10 Mistakes To Avoid While Playing Dynasty Warriors Origins

Save time, resources, and frustration by discovering these 10 important mistakes to avoid when playing Dynasty Warriors Origins!

Dynasty Warriors Origins is a massive game with many mechanics and systems to discover and master. In this guide, we examine some mistakes to avoid that can speed up your game time and save you frustration. We will cover what you should spend your currency on, weapons, portables, combat tips, how to explore the map, and more.

Dynasty Warriors Origins Game Overview

The game Dynasty Warriors Origins takes place in the three kingdoms of mainland China, where the protagonist is a nameless hero. Your journey is to discover your identity and aid various factions in combat and dialogue. Throughout this process, the game slowly introduces you to mechanics like horses, guards, tactics, battle arts, companions, and more.

Additionally, the game features post-game content after many hours of the main story campaign, further enhancing the story and replayability of the title. It took our team 50 hours to beat the main campaign, and below, we share 10 mistakes to avoid while playing Dynasty Warriors Origins.

Top 10 Mistakes that you should avoid while playing Dynasty Warriors Origins

Here are 10 mistakes to avoid while playing Dynasty Warriors Origins:

1. Buying Weapons: save your gold and obtain weapons through enemy drops vs store purchases.
2. Buying Portables (Consumables): spend your gold on powerful consumables to aid you in combat.
3. Completing Missions: side quest missions completion grant guards and powerful accessories, so don’t skip them.
4. Setting Up Skills (Battle Arts): your skill bar should feature high-cost skills, special art, low cost, and movement.
5. Weapon Leveling: Increase your ranks quickly, equip your lowest-rank weapon, and use it in combat.
6. Controls for Weapon Combos: Expand your attack strategy by practicing combos and learning new ones.
7. Eagle Eye of the Sacred Bird: Use this tool inside combat to find useful information surrounding the battlefield.
8. Exploring Map: Don’t rush to the next battle; explore for missions, materials, and side quests.
9. Saving Officers: You can save officers and heal them when health bar is low.
10. Making Story Choices: Don’t stress about Chapter 3 decision, you can replay missions eventually.

1. Buying Weapons

The first mistake to avoid is spending mind-boggling amounts of gold on purchasing weapons. Overall, there are 10 different weapons to choose from in Dynasty Warriors Origins (DWO). However, you don’t unlock them all at once, and eventually, through the campaign, you obtain more weapons. The 10 weapon types are as follows:

• Sword
• Spear
• Gauntlets
• Wheels
• Podao
• Staff
• Twin Pikes
• Lance
• Crescent Blade
• Halberd

The Halbred is the unique weapon out of the 10 that requires you to beat the game first before unlocking it. Most of the time, the weapons will drop from particular story missions and not require any purchases to obtain new weapons. Moreover, weapons you find during story content typically have better attack power and traits than purchasing from the story.

However, the one time it’s necessary to purchase weapons is when you see a new type in the store. Stores throughout the open world map will have a yellow icon when new items are available at the weapon shop. Don’t get tempted by buying and spending all your gold just to find a better weapon in the next campaign mission because there’s something better to spend gold on, and that’s our next mistake to avoid in Dynasty Warriors Origins.

2. Buying Portables (Consumables)

The best thing to spend your gold on is Portable or consumable items. These can increase your defenses, attack power, heal you, and even heal your group! When you first start DWO, you will only have a reusable consumable called Meat Buns—these replenish after every fight and act like a reusable potion. You can expand the effectiveness and amount you can store through skill passives as you rank up.

As you advance in the campaign, you then unlock portable items with unique bonuses. Here are some powerful portable items:

• Strength Potions: increase attack by 60% for a limited time.
• Incense of Vitality: restores health by 70% for you and your nearby allies.
• Arborgreen: increase proficiency gained by 200% until you defeat 100 enemies.
• Crimson Cress: grants 20 skill points.

Strength potion is helpful to burn down bosses or when you need to do a lot of damage in a short time. Incense of Vitality is critical to bring on long story missions where your win-or-lose conditions are based on multiple officers. In this scenario, you’ll be traveling back and forth the map trying to keep your allies alive. If they are low and cannot be saved by jumping into battle, you can burst heal with this consumable. Arbogreen and Crimson Cress are later game portable that are unlocked by completing a quest with the healer you find, Yuanhua.

Lastly, seek passive skills that increase your consumable storage and usefulness. Almost each skill tree grants one or more passives to increase storage or adds improved healing. Playing in higher difficulty, consumable portables are critical to completing missions and healing.

3. Completing Missions

Avoid moving onto the next story quest until you’ve completed all available missions in a given area. Missions are essentially side quests that grant guards and or accessories. Moreover, Missions can dramatically increase peace in the area, rewarding you with even more loot. The different types of quests (objectives) in Dynasty Warriors Origins are:

• Battles: The main story is big, sprawling fights.
• Request: typically one-on-one with a companion or NPC.
• Training: Optional ways to increase skill points by completing specific combat tasks, such as 3 battle art chains.
• Skirmishes: small battles with little rewards or impact on peace.
• Missions: side quests that can be completed throughout the main story.

