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With a meticulously hand-drawn Metroidvania world like Hollow Knight and Sekiro-inspired mechanics, there are a lot of cool boss battles to be had inNine Sols. In it, Yi explores the vastness of New Kunlun to exact vengeance against its nine rulers, all the while taking down formidable foes to get to them and claim their Sol Seal.
Kuafu is one of those rulers, and to get to him, you’ll have to overcome your first significant roadblock - General Yingzhao, who, in a way, is the tutorial boss. However, only those who have properly grasped Yi’s deflects and Tai Chi Kicks are capable of beating Yingzhao.
Where To Find Yingzhao
Yingzhao is found inside the pyramid structure known as theRadiant Pagoda, visible in the backdrop of the Power Reservoir (Central). To reach it, you need to:
There are useful shortcuts that you’re able to unlock to bypass enemies in Power Reservoir (East). You can also defeat theoptional mini-boss Central Centinel: Jiaoduanin this area to obtain thePauper Jadeand aComputing Unit.
To access Radiant Pagoda, you’ll need topower up the Light Bridgethat connects it with the Power Reservoir (Central). Fortunately,the backup control room lies just beneath the current platformyou’re standing on.
Start by heading a little left andjump down a ledge. The path on the left leads to a respawn node and themerchant Chiyou, while the door on the right grants access to the control room.
Inside the room, you canhack the console with the prompted buttonsto restore power to the Light Bridge. Exit the room and survive the gauntlet of enemies as you loop back to the Light Bridge by following the path to the right.
After that, you canactivate the bridgetoenter the Radiant Pagoda, whereGeneral Yingzhao awaits you to the far right of the area. Just before the boss encounter, be sure to activate thenearby Root Node.
Yingzhao Boss Preparations
As a tutorial boss, General Yingzhao isn’t particularly hard to defeat. Even more so, you won’t have much to experiment with at this stage, so there isn’t much that can be said in the way of preparation. However, there are afew Jades and upgrades that you should grabbefore engaging him in battle.
Medicine Pipe Upgrade
The first thing you’ll want to do is tosave 1,000 Jinsto acquire anextra charge for your Medicine Pipefrom the3D Printer back in the Pavilion. This will provide the extra headroom needed to last longer against Yingzhao.
Recommended Skills
By now, you’ll haveacquired some skill points. If not many, at least two skill points will get you by. Allocate these into your firstQi Boostupgradeto increase your Qi Blast charge and theShadow Strike skillto deal enhanced damage while attacking Yingzhao’s back with your slashes and Qi Blasts.
Recommended Jades
There aren’t many impressive Jades you can acquire so early in the game. However, theRecovery JadeandQuick Dose Jadedo prove invaluable in this encounter. Both have a high focus on survival and can be purchased from Chiyou for1,000 Jins and 1,250 Jins, respectively.
Equipping these two Jadesrequires two slots each. Two are present by default, but you canincrease them with Computing Units, one of which issold by Chiyou for 1,000 Jins.
Yingzhao Attack Patterns
The Yingzhao boss fight is split between two phases. Here’s an overview of all the moves he uses in each phase.
Description
Charged Sweeps
Yingzhao runs across the arena whilecharging two sweep attacks at Yi.
Crimson Stab
This is afollow-up attack with a slight wind-upafter the sweep combo whereYingzhao pokes Yi with his spear.
Two Hit Combo
While executing this move, Yingzhao comes to a halt and does anoverhead strike with his spear. This is then followed byanother strike from below.
Yingzhaoglows greenand does aforward thrust attackwith his spear.
Crimson Slam
Afollow-up to the stab attackwhich seesYingzhao jumping in the air and piercing the groundwith his spear.
How To Beat General Yingzhao
Phase One
At the start of the first phase, you mustcapitalize on the opportunity to land a few hitsbefore Yingzhao initiates his attacks.This phase is highly predictiveas there isn’t much attack variation, butYingzhao still packs a punch, and it only takes two or three hits to kill you.
The ideal approach here is toparry all his incoming attacksandfollow up with Qi Blastsat the end of each combo to chip away at his health.
There’s also a window of opportunity where you candeal some damage with your slash attacksbefore he swings out his spear in each combo sequence, especially while executing his two-hit combo as shown in the video.
Sometimes, Yingzhao likes todo the two-hit combo twice or thrice in a row. By far the easiest move to counter, this is also where you are able toland a lot of hits against him.
When facing his running sweeps, the best course of action is torun toward him,parrying both sweepswhilesneaking in a hit each time. The follow-up stab attack can be a bit tricky to anticipate, but there’s always atwo-second windupbefore he strikes.
Aftersuccessfully parrying the stab attack twice,Yingzhao enters a staggered state. This presents an excellent chance for you to unleash an onslaught of attacks capped off with a Talisman Explosion.
Phase Two
Things do start to get exciting in phase two, which starts after depleting Yingzhao’s health bar. On top of having thesame regular attacks from phase one, Yingzhao cannow perform twomore Crimson Attacks. The same strategy applies here, but with a little maneuverability added to the equation.
Whilecharging up the crimson thrust attack,Yingzhao glows greenin the process. To counter it, you mustexecute a Tai Chi Kick. Doing sostuns him, and in return, you’ll alsoinflict internal damageagainst him which can then beconverted to direct damage with a Talisman Blast.
As for the slam attack, healways follows it after the stab attack. Your only means ofavoiding it is with a dash, butdon’t dash too earlyas Yingzhao follows you through midair before he impacts on the ground.
General Yingzhao Rewards
By following the strategy, you’ll defeat General Yingzhao in no time. As a reward, youearn your first Herb Crystal, which is used toimprove the healing efficacy of Yi’s pipe. To the right of the boss arena, you’ll alsofind Kuafu, and he’ll surrender hisSol Seal.
