Black Myth: Wukong is, as our review said, both confounding and spectacular. It’s an action RPG soulslike that has a lot of the genre’s usual beats — XP and skill tree, checkpoints that save your progress while also respawning enemies — while also putting its own unique spin on them.

Our Black Myth: Wukong beginner’s guide will help you start your journey (to the West) as the Destined One with tips from our first 15 hours with the game. We’ve got hints and advice on level layouts, the (confusing) crafting mechanic, fast travel, and your equipment.

There’s not really a gameplay loop in Black Myth: Wukong. You’ll travel from shrine checkpoint to shrine checkpoint, dispatching enemy yaoguais (demons) along the way, but there’s not much of a grind. Instead, you’ll be more focused on getting from one boss fight to the next — there are a lot of bosses and boss-like enemies.

That linearity shows up in your armor and weapons as well. You don’t so much unlock them as you just reach a certain shrine and the crafting recipes for new equipment will be automatically unlocked (more on this below). The same goes for spells — they are just given to you after beating certain bosses.

That said, you don’t want to just sprint from one shrine to the next because…

While your overall progress is quite linear, the routes between the shrine checkpoints do have branching paths that are almost always worth exploring. You’ll usually find at least a chest or even an optional boss fight.

Those boss fights will also give you plenty of XP and usually some rare upgrade materials as well. If nothing else, you’ll find some ingredients. Which will be useful… eventually.

As you play through the beginning of the game, you’ll find a lot of ingredients like plants and mushrooms. Their descriptions will even say they “can be used to make medicines,” but you won’t be able to do anything with them.

And that’s because that’s a mechanic that doesn’t unlock until chapter 2, several hours into the game.

Very early in Black Myth: Wukong, you’ll run into an enemy called a Wandering Wight. The first time you meet it, you can’t beat it. (Well, it’s possible, but it’s not going to happen.) The trick with that fight, though, is that the way forward is past that enemy. You just have to run past it.

That’s not going to work for most fights, but it’s an important lesson about how the game works — you’ll get a lot more powerful and have more skills to draw from as you progress (linearly).

If you hit a hard enemy or boss, you can always come back later once you’re a bit stronger. Which brings us to…

You can (fast) travel from any shrine to any other shrine you’ve previously visited. But there’s no map, so it’s a little awkward at first.

When you choose to travel, you’ll just get a list of the names of shrines and their region. The names are descriptive enough, though, so it’s not too hard to figure out where you’re going.

As you progress through Black Myth: Wukong and defeat bosses, you’ll unlock new equipment to craft at shrines. You’ll only ever fight with one weapon — various versions of a staff — so those are easy enough to understand. The clothes — gear for your head, body, legs, and arms — are a bit more interesting.

Clothes have unique effects that you gain while wearing them. These include things like damage bonuses or speed increases. Some equipment has a number next to the unique effect — that indicates how many pieces of that set of gear you need to be wearing to activate the unique effect.

While Black Myth: Wukong is mostly linear, you’ll find various secrets off the beaten path. Some of these reward Vessels — accessories that grant helpful perks. For help in tracking down some of these early-game secrets, see our guides on where to find all hidden bell locations, how to help the Yellow-Robed Squire, and where to find and deliver all Buddha’s Eyes.