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Warriors Orochi 2
Nu Wa FAQ
By: Joshua Markee
Version: 0.90a
Last Updated: 12/23/08
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Table of Contents:
------------------

I. Preface........................................................... [preface]
1. Introduction...................................................... [introdc]
   i.   Ability Acquisition.......................................... [abacqui]
   ii.  Strategy Info................................................ [strtinf]
   iii. Alternate Costumes........................................... [altcost]
   iv.  Backgrounds.................................................. [bckgrnd]
2. Backstory......................................................... [bckstry]
   i.   Historical Presence.......................................... [history]
   ii.  Presence in Older Games...................................... [oldergm]
   iii. Role in Warriors Orochi 2.................................... [waroro2]
3. Weapons........................................................... [nuweaps]
   i.    Stats....................................................... [wepstat]
   ii.   Weapon Builds............................................... [wepbild]
4. Moveset........................................................... [numoves]
   i.   Advice....................................................... [moveadv]
5. Nu Wa outside of Story Mode....................................... [othrmod]
   i.   Survival Mode................................................ [survmod]
   ii.  VS. Mode..................................................... [vs.mode]
6. Credits........................................................... [credits]
7. FAQs.............................................................. [freqask]
8. Legal............................................................. [legstuf]
9. Contact Info...................................................... [continf]

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Preface								      [preface]
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This is my first guide I'm going to have had uploaded (hopefully), so I'm sure
I'll be missing more than enough on the first run through (among various
spelling errors).  Mostly I would like to emphasize that this is a *guide*, I'm
not going to attempt to pass any of my opinions and experiences as de facto
law regarding how the game should be played, use it as a guide to either help
you or help you realize that it's exactly what you don't want to do.  However
you use it I'm just looking to help, feel free to send me your thoughts and
opinions as well, my contact info will be listed at the bottom so you can do
so.  If you take anything away from this guide though, it's that I'm just going
to recommend things, not that I'm trying to tell you exactly how to play.

On to using the guide, should be relatively simple (assuming you've read a
guide before), just look things up in the table of contents then Ctrl+F the 7
letter code you see to the right of it.  All abbreviations should be explained
somewhere in the guide and most are easily guessable otherwise.
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Introduction                                                          [introdc]
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Nu Wa is one of the more elusive characters of the 'warriors' series.  First
appearing in Dynasty Warriors 3 and then again in Dynasty Warriors 4 only as
a createable character, she's always been an oddity, having no direct influence
over the storylines and no tangible backstory.  As of Warriors Orochi 2 she has
been rightfully revived and given an actual storyline presence.

Aside from her elusiveness, she's always been a relatively difficult character
to work with.  Her moveset generally follows that of a fencer and as such
relies heavily on single target attacks.  While this leads to great one on one
situations, her crowd control takes a rather severe hit as compared to many
other characters. Now then, down to more pertinent information.

Abilities Acquired                                                    [abacqui]
==================
-Recuperate
 Effect: Accelerates Musou Guage recovery while inactive.
 Conditions: Defeat 3 officers.

-Conserve
 Effect: Reduces Musou guage usage.
 Conditions: Defeat 80 enemies, while maintaining 30% life guage status.

-Adrenalin
 Effect: Refills life guage once combo reaches 10.
 Conditions: Defeat 100 enemies, while maintaining 50% life guage status, 
  without performing any attack using the musou gauge.

Strategy Info                                                         [strtinf]
=============
-Ability: Face Off
 Effect: Reduces damage inflicted upon all allied forces.
 Conditions: Defeat 300 Enemies
 Notes: Unlikely you'll be using this every battle, helpful but not always
  essential to victory.


Alternate Costumes                                                    [altcost]
==================
-Alternate Costume #1: Very similar to her original costume except everything is
 somewhat lighter, no real noticeable changes.

-Alternate Costume #2: Same base armor as costumes 1/2, however her armor is now
 purple and she has taken to becoming a brunette.


Backgrounds                                                           [bckgrnd]
===========
-Background 1:
 Acquisition - Begin with
 Description - Rapier in hand, sketching of Nu Wa concept art in forground with
               closeup of her in the background in the same pose with her
               updated armor.

