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Preparation
Recommended Skills
- Qi Boost (x2)
- Swift Rise
Nothing has changed from the previous set of recommendations. Albeit, if you can get Water Flow before this fight then you absolutely should. This will allow you to attach a talisman, which will explode without needing Yi to charge it. This lets you absolutely abuse the Sky Rending Claw in a way that’s simply not possible with the default Qi Blast.
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
- Bearing Jade
- Immovable 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.
Bearing: Reduces pushback from attacks by about 50%. Yanlao fights Yi with a giant Sky Rending Claw, and all of its attacks have a lot of pushback. As such, I find Bearing particularly effective for fighting Yanlao as it prevents the Claw from pushing Yi into the lasers that periodically spawn across the boss arena throughout the fight.
Immovable: A slightly more offensively oriented option. It allows you to charge up your Charged Strike more quickly while you aren’t moving. There are a lot of times where you won’t need to move during this fight, so this Jade naturally synergizes with this lack of innertia.
I don’t actually expect that you’ll have the necessary 6 Computing Units required to equip both Bearing, and Immovable, so just choose whichever you feel better suits your playstyle. For what it’s worth, all of the footage you’ll see in this guide was recorded while using Bearing.
Recommended Equipment
- Level 4 Healing Pipe
- 3 Max Health Upgrades
- 3 Pipe Vials
- 1 Computing Unit
- 2 Azure Sand Magazines
Not a whole lot has changed when compared to Goumang, though you should now be able to fully explore the Apeman Facility, Agricultural Zone, Power Repository, and Warehouse Zone. This’ll provide you with a ton of goodies including additional Herb Catalysts to upgrade your Healing Pipe, and the necessary Jin to buy all of the other upgrades that I’ve listed above.
If you’re able to buy more than what I’ve listed above, by all means do so. There’s no honour for holding back against the brutally difficult foes across Nine Sols’ cast.
How to Fight Yanlao
Phase 1
We’re back to standard multi-phase bosses for the rest of Nine Sols.
The remainder of the game’s bosses introduce the majority of their attacks in the first phase, and evolve in some way for their second (or third) phase. Yanlao is a fairly straightforward example of this with many of his attacks remaining the same during the second phase.
Overview of Phase 1 Attacks
| Attack Name | Short Description |
|---|---|
| Hop and Charge | The Claw smashes into the ground before hopping behind Yi, and charging through him. |
| Crimson Grab | The Claw attempts to grab Yi. Can be used twice simultaneously, and has a massive hitbox. |
| Double Charge | The Claw charges through Yi twice in a row. |
| Charge, Hop, Charge | The Claw lands, and charges through Yi, hops to a new location, and charges through Yi again. |
| Swaying Lasers | 4 lasers appear on screen for about 5 seconds, and sway from left to right. |
| Charged Volley | The room shrinks, and the Claw begins charging a volley of laser attacks. The attack ends after 2 volleys that shoot at Yi 4 times a piece. |
And here’s what all of that looks like:
The Lasers
The first 4 attacks in the list above (the grab, and the three attacks where the Claw charges at Yi) all cause lasers to appear at either side of the boss arena. I couldn’t figure out exactly what triggers this because there didn’t appear to be any consistency to when the lasers would or wouldn’t appear. Regardless, this is why I recommended the Bearing Jade so you don’t get knocked into the lasers even after you’ve successfully parried an attack.
Tips for Phase 1
During the Charged Volley, you can cause the Claw to shoot itself, but climbing up the wall, and air dashing toward it. This will end the Volley early, and gives you a huge opportunity to deal damage to it.
You can very easily charge up a charged strike during the Swaying Lasers attack. It’s also a great time to heal provided you’re using Quick Dose.
You can perform a Qi Blast after all of the Claw’s attacks, though the timing for successfully pulling this off is a lot tighter after Crimson Grab, and either charging attack. If you’re not confident in your ability to attach a talisman then you can simply use this as an opportunity to slowly chip away at it with melee strikes instead.
Also, if you haven’t figured this out yet: aerial parries are omni-directional. This can make them an effective tool for dealing with a foe who repeatedly changes which side they’re attacking you from. I demonstrate this during the example fight, but consider using aerial parries if you’re struggling with grounded ones.
Phase 2
Very little about Yanlao changes in phase 2, so if you’ve already mastered parrying his attacks in phase 1 then you’ll be golden here.
Overview of Phase 2 Attacks
| Attack Name | Short Description |
|---|---|
| Hop and Charge | When lasers appear alongside these attacks, there is now a third laser that travels along the boss arena. It will move fully from one side of the arena to the other, and back before all of the lasers leave the arena. |
| Double Charge | |
| Charge, Hop, Charge | |
| Crimson Grab | |
| Swaying Lasers | Now spawns 6 lasers, instead of 4. Lasers still sway from left to right with identical timing. |
Here is what those new laser patterns look like:
Tips for Phase 2
Hopefully the included video already gave you an idea of how to avoid the lasers during the charging attacks. Ideally, you’ll want to move away from the laser, and then dash through it after successfully parrying an attack from the Claw. This should prevent situations where you’ll be hit by the laser for trying to parry an attack. Alternatively, you can try to dodge through both an attack, and the laser at the same time. That’s more likely to happen by accident than by intentional setup though.
Don’t try to heal during the Swaying Lasers in this phase of the fight. They’re too close together to sneak in any healing.
Reminder: use the Azure Bow. I’m pretty sure I forgot to use it at all during the fight in my example video, but it does solid damage, and can be very effective at chipping down the Claw’s massive health bar.
Also, it really bears repeating: if you have Waterflow unlocked for this fight then use it. You can absolutely abuse this boss with repeated, low-risk Qi Blasts throughout this entire fight by simply using the Water Flow style instead of the default.
Example Fight
As always, here’s an example video showing me fighting Yanlao. Hopefully it helps to fill any gaps left by my explanation of the fight.
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Frostilyte Writes 