Surging Waves + Gather Intense Force + Vast Universe is the core, because Vast Universe is extremely efficient when we fulfill all the right conditions.

Tip: Vast Universe makes 2X + 4/5/6 Agility, where X is the amount of Force remaining after Vast Universe's ATK. I find it easier to instead calculate it as 2X + 2/3/4, where X is the amount of Force applied by the ATK. (That is, the amount of Force beforehand.)

I'll group the variations by what other Agility card is used.


We assume at least 55 Physique, which is what it takes to break through to Incarnation.

1. Crane Footwork (lv.2)
2. Elusive Footwork / Crash Footwork
3. Surging Waves
4. Gather Intense Force
5. Vast Universe
6. Crash Fist
7. Crash Fist
8. Crash Fist

With all lv.1 except Crane Footwork, this is 5 Force (before Vast Universe) and 34 Agility. In order to make 40 Agility, we usually need 8 Force, or with some combinations of upgrades to the Agility cards, 7 Force.

Then it's efficient for killing on turn four or turn seven. (For turn seven, probably replace at least one Crash Fist with a defensive card. Sometimes we can even play a defensive card and still kill with Shocked on turn four, for example, [...] + Exercise Marrow + Shocked + Inch Force.)

If we can't make 40 Agility, or we want to go off on turn five, we can omit Elusive/Crash Footwork. The replacement can be Majestic Qi, Crash Citta-Dharma, or another payload card that goes after Vast Universe. For turn six, we can omit Crane Footwork, too. I suspect that these are reasonable ways to go off on turn five or six even in endgame with good quality, but I still need to try it more.

Another way to go off on turn five is that we can move the eighth card to slot one. For turn six, we can move it to slot four instead, as long as we still have enough Agility after consuming one Force before Vast Universe. These inversion variations do feel a bit awkward, but sometimes they can be the answer.


Crane Footwork (lv.max) is the sole payoff for reaching 56, 60, or 64 Physique. (Except some niche use of Exercise Marrow.) How to identify weak opponents during Incarnation and build Physique against them is a future research topic for me.

1. Crane Footwork (lv.max)
2. any card (often Crash Citta-Dharma)
3. Surging Waves
4. Gather Intense Force
5. Vast Universe
6. Crash Fist
7. Crash Fist
8. Crash Fist

Requires at least 60 Physique. This is nuts if we can achieve it.

Note that with all lv.max, Crane Footwork + Surging Waves + Gather Intense Force + Vast Universe + Inch Force + Shocked is 116 damage in three turns. (We can do 117 instead by swapping Vast Universe and Inch Force, at the cost of ending up making 39 Agility.) If it's 40 Agility, this is the generally strongest four-turn line, too. With 64 Physique, all max is 41 Agility, so we can still make 40 with lv.2 Vast Universe or with 60-63 Physique (but not both, of course).

Since Crash Fist is Plan B for Musician, one time I got Crane Footwork (lv.max) + Surging Waves + Gather Intense Force + Predicament for Immortals. Pretty good! I could even Ruptsprite afterward.


If we have lv.2 + lv.1 Surging Waves, we can free up a deck slot by setting up with Surging Waves + Surging Waves + Gather Intense Force + Vast Universe. With all lv.1 except the first Surging Waves, this is 38 Agility, so in order to make 40, we need one more upgrade on Surging Waves or Gather Intense Force, or full upgrade on Vast Universe.

That lets us add another attack to the end to hedge in case we didn't kill on turn four. Or we can play Guard Elixir, for example, Surging Waves + Surging Waves + Gather Intense Force + Guard Elixir + Vast Universe.

I like this line a lot, and often, once I have it, I exchange Elusive/Crash Footwork, since I'm always needing cards to exchange.

Tip: lv.1 + lv.1 Surging Waves is no good, so the only reasons to keep them unmerged would be to manipulate Enlightenment Elixir, or for some Overwhelming Power deck. To be honest, Overwhelming Power is unexplored territory for me.


