Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is an intelligent system on the integration of information collection, transmission and processing. However, the limited energy is the biggest constraint of WSN, because it is impossible for the power supply to recharge or replace in the networks. In this paper, an adaptive transmission strategy is proposed to achieve energy saving. This strategy comprehensively considers the distance between nodes, the level of receiving signals and the credibility of relay nodes, so that it can establish an integrated judgment parameter to select the most appropriate transmission scheme adaptively, leading the energy consumption to the minimum. To further understand the benefits of the adaptive strategy, analytical results are used to investigate the specific parameter thresholds and the associated energy consumption is evaluated by extensive simulations.