When trying to determine which bosses are indispensable in Black Myth: Wukong, all you require are roughly 20 to 25 mandatory encounters overall to earn the game credits —depending upon how you categorize multi-phase fights and chapter transition bosses—but that is still a very small portion of the boss dataset; there are approximately 80+ bosses throughout the six (6) chapters of play. Therefore, players focused solely on progressing down the main story path will have the option of bypassing a number of side quests.

However, players seeking to earn the secret ending will need to defeat several hidden bosses encountered throughout Chapters 1 - 5, in addition to the previously noted mandatory bosses. In order to provide players with a clean overview of how to reach the 2026 completion point without extraneous information, we will provide you with all of the details below.

Mandatory Bosses In Black Myth: Wukong

Before we go chapter-by-chapter, it is important to clarify exactly what is/are "mandatory," or required, within Black Myth: Wukong. As a rule, a mandatory boss refers to any fight that a player participates in order to advance the storyline all the way to the next major region, or the subsequent chapter. Players may choose to disregard an optional boss fight (regardless of how much the game presented it to you originally) if it will not result in the progress towards completing the game.

The difference between optional vs. mandatory is extremely important to players in Black Myth: Wukong because the game gives the player a great number of side quests that appear significant. You'll encounter significant arenas, grand introductory sequences, and bosses that appear like obvious "story gates" you would have to complete. However, many of these bosses are completely extraneous.

Additionally, there are issues of "route locks" and "missables". Optional bosses may not be necessary for you to defeat; however, they disappear based on various conditions of completion or after triggering a particular event in the game. For example, Chapter 1's "Wandering Wight" boss has a soft point of no return after you unlock the secret area via the three-bell sequence in that chapter. Chapter 4 has two bosses, "Scorpionlord" and "Daoist Mi" that cease to exist after you have defeated "Duskveil". Thus, if you are intending to do a full completion run, the knowledge of the soft points of no return may be as essential to your planned completionists run as the knowledge of the chapter bosses. See below for a clean reference table for each of the confirmed mandatory bosses in chapters one through six. | Chapter | Required Boss Encounter | Location | |---|---|---| | 1 | Guangmou (1st encounter) | Bamboo Grove | | 1 | Whiteclad Noble (2nd encounter) | Bamboo Grove | | 1 | Black Wind King or Black Bear Guai | Black Wind Cave | | 2 | King | Fright Cliff | | 2 | Second Rat Prince | Sandgate | | 2 | Stone Vanguard | Yellow Wind Ridge | | 2 | Tiger Vanguard | Yellow Wind Ridge | | 2 | Yellow Wind Sage | Yellow Wind Ridge (Final) | | 3 | Macaque Chief (First Encounter) | Snowhill Path | | 3 | Captain Wise-Voice | Pagoda Realm (Mani Wheel) | | 3 | Kang-Jin Loong | Snowhill Path (Mirrormere) | | 3 | Kang-Jin Star | Bitter Lake (Turtle Island) | | 3 | Macaque Chief (Second Encounter) | Warding Temple | | 3 | Captain Kalpa-Wave | Valley of Ecstasy (Longevity Road) | | 3 | Macaque Chief (Third Encounter) | Mahavira Hall | | 3 | Yellowbrow | New Thunderclap Temple | | 4 | Zhu Bajie Encounters | Webbed Hollow and Court of Illumination | | 4 | Violet Spider | Webbed Hollow | | 4 | Hundred-Eyed Daoist | Court of Illumination | | 5 | Flaming Mountains Keeper + Yin Yang Fish | Furnace Valley (Emerald Hall) | | 5 | Red Boy + Yaksha King | Field of Fire (Fallen Furnace Crater) | | 6 | Chapter 6 Chapter 1 required bosses

In this chapter, you’ll get introduced to the game’s combat rhythm, but there are still several hard game-play gates you must complete before continuing. In Bamboo Grove, you’ll need to defeat Guangmou and the Whiteclad Noble before you can proceed to Black Wind Cave to fight Black Wind King, also known as Black Bear Guai. Both bosses will act as early checks as to whether or not you are actually starting to learn how to utilize your stance and timing. Neither is too difficult to defeat; however, they will set the precedent for how Black Myth handles multi-phase pressure.