Blink is good for going off on turn five or six, though I'm not entirely sure how it stacks up against the Majestic Qi / Crash Citta-Dharma variations described earlier under Crane Footwork (lv.2). Blink lines are also good for chipping Guard Ups with Shocked and Continue(s).

1. Elusive Footwork
2. Crash Fist - Blink
3. Surging Waves
4. Crash Fist
5. Crash Citta-Dharma / Gather Intense Force
6. Vast Universe
7. Crash Fist
8. Crash Fist

This needs some upgrades to make it to 40 Agility.

I haven't gotten around to optimizing 30 Agility with Blink, sorry. I will say that in most cases I would rather Continue something other than Blink even if it's fewer Chases.

1. Crash Fist - Blink
2. Surging Waves
3. Crash Citta-Dharma
4. Crash Fist
5. Gather Intense Force
6. Vast Universe
7. Crash Fist
8. Crash Fist

With high quality, it may be more damage to swap Crash Citta-Dharma and Gather Intense Force, though it will no longer attack on turn six in case it misses lethal on turn five.

With very high quality, sometimes it's good to start with Blink + Surging Waves + Gather Intense Force + Vast Universe, especially if we want to Guard Up on turn three. If not Guard Up, one option is Crash Citta-Dharma after Vast Universe.


With very high quality, you can threaten a turn-three kill.

1. Crane Footwork
2. Crash Citta-Dharma
3. Crash Fist - Blink
4. Crash Fist - Inch Force
5. Crash Fist - Continue
6. Crash Fist - Shocked

With all max, this is 135 damage. Subtract 3 per missing Blink upgrade, 15 per C.C.D., 8 per Inch Force, 10 per Continue, 12 per Shocked.

Against Predicament for Immortals, Crash Citta-Dharma (+ Gather Intense Force) + Crash Fists (not Blink) is good.


Against turn-four Combine World, we can surprise him with a turn-three kill if we have it. Given that he does a lot of damage on turn three, it can be easier for us since we can instead play Shocked + Continue + Inch Force for lots of Shocked damage. More commonly, we can win with Crane Footwork + Elusive/Crash Footwork + Surging Waves + Gather Intense Force + Vast Universe + Inch Force + Continue + Shocked. (Or Surging Waves + Surging Waves + [...].) The two big hits on turn four are often enough to kill through Combine World.

Against turn-three Combine World, we need Cloud Elixir.

Against all-out offense (no Combine World), it's the same as other turn-four kill opponents. Figure out whether to play a defensive card, and figure out whether to go off on our own turn four or five.


If we don't have the endgame assembly yet, we just gotta make Force + use Force. What else can we do?

I suppose the answer is sometimes a 30-Agility deck with Crane Footwork, Blink, and Surging Waves.

Tip: One easy mistake, especially under time pressure, is to be playing an Agility card that isn't contributing to the deck, so watch out.

Pupi on whether to Continue after Subdue Dragon or Inch Force:

Originally posted by Pupi:

1. If Subdue Dragon is more upgraded than Continue, Continue after Subdue Dragon. (Subdue Dragon + Continue + Inch Force)
2. If they're the same level, Continue after Subdue Dragon unless you have 9 or more Force, in which case Continue after Inch Force. (Subdue Dragon + Inch Force + Continue)
3. If Subdue Dragon is less upgraded than Continue, the threshold in case of levels 1+3 / 1+2 / 2+3 is 4/5/6 Force.

I have created a sandbox of Force-related cards for testing convenience. It includes some lesser cards we might use when we have no better. The game record code is: gmah52zhew

Xiao Bu gets bonus exchanges and bonus Destiny. We don't need anything else, so it's perfect. I recommend Elixirist.

The plan is to be a punching bag for 11 rounds, then break through and "Journey to the West"! (In reference to the players being sorted by Destiny total at the top of the screen. Actually the Chinese players are used to saying "Northern Expedition" because of the Teamfight Tactics UI, but we ought to change it for Yi Xian!)

