One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 is the newest entry in a long line of pretty fantastic action-heavy games. Musou, of course, is a genre known to the masses primarily thanks to series like Dynasty Warriors. In it, there is a staggering amount of characters to play as (though not many from the Straw Hat Grand Fleet). Each and every one of them can clear mobs and missions with ease given a certain amount of time to learn their mechanics.
Some of them require more work than others, and to help cover our bases, we're going to go over the biggest tips we could think of to help you make that character you love so much from the series capable of beating even the New World Emperors.
Updated February 22nd, 2021 by Jacob Buchalter: One Piece Pirate Warriors 4 has actually been going pretty strong since its initial release. It makes sense, considering the manga just recently passed its monumental 1000th chapter. Since the day it dropped, Bandai Namco has released three different Character DLC Packs, one introducing characters from the Worst Generation, one bringing in Big Mom Crew Members from the Whole Cake Island arc, and a final one dropping Wano legends into the mix. Why not introduce one that has characters from the best One Piece movies too? Anyway, tier lists have changed, tactics have been updated, and the methods by which to make a character overpowered in this game are different now.
15 Max Out That Beginning Map ASAP
First and foremost, the Beginning Map is a skill "tree" shared by every character. The stats that are leveled up in this map are then leveled up for every new character you unlock. This is a fantastic way of circumventing the problem where people would unlock characters in previous games and either pay in-game currency to auto-level them or grind them up on the early missions.
That old method made using new characters either boring until they leveled up, or forced you to spend most of your currency on getting everyone up to par. Neither of these was fun to do, but now people can jump right in with their new character right away.
14 Make Sure Your Main Character Is Strong By Default
Sadly, as far as Musou games go, the power gap between characters can be absurdly wide. In fighting and/or competitive shooters, developers try and micro-manage each new character so that they all feel equally powerful in their own ways. But, in Musou games, of which there are many, some characters are just unequivocally stronger than others.
If a preferred character is awful by default, they can still get strong with a ton of work, but they'll never reach "overpowered" status. Pick a few favorites from the series, and then heavily invest in the one that seems the strongest by default. Some examples of characters that are innately broken are Katakuri, Big Mom, Kaido, Shanks, Whitebeard, Oden, Smoothie, and a Reiju.
13 Level Up Every Skill & Combo Island
Even if the Beginning Map is unlocked, it doesn't come recommended to hop into a difficult mission with a newly acquired character. First, save up a bit of Beri and unlock all their Action Growth and Skill Slot islands. Basically, these are their individual skills and their combos. Players can recognize these islands easily since Action Growth Islands have a purple arrow pointing up and Skill Slot islands are marked by a small blue diamond. They don't cost too much to max out, and it really opens each character up playstyle-wise.
Grab a few of their specials as well, but consider that players don't really get that many expendable resources until about halfway through Dramatic Log, so doing that ranges from person to person. Without these maxed out, characters feel like a shallow version of themselves, so make sure to prioritize them if possible.
12 Grind Out The Gold Coins Relevant To Your Favorite Character
Keep an eye out for certain Gold Coins. The Treasure Log is the place where most of the lesser-known characters will unlock their latter Growth Map Skills as each mission rewards a Gold Coin of a different type upon completion. Knowing the source material is actually helpful here as Islands that only have a question mark usually need Gold Coins that haven't been discovered but are relevant to the character themselves.
Like with Bartolomeo, a lot of his late Growth Map islands need Gold Coins related to Luffy, so grinding the maps that give Straw Hat Gold Coins early actually prepares you for the future.
11 Figure Out Each Special A Character Has & Its Versatility
Some of the Specials are either deceptively good or surprisingly bad. Take Bartolomeo's ball-throwing Special for example. Sadly, Bartolomeo is one of the worst characters in the game, but if this ball manages to hit an Elite NPC, it'll still take out a good chunk or straight up all of their health. But, if he throws it into a crowd, which are plentiful in these types of games, it'll be a waste.
