Written by Z-Force (zforceffc@gmail.com)
I. Intro
II. Disclaimer
III. Places to get this FAQ
IV. The Basics
A. Attack Properties
B. Bow Attacks
C. Mounted Attacks
D. Elephant Attacks
V. Advanced Attacking
A. Musou Attacks
1. Regular
2. True Musou
3. Team Musou
B. Musou Rage
C. Evolution Attacks
D. Dealing with enemy units and weapons
VI. Bodyguards
VII. Character Guide
VIII. Items
IX. Weapons
X. Stage Strategy
Completion – 100%
At this point, I consider the FAQ complete in that there aren’t any gaps left in the areas I want to cover. I might add stuff to the guide in the future, but this version is complete enough to make available for viewing.
This is a character and strategy guide for Dynasty Warriors 5 for the Playstation 2. It is being written with the assumption that you have some experience with the series. I am also following a lot of the same format that I used for my guide for Dynasty Warriors 3.
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With all that being said, let’s get onto business
I’m going to assume that by now you know how to play Dynasty Warriors, so I’m going to skip straight into some basic attack strategy.
Key
S = Square Button
T = Triangle Button
O = Circle Button
… = Press button repeatedly
ATTACK PROPERTIES
Charge 1 (T) – This attack varies depending on the character, it is often a quick clear out move, but may have other properties depending on who you are using.
Charge 2 (S, T) - This is a pop up attack, it will juggle an enemy into the air to set up combos. I usually don’t use this one very much, but it can be useful for certain characters.
Charge 3 (S, S, T…) – This attack is actually a series of hits, which gets longer when you get better weapons. The final hit often dizzies enemies.
Charge 4 (S, S, S, T) – This attack knocks back anyone it connects with. This attack usually has a wide range, and is useful for clearing out groups of enemies. This will be a bread and butter attack for a lot of characters.
Charge 5 (S, S, S, S, T) – This attack is a high pop up attack. It will keep the enemy in the air a long time, leading to combos. There are two major things to note about this attack as opposed to previous DW games.
1. It usually has a wider range than before, so it will often hit a large group of enemies.
2. You do not have the option of following up by repeatedly pressing T to hit the enemy in the air.
These new properties of the Charge 5 make it better as a group clearing attack, but not as effective for defeating individual officers.
Charge 6 (S, S, S, S, S, T [… for some characters] ) – This is a powerful attack that is unique to each character. This attack usually does a lot of damage and has some other unique property.
BOW ATTACKS
Sometimes, you will want to use a bow to snipe enemies from afar. You probably won’t use this much, but it comes in handy in a few areas, mainly when looking to weaken the boss, or thin out a few of his guards before engaging. S does a normal shot (which seems to be more damaging than in previous games). T does a charged shot that dizzies the enemy. O does a Musou Bow attack which fires a lot of arrows in the direction of your enemy. I don’t use the latter much, because it usually knocks enemies down in one hit, and therefore doesn’t lead to a lot of damage.
MOUNTED ATTACKS
When riding a horse, S does normal attacks, T does a charge attack, and O does a Musou attack. For most characters, the basic attack swings from right to left, hitting enemies on both sides. This can be useful for clearing enemies around you. A few characters do all their attacks on one side (Ma Chao for example) This is ideal for attacking enemies, because you can focus all your attacks to one side, and do more damage. Certain characters can be very powerful on horseback (again, Ma Chao for example)
ELEPHANT ATTACKS
Usually you only get elephants when battling in Nanman stages (unless you get the Elephant Saddle) Elephants are powerful, but slow. Pressing S does a standard trunk attack. T does a stomp attack that knocks down or dizzies enemies, and covers a wide range. Pressing O does a trampling rush attack when your Musou meter is full. Also since being on an elephant puts you up high, enemies have a harder time leaping up to knock you off your elephant (this is bad when the enemies are riding one, you’ll have to use a bow, or a special jumping attack to get them)
These are some more advanced ways to deal with your foe. They include Musou Attacks, plus two new features available in DW5, Musou Rage and Evolution.
MUSOU ATTACKS
Regular Musou Attack – Pressing O activates the Musou Attack if your Musou bar is full. Your Musou bar is filled by either attacking or taking damage. Holding it down prolongs the attack until your Musou gauge is used up. The Musou attack is a powerful attack capable of hitting a large group of enemies, and doing heavy damage. Also, the Musou attack is invincible, and can only be stopped by another Musou attack which will result in a weapon lockup. Use this fact to your advantage by interrupting an enemy’s attack and countering.
TRUE MUSOU ATTACK
This is done by activating the Musou attack when either your life bar is red, or when you have Way of the Musou equipped. This is a more powerful version of the Musou attack and is usually capable of dishing out Fire Damage as well. Also note then when your lifebar is red, your Musou meter automatically fills with time. You can often turn the tables on powerful enemies or groups by blocking or avoiding attacks until the Musou bar fills itself, then unleash the True Musou.
TEAM MUSOU ATTACK
This attack is done by activating Musou when close to your bodyguard or a second player, who also has a full Musou Bar. You can tell a Team Musou attack is ready to go when lighting connects you and your bodyguard or second player. This attack starts off with some fancy lightning effects, then activates a True Musou. Unlike previous DW games, this attack actually comes into play more often thanks to the new bodyguard system.
MUSOU RAGE
This is done by pressing R3 at any time after collecting a Musou Rage token during the stage. You can only hold one at a time, but it’s very powerful. It lasts about 30 seconds and gives you the following effects.
1) All of your attacks are sped up and increased in damage.
2) You do not flinch from getting hit (You still take damage, but you can not be hit out of your attacks)
3) All of your Musou attacks become True Musou Attacks.
Your Musou gauge is also automatically filled when you activate Musou Rage. As such, you should hit your enemies with a Musou attack BEFORE activating the Rage, that way you can immediately let loose with another Musou attack. Musou Rage is very powerful, and is best saved for fighting powerful enemies, or when you’re in danger of dying.
EVOLUTION
Evolution Attacks are another new feature of Dynasty Warriors 5. Certain weapons you find are capable of Evolution Attacks. Only level 3 weapons (those with 6 attacks) have the capability of Evolution, and you can tell them by a blue orb that appears next to the name. Evolution weapons are capable of dishing out 9 consecutive attacks instead of 6 when your Musou Bar is full. In other words, S, S, S, S, S, S becomes an string of S, S, S, S, S, S, S, S ,S. This string is useful in clearing out enemies or doing heavy damage to an officer if they’re stupid enough to not block. Evolution is really powerful in conjunction with a fast attacking character or a light weight weapon.
