Wildfire Spark looks simple on paper – a passive that feeds back Endurance every time you spend it, but it sits behind one of the fussier encounter chains in Where Winds Meet. It also scales into a powerful engine for aggressive Bellstrike – Splendor builds once you start breaking it through.
Here’s how to get it, why Shi Yimo keeps refusing to spawn for half the playerbase, and what Wildfire Spark actually does once you unlock it.
What Wildfire Spark does in Where Winds Meet
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Type | Inner Way (Internal Art) |
| Path | Bellstrike - Splendor |
| Tags | Support, Recover |
| Base effect | Refunds 3.5% of the Endurance you consume |
| Weapon pairing | Universal (no weapon requirement) |
| Rarity | Epic |
At base, Wildfire Spark gives back 3.5% of every chunk of Endurance you spend. It is not a flat tick over time; the refund is tied directly to Endurance consumption events. The Inner Way leans toward Bellstrike - Splendor builds, but any weapon that chews through Endurance benefits from it.
Through Breakthrough tiers, Wildfire Spark grows from a small quality-of-life passive into a serious sustain tool.
| Tier | Breakthrough enhancement |
|---|---|
| Tier 1 | Refund increases to 5% of Endurance consumed. |
| Tier 2 | Physical Attack increases based on Solo Mode Level. |
| Tier 3 | Immediately refunds 10 Endurance after you have consumed a total of 50 Endurance. Triggers at most once every 30 seconds. |
| Tier 4 | Refund increases again to 7% of Endurance consumed. |
| Tier 5 | Physical DMG Bonus increases by 2.5%. |
| Tier 6 | Gain one stack of Spark whenever Endurance changes by 10 or more in a single instance, increasing Endurance Recovery by 1% for 10 seconds, stacking up to 10 times. |
Tier 1 and Tier 4 are the big breakpoints for raw refund. Tier 3’s periodic 10-Endurance kick and Tier 6’s stacking recovery buff smooth out your bar even further during long fights or constant dodging.
Prerequisites to unlock Wildfire Spark
Wildfire Spark is not locked behind a dungeon or vendor. It comes from following Shi Yimo through a short “legacy” chain that the game wraps inside encounters and exploration. Before you even think about Deerforage Grove, you need to set up two things:
| Requirement | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Culinary: Hotpot Fever completed | Finishing this exploration quest unlocks the follow-up encounter chain tied to Shi Yimo. |
| Healer profession unlocked and leveled | Deerforage’s Remedy ends with you healing Shi Yimo from poison; players consistently clear this with Healer Arts at around 4500 proficiency. |
| Encounter log not clogged | Shi Yimo’s encounters will often fail to appear if you have too many “In Progress” or “To Be Accepted” encounters in the same area. |
You can unlock and level Healer through its own profession questline. The final leg of Shi Yimo’s encounter expects you to know how to open the Healer Arts interface (default V on keyboard) and perform an on-site treatment, not heal at a clinic.
Step 1 – Finish Culinary: Hotpot Fever
Shi Yimo’s story quietly begins at a cooking pot under a blossom tree outside Blissful Retreat.
- Head to the area just outside the Blissful Retreat Boundary Stone.
- Find the blossom tree where Shi Yimo sleeps on a branch above a cooking pot.
- Interact with the cooking pot to speak to her.
- She asks you to cook hot pot and bring it back.
The hot pot recipe is straightforward: if you do not already have the ingredients, buy them from a nearby general goods vendor, then cook one hot pot and hand it over.
Once you deliver the dish and see the quest objective clear, Culinary: Hotpot Fever is done. Shi Yimo returns to sleep, and her next encounter chain can unlock later in Deerforage Grove.
Step 2 – Trigger Deerforage’s Remedy at Deerforage Grove
With Hotpot Fever complete, the real work starts in Deerforage Grove, where many players get stuck because Shi Yimo simply refuses to appear. The encounter you need is called Deerforage’s Remedy.
Finding Shi Yimo in Deerforage Grove
| Element | Details |
|---|---|
| Boundary Stone | Teleport to Deerforage Grove. |
| Landmark | Huge tree near the spawn point with the Mao Da NPC and a small wooden platform/bridge at its base. |
| Shi Yimo’s position | Typically floating in the pond or stuck near the small plank behind that big tree. |
| In-game time | Many players meet her here during Chen (Monkey) hour; others find her at night. |
When it works correctly, walking up behind this large tree triggers an on-screen “Encounter” prompt and starts Deerforage’s Remedy, continuing Shi Yimo’s legacy clues.
What to do if Shi Yimo doesn’t spawn
The spawn logic around this tree is temperamental. Several consistent patterns emerge from players who eventually get the trigger to fire:
- Clear your Encounter log. Open the Journal, go to Encounters, and use the “Give up” option on any active encounter that allows it, especially ones in the same region. Some players only saw Shi Yimo after abandoning both “In Progress” and “To Be Accepted” encounters.
- Make sure you are actually on clue step 2. In the Inner Way screen, under Wildfire Spark’s legacy clues, the first clue should be grayed out, and a second paragraph should be active once the Blissful Retreat interaction is complete.
