Mortal Rope Dart in Where Winds Meet is a hybrid martial art that mixes short‑range strikes with whip‑like pulls and a surprisingly important rat companion. Unlocking it, though, is less about combat and more about stealth, disguises, and sect politics.
What Mortal Rope Dart actually is
Mortal Rope Dart is a Martial Arts Weapon in the Bamboocut arsenal. It focuses on:
- High DPS through fast strings of attacks
- Strong crowd control and mobility
- Lower innate survivability and a higher mechanical difficulty than simpler weapons
Its core toolkit revolves around:
| Skill | Type | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Rope Dart - Light Attack | Light combo | Up to four chained swings with short recovery. |
| Bladebound Thread | Martial Arts Skill | Throw the dart; either pull a normal enemy to you or pull yourself to a boss. Tap again to knock them down and apply a Vendetta Token. |
| Rodent Rampage | Special Skill | Spend Tokens of Gratitude to summon a rat that auto‑attacks when you perform light attacks, for 10 seconds. |
| Rodent's Resilience | Charging Stance | Charge to gain Tenacity and unlock boosted effects like upgraded Rodent Rampage, gradual HP recovery, and energy regeneration. |
| Coiled Dragon | Charged light | While charging, throw the dart hard to knock an enemy down. |
| Rope Dart - Conversion | Dual-weapon | Swap to Rope Dart and immediately attack. |
On top of these, the weapon’s talent line adds critical rate, rat damage scaling, Bamboocut bonuses, and a Bone Corrosion effect applied by specific attacks once you’ve pushed it through multiple breakthroughs.
All ways to unlock Mortal Rope Dart
There are three main routes to Rope Dart:
| Route | Region / Requirement | How you unlock it | Who it’s for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Skill Theft in Kaifeng | Kaifeng, Martial Hall | Infiltrate the Martial Hall using Disguise and pass an Art Theft training sequence. | Players following the main story into Kaifeng. |
| Join Nine Mortal Ways (Qinghe early route) | Qinghe, early levels | Get Celestial Seas, start a “Well of Heaven” recruitment line that is actually Nine Mortal Ways in disguise, and end up joining their sect. | Players who want Rope Dart access as soon as possible and don’t mind locking into this sect (until they swap later). |
| Equip Rope Dart and trigger Skill Theft tracking | Wherever you can open the Develop menu | Equip a Rope Dart weapon with no skills, then use the Obtain prompt to auto‑track the Kaifeng Skill Theft route. |
Anyone who already owns the weapon but not the martial art. |
How Skill Theft works for weapons
Skill Theft is the system that lets you learn martial arts you didn’t pick at the start. For weapons, it works like this:
- Open the Develop menu (default
H) and go to Martial Arts / Weapons. - Select a weapon you don’t fully know yet.
- Use the
Obtainprompt (typically shown as the Space Bar in the UI). - The game tracks a Skill Theft quest for that weapon, with location and requirements.
Most Skill Theft missions are stealth‑style, instanced areas. Common rules include:
- Art and Lightness Skills are usually disabled inside the instance.
- If patrolling enemies spot you, you’re kicked out or reset to the last checkpoint.
- Some targets must be assassinated from behind; others can be bypassed.
- At the end, you trigger an Art Theft mini‑game that grants the martial art.
Mortal Rope Dart is one of the few weapons where Skill Theft is tightly linked to the Disguise system and to a sect — Nine Mortal Ways.
Unlocking Mortal Rope Dart via Skill Theft in Kaifeng
The “standard” route to Rope Dart is a scripted infiltration of the Nine Mortal Ways Martial Hall in Kaifeng, using Skill Theft and Disguise together.