DEALING WITH ENEMY UNITS AND WEAPONS
The enemy will bring out some impressive special weapons and troops. Here are some tips to use against them.
Horseback Riders – Nothing too tough here, just jump up and knock them off. Some characters have good jumping charges for dealing with horse riders. You can also usually use your Musou attack to knock them off, which is helpful if the rider is within a group of enemies. Finally, if you’re at a distance, you can use your bow to shoot them off.
Elephant Riders – Jumping attacks usually won’t work. A few characters MIGHT be able to pull it off, but it’s not even really worth trying unless you want to try and impress your friends. You’re better off staying away from the elephants, or lead them into your allies to keep the rider distracted. Then get a safe distance away and shoot them off with your bow.
Archer Towers – It used to be that you could just use your bow and snipe archers out of their towers. Now you don’t even need to do that, you can just beat the towers down. They will break after a few hits, leaving the archers on the ground, and the tower will come down and smash them… and any enemies around them. Oh yeah, it’ll also fall on you and do some heavy damage if you happen to be standing there when it falls, so get out of there!
Ram – Just pound these until they drop, but be careful of the hammer coming out from it, it CAN hit you.
Arbalests – Whatever you do, DON’T sit around in front of these things for too long, unless being a human pincushion is your goal in life. Once you get behind them, then can be smashed to bits just like any other siege weapon.
Juggernauts – Try to stay on the side or behind these weapons while you bash them. Be careful, because they are capable of turning pretty quickly to torch you. Using a Musou attack against them is also effective, because you don’t have to worry about getting hurt.
Enemy Officers – Dealing with officers can always be tough. In the lower stages, a lot of the officers aren’t much tougher than the chumps that follow them. But on later stages, the officers get tougher. Against them, it’s helpful to fight defensively. Hold a block until the officer is done wailing on you, then respond in kind. You can also break their assault with a Musou attack if you’re charged up. That’s a good way to save yourself from getting pounded. If you see the enemy officer glowing, it means they’re about to pull a Musou attack. The smartest thing to do is block, especially if the enemy is near death or supercharged (more on that in a bit) but if you’re quick, you can do a power attack and stop the attack. Regular hits won’t have any effect, but off balance and dizzying hits can break the upcoming Musou. Also watch out for super charged enemies. Along with the boss, most stages have at least one super charged guy, and you will be able to spot them by a weird aura that surrounds them. The super charged enemy is usually one who had a major impact historically on the battle (for instance, on He Fei, Zhang Liao held off a huge Wu army by himself, so naturally he’s supercharged if you’re playing against Wei) These enemies hit harder than normal, have much higher defense, and can also activate Attack x2, Defense x2 and Musou Rage items. Be careful of these guys, they can kill you quickly if you aren’t careful. Try to use a Fire Orb Juggle combo or Musou Rage to bring them down quick while keeping them out of the fight. Also, when they’re near death is usually when they whip out Musou Rage, combined with a True Musou, this can kill you in a few hits.
Dynasty Warriors 5 has a new bodyguard system which replaces your team of cannon fodder bodyguards you had in DW 3 and 4. Basically you get to select 1 bodyguard out of a group of 8 that you have collected. After each stage, you have a chance of acquiring a new guard. These guards gain experience by defeating enemies, and grow in power. Several factors make up your bodyguard.
WEAPON
There are 3 kinds of weapons your bodyguard can gain, and there is a different weapon in each type for both male and female bodyguards. The third kind is mystical weapons, and are listed separately, because both are used in different ways. There isn’t really a BEST bodyguard type for every situation, it depends on what character you are using and your personal play style, although I personally find that the Staff bodyguards are the most useful, followed by Fans, Ranged, then Melee guards.
Melee (Spear for Males, Sword for Females) – These guards will get in and swing with the grunts and go along well with weaker characters such as Zhuge Liang or Sima Yi who tend to hit and run.
Ranged (Crossbow for Males, Bow for Females) – These guards are good for powerful melee characters, as they can annoy the enemy and damage them from a distance while you go in and hammer the enemy at close range.
Staff (Male Only) – These guys attack with powerful magic, and are usually capable of freezing enemies. They’re pretty powerful, and useful in any situation, especially for slower powerful characters, who can take advantage of the hit in defense frozen enemies take, and maul them.
Fan (Female Only) – The fan guards aren’t the strongest at attacking, but are useful because they can heal you at various intervals. To my knowledge, there’s no real pattern to when they heal you, but they seem to do a pretty good job of keeping you healed if you start to get low on health. This is VERY helpful and keeps you in the fight longer. Any character can benefit from these type of guards.
RANK
Guards can be ranked either C, B, A or S. This rank determines if 1, 2, 3 or 4 of their stats will be raised to high levels. Basically, any C ranked guard you get should be dumped unless you still have open slots. S guards are very rare, but will become powerful.
STATUS
Your guard will be given a status at the time you give them, which is displayed next to their rank. These are as follows.
Veteran – Stats will begin higher than normal, but growth potential is limited
Remarkable – Stats are average and growth potential is average
Brilliant – Stats begin lower than normal but growth potential is higher.
Superior – Stats begin high and growth potential is high.
Superior and Brilliant bodyguards are better to have, as they will eventually progress to be stronger than other guards. Superior bodyguards are also rare.
Bodyguards will progress with experience up to level 6. They can gain special skills at levels 3, 5 and 6. The special skills are as follows.
Enlist: You will always be offered a new bodyguard at the end of a stage. This can be useful if you are actively looking to get new bodyguards.
Fame: Your army’s morale increases easier and is harder to decrease
Find: Adds 1 to the number of weapons you obtain at the end of a stage. This is pretty useful for characters who are just starting off, because you want to get as many weapons as possible in hopes of finding a good one.
Heal: Bodyguard can heal themselves when they are low on health
Item: Adds 1 to the number of items you obtain at the end of a stage.
Link: More items appear from beating enemies with combo attacks.
Rage: When guard’s life is low, attack power increases
Wall: When guard’s life is low, defense power increases.
This is a guide to all 48 Officers in the game. It will detail their attacks, strengths and weaknesses, and follows the following format. Any moves marked with a * are the character’s best moves. Moves marked with an ! as well are potentially gamebreaking moves. Moves marked with an ? are noticably crappy moves that you should avoid using (There aren’t many of these)
- Basic String: A synopsis of the basic attacks of each character. How effective is their basic string of attacks at clearing enemies, fighting officers, etc.
