Sword Masters

The Sword Masters are the hardest swordsmen in Wildercord. There are 16 Masters, one for each breathing method. A Master only fights players who choose to fight it, in a short, deadly trial. Beat one and you earn a permanent record and a new lesson.

Master	Element and feel	Signature moves	First clear teaches
Ember Master	Fire; steady pace, fire that lingers after the cut	Cinder Wake, Kiln Ring	Echo
Gale Master	Wind; fastest, slips sideways and strikes where you stood	Crosswind Reprise	Afterimage
Stone Master	Earth; slowest and heaviest, braces after every attack	Stone Fracture, Stone Fault March	Sunder
Rime Master	Frost; long, even wind-ups	Rime Lattice	Ward
Thunder Master	Storm; long, even wind-ups	Thunder Chain	Pierce
Verdant Master	Life; long, even wind-ups	Verdant Bloom	Rally
Hollow Master	Void; long, even wind-ups	Hollow Pull	Bind
Starlit Master	Arcane; long, even wind-ups	Constellation	Burst
Hourglass Master	Time; long, even wind-ups	Rewind	Bind
Crimson Master	Blood; long, even wind-ups	Blood Frenzy	Infuse
Tide Master	Brine; long, even wind-ups	Undertow Ring	Wave
Iron Master	Metal; long, even wind-ups	Anvil Verdict	Pierce
Dune Master	Sand; long, even wind-ups	Shifting Sands	Bind
Echo Master	Wind; Ember’s pace, blows that ring twice	Tolling Bell (leaves you sick and dizzy)	Wave
Dawn Master	Arcane; moves, braces after every attack and dashes like Stone	Noon Glare (blinds you)	Ward
Venom Master	Life; moves and dashes like Gale	Serpent Coil (poisons you)	Bind

How to get a trial

Masters don’t live anywhere in the world. The Master halls and shrines are where their schools train, and each hall’s lectern tells you how to call its Master, but the Master itself never waits there. A wandering duelist calls one for you.

Reach Aura Form or Heart Circle VIII (see Aura and Heart Circles).
Play in Survival, on any difficulty except Peaceful, with no duel or spar running.
Sneak and use a wandering duelist. It offers to call a Master. Sneak and use it again within 10 seconds.
A Master appears nearby and waits one minute for you. Only you can accept it.
Talk to the Master. It warns you the trial is lethal. Talk to it again within 10 seconds to accept.

The Master you get matches the duelist’s breathing method: a Tide duelist calls the Tide Master, a Crimson duelist the Crimson Master, and so on. Starlit, Hourglass, Crimson, Tide, Iron and Dune duelists always call their own Master. With any other duelist, if you breathe Echo, Dawn or Venom, your own method’s Master comes instead. You can also call any Master directly with /master challenge <school>.

You can also type /master challenge <name>, where the name is one of ember, gale, stone, rime, thunder, verdant, hollow, starlit, hourglass, crimson, tide, iron, dune, echo, dawn or venom. The same Form or Circle VIII requirement applies.

The Master needs clear, level ground around you. Only one trial can run in the same area at a time.

The trial

Lobby: once you accept, the trial starts in 30 seconds. Type /master ready to start sooner.
Joining: up to 8 players can fight together. Each one must opt in: talk to the Master twice, or type /master join while standing near it. Being in your party doesn’t sign anyone up.
Arena: stay within 24 blocks of where the trial began. Leaving, dying or disconnecting removes you from the trial.
Locked roster: the Master’s health is set when the trial starts. It has 480 health alone and 55% more for each extra challenger. People who leave or die don’t make it easier for the rest.
Outsiders: players who didn’t join can’t hurt the Master, and it can’t hurt them.
Time limit: a trial ends after 20 minutes. If every challenger is gone, the Master leaves after 10 seconds.

Use /party invite <player> before a group trial so your spells and arts spare each other. See Playing together.

Reading a Master

The Master’s instructions

When the trial starts, the Master tells every challenger one short line about its school, followed by the same warning about spells: “Hold a spell too long and I will dash at you: release, sidestep or parry.” For example, the Ember Master says to leave its broad cut, then step out of the burning lanes; the Stone Master says to hit its back or axe its guard while it braces. Read it: it is the key to that fight. Signature moves also flash a short hint as they start, such as “Leave the lane! It tolls twice.”

The three beats

Every attack follows the same three beats: a wind-up, a locked aim, and an open recovery.

Wind-up. The Master draws back. The boss bar names the move, and signature moves also show a banner with a hint.
Lock. In the last moment before the hit, its aim locks. It won’t turn to follow you after that, so a late sidestep still works.
Recovery. After the hit, the boss bar says Open to counters. This is your window to strike.

Read the shape of each strike and answer it:

Shape	What it looks like	Answer
Broad cut	A wide arc in front	Step back out of reach, or to its side or back
Low cut	A sweep near the ground	Jump
High cut	A cut at head height	Crouch
Lane	A narrow thrust or line	Sidestep
Whirl	A spin all around it	Leave its 3.75-block radius

Tempo

Techniques chain one to four strikes. For Ember, Gale, Stone, Echo, Dawn and Venom, the first strike of a chain takes about 0.6 seconds to land and each later strike about 0.4 seconds. Heavy strikes take longer and quick ones less, but no strike lands in under 0.25 seconds. Gale is about 15% faster than this, and Stone about 12% slower. Echo, Dawn and Venom chain their techniques at Ember’s speed, even though Dawn moves like Stone and Venom like Gale. Stone’s and Dawn’s ordinary attacks also hit 10% harder.

