INTRODUCTION

This is a more active steel path viable build focused around [Wukong]'s Celestial Twin and giving it both increased damage and crowd control utility. Buffs such as Nourish, Eclipse with [Total Eclipse] or Roar can apply damage buffs to both you and the Celestial Twin. [Enveloping Cloud] is used to make Celestial Twin invisible, which allows it to survive very high levels. [Celestial Stomp] gives very wide range crowd control. Survivability comes from crowd control, shield gating, invulnerability from cloudwalker/defy and wukong's passive rather than the normal health/armor tanking route. Defy is an infinite scaling nuke that scales with enemy level since it reflects current enemy damage.

UPDATE MARCH 2025
[Wukong] [Iron Staff] has been mega buffed due to now being able to use Acolyte mods ([Blood Rush] and [Weeping Wounds]) as well as Arcanes (Melee Influence). Since [Iron Staff] has a good base damage, very high range (3.5m base + 5.5m at max combo bonus + 3m from [Primed Reach] = 12m range) and 1 [Follow Through], [Iron Staff] is now one of the strongest 'standard melee' influence weapons in the game. This build below forgoes attack speed due to Arcane Strike on the frame. If you do NOT have Arcane Strike, you should add an attack speed mod (e.g. [Quickening], [Berserker Fury] or [Primed Fury]) over either Smite or Galv Elementalist slots.

Alternate Wukong builds:
Stomp and Pillage with Iron staff: https://overframe.gg/build/382149/
Lazy Tank Monkey: https://overframe.gg/build/217329/wukong-prime/lazy-monkey-king-clone-buff-health-tank-speedrun-wukong/

PLAYSTYLE

1. Cast 1 to activate your Celestial Twin and occasionally hold 1 to stomp for crowd control (note, this can slow acolytes with a reduced effect)
2. Tap 2 frequently to travel, heal, reset shield gate, cleanse status (basically [Rolling Guard])
3. Tap 3 if you wish to clear surrounding mobs quickly, and since it scales with enemy damage this is basically an infinite scaling nuke.

BUILD SPECIFICS

Duration
Positive duration benefits all abilities, predominantly [Celestial Stomp] stun duration and Eclipse duration.

Efficiency
This stat must be minimum for reliable shield gating since 1, 2 and 4 are all too cheap to cast (39 energy). At 45% efficiency with [Brief Respite] AND TWO augur mods (need ONE extra augur mod on your pistol or burst rifle sentinel), using [Celestial Stomp] or cloudwalker generates 89.7 shield, which is enough for max shield [Regen] with [Catalyzing Shields] (max shields dropped to 89) giving 1.33s iframes when it breaks. Alternatively you can also press Defy to turn invulnerable and fully restore shields.

Range
Range is mainly used to boost defy radius and [Celestial Stomp] radius. Note the defy is actually a scaling nuke that becomes better the more damage enemies do, able to eventually oneshot levelcap enemies by returning their damage back to them. If you don't plan on using defy or stomp much you can swap [Stretch] out for [Narrow Minded] as you otherwise don't need any range.

Strength
Strength is mainly needed for [Iron Staff] damage, but also increases the Defy damage multiplier.

Aura
[Brief Respite] is usefulfor active shield gating.
Alternative auras include Steel Charge for mod capacity or Corrosive Projection to maximise DPS against unarmored enemies.

Arcanes

• Arcane Strike needed to offload attack speed on iron staff
• Molt Augmented for more strength
• Molt Efficiency for more duration

Flex slots
Celestial Stomp is OPTIONAL - gives you 29m of crowd control which is useful for certain defensive situations like defense, mobile defense, excavation, and also slows Acolytes and Bosses.
[Enveloping Cloud] is OPTIONAL but recommended for endurance steel path because the clone dies almost instantly and constantly without invisibility.
Catalyzing Shields is OPTIONAL - this sets your max shields down to 89, but means that a single cast of cloudwalker at 45% generates 59 shield which is equivalent to about 1s i-frames rather than the default 0.6s
Primal Rage is OPTIONAL - gives 150% critical chance to [Iron Staff] allowing it to hit guaranteed orange crits when stacked with Blood Rush and Galv Steel

You can swap any of these out at your preference for more duration or strength.

*Archon Shards

• 1 Amber cast speed
• 4 violet melee crit dmg shards for maximising iron staff

Helminth
For iron staff focused build, subsume over either 1 or 3 depending on if you like using Defy or not.

• Nourish - applies a viral damage bonus to both your weapons and your celestial twins weapons. In addition it improves energy economy.
• Wrathful Advance - boosts iron staff critical chance to 400% final red crits
• Roar - triple dips melee influence procs
• Pillage - armor strip and shield gain

ARSENAL

If you equip a Tennokai mod in [Iron Staff], you can run a 'tennokai stat stick' which is any melee with all the tennokai mods on and cause these mods to be inherited onto [Iron Staff]. [Praedos] has passive movement evolutions that help with mobility.