How To Get The True Endings In Dynasty Warriors: Origins

There are three true endings in Dynasty Warriors: Origins, one for each of the major factions in the game. While you make your choice in Chapter 3, once you’ve beaten the game once you can replay it from this point onwards, making it much easier to sweep up the other two routes. If you fail to trigger the new route on a decisive battle, you can also replay from that point exactly.

However, that doesn’t mean it’s easy. While most of the goals here are relatively straightforward, they depend on speed more than ability, so we strongly suggest opting for the Historian difficulty. Otherwise, enemies take too long to take out and you cannot alter the course of history as you need to.

Shu True Ending (Lui Bei True Ending)

Lui Bei’s Shu true ending is the easiest one to get in the game, because you only need to change one mission, not two (or three), it comes right at the end of the game, and is the least reliant on speed. This is the only one you could conceivably get without trying, but there are still some deliberate steps to take.

In Chapter Five, during the Battle of Changban your mission is to escape with Lui Bei. However, that will not lead you to the true ending. Continue to play the mission as instructed until Cao Cao appears. This will be in a circular arena at the north of the map. To get the true ending, turn around and defeat that battalion. On Historian difficulty, Lui Bei will stay alive so long as you spend time defending the bridge from the first wave of generals. This means you can defend the brigde, then head north to wait for Cao Cao. He appears a couple of minutes after Bailuan does.

Technically you only need to focus on Cao Cao himself, but you’ll have to cut a lot of people down to get through so having a mixture of area control Battle Arts and powerful, individualised Battle Arts is important here – as it is on most of these pathways. Time is less of the essence here, but the mission will wrap up once Lui Bei escapes, so don’t hang about when it comes to hunting Cao Cao.

Once you defeat him, you will get a ‘Fate Altered’ message. Finish the battle by helping Lui Bei escape, then play the next two battles as normal, and enjoy the Shu true ending.

Wu True Ending (Sun Jian True Ending)

Sun Jian’s Wu true ending is significantly more complicated than Shu’s ending, but much easier than Wei’s true ending. There are technically three decisive battles, but for the third one it appears all you have to do is to complete it having done the first two battles correctly, and you will stay on the path.

We did this third mission as normal and still got the true ending, which was not the case for Cao Cao’s path.

The first of these two important moments comes early, as the third battle of Chapter Three, the Battle of Xiangyang. Here, you need to rescue Sun Jian. The actual objective of the battle instructs you to leave him and press onwards, but if you ignore this, you get an insta-success on the mission and alter the course of history. Pretty neat.

To do this, head south as the battle begins (on the path that curves west) and clear everyone in your path before opening the base – you need to defeat Pang Ji for this. Claim the base by defeating Wang Can and the generic general, then leave via the north gate. Immediately curve around to head south on the most westward path. You can ignore Zhang Yun, to you need to defeat the Mighty General to open the next gate. Here, you may see the phantom Zhang Jiao, who you need to defeat.

If he is not there and there is a stop sign on the map, this means you are here earlier than you need to be. This is a good thing, so just wait until the battle dialogue plays out and the fog appears.

Zhang Jiao is easier than his boss battle, but still tough, so hit him with everything you have. After defeating the phantom Zhang Jiao, the stop signed path should open – follow it to save Sun Jian. Ignore all the other enemies on the path until you reach the cave with Lu Gong, where a cutscene should play where you save Sun Jian’s life – which will give you the ‘Fate Altered’ screen, confirming your success. It is possible that you take too long fighting Zhang Jiao and fail to save Sun Jian, but the timing is far more forgiving than other paths, so it’s best to make sure you can do this before moving on to others. With that, you’re halfway to the true ending.

The next incident comes in Chapter Four with the Suppression of Wu. If you have played this route before, you can skip to it, otherwise you’ll need to fight your way through each battle. The aim here is to save Sun Ce, but the most likely way to fail it is to let Sun Quan perish.

There are two steps here. First, you need to head to the most southwest point of the map where phantom soldiers including Zhang Jiao will emerge. Defeating them is step one, but they won’t emerge until Sun Ce takes the central western base (ie the most westerly except for the northwest corner) then gets lost in the fog. Until this happens, you should concentrate on helping Sun Quan – failure to do so will mean he is forced to flee during the second step, causing you to fail the mission.

To help Sun Quan, you should claim the base immediately ahead of you as the mission begins, and the base to the south of it, as well as cutting down enemies in the middle patch before Sun Ce gets lost. Ideally, you want Sun Quan to be on the march north (where he has allies and the fighting is thinner) before you chase Sun Ce.

Once all that is done, head slightly north from Zhang Jiao to find a hidden cave. You can see it in the image above, and it is at the top left of the lowest of the two ringed paths on the map. Some moss hangs over a cave, and inside is Bailuan. This is by far the toughest fight he ever puts up, dropping ice shards once he gets to two thirds health and summoning phantoms at one third. Once he is defeated, you will see the ‘Fate Altered’ message again, but this time, you need to complete the battle rather than this marking the end.

