The Ultimate Warrior difficulty is the very core of Dynasty Warriors: Origins’s post game, and conquering it requires revamping the way you approach virtually every battle. No longer can you systematically take down every enemy base before you totally overwhelm the map’s boss with your massive army. Instead, you’ll need to overcome additional objectives that will test your mettle, such as facing certain infamous baddies without using healing items. Needless to say, you’ll have your work cut out for you for dozens of hours to come.
It would take all day to break down every Ultimate Warrior stage in Dynasty Warriors: Origins, and I’m not about to subject my editor to approximately 80,000 words of battle guides. What I can do, however, is give you the five tips that were invaluable to me as I took on every Ultimate Warrior stage. If you’re looking to complete everything this Musou has to offer, here’s what you need to know.
1: Replay the story and complete the missions you can
Ultimate Warrior is at its hardest when you first unlock it. Even the earliest story missions at this difficulty are dozens of levels higher than anything you encountered during your first playthrough. That said, as long as you can survive on Ultimate Warrior, you should play at that level even if you can’t fulfill the optional challenges just yet. It offers such a massive jump in EXP and rewards that it easily overtakes placing on lower difficulties with experience boosting items equipped.
Additionally, not all Ultimate Warrior optional objectives are created equally. “Battle of Wan Castle” is one of the earliest missions in the game, yet its optional objective was such an absolute pain in my backside that I wound up saving it for last. Meanwhile, there are optional objectives in Chapter Five that are surprisingly frictionless to complete. You won’t necessarily know which missions are huge hassles until you get to them.
So, my advice is to reset the story from Chapter One and simply do your best as you naturally get stronger. While you can pick and choose battles to replay from the inn, replaying the story does lead to some new events in even the earliest parts of the game. You’ll also unlock new bond events and optional missions as you unlock the other story paths, so you’ll get stronger before you know it
2: Get the Grade 8 Luan weapons
Once you raise your level to around the mid-60s range, you can start sniping certain story stages early to unlock huge gains in power. The biggest jump you’ll find are the Grade-Eight Luan weapons, which are nearly as strong as a maxed-out reforged weapon without the grind those entail. You can get Luan weapons from the following missions
- Lurking Luan (Sword): Chapter 1: Final Battle against the Yellow Turbans
- Rampaging Luan (Halberd): Chapter 2: Battle of Hulao Gate
- Singing Luan (Wheels): Chapter 3: Battle of Xiangyang (Sun Route)
- Flying Luan (Spear): Chapter 3: Battle of Jieqiao (Liu Bei Route)
- Striking Luan (Gauntlets)\: Chapter 3: Battle of Xiaopei (Liu Bei Route)
- Bellowing Luan (Twin Pikes): Chapter 4: Battle of Xiapi (Cao Cao Route)
- Conquering Luan (Cresc. Blade): Chapter 4: Assault on Xiapi (Cao Cao Route)
- Whirling Luan (Lance): Chapter 5: Battle of Changban (Cao Cao Route)
- Soaring Luan (Podao): Chapter 5: Battle of Bowangpo (Liu Bei Route)
- Thrashing Luan (Staff): Chapter 5: Battle of Chibi (Cao Cao Route)
Of these, the Lurking Luan Sword is far and away the easiest to get. Clearing the large force in 15 minutes is perfectly doable even while you’re still several levels below the recommended rank of 71. What’s more, that kind of power boost can turn many previously unbeatable Ultimate Warrior missions into child’s play.
Aside from that, the Rampaging Luan is the biggest prize here since Halberds are easily the strongest weapon type in the entire game. You’ll need to beatLu Bu to get it, but by this point, you’ve wrestled with this warlord before.
Read More: You Can Defeat Lu Bu In Chapter 2 Of Dynasty Warriors: Origins
If you’ve learned the timing on how to dodge or parry at least some of Lu Bu’s attacks, you should be able to pull off a win here alongside a full stack of healing and buffing items. For reference, I had an easier time pulling this off than I did with many of the other Ultimate Warrior missions where Lu Bu doesn’t show up at all!
3: Go for high-cost abilities
On your first playthrough, abilities that cost five or more Bravery can be tricky to use. Consuming potentially all your resources just to wipe out a single group of enemies just doesn’t feel worth the effort, right? Well, in Ultimate Warrior, this dynamic gets flipped right on its head. To complete the vast majority of missions, you’ll need to throw Ziluan directly into dense crowds of enemies to dispatch them as soon as possible. And to do that, those skills that cost two or three Bravery just aren’t going to cut it, even if you spam them over and over.
While most high-cost skills fall into this category, you want to prioritize moves that can clear as many enemies as possible in one cast. These skills typically work on bosses and enemy officers too, though you should keep at least one single-target focused skill in your arsenal. As a bonus, fighting dense mobs of soldiers will in turn charge your Bravery way faster too, so you’ll be surprised at how easily you can spam these skills once you’re deep in the trenches. Make sure to utilize your Ultimate Musou mode and your battle companion once your Bravery is drained to keep the damage flowing!
Many high-cost skills unlock after maxing out bond events or completing missions on Ultimate Warrior difficulty. If you feel your power is lacking, play through all three story paths to grab as many powerful skills as you can.
4: Balance offense and defense
Most missions in Ultimate Warrior involve time limits, so you’d be forgiven for thinking that the best defense is an all-out offense. In practice, bolstering your defense is the best way to consistently complete missions.
As mentioned above, Ultimate Warrior missions frequently require you to throw yourself into the middle of dense mobs. No matter how good you are at guarding and parrying, you are not going to avoid every attack 1000 enemies throws at you at once. Big defense boosts will keep you in the action for longer before you need to retreat to find Bao to restore your HP, which will reduce your clear time way more than any DPS-boosting accessory would.
In my testing, simply equipping the Chimera Shell gave me the bulk I needed to succeed. A 60-percent boost to defense is huge, to the point that it frees up your other equipment slots to focus solely on offense. If you’re up against an especially tough mission (and there are no mission rules against it), remember to bring along extra HP recovery items too. Meanwhile, for missions that require fighting tough bosses (this is my third Lu Bu reference in this article), the Ascendance Gem is another powerful defense boon that is worth any upgrades you invest into it.
5: Level up as you go
As overwhelming as Ultimate Warrior difficulty can feel, even someone with virtually no reflexes can acquire enough power to complete every mission. You don’t even have to grind out a +99 Grade-Seven weapon, as hitting Rank 101 will elevate Ziluan’s power to absolute extreme heights. You could level grind the same stages over and over until you max your stats, but in my experience, it’s much easier to focus on leveling up as you progress through Ultimate Warrior mode.
You’ll definitely want to bust out your best weapons and skills for the hardest challenges; I can’t stress enough just how powerful Halberds are. But if you’ve already cleared the mission on a particular stage—or you’re playing a level with an easier mission to accomplish—that’s a prime time to switch your weapon to something you need to level up. Don’t bother with training weapons for the experience boost, since those will nerf your power way too much. Use Luan weapons if you got them, or the next best thing you have in your inventory.
Through natural play, I managed to hit rank 101 well before I had to face the hardest challenges Ultimate Warrior has to offer. Remember that your lowest-rank weapons will level up the fastest, so try to focus on each weapon one level at a time to stack up your stats the fastest. Reaching such a high level can seem like a daunting task, but in this case, the reward is well worth the effort. You’ll become a True Warrior of the Three Kingdoms before you know it.
Dynasty Warriors: Origins is available now on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows PCs.