This is a bare bones post about how to beat Commander Honglan in Wuchang: Fallen Feathers.
There are numerous ways to beat her, from blocking with the long sword, then heavy hitting, dual swords with clash enabled, or even a sluggish axe build can apparently decimate her. I don’t know whether my review build is glitched, but the bosses hit way harder compared to the videos I’ve seen.
My initial suggestion would be to go for a spell build, then avoid the battle and keep your distance, dodging to the right after each thrust, and then sprinting away to keep your distance. Sprinting rather than dashing will alleviate any depleted stamina.
My spell of choice was Infernal Flames (found by defeating the first fire-wielding enemy to the right of Shu Sanctum and slightly before Lu Hongliu). I opted for a one-handed sword build, maxing out as much magic as possible, getting the Biding Time node, as well as investing in any Skyborn Might buffs to the left and as many flasks as available. I’d also invested in the buff that boosts burn damage.
When burn kicks in, Commander Honglan can take a fair amount of damage, but it’s slow and… boring. This method does work, but I have a slightly better way.
Follow the steps above, but invest in the Echo of Lu Bingzhang spell (after beating the Lu Bingzhang boss on the top floor of Shu Sanctum), and instead of magic, max as much feathering as you can. Astral Sword is the weapon I used, but it doesn’t matter at this point, as it doesn’t have feather buffs.
As before, dodge to the right, which will allocate Skyborn Might, then, when available, trigger the Echo of Lu Bingzhang. This will cause Wuchang to jump back, provide a bonus evasive attack to avoid any additional thrusts, but it’ll also be much more accurate than the Infernal Flames spell, which is somewhat slower and can be dodged.
Additionally, be brave and get close to Commander Honglan after the thrust and dodge to the right again so that you’re circling her, reducing the distance. This will boost Skyborn Might even more, plus you can get quick hits in that will also accelerate your spell availability.
Honestly, Commander Honglan was the hardest boss at first, and I lost count of how many attempts I had, but using the Echo of Lu Bingzhang
spell, as mentioned above, I beat her on the second attempt at level 38.
I hope this helped, but if you need more details or screenshots, ping me a message and I’ll upload the Impetus Repository configuration, though it’s not crucial, just configure the spell, feathering and Biding Time as the minimum.
