When you reach the end of the mission “The Battle of Hulaoguan Pass” in Wo Long you’ll end up having to fight the infamous Lu Bu. This is a difficult fight where you’ll notice the skill level increase dramatically from the previous boss fights you’ve encountered thus far. This page will guide you through the best way to defeat him as well as some tips to make things easier.

Lu Bu Build¶

This is more of a spells suggestion than a build per se, but these tips will make the battle a lot easier for you. First things first, equip the following spells, and Divine Beast.

Spells¶

Divine Beast¶

You’ll want to have the second Divine Beast Qinglong equipped, and use its Divine Resurrection skill ( + / + ) whenever you get low on health. This skill will heal you, and your allies for full while leaving a circular pool on the floor that will regenerate your health over time almost making you invincible for the ten or so seconds it stays up.

Equipment¶

This is purely subjective as it depends on your playstyle, but try to go with a weapon that has a quick-hit Martial Art like Beckoning Pine which can be found on the Dual Sabers. For your armor, make sure you have your Equipment Weight in the blue as this will make you more agile.

Another thing you want to do is to have the Deflect Difficulty as high as possible as this will make deflecting more forgiving if your timing is off. One last thing, make sure your armor and weapons are upgraded as high as they can be which should be around at least +3 at that stage of the game. You can do this at the Blacksmith in the Hidden Village.

Items¶

Obviously you’ll have your Dragon Cure Pots to heal, but make sure you’ve been upgrading it throughout the game. This can be done with Dragon Vein Essence which increases the potency of the heal, and Dragon Vein Crystals which will give you more pots to use. These are hidden throughout the missions, and can be missed until you replay the mission.

Other useful items that are not needed, but worth equipping to your shortcuts are Dragon’s Cure Powder which will give you a potent heal over time, and Heatproof Ice. This item is great if Lu Bu inflicts Burn on you from his fire attacks, and it’ll also increase your resistance to it too. Finally, Bear Gall. Using this will temporarily increase the amount of Spirit you get from attacks which helps keep your Spirit Gauge on the lower end of the spectrum.

Lu Bu Strategy¶

When you start the battle against Lu Bu, you’ll notice he’s riding a horse. This is one of three phases that he’ll go through in the fight with the other two being his Fire Phase, and his Melee Phase, all of which are dangerous. The general flow of the fight will work like this:

• Horse Phase - Keep Deflecting his ranged and his weapon attacks to build up his spirit gauge. When it’s full, the next hit will knock him off.

• Fire Phase - Once he’s on the ground his horse will run aimlessly around the perimeter of the arena which can still deal damage if it hits you. If Lu Bu sets his weapon on fire, his Critical Blows will change. On top of that, his melee and ranged attacks will change as well as having fire damage. Use Frost Lance to seal his fire attacks as that is arguably when he is his strongest.

• Melee Phase - After he’s knocked off the horse, he’ll either use Fire Phase or Melee Phase. If you seal his fire with Frost Lance, he’ll revert to this phase. In this phase, he’ll throw relentless multi-hit combos at you. You’ll want to parry, and counter each attack which is easier said than done.

Now that you have a general idea of how the battle will play out, let’s talk about each phase’s attacks and Critical Blows.

Horse Phase Attacks¶

• Ranged Attack - Lu Bu will ride around on his horse while dragging his weapon to the ground. He’ll stop, and quickfire a ranged attack that covers a wide area at you. This can be easily deflected. Wait until the projectiles get near you then hit the deflect button. This can be used twice in quick succession when his health gets lower.

• Melee Attack - Lu Bu will ride his horse past you while attacking with his weapon. This will miss you half of the time, but always be ready to deflect/dodge it as the chip damage it does over time can start to hurt you.

Critical Blows¶

Lu Bu only has two Critical Blows on horseback, both of which are easy to counter when you get the hang of it.

• Leaping Slam - Lu Bu will leap in the air and slam down on you. Wait until he is about to land on you before pressing deflect.

• Charge - As the name suggests, Lu Bu will charge at you with his horse. This is a bit trickier to get down, but you’ll want to deflect almost as soon as he starts the attack as there isn’t much time before the attack hits you.

Fire Phase Attacks¶

When Lu Bu gets knocked off his horse, he’ll either be in the Fire Phase or Melee Phase. He can start the fire phase at any time while he’s off his horse. If you leave him in the fire phase when he jumps back on the horse, his attacks will become fire-based which includes the fire-ranged attacks which are more difficult to deflect. Whenever you see him enter Fire Phase, throw a few Frost Lances at him to temporarily seal them, and he’ll switch over to Melee Phase. Note: Sometimes it may not seal the attacks, especially if he is in the middle of a Critical Blow attack. You’ll know when the attacks are sealed because you’ll see some Chinese lettering appear above him.

• Fire-Ranged Attack - Similar to his regular ranged attacks, but these will have the fire property, and they’ll cover more area. Like the regular ranged attack, he can use this twice in quick succession when his health drops. You can deflect this the same way you deflect the normal attacks, but it does appear to come at you quicker.

• Fire Melee Combo - This is arguably some of the hardest attacks to deal with. Similar to the melee phase, he’ll lunge at you with an attack, then follow it up with a thrust before unleashing several attacks in quick succession. Ideally, you’ll deflect all these, but they come at you quickly, so don’t be afraid to block if your Spirit Gauge is low or dodge away from the attacks.

Critical Blows¶

These have similar properties to the horse phase Critical Blow, but the timing is tighter, and it’ll obviously deal fire damage, and cover a bit more ground.

