Twin Pike

Master the Twin Pike in Dynasty Warriors: Origins with combo breakdowns, essential battle arts like Sky Sunder, and strategies for duels and large armies.

Combos:

1. (After a parry/counter) Use a strong attack to launch, then spam strong attacks. Press the timed strong attack for the final powered-up hit. You can perform 6 hits for a parry and finish early by stopping the spam to connect the last powered-up hit. For a counter, you can spam the entire sequence until it finishes on its own.
2. (Under any situation) Use Shadow Rush, then perform Combo 1. Similar to above, you must end early for the powered-up last strong attack to connect and achieve maximum Fortitude break. If it's a parry, you can do 5 hits; for a counter, the whole sequence; and 5 hits if it's neither a parry nor a counter.
3. If you have no bravery (a resource used for special abilities), perform Normal attack x1, then Evade + Forward, release directional input, and perform Combo 1. End early at 4 hits.

Note: To achieve a specific number of hits, stop pressing the strong attack button one less time than your intended total. For example, to do 6 hits, stop pressing Strong after the 5th hit.

Note 2: If an allied officer hits the enemy, they might recover early.

The reason to execute Combo 1 after a parry or counter is its slow start-up, which can allow the enemy to recover unless you know they have just finished an attack with a long recovery time.

Combo 2 is preferred but costs bravery to initiate.

After completing these combos, you can chase down the enemy with another Shadow Rush or move close to the officer and use Sky Sunder. Ensure you are face-to-face close for both hits of Sky Sunder to connect.

Against large armies, you can use Evade + Strong attack, then spam the strong attack. This is primarily used for rampaging through soldiers to build bravery for Sky Sunder spam.

Use Sky Sunder whenever it is available. In duels, use it only as a finisher to be safe, as you will be vulnerable upon landing.

Most useful Battle Arts (BA):

• Shadow Rush: Your primary BA for combo starting, closing distance, and chasing opponents.
• Sky Sunder: Your finisher for large armies, breaking approximately 5 Fortitude. The powered-up version deals 7.5 Fortitude damage, enough to knock down almost all officers in one hit except Lu Bu. However, performing the powered-up version against multiple officers is difficult because the first hit often depletes damaged officers' Fortitude to 0, shifting the camera and making it hard to see the animation for the power-up timing. You may have to guess the timing in these situations.
• Battle Roar: May be useful but costs too much bravery, and its effects are not very noticeable. Spending bravery on Roar means less Sky Sunder usage.
• Roaring Maelstrom: This BA is acceptable. You can chain it after a combo ends for additional damage. It was used before Sky Sunder but is less prioritized after unlocking Sky Sunder.
• Furious Dual Rush: Similar to Roaring Maelstrom, it can be used after a combo for some additional Fortitude damage.
• General BA Whirlwind Kick: This BA can be useful as an escape tool if you are surrounded in a large army.

Other battle arts are less useful before unlocking Shadow Rush and Sky Sunder.

My Final Setup:

• Shadow Rush
• Whirlwind Kick (primarily for escape)
• Palm Strike/Power Shot
• Sky Sunder

Weapon Attributes:

• Damage to officers +10%
• Damage +10%, Defense –5%
• Strong attack damage +10%
• Bravery gain +10%
• Boost damage to Wushu when attacking officers by 10% (10% extra Fortitude damage)
• Extend parry window

Rank 8 Weapon: Bellowing Luan

Acquisition: Chapter 4 Wei: Battle of Xiapi. Objective: Defeat Zhang Liao. Ride and charge him from the start; it's a very easy challenge.

Ultimate Challenge Battle Art: Spinning Gale

Acquisition: Same stage as the Rank 8 Weapon, but on the Shu side. Finish the stage before Yuan Shu's reinforcements arrive. Use the same strategy: defeat Zhang Liao quickly and finish the stage. This battle art is not very good, so there's no need to rush the Shu route for it, even if Twin Pike is your favorite weapon.

Max Bond Battle Art: Furious Dual Rush

Acquisition: Max bond with Zhang Liao.

Ranking:

• Duels: S - Powerful 0 bravery cost combos that can chain into Shadow Rush or Sky Sunder.
• Weapon Damage: S - The Twin Halberds' (pikes) power-up mechanic results in very high weapon damage.
• Fortitude Damage: S+ - Twin Pikes deal excellent Fortitude damage with 0 bravery cost, and even more with Shadow Rush BA. Shadow Rush can serve as a combo starter and a very effective chase-down battle art, making this weapon top-tier in one-on-one encounters. Furthermore, Shadow Rush can chase down opponents when facing multiple officers, as you cannot be staggered and take reduced damage after mastering it. This allows you to chase down an officer even when surrounded, deplete their last Fortitude, and perform an Assault attack, which deals Area of Effect (AoE) damage and concludes the encounter.