Uploaded April 2021 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
A.k.a. "the save scumming of the Hydra".
This is a highlight from my stream where I did something groundbreaking yet extremely dumb in this game.
One of the final levels in WO3U features a fight against a Hydra. Multiple versions exist of this level, and the version you get to play depends on at which time you enter it during the main story.
There's the Prologue version where there are only two ballistae you can use to fight the Hydra. This fight is doomed to failure: even if you DO manage to hurt the Hydra enough, its health cannot lower past a specific point, and so defeating it is literally impossible.
After completing Chapter 2, you are awarded with a laser cannon that finally allows you to fight the Hydra in realistic terms. After completing Chapter 3, you get even more laser cannons, making the fight even easier.
But what about entering the level after the Prologue but before completing Chapter 2? You enter an unique version of the level where there are three arbalests for fighting the Hydra. This is supposed to be another unwinnable fight, since the arbalest does bad damage and you normally cannot defend against the Hydra's attacks for very long. However, the Hydra does not have infinite health like in the Prologue level, and with the power of save scumming, you can indefinitely prevent the arbalest from acquiring any damage.
This means you *can* defeat the Hydra with an arbalest... even though by all accounts you shouldn't.
This also means you might now be able to do a low% speedrun of WO3U where you finish the game with only Ma Chao, Sima Zhao, Hanbei Takenaka and Kaguya.
This whole scenario has a lot of problems to it. First of all, coming to this level early means that your team will be very underpowered compared to the enemies. I'd started Chapter 2 on this save, so I had Zuo Ci and his freakishly powerful musou attack at my disposal, which made things a lot easier.
There are three arbalests to choose from. The most obvious arbalest (to the north) requires fighting extra enemies to reach, and the area will also be swarming with random mooks during most of the level. While it's in a good position, it will inevitably take additional random damage from hits made by the enemies, and so it's not a good option for this long fight.
The east arbalest is more protected. You can even use the arbalest itself to defeat the swarms of enemies that are approaching since they mostly come from the direction of the Hydra. It's not a bad choice, although it can be tough hitting the Hydra's head consistently from the low position, plus it's quite far away from where you start, so just getting there will waste some precious time.
There's also the obscure west arbalest that I never used in regular gameplay. It can be reached quickly with an infinite jump. It has a good firing position and it'll never get swarmed by enemies during the level, so it's the best protected out of all the three arbalests. However, it seems the game didn't expect you to use it in this fight, because it's rather buggy. Many of its graphical effects don't draw properly on the screen, which can make it difficult to know where you're aiming. Still, I went with this arbalest because of its easy location and good protection.
One final obstacle is the clock. The level has an in-game time limit of 1 hour, and it's actually quite difficult to defeat Hydra before it runs out. My first two attempts failed because I ran out of time, so I try to be very efficient on this try. This fight will be super slow no matter what, but some of the tactics at your disposal are better for in-game time, some for real-time. In a speedrun, you'd want to balance between the two.
As for some highlights from this riveting encounter...
0:00 - the process of infinite jumping to the west ballista. I need to do a perfect jump to make it since my characters are still at such a low level.
2:20 - I'm ready to start firing at Hydra at 59 minutes IGT. The strategy is clear: I fire at Hydra until it attempts to shoot a fire ball at me. I then save & quit to prevent taking any damage. Rinse & repeat. To note, aiming at the head region deals extra damage. The heads also take extra damage while they're stunned.
15:30 - first head goes down. Due to a bug (?), all the remaining heads that spawn in front will de- and re-spawn every time I load the game. It's invulnerable during the process, so I spend some time after each reload by shooting at other nearby heads for chip damage.
1:01:36 - four heads remain. The rest get super armor from now on.
1:20:53 - I'm worried I might be running out of time, so I begin save scumming even harder to skip the invulnerable animation cycle of the Hydra after each reload.
2:18:10 - the game consistently crashes if you reload the game too many times in one session.
2:22:11 - as one final curveball, the final head gets hyper armor!
2:37:15 - it's over!
