Black Myth: Wukong Erlang Shen Boss Guide: How to Defeat the Hardest Boss in 2025

• Erlang Shen has 28,500 total HP (14,200 Phase 1 / 9,500 Phase 2 / 4,800 Phase 3) with a 30% damage resistance to all elemental types except Blaze, which only gets 15% resistance
• The best loadout uses the Golden Cudgel +9 with Blaze Infusion, Monkey King's Hide Cuirass for 12% poise damage resistance, and the Azure Lion Talisman for stamina restore on parry
• All projectile attacks from Erlang can be parried for a 3-second full punish window - this is the highest DPS gain you can get outside of stagger
• Phase 3's Nine Turns of Heaven ultimate can be completely skipped by bursting him below 1,000 HP before he finishes the cast animation
• Going for no damage? All melee combos end with a tell that gives you 12+ frames to roll or parry - learn the tells, not the whole combo

Boss Overview: Erlang Shen Location & Core Stats

You face Erlang Shen at the end of Chapter 4: The Heavenly Court, after you cut through the Jade Emperor's elite guard in the Lingxiao Hall. This is the final story boss of Black Myth: Wukong's base game, and it's one of the most punishing, tight-checking boss fights I've tackled in any soulslike. Forget the slow, brute force tactics you used on the Bull Demon King - Erlang is faster than you, has longer range, and punishes every single whiffed attack with a combo that will take you from full HP to dead in 2 hits.

Here's the hard data you need going in:

Erlang's whole kit is built around baiting you into rolling early then punishing your recovery. He has 12 total unique attacks, 3 added per phase, and only 2 of them can't be parried. Mastering parries here gets you way more DPS than dodging, full stop.

Recommended Loadout & Setup: Tier Rankings for Best Gear

You don't need some weird off-meta build to beat Erlang. This is a fight where solid, maxed stats beat gimmicks. I've ranked the top options for every slot below:

Weapon Tier List

Vestment & Accessories Tier List

Required Stats Breakpoint

You need to hit these exact stat breakpoints for the easiest time: 40 Vigor (gives you 1250 HP, lets you survive one full combo from Phase 3 Erlang), 30 Might (hits the 420 damage breakpoint with +9 Golden Cudgel), 15 Stamina (gives you 160 stamina, enough for 3 light attacks + a roll/parry after every punish). Any extra points go into Vigor - don't bother overinvesting in Might, the damage conversion drops off a cliff after 30.

Phase-by-Phase Breakdown & Attack Pattern Analysis

Every phase has unique tells, unique punish windows, and one big DPS check you need to prepare for. Let's break it down step by step.

Phase 1 (100% - 50% HP): 14,200 HP

Phase 1 is the warm-up, but it's where most players throw their first run by being too aggressive. Erlang only uses his base 3-hit melee combo, a spear thrust, and his projectile Sky Bow Shot here. He doesn't do any unblockable one-shots yet, so this is where you learn to parry.

Full attack pattern breakdown for Phase 1:

• 3-Hit Melee Combo (Trident Slash): Tell = Erlang lifts his trident to his left shoulder. 1st hit (520 damage) → 2nd hit (480 damage) → 3rd spinning slash (610 damage). The third hit has a 0.8 second recovery window after the slash lands. If you parry the first two, you can get a full 3-hit light combo punish after the third. If you dodge, roll to the right after the third hit to get behind him for a free heavy charge attack.
• Impaling Thrust: Tell = Erlang glows blue for 12 frames, then lunges forward. This is parriable - parry it 0.2 seconds after the blue glow starts, and you get a 3-second punish window (that's enough for a full charge heavy attack + 2 light hits for ~1.1k damage). If you dodge, roll sideways, not back - rolling back wastes the punish window.
• Sky Bow Shot (Projectile): Tell = Erlang drops his trident, pulls a bow out of thin air, draws back for 1 full second. This is the best parry in the entire fight - parry the arrow right as it's 2 meters away from you, and it reflects back to stun Erlang for 6 full seconds. That's a full 2.5k+ chunk of HP if you unload everything you have. This is not a "can't parry" moment - always parry this. 90% of players roll away and waste a 6-second stagger window for free damage. Don't be that guy.

Phase 1 Strategy Rule: Only punish after the third hit of a combo, after a parried thrust, or after a parried arrow. Don't attack between the first and second hit of his combo - he will interrupt you and hit you for 600+ damage. Wait for the end of the combo, that's always your punish window.