• Leaping Fire Slam - Similar to Leaping Slam, but if you get hit, you’ll most likely receive the Burn status effect. This will also leave temporary fire underneath it. At first this is difficult to deflect, but once you get the timing down, it becomes easy. Lu Bu will slam his fire-imbued weapon into the ground which will launch him into the air before he crashes down at you. Wait until the last second before pressing deflect to counter it.

• Fire Charge - This is a difficult Critical Blow to counter, and you may want to avoid it altogether. Lu Bu will spin his weapon before charging at you with it dragging along the ground before he unleashes an upward strike. The easiest way to deal with this other than avoiding it entirely is to run towards him and press deflect as soon as you get near to him. This attack does leave a trail of fire, so make sure you stay out of it. If you do try to avoid the attack, it does lock-on and track you.

Melee Phase Attacks¶

This can also be difficult to deal with as his combos can be relentless, and later on it gets worse! For the most part, the melee phase is attack combos with the odd ranged attacks thrown in, but he does gain a new Critical Blow. This phase is all about deflecting the attacks while throwing in a few counters of your own. Most of his combos will be multi-hitting (think 5 or 6 attacks) sweeps, leaps, and thrusts. He’ll normally close the distance with a leap attack, and then perform either a sweeping or thrust attack immediately after.

These two attacks are your best time to counter him without taking damage. When you deflect the leap, immediately press / to perform a spirit counter, this can also be done with / , which is quicker, but it won’t do as much damage. When he starts chaining up the combos, try to deflect/block as much of it as you can. You can try dodging away from him, but he has a lot of range on his attacks, and will most likely hit you while you get away from him. Finally, he can use his ranged attacks like he does in the horse phase, but they shouldn’t cause you any problems.

Critical Blow¶

Lu Bu only gets one extra Critical Blow in this phase, but he can still use the fire phase Critical Blows which he can use to transition himself into the fire phase.

• Spinning Thrust - Lu Bu will spin around with his weapon before unleashing a thrust attack. You’ll want to deflect just as the thrust is about to hit, but the timing can be tight. Worst case, dodge away from it towards the side.

• Uppercut - Lu Bu will quickly unleash an upwards swing from a standing position. He doesn’t appear to use this a lot, but he does have it in his arsenal. This attack is all about reflexes as it’ll come at you quick.

Lu Bu Battle¶

As you can see above, all of his attacks are listed with their counters. He’ll always start the fight in the Horse phase, and when you fill up his Spirit Gauge, he’ll get thrown off where he’ll enter the Melee Phase. He can switch into Fire Phase at any moment while he’s in his melee phase, usually, after he performs one of the Fire Phase Critical Blows. If his weapon stays on fire, use Frost Lance (any Water Spell) to seal them away. This will make your life a lot easier.

The horse phase is the easiest phase to deal with as he’ll either shoot ranged attacks off you which are easy to deflect, or he’ll attack you with his melee attack, although this only happens when you’re close to him. Some will say to sit back and deflect his ranged attacks until he falls off the horse, and this is the safer method. But, this leaves more time for him in his harder phases. Instead, run up to him while avoiding/deflecting his ranged attack and get a couple of attacks on him before he retreats, but be careful of his melee attacks when you’re close. This chip damage you do to him will add up.

When you knock him off his horse, he’ll fall to the ground. If you’re close enough to him, rush over and lay down an Imposing Slab on his body, but be ready for an attack almost immediately. Now he’ll be in the Melee Phase. This will be where most of the damage you receive will come from, well, that and the Fire Phase which he can switch over to at any moment. This is where your Divine Beast Qinglong comes in! Keep attacking him until you lose a fair bit of health, then pop Qinglong who’ll heal you to full (as well as resurrect any Ally) while also placing a strong regenerative heal in a circle on the floor. Stay inside the ring at all times, and repeatedly use your Martial Arts while you attack him. While you’re in the ring, you won’t die unless he knocks you out of it, so you can deal a nice bit of damage to him for free.

If you throw a Repression Crush (Early Metal Spell) at him before you use Qinglong, you’ll keep his Spirit high, and eventually you’ll be able to perform a Fatal Strike which is where most of your damage will come from. When he uses a fire-base Critical Blow, he’ll switch over to the Fire Phase. This is similar to the melee phase, but with fire! His attacks hurt more due to them having the fire property, and if you’re hit with enough of them, you’ll get the Burn status effect which will deal damage over time to you. If you get burned, pop a Heatproof Ice to nullify it well as increase your fire resistance for a brief period.

Like any boss in Wo Long, if you can’t deflect most, if not all the Critical Blows you will struggle, and for the most part, they’re not the hardest to counter after a bit of practice. Keep using Inner Breath periodically throughout the fight, so you can use Qinglong more often, and try using that to heal instead of wasting your pots, and only use them if the Divine Beast is less than half filled. You can switch out Imposing Slab for Enhance Defense if you prefer to be a bit safer.

Lu Bu Critical Blow Video¶

Reinforcements and Online for Lu Bu¶

If you’re still struggling with Lu Bu, you may want to get some help from people online, or AI companions which can be found in the Reinforcement’s menu of the Battle Flag. Getting people online can be hit or miss as it will increase the boss’s health. If you’re lucky enough to get one or two competent players, you’ll be fine. But, they can be a detriment if they’re not particularly good at the battle. For Reinforcements, they can be useful during the melee/fire phases, but they’re almost useless for the horse phase as they will take away the deflect opportunities away from you.