When you step onto the battlefield inDynasty Warriors: Origins, you’re one of the mightiest warriors in all of China - possibly in all of history. No matter which weapon type you’ve equipped, enemy soldiers will fall before you by the hundreds, and your clashes with the other legends of the Three Kingdoms will be legendary.
Of course, every weapon has inherent strengths and weaknesses, and some are simply better suited for the mass battles of Dynasty Warriors than others. We’ve ranked all ten (yes, ten) weapon tyes in Dynasty Warriors: Origins by their overall effectiveness so you can go into battle fully prepared.
10Gauntlets
While gauntlets arepretty good for fighting duelsthanks to the precision of their strikes and the directness of their Battle Arts, they lack one crucial advantage that every other weapon in the game has over them; reach. As the weapon with theshortest range in the game, gauntlets struggle to handle large groups of enemies effectively. If you’ve played a Dynasty Warriors game at any point in the last 25 years, you can see the problem there.
Gauntlets rely onstance attacks and Battle Artsto handle big squads of enemy soldiers, the former of which take just slightly too long to set up and the latter of which can run through your reserve of Bravery. It’s best to use gauntlets togain Proficiency Ranks and complete Training Objectives, then put them away when the time comes to face major challenges.
9Lances
Lances have a neat risk-reward mechanic that lets youpower up a combo by taking damage. This can lead to some impressive base clears and take a chunk off of minor officers' health bars, but is way too risky against the likes of Gan Ning and Lu Bu.
While lances have plenty of reach and some useful Battle Arts,the novelty of their endurance power wears off quickly, and you’ll soon find yourself back to parrying like you were before. That being the case, it’s better to use a polearm whose full suite of abilities you’ll actually bring to bear.
8Swords
Swords are thestarter weaponin Dynasty Warriors: Origins, so it’s natural to expect that they don’t come with too many bells and whistles. As an all-rounder weapon, a sword works just fine, and it has access to awider range of basic combosthat can make it a button masher’s dream.
The sword may be a perfectly serviceable weapon in any given battle, but it alsodoesn’t stand out muchonce you’ve unlocked more specialized gear. Anything that a sword can do, another weapon type can probably do more effectively with some practice.
7Wheels
Wheelstake some precision to use, but once you’ve got a handle on their controls they can be an absolute blast to bring into battle. Their lack of range is easily made up for once youmaster their throw-and-catch mechanics, and their Battle Arts help close the gap even more.
They also happen to be the most annoying weapon type to fight against. If you see an officer with wheels, watch out - that goes double if it’s Sun Shangxiang.
At the end of the day, though, wheels are a bit too flashy for their actual effectiveness. Twin pikes or crescent blades might not be as acrobatic, but they take down enemies more efficiently without all the dancing around.
6Staves
The staff is the sleeper of the Dynasty Warriors: Origins arsenal. It can seem pretty weak despite its impressive reach, but once you start chaining combos together and launching enemy officers for aerial attacks it becomes both fun and effective.
The main difficulty with the staff isnot getting too overzealous with its unending combo potential.It’s much better to end a combo early and avoid a hit than to try to keep going and get knocked down because you got greedy. The staff is alsomuch better against officers than against large groups, which can hurt its overall usefulness on maps with massive armies.
5Spears
When in doubt, bring a spear.It’s got reach, it’s simple to use, and thePiercing VengeanceBattle Art makes a great safety valve if you can’t quite get the timing right on parries.
Spears need a little bit of help against airborne foes, and you’ll probably replace them with higher-tier polearms later in the game, but in early battles it’s hard to find a better choice than your trusty stick-with-a-sharp-point-on-the-end.
4Podao
Unless you’re using their signature charge attack, podaohit a lot faster than you’d expectfor a sword of that size, and they havesome of the best Battle Arts in the game.A podao with good traits can be a better endgame weapon than a crescent blade with basic ones.
Podao are powerful and easy to use, making them a great choice in nearly any situation.
3Halberds
Halberdsonly become available after you’ve completed the story. You can buy the epic halberdSoul Crusherfor a hefty sum of 400,000 coins, unlocking the weapon type favored by the legendary Lu Bu.
Halberds haveunbelievable range, especially on their Heavy Attacks, but once the rush of power wears off they start to feel a bit slow compared to other weapons.If you need to clear a concentrated group, there’s no better weapon, but by the time you unlock halberd’s you’re probably skilled enough with an earlier unlock that the savings in time, Bravery, and health is negligible.
2Twin Pikes
Relieving Zhang Liao of his signature twin pikes makes you a true terror of the battlefield. Wielding these monstrosities lets youtear your way through enemy formations with abaondon, and even reliably get launch combos against officers.
Twin pikes havearguably the best Heavy Attack in the entire game, especially once you master the timing on the final strike. The only thing that really holds them back is that their Battle Arts are so-so overall; that, and the fact that there’s one more weapon type that really does it all…
1Crescent Blades
The last weapon type to unlock during the main story, crescent blades have all the reach, power, and flexibility you could ever need. Their Battle Arts excel in both officer and army fights, and you can easilypower them up just by fighting.
Once you have a well-forged epic-level crescent blade, the only reason to go back to other weapon types is to finish leveling up your Proficiency all the way. They really are that good.
