The disguise system in Where Winds Meet lets you impersonate NPCs, walk past guards, and pull off stealth quests that are impossible in your normal outfit. It is also tightly tied to specific side quests and progression, so missing one small step can leave you confused about why a prompt will not appear or why a disguise keeps failing.
How to unlock Disguise (Veil of Love in Kaifeng)
Step 1: Travel to Kaifeng and look for the green book icon in the Fairgrounds on the east side of the city. This marks the side quest Disguise: Veil of Love.
Step 2: Go to Wuyan’s cosmetics shop in Kaifeng. The shop is near fast travel points such as the Grand Imperial Temple. Inside, talk to Lady Wuyan (she has a hovering mask symbol above her) to start the Veil of Love quest.
Step 3: Answer Wuyan’s short question about love (“trapped by the heart” or “trapped by the look”). Your answer leads to her offering to “give it a shot” and test out a disguise.
Step 4: Follow the quest instructions to interact with Qiao Sanlang. Use Wind Sense to inspect his backpack and attempt to get the Jade Sachet. The first attempt without a disguise is meant to fail.
Step 5: Return to Wuyan. She will explain that to disguise yourself as someone, you need that person’s portrait. This unlocks the core portrait mechanic used for every disguise in the game.
Step 6: Follow the quest marker to Fang Wenxiu’s shop and get close enough to her to see a mask icon appear above her head. This icon marks her as a valid disguise target.
Step 7: Activate the drawing prompt to enter painting mode, line up the portrait, and start painting. Once the portrait is finished, use the option labeled Head to Disguise to snap back to Wuyan’s shop.
Step 8: Speak to Wuyan again and choose the option to transform. Pick the portrait you just created and let her apply the disguise.
Step 9: While disguised as Qiao Sanlang’s beloved, return to him, enable Wind Sense, and ask for the item from his backpack. This time, he will hand over the Jade Sachet with a 100 percent success rate.
Step 10: Open your inventory, locate the quest item you received, and use it. Then go back to Wuyan and turn in the quest to complete Disguise: Veil of Love and permanently unlock the Disguise system.
How the Disguise system works
The Disguise system has three core elements: target NPCs, portraits, and the disguise shop.
- Only NPCs with a mask icon overhead can be copied.
- You create a portrait of that NPC using drawing mode; the portrait becomes the recipe for that disguise.
- You then go to a disguise shop (such as Wuyan’s) and ask the shopkeeper to put the disguise on.
Once a disguise is applied:
- Your character’s appearance and voice change to match the NPC.
- You can perform special interactions like requesting items with much higher success or entering restricted areas.
- The disguise lasts for a limited time (around 15 minutes in Veil of Love) and can be removed manually from the same menu that shows its timer.
Removing your disguise during an active objective that requires it can fail the quest and force you to repeat the sequence, so it is safer to stay in character until the objective completes.
How to create portraits and prepare disguises
Step 1: Make sure you have at least one sheet of Paper (or Rattan Paper) in your inventory. These can be bought from Woodcraft or similar shops. Without paper, you cannot start a portrait.
Step 2: Find an NPC who can be copied. On the map and in the world, these characters are marked with the same mask symbol used in the Veil of Love quest.
Step 3: Approach the target until the game shows a prompt to enter drawing mode. If you get too close, the prompt may vanish or warn you that you are in the wrong range, so back away a little until it appears.
Step 4: Enter drawing mode, aim at the NPC’s face, and follow the on-screen instructions to complete the painting. The game will confirm when the portrait is aligned correctly.
Step 5: When the portrait is finished, choose the option to go back to the disguise shop (often named something like Head to Disguise). This registers the portrait with the shopkeeper.
Step 6: Talk to the disguise shop owner, select the option to put on a disguise, and then pick the NPC portrait you just created from the list. If the disguise is locked due to level requirements, you will need a higher disguise rank first (see below).
How to increase disguise level and access harder targets
Disguises are gated by a disguise level. Some NPCs and commissions on the map are labeled as higher-rank disguises; interacting with them before you level up returns a “level isn’t high enough” message.
To level up:
- Go to a disguise shop such as Wuyan’s.
