic, look for the NPC healer Yao Yaoyao. She is the one who handles both healing and Medicine Chest upgrades.
How to upgrade the Medicine Chest
At Evercare Clinic, the upgrade flow is straightforward:
| Step | Action |
|---|---|
| 1. Reach Evercare Clinic | Travel to Evercare Clinic in Qinghe’s Moonveil Mountain. Activate the Courier Post nearby for future visits. |
| 2. Talk to Yao Yaoyao | Approach the healer NPC Yao Yaoyao and start a conversation. |
| 3. Choose the upgrade option | In her interaction menu, select the option to upgrade or improve the Medicine Chest instead of just asking to heal. |
| 4. Submit Medicinal Tales | Confirm the prompt to submit Medicinal Tales. Each rank requires a set number of tales. |
| 5. Confirm upgrade | Use the on-screen “Upgrade” button to finalize. Your chest rank, charge count, and heal strength increase. |
If you do not have enough Medicinal Tales, the upgrade option will show the requirement and block the rank-up until you collect more.
Medicinal Tales explained
Medicinal Tales are the dedicated currency for Medicine Chest upgrades. They are not spent on other systems, so you can safely funnel them into healing.
| Aspect | How it works |
|---|---|
| Item type | Upgrade material for the Medicine Chest only. |
| Usage | Turned in to Yao Yaoyao at Evercare Clinic to raise the chest rank. |
| Scaling | Higher ranks cost more tales. You can submit multiple at once when upgrading. |
| Map prompt | When you have enough tales for the next rank, a prompt can appear when opening the map reminding you that an upgrade is available. |
How to get Medicinal Tales
Medicinal Tales drop from a wide range of in-game activities. Many players accumulate a stack of them without realizing they can be spent on the Medicine Chest.
| Activity | Medicinal Tales yield | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Side quests | Yes | Story and side missions in the world are a core source of tales. |
| Outposts | Yes (usually one per outpost) | Clearing hostile outposts is a reliable way to collect tales; each outpost generally rewards one. |
| World bosses | Yes | Defeating roaming or large bosses can reward Medicinal Tales alongside other loot. |
| Dungeons | Yes | Instanced content such as Far Shores can drop tales when completed. |
| Campaign progression | Yes | Main campaign missions add to your pool over time. |
| Exploration | Yes | General exploration, chests, and optional challenges can also award tales. |
Once you run low on Medicinal Tales, the solution is simply to go back out into the world: run more campaign steps, clear new outposts, repeat bosses, or pick up additional side quests. When you have enough pages again, return to Evercare Clinic to continue upgrading.
How Medicine Chest upgrades change your healing
Every rank of the Medicine Chest improves two things at once:
| Upgrade effect | Impact in play |
|---|---|
| More charges | Increases the number of medicine uses available in your quick slot between refills, reducing how often you need Boundary Stones. |
| Stronger heals | Each use of your equipped medicine restores more health, making boss attacks and dungeon attrition less punishing. |
| Scaling over time | Upgrades keep your healing in line with rising enemy damage so fights remain manageable instead of spiky and unforgiving. |
If you ignore upgrades, you can move far into the game still stuck on one or two weak heals, which makes encounters feel harder than intended. Regularly checking in with a clinic once you have a handful of Medicinal Tales keeps your survival tools in sync with your character level and gear.
How the Medicine Chest fits into overall healing
The Medicine Chest is only one part of the healing toolkit in Where Winds Meet, but it is the most direct and reliable. Other options include:
| Healing method | Role compared to Medicine Chest |
|---|---|
| Food | Provides extra recovery and temporary buffs, but only one food effect can be active at a time. |
| Healing weapons | Weapons like Panacea Fan and Soulshade Umbrella offer active heals and team support but depend on Dew generation and skill timing. |
| Inner Ways (e.g., Vital Leech) | Add passive sustain by restoring health on executions or under specific conditions. |
| Boundary Stones | Used to refill medicine charges once they are spent, not to upgrade the chest itself. |
The Medicine Chest underpins all of this by defining how many direct heals you can bring into any encounter and how potent they are. Upgrading it early, then revisiting the clinic whenever you have a fresh batch of Medicinal Tales, keeps the rest of your build choices much more forgiving.
As you push into tougher content like Far Shores and major world bosses, treat Medicine Chest upgrades as mandatory upkeep, not an optional luxury. Whenever the game signals that an upgrade is available, make the trip to Evercare Clinic, talk to Yao Yaoyao, and invest your Medicinal Tales before challenging the next spike in difficulty.
