History GameBreaker / WarriorsOrochi

** But, as seen in TierInducedScrappy, some characters are much less effective at utilizing such broken mechanics as they may have been programmed to be quite ineffective in general even when maxed out compared to others via negative programming oversights.

[[folder:Warriors Orochi]]

[[folder:Warriors Orochi 2]]

[[folder:Warriors Orochi 3]]

* Element-wise, not only can you use the aforementioned Almighty, there's also others that match it, such as Wrath, the health counterpart of Brilliance, or Grace, which works when below half HP. Needless to say, all three attributes were often banned when deciding best characters in Chaos Mode Solo Runs, while some characters are flat-out worthless without it via a proper setup. It also doesn't proc Absorbtion or Osmosis.
** ''Ultimate'' also adds mixture orbs, which combine elements into one slot, such as Windslay or Icebolt. Not only does it save space, but also allows you to stack elements even higher than +10, such as Slay insta-killing more frequently or Wind doing more damage. Not so much a game breaker in itself, but with the above mentioned skills you can get some fun elemental activation in if you take the time to build a weapon around it.

** ''Ultimate'' adds more characters to the already huge roster and promotions, allowing every character to take on a second skill. Xu Shu also has Thrift it as his first skill. He is almost a minor game-breaker with both Thrift and a very, very spammable ground Type Action that summons a rain of arrows in front of him for several seconds that will flinch anybody. Characters with it as a secondary skill, such as Liu Bei and Hundun are the ones with single-shot style Musou Attacks, while Ayane, Yinlong, Mitsuhide Akechi, and Nene all have ''Samurai Warriors''-styled super modes, meaning now, with some grinding, you can have an entire team of party members staying perpetually under Super Mode.

[[folder:Warriors Orochi 4]]

* Element-wise, not only can you use the aforementioned Almighty, there's also others that match it, such as Wrath AKA Tenkou (Heaven Offense) which works when the HP bar is full, or Grace AKA Ten'yuu (AKA Divine Aid) which works when below half HP. Needless to say, all three of those attributes were often banned when it comes to deciding best characters in Chaos Mode Solo Runs, while some characters are flat-out worthless without it via a proper setup. It also doesn't proc Absorbtion or Osmosis.
** ''Ultimate'' also adds mixture orbs, which combine elements into one slot such as Windslay or Icebolt. this can not only save you space, but also allows you to stack elements even higher than +10, such as Slay insta-killing more frequently or Wind doing more damage. Not so much a game breaker in itself, but with the above mentioned skills you can get some fun elemental activation in if you take the time to build a weapon around it.
* The 'Triple Thrift' combo. The 'Thrift' ability reduces the consumption of the Musou Gauge and is possessed by two characters from the VideoGame/SamuraiWarriors series - Nō and Motochika Chōsokabe. Combine them with a Thrift-using character from another series (Dong Zhuo, Zhang Jiao or Liu Shan), get them all to Proficiency S, the Musou gauge will decrease at snail's pace, allowing the Samurai Warriors-flavor Musou (which is normally a brief SuperMode) to last pretty much an entire battle... making you entirely invulnerable until it runs out. Since you can refill your musou just by hitting enemies with charge attacks with the right weapon skills equipped, it never will. And if you DO get knocked out of it by [[WeaksauceWeakness a cutscene, a bath, or a slide down a mountainside]], you can switch to the OTHER character and jump right back into invulnerability. It makes [[HarderThanHard Chaos Mode]] a walk in the park, if somewhat dull...
** ''Ultimate'' added more characters to the already huge roster and promotions allowing every character to take on a second skill. Now add Xu Shu has it as his first skill. He is almost a minor game-breaker with both Thrift and a very, very spammable ground Type Action that summons a rain of arrows in front of him for several seconds that will flinch anybody (a lot like his second Musou Attack in ''Dynasty Warriors 8'' in terms of the quote and gesture). Characters with the secondary skill, such as Liu Bei and Hundun are the ones with single-shot style Musou Attacks, while Ayane, Yinlong, Mitsuhide Akechi, and Nene all have ''Samurai Warriors''-styled super modes, meaning now, with some grinding, you can have a team of 3 (or 5 in Gauntlet Mode) party members staying perpetually under Super Mode.

