Mix-and-Match Martial Arts

Jade Empire™ isn't a game in which you passively watch fights take place. Action scenes rely on quick thinking, twitchy fingers, and a little strategy. Each time your hero fights, you attack, block, and dodge in real time.

Your hero begins with two fighting styles, but as Jade Empire progresses, you can learn many more fighting styles. No single technique is sufficient for conquering the game; you must learn several to fulfill your hero's destiny.

Here's a quick glimpse at 10 of the fighting styles in Jade Empire, along with some tips and tricks for each one.

When You Can Snatch the Pebble From My Hand …
Jade Empire has five types of fighting styles: Martial Arts, Magic, Support, Transformation, and Weapons. Each time your character grows more powerful (and levels up with experience), you can use style points to increase a style's damage, duration, Chi cost, or other traits.

Keep in mind that you don't need to spend all your style points as soon as you get them. If you have two or three points left over after training in the higher levels of a skill, you can save them for when you learn another style.

In most of the game's fight scenes, you also can choose a follower to fight with you. Fighting beside a companion who complements your own techniques provides many opportunities for taking advantage of clever fighting strategies.

White Demon
White Demon is a thunderous Martial Arts style that plows through opponents "like an ox in a teahouse." It starts out slower than other Martial Arts styles, but compensates for this by dealing more damage.

White Demon is a great choice for a hero with a high Body trait, since he can withstand more damage as he focuses on attacks. A character with a high Spirit trait can burn through Chi to increase his damage even more.

Characters can tear through many of the easier fights using White Demon, but they need to develop other fighting techniques. Brute force isn't always enough.

Leaping Tiger
Leaping Tiger is a fast-moving Martial Arts style that depends on quick flurries of attacks and multiple opportunities to inflict injury. As with most Martial Arts techniques in this game, you need to time your blocks, dodges, and rolls when using it, leaping into and out of fights with multiple opponents.

Leaping Tiger requires a lot of fancy footwork, but choosing the right follower can make it much easier. When you're fighting a large group of enemies, Sagacious Zu or Black Whirlwind can keep several opponents busy so you won't have to defend yourself as often.

Heavenly Wave
Heavenly Wave is an excellent example of a Support style—it alters your opponent's abilities instead of your own. This style slows down your enemy's movement and attacks. Wise martial artists train to increase the duration of this ability, unleashing a Heavenly Wave early in fights so they can inflict greater damage over time than their slowed opponents. After the Wave starts, switch to a faster fighting style like Leaping Tiger to exploit your speed advantage even further.

Storm Dragon
Storm Dragon is a Support style that shocks opponents and stuns them for several seconds. It works particularly well leading into attacks with Weapons and Martial Arts styles, even more so when you train to increase its duration. In a one-on-one duel, you can shock an opponent into inactivity, and then lay the beatdown on him at close range. Use this technique's area effect (activated by pressing the A and X buttons simultaneously) to stun multiple, surrounding opponents.

Although Storm Dragon is devastating against human enemies, it is usually ineffective against ghosts and demons.

Spirit Thief
Spirit Thief is a Support style that steals Chi from enemies. You can inflict damage with Spirit Thief, but you must expend Chi to do so.

If you're finishing a fight with a weaker opponent, consider using Spirit Thief to slowly restore your Chi, and then repeatedly use that Chi to heal. By prolonging the fight, you can gradually restore yourself to full strength. This tactic takes some time, but it's usually quicker than running back to a Spirit Font to heal.

Ice Shard and Dire Flame
Ice Shard and Dire Flame are the first two Magic techniques that characters can learn. Both are ranged attacks that require Chi. If your character specializes in these types of attacks, it's a good idea to team up with a follower who is set to attack rather than support mode. While your opponents are busy directing attacks at your follower, you can deal damage consistently from a farther distance with little regard for your defense.

Jade Golem
Jade Golem is a Transformation style. Golems are immune to most types of damage, so this form of combat is particularly useful against opponents relying on Support styles. However, it isn't as useful against weapon-wielding opponents.

Jade Golem attacks are slow, ponderous, and inexorable, and they burn up a lot of Chi. As with other Transformation styles, if you want to spend a lot of time in your alternate form, train to reduce the style's Chi cost as soon as possible.

Weapon Styles
Two Weapon styles are available early in the game, Fortune's Favorite sword style and Golden Star staff style. Later in the game, you can trade in these weapons for others that inflict more damage. Resourceful players can find additional Weapon styles in the game, including swift two-handed styles and a powerful ranged attack style. No one weapon is powerful enough to dominate all fights, however.

If you're specializing in a weapon, reduce the style's Focus cost to prolong the time you can use it. Then make sure you put some style points into a Martial Arts or Magic style as well. When you're running low on Focus, or when you're fighting an opponent who is immune to your weapon style, having another strong attack ready can keep you in the fight longer.

A well-rounded fighter should have several different fighting techniques, preferably styles in different categories. Training in two or three Martial Arts styles, for instance, isn't a very effective use of style points. Instead, search for a Magic or Support style that complements your best attacks.

You can choose four styles to "map" to the D-pad of the Xbox® controller at any time, so take advantage of your versatility. Practice long enough and you'll find ways to chain harmonic combos, which increase your combat effectiveness as you switch from one style to another.

By learning Martial Arts, Magic, Support styles, Transformations, and Weapon techniques, you'll kick some butt and look good doing it.

By "Ace" Mason