Charge Attacks

Charge Attacks (チャージ攻撃, onyomi: Chāji Kōgeki) or Strong Attacks are powerful moves often found in Warriors titles that can be executed by pressing undefined (default setting on PlayStation ports). They often take time to execute and can be usually interrupted. Combining charge attacks with normal attacks (, default setting on PlayStation ports) help players break through their opponent's defenses.

The reason why they are normally called as such is due to their iconic sound effect and their beginning delay mixed in with signature special effects. Even though on the contrary, very rarely can charge attacks be "charged up".

To abbreviate these combos, sometimes fans refer to charge related combos by stating C and a variable number for the charge attack's sequence in the chain. For instance,, , , undefined would be called C4 since the charge acts as the last attack.

Here's a visual guide line that shows the common abbreviations for charge attacks.

Additional attacks attached to a single charge attack is sometimes referred to as C# - # of the follow up (for example:, , undefined, (undefined) would be C3-1). While combo fans may refer to each tap individually, most players include these extra attacks when they refer to that particular charge.

The formula for this combo chain has evolved over the years and each Warriors related series adds a new element to the system.

Dynasty Warriors
Expanding the original game's combos, Dynasty Warriors 2 began the series with a four button combo chain. The following title adds two more charge attacks. Jumping charges were added to the series in the fourth title and select characters received "aerial charge combos" in the fifth game.

Each charge combo had its own properties and follow a general pattern for every character with little variation. The main exception to this is the sixth title's Renbu system.


 * C1: Strong attack forward varying from a dashing attack, short ranged explosion, and so on. In previous titles, these attacks were simply slow strong attacks that instantly broke guards. Starting from Dynasty Warriors 4, they became unique to reflect a character's trait; i.e. Huang Zhong and Xiahou Yuan pull out a bow and shoot multiple arrows at foes while melee fighters like Sun Ce have an unblockable grab move at their disposal. Dynasty Warriors 4 jumping charges had most characters land with a quake attack (or some other area-of-effect) that did not earn any Musou. In Dynasty Warriors 5 and the Warriors Orochi series, however, characters' jump charges began to vary in terms of style; the former game removed the grabs completely before they were reworked in later games. However, in Warriors Orochi 2, no longer do a majority C1 attacks activate elements, and jumping charges were never elemental activation attacks in the first place.


 * C2: A small, centralized attack that lifts enemies upward. Ideal for juggling foes for longer combos, though compared to other launchers the lift is arguably not very high. This is very rarely an elemental activation attack, especially in the fifth title and Warriors Orochi 2, since this move tends to be used the least by a number of players. In the case of the second Warriors Orochi game, only some C2 attacks can still activate elements.


 * C3: A stunning attack that of course, stuns on grounded-hit. Dynasty Warriors 4 and the fifth title replaces this with the Charge Rush, a chain combo that ends with an extra hitstun attack. Increasing the weapon level (as in the total number of normal blows the weapon can do) and button taps (undefined) could raise the number of attacks performed (some characters can extend their rush by just a small bit at the default weapon level). Most of these can in the fourth and fifth titles (as well as other games like Warriors Orochi) end in a stagger effect or a stun at the end of their chains. In Warriors Orochi 2, however, these are amongst many of the multi-input charge attacks that activates elements only on the final hit/input. Dynasty Warriors 7, the attacks may instead be grabs/throws depending on the weapon being used.


 * C4: Powerful attack that sends enemies flying several meters away. The range will change depending on the character/weapon, and it may be the best crowd clearing attack on them. The fourth title mostly reuses the motions of these charges for parry attacks whereas the fifth game incorporates some of them as evolution attacks. This attack is also very common for the "crashing knockback" effect.


 * C5: Added in Dynasty Warriors 3. Varies based on title. For the third and fourth title, it was a combo sequence that trapped enemies within range in a spiraling upward launch only if hit in front, known as the Charge Drive. Characters would strike their foe upwards and another tap of the charge button could smash their aerial foe downwards with a single strike (the type of knockback on both grounded and midair targets in reach varies for each character's Charge Drive finisher), and the launch was often higher than that of a C2's launch. The fifth title changes it to an area of effect attack, sometimes one with a good distance in front of the character, to launch multiple enemies up in the air. Dynasty Warriors 7 mixes both these traits and also adds a few other additions based on the weapon being used. They can be throws, sequenced combos, or may send random projectiles forward. In the third and fourth titles, the attack would only move the same direction the character was facing (or through an auto-target system involving the aggro-coding). This was no longer the case since the new C5 mechanic in Dynasty Warriors 5.


