Shin Sangoku Musou 3 - Dynasty Warriors 4 Character Guide for Lu Bu (Copyright 2003, Harlequin07) By Harlequin07 E-Mail: gqjester@yahoo.com Before I start, this guide was written by me, Harlequin07, specifically to post on GameFAQs. This means you may neither alter my guide without getting my consent nor may you sell this guide. However,I have no problem with people posting this guide elsewhere as long you keep my name on it as the author. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Table of Contents: 1. Version Info 2. History of Lu Bu 3. Moves List 4. Lu Bu vs. - 4.1 Lu Bu vs. Foot Troops 4.2 Lu Bu vs. Generals 4.3 Lu Bu in Duels 5. Lu Bu and Items 6. How to obtain Lu Bu's 10th weapon 7. How to fight *against* Lu Bu ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Version Info Version 1.0 (3/30/2003) - Guide started, basically completed. Version 1.1 (4/3/2003) - Put in Lu Bu's Musou, can't believe I forgot it ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. History of Lu Bu I have yet to read the actual _Romance of the Three Kingdoms_, but from what I have seen he is a serious bad man. Not in the sense that he is *evil*, but in the sense that he can pretty much kill anything that moves. That said, what I *do* know is that he was a legend both for his skill in combat and his skill at betraying everyone. The example we see of this in the game is his betrayal of Dong Zhuo at Hu Lao Gate. When confronted by Liu Bei and his oath brothers, he hightails it out of combat. The saying, if I'm not wrong, which pretty much sums up Lu Bu is "Among men, Lu Bu, among horses, Red Hare." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3. Moves List S,T - Lu Bu thrusts the butt of his spear into the offending trooper and launches him into the air. Not all that great, I personally never use this move for anything as Lu Bu has so many better moves. S,S,T - Lu Bu spins his halberd over his head (several times if you keep tapping T), does a couple of swipes and then stomps the ground. This is your primary crowd management until you get your weapon to level 7 and can use the S,S,S,S,S,T. Even once you get the aforementioned move this move is still useful as I seem to get hit from behind doing the 5S,T much more frequently than with this one since this has more of a 360 degree arc. S,S,S,T - Lu Bu swings his spear from left to right while making a small dash forward. This is a good move to approach a crowd with as it will carry you in to combat while setting off your orb. Not too useful once you're already in a crowd though since it takes a second to charge. S,S,S,S,T - Lu Bu gives his enemy "das Boot" and launches them high into the air. This move is only really useful for getting above a crowd and chaining it into a jump charge. Even then you will end up getting knocked out of the jump more times than not. S,S,S,S,S,T - Lu Bu swings his halberd back and forth in front of himself (several times if you keep tapping T), and then stomps the ground hard. This move is great not only for clearing out crowds, but it also turns generals into paste. The move also activates your orb and when used on generals racks up weapon exp. left and right. As I mentioned earlier, the only problem is that it is not a 360 degree move and you WILL get knocked out of it sometimes. T - Lu Bu impales his enemy on his Halberd, tosses them in the air, whacks their airborne body several times and then uses his halberd to bat them off into the distance. This is Lu Bu's coolest, and probably most effective, move. This is GREAT for several things. You can use it against troop groups since the back and forth whacking of the halberd hits everything in an almost 180 degree arc, it makes Lu Bu invincible while it's on AND it sets off his orb. This is also a great move to use when surrounded AND fighting an officer. Sometimes you catch the officer, and this move does great damage with a vorpal orb equipped, and sometimes the officer jumps to do a jump charge, but you STILL catch a peon out of the group and that catching makes you invincible so the general's jump charge won't hurt you. In fact, you'll probably even catch the general in the whacking motion as he comes down and do damage to him as well. I just can't say enough about this move. Jump Charge - Lu Bu jumps up, flips in the air and slams his halberd down. A decent move, but nothing to write home about. You usually get knocked out of this move. Horse Attacks - Lu Bu has all the standard swipe attacks off the horse. Again, nothing special, but fun when running Red Hare through groups. Musou - Basically the same as DW3. Lu Bu swings his halberd around like a mad man while moving forward. Stops at the end and finishes off with a shockwave. Just like most other characters, this is great for getting large groups of enemies off of your back. Or, alternatively, you can use it while moving out the group to beat a hasty escape. True Musou - Same thing as the musou except it is extended a bit and does more damage just like every other True Musou. Same uses as the regular Musou. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Lu Bu vs. - 4.1 Lu Bu vs. Foot Troops As already mentioned, Lu Bu has several moves that are very effective against foot troops. The most effective are the S,S,T and the S,S,S,S,S,T since they have the greatest overall arc of motion, but the plain T is great for this as well as it has the double effect of giving you temporary invincibility as well as a decent arc for hitting several enemies. As I said before, if you use the S,S,S,S,S,T in a group of enemies, prepare yourself to be knocked down on occasion. 