Dynasty Warriors Origins: How to break the Eight Gates Formation (Battle of Xinye)

The Battle of Xinye in Dynasty Warriors Origins brings a unique problem: overcoming the Eight Gates Formation. We don’t mean the chakra unlocks from Naruto, either. The Eight Gates Formation was said to be a flowing, nearly unbreakable formation. However, Cao Ren and Xiahou Yuan weren’t masters of it, so there were some weak points in it. While you technically can smash through the gates over and over until you eventually win, that’s dangerous.

Doing that will put your party into potentially dangerous situations, especially on higher difficulty levels. If you want to stop the plans of Jia Xu, Xiahou Yuan, and the rest of Cao Cao’s forces, here’s how to break the Eight Gates Formation in Dynasty Warriors Origins’ Battle of Xinye.

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How to correctly break the Eight Gates Formation in Dynasty Warriors Origins

Once you’re down into the main area of the Battle of Xinye in Dynasty Warriors Origins, it’s up to you to break the Eight Gates Formation. You’re told to look for the “gates that look different” and enter them, but to be honest, that’s not how I figured out the solution to find the Gates of View, Life, and Opening.

I spent hours brute-forcing this map until I found the correct order. Technically, you could do this in a few ways, I imagine, since all three of these gates work. The difficulty is that the battle formation shifts when you clear a gate. So while the below selections aren’t the only routes you can go, they are the ones I found.

• First Gate (Gate of View): Northwest Gate (close to 9 o’clock - no Shrine Gate)
• Second Gate (Gate of Life): Northeast Gate (close to 3 o’clock - Shrine Gate on top)
• Third Gate (Gate of Opening): Southern Gate (just past 6 o’clock - no Shrine Gate on top)

If you follow this order, you’ll find yourself in the center of the map, where Xiahou Yuan and his allies await, and you’ll have successfully broken the Eight Gates Formation in Dynasty Warriors Origins. However, each time you get into the correct gate, you’ll still have to fight your way back out.

From left to right is the correct order to break the Eight Gates (Image via Koei Tecmo)

If you pick the wrong gate, you must fight your way out, but it’s more difficult as it's typically a pincer attack with arrows raining down on you the whole time. You can keep doing it this way, but it’s far more challenging.

As soon as you enter this map's main hub, you can immediately ride right into the Gate of View. You’ll know within moments — Xu Shu will tell if you’re right or wrong. As long as you have the first one correct, if you need to withdraw from battle, you can return to the current checkpoint, and try again for the second gate. That’s how I ultimately came to my solution.

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Dynasty Warriors Origins releases on January 16, 2025, on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. You can learn more about this game in our in-depth review.