Snake Doctor is a World Boss in Where Winds Meet, and his fight involves poison buildup, close quarters pressure, and quick punish windows with melee and ranged attacks. His moves include heavy staff swings, rapid feints, poison clouds, and a wide-arc unblockable venom throw. When you stay on top of him, keep poison under control and attack every time he exposes his Qi, the fight is much easier. Snake Doctor keeps the arena hostile from every angle, so this duel with proper homework makes the difference between a long victory and a short walk back from the Boundary Stone.
Where to Find Snake Doctor in Where Winds Meet
Snake Doctor can be found in the cave beneath Encircling Lake in the southern part of Qinghe. From the Encircling Lake Boundary Stone, head northwest, and when you see a bandit camp, cut right towards the rock wall to find the cave entrance. Enter the cave and move by sticking to the left or right to avoid falling between the red snakes. The tunnel leads straight into the Snake Doctor arena, where a short cutscene will trigger before the fight.
If you’re doing the Snake King preparation, the third snake bone camp is behind a breakable wall in the lower left part of Encircling Lake. You need all three sets to craft the Snake King artifact at the cave entrance. This step isn’t required to fight Snake Doctor, but it’s necessary to follow that specific side quest.
As he is a Snake Doctor, he poisons you many times, so anything that prolongs your survivability is good. Panacea Fan is the best tool to clean poison between melee exchanges. Thundercry Blade, Cloudsteps, and Golden Boy will also be useful to keep the situation under control. Stock up healing items because the Poison the boss inflicts will drain your health over time.
How to Defeat Snake Doctor in Where Winds Meet
Snake Doctor does not flood you with complicated moves. He quickly chains threats together, and that’s what makes him tough and you need to be careful of his different attacks.
Melee Combo Strings
He uses his staff and mixes slow, easy-to-read overhead strikes with fast horizontal sweeps. He likes to bait a dodge with the first swing, then clip you with the follow-up. Diagonal dodging to slip past his side and toward his back puts you in his blind spot. Parrying works well as long as you counter his slight animation feints. A clean parry does great Qi damage and helps you push toward an exhaustion break.
Poison Smoke Bombs
Snake Doctor often flicks a few smoke bombs across the arena, which spawns pockets of poison mist. Staying inside melee range trivializes these, and they almost always detonate behind you instead of in front. You need to avoid backing out to mid-distance and be inside the poison ring.
Poison Dart Spread
Another attack Snake Doctor has is when he hops backward and flings some poison darts. Melee-focused builds don’t have to worry about this, because it usually fans outward in front of him. Ranged characters need to move away fast or get tagged repeatedly by poison stacks.
Golden Snake Toss (Unblockable)
His gold telegraph is the real threat: he releases three venomous spectral snakes at you that deal heavy damage and stack poison. Watch his arm posture—once the snakes launch, dodge sideways right as they separate into the arc. Early dodge will still get you clipped.
Best Strategy for Snake Doctor Fight
The easiest way to take down Snake Doctor is to stay close to him. Don’t give him distance for a chance to inflict poison that drags the fight into chaos. In close range, he duels like a standard melee bruiser with wind-ups that advertise when to parry or dodge. First, drive his Qi bar to exhaustion as much as possible—every Execute takes a large slice of his health, reducing the duel length.
Thundercry Blade is excellent to counterattack his staggers, and Cloudsteps lets you move out of smoke pockets within melee range. Don’t chase when his backward with long combos, as he counter resets by poison darts, or wind-up sweeps. Short jabs, quick punish windows, and continuous pressure win you this boss fight.
Snake Doctor Boss Rewards
Once you defeat Snake Doctor, you will receive these rewards:
- Star Reacher: Tome x1
- Medicinal Tales x3
- Bone Shedding (Face Ornament) x1
- Echo Jade x20
- Qinghe Exploration x50
- Character EXP x800
- Zhou Coin x8000
This is one of the more generous early boss drops to get ornaments or explore more and practice more in Where Winds Meet.
