How to Bow in Where Winds Meet – Complete Guide

Bowing in Where Winds Meet is a core interaction used across puzzles, shrines, statues, and exploration quests. Unlike standard emotes, it cannot be selected from the emote wheel and only works when the player steps on a specific grass mat placed at ritual or puzzle locations. This guide explains every detail needed to perform the bow correctly, solve multi-bow puzzles, and fix activation issues.

What is Bowing?

Bowing is not a selectable emote but a scripted interaction tied to environmental objects. The game checks your exact position and quest state to decide whether the bow prompt appears, so understanding how the bow is triggered is essential for completing shrine tasks and hidden puzzles.

Bowing activates only:

• On a designated grass mat
• When puzzle conditions are met

• When your character is correctly positioned

If any condition fails, the interaction will not trigger.

How to Identify the Bow Mat

Green Bow Mat

Before you can bow, you must locate the Liangxi grass mat. These mats are intentionally placed near puzzle and shrine locations to signal where bowing is required. Recognizing them ensures you never waste time trying to trigger the interaction in the wrong spot.

• It is a woven rectangular grass mat placed on the ground.
• Usually sits directly in front of statues, tablets, shrines, or ritual circles.
• Its name may differ slightly depending on your language settings.
• You must stand exactly on the mat for the bow prompt to appear — being even slightly off won’t trigger it.

How to Bow (Step-by-Step)

Once the mat is found, you must trigger the bow correctly. The game requires precise placement, direction, and full animation completion for the bow to be recognized, especially in multi-step puzzles.

Steps to bow:

1. Walk onto the center of the grass mat.
2. Wait for the Bow prompt to appear above the interaction key.
3. Press F (keyboard) or R2 (controller) to begin the bow.
4. Let the progress bar complete fully.

5. Remain still until the animation finishes.

If the prompt does not appear, reposition slightly or step fully off the mat and try again.

Multi-Bow Requirements

Bowing Where Winds Meet

Many shrine puzzles require bowing more than once. These steps are easy to miss because the game does not display a “repeat” instruction, and players often assume the first bow completed the action. Understanding how multi-bow triggers work prevents puzzle softlocks.

Steps to complete multi-bow puzzles:

1. Complete the first bow and wait for the animation to end
2. Move slightly to refresh the prompt
3. Step back into the correct spot on the mat
4. Trigger the bow again

5. Repeat the process until the mechanism activates

Common multi-bow scenarios include:

• Echoes in the Shrine Quest: It requires three bows to complete
• Lord of Jian statue rituals

• Certain hidden room triggers are tied to tablets

Each bow must be counted separately by the game, so the progress bar cannot be canceled early.

Situations Where Bowing Won’t Trigger

When bowing fails, it is usually due to positioning, quest state, or animations. These situations prevent the prompt from appearing even if you’re on the correct mat.

Common reasons bowing won’t trigger:

• Standing slightly off-center
• Facing the wrong direction
• The puzzle step hasn’t been activated yet
• You haven’t examined a required clue or tablet
• You approached the mat while sprinting or mid-animation

• You are trying to bow on a decorative mat, which is not tied to an event

Fixing these issues usually only requires adjusting your placement or finishing nearby interactions

Troubleshooting Bow Activation

When the bow still doesn’t activate, several reliable fixes ensure the prompt triggers correctly. These adjustments reset the interaction check and allow the mat to detect your character again.

Use the following fixes for Bow activation:

• Step off the mat → wait → step back on
• Stand perfectly still for one second
• Rotate your character toward the statue or shrine
• Examine nearby objects on which the quest depends
• Ensure no combat or movement animation is active

• Re-enter the area if the puzzle was partially completed

These steps resolve most bow activation issues in shrine or statue puzzles.

What Bowing Unlocks

Bowing is tied directly to puzzle progression, so understanding the outcomes helps you confirm whether each bow was recognized. The interaction connects to environmental switches, hidden routes, and shrine states.

Bowing can be used to unlock and progress in the following:

• Move statues away to reveal hidden paths
• Open sealed doors or chambers
• Trigger memory echoes or cutscenes
• Activate tablets, shrines, or ritual structures
• Advance exploration quests

• Unlock reward containers or optional areas

All of these actions occur only when bowing in the correct location tied to the current objective.

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