- Charge attacks: A description of each of the character’s charge attacks (1-6) Charge attacks 3-6 carry the elemental attack if you have an orb equipped.
- Jumping Charge: A description of the character’s jumping Charge
- Running Attack: Uses for the character’s running attack (noticing a pattern here?)
- Musou Attack
- True Musou Attack
- Assessment and Strategy: This gives a summary on how effective the character is, and their strengths and weaknesses, plus some advice for playing them. I will also include suggestions for equipment on certain guys if it is applicable. Unless otherwise noted, my recommended equipment order would be: Red Hare Saddle, Fire Orb, Tiger Amulet, Peacock Urn, then with your next item slot earned, equip tortoise amulet. However, some characters have certain items that augment a particular strength of theirs and I will try to note it here
UNLOCKING CHARACTERS
Before I describe all these characters, here’s a list on how to unlock everyone.
SHU
Zhuge Liang – Beat Musou Mode with any Shu Officer
Jiang Wei – Beat Musou Mode with any 2 Shu Officers
Pang Tong – Beat Musou Mode with any 3 Shu Officers
Liu Bei – Beat Musou Mode with any 4 Shu Officers
Guan Ping – Beat Musou Mode with Guan Yu
Wei Yan – Beat Musou Mode with Huang Zhong
Yue Ying – Beat Musou Mode with Zhuge Liang
WEI
Sima Yi – Beat Musou Mode with any Wei Officer
Zhang He – Beat Musou Mode with any 2 Wei Officers
Xu Huang – Beat Musou Mode with any 3 Wei Officers
Cao Cao – Beat Musou Mode with any 4 Wei Officers
Cao Ren – Beat Musou Mode with Cao Pi
Pang De – Beat Musou Mode with Ma Chao (Yes I know Ma Chao is a Shu guy, deal with it)
Xiahou Yuan – Beat Musou Mode with Xiahou Dun
WU
Zhao Tai – Beat Musou Mode with any Wu Officer
Lu Meng – Beat Musou Mode with any 2 Wu Officers
Huang Gai – Beat Musou Mode with any 3 Wu Officers
Sun Jian – Beat Musou Mode with any 4 Wu Officers
Da Qiao – Beat Musou Mode with Sun Ce
Gan Ning – Beat Musou Mode with Ling Tong
Sun Ce – Beat Musou Mode with Sun Quan
Xiao Qiao – Beat Musou Mode with Zhou Yu
OTHERS
Lu Bu – Beat Musou Mode with any 1 Wei, 1 Wu and 1 Shu Officer
Diao Chan – Beat Musou Mode with Lu Bu
Dong Zhuo – Beat Musou Mode with Diao Chan
Meng Huo – Beat Musou Mode with Lu Xun and Zhuge Liang
Zhu Rong – Beat Musou Mode with Meng Huo
Yuan Shao – Beat Musou Mode with Cao Cao
Zhang Jiao – Beat Musou Mode with Cao Cao, Liu Bei and Sun Jian
Zuo Ci – Unlock Everyone Else
With that out of the way, let’s get to Analyzing these characters
GUAN PING
Basic String: Guan Pings basic string is quite effective, and covers a lot of ground. It’s also powerful, although it is somewhat slow.
Charge 1: A powerful ground pound attack. Great early crowd control move.
Charge 2: An upward slash with good reach that juggles enemies.
Charge 3: A good combo attack, which can do a lot of damage to officers. There is a powerful shockwave at the end for crowd control purposes.
* Charge 4: A series of sweeping slashes. This is a very powerful move, and will be a staple in Guan Ping’s arsenal. Covers a lot of ground, and is great for dealing with crowds.
Charge 5: Creates a tornado that high juggles anyone in front of you. Best used against officers for keeping them up in the air while you combo them
* Charge 6: He leaps into the air, thrusts into the ground and creates an explosion which does heavy damage for anyone standing up there.
Jumping Charge: A spinning attack. Anyone standing in front of him will be hit several times for big damage, however, this move doesn’t have much range.
Running Attack: A quick jumping strike. Nothing spectacular, but it gets the job done.
* Musou Attack: A series of slashes, much like his charge 4. A useful Musou attack for just about any situation.
True Musou Attack: Same as above with a big blast at the end which destroys anyone in front of you.
Assessment and Strategy: Guan Ping is, like all the new characters, pretty powerful. He fights a lot like Fu Xi from DW3, with his giant sword, although he’s not a total clone of him. He’s got good power, and decent enough speed to get by. Most of his moves also cover a wide range, so he’s good at crowd control.
GUAN YU
Basic String: Guan Yu’s basic string of attacks has a wide range, and is good for hitting a large group of enemies. He also hits pretty hard, which is a plus
Charge 1: A spinning strike. This attacks pops up any enemies it hits, and has a pretty good range
Charge 2: Basic pop up swing. It’s able to hit a fair number of enemies at once though.
Charge 3: A basic multi hit combo. This combo does pretty good damage, and is effective to do some heavy damage to generals.
* Charge 4: A powerful sweeping slash, very good for clearing out crowds, you’ll probably use this attacks a lot.
Charge 5: An upward strike that creates a small tornado which blows anyone in its radius up into the air.
* Charge 6: A powerful swing that creates a shockwave all around you, nailing anyone in its path. Great move for crowd control.
Jumping Charge: A sweeping slash in midair, followed by a drop down and smash the ground attack. The former is good for creating a landing zone, the second part will do some decent damage to anyone still standing there
Running Attack: A quick running slash. Nothing fancy, but good as an opening move.
Musou Attack: A series of twirling slashes. Good as both a crowd clearing and officer attacking move.
True Musou Attack: Same as above, with more damage, and a big whirlwind at the end that hits anyone around you.
Assessment and Strategy: Guan Yu was toned down quite a bit in DW4, but he’s back to his usual, ass kicking self in DW5. He’s got good range and hits pretty hard. He doesn’t have any really glaring flaws, and is a great character for beginners, and is very well rounded.
HUANG ZHONG
Basic String: Huang Zhong’s basic string is serviceable with nothing really spectacular about it. However, due to his incredible bow attacks, you’ll find yourself not using the basic attacks much, except for positioning to use the bow attacks.
!* Charge 1: You can repeatedly tap the button to shoot out waves of arrows. This attack is disgustingly powerful, especially if you happen to have fire arrows equipped. Great for ripping through enemies before they even get to you. You can pivot while shooting up to 6 clusters of arrows.
Charge 2: Basic uppercut slash. Covers a pretty wide range.
* Charge 3: Another series of arrow shots. The final shot in the string shoots out energy based arrows that do more damage.
