Can You Rescue Sun Ce in Dynasty Warriors Origins?

Sun Ce, the first heir to Sun Jian and the elder brother of Sun Quan, was historically assassinated by retainers of one of his late rival warlords Xu Gong while he was on a hunting trip. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms novel further spiced up the character’s death episode by adding Sun Ce’s contempt and execution of the Daoist priest Yu Ji, who is also alternatively known as Gan Ji. Some of the prior Dynasty Warriors entries had hypothetical events where players could save Sun Ce from his impending death, so they will wonder whether they can also achieve the same feat in Dynasty Warriors Origins.

The short answer to this question is: Yes, you can rescue Sun Ce in Dynasty Warriors Origins. But while you can read more details about it in the below guide, be advised that it will contain major spoilers for the stage.

The stage featuring the historical death of Sun Ce in Dynasty Warriors Origins will be “Suppression of Wu.” This stage is also the final battle in Chapter 4’s Sun clan route.

The stage’s general flow is already challenging enough since you must ensure that Sun Quan does not get overwhelmed by numerous enemy ambushes and pincer attacks. However, you will need to pay even more attention when Sun Ce decides to enter the forest area on the western side of the stage map.

The unseen timer that determines the lifespan of Sun Ce in Dynasty Warriors Origins will start when he goes missing inside the misty forest. If you want to rescue him, you must also explore the forest by yourself.

Simply traversing around the forest won’t get you anywhere closer to the objective, though. There is a phantom unit led by the ghost of Yan Baihu around the southern side of the publicly visible map. However, beating this unit would not contribute to any progress toward the real objective.

With that in mind, I highly recommend you skip the Yan Baihu ghost fight and instead find a secret area on the forest’s edges. When you turn on the protagonist Ziluan’s Eyes of the Sacred Bird, you should be able to spot purple incense smoke that leads to a secret cave.

Laying in wait inside this cave will be the stage’s “secret boss” Bailuan, whom you must beat in time to alter Sun Ce’s fate in the game’s storyline. It will be no easy matter as Bailuan has a maximum courage level that greatly buffs his stats. But as you deplete his HP, he will add even more challenges by summoning more ghosts of Sun Ce’s late rivals to distract you.

If Bailuan disappears before you can beat him and claims that the Little Conqueror is “no more,” you have failed the side challenge and must restart all over again. You can only rest assured after you have made sure that you have completely defeated Bailuan and see the “Fate Altered” sign, although you still need to clear the stage’s main objective of aiding Sun Quan in defeating all other enemy officers on the map.

Dynasty Warriors Origins is available worldwide on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and PC.