Wuchang Fallen Feathers- Commander Honglan Guide

If you've gotten comfortable in the first few hours in Leenzee's Souslike game, you better be ready for a rude awakening. The boss which separates the first and second major areas is one of the biggest difficulty spikes we've ever seen in a game.

Here is our Commander Honglan guide, telling you the two best ways to take down one of the toughest opponents in Wuchang: Fallen Feathers.´

Preparation

Image Via Leenzee. Screenshot Captured By Blast.

Chances are that anyone who plays a Soulslike has had some sort of experience with FromSoftware games, the progenitors of the genre. If that's the case, you might find it hard to find the habit of committing to a build for most if not all of a playthrough.

That is a habit you have to break if you want to have a good time in Wuchang: Fallen Feathers in general, but even more so when it comes to taking down Commander Honglan. Not only do you have unlimited free skill respecs, you don't upgrade weapons directly, you do so through your skill trees. So your entire build can be rebuilt for free, no sunken-cost fallacy here.

With that out of the way, let's get into how we can take down this pesky enemy.

Commander Honglan Guide

Image Via Leenzee. Screenshot Captured By Blast.

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers missed the mark with this bossfight. Leenzee made the mistake of pairing an insanely steep difficulty spike with a nearly mandatory build-swap, which isn't a good call at all. We would bet that a considerable part of the playerbase give up on the game here, and with good reason.

If you're stuck in the fight, you might've noticed two things: Commander Honglan is absurdly agressive, and the game gave you a tutorial about blocks and clashes prior to the bossfight. This is the most crucial hint that the game will give you.

Despite not being a big enemy and, therefore, being supposedly staggerable, like the large majority of enemies that are the same size of you, Commander Honglan has hyper-armor in most of her moves. Even if you have Disciplines or special skills that apply some sort of crowd control on your enemy, those will not work unless Honglan hasn't already started an animation.

There is a crucial exception to this rule, though, which brings us back to the tutorial that popped up prior to the fight. If you use any weapon with a built-in parry/block, like the Sword Counter Discipline, you will flinch Honglan out of her combos. You don't even need to be perfect on your timing, so this is the easiest way to take her down.

Equip a two-handed sword and pair it with the Echo of Bingzhang spell. If you are more comfortable with spells than with melee attacks, a one-handed sword will serve you better with its Biding Time skill, allowing you to passively generate Skyborn Might.

Spell-Focused Route

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If you'd rather go the spell route, maximize your magic damage and put enough points in one-handed swords to unlock the Biding Time Skill. We still recommend sticking with the Echo of Bingzhang Spell, but you can also run other ranged spells that can reliably hit Honglan as she is quite mobile.

For this route, you'll want to dodge keep dodging Honglang's charges, and firing back with a spell once you've built some distance. Her combos are extremely long, but if you keep your distance, she will always end her combo after doing the stomp. You'll want to build your Skyborn Might using perfect dodges, which is easily done on the sword charge that she will keep doing as a combo-starter. If you're not confident, don't risk perfect dodging the rest of her combo, just spam-dodge away until you can fire a spell at her.

Rinse and repeat until she's dead, just keep in mind that you will have to actively dodge her attacks in the second phase even when she is far away, as most of them become ranged.

Longsword Route

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Althought the spell-slinging route is technically the easiest, it is also boring and takes quite a bit of time. You'll inevitably miss some spells due to Commander Honglan's mobility, and spells simply don't deal as much damage as consistent melee attacks.

That's where the Longsword route comes in. The plan is similar. You'll want to always keep your distance from the boss, forcing her to always start her combos with a sword-dash. Use your Sword Counter discipline skill as a response, and she will be flinched, giving you enough time to counter with two light attacks.

Follow this up with one or two backward dodges and a cast of Echo of Bingzhang. Just make sure that she is not starting a Sword dash as you are about to cast your spell, or you'll risk missing and getting caught in the middle of a deadly combo.

This route will take her down much faster than the Spell-focused one, but it becomes dangerous in the second phase. Honglan will switch up her combo-starters, often sending a ranged attack before actually charging. Either dodge the ranged attack or block it, taking minor damage. If you executed the first phase well, you should have most of your potions, so a few blocked attacks will not be an issue.

Just don't get greedy and keep punishing her sword charges with a counter followed by two light hits, and she'll be dead in no time.

Spear Route

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Although you can freely swap your entire build without wasting any stat or resource, you'll have still wasted one thing: your skill. If you've been playing the entire game with a Spear, like I have, you will be much better at playing it than playing a Longsword. Furthemore, if you are a proud masochist (like me), you'll feel a different kind of pleasure by beating the boss without the "cheese build".

If this is you, don't worry, you can take Commander Honglan down in Wuchang: Fallen Feathers using a Spear. That's exactly what I did. You'll need a specific weapon, though, which is the Steampowered Spear. You can buy it from the Panda vendor and it only costs one Bamboo Shoot. Other Spears will work, too, but they'll be much harder to use.

What makes the Steampowered Spear perfect for dealing with Commander Honglan is its special skill, Steam Chain. When you use it with two Skyborn Might charges, this attack turns your enemy around, allowing you to punish them with little to no risk. Honglan does ignore this CC and keep her combo going, as is the case with most other abilities in the game, but she will still be turned back. This means that her combo will miss you, and that you can backstab her.

If you've unlocked the skill that allows you to instantly use a charged heavy attack while you have a Skyborn Might charge, you will be able to stun her, leaving her vulnerable to an execute attack. So the plan goes like this:

• Farm three Skyborn Might charges. You can do this just by dodging, or you can also unlock the Spearveil skill and its variant that will net you two Skyborn Might charges per successful deflect.
• Let Commander Honglan stop attacking to make sure you don't get interrupted. Once you find an opening, Press L1 to use Steam Chain. She will be turned around.
• If she combos going with her combo, go after her and use your instant Heavy Charge Attack when she is done. If she doesn't move, just attack her immediately.

Best Armor To Use

Since armors do not have any offensive benefits, they are the same regardless of which route you opt for. To have an easier time against Commander Honglan, just choose whichever armor set you have with the most Blunt and Slash Mitigation.

In our case, that was the Ming Armor set, which allowed us to tank a couple more hits from one of the hardest bosses in Wuchang: Fallen Feathers.

READ: Wuchang Fallen Feathers- Optimized Settings