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There are three true endings inDynasty Warriors: Origins, one for each of the major factions in the game. While youmake 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, theydepend on speed more than ability, so we strongly suggestopting for the Historian difficulty. Otherwise, enemies take too long to take out and you cannot alter the course of history as you need to.
Updated on June 10, 2025 by Matt Arnold:We’ve added the secret Guardians of Peace ending to this guide, which is an extra scene that gets added if you finish the game with certain requirements. See below to find out what you need to do, but be warned that you’ll probably need multiple playthroughs to make it happen.
Shu True Ending (Lui Bei True Ending)
Lui Bei’s Shu true endingis theeasiestone to get in the game, because youonly 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.
InChapter Five, during the Battle of Changbanyour mission is toescape with Lui Bei. However, that willnot lead you to the true ending. Continue to play the mission as instructeduntil 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 candefend the brigde, then head north to wait for Cao Cao. He appears a couple of minutes after Bailuan does.
Technically youonly 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 ofarea control Battle Arts and powerful, individualised Battle Artsis important here - as it is on most of these pathways. Time is less of the essence here, butthe mission will wrap up once Lui Bei escapes, sodon’t hang aboutwhen 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, andenjoy the Shu true ending.
Wu True Ending (Sun Jian True Ending)
Sun Jian’s Wu true endingis significantlymore complicated than Shu’s ending, butmuch easier than Wei’s true ending. There are technicallythree decisive battles, but for the third one it appearsall 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 ofChapter Three, the Battle of Xiangyang. Here, you need torescue Sun Jian. The actual objective of the battle instructs you to leave him and press onwards, but if you ignore this, you getan insta-success on the missionand alter the course of history. Pretty neat.
To do this,head south as the battle begins(on the path thatcurves west) and clear everyone in your path beforeopening the base - you need to defeat Pang Jifor this. Claim the base bydefeating Wang Can and the generic general, then leave via the north gate. Immediatelycurve around to head southon the most westward path. You canignore Zhang Yun, to you need to defeat theMighty General to open the next gate. Here, you may seethe 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, sohit 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 youreach the cave with Lu Gong,where a cutscene should play where you save Sun Jian’s life - which willgive 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 verify you can do this before moving on to others. With that, you’re halfway to the true ending.
The next incident comes inChapter 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 wherephantom soldiers including Zhang Jiao will emerge.Defeating them is step one, but theywon’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 shouldconcentrate 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 shouldclaim the base immediately ahead of you as the mission begins, andthe base to the south of it, as well as cutting down enemies in the middle patch before Sun Ce gets lost. Ideally, you wantSun 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 thetop left of the lowest of the two ringed paths on the map. Some moss hangs over a cave, and inside isBailuan. This is by farthe 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 may 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 arelocked into the true endingand simply need to complete the game.
Wei True Ending (Cao Cao True Ending)
AchievingCao Cao’s Wei true ending is by far the hardest challengeof the lot. Firstly because there arethree missionswhich 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, butwe strongly recommend Historian difficultyas even on this you need flawless timing andyou 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 tomake 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 riverand defeating the general here. This will make passage for the laddermen easier later. After this, dash all the way across the battlefield andclaim the northeast base. Theyboth need to be done for the laddermen to appear, and even though the ladders come from the west, it isquicker to do the west first, then the east.
You need toclaim both these bases in under four minutesto be on track. You then need tohead back to the middle of the mapand take out theambushing general arriving from just below the northwest base,andall the generals gathered in the middle of the map. Your allies will help, but you haveabout two minutes to do this. At some point,the laddermen will appear- you shouldimmediately 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 toenter 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 worthdealing with him first, but also, theother two are bunched together at the beginningso a goodarea Battle Art, tactic, or musou attack can do major damagehere. However you play it, you need todo this in about two minutes, which makes eight total.
After this, press oninto the castle and defeat Huche’er, which you should do inunder two minutes, meaningthe whole mission needs to take no more than ten. If he references yousaving Cao Cao’s bodyguard, you’reon 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 meansyou took too long to defeat Huche’er. At this point, you need tostart 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 tokeep Gio Jia alive, it’s not as simple as merelykeeping him as your companionto 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 andhead 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, buttime 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 hebought enough time. The first one indicates success, while the latter (whereGuo Jia will also say it took “longer than expected”) means you have failed to stay on the true ending pathway.
When your forceslaunch the ambushjust 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, althoughboth 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 theBatttle of Chibi,Zhuge Liang signals from the prayer altar to burn down Cao Cao’s fleet. Therefore, to get the true ending, you musthead 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), butany 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 willfight 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.
Guardians Of Peace True Ending
There is an extra scene that appears after the credits, bringing closure to the tale of the Guardians of Peace, if you meet the right conditions. To unlock the Guardians' ending, you need toget one of the above True Endings with full Peace in every province on the map.
If you do so, then an extra cutscene will play after the credits ofa peach blossom petal landing on a map of China, before the camera zooms in on the Guardian’s Jade. You’ll then be taken to the World Map and instructed toreturn to the ruins of the village.There, you’ll meet with Bailuan one last time to talk about fulfilling Zhuhe’s dream.
While it’s possible to grind out Peace byplaying skirmishes over and over, this takes a long time. It’s much more efficient toplay through each storyline at least onceand complete all of the optional missions, including character requests, as they appear.
you may play side missions that you unlocked in the Records menu at an Inn, even if you never finished them during your campaign. Doing so still gets you all the rewards for the mission, including Peace in its province the first time you complete it.