Prerequisites for the Kaifeng route
| Requirement | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Access to Kaifeng (e.g., New Guest in Kaifeng chapter) | The Martial Hall and related NPCs are in the Kaifeng region. |
| Disguise system unlocked | You must impersonate a Nine Mortal Ways disciple to get inside. |
| Wild Sense available | Used to inspect inventories (for Jade Sachet and Core Disciple’s Token). |
Kaifeng Martial Hall infiltration
Once you’re in Kaifeng, the Rope Dart Skill Theft route unfolds in a fixed order:
| Step | Objective | Key details |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Reach the Martial Hall entrance | Walk up to the Martial Hall in Kaifeng. You’ll be refused entry, and an elder outside explains you need a way in. |
| 2 | Meet Wuyan to start Disguise | Head to the marked area in east Kaifeng and talk to Wuyan. This kicks off the Disguise technique questline. |
| 3 | Use Wild Sense to find the Jade Sachet | Inspect Wuyan’s inventory with Wild Sense and locate the Jade Sachet item. |
| 4 | Draw Fang Wenxiu’s portrait | Go to Fang Wenxiu’s shop, create a portrait of her, and bring it back. |
| 5 | Disguise as Fang Wenxiu | Submit the portrait to Wuyan and use it to disguise yourself as Fang Wenxiu. |
| 6 | Obtain the Jade Sachet | Approach Qiao Shanlang while disguised and request the Jade Sachet, completing Wuyan’s Disguise unlock quest. |
| 7 | Consult the Martial Hall elder | Return to the elder outside the Martial Hall. He explains how to infiltrate it using Disguise. |
| 8 | Target Muddle for a new disguise | Find Muddle, an Outer Disciple of Nine Mortal Ways, drinking near the Hall. Draw his portrait. |
| 9 | Apply the Muddle disguise | Back with Wuyan, choose the Disguise option and select Muddle. This uses a Rank 2 disguise, so Wuyan may insist that you level Disguise first if you’re only Rank 1. |
| 10 | Enter the inner sanctum | Walk through the Martial Hall entrance as Muddle. A student will block the training area and inform you that you need a Core Disciple’s Token. |
| 11 | Get the Core Disciple’s Token | Go to the kitchen on the right side of the Hall. Use Wild Sense to spot the Token in the cook’s inventory and request it. |
| 12 | Learn Mortal Rope Dart with Art Theft | Speak with Elder Tian in the main hall, then stand where the instructor indicates and trigger Art Theft. Complete the Wind Sense timing mini‑game to reach the required score and learn Mortal Rope Dart. |
| 13 | Wrap up with Ni Laoshan | Drop the disguise and head to the Martial Hall backyard. Talk to Ni Laoshan to close out the Rope Dart Skill Theft questline. |
Inside the training area, the Art Theft check plays like a rhythm‑style focus mini‑game: you enter Wind Sense, wait for gold circles, and press the prompt at the right time to build points, while grey prompts punish mistimed presses. Hit the target score in time, and the Rope Dart martial art is added to your character.
Common failure points on the Rope Dart Skill Theft mission
Several things can make this quest feel unfair if you miss the nuances:
- Wrong disguise target: The Martial Hall mission requires disguising as a man — specifically Muddle — not a female NPC. Using the wrong portrait will fail immediately at the gate.
- Disguise rank too low: Muddle is a Rank 2 disguise. If Wuyan has only taught you Rank 1, you need to complete at least one of his side quests to rank up Disguise before you can wear Muddle’s face.
- Entry line-of-sight: Even when correctly disguised, walking straight through the center of the entryway can cause the NPC you’re impersonating, or nearby guards, to “see through” you in scripted checks. Many players avoid this by approaching from the left side, staying out of the disguised NPC’s direct line of sight.
- Time limit on disguise: Disguises last around 10–15 minutes of in‑game time. If you delay too long inside, the mask can drop, causing detection. Move purposefully from Token to Elder Tian to the instructor.
Unlocking Mortal Rope Dart early by joining Nine Mortal Ways in Qinghe
There is a second path that grants access to Rope Dart much earlier, while you’re still in Qinghe around level 10. It relies on sect recruitment rather than the Kaifeng Martial Hall plot.
The broad flow is:
- Unlock the Celestial Seas Mystic Skill, which lets you remotely snatch or steal objects.
- Begin what looks like a recruitment line for the “Well of Heaven” sect, a defensive/tank‑leaning group.
- Discover that this “Well of Heaven” contact is actually Nine Mortal Ways operating under false colors.
- Carry out a heist for them, stealing jewels from a nearby NPC using your theft skill.
