Exactly How Long It Takes to Beat Dynasty Warriors: Origins, and How to Get All Three True Endings

Dynasty Warriors is one of the longest-running action series out there, but Origins represents a fresh start, a kind of soft reset. With this game, Dynasty Warriors goes back to basics and tells a story with a much shorter, tighter focus. Origins ends at the Battle of Chibi, also known as the Battle of the Red Cliffs — which is just a fraction of the story found in Dynasty Warriors 9. With that in mind, here’s exactly how long you can expect to spend with Dynasty Warriors: Origins, including if you want to see those true endings.

How Long it Takes to Beat Dynasty Warriors: Origins

If you’re familiar with the Dynasty Warriors series, you know it focuses on the three warring kingdoms of Wei, Wu, and Shu. That’s still the focal point of Origins, but this game shows the rise of each kingdom in greater detail than ever before. With that, the story splits into three different routes roughly halfway through, letting you choose which kingdom you want to ally with. That means your playtime can vary wildly in Origins, based on whether you simply want to play through one kingdom’s story or see absolutely everything.

Each kingdom has a completely different chapter 3-5, with different battles, cutscenes, and shows different sides of the story. Mixed into all this story are dozens of optional side battles, and even more little engagements scattered throughout the world map.

Playing through one time will take roughly 20-25 hours depending on how much side content you want to do. Luckily, you don’t have to do a full playthrough to see the other sides. Once you get one ending you can instantly jump back to any point of the story and any battle. This means you can completely skip the first two chapters if you want. You also unlock a new difficulty level, new skills, and more.

If you want to see and do everything, you’re likely looking at anywhere from 50-70 hours with Dynasty Warriors: Origins.

How to Get All Three True Endings in Dynasty Warriors: Origins

If the already branching storylines and wealth of side content weren’t enough, Dynasty Warriors: Origins has three different True Endings to achieve. In order to get these endings you need to make key choices and overcome the game’s most difficult challenges, in the process changing history and altering the fate of some characters. Each kingdom has its own true ending, so we’ll walk through them one by one. For all of these true endings, you need to beat the game at least once and unlock the option to jump back to previous battles and chapters. Keep in mind these are all extremely difficult as well, so if you’re having trouble and just want to see the story, you can knock the difficulty down.

Shu

Shu is by far the easiest true ending to unlock, as you only need to alter fate in one specific battle. You need to jump to Chapter 5 and play the Battle of Changban. In this battle, Liu Bei and his forces are fleeing from Wei, and you typically need to escape as fast as possible. To get the true ending, however, instead of escaping, when Cao Cao appears, turn around and head straight for his massive army. If you want to take a partner into this battle, Zhang Fei is the best pick because of his sheer power.

All you need to do is defeat Cao Cao, but you’ll be taking on his large force entirely on your own, with literally no allies. This means defeating hundreds of soldiers and nearly a dozen officers just by yourself — you either need to be extremely leveled up or knock the difficulty down. Once you defeat Cao Cao you should see the notice “Fate Altered,” pop up on your screen. All you need to do now is finish the story with the Battle of Chibi, and you’ll see the true ending.

Wei

Wei is a little more complicated than Shu, but drastically more difficult. There are two battles you need to change in this route, the Battle of Wan Castle and Battle of Bailang. First up, jump to Chapter 3 for the Battle of Wan Castle, which is likely one of the biggest challenges you’ll face in the entire game — again don’t be afraid to crank the difficulty down.

Your sole objective here is to save Dian Wei, and make sure he’s not taken out. Easier said than done. Your best bet is to take Guo Jia as a partner, as he tends to get stuck in battles around the map when on his own. The number one focus here is speed, you need to take out enemy officers as fast as you possibly can, and focus solely on officers. You should be finishing this map in roughly ten minutes if you want to save Dian Wei.

Start this battle by heading to the NorthEast part of the map and conquering the base there, then take out the reinforcements that appear in the center of the map. From there you should be heading to every group of reinforcements that appear and eliminating them as quickly as possible, until your army begins making ladders and you can enter the castle and take down Huche’er. If Dian Wei survives and you get “Fate Altered,” you’ve done it.

Now you’ll need to jump to Chapter 5 and play the Battle of Bailang again. This time you need to keep both Guo Jia and Dian Wei alive, so pick Guo Jia as a partner. Again, speed is of the essence here, but it’s not quite as demanding as Wan Castle.

For this battle follow the objectives and head Northwest first to open a gate and conquer a base. Keep moving north and defeating officers until you encounter Bailuan. He’ll be a bit tougher, but take him down and an ambush will be set up in the North. Activate it and charge in to save Dian Wei. You should see “Fate Altered.” Now just beat the remaining officers and take down Bailuan before Cao Cao is defeated.

Finish the story again after this and you’ll see Wei's true ending.

Wu

Wu is the most complicated true ending, requiring you to alter three different battles. We only know the first two at the moment, Chapter 3’s Battle of Xiangyang and Chapter 4’s Suppression of Wu.

For the Battle of Xiangyang, your task is to save Sun Jian, and while it’s difficult it is pretty straightforward. Again, you can turn down the difficulty. When the battles starts you need to blitz everything as quickly as you can. While you can go East to take out the officers that’ll ambush the group, it’s honestly easier to just charge West, defeat everyone in your way, and open the locked gate. As soon as you do that, turn West and head to another locked gate that leads to a path down to where Sun Jian is trapped. Beat the officer there, go through the gate, and you’ll have to face a phantom version of Zhang Jiao. This is a tough fight but you need to beat it as soon as possible so use everything you have: musuo attacks, skills, your partner, anything. As soon as that’s done charge down to where Sun Jian is trapped and you’ll save him. After that the battle ends and you don’t have to do anything else.

Now go to Chapter 4’s Suppression of Wu where, as you might have guessed, your task is to save Sun Ce. Again, speed is your primary focus here. Play everything like normal, but when Sun Ce breaks off to the West to take a base, head South and take the other base to get a moral boost first. You can try and take another if you want, but absolutely make sure to take down the reinforcements that appear and go after Sun Quan, before you head back to Sun Ce.

Keep taking down reinforcements where you can until the mist appears and envelops Sun Ce. At this point, you need to very very quickly find and take down Bailuan. He’s in the SouthWest corner of the map, and you can use your Eagle Sight to track him down. Halfway through the fight, he’ll summon a horde of phantom soldiers and officers — you only need to defeat Bailuan so focus on him. After you beat him the “Fate Altered” notice will appear, and you now need to beat the map like normal. Make sure you’re helping Sun Ce if he’s ever in trouble, however, as you do need him alive.

There’s one last battle you’ll need in Chapter 5, but we’re still working on that one.

Dynasty Warriors: Origins is available on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.