The Disguise system in Where Winds Meet turns social stealth into a full mechanic. Instead of just sneaking in shadows, you literally become other people, walk through guarded doors, and talk targets into handing over key items.
Disguise sits alongside combat skills and movement as a core tool, especially once the game starts asking you to infiltrate sects or steal martial arts like Rope Dart. It is not available at the start; you have to unlock it in Kaifeng and learn how to turn NPC portraits into temporary identities.
How to unlock Disguise in Kaifeng
Disguise becomes available once you reach the city of Kaifeng and complete a specific side quest in the Fairgrounds.
| Step | What to do | Details |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Reach Kaifeng | Progress the main story until the “New Guest in Kaifeng” chapter lets you explore the city freely. |
| 2 | Go to the Fairgrounds | Look on the east side of Kaifeng for a green book icon marking the Disguise side quest. |
| 3 | Start “Disguise: Veil of Love” | Enter Wuyan’s cosmetics shop in the Fairgrounds and talk to her to begin the quest. |
| 4 | Answer Wuyan’s question | She asks whether people in love are “Trapped by the Heart” or “Trapped by the look.” Choosing “by the look” moves the quest forward. |
| 5 | Agree to help with her sister’s lover | Wuyan wants you to impersonate her sister, the beloved of Qiao Sanlang, and break things off on her behalf. |
| 6 | Attempt to get Qiao Sanlang’s item without Disguise | Use Wind Sense on him, target the item in his backpack, and try to ask for it. This fails on purpose and teaches why Disguise matters. |
| 7 | Learn about portraits | Return to Wuyan; she tells you that you must bring her a portrait of the person you want to impersonate. |
| 8 | Go to Fang Wenxiu’s shop | Follow the quest marker to Fang Wenxiu to capture the first portrait needed for Disguise. |
| 9 | Paint the portrait | Stand a short distance away from the target NPC, look for a mask icon above their head, enter drawing mode, and start the painting. |
| 10 | Return to Wuyan | Select “Head to Disguise” after finishing the painting to go back to Wuyan and have her transform you. |
| 11 | Repeat the item request with Disguise | While impersonating Wuyan’s sister, use Wind Sense on Qiao Sanlang and ask for the backpack item again; the success rate is now 100%. |
| 12 | Use the item and finish the quest | Activate the item from your inventory, then report back to Wuyan to close out “Veil of Love” and unlock Disguise permanently. |
Once this chain is complete, Wuyan offers Disguise services any time you need them, and new Disguise side jobs start to appear.
How to create a Disguise from an NPC portrait
Every Disguise starts as a drawing. You cannot imitate just anyone on the street; only certain NPCs are valid targets.
| Requirement | How it works |
|---|---|
| Eligible target | Only NPCs with a small mask icon hovering above their head can be used for Disguise. |
| Drawing distance | Stand close enough for the icon to appear, but not so close that the game warns you to move back. |
| Drawing mode | Use the on‑screen prompt to enter drawing mode and aim at the target NPC until the capture prompt appears. |
| Start painting | Press the button shown to start painting the portrait; a short minigame or progress bar completes the capture. |
| Return to Wuyan | Choose the “Head to Disguise” option after the painting finishes to go back to Wuyan’s shop with the new portrait. |
Every completed portrait becomes a potential identity. Wuyan stores these descriptions and can turn you into any recorded NPC as long as your Disguise rank is high enough for that target.
How to put on a Disguise for quests
Once a portrait exists, there are two pieces to actually using it: asking Wuyan to transform you, and keeping the Disguise on long enough to finish what you are doing.
| Action | Result | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Talk to Wuyan | Opens her interaction menu, including the Disguise option. | You must visit her cosmetics shop in Kaifeng or another Disguise shop marked in side quests. |
| Select “Put on a Disguise” | Shows a list of NPC descriptions you’ve captured via portraits. | Each description matches one portrait; some may be locked if your Disguise rank is too low. |
| Choose the required NPC | Your character model changes to match that NPC. | Clothes, face, and overall silhouette match the original; your stats and skills stay the same. |
| Leave the shop and travel to your target | You remain in Disguise while moving through the world. | For some quests you will have a time window or contextual limits; attacking civilians or guards may still cause trouble. |
| Complete the quest objectives | NPCs react as if you are the person you’re impersonating. | Many interactions, including taking specific items, have much higher success rates while disguised. |
| Remove the Disguise | You return to your normal appearance. | For Disguise‑dependent quests, removing it early often fails the objective and forces a restart. |
Disguise is often tied to the quest state. If you abandon or fail the task while still in someone else’s body, the game can remove the illusion automatically after a short delay or once you leave the area.
