Sects in Where Winds Meet sit somewhere between a class, a faction, and a roleplay alignment. They define your martial art discount, your cosmetics, and even what you’re “supposed” to do in the open world. That makes a simple question very common: are you locked into one sect, or can you eventually join multiple?
Can you join multiple sects?
You can join every sect in the game over time, but only one at a time.
Sect membership is exclusive in the moment: when you swear into Well of Heaven, Silver Needle, Midnight Blades, or any other sect, your character is treated as a disciple of that single group. If you decide you’d rather be a trickster in Nine Mortal Ways or a healer in Silver Needle later, you need to leave your current sect and then join the new one.
There’s no permanent lockout. You can:
- Leave your current sect.
- Join a different one.
- Come back to the older sects again later.
Players routinely treat this like a collection game: they rotate through sects to unlock each sect’s martial art, shop cosmetics, and titles. That “collect them all” approach is fully supported by the game’s systems.
What carries over when you switch sects?
Sect choice is flexible, but it isn’t entirely free of friction. Two things matter when you move around:
- Martial arts: When you first join a sect, you receive its signature martial art and matching weapon as an entry gift (for example, Thundercry Blade with Well of Heaven, Mortal Rope Dart with Nine Mortal Ways, Panacea and Inkwell Fans with Silver Needle). Once unlocked, those martial arts remain part of your toolkit; you do not lose them when you leave the sect.
- Reputation and rank: Each sect tracks reputation (often called precept or discipline value) separately. Reputation unlocks its shop inventory, titles, and privileges. When you leave a sect, you stop progressing that bar. When you return later, you resume from where you left off, but you will have lost the momentum you could have been building there while you were away. Some descriptions also note that transfers cost you the progress you had in the previous sect, so treat a switch as a reset for that sect’s internal ladder even if your basic membership status returns.
Cosmetics purchased from a sect shop are permanent account unlocks. You keep the outfits even if you’re no longer a member of the sect whose colors you’re wearing.
How joining and switching actually work in-game
There are two layers to getting into sects: the menu system and the in-world initiation quests.
| Step | What you do | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Unlock the Sects menu | Play through the early game until the Sects button appears in the main menu. | Gives access to join/leave options and reputation overview. |
| 2. Use “Join Sect” | Open the Sects menu, go to the Join Sect screen, and pick a sect that interests you. | Shows you high-level rules, themes, and an “Entry Clue” button. |
| 3. Follow the Entry Clue | Select “Entry Clue” to get a hint toward the sect’s elder or contact NPC. | Starts the process that leads to an initiation quest in the open world. |
| 4. Complete the initiation | Find the elder or contact, meet their requirements, and clear their trial or quest chain. | You become a full sect disciple and receive the entry gift (martial art + weapon). |
| 5. Leave a sect to switch | When you want to change, open the Sects menu and choose to leave your current sect. | Your status reverts to Sectless until you complete another sect’s joining quest. |
In some cases, your past behavior lets you skip the test. If you’ve already been playing in line with a sect’s rules before you meet its elder, the elder may accept you directly without a full trial.
Examples: joining specific sects
A few sects have clear entry paths that show how flexible the system is:
| Sect | Theme | Signature martial art | How you find them |
|---|---|---|---|
| Well of Heaven | Robin Hood-style justice, chivalry, red-envelope charity | Thundercry Blade | Speak to waiter San Qian’er in Harvestfall (Qinghe), ask about the hero who gives away wealth, then follow his clues. |
| Nine Mortal Ways | Tricksters, pranks, deception, card sharks | Mortal Rope Dart | Start the same route as Well of Heaven in Harvestfall, then get tricked into working for Nine Mortal Ways during the “fake elder” quest, or later follow straw-sandal wanderers. |
| Silver Needle | Healers and medics, multiplayer support | Panacea Fan, Inkwell Fan | Find Doctor Sun Yuan near Sage’s Refuge and pass his admission test. |
| Midnight Blades | PvP assassins, karma farming, Asura Path | Infernal Twinblades | Seek out a mumbling wanderer near Buddha’s Light Summit or head toward Halo Peak in Sundara Lands to pick up their trail. |
Once you are in any of these, leaving them and joining another works the same way: exit via the Sects menu, become Sectless for a moment, then run the initiation for a new faction.
What staying Sectless changes
“Sectless” is not just a temporary state between allegiances. You can choose to stay Sectless long term.
Playing without a sect does three notable things:
- No rules, no penalties: You are not bound by any sect’s weekly expectations. There is no pressure to grind Fun Points, heal quotas, romance hearts, or karma. You can take or ignore content freely.
- Higher martial art costs: Learning sect martial arts while Sectless costs more than it does for disciples. You can still acquire them via Skill Theft or other means, but the path is less efficient.
- Sectless cosmetics: Jianghu errands that count as Sect Commands still grant reputation currency, which you can spend on a dedicated Sectless outfit in the same Sect Shop interface used by disciples.
Many players start Sectless to farm that neutral cosmetic set before committing to a faction theme.
How sect rules interact with switching
Each sect comes with explicit rules. These rules aren’t just flavor text; they change how you’re rewarded or punished each week. Some examples:
| Sect | Key rules | Implications |
|---|---|---|
| Well of Heaven | Keep weekly earnings modest, avoid harming fellow disciples, maintain chivalrous deeds. | Best if you already play as a “good guy” and don’t spam money-making exploits or attack allies. |
| Silver Needle | Always charge for healing, participate in multiplayer healing, earn a minimum number of likes. | Rewards social healers who like co-op and visible support play; introverts may find the like quota demanding. |
| Midnight Blades | Farm karma by killing wanderers, refuse mercy in open-world combat. | Geared for PvP-focused players; casual solo adventurers will struggle to benefit. |
| Nine Mortal Ways | Tease and trick others for Fun Points, disguise yourself, avoid getting jailed. | Encourages social mischief, card games, and light crime; failing pranks hits your virtue. |
| Hollow Vale | Balance healing and poisoning, avoid turning living NPCs into puppets. | Designed for players who enjoy a balance-of-life-and-death playstyle and are comfortable tracking that ratio. |
Switching sects also switches which rule set applies to you. If you’re tired of maintaining hearts in Velvet Shade or healing quotas in Silver Needle, you can walk away and join something quieter like Lone Cloud when it becomes available. That change immediately swaps what actions the game treats as “on brand” for you.
Choosing a first sect when you know you’ll switch later
Because you can join every sect over time, the first choice is less about long-term optimization and more about what you want to unlock early:
- Pick for weapon and playstyle: If you want Thundercry Blade or Soulshade Umbrella as early as possible, start with Well of Heaven or Hollow Vale once those paths are open. If you’re a healer, Silver Needle is the obvious first stop.
- Pick for vibes and “drip”: Outfits are a major draw. Factions like Nine Mortal Ways, Velvet Shade, or Raging Tides have strong visual identities. If fashion matters more than numbers, pick whichever one you like looking at.
- Pick for social or solo comfort: Some sects lean into social systems (likes, romance, pranks, co-op healing). Others reward puzzles, single-minded PvP, or staying out of the spotlight. If the idea of managing multiple relationships in Velvet Shade feels exhausting, start somewhere less extroverted.
If you change your mind, you’re not stuck. Leave, go Sectless for a bit if you want to reset your routine, then start chasing another elder’s clues. Over time, your character can build a resume that reads: ex-Well of Heaven blade, former Nine Mortal trickster, retired Midnight Blade, and so on.
Viewed that way, sects in Where Winds Meet are less like a single class choice and more like a set of long-term roles you can rotate through. You live under one banner at a time, but the world remembers everywhere you’ve been.
