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Preparation
By this point in Nine Sols, you can fully explore the Power Reservoir, and collect most of the chests from the Apeman Facility, and Agricultural Zone. This will provide you with a ton of Jin, and Skill Points to improve Yi. If you’re struggling with Goumang, double check your map as there might be a few chests you can collect to give you an edge in the fight.
Recommended Skills
- Qi Boost (x2)
- Swift Rise
As far as skills go, the list of essentials for this fight are fairly straightforward.
Qi Boost: Unlocking both Qi Boost skills will provide you with 3 total Qi charges, which will increase the damage of Qi Blast. More damage is always a plus, especially against the tankier foes in boss fights.
Swift Rise: Allows Yi to recover faster from a knockdown by tapping the dash button, which can help to prevent situations where Yi would take damage from combo attacks. Probably the best defensive skill in the game. It’s a must have if you’re struggling with any of the bosses.
Recommended Jades
- Quick Dose Jade
- Mob Quell Jade
Quick Dose: Still the MVP, and my goto Jade of choice. This speeds up the use of your Healing Pipe by roughly 40%, which allows you to use it more liberally throughout a fight. It’s an absolute must have Jade if you’re struggling with a boss fight, or Nine Sols in general.
Mob Quell: My other recommendation for Goumang is Mob Quell. This lets you attach talisman to 2 targets simultaneously before using Qi Blast. I feel like it goes without saying, but that’s fairly useful in a fight where you’ll be attacking 2 foes simultaneously. There’s still not a ton of different options for Jades by this point in Nine Sols, so Mob Quell is sort of the best of the worst. You can skip using it if you have another preference.
You can buy Mob Quell from the 3D Printer in the Four Seasons Pavilion.
Now you may be asking: what about Stasis Jade? Good question. Stasis doesn’t work on bosses. If it did then I’d have recommended it for this fight, but it, quite literally, won’t do anything for you here.
Recommended Equipment
- Level 2 Healing Pipe
- 2 Max Health Upgrades
- 1 Pipe Vial
- 1 Computing Unit
- 2 Azure Sand Magazines
Okay – that’s a much longer list than last time, so let’s break it all down.
After beating Yingzhao, Kuafu will take up residence in the Four Season Pavilion. He has a variety of upgrades for sale, but the ones that we’re most interested in are the Healing Pipe upgrade, and the Azure Sand Magazine upgrades.
The former is relatively cheap (800 Jin), and uses the Herb Catalyst that Yingzhao dropped so that Yi can heal for more when using his Healing Pipe.
The latter simply lets use fire the Azure Bow more often (4 shots instead of 2). Additional Azure Sand Magazines are a little expensive for this point in the game, but they’re well worth the investment, especially for fighting Goumang as Cloud Piercer arrows can hit multiple targets with a single arrow.
As for upgrading your Max Health, you’ll find Shennong in the Agricultural Zone. If you feed him a Toxin (you can find 1 near where you find him, or purchase 1 from Chiyou), then he’ll boost Yi’s Max Health.
Afterwards, Shennong takes up residence in the Four Season Pavilion, and can be fed additional Toxins. For every 2 that you give him, he’ll increase Yi’s Max Health by half a bar. For the purposes of writing this guide, I was able to obtain enough Jin to purchase 2 additional Toxins from Chiyou, which I fed to Shennong to secure a second Max Health upgrade before fighting Goumang. Chiyou can be found in the Agricultural Zone, so don’t be afraid to double back to upgrade your Max Health if you’re struggling with Goumang.
Finally, I also picked up 1 Computing Unit upgrade from Chiyou, so that I could equip both Quick Dose, and Mob Quell for the Goumang fight. This is the least important of the equipment upgrades as Mob Quell is questionably useful during Goumang’s fight. If you have to skip any of these upgrades because you don’t have enough Jin, then skip the Computer Unit.
