Within the maze of Jade Empire opponents, the key to surviving every battle is not how hard or fast you hit, but how well you are able to avoid the damage coming your way. While temptation is great, you'll soon realize there are plenty of enemies which you can't stand toe-to-toe with. Knowing your way out of difficult situations will show exactly how good you are at playing the game.


Battle tactics

First and foremost, you have to understand it is better to land a hit than doing more damage with each blow, thus speed is more important than damage. Most of the time you'll dodge blows, particularly important since you can leap over an enemy or dive into them to disrupt their attacks. A good trick is jumping over an enemy and attacking them. It takes a little while for opponents to turn around, meaning you can get in several hits for free. Also, jumping over a blocking enemy means you have a bit more time to execute a strong attack against them. Regarding combat styles, if it is important enough for you to use, you need it to last as much as possible. In addition, the chi or focus drain should be minimal. If you are low on health and there are no shrines around, select Dawn Star as a follower and set her to support mode. Assuming you can dance around your enemies in the next battle for a bit, you'll be able to recover chi and heal yourself with it.

Getting surrounded during group battles will most likely result in you getting killed quickly. If you are fighting a boss along with his underlings, concentrate on taking out the weaker targets first. The boss is usually quite a bit harder than the bodyguards he has, so, clearing these opponents out first will give you the room to move and a better chance at overall victory, not mentioning the fact that the overall damage per seconds dealt to you will drastically decrease. Generally, weapons are better for fighting groups than martial styles are. This is because most weapons keep you moving forward and attack in a 'circular' path, while martial styles don't move you forward as far and are much more linear in terms of where they deal the damage. Fighting circular makes it capable to land hits on enemies that are nearby or on the way to your target. This saves you time in fighting and can protect you from those enemies attacking.


The best Jade Empire styles

Concerning the best Martial Styles, Thousand Cuts is the fastest for close combat, while Legendary Strike has the best speed with range, along with the best strong attack (a jump kick that sends the enemies flying). Magic Styles are disputed among Tempest and Stone Immortal, the latter being particularly useful once you're nearing full completion of either your Closed Fist or Open Palm scale. Support Styles see Storm Dragon and Hidden Fist on top of the list. Their harmonic combos deliver decent area of attack damage making them quick to pull off and safer for your character. The best Weapon Style is by far Tang's Vengeance, since it has best overall speed, range and damage. When it comes to Transformation Styles, Red Minister is unparalleled because it drains both health and chi on each attack. Provided you keep hitting opponents, you can use it indefinitely.


Spending skill points

As you would expect, there are some priorities you should take into consideration while spending your skill points in Jade Empire to attain the greatest effect. First off, you should maximize the damage and speed of your main martial style ignoring chi damage completely (for now). Be quick to master a magic style, and then max out the duration and speed bars for a good support style, but try to leave Heavenly Wave out of this. You don't need to worry about chi damage for a support style. A weapon style would come in handy right about now, since it's needed to shake off particular opponents. Be advised that you will find better weapons later in the game so specializing in the first set of weapons you encounter is a waste of skill points. Whatever you choose, don't upgrade two weapon sets since it has no real benefit. Eventually, your first weapon will be replaced by an upgrade, so skill points invested here won't be lost, but it's a question of having a strong mid game as opposed to being powerful at the beginning and the end. That being said, all you have to do is get the most out of the speed and duration of Spirit Thief. Later in the game, you'll need to hit the enemies first and hope for a stun. This style is a life saver, thus it's important to spend some points this way, in order to restore your chi more efficiently.


One versus one combat

Jade Empire wouldn't be the same if not for this trademark battle style. It gets all its glory from the much appraised manga oriented glory of the eastern neo culture. Since you only have one target to focus on, just concentrate on dealing damage to them while the primary concern is dodging and blocking their attacks. As long as you deal damage without getting hit that often, your fight will only have one outcome: you rising victorious over your opponent's kneeling body. Since you will generally be quicker and more versatile than your enemies, one-on-one battles are usually pretty easy to win. The difficulty will often come from being hit by a paralyzing blow which will see you left helpless.

One tactic for beating a tough one versus one opponent is to hold down block. When they power up to hit you with a strong attack, dodge around them and hit them for some free attacks. Should the enemy regularly drop its block the second you start a strong attack, just move back a distance and switch to a magic style or support style, then do a strong attack. Provided you have enough distance, there will be enough time to execute your attack and devastate them. You can also jump over them and start the strong attack from behind, but it won't work for some of the faster enemies.


Harmonic combos

Harmonic combos occur when you hit an opponent with a specified support or magic style attack and again, with a strong martial style attack. Not all enemies are affected by harmonic combos, but the ones that do will have a green circle about them. This green circle counts down the time you have, until being able to hit them with the follow-up martial strong attack for the harmonic combo to still take effect. Why is this important? It's important because hitting an opponent with a harmonic combo is a one shot kill. If you pull it off, human enemies explode in a geyser of blood, leaving orbs behind for you to collect for a health/chi/focus boost as determined by the style used.

Harmonic combos can make some fights much easier, especially if you drop into focus mode at the same time, meaning you can deliver the two attacks much quicker and increase the chance of pulling them off. Most players get turned off at the idea since the first harmonic combo you can use involves Heavenly Wave, the most irritating to pull off. Be sure to overlook this. Don't get biased against harmonic combos for the rest of the game. Other support styles that actually paralyze or freeze the target enemy make pulling off harmonic combos a lot easier.


Proper use of followers

You get the same experience from your followers killing a target as you would on your own so there is no need to play the hero and go solo, unless that's specifically what you're aiming for. They can also act up as a meat shield and effectively split the enemies while in large numbers. Also good for interrupts, followers can provide you the edge needed to defeat jade Empire bosses. Ultimately, having a follower fighting along your side means you can take some time to heal or Spirit Thief back chi with a lower risk than if you were fighting alone. The good thing is that you can effectively control agro by switching followers from combat mode to support mode. In support mode they will not get attacked and can restore some of their powers to enter back in combat and assist you again. They provide useful bonuses while in support mode, bonuses which make fights easier or at least survivable. It is recommended to start combat with your followers in attack mode and switching them across to support mode when they get down to minimal health. This gives you the best of both worlds. Be sure to keep and eye on your follower's health, since they can die and you'll lose important support abilities.