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The Dual Blades weapon type inWuchang: Fallen Feathersis not for the timid. Out of all five weapon classes in the game, this is arguably the one that demands the most aggressive playstyle to get the most out of your build.
If you’re someone that doesn’t like to always be on the offensive, this is not the weapon for you. Might I suggest a lovely, long-rangespearinstead?
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But for those of you that swear by the Sellsword Twinblades in Dark Souls 3 and simply enjoy slicing anything and everything to bits that dares stand in your way, the dual blades are still a great option for that inWuchang.
Of course, exploiting the high DPS rate of the dual blades isn’t as simple as “Get close, slash away, and win.” You’re going to need to properly build this loadout in order to get the most out of it and have a fighting chance. Everything below will get you ready for the action.
Unlike FromSoftware titles or most other Soulslikes, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers lets you respec whenever you feel like it at a shrine, and for no extra cost. Even if you aren’t sure you’ll like the dual blades or any other weapon type, you might as well try everything out to be positive you’re making the correct weapon choice.
Best Dual Blades Build
While other builds place a premium on survivability, a dual blades user is going to want to focus on speed and aggression. As such, all the selections below will mostly focus on making you as dangerous as possible, sometimes at the expense of some defense.
This trade-off will typically be okay, and we’ll also get into some options and strategies you may implement in order to keep yourself alive as best as possible despite your focus on damage output. Let’s get to the slicing.
Best Early Game Dual Blades
Thunder’s Call is my favorite option for an early game set of dual blades. They come with a passive buff that increases the effectiveness of lightning attacks, which is great since it comes with theLightning Conduitweapon skill.
A dual blade with lightning? Might as well call it theDualShockersbuild. Holds For Applause
Jokes aside, you can’t go wrong here, and Thunder’s Call will be one of the earliest weapons you pick up in the game. They scale equally with Agility and Strength, but you should focus slightly more on Agility since the next weapon in this guide will scale better with Agility anyway. Doesn’t hurt to get a little ahead of the curve.
Stacking as muchSkyborn Mightas possible is always the move for any build in the game. To do this the easiest, have aone-handed swordwith the Biding Time skill tree node unlocked. This skill allows Skyborn Might to build up passively when you have a one-handed blade equipped. Explore with a one-handed sword to constantly build Skyborn Might, then switch back to your dual blades for combat.
Best Late Game Dual Blades
Twin Bandits don’t actually have the best base stats of all the dual blades in the game, but they do have one huge advantage over the rest of the field. For those of you unaware, not every weapon type in Wuchang comes with the ability to block, counter, and/or parry attacks.
The Twin Bandits come with theBlockskill, and they’re the only weapon in this class where you don’t need to make it the weapon’s actual Discipline Skill in order to keep that perk. In other words, you’re freed up to commit to an entire additional skill if you’re using Twin Bandits, which can go a very long way in your ultimate success.
This weapon scales with Strength and Agility, but is much more highly rated as an Agility scaler. There are plenty of Agility upgrade nodes in the Dual Blades skill tree, so Twin Blades become a bit of a no-brainer with the Level IV rating in Agility scaling.
You’ll find this weapon in Cloudspire Outskirts during the mid-game, so you don’t even have to wait that long to get it. Just defeat the armored enemy guarding it, and the best dual blades in the game are yours for the taking.
Best Upgrade Nodes
Since you’re focusing on the dual blades, it would be (mostly) silly to worry too much about unlocking the skill tree nodes of anything else besides what’s on the Dual Blades Path. However, you’ll want to make sure you also pay attention to the Illusive Path on the left side of the tree, since this section features skills that apply to everything.
Regardless of you likely unlocking everything you need eventually anyway, it doesn’t hurt to have some suggestions to work towards first. Here’s what I’d recommend.
The other obvious suggestions are to verify you’re appropriately upgrading your dual blades' proficiency level and then capacity and potency for your Manna as you work through the Dual Blades Path and the Illusive Paths, respectively.
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Git a little gud.
These are the equivalent of using shards in Dark Souls to upgrade your weapons, and buffing up your Estus flask, which should illustrate how vital all of these things are to long-term success and survival.