-Background 2:
 Acquisituon - Attain all of her abilities.
 Description - Rapier in hand again, closeup of her face in the back.

-Background 3:
 Acquisition - 20 Proficiency.
 Description - Almost a model~esque pose, no rapier, she has a relaxed pose
               holding her hand up to her face.  Closeup in the back

-Background 4:
 Acquisition - 30 Proficiency.
 Description - Stands with her rapier with almost a smug smirk on her face,
               closeup in the back.
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Backstory                                                             [bckstry]
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Historical Background                                                 [history]
=====================
This is mostly via Wikipedia, and I'm mostly going to paraphrase the main 
points:

Nu Wa is a part of various aspects of Chinese Mythology. Nu Wa's biggest roles
were that of a deity of creation and also for rebuilding what was known as
'Heaven's Wall'.  As the story goes, Nu Wa was alone in the world and feeling
quite lonely, so she decided to fling some mud around which would eventually
form people (each blob would land differently signifying the genetic
variability we find even within isolated civilizations). She takes on the form
of a serpentine goddess.

Apart from her larger roles, it should also be noted that she was the husband
of Fu Xi, though this does not seem to play out as much within WO2.


Presence in Older Games                                               [oldergm]
=======================
As stated above, Nu Wa originally appeared in early Dynasty Warriors(DW) games.
First appearing in DW3, she was a tertiary character with no backstory or 
storyline presence to note (along with Fu Xi).  They contained extremely
similar movesets to what's found in WO2.  As of DW4 she was only recreatable
as a custom character, though you could replicate her almost perfectly and the
rapier moveset was only available to custom characters. In DW5+ she had
absolutely no presence at all, creatable or otherwise. She has only now 
remade an appearance in a warriors game (which makes me quite happy).


Role in Warriors Orochi 2                                             [waroro2]
=========================
**SPOILER ALERT** - Possible storyline spoilers ahead.

In WO2 Nu Wa, Fu Xi and Taigong Wang all play the parts of the 'Mystics', who
traveled to the mortal realm in pursuit of Da Ji who seeks to resurrect Orochi.
Nu Wa also acts as a close advisor and prominent officer of the Wei army where
she surveys the capabilities of the mortals and assesses their worth for the
imminent battle.  She's a very quiet and secretive woman who obviously holds
much more information than she cares to let on, as she does not believe the
mortals possess the strength or intelligence required to help her achieve her
objectives.
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Moveset                                                               [numoves]
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Nu Wa is a fencer, so much of her moveset is centered around extremely quick
and limited range attacks.  You'll find she's quite agile and somewhat hard to
hit, but also has trouble taking down large crowds in an effective manner.

S = Standard Attack
C = Charge Attack
J = Jump Attack
R1 = Special Attack (R1 for PS2, Right Bumper for XBox360)
nR1 = Special Attack with no direction pressed (neutral).

S - Cross body slash from right to left.
SS - Straight pierce.
SSS - Spins around 180 degrees stabbing with her sword beneath her left arm 
    (bearing shield out).
SSSS - Turns back around and stabs forward underneath her left arm (bearing 
    her shield above her sword) again.
SSSSS - Longer reaching thrust, lacks shield.
SSSSS + S/SS/SSS - Repeats S/SS/SSS ending with an attack similar to C3.

C (C) - Three-fold attack involving Nu Wa moving forward spinning as she 
    attacks with her rapier on each turn.
SC (C1) - Upward slash directly in front of her, enemies become airborne.
SSC (C2)- Piercing stab right in front of her.
SSSC (C3)- Cross body slash after a small spin, knocks enemies back.
SSSSC (C4)- Nu Wa slams her rapier onto the ground in front of her, causing a
    column of light to appear which raises enemies into the air, ending with a
    display of feathers.
SSSSSC (C5) - Nu Wa stands and delivers a few piercing blows directly in front 
    of her, then proceeds to thrust her body forward in a final stab.

