Where to Find Him & What You're Walking Into
Wan Jun is the gatekeeper boss at the very top of Iron Fortress, and I mean literally the top you gotta climb this whole crumbling tower with flame traps and crossbow dudes and by the time you reach him you're probably already low on healing items which tbh is part of the challenge cause the game is testing whether you can manage resources across the whole fortress gauntlet before throwing a two-phase boss at you and that's just cruel if you ask me but also kind of brilliant design you know
Once you step into the arena it's this circular stone platform with broken pillars scattered around and the edges drop into lava so positioning matters a lot here like you can't just dodge backwards forever cause you'll literally fall to your death and I've done that at least twice ngl it's embarrassing but it happens
Phase 1: The Copper Hammer Combo
ok so phase one is all about his triple hammer swing and honestly once you learn the rhythm it's actually pretty predictable but the first few times it catches everyone off guard cause the timing between each swing isn't even it goes slow-slow-FAST and that third hit is the one that deletes half your health bar if you're not ready for it
- Three-Hit Hammer Combo — This is his bread and butter and he spams it constantly. First swing has a 22-frame windup with an 8-frame parry window, second swing is 18 frames with a 7-frame window, and the third comes out FAST at only 12 frames of windup with a tiny 5-frame parry window and tbh if you miss the third parry you're eating ~650 damage plus knockback. The parry windows are measured from the moment the hammer starts moving toward you and I tested this frame by frame so these numbers are solid.
- Charge Rush — He lowers his shoulder and sprints across the arena covering like half the platform in half a second and this one is unparryable so don't even try just dodge sideways the moment you see him crouch. The tell is super obvious he kind of hunkers down and his copper armor makes this grinding sound and if you're looking for it you have about 0.6 seconds to react.
- Overhead Slam — Single massive vertical hammer slam that creates a small dust shockwave around the impact point. 26-frame windup so it's actually the easiest attack to parry in his whole kit the parry window is a generous 10 frames and it leaves him stunned for like 1.5 seconds afterwards so this is your main damage window in phase one.
Phase 2: Fire & Fury (50% HP Trigger)
at exactly 50% HP he drops to one knee and the whole arena goes dark for like two seconds and when he stands back up his hammer is literally on fire and I mean the first time I saw this transition I genuinely panicked cause the visual effect is insane the copper glows red-hot and the lava around the arena starts bubbling more aggressively and the music shifts into this frantic percussion thing that makes your heart rate spike
- Flaming Triple Combo — Same three-hit pattern as phase one but now each swing leaves a lingering fire pool on the ground that does ~120 damage per tick and lasts about 4 seconds. The parry windows are identical to phase one but you also have to reposition after every combo to avoid standing in fire and tbh this is what makes phase two actually hard it's not just the attacks it's the arena denial.
- Ground Shockwave — Brand new attack where he slams the hammer straight down and sends out a ring of fire that expands across the entire platform. You have to jump over it and the timing is tight you need to be in the air when the ring passes and it's roughly 0.5 seconds after the hammer hits the ground so jump right as you see the impact flash.
- Fire AoE Burst (Ultimate) — He spins around once and releases a 360-degree fire explosion that covers about 60% of the arena. This one has a 35-frame charge up and he glows bright orange during the windup so the tell is obvious but you need to sprint to the edge of the arena immediately cause the inner circle is a death zone and if you're in melee range when he starts the windup you can't outrun it you have to dodge through the fire wave with perfect timing.
Best Weapons & Build Strategy
ngl I tested like eight different weapons against this guy and there's a clear winner here Flame Tongue is S-tier for this fight specifically because its fire resistance passive cuts the phase two fire pool damage by 30% and that alone makes the fight like twice as manageable plus the bleed explosion combo procs consistently during his long recovery windows after the overhead slam and you can chain massive burst damage when he's stunned
If you don't have Flame Tongue, Phoenix Wing is the next best thing because the high mobility dual blade moveset lets you dodge cancel out of attack animations and reposition instantly which is huge for avoiding those fire pools in phase two and the fire proc chains actually do bonus damage against his copper armor cause of some elemental interaction the game doesn't really explain anywhere but I tested it and it works
Drop Rewards
ok so this is the good part and tbh the rewards from Wan Jun are actually worth the pain especially if you're running a fire build cause the armor set bonus is genuinely strong and the skill shard opens up a whole new combat option that changes how you approach group fights
- Coppermaul Armor Set — Chest piece and greaves drop together on first kill. The 2-piece bonus gives you +15% fire resistance and +8% max HP which is honestly one of the better defensive set bonuses in the mid-game and I wore this for like four zones after beating him it's that good. The chest piece alone has 220 defense which is the highest you can have at that point in the game.
- Inferno Core Skill Shard — 100% drop rate on first kill and this is the big one. It unlocks the "Infernal Surge" combat skill which lets you channel a fire explosion after a perfect parry at the cost of 2 Sha-Chi bars and the AoE damage scales with your weapon's fire stat so it pairs perfectly with Flame Tongue or Phoenix Wing. Honestly one of the best skill shards in the whole game.
- Copper Fragments (x8-12) — Crafting material for weapon upgrades, drops every kill after the first. Useful for flame-element weapon enhancements.