Early in Where Winds Meet, you’ll face a decision that significantly shapes your early gameplay experience: choosing one weapon from a selection of four distinct martial arts styles offered by Qi Sheng. While the game generously gives you two melee weapons at the start, this third choice requires careful consideration—you can only pick one, and each option opens different tactical possibilities for your Wuxia journey.
The good news? There’s no wrong choice here, and every weapon can eventually be obtained through regular gameplay. The gacha system is strictly cosmetic, so you’re never locked out of combat options permanently. But since your initial selection affects how you experience the first major region, understanding what each weapon offers helps you make an informed decision.
Let me break down each option so you can choose the martial arts style that fits your preferred approach to combat.
Understanding How Weapons Work in Where Winds Meet
Before diving into specific weapons, there’s one critical concept to understand: weapon names refer to martial arts fighting styles, not just physical objects.
This means finding a pair of twinblades in the world won’t help you unless you’ve learned the Infernal Twinblades martial arts style. The weapons themselves are useless without the corresponding martial arts knowledge. When you choose your starting weapon from Qi Sheng, you’re actually choosing which fighting style to learn first.
This system ties into the game’s broader emphasis on martial arts mastery rather than pure equipment stats—a fitting approach for the Wuxia genre.
Key Factors to Consider Before Choosing
Your decision should account for these important details:
Redundancy considerations:
- You already start with the Nameless Sword and Nameless Spear—both solid DPS weapons
- Choosing Infernal Twinblades creates overlap since it’s also a DPS-focused option
- Picking a weapon with a different role (tank, support, ranged) adds more versatility to your arsenal
Availability timeline:
- Vernal Umbrella and Thundercry Blade only become obtainable in the second major region (later in the game)
- Infernal Twinblades and Panacea Fan can be acquired early in the first region
Early game challenges:
- Your first encounters with Campaign and Mysterious Bosses apply Healing Reduction debuffs
- This mechanic specifically impacts the effectiveness of the Panacea Fan during crucial early fights
The bottom line: If pure efficiency matters, consider weapons that won’t be available for a while. If you love a particular playstyle, choose what excites you—you’ll get the others eventually anyway.
Infernal Twinblades: High-Risk Berserker Style
Role: Melee DPS
Playstyle: Fast, aggressive, high risk/high reward
Best for: Players who enjoy relentless offense and close-quarters combat
Core Abilities
Addled Mind
- Long-range spinning dash attack hitting multiple times
- Holds up to 3 charges for mobility and burst damage
- Essential for gap-closing and pursuit
Calamity’s Greed
- Kick your blade skyward while spinning in place
- Press again during spin for wide slash attacks
- Grants “Enlightened” state when blade returns, enabling enhanced double slashes
- Double-slash variant reduces Addled Mind cooldown (great synergy)
Flamelash (Heavy Attack)
- Build Karmic Flame meter by hitting enemies
- Activate when full to enter Wrathful Form
- Enhances basic attacks and boosts crit stats
- Lasts until Karmic Flame depletes
- Note: Despite mistranslation saying it drains HP, it actually grants lifesteal
Combat Loop
The Twinblades follow a straightforward but satisfying rhythm:
- Attack enemies to fill your Karmic Flame meter
- Activate Flamelash to enter berserker mode
- Unleash enhanced attacks with lifesteal to stay alive
- Manage cooldowns and charges aggressively
- Repeat
Why Choose This?
The Infernal Twinblades excel at making you feel like a martial arts whirlwind—constantly moving, constantly attacking, constantly in danger. The lifesteal from Flamelash rewards aggressive play by letting you recover health through offense rather than retreating.
The catch: You already have two DPS weapons (Nameless Sword and Spear), making this somewhat redundant. Additionally, you can obtain Twinblades early in the first region if you decide you want them later.
Choose this if: You’re drawn to fast, aggressive melee combat and don’t mind the redundancy with your starting DPS options.