Now, for comparison, take Kidd's Pillar Special, on the surface, it just builds a weird tower of metal that blocks enemy line-of-sight. But, if you use his "Repel" Special anywhere near it, it launches metal in every direction and adds a big chunk of damage to his repelled metal fists. Testing all the Special Moves a character has will quickly tell you if they're worth your time or not.
10 Play Around To Find Character-Specific Exploits
While OPPW4 might be the most complex the franchise has ever been in terms of system mechanics, that doesn't mean it's the most polished. There are still plenty of exploits and other ways in which players can abuse the game in order to make their favorite character OP. For example, a lot of characters have specific combos or specials that can be dash canceled out of before the animation finishes, but the damage and effect from the move still triggers.
Plenty of characters have stun-lock combos, moves that clear crowds through walls, or ways to get around the map absurdly fast as well. This is all to say players should play around a bit with a favored character. Or, at the very least, do a bit of research and see what other players have found.
9 S-Ranks Aren't Dependant On Health Anymore
Unlike in previous Pirate Warriors games, OPPW4 doesn't determine Clear Rank using the player's remaining health. Players used to have to avoid getting hit as much as possible to get S-Ranks, especially since the recovery animation for a lot of characters wasted precious seconds. But, in Pirate Warriors 4, the number of enemies defeated and the time-to-clear is all that matters.
How does this help build an overpowered character? Well, the way players play a game when they're worried about getting hit and the way they play when they're going all out is pretty different, right? So, naturally, knowing that getting hit isn't a big deal means they'll play in a less stressed state-of-mind, which will make their character feel stronger than they felt previously. Plus, especially with big characters, trying to block or evade attacks all the time wasted a lot of time too.
8 Prioritize Damage & Defense
Equip all the skills that buff overall defense and attack power. In particular, skills like Herculean Strength, Cheat Death, or Full Force Enhancement are amazing. Cheat Death buffs the amount of damage dealt depending on the player's remaining HP, which already sounds good, but, the stat increase is insane.
Utilizing this Skill correctly can let players almost one-shot Elite enemies, making it twice as easy to clear maps quickly. This is a One Piece game, after all, so having a "going all-out" state of mind sort of matches the tone of the IP.
7 Research Your Character, Especially If They're A Technical Type
One Piece Pirate Warriors 4 introduces a whole new Type of Character: the Sky Type. Character's of this type-classification fly around the map and have a ton of air combos. For those unfamiliar with any of the other Pirate Warriors games, there's also the Power, Speed, and Technical type characters as well.
Knowing which type a player's main character is, and how their specific mechanics work, is tantamount to making them overpowered. For example, Reiju is a Sky-type character, but her Poison-eating mechanic feels like something a Technical character would have. If players didn't read up on her Poison Mechanic in her Character Summary, they would think she's quite the underpowered character. There are plenty of resources, both in-game and out, to learn about how certain characters work, so put the time in and commit it to memory.
6 Grind Out Crew Levels
Other than the Beginning Map, all the other islands unlocked in the Growth Maps are specific to that one character. It's what makes Beris all the more desirable in this game, rather than just serving as level-up fuel in PW3. One other thing that does get shared between all of them are the Skills. Specials are the moves that each specific character can unleash, while Skills are equippable bonuses that all characters benefit from. These are the islands on their maps that have a "sun" icon on them, for reference. Luckily, the majority of the characters only have one, and it's always on their Level 1 Map.
To unlock all their other Growth Maps, players need to rank up that specific characters Crew Level. To do this, players have to use them as an ally in missions and beat a bunch of enemies, which can be a bit of a grind. For most maps, the allies it gives are random, so players might be restarting a lot. For some missions, however, the allies are guaranteed. Make sure to have Crew Level buffing Skills like Brothers' Sake Cups equipped, but also do a bit of research and see if there are any missions where a preferred character is a guaranteed ally.