Overview
Di Xin (帝辛, Dì Xīn) is the Prologue boss of Honor of Kings: World's S0 main story. The Prologue chapter is titled 灭世之战 (Miè Shì Zhī Zhàn, "Battle of World's End") and is the first main-story chapter in Ali213's 27-chapter walkthrough index. Di Xin is the historical King Zhou of Shang, positioned in HoKW's framing as an apocalyptic antagonist from the continent's ancient past. The Prologue fight serves as the game's advanced combat tutorial and is the gateway encounter before character creation.
Fight Structure
Per GamerSky's text walkthrough, the Di Xin encounter is a single-phase scripted fight that the player cannot actually fail or win. GamerSky's direct description: "即使将帝辛的血条打空，也会强制触发剧情，并且如果在BOSS战期间自己的血条被打空，也能补满血条继续战斗" ("Even if you fully deplete Di Xin's HP bar, the story triggers regardless; and if your own HP is emptied during the boss fight, the health refills so you keep fighting"). The fight exists to drill mechanics, not to test the player's skill.
Mechanics Taught
The Prologue fight is the game's "advanced combat operation tutorial" (进阶战斗操作教学), per GamerSky. The verified mechanics it walks the player through:
Perfect dodge — Shift or Space at the exact telegraph moment, with a follow-up enhanced light attack. See Perfect Dodge.
Flow techniques (流技) — the Q, E, and R skill buttons, plus their skill-follow-ups that chain into combos
Execution (命流处决) — the Z key finisher that triggers after energy fills from landing flow techniques. See Posture Break System.
Ultimate (绝技) — the T key ultimate tutorial prompts mid-fight, keyed off Di Xin's red-flash attacks. See Red-Light Counter.
GamerSky notes that Di Xin's moveset is deliberately slow ("BOSS的动作不快"), matching a teaching-boss pace. Players who die will simply refill and try again without a game-over.
Resolution and Character Creation Flow
Once Di Xin's HP bar reaches zero a cutscene plays, followed immediately by HoKW's character creation flow: gender selection, freeform face customization (捏脸) with presets, and a player-name entry requirement (at least two unique characters). This is where the player formally becomes the Child of the Primal Flow. The Prologue ends when the player confirms their avatar and Chapter 1 "初涉稷下" (First Steps at Jixia) begins.
Lore Role
Di Xin is the historical last king of the Shang dynasty (also called King Zhou / 纣王), positioned by HoKW as the antagonist of the Prologue's "Battle of World's End" cutscene. He functions as a Prologue-only tutorial boss and does NOT reappear as a recurring antagonist in any of the verified launch-window chapters (GamerSky's text walkthrough covers Prologue through Chapter 13 in full, and Ali213's chapter index lists no further Di Xin appearances through Chapter 27). The specific narrative framing of his role as the "Great Demon King" (大魔王) of the ancient cataclysm is referenced in secondary coverage but not elaborated in the launch walkthroughs.
Sources
GamerSky text walkthrough page 1 (Prologue + Di Xin fight): https://www.gamersky.com/handbook/202604/2122122.shtml
GamerSky video walkthrough index: https://www.gamersky.com/handbook/202604/2121856.shtml
Ali213 27-chapter walkthrough index: https://m.ali213.net/news/gl2604/1762151.html