 * C6: Added in Dynasty Warriors 3. An attack unique for each character/weapon. Depending on the character/weapon, the attack can be a single strike, a combo sequence (usually requiring multiple undefined taps), or something else entirely (like a projectile, but most of those have been removed in the fifth title). These charges usually become available for characters equipped with their third or final weapons. In Warriors Orochi 2, any multi-input C6 attacks could only activate elements on the final input, with Cao Cao being a unique case with only his C6's first and final blows.

There are also common hit effects associated with charge attacks throughout the series, which is different from the knockdown/knockback state:
 * Launch: As it exactly says on the tin, the launch state is a state where the targets are knocked up into the air off of their feet. The most common way to set up this effect is with a C2 or C5 attack, but this mainly pertains to the usual launch inflicted by a C2. For each of the characters' moves, the total launch height and type of launch greatly varies. Either way, it's often a general rule in that launching a juggled target as opposed to a grounded one will allow for a greater window of time for them to somersault-recover from it. If launched from a normal grounded state, then the target must land on the ground in order to tech from the state. In past games, CPU's would not tech from a launch until hitting the ground, even if they are launched multiple times in a row very often from repeated juggling, whereas in more recent games as of Dynasty Warriors 4, CPU's will not hesitate to tech at the apex of their juggled launching state.
 * Stun: As the name says, this state causes the target to undergo an animation where they twirl around a bit and stay in a dazed position. Button mashing any buttons (barring any toggle and pause buttons) can enable one to break out of the stunned state sooner. Enemies on lower difficulties would stay in stunned state for an unusually long time. On higher difficulties however, especially for generals, they are able to break out of the player's inflicted stun much sooner than one would expect, requiring quick acting. Any attack landed on a stunned target would knock them off of their feet and put them into an air hit/juggle state. This is one of the few states that cannot be reversed with a Musou Attack, as once someone is hit by a stunning attack, they can only bide their time or button mash frantically to break out of it. Stuns only work on grounded targets, and any stunning attacks will have varying hit effects on an airborne target.
 * Guard break: A state that rarely occurs in games after Dynasty Warriors 3. This state involves the character being in a forced back position and trying to recover. All guard break states for all units and characters take up the same amount of time, though for archers in older games for both guard break and stagger state, their guard break state tends to animate much faster with no actual difference in comparison. This is different from both deadlock loss (the animation) and outright unblockable attacks (which cause targets to get hit anyway), and is commonly inflicted by a high-level attack of some sort, usually depending on the ranks of the units facing off against each other. All characters can guard break enemies with a C1 attack only in Dynasty Warriors 2 and Dynasty Warriors 3.
 * Stagger: A state added in since Dynasty Warriors 4. This is similar if not completely identical to the guard break state in terms of the same exact animation, but only occurs on hit and the moves themselves that inflict stagger cannot actually break guards. This is also similar to the stun state in that during the animation, a staggered target will instantly be put into a juggled/air hit state when struck by a normal grounded attack. Staggering finishing blows often occur with a majority of the new C3 attacks characters have since the fourth installment. Just like stuns, staggering can only be inflicted on grounded-targets, and airborne targets are inflicted with a different hit effect depending on the attack landed on them.
