Himiko FAQ v1 By Tuan Dao (Kaikuro on gamefaqs) Started 1/4/09 Finished 1/5/09 Latest Update 1/9/05 **************** Table of Contents - **************** (up) - Update Content (legal) - Legal information (intro) - Introduction to Himiko and the FAQ (abl) - What Himiko’s Abilities are and how you get them (wpn) - Weapon setups for Himiko (strat) - Playing strategies for Himiko (Story and Free Modes) (vs) - Playing strategies for Himiko in V.S and Survival Modes (cred) - Credits (contact) - Contact information ******* Updates (up) ******* V. 1.01 - First posted on gamefaqs. V. 1.02 - Added updates section; posted on Neoseeker; added pros and cons list to the Introduction. V. 1.03 - Added to supercheats; cleaned up a few things *************** Legal Information (legal) *************** I’m sure you’ve all read this at the beginning/end of every FAQ on gamefaqs.com already, so I’ll skip to the point. Don’t copy my material without permission, don’t host this on your site without permission, etc. etc. Now, I’m not going to hunt you down with an army of lawyers or anything, but it’d be nice if my work stays my work. Sites allowed to host this FAQ: Gamefaqs.com/Gamespot.com Neoseeker.com Supercheats.com Please notify me if this FAQ is found on any site other than gamefaqs. ********** Introduction (intro) ********** Q. Who is Himiko? A. Himiko was a shaman queen from Japan. Very little is known about her, except that she maintained relations to Wei during the Three Kingdoms period of China. Read more about her here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himiko Q. Why should *I* use Himiko? A. Well… Aesthetical Reasons: - You enjoy her general adorableness - You enjoy her laser sprays - You enjoy the Dogu heads. Gameplay Reasons: - Himiko’s attacks enjoy a ridiculous amount of firepower - Himiko has an absurdly long range. Q. How do I unlock Himiko? A. Finish Shu’s story Q. What are her pros and cons? A. Pros: - High damage - Very wide range - Very long reach - Small hitbox - Speed Type - Powerful buff Cons: - Weak Musou - Low Defense - Low HP - Vulnerable to stagger - Terrible horse combat - Very few elemental charge attacks ******* Abilities (abl) ******* The Ability system in Warriors Orochi 2 is similar to a cross between the Ability System of the Samurai Warriors games and the Equipment System of Dynasty Warriors 2-5. Characters can learn individual Abilities (for example, Potence), and share them with the rest of the cast. Himiko’s learned Abilities are: Adrenalin - Defeat 60 enemies Recover - Defeat 70 enemies, including 3 officers As for Abilities for her to equip during battle: Potence - More damage is good Speed - More damage is good Conserve - Helps curve her high musou expenditure Impulse - More foot speed is good. Adrenalin - Keeps her alive The rest is dependant if you’re leveling, if you’re using the rest of your team, the stage, and your play style. ************* Weapon Setups (wpn) ************* Well, you can’t exactly go around killing people without weaponry (unless you’re Gracia, but that’s a different FAQ), so a good weapon is necessary to kicking butt. Q. What are Himiko’s weapons? A. Flying Dogu heads that fire lasers. Q. Flying what that what?! A. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogu Himiko’s just happen to fire laser pellets. Himiko’s weapons - Clay Dogu - Power 8 Bronze Dogu - Power 17 Goddess of Light - Power 34 Amaterasu - Power 68 (taken straight from the homepage) Don’t be deceived by the low base powers. Himiko can hit MUCH harder than many of the other characters with higher weapon powers (e. g. Lu Bu’s Sky Scorcher with 100 base power does pathetic damage). Now, go to Wei 1 on Chaos Mode, and grab yourself an Amaterasu. Give it +20 Power (more damage is always welcome) and eight Element Slots. Done? Good. Time to fill them. Required Elements: Flash Might Brave Slay Slay because it makes your attacks hurt. Bad. Brave and Might are there to double your damage. Flash is on pretty much everyone’s weapon to get around blocking. Recommended Elements: Bolt Air Agility Absorb Drain Bolt and Air add even more damage to Himiko’s already damaging attacks. Nice. Absorb lets Himiko use her specials more often. Drain helps keep her alive (although it is unneeded for the most part). Agility lets her get her attacks off more quickly (and makes a nice space filler, too). Okay Elements: Fire Ice Fire would have been great… if characters couldn’t already one/two-shot generics (and in some cases, every single officer in the game) with charge attacks. Ice has a somewhat low freeze rate and doesn’t work too well with Air. Or absurdly high firepower (Himiko will kill all the enemies before she freezes them). Do Not Use: Multi Range Rage No effect on Himiko. That, and Rage just plain sucks unless you’re named Kunoichi. And even then Rage sucks. Perfect Balance Setup: Bolt/Flash/Slay/Air Brave/Agility/Absorb/Might Frankly, this gives her the best possible weapon, in my opinion. Flame, Ice and Rage are pretty useless for the most part, and she sadly can’t benefit from Range or Multi, so they have no place on her weapon either. Now, since Bolt and Air add bigger damage, they instantly go on. So how do I choose between the remaining three? Agility gives her more speed on her charge attacks. This alone improves her safety and offensive speed tremendously. Absorb also lets her spam her R1 special (used occasionally to give her some breathing room) more freely, and gives her musou to use for her buff. Since