Completing Black Wind King will allow you to move forward to Yellow Wind Ridge; however, you will not have reached the chapter’s true finish until defeating Black Wind King inside Black Wind Cave. Black Wind King has an arena and health bar that clearly demonstrate this to be your first major resource management challenge in the game.

Chapter 2 required bosses

Like Chapter 1, Chapter 2 will start to push back on you more. There are 5 required encounters that contribute toward your progression through Yellow Wind Ridge and other areas.

You will need to defeat The King before you can progress; however, if you choose to kill The King before Second Rat Prince, you will receive a different cut-scene and, therefore, you will miss the Second Rat Prince Spirit reward. The boss itself will still be required to defeat in order to continue in Chapter 2, but how the item outcome is affected will depend on the order you kill each of these bosses.

Once you defeat either Stone Vanguard or Tiger Vanguard, you will reach the next gate in your progression in Chapter 2. The Yellow Wind Sage is the chapter's end-of-level boss and a lot of players hit their first "real" wall at this boss, as it has sustained pressure of wind, has longer lasting phases and the pace of the fight takes a real leap in difficulty.

Chapter 3 other mandatory bosses

Chapter 3 is easily the longest chapter in Black Myth: Wukong, and it has the most mandatory fights in the game. There are eight required encounter opportunities, a significant increase over the previous chapters.

One of the main repeating fights is Macaque Chief, who is defeated three separate times. The first encounter is on Snowhill Path, the second is at the Warding Temple, and the last is at Mahavira Hall. While you fight the same character each time, each version becomes more difficult, as the intensity of the fight increases.

In addition to defeating Macaque Chief at each chapter location, you also have to defeat;

• Captain Wise-Voice in the Pagoda Realm

• Kang-Jin Loong at Mirrormere

• Kang-Jin Star in Bitter Lake

• Captain Kalpa-Wave in the Valley of Ecstasy

At the end of the chapter you must defeat Yellowbrow at the New Thunderclap Temple. This will be a very mechanically challenging required boss to fight, as this is an example of the kind of fight that will truly test whether your build matches your character's abilities. In addition to having illusions and projectiles to worry about, there is also environmental pressure and multiple phases of the battle, thus you will be continually challenged throughout the battle.

Chapter 4 other mandatory bosses

Like Chapter 3, Chapter 4 is mostly contained within Webbed Hollow and Court of Illumination, except this time, the path through the chapter is not as easy due to how Zhu Bajie is a part of the story. There is a non-playable character (NPC) that can help the player as a partner (or companion) during their adventures who activates/starts events in the game where you will have to fight an enemy (or enemies) – generally considered to be somewhere between a boss battle and part of the story line.

There are two bosses that are mandatory (must be defeated to progress) within Chapter 5:

(1). Violet Spider - This is the last boss of chapter 4 and, as such, will progress you to chapter 5.

(2). Hundred-Eyed Daoist - This is the final boss of chapter 5.

One thing not to overlook is that, if you are working on the Purple Talisman side quest to be able to fight Supreme Inspector, you must complete that by the time you kill Hundred-Eyed Daoist or you will be unable to complete it after that. The last boss of this chapter will lock you out of this side quest when he dies.

Mandatory Bosses in Chapter 5

Chapter 5 has a lot of story content; however, chapter 5 has fewer required pieces of content than any other chapter. There are only TWO mandatory boss encounters.

1. The Keeper of Flaming Mountains + Yin-Yang Fish (located in Furnace Valley) at The Emerald Hall. The fight with these two bosses is a true dual encounter and, if you die during one of the two bosses at any point in that fight, you will reset at the beginning of the dual fight.

