Gear in Where Winds Meet can break, but the system is lighter than in many MMOs and mostly matters once your build stabilizes at higher levels. Early on, you will swap armor and weapons so often that durability is almost an afterthought; later, keeping key set pieces in good condition is part of staying on curve with the game’s aggressive world scaling.
How durability works when you die
Every time your character dies, all equipped clothing and weapons lose 1% durability. That loss accumulates over repeated deaths. When durability drops low enough, affected items start underperforming compared with their listed stats.
In the leveling phase, this is easy to ignore because:
- You replace gear frequently as you progress and unlock new drops.
- The percentage penalties from a handful of deaths are small compared with raw stat gains from higher-tier items.
Once you reach higher levels and lock into specific sets for their effects, letting durability decay becomes more noticeable. That is the point where you should start repairing consistently instead of treating every drop as disposable.
How to repair individual gear pieces
Repairing in Where Winds Meet is done directly from the item, not through a separate NPC. The basic flow is the same across platforms:
| Step | What to do | What you see |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Open your inventory or gear screen. | All equipped items and bagged gear are visible. |
| 2 | Highlight the worn item you want to fix. | The item detail panel appears. |
| 3 | Select the repair option on that item. | A prompt shows the material and coin cost to repair. |
| 4 | Confirm the repair. | The item’s durability returns toward full, and its stats are restored. |
Repair consumes two things:
- In‑game currency (coins).
- Specific crafting materials tied to item level or rarity.
Repairing all equipped gear at once
Console players often look for a “repair all” button to handle every equipped item in one action. On PlayStation 5 specifically, players report being able to repair each piece manually but not finding any confirmed way to repair all equipped gear in a single command.
On the Chinese server, a newer update introduced automatic gear repair, removing the need to manage durability at all. That change has not been rolled out everywhere yet, so regional clients can behave differently:
| Region / build | Repair behavior | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Chinese server (latest patch) | Gear is repaired automatically by the game. | You do not need to interact with repair at all. |
| Global launch (PS5 / PC) | Manual per‑item repair from the gear screen. | Each piece must be selected and repaired individually. |
If your client still uses manual repair, there is no confirmed in‑game control that repairs all equipped gear in one click. You will need to:
- Open your equipment screen.
- Move across each slot (weapons, armor, accessories).
- Trigger the repair action for every item that shows durability loss.
Once the automatic repair patch reaches your region, durability will stop being an active task, and existing “repair all” questions will effectively go away.
Is repairing gear necessary?
Repair is optional but becomes important under two conditions:
- You are at or near max level and relying on specific set effects.
- You run breakthrough trials and higher world tiers where enemies scale hard with your level.
World strength steps up each time you clear breakthrough scenarios. If your gear’s durability is low and you have not upgraded it, you fall behind the world’s baseline, and fights start to feel like hitting enemies “with wet noodles.” Repairing does not raise gear level, but it does keep the stats you already paid for fully active.
When you are still below those thresholds and swapping gear frequently, you can afford to let damaged low‑tier items break and simply replace them with fresh drops instead of paying repair costs.
Old gear options: repair, recycle, or Arsenal
Once you move past basic survival, durability and repair sit alongside two other systems that determine what you do with older items: recycling and the Arsenal.
Recycling old gear for Gold Coins
Old items that you no longer plan to wear can be dismantled into Gold Coins, which are then used to upgrade the gear you do care about. The game protects your active build by hiding equipped gear from the recycling list.
| Action | How recycling works |
|---|---|
| Open bag | Use the in‑game menu or the default bag key to open your inventory. |
| Go to Gear → Recycling | Switch to the gear tab and enter the recycling interface. |
| Select items | Mark any unused weapons, armor, or accessories you want to dismantle; equipped items do not appear here. |
| Confirm (single recycle) | When dismantling one item at a time, you get a confirmation prompt before it is destroyed. |
| Batch recycle behavior | When dismantling multiple items in bulk, the system does not ask for a final confirmation—selected gear is removed immediately for coins. |
Recycling is permanent. Once an item is dismantled, it cannot be recovered.
Arsenal: keeping old gear for passive stats
Beyond simple salvage, old gear can be slotted into the Arsenal to provide passive attribute bonuses. The system unlocks later in progression and pushes players to think about durability, repair, and hoarding differently.
| Arsenal feature | How it changes repair decisions |
|---|---|
| Unlock level | Arsenal use begins once your character is in the 40–50+ level range. |
| Old gear slots | Items placed into the Arsenal contribute gear score and grant passive bonuses like extra minimum and maximum damage or life. |
| Arsenal Paths | Each Path favors certain weapon types and builds; you align it with your chosen martial arts (for example, strategic sword and spear builds). |
| Interaction with repair | Arsenal is meant for gear you no longer wear in combat, so durability is irrelevant once a piece has been slotted there. |
This gives you three parallel outcomes for old items:
- Recycle for coins if the item has no long‑term value.
- Keep and repair if it is part of a live set you actively fight in.
- Slot into the Arsenal if you want its stats, but you no longer need to wear it.
Repairing for set effects
Set effects are a central part of late‑game builds. Offensive and defensive gear sets grant additional bonuses once you equip enough matching pieces, from extra affinity damage to shields that reduce incoming damage. Those bonuses assume the items are functioning at full power.
Repair supports this in two ways:
- Keeping each piece’s full stat line active so the set’s raw attack, defense, HP, or affinity values are not quietly reduced by low durability.
- Preserving old set pieces that you keep around solely for their effects, even after you replace them in Arsenal or off-hand roles.
Repairing a retired set only for its effect is rarely optimal compared with simply slotting that set into the Arsenal or replacing it with higher‑tier gear. Repair becomes worthwhile when:
- You rely on a specific 2‑ or 4‑piece effect for your current build and cannot replace it yet.
- The materials and coins required are small compared with the performance loss you feel when letting durability run down.
Durability and repair in Where Winds Meet are there to punish repeated deaths and add a small maintenance cost to endgame sets, not to gate basic progression. Early on, you can ignore the system and focus on upgrading and replacing gear. As you approach higher levels and world tiers, treat repair as one of several levers—alongside upgrading, recycling, and the Arsenal—that keep your build in line with the game’s scaling enemies.