Adrenalin is more efficient, Drain is not needed. Defensive Shamaness Setup: Ice/Flash/Slay/Brave Agility/Drain/Absorb/Might You lose a LOT of damage using this setup. Here are some reasons why one would use this setup: 1) You just started the game, and you need an easy-to-use weapon that keeps you safe. 2) You like Ice. Ice, being heavily nerf'd in terms of sheer offense, no longer has usage on a pure offensive setup. Even with its low freeze rate, it's a defensive wonder for Himiko. Himiko can partially make up for the freeze rate with her high frequency of attacks. *NOTE - This weapon is effective on many characters, but it's not the best for each one. Pure Offense: Fire/Bolt/Flash/Slay Brave/Agility/Might/Air This is much more damaging than my perfect balance setup. Although Flame took a heavy damage nerfing, it can still dish out a good deal of damage over a moderate period of time. This setup is less versatile, however, and limits the usage of her R1 specials. *NOTE - With maxed out Boost, Potence, Speed, and a maxed out weapon, she can defeat any officer in the game with one charge attack using this setup or the Perfect Balance setup. Fireworks: Bolt/Flash/Slay/Flame Drain/Agility 1-5/filler/filler Use this setup only with the "Almighty" Enchantment (below). It's meant to be very flashy, not effective. Enchantments: The new Enchantment system gives your weapons some special effects, from being able to jump cancel any attack, to resisting stagger from arrows, to refilling your musou. Since there’s a lot of them available, here’s a condensed list from which to choose. Stability - Prevents character from staggering from normal attacks during a charge attack Resolve - Prevents character from staggering due to arrows/normal bullets. Supremacy - Refills musou over time Almighty - Applies elements to all strikes Highflier - Allows character to jump out of any charge attack. My choices: Stability, Resolve, Supremacy Supremacy on top of Absorb gives her lots of freedom with her R1s. Stability and Resolve are pretty much standard for all non-Power type characters due to how broken not-staggering when struck is. Highflier lets her spam her (very powerful) jump charge, while Almighty lets even the worst game player out there win the game. ******* Strategy (strat) ******* To get an idea of Himiko’s strategy, you need her movelist. Note - To avoid confusion C1 - Triangle C1-2 - Triangle Triangle Square (S) String: Himiko fires laser pellets randomly in front of her, finishing with a 360-degree spray. C(harge)1-1 Himiko fires a very short burst of laser power. Does not activate elements. Does double damage with her buff. C1-2 Himiko fires a longer burst of laser power. Doesn’t activate elements either. Does double damage with her buff. C1-3 Himiko fires an even longer burst of laser power, pauses, and then fires a second blast. The end of the first burst activates elements on almost all of the hits, and the second blast activates elements. Does double damage and hits a 270-degree fan in front of her and shoots behind her with her buff. C2-1 Himiko’s Dogu cut the ground with lasers. No elements. Doubled area-of-effect (AoE) with buff. C2-2 Himiko fires a laser blast to the left or right slightly in front of her. No elements. More beams with the buff. C2-3 Himiko fires a fan of lasers in front of her. More beams are added with the buff. Activates elements. C3-1 Himiko fires two lasers to her left-diagonal. Activates elements. Fires four with her buff. C3-2 Same as C3-1, but to her right-diagonal. Activates elements. C3-3 Same as the other two, but in front of her. *NOTE - It is somewhat difficult, but not impossible, to hit with all 6(12) hits of C3 against a single target at point blank. C4-1 Himiko fires a fan of lasers all around. Doesn’t activate elements. More lasers are fired with her buff. C4-2 Himiko begins marching forward firing lasers downward. Doesn’t activate elements. Double damage with buff. C4-3 Himiko jumps up and fires two lasers forward. Four lasers with her buff. Activates elements. *NOTE - C4-1 is fired *VERY* close to the ground. R1 - Himiko jumps and fires a 360 spray of laser pellets that knock all the enemies around her away. DirR1 - Himiko doubles the number of Dogu active. Caps out at four Dogu. Jump attack - Himiko throws a fan of laser pellets forward. Jump Charge - Himiko fires two (four) lasers downward. The beams explode and have the Fire element attached. Horse attack - Himiko fires a shower of lasers. Horse C1 - Himiko’s horse stomps the ground Horse C2 - Himiko fires a sequence of beams forward. Horse C3 - Exactly the same attack as Horse C2, but with a slight delay from left to right. Horse C4 - Himiko causes her two Dogu head to rotate around her and spray light that knocks enemies away. Musou - Himiko skips forward while her two (four) Dogu circle her with beams of light. True Musou - The same as her musou, but throw in a bigger shockwave at the end. Okay, now that that is out of the way, how do you use Himiko? Surely she’s not like Diao Chan from Warriors Orochi and just plain T-mashing? General Overview: Against most generics, a point-blank C3 or C1 (from any distance) will kill them outright if most of the hits connect. A full C1 (with the beginning part blocked) will kill any officer in the game if you have max level damage increasing abilities. Of course, that’s only part of her offense. Himiko’s offense varies greatly, depending on the presence of crowds around an officer, their density, and