Elder Gongsun is a Challenge Boss in Where Winds Meet, the first major skill check that will put you on your toes just when you’ve only landed in Jianghu with no good gear or upgrades under your belt. Found early in the Qinghe region at the General’s Shrine, this unassuming master humbles overconfident players with relentless martial arts and strict sparring rules. To defeat Gongsun, you must learn his fixed attack rotations, identify his unblockable moves, and exploit the way he resets to neutral. This guide shows Elder Gongsun’s location, attack patterns, and the best strategy to take down the old man in Where Winds Meet.
Where to Find Elder Gongsun in Where Winds Meet
You can find Elder Gongsun at the General’s Shrine, right next to the Boundary Stone northwest of the Verdant Wilds in Qinghe. At some point in the main questline, Ruby will send you to these shrine grounds, where you’ll hear a weeping child complaining near the sparring area’s perimeter about losing to every local fighter. Talk to Wu Bai seated in the courtyard bushes by the tree to unlock the encounter quest More Than Meets the Eye.
For this quest, you have to spar against four local fighters: Du Qiaoxian, Yuan Jin’gang, the young Gongsun Deng, and Elder Gongsun. The old man will be standing in the circle, and you can walk to him to ask for a match and start the fight.
Sparring Rules and Win Conditions
- Standardized Gear: Custom equipment, external builds, and outside mystic arts are off the table. You’ll fight with a wooden sword using the base Nameless Sword moveset—Light Attacks, Heavy Attacks, Shadow Step, and Daunting Strike, all of it.
- Point-Based Victory: Health points don’t apply here. You win by being the first to drain the opponent’s blue Qi bar five times to claim five points.
- No Healing: You can’t consume any medicine items while the duel is going on.
- Neutral Reset: Gongsun just stands there completely idle until you strike him first. His AI won’t start any offensive combos until you do, which leaves you all the time you need between clashes to get your Endurance back and wait for skill cooldowns to finish.
How to Defeat Elder Gongsun in Where Winds Meet
Loadout & The Poke Cheese Method
Equip the Nameless Sword with Shadow Step and Daunting Strike. To get around his brutal counter aggression, cast the Shadow Step wave slash from a distance, then move in for a single follow-up poke. He will not retaliate against this opening. Wait out the three-second cooldown for Shadow Step before you repeat the poke to chip away at his health bar safely.
Elder Gongsun Attack Movesets
The Shove and Palm Flurry: Triggered by landing a melee attack on him, Gongsun will push back with a double-palm shove, retreat briefly into a crouch, and launch forward with four quick palm strikes, an airborne heel axe kick, and a glowing Red Attack palm finisher. Guard the initial strikes, and deflect the final red palm to completely break his stance.
The Whirlwind Kick Flurry: Gongsun will open immediately with an advancing kick, rolling into a barrage of sweep low kicks. You can’t parry every hit in this combo because it will drain your entire Qi meter on a single mistimed deflection.
Qi Recovery Stance: Gongsun will step back, drop into a deep squat, and wave his arms in circular motions to regenerate his Qi gauge. Light attacks fail to break his hyper-armor while he channels this, so you have to interrupt him with a heavy strike, a charged attack, or skills like Daunting Strike and Shadow Step.
Pole Hop (Fence Vault): He will leap onto the wooden perimeter posts, jumping between them while calling out directional cues (“Left! Right! Front! Back!”). When he dives early after roughly two hops, he will perform the crimson Red Toad Slam, which you can parry right when he lands. After Gongsun completes all four hops, he’ll come up with the Gold Kick Dive, marked by a bright yellow flash that cannot be parried and must be dodged.
Triple Frog Ground Pounds: Gongsun will take on a glowing toad aura on the arena floor and perform three consecutive ground slams in place, sending out shockwaves with every impact.
Smoke Screen Ambush: The boss will toss a smoke bomb that darkens the arena and inflicts a brief Blind status effect, followed by an immediate lunging strike out of the haze. Stay inside the smoke cloud so the camera doesn’t betray you, and parry on time when he comes at you.
Elder Gongsun Boss Fight Strategy in Where Winds Meet
The trick to controlling this duel with Elder Gongsun is taking advantage of his reactive AI. Since he never attacks first from an idle state, it’s up to you to set the pace of every exchange. After you knock him down or score a point, back off and wait for recovery before the next move.
Initiate each exchange with one light strike or the ranged wave slash from Shadow Step, then immediately take two steps back to read his reaction. If he answers with an advancing kick, do not bother trying to parry. Double jump straight up or sprint out of range, and let his grounded whirlwind kicks hit empty air.
If he pushes you back with a double-palm shove, get ready for your main damage window. Guard through the four palm strikes, pause till the delayed airborne axe kick, and parry the red palm finisher the moment it flashes. Nailing this red deflection breaks his poise and shreds a huge piece of his Qi bar. Immediately follow up the stagger with powerful attacks and your sword arts to drain the rest of his Qi and earn a point.
Keep your spacing tight during neutral downtime. Gongsun mostly goes for his Qi recovery squat when you give him too much breathing room. If you stand right on top of him between exchanges, he’ll hardly be able to do the heal, and if he does try to recover at a distance, instantly close the gap with Daunting Strike or a sprinting heavy attack to interrupt the channel before his meter fills.
Play it safe whenever he disappears or leaps. If he drops a smoke bomb, hold block instead of guessing the timing because guarding neutralizes the incoming leap. If he runs along the outside poles, parry an early red dive or dodge roll right after his fourth hop when he drops with a golden kick. Keep things steady, punish only the red attacks, and run this cycle through five rounds to secure the win.
Elder Gongsun Rewards
Defeating Gongsun unlocks The Old Timer Got It achievement and gives you 5 Echo Jades. Crucially, he will unlock as a Combat Assist Companion or become a friend of Young Master, allowing you to summon him during challenging World and Campaign boss fights to stagger enemies and create massive burst windows.
