Dynasty Warriors Origins: How to unlock Wu True Ending Route in Battle of Xiangyang

Compared to Shu, Dynasty Warriors Origins’ Wu True Ending Route is a bit of a nightmare. The difficulty certainly ramps up, that’s for sure. All of these optional story routes require you to return to a specific map, and alter the course of fate — in this case, it’s the fate of Sun Jian, who sadly perishes at the Battle of Xiangyang. If your forces can get there quickly enough, perhaps you can change things.

One thing that does make Dynasty Warriors Origins interesting is the Wu True Ending Route and the other extra endings that Tomohiko Sho teased during our in-person interview. However, if you want to alter the fate of Sun Jian, this is what you need to do. Your goal in this version of the mission is to save Sun Jian before he dies where he normally would historically.

Note: There may be other ways to complete this mission. It also contains spoilers for Dynasty Warriors Origins.

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How to easily unlock the Dynasty Warriors Origins Wu True Ending Route

After you beat the Wu story once, return to Dynasty Warriors Origins’ Story Mode and select Wu, Chapter Chapter 3. Select the Golden Banner that asks you to play from the Battle of Xiangyang. This is the first of three required battles to ultimately unlock the True Ending. The others will unlock in Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 respectively.

This is the fight Sun Jian loses his life to Huang Zu. That’s a name you will see a lot of in the Wu story, to be frank. That man just cannot be caught.

Fighting these two officers is the only "extra" thing I do - just to avoid a potential ambush (Image via Koei Tecmo)

Wu has a much harder True Ending Route unlock than Shu does since Shu’s didn’t appear to be under any time limit other than “defeat Cao Cao before Liu Bei escapes” and he’s incredibly slow. In the Wu True Ending Route unlock on Battle of Xiangyang for Dynasty Warriors Origins, you must start acting immediately. I recommend doing this on Historian difficulty, just to make sure you can get places as fast as possible and cleave through enemies fast.

Instead of riding with the group, head east up the path, and go north to defeat Xiang Liang and Cai He to ensure they didn’t sneak up on the group. Then head to Sun Ce and travel with him. When you see officers head, ride on and take them out first.

It's not too hard to get through the officers on this path (Image via Koei Tecmo)

Defeat Li Yan and Yi Ji while you’re here, too. They aren’t much of a threat. You don’t have much of a choice but to take Huang Zu’s sneak attack, unfortunately. You can deal with Cai Mao, which is riding down the path at you. If you get caught in the hail of arrows, make sure to block.

At this point, Sun Jian and Huang Gai will try and deal with Zhang Hu, and Sun Ce’s group will start moving again. Ride forth, and clear out the nearby fortress, and the officers outside and near it — should be one officer outside, to the north. However, instead of going north to the castle, ride west and head to the long path leading south.

Don't let the voices get to you, Huang Gai! (Image via Koei Tecmo)

Before you get here in the Battle of Xiangyang, a fog will likely be conjured up, making it harder for Sun Jian and Huang Gai to see. You’ll also hear some whispers, doubting Huang Gai’s conviction. Break through the gate on the southwest side, along the road that leads to where Sun Jian is (bottom left corner).

Defeat the Yellow Turban Shade, and ride south as fast as your horse will take you! (Image via Koei Tecmo)

Inside this area, you must fight a Shade of Zhang Jiao — speed is of the essence here. You must defeat him as fast as possible, so dodge/guard all his attacks and mash through his health bar. He doesn’t do anything new, so you should be prepared.

Once you defeat him, head south, and use Bravery Attacks to get past the guards bearing giant shields. This is the hardest part of the Wu True Ending Route during the Battle of Xiangyang in Dynasty Warriors Origins. Ignore everyone, and burn all of your dash charges on your horse to get to where Sun Jian is. If you get there in time, the cutscene will play, and Sun Jian will fake his death.

If you see this line from Sun Jian, you succeeded. Time to watch the sad cutscene (Image via Koei Tecmo)

If this fails, I recommend resetting the battle to the point where you fought Zhang Jiao and try to beat him faster. It took me three or so tries to get there quickly enough. The trick appears to be not to do anything extraneous. You need to put speed ahead of everything else. Once you've done this in Dynasty Warriors Origins, you'll have step one of the Wu True Ending route unlocked, and the Battle of Xiangyang will end.

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Dynasty Warriors Origins is set to launch on January 16, 2024. You can learn more about the game in our in-depth review.