Overview
Zhuyan, the White Ape is a towering elite enemy confirmed for Of Peaks and Tides in CyancookGames' February 2026 enemy reveal. The encounter is built around physical-object interaction: the ape consumes and hurls fruit and other physical objects, and the player can shoot, steal, or deflect those projectiles to redirect Zhuyan's own kit back at it.
Encounter Design
Attribute | Detail |
|---|---|
Role | Towering elite enemy |
Inspiration | White Ape (Zhuyan) of East Asian myth |
Signature Weapon | Colossal tree-trunk club for devastating melee blows |
Signature Mechanic | Consumes and hurls fruit and other physical objects; players can shoot, steal, or deflect them |
Design Goal | Highly interactive combat that punishes poor positioning and rewards object manipulation |
Confirmed In | February 2026 enemy reveal |
Interactive Object Combat
Zhuyan's defining trait is that the things it eats and throws are not invisible scripted attacks. Each fruit and physical object the boss interacts with is a real entity in the Physics System: it can be shot out of the air, intercepted, stolen mid-arc, or deflected back. Skilled players can disarm the ape's ranged kit before it lands by attacking its supply, or convert its own thrown attacks into damage against it.
Combat Approach
Two layers of play coexist in the fight:
Object-control layer: track what Zhuyan is about to consume or throw, then steal, shoot, or deflect those items. Mastery here is the difference between absorbing the ranged kit and turning it against the boss.
Melee management layer: the tree-trunk club deals heavy damage to anyone caught by it. Players need to maintain spacing, watch for the club windups, and refuse to trade blows in the boss's preferred range.
Crafted ranged tools and well-timed dodges are central to the fight. See Crafting and Combat for the broader systems Zhuyan plugs into.
Mythological Inspiration
Zhuyan is a white-ape figure from East Asian folklore associated with raw strength and primal threat. The in-game encounter keeps the ape archetype and the colossal physical presence, but expresses the mythological flavor through the fruit-throwing kit and interactive deflection rather than direct adaptation of any specific source story.
Related Topics
Combat
Physics System
Crafting
Physical Object Interaction Detail
The February 2026 enemy reveal calls out the boss's physical-object mechanic in clearer terms than the overview suggests. Zhuyan consumes and hurls a variety of physical objects, including various fruits, during the fight. The player has three intended counterplays for that mechanic, all of which leverage the game's underlying Physics System:
Counterplay | How It Works |
|---|---|
Shoot the object | Strike the projectile in mid-air with a ranged attack. Useful for disrupting incoming fruit volleys before they connect. |
Steal the object | Snatch the object Zhuyan is about to consume or hurl. Removes resources from the boss's kit and may add them to the player's own inventory or hands. |
Deflect the object | Redirect the projectile back at Zhuyan or at additional enemies. Turns the boss's hurl into a contributing attack against itself. |
The intent of the design is to make the fight a manipulation puzzle on top of the standard club-swing positioning test: Zhuyan's hurls are the boss's contribution to the fight's resources, and the player who learns to read and intercept them turns the boss's volume of attacks into the player's own.