The other ten Masters (Rime to Dune) wind up every strike for 0.6 to 0.7 seconds, so they are easier to read, and stay open for 0.7 to 0.8 seconds afterwards.

Each Master’s exact timing is on Master Techniques.

Guards and braces

Most Masters raise their guard after every third attack. Stone and Dawn brace after every attack. A guard halves blows from the front, and a guarding Master with Aura to spare can turn your bolt back at you.

Magic can’t touch a Master. Every spell is erased: bolts unravel within 4 blocks of it from any side, and spell damage, burns, freezing, effects, heals, pushes, pulls, teleports, cast-locks and interrupts all fail. Only your blade and your aura reach it, so a spell’s real use in a trial is on yourself and your allies.

To beat a guard:

Hit it from the side or back.
Hit it with an axe, which breaks the guard and leaves the Master open for 1.5 seconds.
Make it spend Aura. A Master has finite Aura. When it runs low it must stop for 2 seconds to catch its breath (“Catching breath” on the boss bar).

Spells and the pursuit dash

This is the Master’s punishment for slow casting. If you hold a spell charge for more than about 0.3 seconds while you stand more than about 4 blocks away, within its dash range and roughly level with it, a free Master may dash at you:

Warning (0.4 s). The banner reads “Leave the lane or parry!”
Dash. It rushes along a straight line toward where you stood, stopping at least 2 blocks short of you. Slowing it shortens the dash.
Strike lane (0.4 s). It marks a short lane in front of it, then strikes along it.
Opening (1.1 s). After the strike it stands open. This is your chance to hit back.

Release your spell early, sidestep the lane, back away, take cover or parry. Only a hit that actually lands breaks your held spell.

Each school dashes its own way:

Master	Dashes when you are within	Dash length	Rest between dashes
Gale and Venom	9 blocks	up to 6.4 blocks	5 s
Ember, Echo and the ten long-wind-up Masters	7.5 blocks	up to 4.8 blocks	7 s
Stone and Dawn	6.25 blocks	up to 3.6 blocks	8 s

Each dash also costs the Master Aura, so a Master that is low on Aura can’t dash.

If you stay far away or up high, the Master throws a crescent volley of flying blades instead. More challengers mean more blades. Sidestep them.

Combinations

Between signature moves, a Master strings its ordinary attacks (sweep, thrust and crescent) into varied combinations. It avoids repeating the moves it has just used, so you can’t learn one fixed loop and stand in the same spot. Every attack in a combination still has its full warning and its full open recovery, so watch each wind-up rather than guessing the next move.

Phases

At two-thirds and one-third health, the Master reorders its pattern. It never shortens a warning you have already learned.

Rewards

Your first clear of each Master is recorded forever and teaches you a technique part. The table at the top of this page lists the part each Master teaches. Some parts are taught by more than one Master: Bind by Hollow, Hourglass, Dune and Venom; Pierce by Thunder and Iron; Ward by Rime and Dawn; Wave by Tide and Echo.

The first three schools also open lessons from wandering teachers of the same school:

Master	Technique part	What it also opens
Ember	Echo	Cinder Lunge (at Sovereign), Ember Riposte and Spell Cut (at Form)
Gale	Afterimage	Wall Turn (at Sovereign), Reed Slip, Gale Shove and Air Step (at Form)
Stone	Sunder	Stone Hinge and Plunging Strike (at Sovereign), Stone Break (at Form)

See Master Forms for how to learn and use them. Stone Hinge is still in testing and may be switched off on your server.

Every challenger still in the arena and alive when the Master falls shares the clear.
If you already know the technique part, only the clear is recorded.
There is no item or XP drop, and winning again gives nothing new.
Type /master victories to see which Masters you have cleared.

Retrying

You can retry as often as you like. A failed trial costs you nothing but the fight itself. Find a duelist and ask again, or use /master challenge.

The Gauntlet

Once you have beaten all sixteen Masters, type /master gauntlet to face them all again, back to back.

The Masters come one at a time, in a shuffled order. Each one draws 3 seconds after it arrives. There is no lobby, so the Gauntlet is yours alone.
When a Master falls you get 5 seconds to breathe and a quarter of your health back. Then the next one comes.
Dying, logging out, or letting a Master’s trial run out loses the run. It costs nothing else, and you can start again at once.
Each run is timed. Chat tells you your time and your best, and the whole server hears when you finish.
Your first full run pays the Blade of the Sixteen: a netherite sword in the look of your own school, with Sharpness V and Unbreaking III. It also earns the advancement The Sixteen.

Tips and counterplay

Watch the boss bar. It names every move, and tells you when the Master is guarding, open or out of breath.
Punish recoveries, not wind-ups. Swinging into a wind-up gets you hit.
Spells can’t interrupt a wind-up: a blade or aura hit that lands is the only way to break one.
In a group, spread out. More challengers add more lanes to some moves, but one move never hits the same player twice.