How to Fight Goumang
Goumang is kind of weird because she is the only boss in the game without multiple phases. Instead, she has 2 mind-controlled Apemen that fight for her. Knocking out either of these Apemen will summon her into the arena, which is when you can attack her. She’ll flee shortly thereafter when her Apemen servants are revived.
As such, instead of listing attacks by phase, I’ll go over what each of the 2 Apemen are able to do independently. Then I’ll cover an overarching strategy for dealing with the 2 of them.
Short Apeman
Overview of Short Apeman Attacks
| Attack Name | Short Description |
|---|---|
| Spear Toss | An aerial attack where the Short Apeman throws a spear at Yi after jumping into the air. |
| Slam Combo | The Short Apeman leaps into the air before slamming down a short distance away. Always performs a thrusting attack afterwards. |
| Melee Combo | 2 consecutive claw attacks. Sometimes followed by an optional thrusting attack, or dash forward. |
Here’s what all of those attacks look like:
Tips for Short Apeman
Your newly acquired Charged Strike deals massive damage, and you can use it while running in, and out of the Apeman’s melee attack range. You can usually get away with charging a Charged Strike, running in, releasing the Charged Strike, and dashing away before you can be hit.
You can also score a couple of melee attacks after parrying a melee combo.
I’d recommend saving your Qi charges for dealing lots of burst damage to Goumang.
Tall Apeman
Overview of Tall Apeman Attacks
| Attack Name | Short Description |
|---|---|
| Triple Crimson Combo | The Tall Apeman clasps its fists together, and slams them into the ground 3 times hopping towards Yi before each slam. |
| Crimson Plunging Attack | The Tall Apeman will begin to glow crimson before jumping to Yi’s current position, and slamming into the ground. |
| Heavy Melee Combo | Performs 2 consecutive melee strikes that will launch Yi into the air even when perfect parried. |
| Light Melee Combo | Perfoms 2 quick, consecutive melee strikes. |
Here’s what all of those attacks look like:
Tips for Tall Apeman
I think the fight is easier if you ignore this guy. He’s so slow that you can usually outrun him, and simply focus on the faster Short Apeman instead.
However, you can perform a 3 hit melee combo, Charged Strike, or Qi Blast after successfully parrying either of the Tall Apeman’s melee combos. I’d recommend that you save your Qi charges for Goumang instead though. This will let you deal a large amount of burst damage to her when she enters the boss arena.
General Strategy for Goumang
Because you’re not fighting Goumang directly, her fight isn’t just a test of your ability to properly parry attacks. Instead, it’s a bit messier.
Personally, I find it easiest to fight Goumang by exclusively focusing on the Short Apeman. The taller one is slow, so it can’t really keep up with you provided you keep running away from the 2 of them. The faster one will give chase immediately, which lets you fight it 1 on 1, which is significantly easier than tying to tackle this fight while both Apemen attack you. Remember to use your Charged Strike to chip the Short Apeman down while it chases after you.
Once you’ve taken out 1 of the 2 Apemen, Goumang will enter the arena, which is when you can attack her. This would be the time to use all of your stored Qi with a high damage Qi Blast. With careful positioning, you can attach a talisman to both Goumang, and her remaining Apeman servant provided you’re running Mob Quell. This will put the remaining Apeman dangerously close to being knocked out, which will give you an additional opportunity to chip Goumang down.
Basically, you want to repeat this process a few times, and then Goumang should go down nice and easy. Hopefully there won’t be too many times throughout the fight where you’re actually getting hit by both Apemen while you’re trying to defend yourself.
Also, don’t forget to use your Azure Bow. It can hit both Apemen, and any stray spears that are stuck in the ground. This is an excellent way to score additional chip damage throughout the fight.
Example Fight
Here’s an example of how to beat Goumang. It’s not the most glamorous strategy, but it works. It’s also far less challenging than trying to parry everything that the terrible twins can throw at you, especially since the taller one has a tendency to use attacks that you can’t parry at this point in the game.
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