You knew this was coming. This is a Romance of the Three Kingdoms game, so you were going to have to fight Lu Bu. The good news is that Lu Bu isn’t actually as much of a pain as the last two bosses Wo Long threw at you, but that naturally doesn’t mean he’s a cakewalk either. And this is the snowy Lu Bu encounter, mind you. But here’s how to beat the first appearance of Lu Bu in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty.

Lu Bu – How to beat the boss fight in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty

When the fight starts, Lu Bu is on his famous horse, Red Hare. This is the easiest part of the battle. This phase has two critical blows, a regular melee attack, and a ranged attack. When he runs up near you and raises his weapon, he’s about to slash at you. You can parry, block, or dodge this. But getting a quick hit in after a parry is a pretty good idea. He shoots arrows at you regularly but these aren’t much of a problem. When you see him do a critical blow, he’s either going to leap into the air and drop onto you or charge at you.

Just parry when he’s about to land for the former and parry once he starts moving toward you for the latter. A few parries is all it takes to fill his red spirit meter. Once you do, though, you’ll need to hit him one last time, which will knock Lu Bu off of his horse. Once he’s on the ground, things start to get a little heated. As soon as he’s off his horse, he’ll leap into the air and then try to slam down on you.

Stay away from the walls

If this hits you, you’re going to be set on fire. Wait to parry until you see him falling. For the most part, it’s not safe to hit Lu Bu outside of quick attacks in between his strikes. A faster weapon will give you more leeway, however. His attack is mostly an onslaught of powerful hits. You can certainly learn to parry them all, but it isn’t necessarily worth it Just block and throw in a parry now and again to keep your spirit from getting too low.

There are two iffy design things to keep in mind during this fight. The first is that you absolutely don’t want to fight Lu Bu near the arena’s walls. The camera will angle in a way that it’s very hard to see, which will likely end with you taking unnecessary damage. If you have a wall behind you and he’s pressuring you, parry his attacks while moving to the side to redirect him and have him push you back toward the center. The other thing is his horse. Red Hare runs around in a circle the entire time Lu Bu’s on foot and there might be times where he runs in front of your camera, giving you a couple of moments where you can’t see what’s happening. I’ve had this happen during critical blows, which led to me taking damage, so be wary.

During the first half of the fight, one of the critical blows he uses the most is to charge at you and then strike. It’s necessary that you not parry when he first starts running at you. Only do it once he closes in, because he doesn’t wind up or try to use his weapon’s range. That’s because this attack is a multi-hit featuring a grab. It might kill you outright. If it doesn’t, you’ll be almost dead after eating it, so this is one of the most important attacks to learn the timing of for proper parries. After a few of these, the glowing dot will appear on him, so go ahead and use your spirit attack. Lu Bu is also quite fond of setting his weapon on fire and shooting fire arrows. If you get hit by these attacks, you’re going to catch on fire.

Screenshot by PC Invasion

Time critical blows during his second phase: Horse rider

You can continue the above strategies for the most part, but be warned — he’ll soon whistle for his horse, which will force you to repeat the first phase. You can get his spirit gauge down all the way again before he does this, but you can’t miss any of his critical blows. Once he’s back on the horse, it’s the same as it was before. When you get him down to half health, the fight doesn’t change too much. But there are two important differences.

The first is that he gets a new, tricky critical blow. He glows and then spins to attack you but this isn’t the critical blow. This is a regular attack. The critical blow comes shortly after, so if you parry the first hit and then relax, you’ll get hit by the more dangerous one. His even more dangerous change is that he’ll start using a second critical blow after finishing one. If you were using a spirit attack or martial art after his first critical blow, you’re going to have to stop doing that, or you’ll get hit by his second strike.

You’ll be able to take Lu Bu down as long as you’re able to master the timings of his critical blows. Just keep your guard up and don’t focus on hitting him all that much and you’ll be able to make it through. And that’s all you need to do to beat the first appearance of Lu Bu in Wo Long.

Screenshot by PC Invasion

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is available on Steam and PC Game Pass.