- Reset the area aggressively. Teleport away to a distant region so the game fully unloads Deerforage Grove, advance the in-game clock to the next day (or directly to Chen), then teleport back and walk to the big tree again.
- Look at the correct tree. There are multiple big trees visible from the spawn; the correct one has Mao Da nearby and a small wooden platform by the water. Several frustrated players were circling the wrong pair of trees for hours.
Note: There also appears to be a soft limit on how many random encounters can run in one area at once. Clearing or finishing other nearby encounters, such as events at Sage’s Knoll, can immediately free up Shi Yimo’s event to appear.
Step 3 – Follow Shi Yimo through Porcelain Kiln and Thousand-Buddha Vale
Once Deerforage’s Remedy actually triggers at the tree, the legacy chain becomes more straightforward. You follow Shi Yimo across several regions, then heal her and handle one last request.
| Clue # | Location | Objective |
|---|---|---|
| 1 (already done) | Blissful Retreat outskirts | Interact with the campfire/cooking pot by the blossom tree and cook for Shi Yimo. |
| 2 | Deerforage Grove | Find Shi Yimo behind the large tree near Mao Da, at the pond, and begin Deerforage’s Remedy. |
| 3 | Porcelain Kiln | Teleport to the Porcelain Kiln boundary stone, climb the scaffolding, and talk to Shi Yimo on the structure. |
| 4 | Thousand-Buddha Vale | Teleport to Thousand-Buddha Vale, meet Shi Yimo again, and heal her from poison using Healer Arts. |
At Porcelain Kiln, Shi Yimo simply moves the story forward; you climb to her perch, talk, and continue. The critical gameplay check comes in Thousand-Buddha Vale, where she collapses from poison.
Healing Shi Yimo with Healer Arts
- Ensure you have the Healer profession and enough proficiency (players clear this reliably around 4500 proficiency).
- When prompted, press the Healer Arts key (default
V) to enter treatment mode near her. - Interact to start treatment and follow the on-screen steps to neutralize the poison.
This step does not use the clinic; it is an in-field treatment. Some interface text around “self-healing” appears to be misleading, but the quest specifically wants you to heal Shi Yimo, not yourself.
Once treatment succeeds, the encounter moves into its final, quieter beat.
Step 4 – Collect three wild mushrooms and receive the Wildfire Spark tome
After the poison incident, a younger girl appears and asks for help preparing a dish using wild mushrooms. This is the last task between you and Wildfire Spark.
- Talk to the girl and accept the request to “find three wild mushrooms for filling”.
- Gather three of the specified wild mushrooms in the area, or buy them directly from a general goods store if you already know the item name and it is stocked there.
- Return to the girl and submit the mushrooms.
Handing over the three mushrooms triggers a short cutscene and the end of the encounter. At that point, you receive the Wildfire Spark tome in your Inner Ways interface.
Open the Inner Way menu, navigate to Wildfire Spark, and select the option to comprehend or unlock it. Once comprehended, you can equip it like any other Inner Way.
How to upgrade Wildfire Spark
Wildfire Spark’s real value unlocks as you push through its Breakthrough tiers. The upgrade loop is shared with other Internal Arts.
Requirements for Inner Way Breakthroughs
| Gate | What you need |
|---|---|
| Account progression | Reach Solo Mode Level 4 (often labeled Level 4 Roaming) to start upgrading Internal Arts. |
| Upgrade material | Wildfire Spark: Notes, the specific scrolls used for this Inner Way’s Breakthrough tiers. |
| Acquisition | Notes drop from Inner Way Note Chests earned in activities and can be targeted via the Tips Exchange. |
Inner Way Note Chests come from several repeatable systems: campaign clears, energy challenges, outposts, and seasonal shops. Opening a chest gives random Internal Art notes, not guaranteed Wildfire Spark pages. Unwanted notes can be recycled into a currency (Vintage Book Plates) and converted in the Tips Exchange into more targeted tome packs – including the ones that can roll Wildfire Spark: Notes.
Each time you gather enough Notes for Wildfire Spark, open the Develop menu, select the Inner Way, and choose Breakthrough to move it to the next tier and unlock the next enhancement in its table.
Why Wildfire Spark is worth the trouble
Wildfire Spark is not as flashy as Sword Horizon or Sword Morph, but it changes how often you can act. By Tier 4, you are refunding 7% of every Endurance spend. Tier 3’s periodic 10-Endurance refill and Tier 6’s Spark stacks mean that heavy-spend playstyles – constant dashes, chained skills, long Bellstrike – Splendor strings – feel much less constrained.
It pairs naturally with Inner Ways and builds that reward maintaining pressure: bleed-centric Strategic Sword setups, high-hit-count martial arts, or anything that wants to stay in an enemy’s face rather than waiting for the bar to crawl back up. It also slots cleanly into more defensive builds simply as insurance against running dry after a burst of dodges.
The quest chain that unlocks it is finicky, but once Shi Yimo’s encounters finally click into place, the remaining steps are short. Clearing your Encounter log, visiting the right tree near Mao Da at Deerforage Grove, and going in with a leveled Healer profession turns what looks like a bug into a predictable route to one of the more broadly useful Endurance tools in the game.
