Wo Long: Fallen Dynastyhas a story that Japanese action game fans may be familiar with. It opens with the Yellow Turban Rebellion in China, which is a classic plot line in many of theDynasty Warriorsgames. It features a lot of familiar names too like Liu Bei and Zhao Yun, even though their faces may be a bit different.
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Past those similar things,Wo Long: Fallen Dynastyhas an overall different story fromDynasty Warriors. It involves magic, monsters, and an Elixir everyone is coming after. That is the basic setup to the game’s plot but there are so many gameplay things to get to, particularly when first starting out.
1Understanding Morale
Morale is an interesting new conceptfor a Soulslike. Players will gain levels through transitional means, but that is not the only thing that dictates strength inWo Long: Fallen Dynasty. The player will get a Morale ranking that starts at 0 and goes up to 25.
Enemies and bosses have Morale too. By defeating enemies, the player’s rank will go up. The higher the Morale ranking, the more damage players will do and defense will increase for them as well. It’s imperative to try and maintain a high score with 25 being ideal.
2The One Wizardry Spell To Master
Wo Long: Fallen Dynastyfeatures spells in one of the five Virtue categories. There are some cool spells to learn, but primarily this isa melee-focused game. There are plenty of ranged weapons if players wish to keep their distance from enemies instead.
There is one spell that players should unlock right away though. It’s called Absorb Vitality and it is part of the Wood Virtue. Once activated, players can heal from every attack that lands on an enemy.
3Stick With Your Starting Sword
Players are going to unlock a vast amount of weapons in the game, from swords to bows and axes. It will give players a nice choice of variety early on for a Soulslike. However, for ease of use, there is no weapon better than the Ring Pommel Sabre.
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This is the starting weapon for players and it is perfectly balanced, especiallyfor deflecting enemiesinWo Long: Fallen Dynasty. Players can stick with it for a good majority of the game and should make sure to upgrade it when they get the chance.
4Virtues To Level Up
There are fiveVirtues inWo Long: Fallen Dynasty, these being Fire, Water, Earth, Wood, and Metal. Each Virtue will increase something specifically, although there are stats that will raise for all five as well like HP. It’s best to try and level up these five Virtues together for at least three ranks.
After that, players should understand what type of player they want to be in the game. A good choice would be to focus on Water, Wood, and Metal, which will keep warriors strong physically, mentally, and defensively. That said, there is no wrong answer here, which is true for most RPGs.
5Understanding Death
This game has one of the most lenient death penalties inthe Soulslike genre. If players fall, their Morale will drop and be absorbed into the enemy that killed them. This enemy will also collect half of the player’s experience, which is called Genuine Qi inWo Long: Fallen Dynasty.
Losing any progress in a game isn’t fun, but at least players won’t lose the full load every time. Also, when going into a boss fight, players should try and keep their Genuine Qi count low. They can do this by grinding and leveling up beforehand so that the loss won’t be as devastating.
6Don’t Forget To Pause
Another interesting feature of the game is that players can pause when playing solo. If players open up the initial options menu, another prompt will appear, allowing them to pause completely. This is a great feature in case players need to catch their breath during an intense boss fight.
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Pausing in games has been around since nearly the dawn of the medium. Life gets in the way for one reason or another and players sometimes need to get away. It’s great thatWo Long: Fallen Dynastyallows this, unlike a lot ofother Soulslike experiences.
7Pay Attention To Item Special Effects
Players are going to get a lot of gear from enemies. The game is likea loot-based RPGakin toDiablo. While not every piece of gear will feature new stats, there are some pretty big differences in the added Special Effects.
Hairpin is a common accessory in the game and one could increase HP while another could prevent poison damage. Before selling anything, players should be sure to look at each piece of loot. The Special Effects can be an easy thing to miss in gear since there is so much copied content inWo Long: Fallen Dynasty.
8Getting Past The First Boss
Wo Long: Fallen Dynastyis one of the most accessible Soulslike experiences in a while but the first boss is a doozy. That’s because Zhang Liang has two phases and players cannot refill their healing item, the Dragon’s Cure Pot, in between them. With this in mind, players will need to work hard in order to make mince meat out of Zhang Liang.
Getting Morale to 25 and unlocking the Absorb Vitality spell can make life much easier, and it wouldn’t hurt to get the overall character level to at least 15 either. If that still doesn’t help, players can keep grinding out levels as is standard in an RPG with tough bosses. Also, staying close to Zhang Liang and improving one’s countering can help a lot too.
Wo Long: Fallen Dynastywas released on May 25, 2025, and is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
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