-- twitch.tv/akheon
A.k.a. "the save scumming of the Hydra".
This is a highlight from my stream where I did something groundbreaking yet extremely dumb in this game.
One of the final levels in WO3U features a fight against a Hydra. Multiple versions exist of this level, and the version you get to play depends on at which time you enter it during the main story.
There's the Prologue version where there are only two ballistae you can use to fight the Hydra. This fight is doomed to failure: even if you DO manage to hurt the Hydra enough, its health cannot lower past a specific point, and so defeating it is literally impossible.
After completing Chapter 2, you are awarded with a laser cannon that finally allows you to fight the Hydra in realistic terms. After completing Chapter 3, you get even more laser cannons, making the fight even easier.
But what about entering the level after the Prologue but before completing Chapter 2? You enter an unique version of the level where there are three arbalests for fighting the Hydra. This is supposed to be another unwinnable fight, since the arbalest does bad damage and you normally cannot defend against the Hydra's attacks for very long. However, the Hydra does not have infinite health like in the Prologue level, and with the power of save scumming, you can indefinitely prevent the arbalest from acquiring any damage.
This means you *can* defeat the Hydra with an arbalest... even though by all accounts you shouldn't.
This also means you might now be able to do a low% speedrun of WO3U where you finish the game with only Ma Chao, Sima Zhao, Hanbei Takenaka and Kaguya.
This whole scenario has a lot of problems to it. First of all, coming to this level early means that your team will be very underpowered compared to the enemies. I'd started Chapter 2 on this save, so I had Zuo Ci and his freakishly powerful musou attack at my disposal, which made things a lot easier.
There are three arbalests to choose from. The most obvious arbalest (to the north) requires fighting extra enemies to reach, and the area will also be swarming with random mooks during most of the level. While it's in a good position, it will inevitably take additional random damage from hits made by the enemies, and so it's not a good option for this long fight.
The east arbalest is more protected. You can even use the arbalest itself to defeat the swarms of enemies that are approaching since they mostly come from the direction of the Hydra. It's not a bad choice, although it can be tough hitting the Hydra's head consistently from the low position, plus it's quite far away from where you start, so just getting there will waste some precious time.
There's also the obscure west arbalest that I never used in regular gameplay. It can be reached quickly with an infinite jump. It has a good firing position and it'll never get swarmed by enemies during the level, so it's the best protected out of all the three arbalests. However, it seems the game didn't expect you to use it in this fight, because it's rather buggy. Many of its graphical effects don't draw properly on the screen, which can make it difficult to know where you're aiming. Still, I went with this arbalest because of its easy location and good protection.
One final obstacle is the clock. The level has an in-game time limit of 1 hour, and it's actually quite difficult to defeat Hydra before it runs out. My first two attempts failed because I ran out of time, so I try to be very efficient on this try. This fight will be super slow no matter what, but some of the tactics at your disposal are better for in-game time, some for real-time. In a speedrun, you'd want to balance between the two.
As for some highlights from this riveting encounter...
0:00 - the process of infinite jumping to the west ballista. I need to do a perfect jump to make it since my characters are still at such a low level.
2:20 - I'm ready to start firing at Hydra at 59 minutes IGT. The strategy is clear: I fire at Hydra until it attempts to shoot a fire ball at me. I then save & quit to prevent taking any damage. Rinse & repeat. To note, aiming at the head region deals extra damage. The heads also take extra damage while they're stunned.
15:30 - first head goes down. Due to a bug (?), all the remaining heads that spawn in front will de- and re-spawn every time I load the game. It's invulnerable during the process, so I spend some time after each reload by shooting at other nearby heads for chip damage.
1:01:36 - four heads remain. The rest get super armor from now on.
1:20:53 - I'm worried I might be running out of time, so I begin save scumming even harder to skip the invulnerable animation cycle of the Hydra after each reload.
2:18:10 - the game consistently crashes if you reload the game too many times in one session.
2:22:11 - as one final curveball, the final head gets hyper armor!
2:37:15 - it's over!
-- twitch.tv/akheon
