From the moment you are given any degree of freedom Where the winds meetthere's a staggering amount of things you can do, whether in solo or co-op. From animals to hunt, food to cook, treasures to loot and so much more, it can be hard to figure out what you should do first. But pretty soon you'll be brought to the General's Shrine.
Here, Ruby will enter you into a competition for great prizes, although there are plenty of other quests to pick up while you're here. And who would have thought that of all the people ready to fight here, a group of children and an old man would be the most terrifying of all?
Where to meet Elder Gongsun
Elder Gongsun is pretty hard to miss overall, as you'll be right next to him in the early stages of the main story. Upon arriving at the general's shrineyou will be notified of an ongoing contest, the winner of which will receive the grand prize. To do this, it is enough to defeat a single opponent, although there are many others around who are just as happy to fight you.
As you move through the arena, a new Encounter quest will be added to your journal, More than meets the eye. A child is crying nearby, saying how they can't beat anyone here. So you take matters into your own hands and challenge them all instead. Most of them are children who are very hard to defeat, but none of them hold a candle to Elder Gongsun himself.
To challenge him, just walk up to him and ask for a match. It will be marked when you have an Encounter Quest trackedso you won't miss it. Be prepared to be beaten.
How to defeat Elder Gongsun
In sparring, they do not fight with their own weapons and skills, but with equal conditions. You will receive a wooden sword with predetermined martial arts skills you can use, and the goal is to completely drain your opponents Qi five times. This is the blue bar below your health that depletes with each hit. Qi recovers very slowly in these matches and is lost quickly, especially for you.
Martial arts skills deal a lot of Qi damageso use them to drain Gongsun's Qi quickly.
For the elder Gongsun, he relies on quick melee strikes, punching and kicking you in an instant. All of these attacks can be parriedand that will chip away at his Qi as well. It's hard to land many attacks on him because he immediately parries your strikes, so be ready to parry his follow-up attacks after he parries your own.
Time will slow down when you dodge the attack at the last second, giving you a short window to attack Gongsun without retaliation. While most of his attacks are fairly well telegraphed, he is a series of spinning attacks that are all very hard to parry. If you can't get the timing off, use this opportunity to dodge and attack him from behind while he's still kicking instead.
Beyond his close blows, Gongsun can also jump on arena polesjumping from one to the other before they hit you back with a powerful attack. It could be two different attacks. One takes the form of a frog, which is a red attack that you can parry for extra Qi damage. The second one is a golden kick, so you have to avoid this one to avoid damage.
Finally, Gongsun has the ability to restore his Qi to its maximum. Sometimes he stands up from you and swings his arms in a fluid motion to fully replenish his Qi. This attack can be canceled though you will have to rely on heavy attacks and martial arts as regular attacks are unlikely to break his stance. Always keep attacking even if you need to dodge attacks. Your Qi will never have enough time to recover, but his will.
Need to defeat Elder Gongsun?
If you're fighting Gongsun, you might be wondering if you really need to beat him. What could be the reward worth it? Fortunately, at least in the More Than Meets The Eye Encounter quest, you don't have to defeat Gongsun. actually you even get an achievement for beating you. It's meant to be a challenge.
This means that there is a unique reward for defeating him, even if you have already completed the quest. Which is it he becomes a friendwhich means he will send you gifts regularly. In addition he also becomes one of the allies you can summon during particularly challenging boss encounters. Considering how tough he was in his own battle, he's sure to be a powerful ally to have by your side.
