Dynasty Warriors: Origins - Beginner Tips

Dynasty Warriors: Origins will be familiar to anybody who's enjoyed the series over the last 25 years or so, but it has new mechanics and challenging battles that could trip up even longtime masters of warfare. From its brand-new protagonist to some of the franchise's most immersive battlefields to date, it might take some getting used to.

Whether this is your first trip to the Three Kingdoms or your tenth, it pays to have a plan, and these tips can help. After all, as Sun Tzu wrote, "Victorious warriors win first, and then go to war; defeated warriors go to war, and then seek to win."

Change Weapon Types Often

While the Wanderer only starts out with a sword, he can eventually find and equip every weapon type in the game. Gaining proficiency with each weapon increases your overall Rank, unlocking new Skill Trees and stat boosts, making it critically important to train with everything.

Weapons at lower proficiency levels require much less experience to level up, so whenever you get a new type it's a good idea to fight a few battles with it to grow as fast as possible.

By the end of the game, you'll want to pick your favorite kind of weapon and max out its proficiency for full benefits, but in the meantime swap them often to keep raising your Rank until you hit the highest tier, Musou.

Your Companion Affects Your Starting Location

In major battles that are central to the plot, you'll be able to select a companion to fight alongside you. These legendary warriors provide some much-needed backup and allow you to unleash devastating True Musou Attacks.

However, the game doesn't directly tell you that your choice of companion will determine where on the battlefield you start. The Wanderer begins the battle in the same camp as his chosen companion, rather than the companion moving to join him. In some battles, there's even a separate starting location if you choose to go alone, that can offer its own tactical advantages.

If a battle isn't going your way, restarting with a different companion can put you in a better position to affect the outcome of events. It's also an opportunity to re-assess your build.

Fight Every Minor Battle You Encounter

The minor battles on the world map can get repetitive, but they're fast and easy enough to complete that they're always worth doing for extra Mastery points toward your Battle Arts, if nothing else. They also slightly increase the Peace Rating in the province where they take place, which can add up over time in places like Ji or Sili where you travel frequently.

Taking the time to raise the Peace of a province will cause the populace to leave gifts for you at the local Waymark, which can range from better horses to tomes containing new Battle Arts.

Spend Bravery Instead Of Saving It

Bravery accumulates much faster than Musou, so there's no reason not to spend it and unleash your Battle Arts on the enemy army. If you keep fighting while your Bravery is full, you're missing out on getting any more.

On Hero difficulty, blocking costs Bravery; keep that in mind when deciding which Battle Arts to use! Dodging, however, does not, so you always have a defensive option even if you're tapped out.

Battle Arts are there to be used, and make a big difference against both legions and officers. If you need a quick boost of Bravery, there's a Skill you can unlock reasonably early on that lets you gain 2-3 Bravery by Evading just as an enemy strike lands.

Save Your Musou During Big Battles

In small skirmishes, there's no reason not to use Musou Attacks as soon as they're available; the fight will be over before you can max out the meter for a Musou Rage. During large battles, however, the opposite is true.

Completely filling your Musou Gauge (with three Musou Attack's worth of energy) lets you enter Musou Rage by pressing L3 R3. This gives you a small heal, infinite Bravery until your Musou runs out, and a Musou Attack at the end of the Rage. This power briefly turns the Wanderer into a one-man army, perfect for carving through Large Forces or defeating boss-level officers.

Help Allies Whenever Possible

Allied officers getting stuck in over their heads is a common sight in Dynasty Warriors games, and Origins is no different. You'll frequently get notifications that somebody in your army is in trouble, and unless they're on the other side of the map or otherwise beyond your ability to help, it's always worth rescuing them.

Just moving next to a beleaguered ally will heal them almost to full, even if you don't actually stick around to fight alongside them.

In almost every story battle, you'll need your allies alive and healthy to have any chance at overcoming the odds stacked against you. You can always return to re-take a base or finish off a wounded enemy, but if an ally is defeated they're out for the rest of the fight.

Losing allied officers also reduces your army's Morale, reducing their overall combat effectiveness, which can lead to further losses and snowball into a defeat.

Use Bases To Heal

Every base on a map has a supply of Meat Buns in breakable jars that you can use to heal. In many cases, these will be your only source of healing.

If your Health starts to get into the red and you're out of Buns, retreat to the nearest base. As long as you haven't already taken the supplies there, you can fill up and get back to the fight. You can even raid enemy bases for their food supplies, and maybe give your troops a morale boost by taking the base while you're there!

Use the Eyes Of The Sacred Bird (L2/LT) to easily find Meat Buns, highlighted in green once you have the Meat Perceiver Skill.

Listen To Allies During Battle

While there's nothing stopping you from just running around the battlefield however you please, you really should listen to the advice of your allies. Most scenarios have insurmountable challenges or dangerous areas that need to be dealt with in a particular way.

If an ally tells you not to worry about trying to save them, or to focus on a particular area of the field, that's a not-so-subtle hint from the game that you'll lose the battle if you do otherwise. If you really want to get fancy and try a challenge run where you fight Lu Bu on your first encounter or single-handedly take down an entire army, it's best to do it on your second or later playthrough.

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