Where Winds Meet World, Exploration & Progression

Where Winds Meet is an open world first and a combat game second. Most of your hours go into walking 10th-century China, catching Oddities, solving cat puzzles, opening chests and filling the Compendium, while your level is held back by caps you lift through Breakthrough fights. The words for all of this are unusual, partly because of the wuxia setting and partly because of translation, so players often search for them one at a time. This glossary puts them on one page.

It covers the regions and how they arrived, the collectibles that count toward completion, the level and difficulty systems, sects and playing with others. It reflects the game as of November 2026, after Version 2.3 "Friends from Afar" opened Qingzhou on 15 October 2026. Counts of collectibles come from community guides and shift as regions are added, so treat them as a guide rather than a final number.

Term	In short	Where you meet it
Qinghe	The first open region	Chapter 1 of the main story
Kaifeng	The capital region with its own collectibles	After Qinghe
Expansion regions	Hexi, Imperial Palace, Hidden Mountain, Qingzhou	Major updates since March 2026
Main story and side quests	Chapters, Campaigns, Wandering Tales	Quest log
Boundary Stones	Fast travel points and checkpoints	World map
Oddities	Catchable creatures and curios for stat bonuses	Minimap, Wind Sense
Melodies of Peace	The regional perk tree Oddities feed	Qi Sheng, Bai Ji
Meow Meow puzzles	Cat challenges that pay Bells	Map markers, Meow Meow temples
Compendium	The record of everything discovered	Main menu
Treasure chests	Loot boxes around points of interest	Open world
Solo Mode level and level cap	The band that caps your level	Character screen
Breakthrough	The wave fight that lifts the cap	Menu, Go to Breakthrough
Difficulty modes	Story, Recommended, Expert, Legend, Hardcore	Settings, character creation
Sects	Factions that teach weapons and give quests	Sect halls
Co-op, PvP and Hero's Realm	Playing with up to four others	Multiplayer menu

Regions

Qinghe

Qinghe is the first large region you explore and the setting of Chapter 1 of the main story. Its areas include Sundara Land, with Buddhist monasteries such as Mercyheart Monastery and Thousand-Buddha Vale, the Verdant Wilds around General's Shrine and the Northern Bamboo Grove, and Moonveil Mountain. Much of the tutorial for exploration happens here: your first Boundary Stones, the first Oddities and the first Meow Meow puzzles.

Qinghe has its own set of five Oddity types and its own Melodies of Peace tree, run by Qi Sheng on the road to General's Shrine. A community guide counted 44 Meow Meow spots across the region in June 2026. When a completion service or a guide splits work "by region", Qinghe is almost always the first block, because its collectibles cannot be turned in anywhere else. Players returning after a break often find Qinghe nearly done and Kaifeng barely touched.

Kaifeng

Kaifeng is the capital region that follows Qinghe, a dense city and its surroundings, including Jadewood Court with Jinming Pool and the Imperial Gardens, and the Granary of Plenty. The mobile launch update of 12 December 2025 added Roaring Sands, an area NetEase described as nearly a third of Kaifeng's map, which completed the region. The underground Ghost Market hosts Kaifeng's Meow Meow temple.

Kaifeng has five Oddity types of its own, turned in to Bai Ji in the northwest corner of Kaifeng City, and 37 Meow Meow spots by the same June 2026 count. Its quest log is heavy on Campaign chains such as Unbound Cavern and Ever-Normal Granary. A common question is why Kaifeng Oddities do not appear in Qi Sheng's menu: each region's tree accepts only its own finds.

Expansion regions

Since launch the map has grown in named expansions. The Hexi expansion came in three chapters: Jade Gate Pass on 6 March 2026, the snowy Liangzhou on 2 April and Qinchuan as the finale on 30 April. The Imperial Palace followed on 28 May. Hidden Mountain, a vertical region home to the Mohist sect, was shown at the Xbox showcase in June and arrived with Version 2.0 on 23 July, followed by Heaven's Threshold with Version 2.1 in August.

The newest is Qingzhou, a coastal "mountain and sea" region starting at Eastern Peak, released on 15 October 2026 with Version 2.3; its island of Penglai opened on 29 October. The NetEase launch announcement promised more than 20 regions over time. Entry is gated: Qingzhou, for example, needs a set level and story progress before you can sail there from Qinghe.