** Breaking the game just that much more with triple thrift is a high-level "Belt of Concentration" item. Belt of Concentration will slowly restore your musou automatically, with higher levels restoring it faster. If you use triple thrift and use either Type Action or a ''Dynasty Warriors 7''-style musou with the belt equipped to that character, ''you will get back to full musou the second after you start your attack.'' It's not quite as broken as ''Samurai Warriors''-style invincibility, but it does allow ''Dynasty Warriors'' characters to join in the broken fun, and with the right skill, Brilliance, you can have a Musou Attack where elements are activated with every single hit on par with characters such as Taigong Wang, Nuwa and Fu Xi, who are examples of having natural elemental-activating Musou attacks.
* Gauntlet/Unlimited Mode in ''Ultimate'' can easily be abused to break the story mode, due to how easily you can grind it for obscene amounts of gems and experience. However, due to the [[NintendoHard difficulty]] of the [[LuckBasedMission mode]] you will need all the game breakers in order to beat it.
* Oh Bombast. It's a golden weapon skill, which can be found in orb form off enemies in high level miasma in gauntlet. What it does is it gives you the Imperial Seal item effect, 10 seconds of unlimited musou, upon reaching a 500 combo. it may seem far off, but with the right characters you can make it activate it far more than you should. Remember the above mentioned Xu Shu's arrow attack? yeah, it can actually be used to reach this milestone due to arrows hitting many times, covering an area, and not even knocking any enemies away. Motochika, from the above mentioned tripe thrift, is also really good for this, due to all his attacks being multi-hitting and crowd focused, and in super mode it never gets rid of your combo, so you can start it at the beginning and then get a 500 combo at a later point. It's also worth noting that in story mode, having Xu Shu use the arrow/bombast combo basically turns him into Sun Jian from the earlier games without the health cost.
** But on the flipside, with Xu Shu in general, while he kills people fast without a doubt via an Aggression-power ground Type Action with Blast, Frenzy, Flak (to hit airborne foes for more damage since the Type Action launches a bit) and a few other attributes, he's not one for item collecting; usually, having to wait for item drops from enemies at hit the ground WHILE THEY ARE STILL BEING JUGGLED from your R1 spams tends to be a pain, and on higher difficulties and in high miasma levels in Gauntlet Mode, spamming R1 is a bit of a must to make sure you stay invincible at any turn (though aiming at another direction tends to help). The main downside to it is that depending on the port you're playing on, R1 Type Action-spamming with Xu Shu can lag the game severely.

* Element-wise, not only can you use the aforementioned Almighty, there's also others that match it, such as Wrath AKA Tenkou (Heaven Offense) which works when the HP bar is full, or Grace AKA Ten'yuu (AKA Divine Aid) which works when below half HP. Needless to say, all three of those attributes were often banned when it comes to deciding best characters in Chaos Mode Solo Runs, but nowadays it's been subverted due to some characters being flat-out [[JokeCharacter worthless]] without it via a proper setup. Also subverted in that you need to have equipped elements for it to even work, and it doesn't proc absorption attributes. In addition, elements appear to be half power when activated this way in ''3'', and while it's not too bad in the long run it is noticeable that Ice activates only half the time and Slay does half its usual percentage damage to an officer or instant kills only half as much as it normally does.