last but most importantly, their size. Huge gobs of peons poking and slashing at you isn’t good for your health gauge, you know. So, to get around this, Himiko has multiple tricks and tactics up her sleeve. * Hit and run. Himiko has absurd reach and range with her lasers, so don’t be afraid to spray a few normal attacks, jump away and clear a landing zone with her jump attack, rinsing and repeating to clear a crowd. *Abuse C4-1. Despite the fact that it isn’t elemental, C4-1 makes for a wonderful crowd control tool. *R1 seems useless, but it is perhaps her greatest crowd taming asset. Knocking enemies away, doing large damage in the process, but *keeping* blocking officers nearby? Yes please. *Last but not least, keep her buff on at all times. Killing twice as fast means staying in one spot less. Staying in one spot less means getting poked less, and we all know what getting poked does. In Depth: Himiko changes up her offensive in every single situation out there. Unlike many of the other broken characters *COUGH CAO REN COUGH*, Himiko doesn't have an attack that's made for every situation, so she has to be versatile, or risk getting impaled to death. Thankfully, Himiko's exstensive moveset and impressive offense let her glide right on through. *Versus a lone officer (with no/very few nearby peons) Himiko can simply walk up to the officer and either use C3 or C1. C1 is a guaranteed kill, and from a longer distance, but C3 is faster. *Versus a lone officer (with a moderate/large crowd) Approach the crowd, buff up, and immediately jump. Airdash (hopefully over the officer) and nail the crowd (and again, hopefully the blocking officer) with a Jump Charge -> R1 combo to quickly disperse the crowd. If the officer wasn't caught in the JC -> R1 combo, or wasn't blocking and got knocked away, walk up to the officer and C3 before the crowd can return. If the officer blocked both the JC -> R1, and is beginning to attack, take a few steps back and use C3. *Versus a small group of officers (with no/very few nearby peons) C1 is a viable, yet risky option to take them all out at once, provided you can herd them into a small, tight cluster or single file line. Well placed C3's can severely damage some officers, while downright killing others. *Versus a small group of officers (with a moderate/large crowd) Herd the officers together and blast the crowd with C4-1 -> R1. The officers will block the two attacks, while the peons will be blasted away. Then, use C3 to pick at the cluster of officers. Repeat as needed. *Versus a large group of officers (with no/very few nearby peons) Herd the officers together, and knock them all down with a jump attack. Walk back and use C1 while they're getting up to kill most of them. Finish the rest with C3 or C2-3. *Versus a large group of officers (with a moderate/large crowd) This is a very dangerous situation. On top of having to deal with huge gobs of peons one after another, you must deal with several opponents who can easily defeat you within seconds. Begin by using C4-1 -> JC -> R1 combos to knock down the peons, and then C1 at single officers, or smaller clusters of officers. C3 is very unreliable, and we need to deal with the officers as fast as we can. Remember, C3 can definitely destroy officers, but only if all three parts of the attack hit, and we don't have the time to position Himiko to nail officers perfectly. ******************** V.S and Survival Modes (vs.) ******************** Himiko has a place on any Survival/Versus Mode team due to her absurdly long reach and high damage. In Survival Mode, Himiko can harass more dangerous opponents with her jump attack, and can heavily damage non-blocking opponents with her C1 (should she be allowed to pull it off). Near the end, however, her damage begins to wane, so what she’s left with is safety. In Tag Team/Elimination, Himiko can devastate slower Power Types with her C1 when they’re using a slow Charge attack, and punish the faster ones with repeated jump charges to interrupt their attacks. She’s somewhat vulnerable against the majority of Technique Type characters (because most, if not all) have a dashing charge attack (for example, Yukimura’s R1, or Diao Chan’s infamous slide kick). Against Speed Types, she’s at a severe disadvantage due to her severely low defense and slow charge attacks. She’s very vulnerable if a charge attack misses and is not canceled out of. In Tower Mode, her R1 is a great way to rack up the points, and in Steeplechase, she’s merely average. Her most used attacks in these modes: C1 - used to punish slow-attacking Speed/Power officers (Tech types can just counter their way out). C3 - stunning. C4-1 - used to disrupt slower, non-Power officers. Also used to set up R1 in Tower mode. R1 - her primary attack in Tower mode. S-String - primary damage source. ****** Credits (cred) ****** Gamefaqs, for hosting this FAQ. Me, for doing most of the typing. Koei for making the game, of course. Himiko, for being a character. The Reader, for reading. The WO2 homepage for giving me the information on Himiko’s weapons. **************** Contact Information (contact) **************** Have questions? Suggestions? Ideas? Constructive criticism? You can always post something on the Warriors Orochi 2 boards, or you can email me at tuandao123@hotmail.com. Please put something in the subject related to the FAQ, and I’ll reply as soon as possible. If it’s a flame-email, or something random like “can I haz chets”, it’ll be deleted and no reply will be sent.