After this, you can either skip to the final branching point (if you’ve played before) or battle through (if you haven’t). However, as long as you saved both Sun Jian and Sun Ce, you are locked into the true ending and simply need to complete the game.

Wei True Ending (Cao Cao True Ending)

Achieving Cao Cao’s Wei true ending is by far the hardest challenge of the lot. Firstly because there are three missions which need completed, and unlike Sun Jian you do need to do something specific in each one, but mostly because the first challenge, Escape from Wei Castle in Chapter Four, has the most punishing timings of them all.

None of this battle is especially difficult, but we strongly recommend Historian difficulty as even on this you need flawless timing and you can’t afford to be held up by anything. The aim of the battle is to escape with Cao Cao, for which Dian Wei gives his life holding off the enemies inside the castle. To get the true ending, you need to make sure Dian Wei gets out alive.

How To Save Dian Wei At Escape From Wei Castle

As soon as the battle begins, head to the northwest base and claim it, crossing the river and defeating the general here. This will make passage for the laddermen easier later. After this, dash all the way across the battlefield and claim the northeast base. They both need to be done for the laddermen to appear, and even though the ladders come from the west, it is quicker to do the west first, then the east.

You need to claim both these bases in under four minutes to be on track. You then need to head back to the middle of the map and take out the ambushing general arriving from just below the northwest base, and all the generals gathered in the middle of the map. Your allies will help, but you have about two minutes to do this. At some point, the laddermen will appear – you should immediately go to them, even if the middle area is not clear. However, the next part is easier if it is.

When the ladders are up (and you should be across the river as soon as they are), you need to enter the castle and take out Zhang Xiu, Jia Xu, and Zhang Quan. Zhang Xiu tends to run outside, which is why clearing the middle earlier (and thus having more allies to whittle him down or stop him fleeing too far) is a must. It may be worth dealing with him first, but also, the other two are bunched together at the beginning so a good area Battle Art, tactic, or musou attack can do major damage here. However you play it, you need to do this in about two minutes, which makes eight total.

After this, press on into the castle and defeat Huche’er, which you should do in under two minutes, meaning the whole mission needs to take no more than ten. If he references you saving Cao Cao’s bodyguard, you’re on time. If not, you’re too late and need to start again. After he is defeated, Dian Wei should make a comment about the enemy hoard thinning. If he doesn’t (but Huche’er made the bodyguard comment), that means you took too long to defeat Huche’er. At this point, you need to start the mission over. If Dian Wei does make this remark, escape with Cao Cao and you’ll be one third of the way to the true ending.

How To Save Guo Jia At Battle Of Mt. Bailang

While the way to continue on the true path at Mt. Bailang is to keep Gio Jia alive, it’s not as simple as merely keeping him as your companion to protect him, although that is a good first step. Once more, speed is crucial, but not to the degree of saving Dian Wei. As the battle begins, head to the base to the immediate northwest. Claim it quickly, then press on. Snake up to the middle central area, but ignore the forces then and head westwards to the next base. Claim this one too, defeating Yuan Mei and Nanlou, then leave via the west gate. Here, you will see Bailuan, who you must defeat.

Fighting Bailuan is easier here than on the Wu pathway, as he does not drop ice regularly and you have allies, but time is of the essence. He needs to be cut down quickly, and you need to have made you way to him with haste too. After defeating Bailuan, he will say one of two things. If he ask if you “really wish to pursue this bloodstained path” or mutter that he bought enough time. The first one indicates success, while the latter (where Guo Jia will also say it took “longer than expected”) means you have failed to stay on the true ending pathway.

When your forces launch the ambush just beyond where you fought Bailuan, the ‘Fate Altered’ message should appear. If not, you took too long and need to start the mission over. Complete this battle as normal, which includes fighting Bailuan again.

Wei Ending Final Battle

Unlike the Wu path of Sun Jian, you will not stay on the true ending merely by showing up having kept Dian Wei and Guo Jia alive, although both must have been done for this final path to become available. As you will know if you’ve played another path (or even just played Cao Cao’s before), at the Batttle of Chibi, Zhuge Liang signals from the prayer altar to burn down Cao Cao’s fleet. Therefore, to get the true ending, you must head to the prayer altar to stop Zhuge Liang . You should do this as soon as the ship lands (it’s in the southwest corner of the map), but any generals you can take out on the way will help you later.

After this, head to the rear of Cao Cao’s fleet, where you will fight Huang Gai. If you get there too early, Guo Jia will suggest leaving, but lingering on the boat, a little closer to the front, is all you need to do. When Huang Gai arrives, he reveals himself to be a traitor. Defeat him before he can burn the fleet, and you will get the ‘Fate Altered’ message. From here, head back to land and defeat Lui Bei and Sun Quan to end the battle, and the game, with the true Wei ending.