Charge 4: A slow sweeping slash. Not very useful because of its speed. His arrow attacks are much better for crowd clearing.
Charge 5: Slams the ground, creating a shockwave which juggles enemies high. Pretty good attack for crowd control purposes.
Charge 6: A twirling double slash. Nothing too spectacular, but it can be used in a crowd if needed.
Jumping Charge: He shoots a series of arrows straight downward. A very powerful attack.
Running Attack: A quick thrust. This attack is very fast and will surprise enemies, but it will only probably hit one or two guys.
Musou Attack: A series of spinning strikes. Decent crowd control ability with this move, or can be used as a crowd clearer
True Musou Attack: Similar to above, but shoots an arrow at the end that explodes for heavy damage.
Assessment and Strategy: Huang Zhong is one of those characters, who goes beyond being powerful, and steps into the realm of being almost completely broken. Equip him with fire arrows, and some bow enhancing items or weapons, and he’ll pretty much rip through everyone in your path. He can even make lunchmeat out of Lu Bu. His non bow attacks are reasonably effective, but nothing fantastic. They’re best used for setting up his bow attacks. Keep him at a fair distance from enemies, and he’s very tough to stop.
JIANG WEI
Basic String: Jiang Wei’s basic string is pretty fast, and also covers good ground, making it useful in any situation.
Charge 1: A flaming sphere that explodes after a few seconds. Good damage, and is useful for firing into crowds, or laying traps.
Charge 2: Standard juggling attack that covers a good amount of ground.
Charge 3: A rapid fire combo, that ends with a wide slash, that will help in crowd control.
* Charge 4: A forward attack. Doesn’t cover a ton of ground sideways, but still knocks enemies away and goes pretty far forward to hit enemies.
Charge 5: Creates a tornado, that will juggle anyone in front of him into the air. Not much ground covered here.
* Charge 6: A forward thrust, followed by a sweep attack. The thrust will do nice damage to a powerful foe, while the sweep will clear out anyone around you.
Jumping Charge: A series of downward thrusts, followed by a slash attack. Again, useful for wearing down a powerful enemy, then nailing anyone standing near that enemy.
Running Attack: A wide slash attack. Very good for knocking back an enemy horde that you are rushing into.
Musou Attack: A series of spinning attacks, followed by a wide sweep attack at the end. A useful Musou attack for both offense and defense.
True Musou Attack: Same as above with a big fireball at the end that does heavy damage.
Assessment and Strategy: Jiang Wei is a pretty solid character overall. He’s got good speed, decent power and a pretty good moveset. He lacks flash, but he doesn’t have any glaring weaknesses about him either.
LIU BEI
Basic String: Liu Bei’s basic string is nothing special, but it gets the job done in pretty much any circumstance.
? Charge 1: He slides back, and comes toward an enemy with a slash. This attack is somewhat unpredictable, and therefore isn’t very useful.
Charge 2: Upward slash, basic juggling move. Comes out somewhat slow
* Charge 3: A fast combination attack. Due to its speed, it’s a useful move to use against enemy generals and powerful foes.
Charge 4: An overhead slash. Does good damage, but will only hit the enemy directly in front of you. Not good for crowd control
Charge 5: A shockwave blast that hits enemies high into the air. This attack covers a lot of crowd and is useful for attacking crowds of enemies.
* Charge 6: Creates a shockwave that hits anyone around him. His best crowd clearing attack
Jumping Charge: Two midair slashes. He doesn’t move while doing these, making it useful against a single enemy.
Running Attack: A wide slash attack. Nothing fancy, but effective
Musou Attack: A series of slashes. The end part is a few slashes directly in front of you, and are powerful against officers.
True Musou Attack: Same as above, with more hits at the end, and a big shockwave follows the move, which helps for crowd control.
Assessment and Strategy: Liu Bei is pretty much perfectly average in any way. He’s got a decent moveset with both good crowd fighting and anti officer moves. He’s got pretty good speed, and decent power. He doesn’t have any glaring weaknesses, but he doesn’t have any fantastic strengths either.
MA CHAO
Basic String: Ma Chao has a very good string of normal attacks. They cover a good amount of ground, are fast, and do good damage.
* Charge 1: He plants his spear into the ground and does a sweeping kick. This move is pretty fast and good for clearing out a crowd.
Charge 2: A upward spear strike that juggles enemies. Nothing flashy, but can be useful.
Charge 3: A series of rapid fire thrusts, ending in a big slash. This move is very fast, and is a great anti officer attack
Charge 4: A forward thrusting attack. Powerful, but isn’t a very good crowd clearing move
Charge 5: A upward strike that creates a whirlwind through the air to knock enemies high into the air.
* Charge 6: A spinning strike that creates a wave of energy all around you. This is a great move for crowd control
* Jumping Charge: A flying tornado attack with your spear outstretched. This is a GREAT escape move, and can also do a lot of damage to enemies if it’s done low to the ground.
Running Attack: A spinning strike attack. Knocks down anyone it hits, and is a good way to meet an oncoming horde.
Musou Attack: A series of sweeping slashes, followed by a big spinning kick which takes out enemies around him. The first part is a good anti general attacks, while the finish will eliminate anyone around you.
True Musou Attack: Similar to the regular Musou, but it ends in an upward attack that creates a wind blast that encircles you and blasts everyone in your vicinity
Assessment and Strategy: Ma Chao is a great all around character, with good attacking speed, and no glaring flaws. He becomes a beast on horseback too, and is one of the few characters who can get away with fighting on a horse throughout the stage. I recommend giving him the Shadow Harness and Horned Helmet to augment these abilities. He’s very powerful on foot, and is nearly broken on horseback, and is overall one of the top 5 guys in the game.
PANG TONG
Basic String: The opening hit of Pang Tong’s string will cover a wide distance, but all of its other hits are straight forward and better suited to dealing with a single enemy.
Charge 1: A ball of green energy that explodes after a few seconds, dealing nice damage. Good for laying traps in the middle of a horde.
Charge 2: Throws his staff into the air. Standard juggling attack
Charge 3: He flips around and does a series of hits. Somewhat hard to aim against a single enemy, but is better for crowd control than other Charge 3’s
* Charge 4: He jumps up with his staff spinning around him. Good crowd control attack that hits anyone near him.
Charge 5: A big green ball of flame that will blast anyone in front of him into the air. Covers pretty much his entire front side for crowd control purposes.
* Charge 6: He creates a big tornado around him. Great move for dealing with crowds.