JS - Jumps and swings her sword in front of her body.
JC - Jumps and does a backflip and then slams into the ground in front of her.
JJ - Jumps and flys forward.*

Horse Attacks - Follows the DW style, as in no jumping on her horse.
C - After a short pause, three quick strikes are made, first two slashes then
    ends with a stab knocking enemies away.
S - Slashes to her right then left then right, etc.

R1 - Quickly stabs in front of her, adding icicle shards to her attack she has
    the ability to freeze enemies that she strikes, does not use musou.
nR1 - Summons a blizzard all around her, all enemies within range are hit and
    some are frozen and others shrunken down to a miniature form, uses musou.
Notes: The R1 and nR1 attacks can be chained within her regular attack chain
 as well as some of her charge attacks, or just added on to the end of her
 attack chains.  They're both very very useful; however, after some attacks
 they cannot be used, such as the *final* strike of her C5 attack. Getting a
 feel for using these attacks effectively against crowds and officers greatly
 increases your ability to kill with Nu Wa, neglecting both of these abilities
 would not be advised.

Musou - Rapidly moving her rapier back and forth directly in front her body
        Nu Wa is able to damage one enemy quite well, ends with a small spin.
True Musou - Adding fire element to her regular musou, she ends with the spin
             then proceeds to give a short slash and finally raising her sword
             into the air she summons down a lightning storm hitting many
             enemies all around her.

As an assist defender, Nu Wa simply appears and gives a quick thrust forward,
dissappearing as fast as she appears.  Knocks all enemies within about a 120 
degree radius backwards.

*There is a trick to using her aerial thrusting ability. If you jump and then
hit the jump button again (A or X) she'll begin moving forward, if you
immediately pull back on the left analog stick and hit attack she'll move
backwards while still attacking.  You can do this for any directions, takes
about two minutes of practicing to get down the timing.  Not overly useful, but
a good spacer technique for Survival mode.

Suggestions                                                           [moveadv]
===========
For larger crowds there are a couple options to consider, one is using C2's end
swipe to hit the crowds, ending with R1 in case of an enemy running up behind
you to get in a few cheap shots.  There's also the possibility of jumping away
from the crowd (using J+J, seeing as she's a speed category warrior) and
forcing the enemy to run at you in a straight line and then using C3 to keep
the enemy at bay.  Of course liberal use of R1/nR1 is suggested for either of
these tactics, seeing as it consumes very little musou and allows for free hits
at the end of your attack chains.

For one officer you can either juggle them with C4 to add flame, then C5 or 
just wailing on on the normal attacks to keep them on fire; however, note that
it's relatively hard to hit with all of Nu Wa's hits from her attack chain
until you have a real feel for where she'll knock her enemies/where she'll be
after each attack.  A personal favorite of mine is to open with R1 and then
throw down some C5, with multi this really takes a toll on enemy officers in
a very short amount of time.  Use of nR1 to counter those pesky minions is very
helpful in these situations.

For multiple officers the strategy is quite similar to just one officer.  The
difference is that you'll want to keep tabs on where the enemy officers are.
Try to keep all of the officers in front of you, if you lose sight of them or
see one running up behind you you can always throw down an nR1 to stem their
attacks. If you do end up using nR1 you will lose a panic button, seeing as you
won't be able to pull off a musou attack if you really really need to, so use
with caution. Jumping up and away to keep all enemies in front of your line of 
sight is a valuable tool.  
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Weapons                                                               [nuweaps]
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Nu Wa's weapons are all rapiers and varying small shields.  They graduate in
size and length, as well as the hilt and shield emblems becoming more ornate,
with each step up and they are as follows:

-Rapier
  Base Attack: 9
  Notes: -Random slots, attack and effects.

-Swift Rapier
  Base Attack: 19
  Notes: -Random slots, attack and effects.

-Celestial Rapier
  Base Attack: 38
  Notes: -Random slots, attack and effects.

-Nu Wa's Rapier
  Base Attack: 76
  Notes: -Random slots, attack and effects.
         -Only found in chaos mode, or hard mode stages with 3+ stars.

All weapons contain 3 'upgrade' slots, which differ from 'stat' slots.


