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.
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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
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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
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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."
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.)
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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.
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Lu Bu Character guide by Harlequin07
Copyright 2003
The End...for now.
