Bow

Master the Bow in Dynasty Warriors: Origins with our guide. Learn Vigor mechanics, essential Battle Arts like Third Eye, and advanced combos.

The Bow's unique mechanic is Vigor, which can be charged up to 4 bars (or 6 with the Battle Art Breath of Tranquility). When charged, your heavy attacks become very fast and consume one Vigor bar per use. Normally, Vigor is charged by swinging your bow, performing slow charge attacks, or parrying, which is described as painful, slow, and ineffective.

The primary combo for the Bow involves using the Battle Art Third Eye. After activating Third Eye, you can spam charge shots. To execute this combo:

1. Activate Third Eye (or Breath of Tranquility before Third Eye if using that Battle Art).
2. Cancel the Third Eye animation late by evading. Be careful not to cancel too early, as this can negate the Battle Art's effect. Only evade after your Vigor has been restored.
3. Hold Block + Strong Attack, then release Strong Attack to perform a Charge Shot.
4. Cancel the Charge Shot animation with evade and any direction. Release the Block and Strong Attack buttons.
5. Repeat by holding Block and Strong Attack again for another charge shot.

This sequence accounts for 95% of Bow usage. The remaining 5% involves positioning using Hold Lock + Evade + Hold Strong Attack to perform a jump charge shot. This is effective for evading charging enemies by jumping backward while still attacking. It is best performed with Vigor charged, as a jump without Vigor is slower and may result in getting hit.

A final tip is to perform an evade cancel and begin charging another shot when an enemy's shield is depleted and they are in a falling animation. This allows for another Charge Shot immediately after their animation ends.

Most Useful Battle Arts:

• Third Eye: A must-have; you cannot effectively use the Bow without it. Turn down the difficulty to farm kills and unlock this Battle Art as soon as possible.
• Sp Nova Shot: A good alternative to Power Shot. It costs 1 more Bravery but can finish off opponents with low fortitude, especially during their hyper armor phase. Charge shots cannot damage fortitude through hyper armor, but Battle Arts can.
• Breath of Tranquility: Increases maximum Vigor by 2, for a total of 6 bars. While it sounds good, it costs 3 Bravery, which is expensive and means you will use your main damage Battle Arts less often.
• Inferno Shot: This Battle Art creates a flame wave on the ground and is off-hand, allowing you to perform other actions. However, it also means you will spam your main damage Battle Arts less. It is useful in one-on-one situations where you want to conserve Bravery.
• Archer Instinct: An arrow counter Battle Art. It may be very good when facing Fei Wei, the new archer officer.
• Spirit Shot: Functions like Dragon Flash, hitting in a straight line. It costs 5 Bravery (with DoH), but its powered-up version requires full Vigor. You must use Third Eye first for a total of 6 Bravery. This Battle Art drains all 4 Vigor bars, requiring you to use Third Eye afterward. The total cost is effectively 7 Bravery. The powered-up version deals more damage than Ice Luan, so the trade-off might be worthwhile. Note that using Breath of Tranquility to increase maximum Vigor does not affect its damage, as the Battle Art only drains 4 bars.
• Glacial Shot: An arrow version of Ice Luan. It might deal more damage, but it's hard to determine the exact number through the ice effects. It lacks the Sp. property of Ice Luan, which is a trade-off even if it deals more damage. However, you have more control over where to land the Battle Art, as Ice Luan can be somewhat random.

Recommended Setup:

• Third Eye
• Sp. Nova Shot
• Ice Luan/Glacial Shot/Spirit Shot
• Inferno Shot or Archer Instinct (against Fei Wei)

Weapon Attributes: Use the Rank 8 bow. If you wish to farm one, you can experiment with the charge attack time -33% attribute.

Rank 8 Weapon: Piercing Luan

Unlocking Archer Instinct: Clear Zhang Jiao's trails in the training grounds after finishing his story in Yuan Shao's route.

Unlocking Spirit Shot: Complete Yuan Shao's story mission