Wandering Seals in Where Winds Meet are scenic photo spots that pay you for taking pictures. They live on the world map as scroll icons and hook directly into Photo Mode, spitting out currencies like Echo Jade and coins for a couple of seconds of camera work.
They are also, right now, one of the more confusing and occasionally buggy side activities in the game.
What Wandering Seals are and where to find them
On the map, Wandering Seals appear as scroll-style icons. Zoom in and hover or select one and it is labeled as a Wandering Seal location, usually with a short description and a list of rewards (for example, 5 Echo Jade, some Zhou Coins, Adventurer Slips, and EXP).
These points are tied to handpicked viewpoints: forts, temples, pavilions, cliffs, and other landmarks across Qinghe and Kaifeng. There are dozens of them spread across subregions like Verdant Wilds, Moonveil Mountain, Sundara Land, and the Kaifeng outskirts.
| Wandering Seal name | Reward (Echo Jade) | Region / sub‑area |
|---|---|---|
| Plainfield | 5 Echo Jade | Granary of Plenty |
| Martial Temple | 5 Echo Jade | Kaifeng world map |
| Jade Mirror Pond | 5 Echo Jade | Kaifeng world map |
| Banquet Hall | 5 Echo Jade | Kaifeng world map |
| Stillheart Grove | 5 Echo Jade | Granary of Plenty |
| Forsaken Quarter | 5 Echo Jade | Kaifeng world map |
| Beast Reverie | 5 Echo Jade | Kaifeng world map |
| Grand Imperial Temple | 5 Echo Jade | Kaifeng world map |
| Radiant Pavilion | 5 Echo Jade | Kaifeng world map |
| Flower Review | 5 Echo Jade | Kaifeng world map |
| Blissful Retreat | 5 Echo Jade | Moonveil Mountain |
| Crimson Cliff | 5 Echo Jade | Moonveil Mountain |
| Northern Vow Ruins | 5 Echo Jade | Verdant Wilds |
| Heaven's Pier | 5 Echo Jade | Moonveil Mountain |
| Finesteed Hamlet | 5 Echo Jade | Sundara Land |
| Halo Peak | 5 Echo Jade | Sundara Land |
| Thousand-Buddha Vale | 5 Echo Jade | Sundara Land |
| Bodhi Sea | 5 Echo Jade | Sundara Land |
| Flower Expanse | 5 Echo Jade | Sundara Land |
| Revelry Hall | 5 Echo Jade | Kaifeng world map |
| Jianlong Monastery | 5 Echo Jade | Kaifeng world map |
| Eternal Solitude Hall | 5 Echo Jade | Kaifeng world map |
| Heavenfall | 5 Echo Jade | Kaifeng world map |
That table only covers the Echo Jade portion; individual points can also grant Zhou Coins, Adventurer Slips, and EXP. Rewards are shown in the Wandering Seal tooltip on the map before you travel there.
How to start a Wandering Seal photo
The camera workflow is simple, but the game does a poor job of spelling it out. The key detail: Wandering Seals use the in‑game Photo Mode, not your platform’s screenshot button.
To start:
- Open the world map and set a marker on any scroll icon labeled as a Wandering Seal.
- Travel to the location and stand on or near the highlighted area.
- Press the context action prompt at the Seal:
- On keyboard:
F - On controller: Right Trigger (RT) when the prompt appears
- On keyboard:
The game immediately drops you into Photo Mode with your character and the nearby landmark framed up.
How to actually complete a Wandering Seal (the “Submit” trap)
Snapping a nice shot is not enough. The Wandering Seal only completes when you hit the in‑UI submission button, which is easy to miss if you are used to just saving screenshots.
Once you are in Photo Mode at a Wandering Seal:
- Adjust the camera, pose, and filters however you like. The landmark itself does not appear to be strictly validated; players routinely get credit with the character in the foreground and the fort or temple in the background.
- Trigger the actual capture using the game’s on‑screen camera control (for example, the button bound beside the camera icon on the right; on PS5 this has been square).
- Look to the right side of the screen for a dedicated Submit option and press the button it lists.
If you only choose actions like “save locally” or “upload to gallery” and never interact with the Submit control, the game treats it as a nice photo but not as a Wandering Seal completion. There is no reward, and the Seal will remain in its default state.
When the Submit succeeds, your rewards land immediately, and the photo logs into the in‑game photo ledger under Events → Lumina Guide → Chronicles of Shadow (or its current equivalent in your build).
Daily limit and map behavior
Wandering Seals are intended as a light daily reward tap rather than a one‑time collectible. There are two rules that matter:
- You can receive rewards from a specific Wandering Seal only once per day.
- After a successful submission, that Seal’s icon can disappear or visually change on the map for that day, depending on your client version.
