Where Winds Meet’s latest update, called “As Snow Falls” (Version 1.5), introduced a new world boss that has most players yanking their hair out due to its sheer difficulty. The Everdeer is a major fight you can find in the newly expanded Liangzhou region, and not only is it lore-heavy, but also incredibly punishing.
This is also one of the few encounters in the game that blends environmental storytelling with high-speed, aggressive combat, meaning the place you are in also influences the progression of the fight.
Regardless, this is a fight that is not to be taken lightly, so check out how to properly prepare for it, including builds and proper attack choices.
How To Find The Everdeer Boss in Where Winds Meet
The Everdeer resides in Snow Sparrow Hall within the Liangzhou region. To reach this area, you must first complete the “Hexi Campaign: Whitecrown Fortress” and progress through the “Lost Chapters: Ten Through the Pass”. Once in Snow Sparrow Hall, follow these steps for instant access:
- Locate the Everdeer icon and enter the small cave leading to a Divine Craft dungeon gate.
From here, you have two options:
- Do the whole dungeon, as the Everdeer is actually the final boss of this questline.
- Skip the dungeon and go straight to the Everdeer. You can do that by interacting with the nearby NPC twice, which will warp you to the boss’s arena.
Fight Prep: How To Ensure An Easier Encounter with the “5-Phase Secret”
If you face the Everdeer by default, without preparation, then you are in for a wild ride. The boss has a whopping 8 to 10 phases built for you to fight through.
Since that might be a bit too much for most players, there is a way to reduce that number to “just” five phases if you do a few things beforehand:
- Wandering Tale of Everdeer: Complete this quest in Qinghe to “free the deer,” which reduces the boss fight to only five HP phases.
- Requirement: You must find two Longevity Fruits, one located in Wraith Town and the other behind vines near the big Buddha statue.
- Arsenal Power: It is recommended to have 550+ Arsenal Power and a tanky companion hired with coins to manage aggression.
Recommended Build for Everdeer Boss: Go Insane
Due to the fact that the Everdeer is literally days old, there is not much in terms of a fixed strategy for combat. However, many Where Winds Meet forums and subreddit threads mention a so-called “Insane Build” that makes use of the Strategic Sword and Nameless Spear style combination.
For the record, we have covered this exact combo as an “all-around” build that serves most players. It offers high mobility and good range management, despite not being the most DPS-friendly of fighting builds. However, that last part is tweaked with a few changes to increase damage output specifically against the Everdeer by choosing additional skills that ensure you are consistently dealing strong damage throughout the fight.
Inner Ways:
- Mountain Smite: Essential for reducing the stamina cost of freezing abilities by 20%.
- Bitter Seasons: Provides a chance to poison the boss, reducing its defense and increasing your critical hit rate.
- Moral: Allows you to stack up to 5% extra damage during the fight.
Mystical Skills:
- Guardian Palm: The core skill for pure DPS builds.
- Yasha Rush: Useful for launching the boss and freezing it mid-air to control the flow of combat.
Equipment Sets:
- Eagle Set: Crucial for survival. At five stacks, it grants a 90% damage reduction for 10 seconds.
- Hulking Set: Increases attack damage by up to 10% when applying status effects like bleed or poison.
Evidently, there are other options, but since this particular combo is more well-rounded and benefits most players, that is what we recommend.
Detailed Combat Walkthrough to Defeat Everdeer Boss
The Everdeer is extremely aggressive, utilizing rapid charges, high leaps, and cloud-step dashes.
- The Combat Loop: Success depends on reacting to color-coded indicators. Use Perfect Parries on red-glow attacks to drain the boss’s Qi gauge, and Perfect Dodges on gold or unblockable attacks.
- Freezing Strategy: Use your skills to freeze the Everdeer. While frozen, hold the heavy attack button to melt its health bar while conserving stamina. The Strategic Sword and Nameless Spear combination can quickly drain stamina if you are not careful, so manage it properly.
- Maximizing Stun Windows: When the boss’s Qi gauge fills, do not use the “Execute” prompt immediately. Continue attacking the stunned boss to stack additional damage, and only trigger the execution right before the stun window expires.
- Aggro Management: If playing on Legend difficulty, use your hired companion to draw aggro. This creates safe windows for you to recover stamina or reposition for a burst phase.
All in all, this should be enough to take down the Everdeer. However, it is important to note that this will likely require a few retries. The boss is, quite literally, a beast.
All Everdeer Drops and Rewards
Once you manage to defeat the Everdeer, you will receive several rewards:
- Echo Jade and exclusive cosmetic items.
- Medicinal Tales and gear set pieces.
- Boss-specific talents, which unlock permanent buffs in your talent tree, such as increased stagger resistance and Qi gain.
Final Thoughts
The Everdeer marks a new approach to enemy design from NetEase’s Where Winds Meet. The base game and its first update focused on boss battles that were fast-paced, somewhat grounded, and more manageable, with fights typically lasting no more than two phases.
The “As Snow Falls” update changes that by introducing larger-than-life encounters that lean more into the folkloric side of Wuxia literature, turning fights into longer, more demanding spectacles. Even the Moongazing Maiden, another boss introduced in this update, reflects this design despite having only two phases.
As the game continues to establish itself within the gacha genre, it is likely that more encounters like these will appear in future updates.
Where Winds Meet is available for free on PlayStation 5, Windows, Android, and iOS.