The biggest mistake is to rush to battle after battle and miss various Missions during the campaign. Once a major battle has been concluded, scan the area and look around for the mission icon. It’s a small yellow/orange-looking icon. You can also use Eagle Eye of the Sacred Bird to spot locations. Another way to ensure you don’t miss them is go into the menu and select map. Look at every region to see a quest or battle indication, even if you can’t spot it locally. Then, travel to the region and obtain the mission and get those important accessories!

Lastly, you can use your time efficiently by combining Skirmishes and Training requests. Typically, bring a weapon that’s lagging in proficiency or that you don’t like and equip it. Look for specific training that you need to do, like 100 battle art kills with the Wheel, etc. Then, use Skirmishes to complete this training, which boosts your bond with NPCs and also can reward you with skill points.

Something the game doesn’t tell you is that various NPC will “go away” due to the main story quest. Therefore, you may run out of time to complete the bonding with them based on in-game events.

4. Setting Up Skills (Battle Arts)

Skills or abilities in Dynasty Warriors Origins are called Battle Arts. They require bravery to use the resources obtained by striking enemies. You can also gain Bravery via dodging (evading), perfect blocking, and consumables. The main mistake to avoid is having an unbalanced skill selection. In general, each weapon type should have the following types of skills:

1. Low Bravery Cost Damage
2. High Bravery Cost Damage
3. Special Art Low Cost (interrupt)
4. Mobility or Range

The Low Bravery cost battle arts skill ensures you have something that can break enemies’ fortitude if a light or heavy attack won’t cut it. Fortitude is the yellow or red shield icon above the enemy’s health bar, acting as a shield. Breaking through this allows assaults and free damage where the enemy is staggered and cannot counterattack. Therefore, combat revolves around breaking their fortitude, doing free damage, and then the process resets.

High Bravery cost battle art is useful when you want to store bravery for an “oh crap” moment or a boss fight. Some skills can cost 8 bravery and nearly one shot for most enemies. Special Arts are used for interruptions. When an enemy turns orange, their attacks cannot be avoided. You will find high-cost Special Arts, but avoid these. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself out of bravery without a means to interrupt.

Lastly, having a skill for mobility or range is critical to keep your damage high. Some weapons have weaker range and require a gap closer or speed type of skill to close the distance.

5. Weapon Leveling

Your overall progression in Dynasty Warriors Origins is weapon ranks. You increase your weapon proficiency by killing enemies. However, you gain proficiency slowly for all weapons, while the one you bring to battle with you increases faster. Therefore, avoid using the same weapon until rank 8. Go from the lowest-ranked weapon and level it up to keep the ranks even. You will dramatically increase your rank vs. relying on the Sword or another weapon you like.

Additionally, the campaign only allows for a maximum rank of 8 for weapons. However, you can continue playing after you beat the campaign, increasing them to rank 11. Once you unlock a weapon for the first time, equip it and take it to a skirmish with low difficulty and time. Then, you can gain one or two ranks quickly and boost your overall progression quickly.

Another tip is using the consumable Arborgreen in easy battles. This will grant a double proficiency bonus for the first 100 enemies. The portable (consumable) costs 5,000 at the shop and can be unlocked after a side quest with Yuanhua. Using both Arborgreen and Crimson Cress, you can gain faster ranks and more skill points every battle.

6. Controls for Weapon Combos

Each weapon type in DWO has a unique set of combinations and attacks. The Sword rewards players for doing four light attacks (normal attacks) and two heavy (strong) attacks. The Spear rewards players for doing three heavy attacks in a row. Moreover, the Spear has a unique attack that knocks enemies up if you use block plus heavy attack.

The mistake to avoid with weapon combos is not practicing or understanding all that are available to you. Additionally, you will unlock more passive combos and normal and strong attacks as you progress the weapon rank. Consequently, you could miss out on a six-button chain combo that can do as much damage as a battle art attack.

Also, it’s helpful to look in the controls section to see what the developers emphasize with each weapon. The Sword blends normal and strong attacks, while the Podao incentivizes strong attacks. Therefore, lean into what you are rewarded for using, not what the previous weapon did.

7. Eagle Eye of the Sacred Bird

While you get an introduction to Eagle Eye and the Sacred Bird skill in the early parts of DWO, you cannot fully appreciate the skill until later. Not only does this skill show you enemy combatants but much more information like:

• Enemies Health and Fortitude
• Officers Health (yellow bar in trouble)
• Breakable Walls
• Interactable Ladders
• Pots with Meat Buns
• Guards and tactics

A mistake to avoid is not using the Eagle Eye Frequently in combat to pan around and inspect the terrain. When an officer is in trouble, you usually receive an audible cue and a text popup during combat. However, it’s hard to identify where the target is and how bad they are. You can quickly scan with Eagle Eye and pinpoint the direction, health bar, and surrounding enemies. This can help you evaluate whether you can make it in time.

