How to get Touch of Death in Where Winds Meet - Northern Vow Ruins puzzle guide

Where do you learn Touch of Death in Where Winds Meet? If you want to live your life as some sort of secret Chinese ninja in Where Winds Meet, you'll want to unlock the Touch of Death skill through the hidden quest Volume I - The Realm Endures as soon as possible. It's a special skill used to sneak up and assassinate low-level enemies, scoring an instant kill that's great for moving through the world undetected, avoiding a difficult clash, or just saving time versus a drawn-out bloodbath.

The Touch of Death skill in Where Winds Meet isn't a Mystic Art in the traditional sense. You won't need to unlock Where Winds Meet skill slots to slide it into your already perfect WWM build. And if you're here after attempting the WWM Panacea Fan unlock, just know that it isn't actually a necessity. You can get through that dungeon by just being a sneaky little snake.

The Touch of Death skill is hidden away as a secret treasure in the open-world dungeon, Northern Vow Ruins, on the eastern side of Quiche's Verdant Wilds known as Battlecraft Slope.

As you follow the road to its main door, you'll find Lie Bujin eavesdropping on a conversation between the invading Tiger Fort soldiers within. They're interrogating a member of the Northern Vow about the treasure their old master kept within.

As such, the fort is manned. Quite heavily, too. Head inside and you'll have plenty of opportunity to kill multiple birds (ok, baddies) with one stone (a fire arrow) by shooting nearby barrels. Those guys just love to hug oil-filled vessels.

Once you clear the place out, including the archers on the watchtowers, you'll want to make your way to its arena just left of where you came in.

Dispatch the guys here and take down the heavy boss Zhang Bao to find the first meaningful clue in the nearby chest. It's a map that denotes which of the fort's many braziers you need to ignite to trigger the entrance to where the Touch of Death scroll lies.

The circles can be hard to spot. And there are four of them: one where Zhang Bao once stood, one on the roof opposite the main entrance, another on its connecting turret, and a final one on the ramparts to the right of the main entrance. Two should be lit already.

With those lanterns lit-and none of the others scattered about the place-jump and slam (Q) in the middle of Zhang Bao's arena to reveal the spiral staircase leading to the dungeon beneath. Head inside and learn the "Oath of Vow" pose and unlock another clue. Interact with the statue in the next room to strike the pose, then rotate it to trigger the next puzzle.

This is one riddle that tripped up someone who still found the time to admit defeat in a parting scribble on the floor. In retrospect, it's fairly simple. Notice the glowing symbols jutting out from the walls? Your task is to push in those that don't align with the Chinese character sentence in Clue 3. Work clockwise, starting from the left corner of the entrance. You can skip the apostrophe.

With the misplaced symbols pushed back, the entrance to the next chamber will open. But you're not done yet. Don't worry, this last puzzle isn't a headscatcher.

Here, you just need to embrace your natural curiosity and head behind the waterfall. Interact with the mechanism stopping the waterwheel from turning to unlock the door to the final chamber. Examine the writings around the room and open the big chest at the back to unlock the Touch of Death skill, completing Volume I - The Realm Endures in the process. That's one of the Where Winds Meet quests you won't know you even picked up before you complete it.

With the Touch of Death skill unlocked, you only need to tap a single button to insta-gib enemies that haven't clocked your presence. Just maybe keep your finger away from the trigger when you're wandering around town. This is for enacting swift justice on a camp of bandits. Maybe check out the best stealth games to get that out of your system before you land yourself in an ancient Chinese jail.