 * Crashing knockback: A special type of knockback that often occurs with C4 attacks. Which causes blown back targets to slam into other enemies, inflicting damage. To also differentiate from a normal knockback, crashed-back targets will have their body flip-over upon contacting the ground. If they collide with any surface that acts as a wall, they'll bump into it and drop to the ground. Enemies that take damage from a target being in a crashing knockback state can also be K.O.'d, and thus this can count as K.O.s for the sake of total K.O. count (but not direct K.O.'s for needed requirements and battlefield messages). However, there is also the danger of accidentally K.O.ing any allies in the way of a crashing target as well, since crashing targets can be slammed into both allies and enemies alike. Sometimes the CPU very commonly in Dynasty Warriors 3 can also get themselves struck by their own crashing target due to how they position themselves awkwardly for their attack, though this is often a specific setup on the AI's behalf of bizarre programming that rarely occurs. The fifth title removes the damage done to units crashed into, but can only make sure it affects enemies instead, though later games bring back the damage crashing units can inflict towards other targets. As of Dynasty Warriors 4, a majority of other moves, such as unique C1 attacks can also inflict crashing knockback aside from C4 attacks as well, though some elements in future games may mess with it causing no knockback to ever occur.
 * Spiral: A type of knockdown/knockback state that is only unique in terms of visual cue. The target is often sent in a spiraling fashion with their body facing horizontally. This mainly applies to knockback type moves, normal and crashing alike, but this can also apply to certain launching attacks as well, but only very rarely.
 * Charge Drive Launch: A special type of launch that is mainly for the C5, AKA the Charge Drive, in Dynasty Warriors 3 and 4. Similar to the spiral knockdown state, but often vastly different in the fact that the target is sent whirling backward in a loop while being launched, much like them getting stuck in a Jigoku Guruma (Hell Wheel) throw. This state often lasts longer than the normal launch state from most C1 attacks, and often keeps them up higher. However, this only can occur if the target is hit from the front. If hit from the back, a normal launch of similar height occurs instead. Like the normal launch state, targets can recover before even hitting the ground if they are launched mid-juggle, which also will negate the special Charge Drive-type launch state. This state has been removed with the new C5 mechanic ever since Dynasty Warriors 5.
 * Trip: A stationary knockdown state where the target simply falls over in place as if they were leg-swept. This is one of the few states that cannot be recovered from with a somersault, as the air time caused by this state is very short. This commonly occurs with most quake-type moves, like Zhang Fei, Huang Gai and Meng Huo's C6 attacks. In Dynasty Warriors 5, any character with a C1 attack that causes a blue tremor can also inflict this state.
 * Tumble back: A state similar to the trip state, but instead causes targets to briefly lean forward before tumbling back quite similarly to the tripping state. Again, this cannot be recovered from due to the very brief air time caused by it. Zhang Liao's dash attack and Xu Huang's C6 are rare examples of attacks that inflict this state, but in Dynasty Warriors 3 and 4, practically almost every character's C5/Charge Drive finishers can inflict this state on any grounded targets in reach.
 * Slam/jammed down: A type of knockdown state that often occurs with targets that are sent downward at a high speed. Most of the time, they often have their bodies flip-over upon contacting the ground, much like with the end result of a crashing knockback. This often occurs on airborne targets struck down by any C5/Charge Drive finishers, pre-Dynasty Warriors 5, but also with any attack that sends targets down at a high speed from any airborne state.
 * Flip-over: A state that is often more of a visual cue than anything else, where the victim has their body flip-over on the side opposite of the side that was facing the ground. This often occurs with a proper crashing knockback state, a slammed down target, or a target dropping down from a launched or juggled state from a fairly high height.
 * Grab: A state added in since Dynasty Warriors 4, where the character will enter a state of being carried by a certain part of the attacker used to grab the victim with (be it their weapon or bare hands). All grabs will cause the victim to enter a "being lifted up" state, but if they happen to be left alone without the attacker following up on time (mainly due to a possible gimmick such as a bug or another unit interfering by pushing the attacker out of range) due to the state being solely stationary and not being fully captured onto the attacker's grasp, they will slowly drop down via knockdown with no damage. Some grabs can be bugged if they hit a midair/juggled opponent in that after the grab animation hits someone but does not change and knocks the target back while doing so, the attacker may go on with the throw attack animation anyway without anyone in their grasp. However, this state was greatly refined in future installments especially via Samurai Warriors 2 and Warriors Orochi, where a new grab state animation is used for all characters and they are no longer as buggy as in Dynasty Warriors 4.