Items and resources needed for Disguise
Impersonating people is not completely free; a few small items and systems sit around it.
| Item / system | Use for Disguise | Where it comes in |
|---|---|---|
| Paper | Consumable needed to paint NPC portraits. | Bought at woodcraft or carpentry‑type shops in cities like Kaifeng before entering drawing mode. |
| Portrait description | Permanent record of a specific NPC’s appearance. | Created each time you successfully complete a portrait; Wuyan uses this to reconstruct the look. |
| Disguise “rank” or level | Gates how complex or important a person you can imitate. | Increases as you complete more Disguise jobs for Wuyan and other stealth‑focused quests. |
| Wind Sense | Lets you inspect NPCs and target items in their inventory. | Used before and after disguising yourself to request or “pull” specific items during quests. |
Without paper and a mask‑marked NPC, there is no way to create a new Disguise. Without a high enough rank, Wuyan simply refuses to turn you into certain high‑profile targets until you have more experience.
What the Disguise system is actually used for
Disguise is more than a dress‑up menu. It changes how social encounters, stealth, and some progression systems behave.
| Use case | How Disguise changes it | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Stealth and infiltration | Lets you walk into restricted spaces as a trusted figure instead of sneaking past patrols. | Impersonate a sect member to enter a dojo that would normally throw you out on sight. |
| Unlocking martial arts | Opens routes to advanced weapon skills that are otherwise blocked. | To learn Rope Dart, you disguise yourself as a Rope Dart martial artist near the dojo, slip inside, and mimic his training to unlock the style. |
| Item acquisition | Massively boosts your success rate when asking NPCs to hand over valuables. | As Wuyan’s sister, you can use Wind Sense on Qiao Sanlang and ask for a key item with a guaranteed 100% success chance. |
| Disguise‑specific jobs | Provides a series of side quests focused on impersonation. | Wuyan lines up increasingly tricky jobs where you play spouses, servants, or sect members to expose secrets or deliver items. |
| Exclusive rewards | Grants access to items, cosmetics, or contacts that only appear in Disguise flows. | Some NPCs only yield unique items if you approach them while disguised as someone they trust. |
One important pattern is that Disguise often feels like the “gentle” option. Instead of robbing or killing your way into a fortress, you can copy a guard, show a token, and walk through the front gate.
How Disguise compares to changing your own appearance
Disguise, in the Kaifeng sense, is about acting as another person for the world. Where Winds Meet also has a separate appearance‑change system that lets you rework your hero’s own face and style.
| Feature | Disguise (Kaifeng / Wuyan) | Appearance change (Cheng Xin / Faceless Ones) |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | Temporary impersonation for quests and stealth. | Permanent or long‑term edits to your player character. |
| How to unlock | Complete “Disguise: Veil of Love” for Wuyan in Kaifeng. | Progress the main quest that takes Ruby to the General’s Shrine, then meet Cheng Xin among the Faceless Ones. |
| Who you become | Specific NPCs with portraits you’ve drawn. | The same character, with new facial structure, makeup, or hair. |
| Interface | Select an NPC description in a Disguise shop. | Returns you to the full character creation screen via Cheng Xin or the Appearance menu. |
| Cost | Consumes paper for each new portrait and may use in‑world currency when Wuyan dresses you up. | Makeup tab changes are free; structural Customization changes require a Water Lady Script from the Jianghu Treasures Shop. |
| Gender changes | You copy whatever gender the NPC has. | Cheng Xin’s service does not let you change your character’s gender; only features around it. |
| Where to access later | Return to Wuyan or other quest‑specific Disguise shops. | Fast travel back to Still Shore to visit Cheng Xin, or open the main menu, choose Appearance, then Appearance again. |
Functionally, the game treats Cheng Xin’s “Disguise” as a lore‑friendly facelift, while Wuyan’s Disguise system is all about role‑playing other people to slip through social barriers.
How Disguise interacts with law and stealth failures
Impersonating citizens does not exempt you from the Wanted System. Committing crimes while disguised still triggers guards and increases your notoriety, and some quests intentionally push you close to that line.
The game tracks “wrongdoing” in cities in a way that feels closer to a crime meter than a simple binary. Repeated thefts or assaults can spawn waves of guards, restrict your movement options, and force you to flee or lie low until the heat dies down. Disguise helps you avoid these situations by asking for items politely instead of stealing them, but abusing it around heavily guarded NPCs can still end badly.
On the flip side, being caught while disguised often exposes the identity you borrowed. If you are using another person’s face to get into a sect or dojo and blow the infiltration, expect that door to close again until you either improve your stealth approach or find a different route.
Once unlocked, Disguise turns Where Winds Meet into a quieter, more flexible game. It lets you solve certain problems with charm and mimicry instead of swords and explosions, and it opens alternative paths to prized martial arts and unique items. The more time you spend with Wuyan’s jobs and portrait hunting, the more identities you can slip into when brute force stops working.