* In the third game, you can access the most JustForFun/{{Egregious}} example by far, in the 'Triple Thrift' combo. The 'Thrift' ability reduces the consumption of the Musou Gauge, and is possessed by two characters from the VideoGame/SamuraiWarriors series - [[InLoveWithYourCarnage Nō]] and [[ThePowerOfRock Motochika]] [[MusicalAssassin Chōsokabe]]. Combine them with a Thrift-using character from another series (Your choice of [[FatBastard Dong Zhou]], [[DarkMessiah Zhang]] [[PathOfInspiration Jiao]] or [[TheFool Liu]] [[ObfuscatingStupidity Shan]]), get them all to Proficiency S, and your Musou-gauge will decrease at snail's pace, allowing the Samurai Warriors-flavor Musou (which is normally a brief SuperMode) to last pretty much an entire battle... making you entirely invulnerable until it runs out, and since you can refill your musou just by hitting enemies with charge attacks with the right weapon skills equiped, it never will. And if you DO get knocked out of it by [[WeaksauceWeakness a cutscene, a bath, or a slide down a mountainside]], you can just switch to the OTHER character and jump right back into invulnerability. Makes [[HarderThanHard Chaos Mode]] a walk in the park, if somewhat dull...
** ''Ultimate'' added more characters to the already huge roster, as well as promotions allowing every character to take on a second skill. New add Xu Shu has it as his first skill, and he himself is almost a minor game breaker with both Thrift and a very, very spammable ground Type Action that summons a rain of arrows in front of him for several seconds that will flinch anybody (a lot like his second Musou Attack in ''Dynasty Warriors 8'' in terms of the quote and gesture), and characters with the secondary skill, such as Liu Bei and Hundun are the ones with single shot style Musou Attacks, while Ayane, Yinlong, Mitsuhide Akechi, and Nene all have ''Samurai Warriors''-styled super modes, meaning now, with some grinding, you can have a team of 3 (or 5 in Gauntlet Mode) party members staying perpetually under Super Mode.

** Breaking the game just that much more with triple thrift is a high level "Belt of Concentration" item. Belt of Concentration will slowly restore your musou automatically, with higher levels restoring it faster. If you use triple thrift and use either Type Action or a ''Dynasty Warriors 7''-style musou with the belt equipped to that character, ''you will get back to full musou the second after you start your attack.'' It's not quite as broken as ''Samurai Warriors''-style invincibility, but it does allow ''Dynasty Warriors'' characters to join in the broken fun, and with the right skill, Brilliance, you can have a Musou Attack where elements are activated with every single hit on par with characters such as Taigong Wang, Nuwa and Fu Xi, who are examples of having natural elemental-activating Musou attacks.

** ''Ultimate'' added more characters to the already [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters huge roster]], as well as promotions allowing every character to take on a second skill. New add Xu Shu has it as his first skill, and he himself is almost a minor game breaker with both Thrift and a very, very spammable ground Type Action that summons a rain of arrows in front of him for several seconds that will flinch anybody (a lot like his second Musou Attack in ''Dynasty Warriors 8'' in terms of the quote and gesture), and characters with the secondary skill, such as Liu Bei and Hundun are the ones with single shot style Musou Attacks, while Ayane, Yinlong, Mitsuhide Akechi, and Nene all have ''Samurai Warriors''-styled super modes, meaning now, with some grinding, you can have a team of 3 (or 5 in Gauntlet Mode) party members staying perpetually under Super Mode.

* Athena's brother, Ares is also very powerful. His normal combo can rack up several thousand hits in his counter, allowing him to use Sacred Treasures to their maximum potential. His default treasure, Typhon, allows him to quickly fly through the battlefield, making him immune to Wraiths and their area-of-effect attacks. Ares' C1, C3, C4 and C5 will have him turn one of his Typhons into a dragon, that will swallow anyone in front of it. His C3 is specially crazy, able to gobble up soldiers behind Ares, including enemy officers.
* Also from ''4'': Sima Zhao has hands down, the most powerful Unique God Spell in the game by default; at point blank, it just nukes anyone with raw base power, period. Imagine procing both the aforementioned Aggression along with combining it with a maxed-out Divinity attribute, and no one ever survives upon inputting R1+Circle.
* The 1.05 update for ''4'' managed to give almost every non-Hyper Attack user extra elemental activation attacks, especially for those who use EX Attacks from the Chinese-figure-side. Chinese figures such as Jia Chong finally become viable thanks to this (he was bottom of the barrel low tier in the Japanese tier list beforehand), as well as some like Yue Jin (who's C3-EX never had elemental activation back in ''Dynasty Warriors 8'').