Jumping Charge: He uses his staff like a witch’s broomstick and flies through the air. Won’t hit many people unless you do it low, but it’s a GREAT escape move.
Running Attack: He dashes forward and knocks down enemies with his staff. A good quick move for dealing with oncoming enemies.
* Musou Attack: Basically his charge 6 done repeatedly. A very useful move, do this one and watch the body count rise if you’re in a group
True Musou Attack: Same as above, with a bigger tornado at the end that will hit a ton of enemies.
Assessment and Strategy: Pang Tong isn’t very strong, but he’s got some very good crowd control attacks, that make him viable. His Charge 4, 5 and 6 attacks can all hit a wide range of enemies. He also has an excellent Musou attack He’s somewhat of an expert’s character, but can be pretty effective in the right hands.
WEI YAN
Basic String: Wei Yan’s basic string covers a pretty good range, and is reasonably fast. The spinning hits at the end provides decent clearing ability.
Charge 1: A double flip slash. Good for getting out of a jam, but not really good for doing a lot of damage.
Charge 2: Basic pop up hit. Nothing fancy
!* Charge 3: Spins low to the ground with his weapon outstretched, hitting anyone in his way. A very good protection and crowd clearing move. This attack also can knock the enemy off balance and set up a big combo with his charge 6
* Charge 4: A sweeping slash. Good crowd control ability, this will be a staple move in your arsenal.
Charge 5: He shoots a blast of wind that travels far and blasts anyone that hits him into the air. A useful move for many situations
* Charge 6: He spins his weapon, hitting the enemy several times, ending with a big slash. A powerful move to use against strong enemies.
* Jumping Charge: He leaps into the air, and spins his staff around upside down. A very good escape move to clear out enemies near you.
Running Attack: A quick multiple slash attack. A very good move to meet an oncoming horde.
Musou Attack: He spins around multiple times and slashes enemies. A good musou for crowd clearing, but is hard to aim, limiting its effectiveness against officers.
True Musou Attack: Same as above, but ends with a big whirlwind that clears out a lot of enemies.
Assessment and Strategy: It’s a bit tricky to get used to Wei Yan’s awkward movemets, but he’s got a pretty good moveset, and also has good overall stats. Once you get used to using him, you’ll find he’s a powerful character, and is more effective than he’s been in previous games. He can do a big combo by combining his charge 3 and charge 6 moves. This combo will do a ton of damage, especially when combined with a fire orb.
XING CAI
Basic String: The first few hits have good range, and will clear out the rabble around you, while the last 3 are all straight forward hits that can be useful against officers.
!* Charge 1: A spinning strike. Short range, but it hits enemies all around you and can dizzy them. This move is also very fast, and will cancel just about any enemy attack, and is a great Musou or Combo set up move. This move separates her from a lot of the characters beneath her.
Charge 2: Basic pop up hit, with good circular range.
Charge 3: A series of circular hits, ending in a powerful slash. Good crowd control on this move.
* Charge 4: A quick strike with her shield, followed by throwing the shield in a circular pattern around her. The throw has GREAT range, and will hit a lot of enemies and is a great crowd control move.
Charge 5: She shoots a blast of wind with great forward range, that will hit anyone in a straight line and blow them into the air. Powerful move.
Charge 6: A powerful lunging strike. Not too great a move when compared to some of her others, but a decent combo finisher.
Jumping Charge: She dives into the ground with her spear and creates a shockwave that will hit everyone around her. Good move for keeping crowds under control.
Running Attack: A lunging attack, followed by a shockwave. Good move to use when running into crowds.
Musou Attack: One quick slash to hit enemies, then a rapid fire series of slashes on enemies in front of you. A very powerful musou to use against officers.
True Musou Attack: Same as above with a big strike at the end that causes an explosion for big damage
Assessment and Strategy: Xing Cai has good moves for both anti officer fighting (her Musou attack) and some crowd control ability (Charge 4). She also has a near gamebreaking move in her charge 1. If you are fighting one on one, and you see a Musou or other powerful attack coming, the charge 1 will stop them and set up a combo. You can also use it in a crowd to hit a lot of them and dizzy them.
YUE YING
Basic String: Yue Ying’s basic string is a little slower than normal, but covers a lot of ground, and will likely see a lot of use against crowds.
Charge 1: Throws her weapon in front of her, it spins around a bit before coming back to you. A good move to use against onrushing enemies.
Charge 2: Basic upward strike that juggles.
* Charge 3: A series of stabbing hits, followed by a slash. Not good as a crowd control move, but is useful against officers. You can rack up a TON of hits with this move, and if you have ice orb equipped and manage to freeze them, you can hit a Musou for an even bigger combo
* Charge 4: A wide ranged slash. Good staple move to use in crowds.
Charge 5: Creates a small whirlwind that juggles anyone in front of her. Best used to rack up combos against powerful enemies.
Charge 6: Twirls around with her weapon. Good crowd control attack.
Jumping Charge: An upward slash, anyone that gets hit will be knocked into the air for more slashes. Can do a lot of damage if it connects.
Running Attack: A wide lunging slash. Good icebreaker move, nothing fancy but useful/
* Musou Attack: She spins around twirling her weapon. Very good crowd control ability, and is also fairly effective against officers.
True Musou Attack: Same as above, ends with a big whirlwind for better crowd clearing.
Assessment and Strategy: Yue Ying is a pretty good all around character with no really glaring faults. She’s got a couple of really good crowd clearing attacks, and a nice Musou attack. She also has decent speed and power. A good character with no horrific weaknesses to hold her down. I recommend giving her an ice orb, as a lot of her combos and Musou attack combo well off a frozen opponent for big damage.
ZHANG FEI
Basic String: A good basic string, the first two hits are good against officers, the others have a bit more range for crowd control ability. Decent speed and power.
Charge 1: A stomp that is fast, and knocks down anyone around you, but does very little damage.
Charge 2: Basic popup upward slash.
* Charge 3: A combo move that has a lot of range and ends in a shockwave. This move provides him with good crowd clearing ability and can also be used against officers.
* Charge 4: A powerful wide slash, that hits nearly everyone around you. This will be a staple attack when playing Zhang Fei.
Charge 5: A ground slam that creates a shockwave and hits everyone near you and pops them into the air. Good crowd clearing move.
Charge 6: A powerful shockwave that hits everyone around you. A great crowd control move, and also does fair damage.
Jumping Charge: Slams the ground, knocking down anyone near you. Useful as an escape move, and to provide a safe landing zone.
Running Attack: A shoulder charge. Decent forward range, and will hit anyone in front of you for decent damage.
