How to Beat Erlang Shen, the Sacred Divinity, and Get the Secret Ending

Erlang, the Sacred Divinity is an incredibly challenging foe to beat, but you need to overcome him to get Perks for your sixth relic, Freed Mind, and see the game's secret ending. He attacks the Destined One relentlessly while shielding himself from harm. You need to use everything in your arsenal from Spells and Stances to Vessels to stand a chance of succeeding.

How to Access Mount Mei

You need to complete a task in Chapters 1 through 6 to gain entry to Mount Mei. Black Myth Wukong has a lot of secrets and hidden content, some of which can be missed if you progress the main story too far. Based on our testing, these aren't areas you can get locked out of by progressing the main story. Here's what you need to do in each Chapter:

• Ring the 3 bells and beat Elder Jinchi in Chapter 1.
• Complete the Yellow Robed Squire's quest and beat Fuban in Chapter 2.
• Follow the Treasure Hunter and locate the Watermelon Fields in Chapter 3.
• Track down the Venom Daoist, enter Purple Cloud Mountain, and beat the Duskveil in Chapter 4.
• Complete the Pale-Axe Stalwart's quest, enter Bishui Cave then beat Bishui Golden-Eyed Beast in Chapter 5.
• Assemble Sun Wukong's armor by beating the Gold Armored Rhino, Feng-Tail General, Emerald-Armed Mantis, and Cloudtreading Deer in Chapter 6. Then travel to Water Curtain Cave and claim the Jinguban to complete the Heaven's Equal set.
• After this, you can travel to the Great Pagoda in Chapter 3 and enter Mount Mei to challenge Erlang, the Sacred Divinity.

Great Pagoda Location

Start from the Snow-Veiled Trail Shrine in Chapter 3, The New West. Take an immediate right, this leads you down a long and winding (but linear) path that ends at the Great Pagoda. If you did the above correctly, you should see 5 murals on the walls with Maitreya standing in front of a blank central wall. Speak to him to enter the secret area.

Turn right from the Snow-Veiled Trail Shrine.

Erlang, the Sacred Divinity

This fight has multiple phases and the boss gains new abilities with each phase. The main mechanic you need to play around is his shield. This refreshes at 75%, 50%, and 10% health if you don't damage him for a while his shield also starts regenerating. Let's break down some of his most important moves.

Breaking the Shield

While shielded, Erlang Shen, the Sacred Divinity can evade your Charged Heavy Attacks, don't rely on these to break it! Instead, use fast-hitting abilities, here are some of the most effective ways to deal with his shield:

• Staff Spin is great but requires you to get close.
• The Plantain Fan melts his shield in no time.
• Multi-hit Spirits like Earth Dog and Baw-Baw-Lang-Lang.
• The Duplicates from A Pluck of Many overwhelm the shield.
• In NG+ you can use the Tri-Point Double Edged Spear and Forceful Thrust to burn through the shield.
  • Check out our Stances Guide to learn more about Thrust Stance!

Here's an example of how you can use your resources to break the shields and deal with the boss:

• For the first shield at the start of the fight, this is when the battle is at its easiest so use your Spirit and Staff Spin to break the shield.
• Use the Plantain Fan for the second shield, throw in a Ring of Fire so you have plenty of focus to burn him down after.
• With this sequence, the third shield is the most difficult as you won't have too many special resources. You can burn it down with Staff Spin or use A Pluck of Many if you're struggling.
• Then for the final shield at 10%, your Plantain Fan should be back which makes this easy.
  • If you're struggling with the above sequence you can instead use Plantain Fan on shields 1 and 3, A Pluck of Many on 4, and burn 2 with your Spirit plus Staff Spin. This shifts a bit of the difficulty to the last 10% of his Health but makes the middle portion of the fight easier.

Basic Moves

Dodge his Thrust attacks as these end with a vicious grab.

