Yi Dao, the Killerblade, is the World Boss in Where Winds Meet, one of the toughest enemies to face. He’s a tragic hero from the Western Realm who went down swinging to protect his honor in Blissful Retreat. The community sheds a lot of tears over his narrative, but wiping your eyes won’t save you from his Thundercry Blade.
Unlike the massive creatures you encounter, Yi Dao is exactly your size. This makes his combat animations incredibly fast, and his attack tells hard to read. The enemy hits fast, deals heavy damage, and mixes parriable and unparriable moves that will catch you off guard at first. Here’s everything you need to know to defeat Yi Dao in Where Winds Meet and put him to rest.
Yi Dao Location in Where Winds Meet
As with other World Boss encounters, you will not find Yi Dao wandering the open world. To get to Yi Dao, you must first complete Chapter 1 (Heaven Has No Pier). After that, head to the charred ruins of Blissful Retreat in Qinghe and look for his Thundercry Blade planted near a tree next to the burned building in the northwest part of the area.
Touch the sword, and you’ll get transported to the Dreamscape: Blissful Retreat map version and kick off the Lost Chapter quest, Worldly Affairs: Dream in Flames. Next, follow the path ahead, use Cloud Steps to cross the mountain terrain, and you’ll reach the Yi Dao arena at the end of the quest.
Yi Dao Info and Recommended Arts
Yi Dao is a 5-star difficulty boss. He has only one health bar and a single phase, but his relentless aggression easily makes up for it.
- Mystic Art: Equip Celestial Seize. It’s mandatory to cancel the boss’s most deadly area-of-effect (AoE) attack.
- Combat Arts: For your battle abilities, Heavenly Snatch (Mystic) and Evening Snow (Infernal) are solid picks for this fight.
- Best Companion: Bring Yuan Jin’Gang. He can stay out of Yi Dao’s melee range and peppers him with attacks, safely depleting the boss’s Qi bar to create Execute opportunities. Alternatively, pick Ruby near the Hero’s Tomb right before the fight, so you will have good revive support on the back.
How to Defeat Yi Dao in Where Winds Meet
The core loop of the Yi Dao fight is parry when you can, dodge when you can’t. Success relies on identifying which attacks to clean parry for massive Qi damage and which ones require immediate retreat. Red attacks are the main targets to parry. Gold attacks cannot be blocked or parried. Stay patient, wait for your openings after knockdowns, and let your companion do the chip damage while you focus on defense.
The one attack you must not parry is Shadow Clone Troop (Yi Dao’s Triple Illusion Strike). He sheaths his sword into the ground and sends out three shadow clones in a cone that slash you three times each. Get out of range immediately when his motion begins, then move back in when he recovers.
Yi Dao’s Delayed Circular Slashes (where he drops into a deep stance as red and black energy swirls around him) is his most dangerous attack. When you see its animation, use the Celestial Seize immediately and hit it fast. You’ll yank his sword out of his hand, send it flying back at him, cancel the attack completely, and deal chip damage. If Celestial Seize is on its 40-second cooldown, don’t gamble it — simply dash backward hard and get completely out of the attack’s AoE until it finishes.
Yi Dao Attacks and Counter
- Quick Cut — A short horizontal slash Yi Dao throws out at the start or end of other combos. Keep distance and watch for the wind-up, then dodge back or deflect.
- Jump Strike (Red) — Yi Dao leaps at you with a heavy overhead swing. This is a red attack, so it can’t be blocked but can be parried. Watch his blade flash red as he descends, deflect on that flash, and you’ll trigger a solid counterattack.
- Reckless Chop Combo — Three heavy downward chops. The first two come back-to-back, so deflect twice quickly. The third has a half-second delay where he holds the blade raised. Wait for it, then deflect.
- Blinding Speed Slash — The enemy spins, throws his sword at you, then teleports to it and slashes his way back toward you. The sword throw has a generous deflection window. Keep your camera locked on so it snaps to his new location. Stand your ground and press deflect exactly as he moves forward with the second horizontal strike to negate the combo.
- Air Cutter — Yi Dao leans back and hurls red and black energy projectiles at range. If you can dodge around him when he charges, you’ll occasionally throw off his tracking. Otherwise, deflect twice for the first two projectiles, pause, then watch for the third.
- Ground Splitter — He charges his blade horizontally with red energy, then slams it into the ground, creating a forward shockwave. Long wind-up makes this readable. Dodge left or right quickly when he raises the sword sideways, or wait until he holds it overhead then deflect right as it comes down.
- Summon Sword Slam — Yi Dao jumps and spins before slamming down and summoning multiple shadow blades around the impact zone. Unlike his standard Jump Strike, which flashes red and should be parried, this jump has no red flash. If you don’t see a red blink while he is airborne, dash backward immediately and stay out until he finishes the AoE recovery, then dash back in to punish his recovery animation.
- Blade Flurry Rush / Never-Ending Slices — Yi Dao charges up with golden flecks emits from his body. He unleashes an unblockable flurry of shockwaves (Gold attack), immediately followed by an unblockable diagonal dash uppercut (Red attack). The moment you see the gold aura, backdash two or three times to escape the blender. Once the flurry ends, lock onto him and mash the parry button to catch the red follow-up dash for a heavy counterattack.
- Triple Wave Slash — Three consecutive ranged wave attacks. Dodge or parry each one. More manageable at a distance with good timing.
- Double Blade Rush — Two quick dashes toward you with high-speed slashes. They can be parried and dodged with the right window, so don’t panic roll early.
Yi Dao Rewards
Beating Yi Dao for the first time nets you these rewards:
- Echo Jade x20
- Qinghe Exploration x50
- Character EXP x8000
- Coin x8000
- Bone Shedding x1
- Star Reacher: Tome x1 (Breaking Point: Tome)
- Medicinal Tales x3