In Meditation, don't exchange unless your hand is really bad. On Round 2, break through (keeping your biggest attack) and get Unceasing Exercising, unless you were lucky enough to start with Embracing Qi Technique. In that case, you can break through on Round 3 (not necessarily by Physique), and if you see Regenerating Body and you think you can reach 21 Physique on Round 5 after taking it, then you can pick Regenerating Body over Unceasing Exercising.

In Foundation and Virtuoso, only exchange until your cards are suitable to reach 21 Physique on Round 5. On Round 6, start hoarding cards (don't absorb, except Elixirs) to exchange on Round 8. (Of course, you can also hold cards on Round 5 if you don't think you have a chance to go first.) Don't pick Unbounded Qi.

On Round 8, break through and pick Undying Body or Regenerating Body. Regenerating Body is acceptable because the reduced requirement to play Physique cards gives us a chance to win. Physique Master is a trap; it's better to have Undying Body than to break through early. But usually we expect to keep losing, so we can roll down to 10-12 exchanges remaining, since we would end up overflowing from Unyielding Learning anyway. On later Immortality rounds, just exchange enough to avoid overflowing; we want to end Round 11 with 25/25. Continue to hoard cards to exchange on Round 12.

On Virtuoso and Incarnation, Store Qi > Regenerating Body > HP (not Unwavering Soul). (On Incarnation, if you already have Regenerating Body, or if you're low on Destiny, then maybe HP is better; Physique Master and Inheritance of Crash Fist are also not bad. Full of Force is meh, not the worst.)

Crash Fist is often Plan B for Ye Mingming. The Ye Mingming special (Stygian Moonlight + Crash Citta-Dharma + Styx Agility + Stygian Night + Blink + Crash Fists) is high damage in four turns, but it's not very flexible, so I think it's good to transition out of it if you can. So it's useful to know how the Vast Universe lines. Another note, it's nice that Stygian Moonlight makes Physique.

Caveat, I've only just started learning this character. I recommend Plant Master unless you really want Ice Spirit Guard Elixir. Take all of Li Man's character-specific Immortal Fates.

On Round 1, exchange until you have Embracing Qi Technique (or run out of exchanges). Then don't exchange until Incarnation, except maybe a little bit in Immortality. Almost always break through on 2, 4, 7, 11.

Surge of Qi's "Fist: Each time you gain Force, add 2 Agility" is very strong. Notably, it triggers every time you trigger Crash Citta-Dharma's +1 Force.

So I think you eventually don't need his character-specific cards. But you might play them transitionally, for example, Shift Stance (lv.2) + Crash Footwork + Surging Waves + Gather Intense Force + Vast Universe + Subdue Dragon + Continue + Red Gold Dragon Stick. Sometimes you can get away with omitting one of those cards for Space Spiritual Field, though I haven't gotten around to analyzing which one.

Also, with Surge of Qi's "Stick: Each time you Chase, gain 1 Qi", there's more potential to make use of Overwhelming Force, especially with Fuluist. But I have no further clue on that.

For starters, Surge of Qi's bonus Agility relaxes the upgrade requirements for all those variations already discussed. It also lets you start with Crash Citta-Dharma + Blink, for example, Crash Citta-Dharma + Blink + Surging Waves + Gather Intense Force + Vast Universe is approximately 5 more damage than Blink + Surging Waves + Gather Intense Force + Vast Universe + Crash Citta-Dharma or similar; and you can do more damage by moving Vast Universe later. Majestic Qi also has possibilities that I haven't explored. Another notable setup is Crane Footwork + Space Spiritual Field + Surging Waves + Gather Intense Force + Vast Universe + [...].

EDIT: Majestic Qi does perform better than Surging Waves in many situations. In the long run, it even makes 6/8/10 Agility. Surging Waves makes 7 Agility immediately, of course.