There is some inconsistency here. Players report cases where they receive Echo Jade and other payouts from a Seal, but the icon remains darkened, or the progress in the Lumina Guide still shows a “?” even though the prize is already in their wallet. Functionally, the important part is whether rewards dropped and the photo appears in the event ledger; the icon state is mostly cosmetic.
Common Wandering Seal bugs and what they look like
Wandering Seals currently suffer from a few recurring issues. They show up as slightly different symptoms, but they all produce the same feeling: “I did the thing, the map disagrees.”
| Symptom | What is actually happening |
|---|---|
| No “Submit” button in Photo Mode | A known bug where the submission control fails to appear. You can only save or upload, which does not count. |
| Map icon stays darkened after getting rewards | The Seal does complete and pays out, but the map state does not visually update and continues to look incomplete. |
| Event ledger shows “?” entries even after photos | Lumina Guide → Chronicles of Shadow does not acknowledge some submissions, leaving entries as question marks. |
| Photos never appear in the event page | Submissions are not being registered correctly by the event system, even when the capture appears to succeed. |
Players hit the “no Submit button” bug most often at their very first Wandering Seal. Later Seals then behave correctly, with the missing control suddenly appearing and both photos and rewards registering.
How to troubleshoot a Wandering Seal that will not complete
If your Seal refuses to clear or pay out, walk through a few checks before writing it off.
1. Confirm you are using the in‑game capture, not a platform screenshot
The only valid input is the capture control surfaced by Photo Mode itself:
- Do not rely on system‑level shortcuts like Steam F12, PS5 Create, or Xbox capture.
- Hit the control mapped right next to the on‑screen camera icon (on PS5, players report square; on other setups, it will be listed in the UI).
After that, you should see the Submit option appear on the right side; press its bound key or button.
2. Check the Events → Lumina Guide ledger
Even when the map is lying to you, the event page tells a more honest story:
- Open the main menu.
- Go to
Eventsand then intoLumina Guide. - Open the section tracking your photo activity, such as
Chronicles of Shadow.
If the Wandering Seal shot is logged there, the game considers it done, regardless of what the map icon looks like. You may still see question marks in the journal view; that is another display bug and does not always mean your rewards are missing.
3. Try a different Wandering Seal
The first Seal you encounter seems particularly prone to the “no Submit” bug. Several players only got a functional Submit control after walking up to the second or third Seal elsewhere in the region.
If your current Seal shows no Submit option at all, even after a fresh login, move on:
- Pick another scroll icon in the same region or in a neighboring one.
- Repeat the full capture → Submit flow there.
In many cases, the latter spot registers cleanly and unlocks event progress, suggesting the earlier one was simply glitched.
4. Look for silent reward drops
There are situations where the game silently hands over the promised Echo Jade, but the UI never draws attention to it, and the map icon fails to update. To sanity‑check:
- Note your Echo Jade count before interacting with the Seal.
- Perform the capture and Submit flow once.
- Compare your Echo Jade total again afterward.
If your currency ticked up by the exact reward amount, the Seal has effectively done its job; you can safely ignore the icon’s state.
5. Accept that some Seals are just bugged (for now)
There are cases where:
- No Submit button ever appears at a specific Seal.
- Photos never log to the event page from that location.
- Rewards do not move, even with careful tracking.
At that point, there is no reliable in‑client fix. The best you can do is:
- Leave that individual Seal alone and farm rewards from others.
- Watch patch notes from NetEase for mentions of Photo Mode, Wandering Seals, or the Lumina Guide event systems.
Given that later Seals often behave correctly, treating early buggy ones as write‑offs is sometimes the only practical way to keep playing without getting stuck on 99 percent completion anxiety.
How Wandering Seals fit into exploration and completion
Wandering Seals are separate from the “Sentient Beings” completion system that tracks oddities, minigames, and other points of interest per location. They do not currently surface as their own Sentient Being category, and they sit alongside things like Universal Harmony, Hidden Paths, and Wild Ritual Ghost Fire as optional scenic activities.
The structure looks like this:
- Sentient Beings: the broad completion meter for a sub‑region, spanning chests, bosses, oddities, and assorted icons.
- Photo events: tracked under Lumina Guide, where Wandering Seals contribute to a separate set of event‑style rewards.
- Map icons: optional scenic content, some of which (but not all) feed into those two systems.
That split explains why a Wandering Seal can feel “incomplete” even after paying out; the exploration tracker is not tightly bound to the photo ledger, and bugs in either system show up as stray “?” marks or stubborn dark icons.
Wandering Seals are built to be low‑pressure: walk up, hit a button, frame something pretty, and leave with pocket change. The friction comes from UI ambiguity and some rough edges in the event backend rather than from any mechanical difficulty. Once you get into the habit of using the in‑game camera controls and always hitting Submit, they become one of the more reliable daily Echo Jade taps in Where Winds Meet—even if the map occasionally insists otherwise.