- Take on commissions offered there. These are disguise jobs that reward disguise experience.
- Complete those missions using the requested disguises.
If a commission seems stuck on the wrong portrait (for example, only letting you select one specific NPC), check that you have the correct portraits created on the map using Rattan Paper at the relevant points of interest. The game expects you to link each commission to a valid sketch you made out in the world rather than swapping targets inside the shop UI.
How to use Disguise in quests like The Art of Skill Theft and Rope Dart
After Veil of Love, disguises show up in several stealth-heavy sequences. One of the most notable is learning the Rope Dart martial art through a quest often referred to as The Art of Skill Theft.
In that scenario:
- You identify a Rope Dart martial artist (sometimes nicknamed “Muddle”) near a dojo.
- You create a portrait of that martial artist using the same mask-icon and drawing-mode flow.
- You return to the disguise shop and equip the Rope Dart user’s disguise.
- While disguised, you infiltrate the dojo, perform specific sneaky interactions, and steal the martial art style.
After pulling off the theft, you can talk to Ni Laoshan, the NPC who points you toward Disguise for this route. Completing this earns you a contact with the Nine Mortal Ways sect and secures Rope Dart for your build.
Other stealth missions reuse the same pattern: portrait, shop, disguise timer, and then a short window to sneak, talk, or steal something in a restricted space.
Using Wind Sense together with Disguise
Wind Sense is a key partner to the disguise mechanic. Many disguise quests ask you to take or request a specific item from an NPC’s backpack, and those items are only visible or selectable while using Wind Sense.
Step 1: Activate Wind Sense near the NPC. This reveals targetable items and interactions.
Step 2: Focus the cursor on the NPC or their backpack, then highlight the item you need.
Step 3: If you are not in disguise, attempts to request the item will usually fail, which is sometimes required by the quest to demonstrate why Disguise is needed.
Step 4: After equipping the correct disguise and returning to the NPC with Wind Sense active, select the same item. The success rate is dramatically higher and often guaranteed for that quest.
This interaction pattern repeats across Disguise missions: fail once in your normal outfit, learn about disguises, then return in costume to get what you want.
Disguise timer, failure states, and getting jailed
Every disguise has a time limit. In Veil of Love, you are given roughly 15 minutes to complete the objective while disguised before it expires. Later disguises follow a similar timed model.
There are three main ways a disguise can fail:
- Timer runs out: When the clock hits zero, you revert to your normal appearance. If you are in a restricted area or mid-objective, guards can become hostile, and the quest may fail.
- Manual removal: You can cancel the disguise early from the same interface that shows its timer. Doing this during a disguise-dependent objective often fails that objective.
- Detection: Being spotted under suspicious circumstances, especially by the person you are imitating, can break the disguise and trigger the law system.
Players report two specific pitfalls:
- Walking directly up to the NPC you are impersonating can strip the disguise and flag you as a criminal.
- Fighting guards after a disguise breaks can get you arrested, triggering a jail timer (for example, a 15-minute wait) and interacting with the Wanted and Honor systems.
How to safely use disguise for open-world mask icons
Mask icons on the world map and minimap mark content tied to the Disguise system. These may be simple portrait opportunities, full commissions, or infiltration points.
Step 1: Before traveling to a mask icon, make sure you have spare Rattan Paper in your inventory so you can sketch on the spot.
Step 2: At the point of interest, use the Rattan Paper directly from your inventory if no drawing prompt appears. This helps the game recognize that you intend to sketch the nearby target linked to that icon.
Step 3: Once the portrait is complete, return to a disguise shop to turn it into a usable disguise or to progress a commission that calls for that specific NPC.
Step 4: Check disguise level gates before attempting complex infiltrations from these icons; if you see a message that your disguise level is too low, go back to the shop and run more commissions instead of brute-forcing the mission.
Handled carefully, the Disguise system in Where Winds Meet becomes more than a one-off story gimmick. It opens alternate paths into sects like Nine Mortal Ways, unlocks martial arts such as Rope Dart, and gives you new ways to interact with NPCs for unique items. The tradeoff is that every mask comes with a clock and the risk of public unmasking, so planning portraits, timing trips to the shop, and reading the room around your target are just as important as any combat build.