Thundercry Blade: Tank Brawler
Role: Tank/Bruiser
Playstyle: Calculated, charged attacks with defensive capabilities
Best for: Players who want to absorb punishment while dishing out heavy hits
Core Abilities
Predator’s Shield
- Generates shield equal to 25% of max HP
- Increases Fighting Spirit by 2
- Your primary defensive tool
Sunrush Gale
- Consumes 2 Fighting Spirit
- Pulls nearby enemies toward you
- Follows with sweeping attack
- Excellent crowd control and positioning tool
Avalanche (Heavy Attack)
- Chargeable heavy attack with concentrated area damage
- Two charge stages normally
- Three stages with one stack of Fighting Spirit
- Your primary damage source
Combat Mechanics
The Thundercry Blade emphasizes charged attacks for both light and heavy strikes:
- Light charged attacks: Wide-area sweeping damage
- Heavy charged attacks: Concentrated burst on specific targets
- Fighting Spirit system: Gained over time or by blocking, consumed for enhanced charges
Unlike the Twinblades’ frantic pace, this weapon rewards patience and timing. You’re not trying to avoid damage—you’re absorbing it with Predator’s Shield while charging devastating counterattacks.
Why Choose This?
The Thundercry Blade provides something your starting weapons don’t: genuine tankiness and crowd control. The ability to super-armor through incoming attacks while charging your strikes changes the flow of combat entirely.
Important timing note: This weapon only becomes available in the second major region, meaning you’ll be waiting a while if you don’t grab it now.
Choose this if: You prefer methodical, defensive play and want early access to a weapon you won’t find for hours otherwise.
Panacea Fan: Support Healer
Role: Support/Healer
Playstyle: Ranged attacks with healing capabilities
Best for: Players who enjoy support roles or group content
Core Abilities
Cloudburst Healing
- Summons water clone that releases healing pulses
- Generates 20 Dewdrops (healing resource)
- Your primary group healing tool
Light Dust After Morning Rain
- Consumes 50 Dewdrops
- Heals yourself and either targeted ally or lowest-health party member
- Lasts 6 seconds
- Targeted, sustained healing
Emerald Dewtouch (Heavy Attack)
- Offensive attacks that simultaneously restore HP
- Each hit restores Dewdrops for resource management
- Allows healing while contributing damage
Combat Reality
The Panacea Fan uses ranged attacks to damage enemies from a distance, but let’s be honest about its damage output: it’s not impressive. Against basic enemies, you’ll manage fine. Against serious bosses, you’ll want to switch to your DPS weapons for meaningful damage contribution.
Critical early game issue: Your first encounters with Campaign and Mysterious Bosses apply Healing Reduction debuffs, which directly undermines the Panacea Fan’s primary function during some of your most challenging early fights.
Why Choose This?
If you’re planning to focus on group content or simply enjoy support roles in games, the Panacea Fan provides healing capabilities your other weapons completely lack. It also fits various fashion and cosmetic styles nicely.
Important distinction: This is the healing variant of the Fan weapon archetype. There’s also a DPS-focused Inkwell Fan for players who want fan-based combat without the healing focus.
Note on availability: Like the Infernal Twinblades, the Panacea Fan can be obtained early in the first region.
Choose this if: You genuinely enjoy support roles and understand you’ll need other weapons for solo boss fights.
Vernal Umbrella: Ranged Control Specialist
Role: Ranged DPS/Crowd Control
Playstyle: Mid-range sustained damage with strong utility
Best for: Players who prefer maintaining distance while controlling the battlefield
Core Abilities
Spring Sorrow
- Brief charge, then fires immobilizing projectile
- Immobilizes non-boss enemies (huge crowd control)
- Your primary utility skill
Unfading Flower
- Requires 50+ Blossom resource
- Makes umbrella attack autonomously while following you
- Frees you to use another weapon simultaneously
- Can also use hidden sword within the umbrella
- Unique dual-weapon playstyle option
Apricot Heaven (Heavy Attack)
- Hold to charge and ascend into the air
- Release for downward area attack
- Mobility and positioning tool
Combat Mechanics
The Vernal Umbrella (also called Ninefold Umbrella) centers around charged light attacks:
- Hold light attack to continuously fire projectiles
- Builds Blossom resource for abilities
- Effective at close to medium range despite being “ranged”
Like the Thundercry Blade, this weapon incorporates charged attacks as core mechanics for both light and heavy strikes. However, the focus here is sustained pressure rather than single devastating blows.