Main story and side quests

The main story is split into chapters, each with named quests; Chapter 1, set in Qinghe, includes quests such as Another New Wing and Memories Awakened. Around it sit several kinds of side content: Campaigns or Fragment Chapters (self-contained story arcs), Wandering Tales (multi-part stories grouped by location), Encounters (short random events) and Side Stories. Expansions add their own chapters, such as Liangzhou Melody and Paper Moon in Liangzhou.

Story bosses can be fought on any of the difficulty modes, which is why our Story Completion lot asks for both the chapter and the difficulty. In chat, "I'm on chapter 2" usually means Kaifeng has opened.

Boundary Stones

A Boundary Stone is a shrine-like marker that works as a fast travel point and checkpoint once activated. Activating one is among the largest single sources of exploration points, about 50 by community counts. Resting near one also refills your Vitality, the resource that powers Mystic Skills, and the Oddities wiki suggests using unvisited stones to track which parts of a zone you have not yet searched.

A typical route for completion is stone by stone: activate it, clear chests, Oddities and puzzles in its area, then move to the next. When someone writes "go to the Path of Void stone", they mean the Boundary Stone of that name, used as a meeting point.

Oddities

Oddities are collectible creatures and curios hidden around each region. There are ten regular types at launch, five per region. In Qinghe they are the Redmist Beetle (fireflies above red mushrooms, reached by jumping), the Enchanting Lotus (butterflies you shoot with arrows), the Dagger General (crickets hidden in rocks, crates and jars), the Ironwing Mantis (a mantis you chase after it flees) and the Whisper Hive (hives high up, knocked down with fire arrows). Oddities do not show on the world map, only on the minimap when you are close; Wind Sense reveals them.

Event Oddities, such as the Special Oddities of the Contortionist event, are separate and reward an Inner Way chest instead of feeding the tree below. Our Oddities Farming lot lets you pick one Qinghe type or a full set. In LFG chat, "farming Dagger Generals" means breaking every jar in sight.

Melodies of Peace

Melodies of Peace is the regional perk tree you fill by turning in Oddities. Each node costs a set number of Oddities of any type from that region. Small nodes add max HP, attack, defense or damage; larger ones give Inner Ways, Mystic Skills, items and a higher maximum Vitality. In Qinghe you hand them to Qi Sheng, who also teaches several weapon arts after your first Oddity; in Kaifeng you go to Bai Ji.

Because the bonuses are permanent stats, players treat a finished tree as part of a build rather than as a collectible. Some guides call it the Harmony tree.

Meow Meow puzzles and treasures

Meow Meows are clothed, magical cats that set you a small puzzle or timed challenge. Clearing one pays Bells, which you spend at a Meow Meow temple: Qinghe's stands in the northwest near Buddha's Light Peak, Kaifeng's is inside the Ghost Market. A June 2026 guide counted 44 in Qinghe and 37 in Kaifeng, 81 in total. Puzzle types include collecting will-o'-the-wisps, cat and shadow chases, cutting bamboo, ringing a prayer bell, weighing on scales, mixing dye colours and jumping plum blossom stakes.

The temple shop rotates special equipment, consumables and cosmetics, so it is worth checking again after updates. Do not confuse Meow Meows with Cat Plays, which are ordinary cats you can pet. "All Meow Meow's Treasures" in our Collectibles lot means every Meow Meow puzzle in the chosen area.

Compendium

The Compendium is the in-game record of what you have found: lore notes and documents, plants, Ancient Scores, abilities and Mystic Arts, among other categories. Entries unlock as you discover them in the world. Achievement guides list milestone rewards at 100, 300, 600 and 1,000 entries, paid in Echo Jade, decorations and titles, and unlocking every Ancient Score gives a cosmetic accessory.

Completionists usually sweep the Compendium last, region by region, after Oddities and chests are done.

Treasure chests

Treasure chests sit at most points of interest, often guarded or behind a small puzzle. They hold currency, materials and sometimes Talent Points, the points that open Mystic Skill slots. The exploration skill Treasure Seeker marks the nearest chest on your minimap in Qinghe and Kaifeng, which makes a full sweep much faster. Each chest also counts toward the area's exploration percentage.