2. Red Boy + Yaksha King (located in the Field of Fire) at Fallen Flame Crater. Players tend to treat these as two separate fights largely due to the fact that if you die in the Yaksha King phase you can re-try at that point without having to re-do the earlier part against Red Boy. This fight is still part of the required story narrative. Otherwise, there’s not much else in Chapter 5 (besides the items below) that is deemed necessary for completion of the story:

3. Four different bosses from the Cart Boss section

4. The boss referred to as Flint Chief

5. The quest called Quick as Fire / Fast as Wind

6. The Cloudy Mist boss

7. All bosses related to the chain quest called Pale-Axe Stalwart

If you want to focus strictly on completing the main story, you can leave all of the above out.

Mandatory Bosses To Defeat In Chapter 6

Chapter 6 contains the end-game stretch points of your adventure, including the first encounter with the final boss to be faced in the game: The Great Sage’s Broken Shell. Completing this encounter determines whether you start your journey down the road to receive the standard ending or complete the requirements necessary to work towards obtaining the true ending of the game (given you completed all secret areas earlier).

In Chapter 6, there will also be multiple additional story-related boss encounters associated with completing the main story, but depending on what path you are currently on (standard vs. true ending), every mandatory boss encounter you’ll be forced to face varies slightly. However, regardless of the route you decide to take, there will still only be one boss everyone MUST complete – The Great Sage’s Broken Shell.

Bosses In Black Myth Wukong That Are Not Required

Most bosses found in the game are non-mandatory (with the exception of certain particular bosses) and include some of the most rewarding boss encounters in the entire game; however, if you want to maximize any chance of obtaining a desired amount of power/equipment/crafting resources/fulls completion, you shouldn't be skipping boss fights either.

Below I’ll highlight some of the more well-known and valuable optional bosses within the game’s body and what they are:

• The Loong Bosses – “Cyan Loong” and “Chen Loong” in Chapter 3; defeating these bosses will reward players with Loong Pearls, which can be used to craft a number of different weapons from the Loong Weapon Line. In Chapter 5, the five Cart Bosses: Brown-Iron Cart, Gray-Bronze Cart, Crimson-Silver Cart, Rusty-Gold Cart, and the Pale-Axe Stalwart chain contribute to unlocking Bishui Cave.

And as with these types of bosses, there are some NPC Quest bosses that are either connected to how you have progressed through the story with your companion or your timings in doing side quests.

For example, in Chapter 3, you have Apramana Bat who can only be fought if Zhu Bajie is with you, which makes this optional boss combat time-sensitive. Conversely, you have Yin Tiger located at Zodiac Village, who is completely optional but provides you with Ebon Flow Transformation and an additional Curio slot for defeating him. That is a huge benefit from a non-mandatory boss fight.

Thus, you can skip these bosses, but if you desire powerful gains with your character, improved build flexibility, or better completion value, you should absolutely complete the fights.

Required Bosses for Secret Ending

However, when it comes to the Secret Ending, the number of required bosses significantly increases. You must clear all hidden areas during Chapters 1-5 before completing Chapter 6. While (for the standard ending) these fights are optional, they are effectively mandatory for the True Ending.

Here is the complete list of bosses for the Secret Ending:

• Chapter 1 – Ancient Guanyin Temple

• Ring the 3 hidden bells.

• Defeat Elder Jinchi.

• Chapter 2 – Lost Kingdom of Sahali

• Finish the Yellow-Robed Squire and boar quest.

• Defeat the hidden Tiger Vanguard encounter.

• Defeat Fuban.

• Chapter 3 – The Treasure Hunter Quest

• Rescue the Treasure Hunter. - Take him to the Valley of Ecstasy.

• Defeat Green-Capped Martialist.

• Earning Spell-Binder.

Chapter 4 — Purple Cloud Mountain

• Defeat the Venom Daoist twice (the second time in a different location).