- Return the stolen goods and, in the process, get roped into Nine Mortal Ways — which grants access to their arsenal, including Rope Dart.
While this route unlocks Rope Dart weapons at a low character level, you still cannot equip the martial art until roughly level 16. That level requirement comes quickly, but the important trade‑off is factional: you are formally in Nine Mortal Ways and must follow the game’s rules for leaving or switching sects later if you change your mind.
Using the Develop menu to track the Rope Dart Skill Theft quest
If you find a Rope Dart weapon first — from drops, chests, or sect rewards — you can use it to jump straight into the Skill Theft setup:
- Open
Develop → Gear. - Equip a Rope Dart weapon on your character.
- Because you don’t yet know its martial art, an
Obtainprompt appears. - Choose
Obtain, and the game tracks the Rope Dart Skill Theft route to the Kaifeng Martial Hall.
This is the same mission described earlier; the menu route is simply another way to discover and track it without hunting for NPCs manually.
Rope Dart’s core mechanics and why Skill Theft is worth it
Rope Dart’s kit rewards timing and positioning rather than raw stats. The main ideas:
- Pull or gap‑close on demand: Bladebound Thread lets you control distance in either direction: closing the gap on bosses by pulling yourself in, or yanking standard enemies out of formations.
- Vendetta Tokens and rats: Bladebound Thread marks enemies with Vendetta Tokens. When your rat hits these targets during Rodent Rampage, it deals significantly more damage and refunds some Tokens of Gratitude, feeding back into more rat calls.
- Charging stance trade‑offs: Rodent’s Resilience lets you sit in a charging posture to gain Tenacity and layered buffs (enhanced rats, HP sustain, energy recovery). The longer you charge, the more benefits you get, but you also risk being punished if you mistime it.
- Control tools while charging: Coiled Dragon and the charged version of Rodent’s Resilience give you ways to knock enemies down or pull them in while you’re in charging stance, punishing anyone who tries to interrupt your setup.
The talents and internal arts that sit around Rope Dart reinforce this playstyle:
| Internal Art / Talent | Category | Role for Rope Dart |
|---|---|---|
| Echoes of Oblivion | Pursuit / Debuff | Synergizes with Infernal Twinblades in the shared Bamboocut arsenal, letting Twinblades ignore parts of enemy defenses under certain debuffs. |
| Vendetta | Buff / Recover | Extends Vendetta Token duration and refunds Tokens of Gratitude, increasing how long your rat‑centric loop can run. |
| Riptide Reflex | Control / Buff | Reduces Martial Arts cooldowns when you land control skills, which pairs well with Rope Dart’s knockdowns and pulls. |
| Breaking Point | Pursuit / Stacking Buff | Rewards critical hits against Exhausted enemies with stacks of Physical Penetration and Critical Damage, ideal for long combo strings. |
| Critical Rate Increase (Talent) | Tier 0 | Makes Agility more valuable by tying it directly to critical rate. |
| Mouse Damage Enhancement (Talent) | Tier 1 | Boosts the rat’s physical damage, turning Rodent Rampage into a serious DPS layer. |
| Bamboocut Increase (Talent) | Tier 2 | Raises Bamboocut Attack and scales it from minimum attack stats. |
| Attribute Attack Damage Enhancement (Talent) | Tier 3 | Shifts more of your damage onto attribute attack, while further lifting Bamboocut output. |
| Bone Corrosion Enhancement (Talent) | Tier 3 | Makes Guided Blade and Coiled Dragon apply Bone Corrosion for a short time, adding another debuff to exploit. |
For players who like weaving between weapons, Rope Dart pairs especially well with Infernal Twinblades. Twinblades have a very high hit count, which multiplies the number of rat strikes you trigger during Rodent Rampage and pushes Vendetta‑style internal arts to their limit.
Once Mortal Rope Dart is unlocked — whether through Kaifeng’s heist‑like Skill Theft mission or by committing early to Nine Mortal Ways in Qinghe — it becomes one of the most expressive weapons in Where Winds Meet. The unlock itself doubles as a tutorial for two of the game’s most distinctive systems: Disguise and Skill Theft. If those systems were confusing before, the Rope Dart route is the moment they finally click.
