There are plenty of weapons available in Dynasty Warriors 8, with each officer in the game having their own kind, meaning there are 77 different sets available. The weapon system is similar to Dynasty Warriors 7's, meaning characters can equip two different weapons for use in battles. The character's specialty weapon, or EX weapon, is used for that character's musou attacks.
Weapon Affinity
New to the game, and series, is the Weapon Affinity system. Every weapon in the game has an affinity randomly attached (except for some cases), which is marked by a H, M or E on the weapon's status screen. These stand for Heaven, Man and Earth (respectively) and act similar to rocks, paper and scissors. This means that one is weak to another, but also strong against the third.
Heaven is strong against Earth, but weak against Man. Earth trumps Man, but is weak against Heaven. Man is strong against Heaven, but weak against Earth. When at a disadvantage in this affinity system (marked by a triangle with an exclamation point over the officer's head), attacks do less damage, enemies do more damage and they don't flinch from attacks. When at an advantage (marked by a blue polygon), you do more damage and receive less damage.
This affinity system also brings in two different actions related to it. When you see an enemy officer perform a charge attack while at a disadvantage, your can press the weapon switch button to perform a Switch Counter. If the officer is at a disadvantage, then the gauge above their head will deplete and when it does, players will unleash a flurry of attacks called Storm Rush.
Acquiring New Weapons
Every weapon has a certain rarity to it. This is shown as either a small round circle or a gold star by the weapon's name. Normal weapons range from 1-4 circles and have a few ways of acquiring them. They can be bought from the Blacksmith during Story Mode or at the camp in Ambition Mode. Difficulty level and stage progression will determine the quality of weapons in Story Mode, while the Blacksmith level is the factor in Ambition Mode. They are also dropped by defeating officers in battle. All stats are randomized on these when bought or found.
Rare weapons, marked by gold stars, have fixed stats and cannot be reforged or tempered. Each weapon class has two rare weapons, ranging from rank 1 to rank 3, and only one can be in your possession at any one time. You can only get rare weapons by defeating a playable officer, of which there is a chance the weapon dropped will be rare.
Here is a recap on all the different ways to get new weapons:
- Buy from Blacksmith in camp in either Story or Ambition Mode
- Drop from enemy officers. Generic officers drop a random weapon for unlocked characters, while playable ones drop one of their EX weapons. Playable officers also have a chance of dropping rare weapons.
- Complete 5 consecutive battles in Ambition Mode (very small chance of rare weapon).
One last kind of weapon are fifth (5th) weapons, which are special cases. Like rare weapons, these come with fixed stats, but they can only be obtained by playing on Hard or Chaos. These weapons require you to play a specific stage and do a specific task in that stage. Note that in order to get a 5th weapon for a character, you will need to play as that character.