Dynasty Warriors 6 simplifies the combo system by making the charge attacks their own four-button combo chain. The charge button can also be held to unleash a wide crowd clearing attack. Jumping charges were given a renovation and dashing charges for each character was added. Some characters shared weapons and movesets, but the differences of the shared actions between each character were their personalized effects for charge attacks, nature of their Special Attacks, or Musou finishes.

In Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce, charge attacks from the sixth title remain largely unchanged other than a few graphical alterations to accommodate the rendering limitations of the PSP. Due to the new aerial combat feature, it's now possible to perform charge attack strings in mid-air. Also, pressing undefined while dashing causes characters to initiate a dash charge.

EX Attacks in Dynasty Warriors 7, or attacks created for each character affiliated with a particular weapon type, were essentially extended charge attacks (for instance, C3-1 or C1-1) that changed based on the character. To avoid confusion with EX Attacks, the charge attacks for each weapon moveset don't require multiple charge taps as its predecessors. EX Attacks are the only unique charge attack for characters; otherwise, characters use each weapon in the same manner. Jumping charges and dashing charges were also removed, though the former was brought back in the eighth installment.

Samurai Warriors
Samurai Warriors is limited to C4 combos but features longer finishers or extra effects if the player taps undefined multiple times. During similar earlier Dynasty Warriors titles at the time, the weapon decided the number of attacks (basic or charge) the character could perform. Jumping charges for this series are similar to the jumping charges introduced in Dynasty Warriors 4, only all of them can hit opponents lying down on the ground, and with a small area-of-effect quake.

The sequel puts its own spin by assigning moveset types for each character. Characters in the Normal category possess the highest number of charge attack combinations, coming in at C8. However, these new charge attacks are limited in their follow ups. Charge types particularly feature follow ups and Special types vary on the character.

Samurai Warriors 2: Xtreme Legends adds a new charge attack (C5 or C9) that often combines elements with the characters' R1 specials. These attacks were kept with a few alterations for the third title, and all charge attacks there can be cancelled with a Spirit Charge.

The fourth title introduces Hyper Attacks which enable characters to perform incredibly fast combos while inverting the button input for charges (e.g. undefined, undefined, undefined, ). The common abbreviation for them is "Hyper C#".

Warriors Orochi
In the first title, characters from both Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors retain their original charge combos albeit with some minor changes in elemental activation and rendering effects. A change notable for the former cast, is that C2 attacks can now activate elements, whereas they did not in Dynasty Warriors 5.

In the case of certain Technique type characters, however, their Type Action involves pressing R1 in the middle of a combo allows them to use an enhanced version of their respective charge that animates faster with more damage, or an alternate charge that serves as their main special attack. This is known as an Enhanced Strike (or "Extra Charge Attack" in the Asian script), and fans often abbreviate enhanced charge attacks as "C#-EX", while main special attacks are abbreviated as "C#-EX-SP". Any Technique characters' charge attacks can inflict critical hits on any airborne targets; either during a juggle, or through any charge attack that knocks foes off their feet.

Speed types are able to cancel their charge attacks with a jump, although Warriors Orochi 2 allows any character to do so even to jump charges that involve landing with the Highflier skill equipped.

The sequel also rectifies a few of these modifications in favor of keeping each attack style faithful to their game of origin. For instance, characters from the Dynasty Warriors series can instantly perform mounted charge attacks once again while the ability to stomp or leap with horses is now reserved for the Samurai Warriors cast. However, some notable downgrades are applied in terms of power and elemental activation (such as a majority of C1 and C2 attacks no longer having elemental activation).

The combo styles of the original and collaboration characters are based on either Dynasty Warriors or Samurai Warriors. Figures from Japanese mythology (such as Orochi and Susano'o) make use of the various charge attack strings introduced in Samurai Warriors 2 whereas characters derived from Chinese folklore or Western settings utilize the Dynasty Warriors style of charge moves.

Warriors Orochi 3 gives Dynasty Warriors characters their jumping charge attack back, and no longer do Technique types possess the Enhanced Strike Type Action. Wonder type characters can also inflict critical hits with their charge attacks on a target inflicted by the Break Guard state. Wonder types can also cancel their charge attacks with a Spirit Charge, much like the mechanic in Samurai Warriors 3.

Dynasty Warriors: Gundam
The first title sticks close to the C4 combo system. Although it may vary with the Mobile Suit (MS), the C1 in this series usually acts as a quick long-ranged attack. The pilot will either shoot from their head turrets or from the rifle that their Suit is holding. Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 2 also introduced the idea of the Boost Attack. After certain charge attacks, the player may tap (Dash) immediately after their chain has finished. Their MS will perform a damaging thrust forward and may continue their offensive. Players can also use this avoid leaving their backs open. They can normally use this attack up to three times in a row.

Its sequel adjusts the charge attacks based on a Suit's tier. Level 1 Suits (like Gundam) can perform six charge attacks and will likely have additions attached to them. Level 2 Suits (MS that are specially made for characters) retain the four charge attacks from before. Level 3 Suits (mass-produced MS) only have one charge and cannot perform any charge related combos.

Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3 gives a few Mobile Suits charge attack makeovers, changing a few properties or attacks based on the series's second moveset. A few secondary MS (C4 only MS) were remodeled to have C6 combos available. Returning mass-produced MS also gain a dashing/aerial charge and a secondary charge attack.

Unlike the other Warriors titles, the Suit that the pilot is using determines how the player can attack. The pilots themselves give supplementary abilities to their Suit's capabilities with their individual Stats and Skills. This is particularly pressed in the second title. Charge attacks also do not regularly break an enemy's guard, requiring good timing and patience if the player wants to use them during battle.

Kessen
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