You need to get him below 50% HP before he can cycle into his first multi-projectile Bow Barrage attack. If you're hitting your parries, you'll hit the threshold easily. If you're 1000 HP off when he does his 50% cutscene, don't panic - just back off and play safe until the cutscene triggers.

Phase 2 (50% - 16.8% HP): 9,500 HP

Phase 2 opens with Erlang summoning his Celestial Hound that has 2,800 HP. First thing you do: kill the hound immediately. Don't ignore it, don't focus Erlang - the hound does 300 damage per bite, inflicts Bleed that ticks 80 damage per second for 10 seconds, and it will body block your attacks on Erlang. Two full light combos take it down, and it staggers after 4 hits so it's trivial.

New attack patterns added in Phase 2:

• Bow Barrage: Tell = Erlain jumps back 10 meters, fires 5 arrows in a spread pattern at you. The first three arrows are slow, the last two are fast. Parry the first three, roll the last two, then rush in for a 2-hit punish before he can pull his trident back out. If you get greedy and try for 3 hits, he'll hit you with a counter slash. 2 hits max, that's the rule.
• Trident Spin AoE: Tell = Erlang plants his trident in the ground and starts spinning it, creating a lightning AoE that covers 8 meters around him. This attack is not parriable - it has 100 poise and will break your guard instantly. Roll back 12 meters to get out of the AoE, wait 3 seconds for the spin to end, then run in and get 2 light hits before he pulls the trident out. The spin lasts exactly 3 seconds - count it out, don't roll in early.
• Lightning Leap: Tell = Erlang leaps into the air, holds his trident over his head, glows bright yellow. This is an unblockable, one-shot potential attack that does 720 damage if it hits. The tell is obvious, but most players roll too early. Wait until he's 1 meter off the ground before rolling sideways - if you roll early, he adjusts his landing position to catch you. If you wait, you roll right out of the hitbox and get a free full charge heavy attack to his back for 900 damage.

Phase 2 Strategy Rule: You have to manage your stamina here. Every punish is 1-2 hits, don't get greedy. Erlang's poise goes up to 1100 in Phase 2, so you need 5 heavy poise damage hits to stagger him. Save your light combo for after parries, not after dodges. The biggest punish window here is still after parrying projectiles - he doesn't change the timing of his bow attacks, so you can keep parrying those for free stuns.

The DPS check for Phase 2 is simple: you need to get him below 17% HP before he spams two back-to-back Lightning Leaps that drain your stamina and heal him 10% HP if he connects. If you're hitting your parries and killing the hound immediately, you'll hit the threshold before that happens.

Phase 3 (16.8% - 0% HP): 4,800 HP

This is the final phase, and it's cheap as hell if you don't know the trick. Erlang enters Phase 3 with full poise, he gets a 20% damage boost, and he starts charging his ultimate attack Nine Turns of Heaven 10 seconds into the phase. This ultimate hits for 1200 damage, which is a one-shot even if you have 40 Vigor. Most players die here to the ultimate, but there's a trick to skip it entirely.

First, new attack patterns added in Phase 3:

• Double Impaling Thrust: Two consecutive thrusts, same tell as the Phase 1 thrust but the second one is 0.3 seconds faster than the first. Parry the first, immediately parry the second, and you get a 4-second punish window that lets you chunk 1.5k HP. The timing is tight, but if you messed up the first parry, just roll both - don't try to mash a parry on the second if you missed the first.
• Counter Parry: If you attack Erlang while he's recovering from an attack and you miss the punish window, he will parry your attack and follow up with a 720 damage slash that will kill you from 50% HP. This is why you never get greedy with extra hits. If you follow the 2-hit/3-hit rule for punish windows, this will never happen.
• Nine Turns of Heaven (Ultimate): Tell = Erlang jumps to the center of the arena, the screen goes white, he starts a 12-second cast animation. If he finishes the cast, you die. No ifs, ands, or buts - even if you block, it breaks your guard and one-shots you. But here's the trick: if you get him below 1,000 HP before the 12-second cast finishes, the cast cancels and he dies immediately. That's the skip. If you can't get him that low, you have to run around the arena and dodge the 9 consecutive lightning strikes that come down before the ultimate hits. The strikes land every 1 second, so roll away from the red circles the second they spawn - don't roll early, roll when the strike is 0.2 seconds from landing