The Awakening mechanic from Dynasty Warriors 8 and Musou Gokui mechanic from Samurai Warriors 4 are unified in Warriors Orochi 4, and may only be activated by obtaining a rare powerup during gameplay and pressing the left analog stick when playing with only a single Joy-Con on the Nintendo Switch, this is instead activated by pressing both SL and SR, as the left analog stick alone is normally mapped to the character switch functionality. The ability to mount a horse remains in Warriors Orochi 4, and is performed by holding down the right shoulder button and pressing the jump button. Because of this, characters from the Dynasty Warriors series lack their second musou attack, but retain the ability to perform an aerial musou attack, and characters from the Samurai Warriors series lack their special attacks, but retain the ability to perform hyper attacks. As such, these replace the type actions from the previous games. These depend on a specific category that is separate from the class system, and are performed by holding down the right shoulder button and pressing either the normal, charge, or musou attack buttons, the latter two requiring a special magic gauge, and the last also requiring half of a player's musou gauge. New to the series is the concept of magic and Sacred Treasures, techniques that allow characters to perform special feats to overcome enemies. Each character has a class type that determines their ability: Power, Speed, and Technique the Wonder type introduced in Warriors Orochi 3 has been removed. As with the previous iterations, the player is given control of a three-man team consisting of characters from the Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors series.

Warriors orochi 3 characters unlock