At the onset of Warriors All-Stars, you are faced with numerous tutorial battles that attempt to detail and give you the know-how on everything that you will face across the adventure. The unfortunate part is that the game literally tries to help you understand many, many mechanics all at once.
It certainly isn’t enough time to grasp the many functions of the game like normal attack, strong attack, charge attack, blocking, ukemi, special, hero skill, awakening, Musou rush, and hero combo; just to name a few. It takes quite a bit of time spent with Warriors All-Stars on the battlefield and in the tutorial menus for everything to come naturally.
However, you don’t have to necessarily worry about anything, as we’ve played and learned a lot from our time with All-Stars. So, here’s the five tips you need to know when starting the game.
Your Starter Character
Much like the beloved Pokemon series, you begin Warriors All-Stars with the simple but daunting choice of who you will play as for this particular playthrough. At the start, you have 11 characters (12 if you preorder it) to choose from as your main character.
This is, unfortunately, a hard decision to make, especially if you aren’t familiar with some of the lesser-known bcharacters. Each one-Zhao Yun, Yukimura Sanada, William Adams, Arnice, Hajime Arima, Laegrinna, Sophie, Nobunyaga Oda, Ryu Hanabusa, Kasumi, and Oka-come from a different established Koei Tecmo franchise in this mash-up crossover.
This can easily lead to picking someone you don’t like playing with, as each one performs differently from the ranged magical girl Sophie from Atelier to the fast and furious melee-focused Ryu from Ninja Gaiden. It is important to not feel like you are locked into a specific character you choose if you don’t like their playstyle.
In the case of this happening, you can always go back to the menu screen and start a new game with someone else. We recommend trying out several characters you’re interested in until you find the one that fits you perfectly, unless of course, you already have a fan favorite like Nioh’s William that you’d like to play. Also, each character has their own vastly different story, encouraging you to go back and play someone else even after beating the story once.
Becoming Braver
On top of the already existing leveling system that helps you from picking a mission that is too hard for your current strength, there is the Bravery feature. Once in a mission or battle, your character will be given a separate Bravery level that is found in the top left corner of the HUD.
This level always starts over from one no matter what mission you are doing. It is essentially like the levels in a MOBA like Smite, where you gradually gain more levels as the match goes, making you consistently more powerful.
This can, in turn, make matches far longer than you would normally expect in a Warriors game. Major enemies like commanders and named fighters will also have a Bravery level of their own. Just like you wouldn’t go into a mission a level or two higher than your own, the same rule applies here.
If an enemy has a higher level than your own, it is absolutely not recommended to fight them until you raise your Bravery, as the difference between each level is massive in terms of strength, defense, SP, and HP. You can raise it by defeating other major enemies at or below your current level, taking bases, and defeating large amounts of mob enemies (such as 1000).
Card Master
Not only does All-Stars take cues from MOBA’s, but card-battling games like Hearthstone, too. In your typical Warriors game, you would upgrade your specific character by finding a new weapon or enhance an already owned one.
However, there are no weapons to be upgraded here. Instead, you have hero cards that are used to power up your character to perform better in missions and battles.
You can only equip one card at a time in the preparation menu right before entering a mission. Each card has its own attack power and occasional buff that are applied to your character. Obviously, your most powerful card should be used.
You quickly collect cards by completing missions and side quests given to you in the hub city. Because of this, your inventory will rapidly fill up-like any good mobile card game-with cards you have no use for.
These cards can be sold for gold that can be used to buy better cards or upgrade your current favorite hero card. Also, the game does reward finding a favorite and sticking with it, because the more you use a specific card, the more powerful it will gradually become.
Hidden Missions
All-Stars features a nice overworld that you explore outside the city and in-between missions from a top-down 2D perspective. As you complete the main key missions that further along the story, you will slowly begin to remove the shadows that surround most of the land.
This will allow you to explore new areas as you progress. Sprinkled throughout every inch of the overworld are missions of various kinds for you to complete. From the above-mentioned key missions to various side missions like treasure hunts, monster nests, and more, there is a ton to see right from the moment you unlock the overworld.
Despite the fact there’s already so many icons to see and do, there are even some missions that are hidden on the map. These are found through physically moving your character’s sprite around the map and finding them through simple chance.
These secret missions will pop up at random once you come across them and should be completed right then. They are not only hidden, but timed and will disappear within mere seconds of appearing. The materials they offer are typically rare, so it is important to drop everything you were originally planning to do and finish these first.
Make Your Own Playlist
A lesser known feature that isn’t noted in the extensive tutorial screens is the fact that you can choose which background music (BGM) plays during missions on the field.
When you are loading up a selected mission and you see the tips screen pop up, in the corner you’ll see the option to change the music. By pressing triangle, you can switch between the various playlists (of which there are a lot) and sample any music that you’ve currently unlocked.
Tracks are unlocked through playing as other characters and progressing the story. Because this is a crossover game with over a dozen franchises represented, you will find recognizable tunes from familiar series like Ninja Gaiden and Atelier. You’ll even find hidden gems from games you may have never heard of like the soft but emotional “Black Butterfly” from Haruka: Beyond the Stream of Time.
