How to beat Dong Zhuo

After the first Lu Bu fight, you got treated to two levels in a row with easy bosses. If you were hoping for another one, this fight certainly dashed those dreams to tiny pieces. Dong Zhuo is a fairly tough Wo Long boss fight that’s honestly fairly unlike any boss battle you’ve done in the game previously. He’s honestly not that hard. Oh, except for the fact that he likes to spam a grab that’s almost certain to kill you if it hits you. Oh, and it can be borderline impossible to escape from if he happens to use it when he’s close to you. Right. Anyway, if you’re running into issues, then read on to find out how to beat Dong Zhuo in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty.

Steps to beat Dong Zhuo in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty

The fight against Dong Zhuo begins with you walking through a set of doors and immediately getting a bunch of knives thrown out you. You typically wouldn’t know this when you first fight him, so you’re likely going to take them to the face. It’s best to hold the block button while the fight loads, which will stop you from taking full damage. Parrying is even better, of course. Dong Zhuo fights a lot like Lu Bu’s initial encounter, so he hits you very quickly. But there’s a very major difference between how you’ll handle the fight.

While Lu Bu had you focusing on forcing him to enter spirit disruption by parrying his critical blows, Dong Zhuo’s spirt gauge is just like yours. As he hits you, he’ll gain blue spirit, which he loses as you hit and parry him. You’ll primarily damage him via just hitting him normally as opposed to having him enter spirit disruption, which you’ll probably only get him to do a couple of times over the whole fight. There are a lot more times where it’s safer to hit him, even if you need to be careful while doing so.

Take advantage of the openings

While you don’t want to try trading blows with him (you’ll likely get hit if you attack after each of his strikes), there are attacks that leave him open. He often ends combos by kicking you. If you parry or block this, you’ll have enough time to get a couple of hits or a martial art in. He also ends combos with a move where he thrusts his spear at you, although that one doesn’t grant quite as much time to attack him afterward. It’s a good idea to use these openings for martial arts to further lower his spirit gauge.

Since him attacking you raises his spirit, you’ll want to parry as much as you can; however he attacks so much that it’s a good idea to block or dodge instead. This fight is another balancing act where you’re going to want to continually use parries and normal attacks to keep your spirit up so that you can use your martial arts or wizardry spells when appropriate. Even if you’re not too big on spells in Wo Long, buffs that add elemental effects to your weapons are wonderful here. Use one when you’ve got an opening (such as after the kick or spear thrust) and then hit him.

After he reaches full status for whatever element you’re using, he’ll become stunned for a bit. You can even stun him out of critical blows. Speaking of which, you’re really going to need to watch out for those. His most common critical blow has him leap in the air and spin around before descending on you. Do the same thing you did with Lu Bu’s flame drop: parry when he’s falling toward you and not when he’s first spinning in the air. This attack isn’t a big deal, but it’s handy for creating an opening. If you mash the basic attack button immediately after parrying, you can get in a decent-sized combo immediately after regaining control.

Screenshot by PC Invasion

Watch for the critical blows and parry

Another critical blow is even less threatening. After you use your spirit attack on him while he’s in spirit disruption, he’ll glow and create a shockwave around him. If this hits you, you’ll just go flying back unharmed. If you parry it, you can stand and hit him for a second. He then jumps into the air and throws his spear at you. Block, dodge, or parry. It’s not anything to worry about.

Dong Zhuo’s other critical blows are what you need to worry about. One of these has him creating an energy shot with his blade that will easily cut your life in half. This is fast, so you’ll need to parry as soon as he uses it. But his last critical blow is what nightmares are made of. Dong Zhuo will start glowing red before charging at you. It’s a lot like Lu Bu’s grab. Wait until he’s about to touch you and then parry. If you don’t, he’ll grab and hurt you severely before throwing you. As you’re getting back up, he’ll slash at you. If this hits you and you don’t have full health, you probably won’t survive.

The real kicker is just like in Lu Bu’s fight. You’re fighting him in close quarters, so if he uses this move while you’re very close to him, you probably won’t be able to parry or dodge it. There will be a very tiny window to react. This move alone takes the Dong Zhuo fight from being a pretty decent and fair boss battle to maddening at the drop of a hat. The vast majority of my deaths during this fight were solely because of this move.

Screenshot by PC Invasion

He can use critical blows more than once in a row

Sometimes he uses it twice in a row. One time I fought him and almost beat him where he used the move over and over again. I must have parried it three times, only for him to use it while right in front of me when he was nearly dead, killing me instantly. Team Ninja sure loves its insufferable cheap shots when it comes to making boss fights seem “harder” doesn’t it? When I beat him, it was only because he didn’t use this critical blow at all, so your victory here might be down to RNG.

With all this in mind, it should be easier to beat Dong Zhuo in Wo Long, but that critical blow grab is the real decider. Just keep hitting him and hoping that this move doesn’t show up and you could even get a victory without sinking over an hour into the bastard.

Screenshot by PC Invasion

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is available on Steam and PC Game Pass.