Talk:Dynasty Warriors 2

Musou Warriors Physics
This is a page detailing the consistent physics that have been prevalent throughout all of Koei's Warriors games, though the notable thing is that each installment/series often tweaks and/or refines such physics as the franchise progresses.

Common physics and AI patterns

 * All airborne enemies take less damage than while standing up. This causes juggles to be rather ineffective depending on the character used in question, but it works better for the fire element in past games where the effect will linger due to longer "hitstun". However, this also is one of the main reasons that the lightning/thunder element has been greatly nerfed in Samurai Warriors 4, since it forces units to be airborne upon them taking continuous hits.
 * However, in the Warriors Orochi series, Technique-type characters can mitigate this with their critical hit mechanic, which allows their charge attacks, Type Actions and Musou Attacks to deal extra damage on airborne targets.
 * Regardless, airborne targets being juggled have an increased chance of somersaulting to recover very easily.
 * Prior to Samurai Warriors 2, all units that are lying down on the ground are completely immune to damage. Usually, the flip-over state served to help extend juggle time. However, in the Samurai Warriors series, all characters' jumping charge attacks can now hit grounded opponents for extra damage. It is not until as of Samurai Warriors 2 that units can be hit off the ground by any attack, but this mainly applies to enemy peons (trying to take advantage of this on enemy generals tends to more strict).
 * All attacks with unique knockdown effects or stunning/staggering hit effects will have a different hit effect on any airborne/juggled foes, but for other attacks in past games there have been exceptions (such as Lu Meng's original and unique C2 on a juggled enemy).
 * A majority of certain moves may cause the user to be forced into an airborne state, despite them being grounded (either from a mere hop or not even leaving the ground once). This means that if hit during said states, they're knocked off their feet into a juggled-state instead of taking damage while standing. While it seeks to mitigate most of the damage inflicted upon them as mentioned above, it may take longer to recover from it. Examples of moves like this are Zhang Liao and Lu Meng's original C3 attacks, Liu Bei/Sun Jian/Sun Quan/Yuan Shao/Dong Zhuo's C2 attacks, and even a majority of characters' C3 attacks as of Dynasty Warriors 4.
 * Stage obstacles often inflict heavy damage on units, but as their HP gets lower, the damage lessens in proportion to their HP amount. They also cannot kill anyone, unlike allied/enemy units and the player's direct attacks. This applies often to boulders or bombs.
 * Morale always effects units outside of the player's vision and/or processing field on their inclosed map. Those with higher morale will always come out on top at some point, be it ally or enemy. Morale amount often slows down or speeds up the process, and in most cases in prior games the units' HP amount is not taken into account (meaning that while they're struggling), their HP amount may still be fairly high when they enter the player's sight. This mainly has applied more to past Warriors games through various limitations.
 * The enemy commander is the only unique enemy who of course, cannot be effected by their morale negatively. While the enemy commander can K.O. low HP units in the player's sight, they will always be locked in a stalemate battle with all other allied units surrounding them who happen to have high morale (even the player's own commander if they themelves are not the commander in question). This often forces the player themselves to finish off the enemy commander to complete the stage, since not even allies can damage them past a certain HP amount or even at 1 HP. However, as aforementioned the enemy commander can still K.O. all units while in the player's sight, and even the existing allied commander as well.
 * In past games, allied and enemy units will always try to use a guard-shifting move to walk past obstructions in a stage, such as past a tree or a tent. This is absent in Dynasty Warriors for the PSP, since even the simplest of obstacles will cause the enemy unit to frequently run into it without moving another direction (especially tying into their more aggressive nature).
 * The AI very commonly has a movement where they slowly circle around sideways around the player during a state where they are possibly not easily damaged, and is more commonly used by CPU peons. This movement cannot be used by the player themselves, and in demo clips of the series, the character controlled can make use of this unlike than actual player-controlled character. While this is akin to the shift move, the AI will not guard attacks during this state. This action happens much less frequently in later titles.
 * Sometimes in past games, the AI has a set "attack zone", where the AI only runs to their target in range, but will retreat back if their target exits out. Players can easily take advantage of this by sniping enemies from afar in older games with a ranged-lock-on function.
 * Enemy generals will have an increased stat boost if they are in range of the player when they announce themselves (more apparent in Dynasty Warriors 3), thus more professional players would try to take advantage of this by sniping them from afar.
 * The AI will always shift their aggro to any target that recently hit them. This often happens at a fast rate when they are ganged up upon, and it may spell trouble for the player if they happen to be in a bad situation as well as provoking a specific enemy unit without caution.
 * Enemy peons will never somersault to recover from knockdowns, nor do they get back up from the ground as quickly or try to recover from stun as fast. Enemy generals recover quite frequently however, especially playable generals. Despite being peons themselves, the players bodyguards will often somersault recover whenever possible. Normally, getting back up from knockdowns, somersaulting and recovering from stun faster happens more frequently in the higher difficulties of past titles.

