The Soulwood boss fight in Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is one of the more unique bosses in the game. Found deep within the eerie Lu Mansion area in Worship’s Rise, this battle puts you face to face with a massive, tree-like creature known as the Reborn Treant. In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to find Soulwood, prepare for the battle, understand its attack patterns, and defeat it.
How to Find the Soulwood Boss
Start from the Worship’s Rise – Lu Mansion shrine and take the elevator up. Walk forward through the bloody pools until you reach a ladder. Climb it and kick down the glowing pillar to unlock a shortcut. After that, keep following the path straight ahead until you can turn right. You should hear a distant growl as you get closer. That’s your clue, you’re nearing the boss.
Before heading into the fight, you can unlock another shortcut. Just look for a ladder on the right side of the path leading to the boss. Climb it and kick down the second glowing pillar, which connects back to an earlier shrine.
How to Prepare for the Soulwood Boss Fight
If you like getting up close and personal, go with an Axe for straightforward melee combat. But if you’re more into using magic, a One-Handed Sword is the better choice; it’s designed to work well with magic builds. This boss fight isn’t too tough. It’s rated just 2.5 out of 10 in difficulty, meaning it’s more about smart planning than raw combat skills.
If you’re using magic, make sure to put some skill points into the One-Handed Sword skill tree; it’ll boost your magic stats. Plus, your magic automatically refills every few seconds, so you don’t have to worry too much about running out. As for the boss itself, Soulwood is extremely weak to fire, so you can make the fight much easier by setting it on fire with spells or a fire-enchanted weapon.
Soulwood Boss Moveset
During the fight with Reborn Treant Soulwood, you’ll notice it has a handful of powerful attacks, but with the right timing and positioning, they’re all manageable. One of its main attacks involves pulling everything toward itself. Soulwood lowers its head and creates a strong suction in a cone-shaped area in front of it, almost like it’s inhaling the world. When you see it start this move, just sprint directly away to avoid getting dragged in.
Another big move is a flame blast. Soulwood gathers fire around its body, lowers its head again, and then unleashes a fiery cone of destruction straight ahead. It’s dangerous and deals heavy fire damage. As soon as you see this one coming, run to the sides to stay out of range. Be careful, this attack also causes skeletons to rise from the ground, and if they grab you, you’ll be stuck for a few seconds.
Sometimes Soulwood will shove one of its massive arms into the ground. It’ll try to pull it back out several times, and on the third attempt, it breaks free and causes a small shockwave of damage. You’ll also see some creepy living branches sprout up nearby. The best strategy here is to dodge the arm as it goes in, get a few quick hits in, then dodge again right before it rips back out.
It also has a ranged move where it spits out three blood orbs that home in on you. If they hit, they’ll deal a chunk of damage, but if you manage to perfect dodge them, you’ll trigger Skyborn Might, a buff that boosts your strength temporarily, so it’s worth mastering the timing.
Once Soulwood’s health drops to around half, it adds a new move to the mix. It’ll swing one of its big branches from one side to the other in a wide arc, hitting anyone standing too close in front. When you see this coming, just back off to stay safe. With careful dodging and fire damage on your side, you’ll be able to wear Soulwood down and win the fight without too much trouble.
How to Defeat the Soulwood Boss
To make the Soulwood boss fight a breeze, fire damage is your best weapon. You’ll have a few good options by the time you reach this area. After defeating the first major boss, Dhutanga, you’ll unlock two fire-based abilities, Bone Needle – Flame, which you can equip through the Temperance menu at shrines, and the Echo of Dhutanga spell.
There are even more fire options if you explore a bit. You can get Infernal Flames by defeating a fire-dancing enemy dressed in a bird-like outfit near Shu Sanctum in Worship’s Rise. Another powerful spell, Burning Flames, drops from an enemy wearing a bird beak mask at Doomwillow Beach. With all these choices, you should have no trouble setting Soulwood ablaze.
Fire isn’t just helpful; it completely shuts the boss down. Use fire spells or add fire to your weapon with Tempering, and you’ll keep the boss stunned and helpless for most of the fight.
During the battle, Soulwood uses a blood-based projectile that homes in on you. If you dodge it, look out for small blue buds that appear where it lands. Step on them to get a temporary buff called Skyborn Might, which gives you a nice damage boost, so make use of it when you can.
You’ll also get a great window to deal big damage when Soulwood lowers its head and arms to the ground. This usually happens during two of its major attacks: one where it pulls everything toward it in a swirling vacuum, and another where it explodes with fire. The trick is to move to the sides near its arms. This will keep you safe and let you hammer away while it’s exposed.
