• Guide

Where to get the Sternness of Stone and Keenness of Tiger in Black Myth: Wukong

If you wish to move forward in Black Myth: Wukong, you will need to find and defeat powerful enemies and take their essence.

Aidan O'Brien

August 19, 2024 10:57 PM

1

In Black Myth: Wukong, exploring the arid Yellow Wind Ridge will eventually lead you to a dead end. Faced with a massive stone door, you will be tasked with finding the Keenness of Tiger and the Sternness of Stone if you wish to progress.

Where to get Keenness of Tiger and Sternness of Stone in Black Myth: Wukong

To get the Keenness of Tiger, you will need to beat Tiger Vanguard at the Crouching Tiger Temple and to get the Sternness of Stone, you will need to beat the Stone Vanguard at Rockrest Flat in Fright Cliff. You can get to both from the Valley of Despair shrine near where you fought the Royal Family of Flowing Sands.

How to get the Keenness of Tiger

To find Tiger Vanguard at the Crouching Tiger Temple, you need to head left from the massive locked stone gate at the Valley of Despair that is asking you to “use the tally.”

Make your way down into the cave, but be careful of the rat-man with the shield and the archer to the left. It is actually pretty easy for them to kill you if the archer starts to spam his rapid-fire attack.

You will come to a large cavern and will see a familiar face. A very large monster will appear, but you don’t need to worry about him now as you can easily go around him. Stick to the right side of the cave and move around behind the large stone column near the enemy who spits snakes.

Behind them is another enemy near a small stone ramp. Head up the ramp and then down the far side, and you will find a tiny gap in the wall. Squeeze inside, and you will find a bat-like enemy. You can get a Spirit from them, so it is actually quite a tough fight. When they are dead, grab the spirit and leave via the broken wall on the right side.

Making your way down the short decline will bring you to the Crouching Tiger Temple. Search on all sides of the main steps to grab the loot, and when you reach the top, it is time to fight the Tiger Vanguard. 

This is a tough fight, as Tiger Vanguard combines blade work, punches, and kicks, along with blood magic and an ability called Stone Skin to interrupt your attacks. The main trick for this fight is to learn the slight delays between his combinations that are designed to get you to commit to poorly timed dodges, opening you up for damage.  

Once he is defeated, then you will get the Keenness of Tiger.

How to get Sternness of Stone

To get the Sternness of Stone, you need to return to the Valley of Despair Shrine in Sandgate Village. Across the other side of the arena, you will notice a large rope bridge. Cross this and make your way down the path, and be mindful of the stone enemy to your right.

Ahead, standing in a large stone gate, you will see yet another enemy. Take them out and continue forward through a ravine. You will need to deal with two more enemies, a rock monster and a snake spitter, and you will come to the Squall Hideout Shrine. 

From there, it doesn’t matter whether you go left or right. Both routes lead to the same place and have the same volume of enemies. You will come to the Rockcrest Flat Shrine, and if you look past the rock where the Shrine is, you will see a gate in the distance. Heading through this will bring you to an arena where you need to fight the Stone Vanguard. 

This boss is actually not so hard; he has limited attack patterns to track, with his most annoying move being when he summons small enemies to smash into you, setting you up for a large jumping attack. Cloud Step is an easy counter to this, as they will all hit your decoy instead of you.

If you have collected all the Buddha Eyes, you can place them in a large rock near the entrance to summon a secret boss. Once you have defeated the Stone Vanguard, you will receive the Sternness of Stone and can then open any gate that requires both of them to “use the tally.”

Aidan O'Brien

Contributing Guides Editor

Hailing from Ireland, Aidan has been conditioned by local weather conditions to survive hours at his PC grinding through whatever game is offering the lowest possible drop rates for loot. He thinks the easiest way to figure out what fans of games want to read is to just be a fan of games. You can normally find him logged into Warframe, Destiny, or a gacha game. You can reach out to him on X @scannerbarkly.