The passive skill Meat Perceiver in the Adept rank is also helpful because it shows you green pots containing meat. In long fights where healing is limited, you can scan a town or base to see if any leftover or unbroken meat exists. Fill up before setting out so you can heal yourself in the next fight. Additionally, some battles will not have a time-sensitive portion. Therefore, you can backtrack to previous towns and areas and scan for pots to break. This helps you load up on Meat Buns before setting off for the next battle, assuming all officers and combat await a charge or ambush.

8. Exploring Map

After each battle in the campaign, take time to explore the areas. At the beginning of the game, you will be limited in areas and scope of travel. However, that will soon expand to many different regions. As you progress, more consumables and materials become available to harvest, including old coins. Additionally, time-sensitive quests need to be completed before advancing the story. If you don’t take time to pan around, you will miss these opportunities.

The skill Eagle Eye of the Sacred Bird works in the open world and battles. In addition, Eagle Eye gives you icon indicators and a yellow trail leading you to the next main story mission. Click and hold Eagle Eye while panning the map to ensure everything in your local area is uncovered.

Lastly, before entering the next major battle, click the map overview and scan each province for information. Sometimes, you can miss characters, elders, missions, or side quests because the areas are vast and hard to traverse throughout their entirety. When you highlight a waypoint, below the location will popup characters, battles, or other relevant people and places in the area. Make sure to visit them and complete any missions before setting off to a story campaign.

9. Saving Officers

One of the biggest mistakes to avoid is not saving fellow officers. Throughout various combat encounters, you will have one or many officers or companions all interacting independently. With massive maps, you need to monitor their health and status. When one ally becomes low, typically, you’ll get a popup saying the following:

Ally is facing a desperate Fight! Assist at once!

This indicates their health is in the danger zone, typically sub 50% health. These allies can be “rescued” merely by traveling near them. Once you arrive, regardless of your actions, they will receive a health boost. Most of time, it’s best to bounce around large maps monitoring and helping allies. Avoid letting them die because they are powerful combatants, and sometimes, they can fail the mission if you don’t intervene.

Lastly, one of the best passives in the game is Refreshing Rescue because it boosts health recovery when rescuing an officer in a desperate fight. After you take this passive, the health gained is massive, giving most officers and allies about 50% more health when you arrive. This is highly advised passive, especially on higher difficulty where you simultaneously balance many objectives, allies, and enemies.

10. Making Story Choices

The last mistake to avoid in Dynasty Warriors Origins is freaking out about decisions and story consequences. The game has five chapters, and most of the pivotal choice point happens in Chapter 3. You must pick between three factions, all vying for power. The game warns you that it’s irreversible, and if you’re like me, you want to see and do it all. However, after completing the game’s campaign, you unlock post-game content and the ability to rewind the story to any point and start from that place.

Additionally, you won’t be able to complete all the game’s achievements on one playthrough. The game assumes you will continue playing after completing the main campaign. So, don’t panic, you will be able to see all the content on one save file and start where you want in the story!

We hoped you enjoyed reading this article and that these 10 mistakes to avoid in Dynasty Warriors Origins saves you time!

FAQs about mistakes in Dynasty Warriors Origins?

Is Dynasty Warriors Origins hard?

Yes, Dynasty Warriors Origins can be a difficult game because of the combat and win-lose conditions. The game features four difficulties, one unlocked after completing the main story called Ultimate Warrior. This difficulty gives added rewards and win conditions, making it extremely difficult to beat even the simplest missions.

Can you mess up while playing Dynasty Warriors Origins?

No, while you can make mistakes, die, and fail missions, you can replay them. Moreover, after you beat the campaign (regardless of difficulty), you can select any mission or battle and replay it.

How do you get better at Dynasty Warriors Origins?

To get better at DWO, play, experiment, progress, and repeat. Look at your weapon controls and combos to make sure you’re using the correct attacks. Additionally, progress different weapon types to increase your ranks and complete training to gain new skill points. Lastly, experiment with new battle arts and weapons and find the perfect fit.

Looking For More About Dynasty Warriors Origins?

Thank you for reading the 10 Mistakes Dynasty Warriors Origins guide. We provide the latest news and create guides for Dynasty Warriors Origins. Also, watch me play games on Twitch or visit my YouTube channel!

• 10 Mistakes To Avoid While Playing Dynasty Warriors Origins
• Best Weapons Tier List in Dynasty Warriors: Origins
• Best Skill Passives and Talents in Dynasty Warriors Origins
• All Weapons in Dynasty Warriors: Origins Explained
• Guides to Weapons in Dynasty Warriors Origins