Gu Wanyue, the Wailing Wraith is a main-story boss encountered in Pangzhen, near the Pond of Fading Song. She is fought beside a dry well and is one of the more unusual bosses in Phantom Blade Zero because she spends most of the encounter in an incorporeal state.
While she is incorporeal, your normal attacks simply pass through her. To deal actual HP damage, you first need to deplete her Sha-Chi, forcing her into a temporary physical state where she can finally be punished.
This makes the fight much more defensive than most encounters. Instead of trying to constantly attack her, you need to use parries, Red Dodges, and successful evasions against her grabs to break her Sha-Chi and create your damage windows.
She only has one phase, but the arena can become extremely chaotic because of her disappearing attacks, grabs, projectiles, and darkness mechanic.
This guide was written and tested on Hellwalker difficulty.
Boss Mechanics Phase 1
Incorporeal State
The most important thing to understand is that you cannot damage Gu Wanyue normally.
As long as she remains in her ghostly state, your attacks pass straight through her. The real objective is to drain her Sha-Chi gauge first. Once it reaches zero, she collapses into a physical form and becomes vulnerable for a short period.
During that opening, use your highest-damage combo and deal as much HP damage as possible before she recovers.
You will need to repeat this process several times over the course of the fight.
This is why blindly attacking her is a waste of time. Your defensive actions are what actually create your offensive opportunities.
Sleeve Attacks
Gu Wanyue uses her long sleeves as her primary melee weapons.
They have much more reach than they initially appear to, and several of her strings can catch you from what looks like a safe distance.
Her normal sleeve attacks are much less threatening than her grabs, so do not waste too much Sha-Chi trying to panic-block every hit.
Parry the cleaner attacks when you are comfortable with the timing, but always stay ready for a grab transition.
Neck Breaker Grab
Her Neck Breaker is one of the most important attacks in the entire fight.
After certain attack strings, Gu Wanyue leaps onto you and attempts to twist your neck with her legs. The grab deals extremely high damage if it connects, but successfully dodging it also removes a very large amount of her Sha-Chi.
This makes the attack both dangerous and one of your best opportunities.
Do not dodge too early. The attack has a slight delay before the actual lunge, so react to her movement rather than immediately dodging as soon as you see the setup.
A clean dodge can remove more than a quarter of her Sha-Chi, meaning a few successful Neck Breaker dodges can quickly force a vulnerability window.
Red Grab Attacks
Gu Wanyue also has several Red Flash grabs that cannot be parried.
These should always be dodged.
Much like Neck Breaker, successfully avoiding them contributes heavily toward breaking her Sha-Chi, so do not treat them purely as defensive checks.
If you are struggling with the fight, learning the timing of these grabs is more important than trying to optimize damage during her physical state.
Projectile Counter
Gu Wanyue can fire a purple projectile toward you from range.
This is one of your most reliable ways of damaging her Sha-Chi because the projectile can be parried back at her.
Do not immediately rush her when she creates distance.
Wait for the projectile, parry it cleanly, and use the reflected hit to chunk her Sha-Chi before closing the gap.
This attack is one of the safest ways to make progress in the fight without putting yourself at risk.
Darkness
At certain points, Gu Wanyue can cover the entire arena in black fog, making her extremely difficult to see.
When this happens, stop trying to attack.
She can still use her grabs while you are effectively blind, including Neck Breaker and other lunge attacks. The safest approach is to keep moving, listen for her approach, and focus entirely on surviving until visibility returns.
This is one of the easiest parts of the fight to overcomplicate. You do not need to force anything here.
General Strategy
Gu Wanyue becomes much easier once you stop treating her like a normal boss.
Do not waste time swinging at her ghost form. Instead, focus on the attacks that actually reduce her Sha-Chi:
Parry her projectile back.
Dodge Neck Breaker.
Dodge her Red Flash grabs.
Once her Sha-Chi is broken and she becomes physical, immediately switch to offense and use your strongest combo.
Then reset and repeat.
The fight can feel chaotic because of her disappearing movement and darkness mechanic, but the actual win condition is very simple: survive, break Sha-Chi, punish, repeat.
