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On your first playthrough of Dynasty Warriors: Origins, you’ll have nine different types of weapons available for cleaving through armies. Once you’ve finished the game, though, you can start using the hidden tenth weapon; halberds. With its wide, sweeping attacks and whirlwind effects, the halberd is a throwback to classic Dynasty Warriors, especially Lu Bu’s aggressive play style.
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Halberds may be a bit slower than similar weapons like crescent blades, but they make up for it with raw destructive power. Clearing a base or a large force is as easy as it gets when you bring such a mighty blade to battle.
How To Unlock Halberds
Once you’ve completed any of the game’s storylines, load your postgame save file. It will have a new mark on the file the same color as the faction that you supported. You’ll be taken back to the World Map, just before the final battle, with new options at the Inn for replaying past battles and events.
Once you’re in the postgame, visit a Weapon Shop in any city; they’ll have the Soul Crusher halberd available for 400,000 coins. Even if you’ve been saving for most of the campaign, you might need to fight a few extra battles to come up with the cash – that’s a lot of money.
Once you’ve purchased the Soul Crusher, you’ll start to see them drop alongside other epic-tier weapons. Epic weapons are more likely to drop on Ultimate Warrior difficulty, and when you fight battles of a higher Rank than you currently have. Of course, both of those are extremely challenging propositions, so make sure you’re locked in!
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Halberd Moveset In Dynasty Warriors: Origins
Halberds allow for Heavy Attack combos as well as Normal Attack combos, giving them more options than other weapon types. This means that there are more moves to memorize if you truly want to master the weapon, but halberds are also powerful enough that you can usually get by on button-mashing alone.
|
Combo |
Attack |
|---|---|
|
Up to 6x Normal Attacks. |
Normal attack combo. |
|
1x Heavy Attack. |
AoE Shockwave; sends enemies flying. Hold the button for a larger area. |
|
Block + Heavy Attack. |
Thrust and sweep combo. |
|
Block + Hold Heavy Attack. |
Low sweep, launches enemies. |
|
Left Stick + Heavy Attack while Dodging. |
Jump and drill dive in the direction of the left stick. Hold the button to throw the halberd after the jump; this is a longer animation overall, but hits and deals damage earlier. |
|
1x Normal Attack + 1x Heavy Attack OR 2x Heavy Attack |
Sweep and ground slam combo. |
|
2x Normal Attack + 1x Heavy Attack OR 3x Heavy Attack |
Flurry combo. |
|
3x Normal Attack + 1x Heavy Attack OR 4x Heavy Attack |
Ends the combo with an extra-wide sweep. |
|
4x Normal Attack + 1x Heavy Attack OR 5x Heavy Attack |
Pulls enemies toward you in a wide area. |
|
5x Normal Attack + 1x Heavy Attack OR 6x Heavy Attack |
Flurry and ground slam combo. |
|
Normal Attack in midair. |
Sweep attack. |
|
Heavy Attack in midair or on horseback. |
Ground slam; dismounts if used from horseback. |
Halberd Musou Rage
Musou Rage works differently with halberds. Instead of letting you spend Musou instead of Bravery to power Battle Arts, halberds supercharge their normal attacks while in Musou Rage. During this time, you can only slowly walk, but Heavy Attacks cause you to lunge swiftly toward your target.
Using Musou Rage with a halberd equipped is one of the best ways to wear down officers, since you’re effectively immune to damage and can relentlessly hack away at them until your meter runs out. This means it’s best to save your Musou when using a halberd for a big finale against an enemy commander or large force.
Best Halberd Build
Halberds don’t need a lot of help, but if you’re planning to try some battles on Ultimate Warrior difficulty, you’ll need all the bonuses you can get.
Recommended Gems
Halberds have the longest reach in the game by far, so equipping a high-level Oblivion Gem is a great choice. Tacking on an extra thirty to forty percent to their already-prodigious range means that nobody in the enemy army will be safe from your wrath.
Recommended Battle Arts
Halberds are unique in that they don’t need to rely on Battle Arts nearly as much as other weapons; in many cases, relentless slashes are more than enough to get the job done. There are, however, a few key Arts that are always worth having in your arsenal.
As always, it’s a good idea to equip Palm Strike so that you’re never without an option for handling enemy Special Arts. Whenever possible, though, you’ll want to use Boundless Launch instead. It costs three Bravery instead of one, but it can interrupt Special Arts and has an extremely wide radius. It’s easily the halberd Art you’ll find yourself using the most.
Sky Crusher is a short-range jump attack with a decent area that’s great for multi-officer melees. Four Bravery can be a bit steep, but it’s useful for getting you some breathing room or starting off a combo.
Once you’ve gotten yourself up to Proficiency 6, Sky Blaze is good for finishing up your loadout. It provides some aerial coverage that’s useful against charge-up attacks. Note, however, that it’s not a Special Art, so it won’t interrupt everything.
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