** Guo Huai now gets a special mention: from the said patch, his iconic MoreDakka C3-EX by itself becomes absolutely disgusting with a long-lasting hitbox, and elemental activation on all of its hits ''on top of good physical damage'' when used point-blank.

** As mentioned before, Jia Chong. Once more like in ''[=DW8XL=]'', his C1-EX due to now activating elements becomes absolutely busted. But on top of that, via the lingering hitbox programing rule as aforementioned, you can now make Jia Chong's default C1 on its own proc elements with ease by setting out a few normal C1 axes, then going to town with C1-EX.
* After his horrid handling in ''3'',Musashi Miyamoto comes back with a massive vengeance in ''4'' with a very OP running attack that does tremendous base damage, ''especially'' when tacked on with Aggression being proc'd (and even to the point of literally [[OneHitKill one-shotting]] people under the Unity Attack buff as well). On top of that, he's also recruited fairly early in the story, allowing him to trivialize a lot of stuff during that point onward. The multi-attribute from his Unique God Spell is a nice bonus as well, allowing him to rack up hits for combo generation and rapidly keep enemies in hitstun.
* Just like in Samurai Warriors 4, Magoichi Saika is a beast on the battlefield. His C combos slaughter entire crowds at a time, and his Hyper Attacks fire bullets that will knock anyone they hit in the air. Even officers, who can normally block the SW characters' Hyper Attacks will be unable to do anything against Mago's if they hit from far enough, allowing him to tear through entire armies with impunity.
* [[BigBad Odin]] is by and large one of ''the'' most broken characters in the entirety of the fourth game throughout for a number of reasons - he has a thirteen second time stop as his "normal" magic, whereas most characters have a simple low damage blast. Every single one of his charge attacks is almost gratuitously powerful, the C4 and 5 clearing crowds and slaughtering officers en masse, and his C6 forces foes into a single area before nuking them from above. His Charge Magic turns Gungnir into a homing exploding machine gun, and his Musou Attack is dropping Gungnir from orbit. Little wonder he comes at the end of the game - with him properly powered up, even Chaotic and Pandemonium become a walk in the park. If a lot of stuff is coming your way, simply pause with his time stop and then tear it all to shreds. His base Sacred Treasure is so strong that its EX version is effectively weaker, if only because it can't stop time.

* Zuo Ci's Direction+R1 also takes the cake. Not only does he give himself a temporary buff (that increases attack speed and damage), but he can also combine it with Square/the normal attack input for an unlisted R1 special, where he palms forward with his cards. The attack has quite a bit of range, and thanks to his buff cast on him beforehand it can come out absurdly fast, allowing you to spam that move and jump-cancel it with impunity. The donwnside is that he's a Speed type character, so he can't take too much of a beating and relies less on C2 spams. The second game nerfed the activation time of his specials, giving them more start-up time and making them slower, but he's still just as powerful if you can use him well. Said hidden special didn't return in the third game, but it made a return in his most recent appearance in [[VideoGame/DynastyWarriors his home series]] as one of his EX attacks.

* The recent 1.05 update for ''4'' managed to give almost every non-Hyper Attack user extra elemental activation attacks, especially for those who use EX Attacks from the Chinese-figure-side. Chinese figures such as Jia Chong finally become viable thanks to this (he was bottom of the barrel low tier in the Japanese tier list beforehand), as well as some like Yue Jin (who's C3-EX never had elemental activation back in ''Dynasty Warriors 8'').

** With ''Ultimate'', characters can equip any available Sacred Treasure - including replicas of the gods'. That's right, now ''anyone'' can use the utterly broken magic of Gungnir.