Musou Attack: A series of rapid fire upward strikes. Good against officers, and fair to use against crowds as well.
True Musou Attack: Same as above which ends in a jumping slash and shockwave which gives him better crowd control.
Assessment and Strategy: Zhang Fei is powerful and has a lot of moves that are effective at crowd control, and enough strength to handle enemy officers. He’s a little lacking in the speed department, but it doesn’t cripple him like it does some other guys.
ZHAO YUN
Basic String: Zhao Yun’s basic string is powerful, reasonably fast, and covers a lot of ground. You should be using this a lot for your basic fighting.
* Charge 1: A powerful thrusting attack. Good for hitting a lot of enemies in a row. Decent damage as well.
Also a fun way to finish off an opponent who is near death.
Charge 2: A basic upward strike that juggles.
Charge 3: A combo that hits several times in front of you with up and down attacks. A spinning attack at the end is useful for crowd control.
* Charge 4: A sweeping slash. Good staple move for crowd control.
Charge 5: A ground point attack, that juggles enemies high. Covers decent ground in front of you.
Charge 6: A powerful spinning slash. Good for crowd control, but you might as well use some of his other moves instead.
Jumping Charge: He leaps high in the air with an attack. If it hits enemies, they’ll be juggled where he follows up with several more slashes for big damage
Running Attack: A sweeping slash. Nothing fantastic, but still useful.
Musou Attack: A series of upward strikes. A pretty standard Musou attack, but good for fighting officers and crowds as well.
True Musou Attack: Same as above with a jumping slash and shockwave attack at the end, which provides better crowd clearing
Assessment and Strategy: Zhao Yun is a great overall character, who excels in pretty much every ability. He doesn’t have any real weaknesses, and probably ranks among the top 15 guys in the game. He can adapt to any fighting style you might have.
ZHUGE LIANG
Basic String: Zhuge doesn’t have much range with his regular hits, but they’re decent for fighting individual enemies. To handle groups, you’ll probably want to turn to his charge attacks.
Charge 1: A blast of light, that explodes after a few seconds and does good damage. It also knocks enemies off balance for potential follow up hits.
Charge 2: An upward throw of the fan will juggle an enemy into the air.
Charge 3: A ring of energy which travels slowly, and damages anyone it hits, and also knocks them off balance.
* Charge 4: A circular fan attack, this attack is very good for clearing out crowds, and does decent damage. It can also be used to break down guard towers easily, since it will hit them several times.
Charge 5: A big blast of energy that blasts enemies into the air. Does fair damage, and hits a lot of enemies in front of you.
Charge 6: He shoots out 3 of the energy balls from his charge 1 attack. These can do good damage if they connect
Jumping Charge: Zhuge shoots out a barrage of laser beams from the air. These go pretty far, but won’t hit anything directly below you. They’re useful on enemies who are running towards you or archers.
Running Attack: Throws the fan a good distance in front of you. This will often take out a group of enemies and is a good softening up attack.
* Musou Attack: Zhuge floats around and shoots a barrage of lasers in a fan formation. He ends with a rapid fire series of lasers in one direction. This attack is somewhat hard to aim in groups, but it’s a very good anti officer attack, if you can execute it properly, you can do heavy damage to officers.
True Musou Attack: Same as above, but a HUGE laser is shot out at the end. This attack does tons of damage if you land it properly, and you can take out some officers in one shot if you time it right.
Assessment and Strategy: Zhuge is MUCH better than he was in DW3 (although that isn’t saying much) He’s got a decent moveset, with his charge 4 being a great crowd clearer. His Musou attack delivers much pain to officers, making him a great anti officer character. He’s got decent speed, but lacks power in his hits. It takes some skill to play him effectively, but he’s nowhere near as worthless as he was in DW3. I would put Way of the Musou on him, so you can take advantage of his devastating True Musou Attack. If you’ve got a high level Ginseng, you may want to slap that on him too. A wind Scroll would help with his range. The Ice Orb works well for him because he can freeze a lot of enemies with his Charge 4, which sets up powerful combos.
CAO CAO
Basic String: Cao Cao’s basic string is nothing remarkable, but gets the job done. It’s reasonably fast and fairly powerful.
Charge 1: A ball of flame, that explodes after a few seconds. Good for setting up traps, it does good damage and knocks enemies off balance
Charge 2: Basic upward slash. Hits enemies to the left of you and juggles them
* Charge 3: A combo of attacks. Sweeps from side to side, which makes it a better crowd clearing attack than most Charge 3’s.
Charge 4: A sweeping slash. Not much range, but it’s a decent crowd control move in the early going.
* Charge 5: A blast of dark flame. Does a good job of clearing out enemies in front of you as well as juggling them.
* Charge 6: This is a series of slash attacks similar to his Charge 3 in function. However, the charge 6 version has somewhat better range, and also carries the elemental attack of every slash, rather than just the last one.
Jumping Charge: Two midair slashes, followed by a downward shockwave. This is a great move to cut down enemy hordes while remaining relatively safe in midair.
Running Attack: A bash with the blunt end of your sword. Quick, does decent damage and can dizzy opponents
Musou Attack: A series of sweeping slashes. Nothing too fancy, but it gets the job done.
True Musou Attack: Same as above, but more powerful, and a big slash at the end gives better crowd control
Assessment and Strategy: Cao Cao is a good all around character, but isn’t as dominant as he was in DW3, mainly due to the removal of his instant death attacks. He’s still a good choice, and has moves that can get you through any situation. He’s not particularly strong or weak in any given situation.
CAO PI
Basic String: Cao Pi’s basic string is more suited for attacking a few single enemies, as opposed to a group of them. He does pack enough power behind his attacks to get by though.
Charge 1: He shoots out a ball of ice that explodes after a few seconds. It does nice damage and also has a chance to freeze opponents. Shoot these into an onrushing group to set a trap for them
Charge 2: Basic upward slash. Good for juggling a powerful enemy or a small group of enemies.
Charge 3: A series of alternating slashes, which ends in a double slash. Good basic combo for dealing with the enemy.
Charge 4: A powerful sweeping slash. This has good side range, and is useful for clearing out enemies.
* Charge 5: A powerful blast of energy. It juggles enemies and hits all around you, making it a good crowd clearing move.
Charge 6: A hard slash. It has the elemental attack, but isn’t particularly useful in battle, because a regular 6th slash is faster and has similar effect.
Jumping Charge: An upward slash, followed by a series of midair slashes to anyone who gets hit by the initial slash. This does a lot of damage if it connects and also can hit a few enemies at once if placed well.