4.2 Lu Bu vs. Generals This is Lu Bu's forte and he his T and S,S,S,S,S,T are both great for getting generals to do down quickly. The plain T is risky if you're not in a group of other enemies as I mentioned earlier, but when in one of those large groups it WILL save your butt since it can grant you that temporary moment of invincibility so that if the officer jumps you won't be affected by the jump charge and if you DO hit the officer, the regulars won't be able to interupt you as you smite him righteously. If it's just you and the officer, then by all means switch over to the S,S,S,S,S,T as it does more damage AND it gives a whole lot of bonus weapon exp. to boot. But, don't try it in a group too often as the regulars who circle behind you will probably knock you out of your move. 4.3 Lu Bu in Duels Lu Bu is also fairly good in duels. My favorite way to approach a duel takes some practice, but you can kill almost all generals in two moves. You start by running up to the general a few steps and then unleash an S,S,T. Lu Bu's S,S,T doesn't stun in the traditional stars over the head, but it does knock the enemy off balance for a moment and this is when you transition into a regular T. The enemy doesn't have time to jump if landed properly and this should be enough to kill them off. If you can't get the timing right just use the S,S,T again or the S,S,S,S,S,T if you've got it and you should be in good shape. Also, if the enemy falls during a duel and you can get close to them as they get up the S,S,T and the S,S,S,S,S,T will make them sorry they got back up. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Lu Bu and Items Lu Bu doesn't get a lot of item slots so I try to keep his layout as basic as possible. He is a straight up tank so I treat him as such when giving him items. This means my favorites are simply a tiger amulet, tortoise amulet, peacock urn and elixir. These four items make him more efficient at what it is he does and that is hand-to-hand combat. As far as orbs my money is either on thunder or vorpal. Thunder helps his moves cover a slightly wider radius, but vorpal is my favorite since his plain T allows him to do more damage to officers on the final slam of the attack. I think orb selection has a lot to do with personal preference. Just a word on Lu Bu's costumes. They are all basically the same with small changes to the head dress. The odd numbers are more gold and the even numbers are more silver. I am disappointed in this aspect of Lu Bu and think Koei could have a gotten a LITTLE bit more creative in this respect. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. How to obtain Lu Bu's 10th weapon 10th Weapon - Sky Scorcher (+60 Attack) Lu Bu's 10th weapon is pretty straight forward once you know how to do it. First off make sure you have your weapon at level 9 and are playing on hard before attempting this. My suggestion is to take a fresh team of bodyguards and set them to "stay" right at the beginning of the stage. This way you have no chance of them accidentally killing off your targets. Anyways, to get the weapon go to Act II of Lu Bu's musou mode where you rebel against Dong Zhuo. The mission contains several rooms and a boat load of officers. You are accompanied solely by your bodyguards and Diao Chan. In order to get the weapon you have to kill EVERY single troop and officer in the stage. It does not matter if Diao Chan or a bodyguard kills a regular troop, but YOU have to personally kill all the officers and sub-officers in the stage other than Dong Zhuo or you will NOT get the weapon. Try getting Diao Chan stuck in a group of regulars before you take on a room's officer if you're having problems with her getting the last hit on officers. If you think you've killed everything and you are still not getting the weapon message that means one of two things; either you messed up and someone else got the final blow on one of the officers or you have missed triggering one of the stages many ambushes. If it's just an ambush that means you have to walk back through all of the rooms seeing if you can trigger any. If it still does not work that means someone else really did put the finishing blow on an officer and you have to start over. Also, when I mean kill ALL troops and officers I mean ALL. This means you also have to kill off Dong Zhuo's bodyguards while he smacks you around, but you CANNOT kill him or you end the stage. (Thanks to Muni's guide for the basics of how to get this weapon.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7. Fighting *against* Lu Bu. So, you want to kill the mighty Lu Bu? Well, listen up and I'll give you a few pointers. First off, do NOT duel him if you value your life. I've heard of others that say they have killed him in a duel, but I think this is idle boasting. However, outside of duels, even at Hu Lao Gate, I don't think he is all that tough. In fact, I'd probably say I have an easier time killing him in DW4 than I did in DW3. First, if you can, get a good team of bodyguards and set them to attack. They will help keep Lu Bu's guards off you back so you can concentrate on him. Second, equip an Ice Orb as it will make your life MUCH easier if you can immobilize him. Lastly, try to get him against a wall so you can knock him against the wall and then start beating on him again as soon as he gets up. Of course, this is assuming your weapon is strong enough to knock him back in the first place. If you have not reached this point then I honestly would wait till you are stronger to take him on. If you absolutely MUST take him on early, then wait until you get a good amount of troops around you to help out since they may drag his targeting away from you for a minute so you can sneak up behind him and get a few cheap shots in. Obviously this small guide is not character dependent. Some characters are going to have an easier time than others simply because their move lists and weapons are better suited to tackling Lu Bu. Other than that, good luck. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lu Bu Character guide by Harlequin07 Copyright 2003 The End...for now.