Methods of Defeating Lu Bu

Introduction
The continuing trend in the Dynasty Warriors series is the difficulty of defeating Lu Bu, regardless of stats, weapons, difficulty, or moveset. Just a side note that if one is to even go near Lu Bu, it is highly recommended that you have at least a 3rd level weapon with 5 movesets, a high defense, and a relatively high offense. However, not every player of the game has the time to level up or get a powered up weapon or stats before the Hu Lao Gate stage, rendering players unable to even go near him without being killed right away (this is why in the novel it took the combined efforts of the Three Brothers of Shu just to drive him off). This guide shows methods on how to defeat Lu Bu with any weapon, skillset, stats, and moveset. The strategies shown are shown on Dynasty Warriors 5, however the concept of defeating is the same: Avoid him announcing you, avoid hand to hand combat, and avoid him going into musou rage.

In Dynasty Warriors 4, if Lu Bu requests a duel and you're not powered up, deny it, as there are no easy-win methods to defeating Lu Bu in one-on-one combat.

Method 1
Upon encountering the castle of Si Shui, Lu Bu appears. Do not engage Lu Bu, but rather stay off of the bridge until furthur detail. If you haven't already, go to gates and break the boxes to get arrows. Do this until you have about 80 arrows available. Go back to Si Shui gate, remaining off the bridge, and out of Lu Bu's sight. Defeat any remaining officers that are out of the bridge, including Lu Bu's officers in an attempt to lower morale. Li Ru should appear with reinforcements in the detour winding towards Si Shui Castle, but if one has bodyguards placed at a point in the road, it shouldn't be a problem. Once every officer and general is taken care of, position yourself exactly with Lu Bu, and repeatedly shoot him with your arrows. Do not use musou arrows in an attempt to defeat him quicker, for it will only waste arrows. Once he gets up, he will engage you. Run far from the base of the castle to avoid detection (if he doesn't announce you, you're undetected). Once you are out of the chase, go back and releatedly press Triangle to stun him, then press Square to shoot him when stunned. Do this while off the bridge, or he will spot you, and go into hyper rage, making him impossible to defeat with a non-leveled up weapon. Eventually, if you shoot him on target with all 80 arrows using strategic combonations, he should be defeated. If really confident, you could go up and slay him with your weapon, but do it quickly, for when struck, he will go into a true musou hyper rage when near death, probably killing in one shot.

Method 1
Once all the enemy officers are defeated outside the castle, grab a musou rage after the 100th kill. Do not engage the enemy gate captain, or the method will not work. Once all gate captains, enemy generals, commanders, etc are dealt with outside the gate, defeat the gate captain. Immediately following the opening of Hu Lao Gate, step inside, and direct your character to the left hand side directly in the door (this is where Lu Bu will be positioned). Right before Lu Bu comes, go into Musou Rage mode, and once he comes, knock him off his horse, and use a musou attack, and juggle him at least 5 times. He will now be dead, and he does not even get a chance to go into hyper rage.

Another method is to bog him down with allies and as soon as he enters his rage, simply stand back and watch until it wears out.

Method 2
For a more challenging method, once at the gate, ignore the main gate, and go directly for Zhang Liao. Defeat Zhang Liao, and get any power up items before you engage Lu Bu. Defeat the enemy gate captains in the castle, and do not go near Dong Zhou, for you will trigger Lu Bu. defeat any enemies on Lu Bu's army to attempt to drop morale, and make way to Dong Zhou. It is generally wise to have a musou rage at this point, for it's not the difficulty of defeating Lu Bu, it's his freakishly high defense that is long and cumbersome to defeat. Once Dong announces for Lu Bu, zig zag directly towards the gate, and knock Lu Bu off his horse, follow up with a musou, go into musou rage, and juggle him as long as you can, with as many repetitions as you can. Do not let Lu Bu go near Dong Zhou, for this will trigger Lu Bu's attack hyper rage, and make it almost impossible to engage Dong Zhou directly with a weapon. Once Lu Bu gets up, he should be at about half in damage. Knock Lu Bu with a swipe-move and power up the musou gauge. Once Lu Bu gets up, juggle him, and pull out a musou attack, get up and immediately fill up your gauge. Attack Lu Bu with rapid upswings, hurling him in the air, and juggle him. Once your musou gauge is filled up, hit a musou attack on him. With a level one weapon, Lu Bu should be about 8/10 dead. once back up, shoot him with a stun arrow immediately, and charge up your musou gauge. Lu Bu will likely go down in about one more good power move, so after this, engage him once more with a musou attack or strong combo and you should defeat him.

Method 1
Wait directly in front of the gate while the ram is attempting to breach it. Once the gate opens, immediately run into the inner castle, and wait at the righthand-most corner of a wooden fence. Lu Bu will appear directly where you're standing. The second he appears, knock him down. Do this immediately, as once his scenario plays, he will change into hyper mode. If your character is powered up, a good (8/10) majority of his health will be eliminated, making your job a lot easier. If you have not yet evolved your character, you can get the easy advantage by continuing a combo on him after the scene plays. He won't ask you for a duel in musou mode.

Method 2
Lure Lu Bu directly in the middle of your forces. Do not worry about any sub-general's being killed, it really makes no difference, and go ahead and defeat Diao Chan. Lu Bu will not go into a frenzy if you do this, probably due to a bug in the game, however it will prevent Dong Zhou's retreat. Stay away from Lu Bu's sight (as in the Dynasty Warriors rule of thumb: if you can't see it, it's not happening) for 10 minutes approx. while hacking and slashing other generals. Once Dong Zhou's the only one left, you can safetly go back to deal with Lu Bu. By this time he is on one hit KO. mode, and could be defeated even by pressing R3 (which is a taunt command that deals a slight hair of damage).

Survival Mode (Samurai Warriors)
Lu Bu is the last boss in the Abyss Survival Mode in Samurai Warriors and its expansion. It is highly recommended to equip items with 50+ buffs and at least a 4th weapon (or a strong 3rd) for the fight. He rivals Oichi in attack range and can kill nearly any character in three or two hits. His weapon has the Thunder element which can possibly stun you or break your guard. He will usually win any deadlock and thus kill you with the following special attack animation.

The safest way to beat him and to not put the previous survival twenty eight floors to waste is to abuse your character's True Musou. Run around the room, avoid being trapped in a corner, and let him have it. A higher Potence skill level helps but isn't necessary. Avoid clashing with his attacks and take advantage of your character's evade if he strikes. Be careful to avoid getting too close to his back as he can hit you on the last part of his first strike.

Alternatively, the gutsier method is to slowly chip away his life with half-finished combos (ie: Square, Square, Square) or with attacks that break his guard. This method has a small chance of success with quick attacking characters like Hanzō, Kunoichi or Nobunaga. This is only recommended for players who are very good at predicting Lu Bu's AI and attack speed.