How to upgrade Gourds and Drinks in Black Myth Wukong

UPDATE: We have updated this page to advise how to fix the 'Cannot absorb Spirits without Guidance' error that some players have ran into.

As you commence with your journey to the West in Black Myth Wukong, there’ll eventually come a point where you want to upgrade your gear. The opportunity to craft new weapons and armors crops up regularly, with bosses providing us with new recipes to put together at Keeper’s Shrines, but upgrading your Gourd and Drinks requires a few more steps.

Your Gourd is your healing flask, and your Drink is the concoction inside it, and you have the opportunity to upgrade both after making some progress in Chapter 1. This means meeting the Shen Monkey, who we’ll tell you all about in the below guide on how to upgrade the Gourd in Black Myth Wukong.

How to upgrade the Gourd in Black Myth Wukong

The Gourd can be upgraded by speaking to the Shen Monkey NPC in Black Myth Wukong. This guy is found just after the Marsh of White Mist Keeper’s Shrine in Chapter 1, Black Wind Forest, where you’ll rescue him from an enemy. This is just after the fight with Guangmoa.

After rescuing him, follow him into a small cave where you can talk with him, and you’ll find that he can upgrade our Gourds and Drinks, and will allow us to change the Soaks in our Drinks. He also has his own store.

To put it plainly, your Drink is what goes inside of your Gourd (your healing flask), and Soaks are an item that can be applied to Drinks to give them additional or enhanced effects.

To upgrade Gourds, you need Luojia Fragrant Vines, and to upgrade Drinks, you need Awaken Wine Worms. These are relatively rare items found across the map, so be sure to explore every last nook and cranny in each chapter so you can collect them all.

You’ll have the option to upgrade Gourds, upgrade Drinks, or Brew with the Shen Monkey. While the first two options are straight forward enough — allowing you to upgrade either using the key items listed above — the Brew option is what lets you choose which Soak to have in your Drink.

You will acquire your first new Soak, the Gall Gem, after rescuing the Shen Monkey, but he will also sell the Celestial Lotus Seeds Soak. You’ll eventually find new Drinks, too, that offer different healing properties.

For example, the Lambbrew Drink can be found in the beginning of Chapter 2, which allows you to heal for 25% immediately, and then heal for an additional 25% over time. This is a slight improvement on our base Drink, which only heals us for 33% at a time.

Make sure to check in with the Shen Monkey at regular intervals so you’re making the most of your Gourd and whatever concoction you choose to fill it with, and don’t forget to check his store too. The stores at Keeper’s Shrines will often have new items as you enter new Chapters, so it wouldn’t come as any surprise to me if the Shen Monkey’s store eventually gets new stock too.

'Cannot absorb Spirits without guidance' error in Black Myth Wukong

If you are trying to absorb a brand-new Spirit Skill in Black Myth Wukong, but are being met with an error that reads, 'Cannot absorb Spirits without guidance' message, you simply need to make a little more progress with the game.

Sometimes, enemies will drop Spirits that you can absorb, allowing you to use their abilities during boss fights and so forth. Your Gourd, however, cannot absorb these until you meet the Wise Master NPC during Chapter 1.

The Wise Master is found in Chapter 1's Bamboo Grove. From the Shrine, simply head up the nearby stairs and speak to the NPC, who'll give your Gourd the ability to absorb Spirits.

You can then go back to the nearest Keeper's Shrine and select 'Spirit Cultivation' to collect any Spirit Skills you may have tried to absorb and missed, such as the Wandering Wight.

For more on Black Myth Wukong, take a look at our tips and tricks to help you get started, as well as how to complete the Boar quest and the Man-in-Stone quest, which land you in some very interesting predicaments.