Why Choose This?
The Vernal Umbrella’s crowd control capabilities through Spring Sorrow make it exceptionally valuable, especially when combined with weapons like the Nameless Spear or Thundercry Blade. The ability to immobilize groups of enemies fundamentally changes how you approach combat encounters.
The Unfading Flower skill is particularly interesting—having your umbrella attack independently while you fight with another weapon creates a pseudo-summoner playstyle that’s fairly unique.
Availability consideration: Like the Thundercry Blade, this weapon only becomes obtainable in the second major region.
Choose this if: You prefer ranged combat with strong utility, want early access to crowd control, or are intrigued by the dual-weapon mechanics of Unfading Flower.
My Recommendation: What Should You Actually Pick?
Here’s my honest take after considering all factors:
For Maximum Early Game Value: Thundercry Blade or Vernal Umbrella
Both of these weapons won’t be available until the second region, making them the most efficient choices for early access. They also provide roles (tank and ranged control) that differ from your starting DPS weapons, adding genuine versatility to your combat options.
- Pick Thundercry Blade if: You enjoy face-tanking enemies and delivering charged power attacks
- Pick Vernal Umbrella if: You prefer staying at range while controlling enemy positioning
For Specific Playstyle Preferences: Infernal Twinblades or Panacea Fan
If you absolutely love berserker-style combat or support roles, don’t let efficiency concerns stop you from picking what you’ll enjoy most.
- Pick Infernal Twinblades if: Fast, aggressive melee is your favorite playstyle (despite redundancy)
- Pick Panacea Fan if: You genuinely want to focus on healing and group support
The “Play It Safe” Choice: Thundercry Blade
If you’re still uncertain, the Thundercry Blade offers the best combination of:
- Unique role (tank) compared to starting weapons
- Late availability (second region)
- Strong crowd control and survivability
- Satisfying charged attack gameplay
It’s the choice that adds the most to your early game toolkit while being hardest to obtain otherwise.
Remember: You’ll Get Them All Eventually
The most important thing to remember is that every weapon is obtainable through normal gameplay. Your starting choice matters for the first several hours, but it’s not permanent. The gacha system is purely cosmetic, meaning you’ll never be locked behind paywalls for martial arts styles.
Play the game, explore the world, complete quests, and you’ll naturally unlock the other fighting styles. Your initial choice simply determines which combat style you’ll master first.
External Resources
For more information about Where Winds Meet:
- Official website: Where Winds Meet Game
- Steam page: Where Winds Meet on Steam
- PlayStation: Where Winds Meet on PS Store
- Game information: Where Winds Meet – Wikipedia
Final Thoughts
The starting weapon choice in Where Winds Meet is more about playstyle preference than min-maxing efficiency. While grabbing a weapon that won’t be available until later makes logical sense, the most important factor is picking something you’ll actually enjoy using for the next several hours.
If the Infernal Twinblades’ berserker playstyle speaks to you, grab them—you’ll have more fun than forcing yourself to use the “optimal” choice. If you’re genuinely excited about playing a support healer, the Panacea Fan will serve you well despite the early boss healing reduction.
My personal lean is toward the Thundercry Blade or Vernal Umbrella for their combination of late availability and role diversity, but that’s optimization talking. Listen to what excites you about these combat styles, make your choice, and don’t stress—you’ll master them all eventually anyway.
The Wuxia world awaits, martial artist. Choose your path.
