Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty's combat will be familiar to you if you've played Nioh or Sekiro, but it is unique in its own right. It's stylish, fast-paced, and challenging to a fault. With no stamina bar to contend with, the nature of combat is more timing-based.
You can block plenty of attacks, but the nuance of fighting in Wo Long comes in the form of Deflection, dodging, and planning your approach. However, there is barely any impactful consequence of dying repeatedly, and doing so is part of getting better at the game.
Let Your Followers Do The Work
In nearly every mission you undertake in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, you'll be accompanied by a Follower. Followers are NPCs who happen to be heroes from the Three Kingdoms era of Chinese history that any Dynasty Warriors fan will recognise immediately.
These characters and other online players in co-op can be summoned in nearly every mission to give you an upper hand in each level.
You can have two followers at any given time, and they are extremely effective at taking the heat away from you during combat, especially when it comes to boss fights. If you are in a bad situation or overwhelmed, back off and let your followers take over while you recuperate.
Trick Enemies With Ledges And Jumps
Unlike Nioh, Wo Long has introduced a jumping function. The best part about this, other than the vertical exploration, is exploiting it to trick your enemies. When you've got an enemy's attention, you can look for a place to jump up or down to, which will trigger them to route to you and do the same.
While the foe is jumping down – depending on their size, you might be able to knock them over in midair – you could take a few swings and then jump back up to the ledge they dropped down from. This is a great way to kite several mobs at once and give you some much-needed breathing room.
Be Aggressive In Fights
You're rewarded in Wo Long for being much more aggressive in fights due to the nature of the Spirit Gauge mechanic. When you attack more, you push your Spirit Gauge into blue, which means your next charged attack will be enhanced and more powerful than normal.
If you're blocking a lot of hits or taking damage, your Spirit Gauge will go further into the red, which means you're getting closer and closer to having your posture broken, leaving you vulnerable to a killing blow. One way to flip the gauge back in your favour is by hitting perfect deflections and doing damage to your foe instead.
Weapons Have Skills Called Martial Arts
Nearly every single weapon you come across in Wo Long will have a special Martial Art skill tied to it. The skill is different for most weapons, but there's only a limited pool of available arts that will be assigned to a weapon you pick up. These weapon skills are known as Martial Arts, and they are powerful attacks that consume Spirit to use.
You should always try and mix them into your combos due to how freely they can be activated and performed. Some have a long wind-up, while others release immediately, so studying the Martial Art in question will give you good information about when you should try and use it.
They're excellent for breaking enemy stances, leaving to open to a fatal blow. You can also use them as much as you like, so spam away if you don't mind lowering your Spirit.
Guard While You Deflect Attacks
Blocking and deflecting will be your bread and butter in Wo Long, so mastering when and where to block or deflect is going to take you far as you tackle more missions and fight more challenging enemies.
One way to get to grips with the Deflecting system is knowing that you can simply hold the block and whenever you want to you can press the dodge button to deflect or move out of the way.
It's better than, for example, not holding your guard up while you try and practice any attack deflections. You do drop your guard when you deflect, but this way you can choose more precisely when to deflect, instead of gambling with being too fast or too slow.
It's important to know that Critical Strikes, telegraphed by a lot of glowing red effects, cannot be blocked by they can be deflected or dodged.
Deflecting these attacks will do significant Spirit Gauge damage to your foe and give you a chance to break their posture.
Remember To Use Wizardry
In Wo Long, you can have four spell slots to pad out your arsenal and give you one more addition to your repertoire in fights. Spells are tied to the levels you put in each of the five stats, and you can unlock more spells in each tree depending on your level. There is something of an elemental effectiveness system in Wo Long tied to the elemental spells you get access to.
- Wood beats Earth
- Earth beats Water
- Water beats Fire
- Fire beats Metal
- Metal beats Wood.
Knowing when you can use a spell to clear out any lingering effects from your enemy's spell will be useful in fights. You should also consider mixing a spell into your combos since some are fast to activate.
Match Your Weapons And Gear To Your Stat Investment
The levelling system in Wo Long sees you invest points in different Virtues. These are Wood, Earth, Metal, Fire, and Water. Essentially, these stats will dictate various parameters of your character, like how much heavy gear you can wear without being over-encumbered, and so on.
You’ll notice that weapons and armour also have Virtue scaling, which means you benefit some amount based on if these are compatible. It’s like scaling from Dark Souls and Elden Ring, where the Virtues are Dex, Faith, and so on.
If certain weapons are aligned to Wood, for example, this means the higher your investment in Wood will give you more damage or other various benefits from the weapon. The same is true with armour, so keep an eye on which weapons you are using in fights.