Chests are the single largest item in most completion checklists. When a zone sits just short of full completion, a missed chest or Oddity is the first thing to check.

Solo Mode level and level cap

Your character level is limited by your Solo Mode level, a band with its own name. At launch Level 1 (Beginner) capped you at 15, Level 2 (Emerging) at 20, Level 3 (Observe) at 30 and Level 4 (Roaming) at 40. The community wiki lists further bands up to Lv.13, Universal View, and updates such as Version 2.0 raised the caps again. During your first days a separate daily cap also limits how fast you climb.

Experience earned while capped is stored and partly returned when the cap rises. A player who is "stuck at 40" is waiting on a Breakthrough, not lacking XP. Powerleveling, including our own lot of that name, happens inside these bands.

Breakthrough

A character Breakthrough raises your Solo Mode level by one. Once at the cap, you choose Go to Breakthrough in the menu and are moved to a cave where you must defeat waves of enemies, with sub-bosses, before a timer runs out. Failing simply returns you to the world. Each success raises max level, max Energy and attributes, makes Solo Mode enemies stronger and better rewarded, and pays Echo Jade, Coins and a new gear set; the Lv.13 reward set is level 86 gear.

Martial arts have a separate Breakthrough every ten levels, which costs materials and has no fight; see the martial art level entry. "Need help with my breakthrough" in chat almost always means the character fight.

Difficulty modes

The game has five difficulty modes. Story lowers enemy health and damage and adds slow-motion prompts and parry assist. Recommended is the intended balance. Expert raises enemy health and damage and removes assists. These three can be switched in Settings, but not during combat or multiplayer, and in co-op the host's setting applies to everyone.

Legend can only be chosen at character creation; lowering it later ends Legend status for that character for good. It adds no loot, only a red aura on the HP bar, a boss kill counter and a profile badge. Hardcore is a one-life permadeath mode shown in the difficulty list; it was locked at launch, and difficulty guides updated in November 2026 still list it as coming soon. Our Story Completion and Bosses lots list all five modes, from Story to Hardcore.

Sects

Sects are factions you can join for quests, a hall, and often a weapon art. Launch sects include Silver Needle, Hollow Vale, Well of Heaven, Midnight Mercy and Nine Mortal Ways; Velvet Shade arrived on 14 December 2025, the Masked Troupe with Version 1.3, Raging Tides with Liangzhou and the Mohist sect with Hidden Mountain. The Inkbound Order from Qingzhou works differently: when Qingzhou was announced, the developers said you can learn its skills while keeping your current sect, and they presented a card-based PvP debate mode for it.

Joining is the shortcut for several weapons, which is why "which sect for Deluge?" is a common question.

Co-op, PvP and Hero's Realm

You can play alone or with up to four other players, and PvP is available as well. In co-op the host's difficulty applies to the whole group. Larger content exists too: Hero's Realm encounters such as Pocketrupt Circus are built for ten players, and each region adds world bosses, three of them in Qingzhou. PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox and mobile players share servers through cross-play and cross-progression.

In practice players group up for world bosses and Hero's Realm, and explore alone for collectibles, where a partner adds little.

FAQ

Where do you turn in Oddities?

Qinghe Oddities go to Qi Sheng on the road to General's Shrine, Kaifeng Oddities to Bai Ji in the northwest of Kaifeng City. Each tree only accepts its own region's finds.

Can you change difficulty in Where Winds Meet?

Yes, between Story, Recommended and Expert, in Settings while solo and out of combat. Leaving Legend is permanent for that character.

Why can I not level up past my cap?

Your Solo Mode level sets the cap. Win the Breakthrough fight to raise it; extra experience is stored meanwhile, and early on a daily cap also applies.

How many Meow Meows are there?

Community guides counted 44 in Qinghe and 37 in Kaifeng in June 2026. Later regions add their own puzzles.

Related terms

• Where Winds Meet Weapons, Martial Arts & Builds: paths, Skill Theft, Inner Ways and Mystic Skills
• General gaming terms: traversal · experience curve · minimap icon · boss health bar
• Onlyfarms services: Breakthrough · all Where Winds Meet services