• Erlang, the Sacred Divinity attacks you aggressively and frequently enhances his basic combos in a variety of ways.
• When he uses a jump attack or ends his attack sequence with a thrusting finisher, be careful. He chains these thrust moves into a brutal grab sequence. To deal with this, stay close to the boss when you can but dodge left or right and always prioritize dodging his finishers.
• As part of some of his basic attacks, his dogs attack the Destined One. These attacks are hard to avoid, have extra reach, and inflict shock so watch closely and time your dodges.
• If you continue attacking Erlang, the Sacred Divinity while he's shielded he retaliates with a clash. This results in a short cutscene in which the Destined One is knocked away. You don't take additional damage from this sequence but it can easily disrupt your combos.
• While shielded, he can dodge your Charged Heavy Attacks, rely on your Varied Combos until you break his shield then try to time a 4 Focus Charged Heavy during the stagger.

Elemental Weapon

He absorbs elemental powers into his weapon.

• When you inflict the Four Banes on Erlang, he can absorb them into his spear. Afterward, he empowers all of his attacks to inflict the Bane. This makes the Flower of Primes Soak an effective tool for countering his moves.
• While using these elements does make the boss slightly more dangerous, the value provided by things like Ring of Fire and Baw-Baw-Lang-Lang outweighs the increased danger.

Red Lightning Combo

Erlang channels thunder into his spear.

• One of Erlang's most dangerous sequences is his lightning attack combo. He charges his spear with thunder, attacks, and then rises into the air before crashing down to deal massive damage.
• Watch him closely when he rises into the air, the lightning turns red just before he crashes down. Time your dodge carefully as this finisher deals heavy damage!

Eye Beam

• When Erlang, the Sacred Divinity opens his third eye he unleashes a sweeping beam attack.
• You can dodge through this to avoid damage but you should always try to approach the boss and get behind him. This way you can use the attack animation as an opportunity to deal damage.

Spell Counters

• Sometimes when you use your Transformation Spell, Erlang also transforms. This is a bit annoying since it lowers your damage uptime and can give his shield time to recharge but also gives you some breathing room since he doesn't do much when transformed. Pop your transformation at the start of a shield to avoid this issue.
• Immobilize is also ineffective against the boss. You usually get 1 good cast throughout the fight and that's it, so you're better off taking Ring of Fire or Spell Binder.

Axe Transition and New Moves

During the first transition, Erlang summons his axe.

• At 75% Health, Erlang, the Sacred Divinity flies into the air and summons a massive axe. Avoid the axe as it crashes to the ground.
• From now on, he begins using his axe as part of his attack combos. In addition to melee swings the axe finishers generate a shockwave that ripples out from Erlang.
• Deal with this by timing your dodges when you're at close range, or dodging forward through the shockwave if you're at a distance when he uses it.

Sword Transition and New Moves

He beings with eye beams.

• At 50% Health, Erlang, the Sacred Divinity does his second major transition. This starts with a sequence of eye-beam attacks from different locations. Avoid these by running to the edge of the arena and then standing under the boss as he never aims directly down.
• After this, he begins using Sword attacks, and his extremely dangerous sword storm move! Erlang channels a barrage of swords at the Destined One's location, you can avoid them with Sprint or Cloud Step.
  • Alternatively, you can deflect them with Staff Spin.
• When the lightning around him turns red, he's about to crash down with a lethal finishing move, avoid this at all costs!
• He also begins using his sword as part of his basic attack combos.

Finishing the Fight

• Due to his expanded move set, this is the portion of the fight where Erlang, the Sacred Divinity is at his most dangerous. He gets one more shield at 10% Health, but this one doesn't come with a special transition where he becomes invulnerable.
• Therefore, this is a great opportunity to combine the stagger from the Plantain Fan with the damage from A Pluck of Many to burst him down and end the fight. Due to the fight's length, this is very much a battle of attrition.
• When you're entering the last half with your Gourd mostly depleted you need to play extremely well, whereas if you have a nearly full Gourd there's a lot more room for small mistakes.
• After you defeat Erlang, the Sacred Divinity the fight enters its second portion. But like with the Yellowbrow encounter, you won't have to redo this if you fail on the later portion.

