Basic combat mechanics

Learn the core combat mechanics of Dynasty Warriors: Origins, including parries, evades, battle arts, officer attack patterns, and managing enemy morale and fortitude.

Dynasty Warriors: Origins features significantly enhanced combat systems compared to its predecessors, incorporating parries, evades, perfect evades, and blocks, alongside special moves known as battle arts. This elevates the gameplay to feel more like a dedicated action game while retaining the signature 1 vs 1000 style. The game also offers 10 unique weapons, each with distinct playstyles, encouraging diverse combos and battle art setups to maintain freshness.

Soldiers and Officers:

Peons/soldiers are the numerous, less threatening enemies that serve as a resource to charge your Bravery and Musou gauges. Prioritize engaging officers while using peons for replenishment. While most soldiers are non-threatening, specialized units like Chariots and Cavalry can be disruptive. Be aware of Orange power attacks from soldiers in large groups; these cannot be blocked and must be countered with special attacks (like Palm Strike or Power Shot) or evaded. Successfully countering these interrupts the enemy, creating an opening for an invulnerable Assault attack (Strong attack button).

Officer Attack Patterns and Skills:

Officers act as mini-bosses with varied attack patterns. Key indicators include:

1. White Aura: Indicates attacks with super armor, making officers immune to staggers from normal attacks and most battle arts. These attacks can be blocked, parried, evaded, or perfectly evaded.
2. Glowing Orange Aura: Denotes dangerous attacks that cannot be blocked or parried. These must be evaded or countered with specific Sp. battle arts or certain strong attack combos.
3. Red Attacks: These can only be evaded or interrupted by Musou attacks or very specific battle arts. Evading is generally the safest option.
4. Musou Rage: Named officers can enter a Musou rage, unleashing a massive area-of-effect attack. This can be stopped by depleting their Fortitude, or by evading or running out of its considerable range.

Officer Fortitude and Morale:

Fortitude is represented by a shield icon above an officer's health bar. Depleting it forces officers into a kneeling state, allowing for a powerful Assault attack. Some weapons excel at breaking Fortitude, making it a viable strategy. Enemy officers can be in a high or low morale state. High morale increases their stats and adds Red Fortitude. Morale can be lowered by fulfilling Grand Tactic requirements during large army combat or by using your own Tactics. Low morale significantly reduces enemy stats and Fortitude, making them easier to defeat.

Combat Basics:

When encountering officers, adopt a defensive stance initially, using evade, block, parry, or counters. Once an officer finishes an attack sequence or is parried/countered, they enter a vulnerable state where your attacks can stagger them, combo them, and deal Fortitude damage. This vulnerable window is temporary.

1. Normal Recovery: Officers recovering normally have a quick recovery time. A single Nx1 attack is often sufficient to initiate their vulnerable state.
2. After Parry: The vulnerable window is longer after a successful parry, often negating the need for an initial Nx1 poke.
3. After Counter: Enemies are downed for an extended period after a counter, allowing for longer combos.

The duration of combos and the enemy's recovery speed vary based on the situation. Enemies also enter a recovery phase where they will not take additional Fortitude damage from normal and strong attacks and cannot be launched.