Shadow Warrior 3 Arena Battle Guide: How to Win Any Arena Battles

Shadow Warrior 3, Flying Wild Hog’s latest entry in their FPS franchise, is an action-packed gore-fest of an arena shooter.  You’ll be delighted to find a powerful arsenal of weapons at their disposal, all of which can be found by roughly the halfway point of the game, to fight off the hordes of Yokai on your path to slaying the Dragon threatening to consume the world.  You might find that the arenas are fun, varied, and filled with potentially loads of hazards to use against your foes, but potentially overwhelming when facing such strength in numbers.  Read on for our guide on How to Win Any Arena Battles in Shadow Warrior 3!

How to Win Arena Battles in Shadow Warrior 3

The clearest answer, before considering whether you have any upgrades at all, is to always be switching between weapons, whether it’s other guns or guns to your Dragontail (katana).  The reason for this is because Shadow Warrior 3 features guns that require reloading, which, in the case of the Crimson Bull (grenade launcher) or the Basilisk (railgun) it will halt your combat momentum.  You want to constantly be moving around, as camping is not a good idea in arena shooters, and switching your weapons, because every time you switch into a weapon, it’s fully loaded again.  This will help maximize your damage output and is beneficial throughout your playthrough.  Defeat any enemies you see more quickly with this method, and once it’s over, you’ll hear the pounding of a drum or see yellow thorns appear that you can destroy to proceed.

If you want more specific and effective methods, consider upgrading the Dragontail (katana) once you find enough white weapon upgrade points in the game world or through challenges.  It has 3 special elemental status effects you can unlock at its third tier, two of which are extremely effective in stopping your foes in their tracks, shock and freeze attacks.  The Sidekicks (submachine guns) also have an effective upgrade chain, where you can inflict a shock effect, or the Basilisk, whose upgrades include the ability to freeze nearby enemies.  The main benefits of these upgrades are that you can stop groups of enemies or even larger ones in their tracks, and fire on them with no opposition.

Shadow Warrior 3 Arena Battle Tips

The downside to using upgrades is you have to find a lot of the upgrade points, so we’d recommend rationing the ones awarded by challenges and using them on the weapons listed above first.  Finding the other upgrade points is possible, however, there’s no map to fall back on and you’ll require multiple playthroughs to find most of them.

Gore weapons are helpful too, as executing finishers also restores your HP, and Kugutsu only takes one Finisher Point while bestowing essentially a large freeze grenade to a wide area.  So above all else:

• Cycle through weapons consistently when in arenas
• Even swapping back and forth between the Dragontail and one gun is effective
• Prioritize upgrades with shock or freeze effects
• Be efficient with which gore weapons you choose

This concludes our guide on How to Win Any Arena Battles in Shadow Warrior 3!  Be sure to read our other guides and be ready for the game when it arrives on March 1st on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One!