Nearly a year after its groundbreaking release, Game Science's Black Myth: Wukong continues to captivate players with its intricate combat system and deep mythological world-building. While legendary weapons like the Golden Loong Staff often steal the spotlight, the game's mythical support items—Drinks, Soaks, Gourds, and Medicines—form an equally crucial layer of strategic depth. These elusive artifacts, scattered across treacherous chapters or guarded by formidable bosses, dramatically alter combat dynamics in subtle yet profound ways. Players exploring NG+ content throughout 2025 have increasingly recognized how these items transform survivability against the game's most punishing encounters, proving that sometimes the quietest tools roar loudest in battle.

Foundational Components: Mythical Crafting Materials

At first glance, components like Sky-Piercing Horn, Sea-Supporting Tendon, and Kun Steel seem insignificant—until players discover they're mandatory for forging the Destined One's most devastating weapons. These materials embody the game's reward-for-risk philosophy:

• Sky-Piercing Horn drops only after defeating Fuban twice and overcoming the Scorpionlord

• Sea-Supporting Tendon demands victory against Chapter 4's Yellow Loong

• Kun Steel appears just six times per playthrough, locked behind brutal boss fights

Without these components, NG+ players couldn't craft showstoppers like the Adept Spine-Shooting Fuban Staff or Stormflash Loong Staff. They're the invisible backbone of high-level builds, transforming from mundane loot into combat-altering necessities.

Vitality Management: Drinks & Gourds

Healing mechanics reveal fascinating risk-reward tradeoffs that still spark debates among 2025 players:

Item	Healing Effect	Drawback	Acquisition
Loong Balm	30% HP restore + damage boost	Lowest healing among mythics	Chapter 5 (Emerald Hall throne)
Jade Dew	55% HP restore	Requires 7 Coconut Wine upgrades	Collect all Awaken Wine Worms
A Thousand Days Inebriation	60% HP restore	Movement impairment	Chapter 6 (9,000 Will)
Multi-Glazed Gourd	6 charges	Fewer charges than alternatives	Chapter 6 vendor
Supreme Gourd	10 charges	Extensive upgrade chain	Chapter 4 Old Man quest

The Supreme Gourd particularly exemplifies endgame priorities—its ten charges liberate players from heal-conservation anxiety during marathon boss fights. Yet the Multi-Glazed Gourd's damage buff after the final sip creates tantalizing burst-damage potential. Which proves more valuable? That depends entirely on whether players favor endurance or aggression in their 2025 NG+ runs.

Status & Resurrection Game-Changers

Later chapters introduce threats requiring specialized countermeasures:

Flower Primes cleanse all Four Banes status effects—critical against bosses like Lang-Li-Guhh-Baw who inflict:

• ❄️ Frost (slows movement, increases damage taken)

• 🔥 Scorch (damage over time)

• ☠️ Poison (continuous health drain)

• ⚡ Thunder (stun and shock damage)

Meanwhile, Guanyin's Willow Leaf synergizes with resurrection mechanics to create safety nets:

"Restores ALL Gourd charges upon revival—whether from Life-Saving Strand or Soul Remigration Pills. This transforms near-wipes into second winds"

Stat-Boosting Essentials

No 2025 build ignores the Celestial Pills series, which permanently enhance core attributes:

• 💚 Nonary Pills (max Stamina)

• ❤️ Jade Lotus Pills (max Health)

• 🔷 Taiyi Pills (max Mana)

With only five of each per playthrough, their distribution becomes a strategic dilemma. Should players prioritize stamina for dodging or mana for spell-spamming? The answer varies wildly between boss encounters.

The Ultimate Insurance Policy

Topping most players' must-find lists is the Soul Remigration Pill, which offers:

• Multiple resurrection chances before Life-Saving Strand activates

• NG+-exclusive crafting formula from Xu Dog

• Game-saving potential against one-shot kill mechanics

Its existence raises philosophical questions: Does removing death's sting diminish victory's sweetness? Or does it enable players to experience more content?

Lingering Mysteries

As players continue dissecting Black Myth: Wukong's intricate systems in 2025, several questions persist:

❗ Why do some mythics like the Soul Remigration Pill remain NG+-locked despite their transformative power?

❗ Are certain items—like the movement-impairing A Thousand Days Inebriation—deliberately designed to clash with playstyles?

❗ Most intriguingly: In prioritizing either survivability (Supreme Gourd) or offensive potential (Multi-Glazed Gourd), what fundamental truths do players reveal about their combat philosophy?

The true genius of these mythics lies not in raw power, but in how they refract the player's strategic identity. Perhaps the greatest battle isn't against screen-filling bosses, but within the inventory screen itself.