Dynasty Warriors: Originscan get pretty tricky in some of the later missions, especially if you’ve accepted the challenge of playing on one of the higher difficulty settings. Winning battles takes a lot more than just flashy Battle Arts and big Musou Attacks, although they do help. If you want to really master the game, you’re going to need to use every trick at your disposal.
We’ve gathered some of our favorite strategies for taking on Dyansty Warriors' latest retelling of the Romance Of The Three Kingdoms; use them next time you’re on the battlefield!
8Wait To Assault Until The Last Possible Moment
Reducing an enemy officer’s Fortitude to zero leaves them vulnerable for several seconds, letting youfollow up with an Assaultthat deals a large amount of damage. However, it’s usually best not to Assault right away.
You can usually get ina full Normal Attack Combo’s worth of strikeson a stunned officer before they get up, then proceed with the Assaultjust before they finish standing and the opportunity expires.Doing so deals a little more damage, and in some cases can wear them down enough that the Assault will finish them.
If the indicator for an Assault is gold instead of black, it means thatthe Assault will deal enough damage to instantly defeat the officer.
7Use Parries For Area Damage
Assaults deal damage to nearby enemies as well as the target, butthis is true for perfectly-timed parries as well.If you’re in the thick of a base garrison or large army, it can pay toplay defensively and pick an opportunity to parry.This makes it safer for you when multiple officers are attacking at once, and lets you clear soldiers while damaging all nearby officers.
Equip theScorch Gemto increase your counterattack damage significantly.,
6Manage Morale For Big Buffs
It’s no secret thatMorale is a big part of the game. If one side of the battle has a Morale advantage, they get enhanced Courage, making them more powerful in battle and therefore more likely to win engagements without Ziluan’s help.
At its most basic, it makes sense tokeep Morale high by taking and holding bases, defeating enemy officers and protecting your allies.In later battles and on higher difficulties, though, it’s harder to be everywhere at once. Luckily, you can manage Morale byjust keeping it within the threshold that you need.
Notice how the Morale bar is divided into three sections. The overall Morale bonusis determined by which section the bar is currently in, so as long as you’re over the line it doesn’t matter by how much. If taking an extra base wouldn’t improve your Morale enough to matter, either by moving you into Winning or keeping you out of Losing, then it might not be worth the time and effort.
5Win Duels To Immediately Defeat Officers
An officer with awhite auracan be dueled byapproaching them and pressing L1+R1. Losing the duel will put you at 1 HP and significantly reduce your side’s Morale, but winning willimmediately defeat the enemy heroregardless of how much health they had.
Duels don’t take Health or Fortitude into account; all that matters ispushing the bar at the top of the screen fully to your sideby dealing damage while not taking damage yourself, before the timer runs out.
If the timer does run out, the duel ends with no winner and combat resumes as normal.
Winning a duel isusually the most efficient way to eliminate major threats like Gan Ning or Guan Yu,making it worth the risk. Time also stops while dueling, so you don’t have to worry about characters dying or objectives failing during the fight.
4Switch Weapons Mid-Battle
It would be fair to assume that once a mission begins, your equipment is locked, but that’s only half true. While youcan’t change your Accessories, Portable Items, or Horseduring a battle,you are allowed to swap your equipped weapon and Battle Artsas long as you aren’t in the middle of jumping, parrying, or some other animation.
Swapping weapons makes formore efficient grinding, since you can build up Proficiency and Training with multiple weapon types at once. It also lets youadapt to a changing situation, which is especially useful if you want a particular Battle Art for countering a troublesome officer.
Ziluan also gains Proficiency in hiscompanion’s weapon typefor any KOs earned while playing as that companion.
3Ride-By Healing
When you’re playing on Ultimate Warrior difficulty, you’ll find thatyour allies get themselves into trouble a lot.Bailing them out is usually necessary if you don’t want to find yourself facing entire armies alone, but often you won’t be able to stay and fight whichever foe has them pinned down.
Luckily, all you actually need to do isget close to an ally whose health bar is yellowto heal them. Hopping on your horse and charging through a battlefield to heal a group of friends, then getting back to whatever you were doing, is an entirely valid and useful tactic.
2Outrun Ultimate Musou Attacks
If an enemy officer starts charging an Ultimate Musou Attack, you’reexpected to stun them before it goes offby reducing their Fortitude. Sometimes, especially in a swirling melee, that’s just not feasible. Ultimate Musou Attacks hit hard, and have adouble shockwavethat can take you out even if you’re in good shape.
If you can’t prevent an Ultimate Musou Attack,the best thing to do is get on your horse and run.Evading the shockwave is the most important thing, soput as much distance between you and the attacker as possible.If you can save your Guards from the attack too, so much the better.
1Order Tactics With No Guards
Tactics are unlocked at the same time as your Guard Squad. From arrow volleys to valiant charges, these are some of thebest moves in the gamewhen deployed properly. In fact, it’s almost always worthpausing for a few seconds whenever you’re at a friendly baseto make sure that your Guards are fully reinforced.
However, you canalso order Tactics even if your Guards have all been defeated.Tactics only require that friendly soldiers be nearby, not yours specifically. If you need toborrow another officer’s troopsfor the cavalry charge that wins the day, go for it - they’re not going to complain!