Stone Monkey Form

You need to defeat the Four Heavenly Kings and Erlang Shen's heavenly form to truly finish this fight. At this point, you take the Stone Monkey form which unlocks powerful new abilities. These battles are more of a cinematic experience, your new abilities are downright overpowered and make it in comparison to the previous battle.

Here's a quick overview of your abilities as the Stone Monkey:

• Your Light Attack combo is a series of punches which you use to build Focus. The Finisher is a particularly effective way to generate Focus so try to use complete attack sequences.
• Spend Focus on your Heavy Attack, doing so at 4 Focus unleashes a devastating charged slam. Your Heavy Attacks heal you proportional to the Focus consumed. This makes your health sustain pretty easy throughout the attack sequence. You can instead use Focus on the Varied Combo but this isn't as good as going for a fully charged Heavy Attack.
• The Stone Monkey also has access to Rock Solid. Deflecting an enemy attack builds a good amount of Focus, in addition, you don't have any Mana so you should spam this whenever you see an enemy attacking you!
• You can imbue the Stone Monkey's attacks with first ice and then later fire. These are great for boosting your elemental damage but always prioritize your Rock Solid timing.

Four Heavenly Kings Tips and Tricks

• The Four Heavenly Kings don't all attack at once, instead, they alternate with 2 of them sometimes teaming up. This is a bit daunting at first, but the fight gets easier as it goes on. At the start, remember to use your Rock Solid to deflect attacks and build Focus!
• When you get the Four Heavenly Kings to 60% Health, the Destined One does a brutal execution removing one of the Heavenly Kings from the fight.
• From here on, the fight gets much easier. You empower your attacks with ice to deal more damage and continue to execute Heavenly Kings for every ~20% of their Health you remove.

Erlang Shen Tips and Tricks

• After beating the Four Heavenly Kings, you take on Erlang Shen's heavenly form. He attacks continually and uses a lot of sweeping strikes which means there's seldom a bad time to use Rock Solid.
• Because of the relentless attacks, you need to dodge some of his strikes in between your Charged Heavy Attacks.
• The fight includes several cutscenes, including one where Erlang Shen breathes fire, depleting the Destined One's Health. Don't worry, this is a scripted event and you're not going to lose! Instead, the Destined One fully restores his Health and absorbs the flames, becoming empowered.

Rewards

After you beat Erlang, the Sacred Divinity, the Four Heavenly Kings, and Erlang Shen you get a few important rewards. First up, Erlang's weapon the Tri-Point Double Edged Spear enhances Thrust Stance attacks. With this weapon, you unleash a storm of swords when using the Thrust Stance Varied Combo, Forceful Thrust. You also get the Azure Dome Transformation, take the Stone Monkey's form, and unleash devastation on your foes! Lastly, beating Erlang unlocks a perk for your Freed Mind Relic. If you already have the Relic from a previous playthrough this is available immediately, otherwise, you get the Perk after entering New Game+.

Video Guide

Check out this video guide by Tenkiei to learn more about how to beat Erlang, the Sacred Divinity, and what you need to do to get the secret ending in Black Myth Wukong.

Summary

Gain entry to the secret area of Mount Mei to challenge Erlang, the Sacred Divinity. If you can overcome this powerful foe you get a variety of rewards including a new weapon, Transformation, Relic Perk, and the game's true ending.

• You need to complete the following quests to access Mount Mei:
  • 3 Bells and Elder Jinchi quest
  • Yellow Robed Squire's quest
  • Treasure Hunter and the Watermelon Fields quest
  • Purple Cloud Mountain and the Duskveil quest
  • Pale-Axe Stalwart's quest and Bishui Cave
• Assemble Sun Wukong's armor, the Heaven's Equal set, then travel to the Great Pagoda in the Pagoda Realm.
• Do battle against Erlang, the Sacred Divinity, break his shield then burn down his health.
• Then take the Stone Monkey's form to defeat the Four Heavenly Kings and Erlang Shen to complete the challenge.

Written by: Tenkiei