Hit Effects
There are also common hit effects associated mainly with charge attacks throughout the series (though there are some exceptions like with normal attack finishers), which is different from the knockdown/knockback state. Said knockdown states unless otherwise can be somersaulted/recovered from very quickly before touching the ground if inflicted during an airborne hit:
 * 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, as well as most launches being much lower on airborne foes. 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 AKA Dizzy: 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.
 * In both Dynasty Warriors 7 and Warriors Orochi 3, stunned targets will no longer be forced into a juggled state from incoming attacks, and insteads suffer hits while normally grounded. As a trade-off, a successive stunned-based attack landed on them during this time will always apply its airborne-hit-effect to prevent looping. This works to bypass the Power-type characters' Hyper Armor in Warriors Orochi 3 (where they will suffer normal hitstun from normal attack chains when hit out of a stun), though the Samurai Warriors games still applies the prior hit effects to this day (while Dynasty Warriors 8 reverts back to the prior style to balance damage penalties out).
 * 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 inflicted by any higher-ranked units. All characters can guard break enemies with a C1 attack only in Dynasty Warriors 2 and Dynasty Warriors 3, while in Dynasty Warriors 4, only taunting can break guards. Later games reuse the concept of higher-ranking units being able to break guards of lower-ranked units in a few strings of attacks, while guard breaking is now allocated to specific attacks (not to be confused with unblockable C1 attacks as of the seventh title).
 * 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. In Dynasty Warriors 4, some staggering attacks inflict a very small amount of damage that will not kill any units regardless of HP amount. In Dynasty Warriors 5 onwards, the damage from said attacks receive an increase and become legitimate enough to K.O. units properly.
 * 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 off a bit and drop to the ground (which no longer applies in Samurai Warriors 4). 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 specific 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 due to other friendly units crowding around them and pushing them around. The fifth title removes the damage done to units crashed into, but can only make sure it affects opposing instead, though later games bring back the damage crashing units can inflict towards other targets (though in a less impacting way). 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. Thus, from there crashing knockback has become more common as a hit effect.
 * 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, though other titles still reuse the effect (such as the Samurai Warriors series).
 * 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.
 * In the Warriors Orochi series prior to the third installment, Technique-type characters could use their R1 Extra Counter Type Actions on this hit-state before they leave the ground if inputted correctly in time.
 * 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.
 * In the Warriors Orochi series prior to the third installment, Technique-type characters could use their R1 Extra Counter Type Actions on this hit-state before they leave the ground if inputted correctly in time.
 * Fall-over: A state where the target when struck, falls over in place by simply dropping to the ground face down (akin to a crumple). This state cannot be teched/recovered from in anyway possible. This is often inflicted by more unique forms of attack such as Sun Jian's Musou Attack finisher, Zhang He's C6, Zhou Tai's Musou Attack and most elemental shot C1 attacks (Dynasty Warriors 4 only). Falling-over like so counts as a grounded hit.
 * Shocked/Burnt: A different type of fall-over state mainly in prior games before Dynasty Warriors 6, this causes the target to flail about a small bit before crumpling to the ground, upon either being shocked or burnt. In the former case, the lightning/thunder element in Dynasty Warriors 4 causes this frequently, while in the latter's case Zhang Jiao's fire-based attacks inflict this very commonly. Hitting a target in this state in the latter case causes a simple juggle state. The former's case causes it to be a rather high launch in a random direction, which often occurs from multiple lightning strikes on the same target (or hitting them with a lightning-based attack while they are already airborne) and may mess with the ability to connect with certain attacks.
 * Fall-back: A state added in since Samurai Warriors 2, where units fall-back upon getting hit and slowly drop to the ground in defeat. This can be considered an extended version of the "fall over in place" state mentioned above, as this cannot be recovered from. The lightning/thunder element effect also can cause this quite commonly as of the said series' installment.
 * 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. As of Samurai Warriors 2, most attacks that inflict this (especially crashing knockback) are often exaggerated by extra. However, this also no longer a case for all moves that inflict crashing knockback. In past games, this state serves mainly to extend combos, since during it units are still considered to not fully be touching the ground yet. This often provides players ample time to continue juggles. In Samurai Warriors 4, flip-over effects along with normal impact with the ground will not cause targets to move anywhere, causing them to remain stationary as they hit the ground in order to continue combos.
 * Grab: A state added in since Dynasty Warriors 4, where the victim 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 victims and they are no longer as buggy as in Dynasty Warriors 4 (save for one exception with Nene's Direction + R1 Art 2 having a glitch in the original Warriors Orochi 2).