Stats                                                                 [wepstat]
=====

Stats will basically vary to whatever your particular playstyle, for me I tend
to steer Nu Wa more towards single-target officer killing, with limited
emphasis on crowd control.  Again, this is only my personal preference and I'll
add suggestions and recommendations for most stats based on what I perceive
their usage via Nu Wa's moveset would be.  As of yet I haven't toyed much with
the upgrades seeing as I either don't like the upgrades, don't think they'd do
enough, or just don't agree with the stats required to attain them.

Again stats will mostly rely on your particular playstyle.

Weapon Build Suggestions                                              [wepbild]
========================
Stats: Bolt, Flash, Slay, Absorb, Range, Multi, Agility, Might
Upgrades: Stability, Resolve, Supremacy
Strategy: 'R1 spam in dense crowds and to set up against officers.'
          'Then just C3->C3 etc'.

Above build taken from BakusaiTenketsu's Character Weapon Element Guide found
at http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/xbox360/file/946499/54911.

Personally I'm a bit less sophisticated, I generally only use Nu Wa for
officers and other officers for better crowd control. Again, this is entirely
up to you, just a suggestion how to play.  Gear your weapon towards your
particular playstyle.  Personally I just stack all kinds of officer killing
stats (brave,multi,slay,might) and freeze the officers then C5 until they die.
Just find whatever works for you and build around it.
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Nu Wa in other Modes                                                  [othrmod]
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Survival Mode                                                         [survmod]
=============
Survival mode is almost a throwback to the original dynasty warriors game, in 
that it's a a very mortal-kombatish fighter.  You still have three characters;
however, all characters are at their base stats and have slight modifications
to certain special attacks.

Nu Wa is quite good in survival mode, she's fast and nimble which is a real
advantage.  Able to move in and out of range of enemies begins to shine in
survival mode, as spacing is invaluable to killing your enemies.  The fact that
most of her attacks are straight, single target killers becomes very useful
in this arena.  She may not get many ring-out kills, but she doesn't need to
with her speed and damage.  Her musou also becomes noticeably more effective.

Jumping up and away from the enemies attack chains works quite well, using the
same tactic to reenter the fray and start laying down the law.  She's also
verily able to stall for time with her nR1 and jumping if your other two 
teammates are low on health.

Nu Wa is easily pushed around however, heavier characters will find no problem
in simply powering through her attacks and continuing with their own.  If you
find yourself in this situation, using C1 or C2 and then moving behind your
opponent is always an option, or R1.

VS. Modes                                                             [vs.mode]
=========
To be added later, don't actually have my other controller with me at the
moment, when I head back to school I'll throw up some strategies unless other
people want to contribute.
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Credits                                                               [credits]
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-Myself, for being totally awesome and writing this.
-Koei/Omega Force for making the game.
-Whoever decided to put Nu Wa back into WO2 and make her totally awesome.
-BakusaiTenketsu and the subsequent contributors to his Weapon Element Guide
 FAQ, worth the read for any character.
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Legal                                                                 [legstuf]
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Copyright 2008 Joshua Markee

I've only given (as of current) the following sites the right to host my work:
www.gamefaqs.com

Any copying or other noted reproduction of my work should be credited to
me, Joshua Markee.  You can only save this FAQ for personal use. Violating my
terms is a violation of my copyright.  If you wish to host this guide please
contact me, you can find my contact info below.
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Contact                                                               [continf]
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Rules:
-Don't just flame my guide, if you're going to flame at least offer up specific
points of discussion or valid arguments.  Flaming is fine, but at least make it
productive flaming so it accomplishes something.
-Don't spam me, I'll do what I can to get back to you, I do have stuff to do
though (as I'm sure you *should*).
-If you have disputes with me of whether or not you're deserving of credit
please try to be civil about it, multiple people have reached the same
conclusions via different methods, Google Alfred Russel Wallace some time.
-If you're pointing out typos (which is entirely valid, I hate misspelling
things) please just send me the phrase in which the word (or grammar error)
appears so I can find it easier.

E-mail: [email protected]

Start with that, if I feel it's conversation worth pursuing I'll give you my
aim/msn so you can bug me there.