** On the flipside however, moves that use up musou (including the ones that naturally proc charge attack-based attributes) can no longer proc Osmosis, nor can it and/or Absorption proc on whacking K.O.ed targets continuously. Also on a majority of elemental activation attacks, one, two, three or four elements at once can only be active on each enemy target hit instead of all equipped elements on the weapon; this often limits elemental movesets by a margin.

* Athena's brother, Ares is also very powerful. His normal combo can rack up several thousand hits in his counter, allowing him to use Sacred Treasures to their maximum potential. His default treasure, Typhon, allows him to quickly fly through the battlefield, making him immune to Wraiths and their area-of-effect attacks.

* After his horrid handling in ''3'', Miyamoto Musashi comes back with a massive vengeance in ''4'' with a very OP running attack that does tremendous base damage, ''especially'' when tacked on with Aggression being proc'd (and even to the point of literally [[OneHitKill one-shotting]] people under the Unity Attack buff as well). On top of that, he's also recruited fairly early in the story, allowing him to trivialize a lot of stuff during that point onward. The multi-attribute from his Unique God Spell is a nice bonus as well, allowing him to rack up hits for combo generation and rapidly keep enemies in hitstun.
* [[BigBad Odin]] is by and large one of ''the'' most broken characters in the entirety of the fourth game throughout for a number of reasons - he has a fifteen second time stop as his "normal" magic, whereas most characters have a simple low damage blast. Every single one of his charge attacks is almost gratuitously powerful, the C4 and 5 clearing crowds and slaughtering officers en masse, and his C6 forces foes into a single area before nuking them from above. His Charge Magic turns Gungnir into a homing exploding machine gun, and his Musou Attack is dropping Gungnir from orbit. Little wonder he comes at the end of the game - with him properly powered up, even Chaotic and Pandemonium become a walk in the park. If a lot of stuff is coming your way, simply pause with his time stop and then tear it all to shreds.

* Another one from ''4'' is the Lion of Nemea, the alternate version of the Cerberus Sacred Treasure, if you [[BribingYourWayToVictory bought the DLC]]. The charge magic attack with it deals absurdly high damage, so much so that you can take down boss level enemies in a single use.

** She gets even crazier with her DLC Sacred Treasure, Aegis EX. Its Charge Magic powers up Athena's Charge Attacks, causing several of them -- as well as her ''regular horseback attacks'' -- to unleash pillars of light over a wide area, making it utterly trivial to clear out entire crowds.

** With ''Ultimate'', characters can choose from any available Sacred Treasure - including replicas of the gods'. That's right, now ''anyone'' can use the utterly broken magic of Gungnir.

where its effects can power up her charge attacks (including turning her C1 into a multi-vertical-light-beam attack) to insane levels.

* You will most likely appreciate Athena's aid when she joins your ranks. Most of her Charge attacks will instantly petrify any enemies that come across her and her third Charge attack can be aimed so it will either cover a wide range to petrify many or focus fire on one enemy. That's not all, though: Athena's other Charge attacks that glows yellow will cause extra blasts that also sweeps the enemy away in a HUGE radius and even deal huge damage as well if it hits a petrified enemy. Add in some customization that procs both elements and absorption attributes and Athena can pretty much wreck the battlefield with power alone...on top of a Unique God Spell that covers a HUGE distance in front and a crazy C1... so much for strategy.
** She gets even crazier with her DLC Sacred Treasure, Aegis EX, where its effects can power up her charge attacks (including turning her C1 into a multi-vertical-light-beam attack) to insane levels.

** With ''Ultimate'', characters can choose from any available Sacred Treasure after a certain point the story - including replicas of the gods'. That's right, now ''anyone'' can use the utterly broken magic of Gungnir.

** With ''Ultimate'', characters can choose from any Sacred Treasure after clearing the story - including replicas of the gods'. That's right, now ''anyone'' can use the utterly broken magic of Gungnir.