Best Benedictions
I don’treallyfeel like Benedictions make the biggest difference in the world in Wuchang, but it never hurts to ensure you’re doing everything you can to try to give yourself an edge.
These function like Blood Gems in Bloodborne, and you can equip three to any given weapon at a time to add some nice little buffs and perks. Because of the aggressive nature of the dual blades, which will drain stamina while trying to constantly gain the upper hand in combat, you have some options here.
Let me give you a couple of suggestions for each Benediction type:
Benediction
Description
Wei - Blood Force
Boosts your DPS when your health gets low, so you’re able to turn the tide even while trading blows.
Wei - Vitality Force
Boosts damage while your health is full. This starts any fight off in your favor, and you’re likely going to get good at dodging with this build too anyway.
Sheng - Skyborn Rejuvenation
When you earn Skyborn Might, your attacks will briefly leech life from an enemy. You should be gaining Skyborn Might frequently, so this Benediction will help keep your health up as a result.
Sheng - Lethal Might
After defeating an enemy, you’ll gain a Skyborn Might stack and also get a damage boost. Mobs won’t stand a chance.
Ren - Combo Vigor
One of the best Benedictions in general, this allows Stamina to regenerate more quickly after consecutively landed blows, allowing you to stay on offense longer.
Wei - Combo Force
DPS increases as you land consecutive hits, allowing you to quickly whittle down HP bars.
While these are all great bets, there are other situational Benedictions to consider depending on preference and current loadout.
For example, if you’re using Thunder’s Call as your weapon at this point, which has Lightning skills, take that into consideration. A Wisdom Benediction likeFa - Combo Lightningcould be great for you since it increases your weapon’s lightning damage upon consecutive hits.
Best Jade Pendants
Jade Pendants are the same as rings in Dark Souls, which you likely know can make a huge difference to your build and odds of survival.
A lot of these won’t help a dual blades build out too much, but you will still end up with some amazing options at your disposal eventually.
Of course, there are other great options too, but some are more situational. If you’re great at avoiding damage,Child’s Hope Pendantboosts your stamina gen, but increases all incoming damage – a risk/reward that will be worth it to some.
Fiend-Felling Pendantboosts damage against large enemies, so it’s a great choice when entering most boss fights.
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Lastly,Nameless Eyeis one of the best pendants in the entire game, but you get it pretty late. It reduces all incoming damage with no penalty, however, which is obviously very nice.
Best Supporting Spells
Magic and Feathering spells won’t be a huge focus for you if you’re mostly wanting to be a melee fighter with your dual blades, but don’t allow that to force you to overlook this system entirely.
One of these will be mandatory to your success, believe it or not. The other three you may equip can be great in a pinch as well, or to boost your overall damage output if you’re down to drop a few levels into raising your Magic stat specifically.
There are other great options to be sure. But if I’m being honest, all you really need is Ethereal Form. I’m not exaggerating by saying all five writers that covered Wuchang here at DualShockers used it nonstop once we picked it up off a corpse in Zhenwu Temple. It’s trulythatgood.
Aside from that spell, feel free to experiment with the rest of your available slots and see what you like the best. But for the indecisive, everything above will serve you well.
How To Use The Dual Blades Build
If you haven’t picked up on the vibe of the dual blades build already, the theme here is “Pressure, pressure, pressure.” With all the attacks at your disposal from the skill tree as well as your fast rate of attack, you’re wasting your time if you aren’t almost always on the offensive.
Enemies don’t always stagger or react to attacks quite like you may expect from Soulslikes, so don’t get yourself trapped in a loop of just spamming attacks, either. You’ll want to be very deliberate with each press of your light/heavy attack buttons to make sure you aren’t stuck in an attack animation when you do need to dodge or block an incoming attack.
As soon as you attain Ethereal Form, equip it immediately, and start practicing with it ASAP. Once you get this down, you’ll be able to get into a loop of spell casting and melee mashing that can topple any boss with enough repetition.
At the end of the day, your dual blades build is going to simply require you to apply so much constant pressure that your enemies don’t even have a chance to respond before they fall in a heaping pile of death and destruction.
