The weapon upgrade system in Wuchang: Fallen Feathers may seem upfront and basic, but there’s a lot more to it than meets the eye. There’s a whole system in place with multiple ways to improve your fighting, and you could miss it by rushing in.
Keep in mind that you may spend longer than you’d think in this system, but it’s important to set up your gameplay so you hit everything you need. In the end, you’re going to be glad you know so much about the system.
Fastest Way to Upgrade Your Weapons in Wuchang: Fallen Feathers
The quickest way to improve your weapons in Wuchang: Fallen Feathers mainly involves using the Impetus Repository found in Shrines, along with gathering Red Feathers. To make these upgrades, you’ll need two important resources: Red Mercury Essence and, even more importantly, Red Feathers.
Red Feathers come in different types, each allowing upgrades up to a certain level. Faint Red Feathers work for upgrades up to +3, Brilliant Red Feathers up to +6, Radiant Red Feathers up to +9, and finally, Lustrous Red Feathers and Vermilion Ancient Chisels for the maximum level of +10.
The best way to collect these Red Feathers is by using several methods. First, carefully search the game world, since glowing items often hold these valuable materials. Second, focus on beating certain enemies like Blight Pots and Carrion Corpse monsters, especially the stronger purple-glowing versions, as they drop Red Feathers more often. Finally, look out for helpful NPCs like Wu Gang and the Giant Panda, since they frequently sell Red Feathers, giving you a steady way to get them if you have enough currency.
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Once you’ve gathered plenty of Red Feathers, go to any Shrine and open the Impetus Repository. Inside this skill tree, find the eight-pointed skill nodes linked to the weapon type you want to upgrade.
These nodes, sometimes called “Swift Blade” or “Strong Blade” nodes, are where you’ll spend your Red Mercury and Red Feathers. Keep in mind that some nodes have multiple levels, shown by small dots, meaning you can upgrade them more than once to further improve your weapon mastery.
Wuchang: Fallen Feathers – The Impetus Repository Skill Tree Explained
The Impetus Repository serves as the primary hub for character progression and weapon upgrades in Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, essentially functioning as the game’s skill tree. Unlike traditional systems where individual weapons are upgraded at a blacksmith, the Impetus Repository allows you to upgrade entire weapon classifications, such as axes, longswords, or dual blades.
This basically means that if you want to upgrade their Axe Mastery to +8, all axe weapons they acquire or wield will benefit from that increased level. This unique approach encourages experimentation with different weapon types without the need to invest resources into each individual armament.
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Within this skill tree, specific eight-pointed nodes are dedicated to weapon mastery. A particularly player-friendly feature of the Impetus Repository is the ability to freely reset skill points. This not only refunds the Red Mercury spent but also returns all Red Feathers used, providing immense flexibility to re-specialize your build and experiment with different weapon types and their corresponding mastery upgrades without penalty.
This encourages exploration of various playstyles and lets you adapt your strategy to different challenges or boss encounters. Beyond weapon mastery, the Impetus Repository also offers nodes for increasing character stats relevant to specific weapon types. Also, new Disciplines (which act as secondary weapon skills like in Elden Ring’s Ashes of War) are also unlocked within this comprehensive skill tree.
Lesser-known ways to upgrade weapons
In Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, the main way to upgrade your weapons is by spending Red Feathers at the Impetus Repository to improve weapon mastery. However, there are other important but less obvious systems known as Benedictions, Tempering, and Disciplines.
One system that you might miss is the Benediction system, which works like weapon charms. After beating the Tang Palace Maid, you can equip up to three Benedictions per weapon, each falling into one of three categories: Oath, Wisdom, and Memory. These give passive bonuses, such as increasing spell damage when you gain Skyborn Might, making counter-attacks stronger, or reducing damage when near blighted enemies. What makes Benedictions especially powerful is the set bonus effect.
Equipping a matching set of Benedictions unlocks extra powerful effects, creating combos that can change how a weapon works beyond just its base stats or mastery level. This means you can try different combinations to find the best setup for your weapon and build.
Another important but slightly confusing way to upgrade weapons is Tempering. This unlocks after defeating the first major boss, Man-eater Dhutanga. Tempering lets you insert “Bone Needles” and “Stone Needles” into “Acupoints” on Wuchang’s Feathered arm. Bone Needles mainly decide the elemental or status effect added to your weapon when you activate Temperance, such as fire, lightning, or effects like Corruption or Blight.
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You can only use one Bone Needle at a time, but they completely change your weapon’s damage type, giving you an advantage against enemies weak to certain effects. Stone Needles, on the other hand, make these Temperance effects stronger. One thing that’s easy to overlook is that the Temperance effect can only be used once until you rest at a Shrine, meaning you have to think carefully about when to use it, usually saving it for tough bosses or difficult fights.
New Bone Needles and extra Acupoint slots aren’t just found as drops; you also unlock them by choosing certain skills in the Impetus Repository. This connects this system back to the main skill tree in a subtle way.
Finally, Disciplines might seem like basic “weapon skills,” but they actually add a layer of customization that goes beyond simple weapon mastery. While every weapon has its own “Weapon Skill,” Disciplines act as a second, equipable skill, similar to Ashes of War in other soulslike games.
These determine your special attack and are unlocked and upgraded through the Impetus Repository. What you might not realize is how much strategy Disciplines add; they let you change how your weapon fights, giving you unique attacks, counters, or movement options. Since Wuchang: Fallen Feathers lets you freely respec skill points, experimenting with these systems becomes even more important.