Running Attack: A spinning slash attack. This attack will cut down a group of enemies and is useful in knocking down an oncoming horde.
Musou Attack: A rapid fire series of attacks. The first part of the attack is good for doing damage to officers, while the spinning attack at the end will take out the crowd that may be near you.
True Musou Attack: Similar to above, but instead of the spinning slash, there are a few more powerful slashes at the end, which makes it better suited to doing damage to officers.
Assessment and Strategy: Cao Pi is a powerful newcomer to the DW series. He has a very good moveset, especially his Charge 5, which is great for clearing crowds. His stats are well rounded, making him an excellent overall character The Ice Orb is a nice compliment to his Charge 5, as you have a chance to freeze enemies with it and set them up for a big combo.
CAO REN
Basic String: Cao Ren’s basic string has poor range, and is somewhat slow. It does good damage, and is best suited for dealing with officers.
Charge 1: A quick stomp that knocks down everyone around you, but does little damage.
Charge 2: Basic pop up attack. Comes out somewhat slow, not very useful.
* Charge 3: Shoots a series of blades from his weapon. This move is good for hitting people at a distance, when they’re rushing at you for instance.
* Charge 4: A double fist attack that knocks enemies back. Poor range on this one, best used for dealing with single enemies.
Charge 5: A powerful shockwave that hits all the way around you, blasting enemies into the air. Decent move for crowd control.
Charge 6: A shoulder charge that does good damage and can be used to hit a row of enemies, or escape trouble
Jumping Charge: A ground pound attack. Covers a lot of ground, can provide a safe landing spot.
Running Attack: A charge attack that ends in a double punch type move. Propels you a good ways forward, and is good for meeting oncoming enemies.
Musou Attack: A series of strikes, that ends in a shockwave. A pretty good Musou attack for both clearing crowds and hitting enemies around you
True Musou Attack: Same as above, but ends in a shockwave attack which has a lot of range.
Assessment and Strategy: Cao Ren is very strong, but lacks in speed and range. He’s more suited as a one on one character, and doesn’t have great anti crowd capability, but he’s got a couple moves that can be useful. You may try giving him a wind scroll to compensate for his lack of range. He’s also pretty durable, and can take a lot of punishment.
DIAN WEI
Basic String: Dian Wei’s basic string is sort of slow, but packs a lot of power, and also covers a good range.
Charge 1: Creates a wave of energy that stuns everyone around you but doesn’t do much damage
Charge 2: Basic upward hit that is somewhat slow.
Charge 3: A series of overhead chops that does good damage to enemy officers. A sweeping slash at the end helps you clear crowds.
* Charge 4: Throws his axe out. This move has a lot of forward range, and is a useful crowd clearing attack, one of the better moves in Dian Wei’s arsenal.
* Charge 5: He creates a large wave of energy in front of him, knocking enemies high into the air. This move covers pretty much the whole area in front of him, making it useful.
Charge 6: Slams the ground, creating a shockwave in front of him. Similar to the charge 5 in range, but this one knocks enemies down instead of up
Jumping Charge: Slams the ground, creating a shockwave that hits everyone around you
Running Attack: A dashing headbutt. Good forward range, and a nice move to greet oncoming attackers.
Musou Attack: A powerful series of sweeping slashes. Powerful and has good range and can be used against officers and groups alike.
True Musou Attack: Same as above, and the end, Dian Wei causes a big explosion which covers a lot of ground.
Assessment and Strategy: Dian Wei is very strong. He’s not particularly speedy, but he’s got enough speed to get by. He’s got some good crowd control moves (Charge 4 in particular) and is also a good anti officer character. He’s a good pick if you can get around his lack of speed.
PANG DE
Basic String: Pang De’s basic string has good range and will hit a lot of enemies, it also has good power. It’s somewhat slow however
Charge 1: Slams the ground creating a shockwave. Not very powerful, but hits everyone around you.
Charge 2: A basic upward strike. Basic pop up move.
Charge 3: A series of overhead swings that do good damage, and also cover a decent range.
* Charge 4: A circular sweeping slash, that hits pretty much everyone around you. Great clear out move.
Charge 5: Creates a big energy wave in front of him that hits pretty much everyone in your front. Good crowd control move as well.
* Charge 6: He dashes forward with both halberds extended in a double clothesline like move. Good for escaping hairy situations, and hitting a lot of enemies.
Jumping Charge: He does a forward spinning attack that is good for clearing enemies and escaping dangerous situation. It can also knock enemies off mounts well.
Running Attack: A sweeping slash. Good range on this move, making it useful to nail oncoming attackers.
Musou Attack: He stands in place and does some rapid fire swings. Not as useful in groups, but it can be devastating against single officers.
True Musou Attack: Same as above, but ends in a shockwave which provides him some better crowd control.
Assessment and Strategy: Pang De is a beast. He’s got great power, but is a little bit slow. His Musou attack is very strong against officers, making him great for one on one fighting. He’s also a decent horseback fighting. He’s got a couple good crowd clearing moves too. He’s very good overall, his only weakness is speed. Equipping a light weapon will fix that if you can find one.
SIMA YI
Basic String: Sima’s basic string is fast, but lacks in range and power. Probably only good against single enemies.
Charge 1: Shoots out an ice ball that explodes after a few seconds and can freeze enemies. Good move for laying traps
Charge 2: An upward strike. Basic pop up attack. A little slow.
Charge 3: He shoots a laser beam forward. Powerful if it connects, but is a little hard to aim
* Charge 4: He slides backward, then forward, hitting anyone around him with a circular fan attack. A good crowd clearer, and one of his better moves.
* Charge 5: A big ball of dark energy that hits everyone in front of him and juggles them. A good way to clear out your front side.
Charge 6: He shoots a series of laser beams in different directions. Powerful, but hard to aim.
Jumping Charge: He hits the ground and creates a shockwave. A good crowd control move, and will create a safe landing spot for you
* Running Attack: He slides forward hitting anyone in his path. A good move against oncoming enemies.
* Musou Attack: He stays in one place and shoots a series of laser beams forward. They do pretty good damage and are good for clearing out enemies in front of you.
True Musou Attack: Same as above but ends with a big blast which hits a lot of enemies.
Assessment and Strategy: Sima Yi isn’t very good. A lot of his moves are hard to aim, and he doesn’t have the devastating Musou attack Zhuge Liang does, although Sima Yi’s Musou is more useful for crowd clearing. His charge 4 is a decent crowd clearer, but it’s his only really useful move. He’s finally taken the place of Zhuge Liang among the bottom dwellers of Dynasty Warriors, as he was superior to Zhuge in both DW3 and 4. Equipping him with an ice orb is a good idea, because it works nicely with his charge 4.
