Soul farming is not at all unheard of in a Soulslike game, especially when it comes to the genre’s casual audience, who generally prefer to rely on raw power more than skill. For the most part, when a newSoulslike gameis released, subreddits, official forums, and YouTube videos surface with titles and content revolving around the best spots to farm souls, or whatever name that particular game gives them. Farming souls inevitably leads to players becoming strong enough or even overpowered for the road ahead, thereby making the game a bit easier.Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, on the other hand, while it does have plenty of spots that could be considered great farming spots, ensures there is less need for the tactic.
Wuchang: Fallen Feathersworks just like any other Soulslike game with its progression, in that players can spend “souls,” or what it refers to as “red mercury,” on new skills in its massive skill tree. For the most part, red mercury is dropped from defeated enemies, which is typically what leads to these games having spots suitable for farming. In these locations, players can simply vanquish all the enemies in an area, then rest at a shrine, upon which the enemies will respawn and can be defeated repeatedly for even more red mercury. However,Wuchang: Fallen Feathersnaturally integrates a different way to earn its version of souls, one that is actually a staple in the genre, but it actually takes that staple and doubles it to remove the need to farm red mercury altogether.
Wuchang: Fallen Feathers Reinvents How Soulslike Games Handle Farming
Red Mercury Rewards Let Players Progress Without the Grind
It’sSoulslike traditionfor players to earn souls in more than one way, despite the most efficient way often seeing players defeating as many enemies as possible. One of the most prevalent ways it does this is not through players completing quests, but through finding or receiving soul-rewarding consumable items and then using them to immediately extract a minimal to considerable number of souls without needing to kill an enemy. InDark Souls, for instance, players can use items like the Soul of a Lost Undead or the Soul of a Brave Warrior to receive bonus souls for their efforts, with these items even occasionally dropping from defeated enemies.
Wuchang: Fallen Feathersimplements a similar system with its red mercury items, like Full-Grown Red Mercury (1,200 red mercury) and Blood of Changhong (8,000 red mercury), just to name a few. Upon retrieving these items, players can use them at any time to receive the corresponding amount of red mercury, potentially granting them bonus levels without the need to kill more enemies. As per usual in the genre,Wuchang: Fallen Feathers' bossesgenerally reward enough red mercury for players to level up, but the incredible number of consumable items on the side makes it all even easier.
WhereWuchang: Fallen Feathersreally shines with its own approach to this Soulslike tradition, however, is in the vast number of these items players will receive during their time with the game, especially if they explore every inch of the game’s world and kill everything in sight. In other words, players don’t really need tofarm red mercury inWuchang: Fallen Feathersbecause they are likely to be granted more than enough consumable red mercury items to spend on more skills. In essence, these items are a type of passive soul farm, and require very little extra time or effort from players.
Wuchang Wants Players to Experiment With Builds
Ultimately, this all boils down to how muchWuchang: Fallen Featherswants players to experiment with different builds. Itsskill tree is massive, and there are dozens of different build combinations players can create at the end of the day, so, basically, the more red mercury they have, the better executed the skill system and overall game design is. Perhaps future Soulslikes will be as self-aware asWuchang: Fallen Feathersand understand that players are more than likely going to be looking for a spot to farm souls, so they might as well just hand them over instead.
