Lu Bu is the main boss of “The Battle of Hulaoguan Pass” and is undoubtedly the most difficult boss in Wo Long. This is a mid-game boss fight, and certainly a make or break point for many players. Defeating him is still a rare achievement in the game (only 8% of players have managed to kill him at the time of writing this guide). Even the achievement of defeating him, “Mightiest of Men“, is a nod to his ferocity.
The Battle of Hulaoguan Pass is the seventh main mission of the game. The standard recommendation for this mission is level 37. We recommend that you invest a lot in HP as Lu Bu hits like a truck and most of his critical attacks will one-shot you, making all of your efforts in the fight worthless.
Preparation
Stats in Wo Long are presented differently in the form of elements. We recommend investing in the first two elements. Wood and Fire elements. The wood element increases HP by a good margin and allows you to cast spells rather fast. The fire element increases HP by a moderate amount, but it increases your spirit gain rate for attacking. Stamina in Wo Long is different from any other game. It is represented as spirit. If you block a lot or use magic, it will decrease your spirit (orange bar). Once it is depleted, you will be vulnerable to attacks and can’t block or deflect for a short amount of time. If you attack or deflect, you will gain spirit (blue bar). This allows you to cast magic or block without worrying. So, either invest in “gain in spirit rate for attacking or gain in spirit rate of deflecting” because you will be blocking a lot during this fight. And a reserve spirit (blue bar) will save you from instant death.
Weapons play a very important role in this fight. Lu Bu is relentless and he gets furious when his HP is depleted halfway. He doesn’t get staggered, so you need to keep a weapon that is fast, very fast. So you can land a couple of hits without allowing Lu Bu to punish you (his single spear swipe can drain half of your HP). A short sword upgraded to +4 is your best friend in this fight. But you can use any weapon if you feel confident enough.
Using sorcery against Lu Bu is ill recommended. He moves throughout the arena at lightning speeds and is impervious to fire attacks. Lu Bu is literally a cross between Hermes and Hercules. A tank with the speed of a bullet. You can’t chip away at his health bar as most weapons don’t even do any damage. We discovered that if you use the “Lightning Weapon” sorcery buff on your sword, it doubles the amount of damage against Lu Bu and can be a game changer. Lightning Weapon sorcery belongs to the wood phase (level 1 with 10 morale). It uses two slots of your spirit gauge and can be applied anytime to your weapon. This one has a very fast animation, so you can use it without worrying about getting punished. The only drawback is the time duration for the buff (5 seconds), so you have to use it many times during the fight.
At this point you should have at least 6 dragon cure pots upgraded to +3. Lu Bu gets furious when you restore HP, so be very careful with it. Only use your dragon cure pots when you are certain about not getting hit or the whole process becomes meaningless.
For Divine Beast, we recommend using Qinglong. It is a wooden element beast that creates a safe area where you can replenish your HP for a specific time. It also resonates with your lightning weapon, making it even stronger. Use it during the second phase of the fight and with Qinglong active, stay in the green area at all costs. It can also revive your downed allies if you have 10 or higher morale.
We don’t recommend using any allies during this fight as they are not only worthless against Lu Bu but they will also make this fight a hell of a lot difficult. Lu Bu can destroy any of your allies with a couple of hits and won’t even give you any chance of reviving them. This is a complete waste of Tiger Seals. Lu Bu uses critical attacks more often than his normal attacks, so you won’t get a chance of landing a hit when he is targeting your allies. This is a purely technical fight, so you need to approach it one on one. And you certainly don’t want to hurt your pride as a gamer by calling in cavalry to aid you against the best boss created in ages.
Phase 1
Lu Bu starts the first phase on the back of his trusty steed, Red Hare. He will always greet you with a sliding animation followed by horizontal arrows. A lot of guides recommend being passive against Lu Bu and being patient. We recommend against them. You need to be equally violent towards him, at least during the first phase. When Lu Bu does the sliding animation, run towards him with lightning buff applied to your weapon. This will allow you to dodge the arrows without blocking or deflecting, and you can land at least 4 hits without taking any damage. Do this every single time he does the sliding attack.
Lu Bu had a couple of more attacks during this phase. He makes a swipe with his spear to the right. This one is very fast and can easily be deflected. If you keep close to him, he will make another swipe to the left with an overhead attack. This is a slow attack and if you are having trouble with the timing, block it. One of the best features of Wo Long is that you can still attack while holding the block button. So, if you stop attacking, you will automatically go into defense mode (bye bye LB/L1 button. You will be missed). All of his non-critical attacks are really easy to deflect or dodge. If your spirit gauge is blue, don’t get greedy. Just block. Only deflect if you are confident to pull it off without getting hit. We need to save all the health and dragon cure pots for the next phase.