• After that, defeat Scorpionlord, Daoist Mi, and Duskveil.

Chapter 5 — Bishui Cave

• Defeat all five cart bosses.

• Speak with the Pale-Axe Stalwart after each step of this process.

• Enter Bishui Cave and defeat Bishui Golden-Eyed Beast.*

After clearing the five secret areas in Chapter 6, you can go to the Great Pagoda Shrine to watch the cutscene sending the Destined One to Mount Mei. This will open the route to defeat Erlang, the hidden boss of the true ending route.

Fighting Erlang has three parts/discrete phases:

1. Erlang Base Form

2. Four Heavenly Kings

3. Erlang Lion form

After completing the phases above, you will be able to proceed through Chapter 6 normally, completing the true ending where Destined One breaks the lineage of the crown curse, instead of continuing to fall further into the crown curse cycle.

The Very Best Path Through Required Bosses

To navigate the required bosses successfully, you should explore first, finish the Story Second. It can be very difficult to jump straight into a chapter gate, particularly in Chapters 2 and 3 when it is apparent that there is an increase in challenge.

The most monumental boost in power takes place between the Yellow Wind Sage and the long stretch of Chapter 3 after defeating Chapter 3's Macaque Chief and moving on to get to the next main area of navigation. The longer you are able to build higher levels of Sparks (by clearing optional fights with Yaoguai Chiefs) prior to getting to, and defeating, required bosses, the more manageable those bosses become. Your efforts in investing your skill levels really make a difference.

There are a few types of builds and combat tools to note:

• Immobilize - This is still by far the most useful spell to use against required bosses.

This spell creates opportunities for players to do damage to required bosses in multiple chapters (particularly during the late game where there are fight that are multiple phases).

• Ring of Fire - You get this spell after you defeat Chapter 3's Macaque Chief in the temple courtyard. This spell will be very helpful in fighting stationary enemies during Chapters 4 and 5.

• Smash Stance - This stance is ideal for dealing massive amounts of posture damage and breaking guards quickly.

This stance is also beneficial when fighting against bosses with punish windows.

• Thrust Stance - This stance is ideal for dealing with agile enemies such as Kang-Jin Loong. This stance is also safer to use in all instances where you require maximum reach and increased distance between you and the enemy.

By completing the chapter's preparation steps before each of the chapter-end boss encounters, you will greatly increase your chances of success. The following are a sample of the steps you need to take to prepare for each of the bosses:

1. Upgrade number of charges of your Medicine Gourd at the local Shen Monkey vendor.

2. Check your current staff upgrade tier by checking the shrine crafting menu.

3. Collect all Spirit drops that have not already been collected.

4. Spend all your Sparks rather than saving them for later.

5. Restock all of your healing items prior to the final location of the major part of the story.

A lot of the difficulty that many players experience when fighting against bosses such as Yellowbrow or Yaksha King can be avoided by understanding and using the aforementioned preparation tasks prior to jumping into fights. Additionally, when fighting against bosses, if you are aware of which ones are required bosses in the game, you will have an easier time completing required bosses.

Conclusion

There is an overall, general path that must be followed in order to defeat each of the required bosses in Black Myth: Wukong; however, it may not appear to be the case at first. For example, players will be required to fight 20+ bosses before completing the game, while there are additional fights that occur throughout the game for those players attempting to complete the "True Ending".

The best way to ensure you do not waste time trying to figure out where to make OOC detours is to look at the regions of the map with the Loong boss chain for crafting materials, Yin Tiger for Ebon Flow Transformation and extra Curio slot, and the five secret areas where players can obtain the items they will need to complete the game.

To avoid having to get to the end of a playthrough in Chapter 3 and return to each of the hidden bosses/missables (that you may have missed) prior to triggering the Chapter 4 story flag, clear each of those hidden bosses/missables prior to triggering the Chapter 4 story flag, so you do not have to go back during your second playthrough.