Lu Bu is one of the biggest difficulty spikes in Dynasty Warriors Origins. He’s meant to be a threat in all the previous Dynasty Warrior games, but Origins makes him feel like a soulslike boss whenever he appears. So here’s a guide with tips and tricks on how to defeat Lu Bu in Dynasty Warriors Origins
How to beat Lu Bu at Hulao Gate in Dynasty Warriors Origins
Conserve Your Health Early
You’re not getting out of the Lu Bu fight unscathed, so if you’ve already taken a ton of damage before the fight even started and used up several resources around the map, we suggest restarting from an earlier checkpoint or just restarting the whole mission. You’re going to need plenty of Meat Buns and Musou meter charges to beat Lu Bu.
Leave to Resupply For Meat Buns
Speaking of Meat Buns, they’re located quite far away this time around but there are a few key locations near the Lu Bu boss fight arena. Don’t hesitate to leave the field and find some breakable pots using your Eye of the Sacred Bird. Heal quickly on the battlefield because Lu Bu can sometimes just one-shot you if you’re not paying attention and end your run.

Your allies are surprisingly competent during this battle, even on Hero difficulty. Liu Bei and his followers can hold off and damage Lu Bu for quite a while and even end his first phase by themselves.
Build and Equip Items Defensively
No matter how many resources and buffs you put into your attacks, Lu Bu will take a while to beat. In a battle of attrition, you want more defensive stats and healing items to stay in the fight longer and avoid getting burst down or one-shot by Lu Bu’s powerful strikes. That’s why we suggest investing in Defensive accessories or healing items that will be useful in a one-on-one fight against Lu Bu.

Lu Bu Has Three Phases
You will first face Lu Bu alongside the entire frontline halfway through the mission, but he will eventually defeat everyone. Next, you’re supposed to beat him alongside Liu Bei and his brothers while he’s on horseback. While he’s above 50% health, Lu Bu will ride around and attack from his horse where he’s quick and mobile but also very predictable. Once you reduce his health to 50% he leaves his horse and becomes much harder to predict. One way to approach this battle is to save up your strongest skills for his final phase.

Dodging is Necessary
You won’t be able to parry Lu Bu every time perfectly and you’re going to need to make use of your Battle Arts to deal any meaningful damage to him. That’s why perfect-dodging his attacks, especially the unblockable ones, is so important; because it also quickly builds up your Bravery. Relying on dodges is less risky than parrying, especially if you learn Lu Bu’s basic moveset and you can break his guard quickly with Battle Arts.

Watch Out For His Most Dangerous Attacks
Lu Bu has different attacks for both of his major phases. You’re going to want to avoid the horseback charge attack and the Ultimate Musou Attack he unleashes at the first battlefield. The other dangerous attack is the horseback jump where he slams the ground, you should try to time a dodge towards him as the debris can still catch you if you’re dodging away. Then you’re going to want to avoid the unblockable shockwave of damage he deals as he reaches 50% health.

Save Your War God Rage and Musou Attacks
Your War God Rage is best saved for the boss fight against Lu Bu. You should save your Musou skills and the Extreme Musou Skill until you get to the 1v1 against Lu Bu. You can quickly use your War God Rage to either end his horse phase early or chip him down during the melee phase as War God Rage lets you dish out a ton of damage while being invulnerable. Use it immediately after an Ambush to get the maximum value. Furthermore, make use of the invincibility frames and attack interruptions from your Musou skills.

Save Your Character Swap
You’ll have four choices for your Companion during this mission and you should save your character swap for the fight against Lu Bu. We suggest picking Guan Yu who is an incredibly powerful Companion and can provide you with the main burst of damage during this mission. So be sure to use him when facing Lu Bu to deal with a large chunk of his HP.

The Spear Helps a Lot
If you’re not comfortable with parries, you can opt to play with the Spear and use the Battle Art ‘Piercing Vengeance‘ which automatically parries an incoming attack. However, Lu Bu will generally follow this up with another counterattack immediately, so be ready to either parry again or dodge the incoming strike.
Use Tactics
Your Tactics are actually quite useful here, especially the Charge Tactic because it momentarily stuns Lu Bu and can break one of his shields. Furthermore, you should try to use the Volley Tactic from higher ground to get a Dramatic Success and critically strike Lu Bu.

Learn to Parry
Lu Bu is difficult to parry because he always has a red aura around him and it can be difficult to distinguish the parriable and non-parriable attacks in time. However, for the quickest path to victory, you should learn his patterns and what attacks you can safely parry. Despite his red aura, most of his attacks are parriable and the non-blockable ones have longer animations.
Don’t Beat Him At All
Contrary to what you might think, the mission doesn’t actually specify that you need to defeat Lu Bu to succeed. He is an absolute threat on the battlefield, but as we mentioned, Lui Bei’s forces can keep him at bay for quite a while. This means you can focus on the rest of Zhong Duo’s forces and lead the charge into the Imperial Capital. Your time limit is to complete the mission before Lu Bu defeats Lui Bei. However, beating him here unlocks the achievement, The Strongest.

That’s all you need to know on how to defeat Lu Bu and complete the Battle of Hulao Gate mission in Dynasty Warriors Origins. For more guides, also check out our weapons tier list and learn how to use Battle Art Chain.
Published: Jan 16, 2025 09:07 pm