Lu Bu had two critical attacks while on horseback. One where he jumps into the air and comes crashing down on you. This one can cause panic as the camera goes all crazy if it is locked on Lu Bu (don’t disengage the camera or you will certainly be hit by that attack). Timing for this attack is difficult to master, but once you get the hang of it, it will become a part of your muscle memory and you won’t ever miss the counter on this attack. Wait till the very last moment and then counter. Landing a counter will stagger Lu Bu. Go in and land a couple of hits. Always buff your weapon when Lu Bu starts the animation for this attack. He usually does this attack within seconds of the fight. The next critical attack involves the Red Hare charging at you. This is a sure one-hit kill even at level 40 with high HP. Lu Bu uses this attack rarely when a player is at a distance from him, and is pretty easy to counter with massive punishment follow up. Red Hare will lower his head to slam you. This is the cue to press the deflect button for a perfect counter.
On the ground. Once you deplete Lu Bu’s spirit gauge, he will come down to the ground and make Red Hare run in circles (beware, as Red Hare will always try to headbutt you if you are in his path, causing a lot of damage. We died to him, so you don’t have to). Lu Bu is extremely dangerous on the ground, but you need to fight him there if you want to defeat him. He will now introduce a lot of new attacks.
Ranged attacks. Lu Bu uses both horizontal and homing arrows. The range of this attack is more than half of the arena. So, it is useless to run away from it. Deflect those arrows to gain some precious spirit. Don’t try to run towards Lu Bu or he could stun-lock you with this attack. This is a very random attack, and he will use it even if you are mere inches away from him.
Close quarter combat. Lu Bu will start using his spear more and more. If you move away, he will do a lunging attack. Deflect it with forward movement. It allows you to punish him after the attack. He will also swing his spear with the combo of two or three attacks. Either block or deflect. Don’t attack unless you have gained the knowledge of the timing of the attacks. Never ever hit him more than twice or he will definitely tear you apart.
Lu Bu goes wild. He had three critical attacks in the first phase. The first one is similar to the lunging attack he does on horseback. He will create an explosion around him and jump to slam and attack you with his spear. The timing to counter this attack is exactly the same. Wait till the very last moment. If you miss and the attack connects, Lu Bu’s spear will be set on fire and that is where you need to run away from him. His fire weapon buff lasts for around a minute and can do massive damage even when you are blocking. It will also set you on fire, causing non-stop burn damage. All of his critical attacks buff his spear with fire and the only way to be safe is to either avoid him at all costs or wait for another critical attack to counter. A perfect counter to critical attacks debuffs his weapon instantly.
The second critical attack is extremely scary and, once again, a one-shot kill. Lu Bu will run towards you and grab you with his spear. If he is close to you, run to the opposite side. His attack becomes slower if he has to run for a bit, giving you enough time to counter it. If you try to counter it by being up close, well, good luck with the next attempt.
The third critical attack is pretty straight forward, but it is really really fast. It has two phases. He will swing his spear overhead in a wavy motion (which can be countered there). If you miss it, he will thrust the spear towards you. This attack can be countered in the second phase easily as the damage output of the first phase is miniscule.
Phase 2
When you take down half of his health, Lu Bu will enter into frenzy mode. His second phase is basically similar to his first phase, but this time he will attack you non stop. His two hit combo attack will be changed into 5 hits. He will start doing a massive non-stop combo after the lunge attack. He would shoot arrows twice in a row. Mostly in pairs of horizontal arrows followed by homing ones (causing massive damage to your spirit gauge if you try to block). He will also call Red Hare back to his side and you will have to fight him again while he is on horseback. The strategy remains exactly the same for this phase.
The worst part about his second phase is the use of multiple critical attacks simultaneously. Missing even once is a death sentence. If he moves away after the counter to his slamming critical attack (away from the range of your weapon), rest assured the second critical attack is inbound. He will do the overhead spinning attack followed by a thrust attack. If you manage to counter both attacks, it will destroy at least half of his spirit and his morale will surely deplete. He starts the fight at level 20, so any damage to his morale is a great help during the fight. Rinse and repeat this strategy until the sweet sweet words of “Glorious victory” appear on screen.
Don’t be greedy. Don’t be lenient. Don’t overthink. This fight can and will break your spirit if you take it easy. It took us around 3 hours to finally defeat the mightiest of men. With our guide, we hope it will take you far less time to come out victorious and make Lu Bu run for his life.
