The Keeper of Flaming Mountains serves as the mid-chapter boss of Black Myth: Wukong‘s fifth chapter. Wielding an assortment of spells, the Keeper begins the fight by pulling the Destined One and Bajie into a dimension of his own creation. This pale battlefield can only be escaped if you or the keeper are defeated.
After conjuring the battlefield, The Keeper of Flaming Mountains assails the Destined One and Bajie with a selection of spells and attacks, forcing players of Black Myth: Wukong to dodge and counterattack strategically if they wish to take him down. Even after his apparent defeat, he hides one further trick: the Yin-Yang Fish.
Preparations
When preparing to fight the Keeper of Flaming Mountains and the Yin-Yang Fish, you should equip the Azure Dust transformation. This is useful for tanking through the boss’ projectile spam attacks and can stagger them with its attacks. As always, the Immobilize Spell and Pluck of Many can be used to dish out huge amounts of damage very quickly, as long as you immobilize the boss somewhere you can hit them. Cloud Step can be useful for getting some distance and a chance to heal, especially against the Yin-Yang Fish, while Rock Solid can be used against the Fish’s melee attacks to parry and counterattack if you can get the timing right.
The Keeper of Flaming Mountains
The Keeper will begin the fight by teleporting in front of the Destined One. If you don’t move away quickly he’ll perform a grab, levitating the Destined One before slamming them down. Since he uses magic to do this, the indication that he’s preparing the grab is rather subtle. (A hand-wave and a brief flash of bluish-white light before the grab begins) After the grab fails you’ll have a moment to deal some damage to him, but be cautious of his retreating attack. He will turn into bolts of light that fly outward, before reappearing a short distance away. When he reappears, the bolts will be redirected to home in on you, so dodge through them or to the side as they get close to avoid taking damage.
Prepare to dodge when the Keeper floats into the air and a Yin-Yang Symbol forms around him. A moment after the symbol appears, he will swing his arm and fire a spread of bolts toward you, which are best avoided by dodging towards him. When his hand shimmers with darkness, and he brings it close to his chest, several black orbs will burst from the water in the surrounding area. Dodge as he waves his hand to avoid the initial burst when they rise. They will continue to do damage if you walk into them, so keep your distance and try to lure him to a more open part of the arena before continuing your attacks.
Phase 2
Once the Keeper has reached half-health, he will begin using a new trick. He’ll hover in the air and fire out bolts of light and dark in all directions, spreading out in a circle. These will then turn into weaker enemies with colors to match the bolt that created them. The white enemies will use melee attacks, while the black enemies are armed with bows. Take out the ranged enemies first to make this much easier. Once all the summoned enemies are down the Keeper will descend back to the ground, allowing you to hit him again. He can also conjure a ton of white orbs (similar to the black orb attack he uses in Phase 1 and using the same visual indicator) from the ground, which will fly up into the air after appearing. They’ll fire beams of light down to the ground a moment later, so make sure you aren’t standing under any of them.
Once the Keeper has lost most of his health he’ll float into the air again, summoning a Horse Yaoguai to attack you instead. Defeating the Horse Yaoguai will end the fight with the Keeper. The Horse Guai performs a few different combos using his whip, such as a shoulder barge followed by an overhead swing, and a three-hit combo sweeping the whip ahead. Dodge through its attacks and take advantage of how easy it is to stagger the Horse Guai with heavy attacks, and the fight will end in no time at all. Unfortunately, the Keeper has one final trick up his sleeve.
The Yin-Yang Fish
After beating the Horse Guai he summoned, the Keeper will decide to call on the “Yin-Yang Fish” to devour you instead. It grows to an immense size, swallowing Bajie and removing him from this second fight.
The Yin-Yang Fish can perform a long-reaching tail slam when it rears up. The best way to avoid this is by dodging to the left or right as the tail comes down. It can also rear up before spraying water from its mouth, which should be dodged similarly. After dodging one of these attacks, you’ll have a chance to counterattack, though the fish will use its mobility advantage to retreat before long.
When the fish is at a distance, it uses the tail slam or launches itself into the air before smashing down. Keep some distance when it jumps to avoid getting hit and be ready to dodge towards it after it lands too, since it can follow this with a tailspin that hurls projectiles at you. It can also charge at you, weaving through the water at tremendous speed, though, like many of its attacks so far, it can be dodged by moving or rolling to the side. Be cautious when approaching the fish from behind, since it can spin around while sweeping its tail at you. Another attack it can use has it jumping into the air before using its tail to slap a projectile at you, though as long as you watch for the incoming projectile it shouldn’t be hard to dodge to the side and avoid it entirely.
One of the Yin-Yang Fish’s most dangerous attacks begins when it soars up into the air. It then spews out multiple dark orbs that, after a moment, begin homing in on the Destined One. You’ll need to dodge quickly and with precise timing to avoid taking damage here, though the Azure Dust transformation can be used to tank it while building up focus to counterattack instead. The Yin-Yang Fish can also “roar” and call orbs of light up out of the ground. These will damage you if you touch them, but serve no further purpose and can be avoided pretty easily.
Once you deplete the Yin-Yang Fish’s health bar the Keeper is defeated and the fight will end. You’ll receive a Celestial Ribbon, two pieces of Fine Golden Thread, and the Yin-Yang Daoist Robe. You can also grab the Loong Balm drink from the altar up ahead. There’s also a meditation spot close by.
