If you’ve spent any time wandering the open world of Where Winds Meet, you’ve probably stumbled on half a dozen hidden quests that give zero hints on how to complete them. I spent nearly two and a half hours running in circles last weekend trying to finish the where winds meet general shrine old friends quest, after I got a random cryptic note from a traveler on the road. The where winds meet general shrine old friends quest is one of the most frequently asked about quests on the game’s official forums, so you’re not alone if you’re stuck. Most walkthroughs I found online missed half the hidden triggers, so I put together this full guide to help you skip the frustration and grab all the exclusive rewards. It’s not a long quest, but it has a lot of easy-to-miss steps that can make you restart from scratch if you’re not paying attention.
How to Unlock the Where Winds Meet General Shrine Old Friends Quest
Before you even head to the General Shrine, you need to make sure you’ve hit all the prerequisites to unlock the quest. A lot of players show up at the shrine first and wonder why nothing is happening, and that’s almost always because they skipped a tiny low-level side quest earlier in the game. You will not get the quest prompt if you haven’t spoken to Granny Mei in the southern Mountain Village outpost first. She’s the old lady selling hand-woven baskets near the fast travel point, and you have to complete her request to deliver medicine to her sick grandson in the next village first. That quest takes 10 minutes tops, and it only requires three common healing herbs you can forage right outside the village. Once you finish that, she’ll hand you a tattered letter from her late husband, who was one of the soldiers stationed at the General Shrine decades ago. That letter is the official quest trigger, so don’t throw it away or leave it in your storage chest, you need to have it in your active inventory when you arrive at the shrine. You also need to be at least level 35 to complete this quest, because the enemies patrolling the path to the shrine are level 42, and you won’t be able to outrun them if you’re too low level to take a couple hits.
Step-by-Step Walkthrough to Reach the General Shrine
Once you have the letter and hit level 35, fast travel to the Windy Pass waypoint on the northern edge of the map. You’ll see a narrow dirt path leading southwest into the bamboo grove, and that’s the only safe path to the shrine. If you try to cut through the mountain cliffs to the west, you’ll run into a level 50 elite bear that will one-shot most players below level 45, so stick to the dirt path. You’ll pass three small wooden guard posts along the way, and you can ignore the bandits camped there unless you want extra loot, they won’t chase you if you keep running. When you reach the end of the bamboo grove, you’ll see a half-broken stone torii gate covered in ivy, that’s the entrance to the shrine grounds. The incense burners only appear between 18:00 and 6:00 in-game time, so adjust your clock if you arrive during the day. There are three small incense burners at the base of the torii gate, and you need to light each one with a common fire starter you can buy from any general goods store. Once you light all three, the fog blocking the path to the main shrine will clear, and you’ll be able to walk up the stone steps to the courtyard. Once the fog clears, you’ll see the main shrine building, which is the setting for the where winds meet general shrine old friends quest’s core story beats. Don’t forget to save your game here, because if you mess up any of the next steps, you can reload instead of walking all the way back from the fast travel point.
Finding All 3 Old Friends at the Shrine Grounds
Once you enter the shrine courtyard, your quest marker will disappear, and you’ll have to find the three old friends mentioned in Granny Mei’s letter on your own. All three are scattered around the shrine grounds, and you have to speak to them in a specific order to progress the quest. I messed this up the first time I did the run, and I had to restart the whole quest, so follow this order exactly to avoid the same headache. You have to speak to all three old friends in the order listed above, or the final reward will not unlock. This order is specific to the where winds meet general shrine old friends quest, so don’t follow generic NPC order tips you see for other shrine quests. The three NPCs you’re looking for are:
- Old Soldier Chen: He’s hiding behind the broken stone statue on the east side of the shrine courtyard, injured by a falling beam. You’ll need 2 pieces of regular healing salve to treat his wounds before he speaks to you. If you don’t have any, you can forage the ingredients right outside the shrine grounds, or you can fast travel back to the nearest village to buy some, just don’t leave the shrine area for more than 10 in-game minutes or the quest will reset.
- Poet Li: He’s sitting on the roof of the side hall on the west side of the courtyard, drunk on homemade rice wine. He won’t come down unless you give him a jar of premium peach wine, which you can buy from the tavern in the main city for 500 gold. If you forgot to grab one before you left, you can also find a hidden jar in the storage chest behind the torii gate, you just have to roll into the ivy covering the wall to reveal the chest.
- Weaver Ming: She’s trapped in the underground storage room behind the main altar of the shrine. The door to the storage room has a 3-symbol puzzle lock, and the correct order is wind, mountain, and pine. You can find the clues for this puzzle carved into the stone walls of the courtyard if you look closely, but most players miss them because they’re half covered in moss.
Once you’ve spoken to all three, they’ll walk to the main altar together and trigger a short cutscene that explains the history of the General Shrine and the group of friends who used to meet there when they were young. The cutscene is only two minutes long, but it’s one of the most heartfelt story moments in the game, so don’t skip it if you care about the lore. After the cutscene ends, the three NPCs will give you a wooden token that you can use to unlock the final reward chest behind the altar.
Rewards and Common Mistakes to Avoid
This quest has some of the best free rewards in the entire game, so it’s well worth the 45 minutes it takes to complete all the steps. First, you’ll get 10,000 gold just for finishing the quest, which is enough to buy a new mount or upgrade your favorite weapon twice. You’ll also get a 5-star wind resistance talisman that reduces damage from wind-based attacks by 30%, which is incredibly useful for the later main story missions in the mountain regions. If you leave the shrine grounds before collecting the final reward from the altar, the quest will reset and you’ll have to do all steps again. A lot of players make this mistake because they run back to the village to grab a missing item, so wait to leave until you’ve opened the reward chest. The rewards you get from the where winds meet general shrine old friends quest are way better than most standard side quests that take twice as long to complete. There’s also a hidden bonus reward if you don’t skip the cutscene: you’ll unlock a temporary companion named Xiao Dou, a small fox that follows you around and boosts your foraging success rate by 20% for 30 in-game days. The wind resistance talisman is one of the only non-paywalled 5-star defensive items in the game, so this quest is absolutely worth completing even if you don’t care about the lore or extra gold.
There are a few other small mistakes that can derail your run, so keep these in mind as you go. Don’t attack any of the NPCs, even by accident, because they’ll run away and you’ll have to reload your save to get them back. Don’t use fast travel while you’re on the shrine grounds, because that will also reset the quest progress. And don’t forget to light all three incense burners before you walk up to the shrine, otherwise the courtyard will be full of level 50 ghosts that will one-shot you instantly. I made that mistake my first run, and I lost 20 minutes of progress because I didn’t save before I walked up the steps. If you’re a completionist looking to 100% your map, this quest also counts towards the Mountain Village hidden quest collection badge, which unlocks a free fast travel point near the shrine once you finish all 8 hidden quests in the area.
At the end of the day, the where winds meet general shrine old friends quest is one of the most charming and rewarding hidden side quests in the entire game. It doesn’t require any super rare items or endgame gear, and the rewards are useful for both new players and veteran players who are wrapping up the final main story missions. I’ve done this quest three times now on different playthroughs, and I still find little new details each time I run it, like the hidden notes tucked into the shrine walls that add extra context to the friends’ backstory. If you run into any issues that aren’t covered in this guide, feel free to drop a note in the comments below and I’ll help you work through it.
