Zhang Wanshi is a story boss you meet during the Hidden Mountain chapter that arrived with Where Winds Meet Version 2.0. He hardly fights you directly. Instead, he sends waves of puppets and shifts their attack patterns across three phases, which is what makes the encounter tricky rather than the boss himself.
Quick answer: Parry the puppet combos, but hold your guard on the final hit of each string, since that last strike cannot be parried. Clear all three phases and the main story continues automatically.
Best weapon and build for the fight
Any melee DPS build can take Zhang Wanshi down, so you do not need a specialised setup. The one weapon worth bringing is the new gauntlet class added in 2.0. Gauntlets let you block certain attacks that are otherwise unblockable, which removes some of the pressure in the later phases. The trade-off is timing. The block only works if your input lands on the exact frame the attack connects, so treat it as a bonus rather than a crutch.
Whatever weapon you carry, the fight rewards clean defence over aggression. Zhang Wanshi’s puppets telegraph their strings, so learning when to parry and when to simply hold guard matters more than raw damage output.
Phase 1: Puppet trios and the unparryable finisher
The opening phase sends puppets at you in groups of three. Their combo is fixed and easy to read once you see it once. Two puppets swing at the same time, then the third one closes the string with a follow-up attack at the end.
You can parry every hit in that sequence except the final one. The safest habit is to parry the paired opening strikes, then stop trying to parry and hold your block for the closing hit. Punish in the gap after the combo ends, then reset for the next wave.
Phase 2: The fast puppet and its two combos
For the second phase, Zhang Wanshi summons a single puppet that is faster and tougher than the trio. It works from two combo lengths, and both are fully parryable, which is the key difference from Phase 1.
| Combo | Hits | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Fast combo | 4 attacks | Parry every hit |
| Slow combo | 6 attacks | Parry every hit |
Parrying the full string chips away at the puppet’s toughness bar. Break that bar and you get a clean window to deal heavy damage, so commit to reading the combos rather than dodging out of them.
Phase 3: Enhanced combos and the new special attacks
The final phase reuses the Phase 2 combos, but they are enhanced and come at you noticeably faster. The parry timings are the same, so the challenge is keeping pace rather than learning anything new about the base strings. On top of that, the puppet gains two special attacks you have to watch for.
- Vanishing leap: the puppet jumps high and disappears. Stay ready to dodge, because it reappears to hit you and then vanishes again.
- Dark-arena volley: when the arena turns dark, the puppet fires projectiles at you. Dodge or block through them until it releases a full volley. Right after that volley, it swoops down with an unblockable attack, so be ready to move.
The dark-arena swoop is the most dangerous moment of the whole fight because the finishing dive cannot be blocked with a normal guard. Track the projectile volley as your cue and dodge the follow-up dive rather than trying to tank it.
How you know the fight is over
Clearing all three phases ends the encounter with no extra step required. If you are fighting Zhang Wanshi as part of the main Hidden Mountain quest, the chapter picks up again the moment he goes down, so you can carry straight on with the story.
