Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty features a wide range of enemy bosses that players will encounter throughout their journey. With everything from venomous snake ladies, to massive, demonic pigs, Wo Long's unsettling enemies fit the 'soulslike' style perfectly. This is, of course, by design, as Team Ninja are known for nearly perfecting the genre.
Taotie holds a unique place among Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty's bosses. Fans of the 'soulslike' genre will likely see it as something of a 'gimmick boss,' given its adherence to certain genre tropes. This boss type has become something of a staple, appearing in many prominent soulslike titles. These enemies, while technically not much of a challenge, are often extremely difficult to kill without knowledge of the gimmick. This is the case with Taotie, and once the player figures it out, victory will soon follow.
Preparing to Fight Taotie in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty
How to Reach Taotie
Taotie is the final boss of Part 4's second mission, "Centuries of Glory Burned Away." This is a rather large stage, featuring six Battle Flags and seven Marking Flags. Players will face a Suanyu (bird demon) very close to the final Battle Flag. Be careful if choosing to rest at this flag, as the Suanyu will often respawn directly behind the player.
Reinforcements
Liu Bei will join the player from the start of the level, but can be switched out through the Reinforcements menu.
Reinforcements can be helpful in this fight, if only to briefly hold Taotie's attention. Unlike many of the other boss fights, there are no obvious negatives to counter any help NPC's may offer. They might not end up dealing much in the way of damage, but they can help deplete Taotie's spirit gauge, and that can make them incredibly useful.
Best Loadout Against Taotie
Armor: While Taotie does have a few elemental attacks, the vast majority will be based around bludgeoning the player with its massive appendages. With this in mind, the player should focus on negating physical damage. Look through Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty's best armor to find the right set.
Weapon: The name of the game here is 'Spirit Damage.' Taotie is extremely tough, so the goal is to focus on the spirit gauge. Look for weapons that boost every type of spirit damage, especially spirit attacks and martial arts. Another option is to use embedding on a favorite weapon to create something special. There are several spirit-based attributes that Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty's blacksmith can use to create the perfect weapon.
How to Beat Taotie in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty
Taotie is incredibly massive, so most of the fight will be spent looking at its legs, lower torso, and arm. The fight will happen over three phases, as Taotie's modular nature leads it to lose large pieces of itself, altering the fight in the process.
Part 1
Similar to the fight with Lu Bu, in which the boss does not take a lot of direct damage, the goal of the first section is to get Taotie down by filling its negative spirit bar. Focus on the red crystallized coating around Taotie's hooves and fist. Doing enough damage will cause it to shatter, doing a tremendous amount of spirit damage.
As Taotie is performing its attacks, watch for the massive crystal spikes that erupt from the ground. They can easily make an otherwise smooth attempt go sideways very quickly. Several attacks cause them to occur, so stay aware.
When Taotie is put into spirit disruption, it will fall to the ground with its head completely vulnerable. When the player gets close enough to the eye, an obvious fatal strike prompt appears. Performing a fatal strike will separate one of the heads, and end Part 1.
Part 2
Part 2 includes all the same attacks as Part 1, but with more aggression overall. It seems like every chance it gets, Taotie is leaping in the air. Continue to focus on the red parts of Taotie's body, while making sure to deflect any critical blows.
The biggest difference, and where the 'gimmick' comes into play, occurs when filling Taotie's spirit gauge for the second time. Once again, the large beast slumps over. However, this time, there is no obvious place to perform a fatal strike. Well, the joke is on the player. Even though there is no indication that the player is expected to climb onto Taotie, that is the solution. One of the red crystals that had been summoned by Taotie, now acts as a platform for climbing. From that, jump onto Taotie and perform a fatal strike on its giant eye.
Now it's dead, right? Weil, no. Taotie will shed even more of its hulking body, and rise once again.
Part 3
In Part 3, Tatoie has lost a large amount of mass, and is now moving much faster. Continue to hit it with martial arts, spells, and spirit attack. When it falls to the ground for a third time, the player must climb the hand and the arm in order to reach the vulnerable spot.
Taotie's Basic and Critical Attacks
Taotie is a relatively slow enemy overall. As such, it makes a great boss to fight for those who wish to practice Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty's combat system, which is heavy on parry/deflection.
Basic
- Element Pools: Taotie often opens by spewing large flame balls at the ground, creating a mid-sized AOE. It dissipates fairly quickly, so it's best to wait for a moment at the beginning of a fight, or let a NPC reinforcement take the attention. Taotie will also use this attack to punish a player for lingering around its feet too long.
- Foot Stomp: This attack has a few variations, mostly based around how high Taotie raises its feet, and the frequency of the attacks. Timing a deflection just as the foot hits the ground is a good way to shrink the negative spirit bar.
- Leaping Stomp: Taotie will leap high into the air, then come down hard. This attack can do significant damage to the player.
- Basic Fist: Taotie does a non-critical version of this attack, which sees it attempt to pound down on the player. Sometimes this attack will result in the large crystal eruptions.
Critical
- Critical Fist: Taotie will slam its fist into the ground, causing more of the red crystal spikes to emerge than normal.
- Critical Stomp: Similar to the basic stomp attack, Taotie lifts its hoof up and strikes down with considerable speed. This will be one of the easier critical attacks to deflect.
- Red Crystal Orbs: These orbs occur only in the first and second round, and are a lot like the orbs thrown by Warlocks. A successful deflection with allow the player to throw the crystal back at Taotie.
- Rolling Crit: When Taotie reaches the final stage, it will roll up into a ball, charging the player at great speed. Deflect just before it reaches the player's body.
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is available now on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.