XIAHOU DUN
Basic String: Dun’s basic string is more geared towards single enemies, but it’s fast, so you can turn around and use it against a group if you need to take down a horde.
Charge 1: A quick running slash. Good move if you need to get yourself out of a jam.
Charge 2: Basic upward slashing move that juggles.
Charge 3: Quick series of upward slashes. Good basic combo move.
* Charge 4: A fast spinning slash, which is good for thinning crowds
* Charge 5: Smashes the ground, causing a shockwave that blasts pretty much anyone in front of you. Good crowd control move
Charge 6: A powerful double slash attack. Good way to end a combo and clear out some enemies at the same time.
Jumping Charge: An upward slash, anyone unlucky enough to get hit by it will then be slashed multiple times in the air. Capable of doing good damage to anyone it hits.
Running Attack: A jumping strike. Will knock anyone it hits into the air.
Musou Attack: A rapid fire series of attacks. Can be used in any situation, good overall move.
True Musou Attack: A rapid fire series of attacks that ends with a jumping slash, then a ground smash attack. Good Musou move overall, can be used in any situation. More damaging than the regular attack
Assessment and Strategy: Xiahou Dun is a very well balanced character with no significant weaknesses. He’s fast, and reasonably powerful. He doesn’t have any really flashy special attacks, but what he does have is more than sufficient to get the job done in pretty much any circumstances.
XIAHOU YUAN
Basic String: Yuan’s basic string is reasonably useful in most situation. He’s got decent power, speed, and enough range to get by.
* Charge 1: He shoots out up to four arrow clusters, the last one has beams of light surrounding them, which dizzies enemies if they’re still standing. Not quite as good as Huang Zhong’s version of the move, but still very useful for thinning out crowds.
Charge 2: Basic pop up hit with decent speed.
Charge 3: Basic combo of overhead swings. Nothing fancy, but it gets the job done. Best used against single officers, but has some crowd control ability
* Charge 4: A sweeping strike. Decent range, but not the best crowd clearing move ever.
Charge 5: A small tornado that blasts anyone directly in front of you into the air.
Charge 6: A powerful series of strikes that does good damage, and is a good anti officer move
Jumping Charge: Slams the ground, hitting anyone directly in front of him. Not extremely useful, but can get you out of a jam in some situations
Running Attack: A body check attack. Pretty useful against oncoming hordes
Musou Attack: A series of jumping overhead strikes. Useful in most situations
True Musou Attack: Same as above but ends in a shockwave that has better crowd clearing ability.
Assessment and Strategy: Xiahou Yuan is sort of like Huang Zhong with special bow attacks, but isn’t quite as dominant. Not to say he isn’t a good character, he’s still got a fairly good moveset, with a nice anti officer move in his Charge 6. He’s a bit slower than Huang Zhong, but he’s also stronger. He’s kind of a cross between Huang Zhong and Taishi Ci.
XU HUANG
Basic String: Xu Huang’s basic string is well balanced and useful. Good range and power, and decent speed.
Charge 1: Creates a short blast of energy around him that knocks down anyone in the area, but doesn’t do much damage
Charge 2: Basic pop up hit
Charge 3: A combo of sweeping slashes. Good for anti officer, has some crowd control capability as well
* Charge 4: A sweeping strike. Great range on this move, will be a staple in your arsenal against crowds.
* Charge 5: Slams the ground, creating an energy wave that has good frontal range, and blasts anyone in front of you into the air.
Charge 6: Creates an earthquake in front of you. Like the charge 5, but knocks enemies into the ground instead of into the air.
* Jumping Charge: He spins around with his weapon and slowly descends to the ground. Useful move for wading into a crowd and chopping them up.
Running Attack: A sliding attack that knocks down anyone in your path. A good move to use against oncoming enemies.
Musou Attack: A series of sweeping slashes. Does good damage to officers, and also has enough range to be useful in crowds.
True Musou Attack: Same as above with a shockwave at the end which clears a bigger crowd
Assessment and Strategy: Xu Huang was considered to be one of the strongest guys in DW4. He’s been toned down a bit, but he’s still a good all around character. He’s well balanced, but leans a bit toward power over speed. He’s got a good moveset which enables him to function in any situation. Behold his mighty skill!
XU ZHU
Basic String: Xu Zhu’s string is powerful and covers a lot of ground, but is very slow.
Charge 1: Creates a burst of energy that hits everyone around him, but does little damage
Charge 2: Pop up hit that is slow, but covers decent range
Charge 3: A series of overhead strikes. Doesn’t cover much range, but does good damage as an anti officer move
* Charge 4: A sweeping smash attack. Good crowd clearer, but slow
Charge 5: Smashes the ground, blasting anyone in a line in front of you into the air. Good move for starting combos.
* Charge 6: A series of belly smashes, followed by leaping into the air and pounding the ground, which nails everyone around you.
* Jumping Charge: He rolls into a ball and pounds the ground twice. Great move for crowd control, this is one of his better moves.
* Running Attack: A rolling attack. Covers good ground, and can be used to bowl over groups of enemies
Musou Attack: He spins around with his weapon, which hits everyone around you. When he’s done, he falls to the ground. This move is great for crowd clearing, but not necessarily against officers, because they tend to go down in one hit. The laying down part is useful because you will be safe for a few seconds and can decide when to get back up.
True Musou Attack: Similar to the above move with a big shockwave at the end.
Assessment and Strategy: Xu Zhu hits harder than just about anyone in the game. However, he’s EXTREMELY slow in both his movement and attacks. His moveset is pretty decent, and he has good moves for clearing crowds or dealing with enemy officers. With the addition of Light weight weapons however, Xu Zhu finally has an option for dealing with his crappy speed. Equipping one on him will make him a much more effective character. I’d also recommend giving him a bodyguard who can freeze enemies, because it sets them up for his combos.
ZHANG HE
Basic String: Zhang He’s basic string covers ground in front of you, and is very fast, with fair power. Best used against officers, but can be used in crowds as well.
Charge 1: He flips into the air, then comes back several times with slashes. Has good speed, and you can hit several enemies in a row while escaping to safety.
Charge 2: Basic pop up hit, with decent speed
* Charge 3: A rapid fire slash combo with great speed. Good anti officer move.
* Charge 4: A torpedo attack that hits everyone in your path. Great move for crowd control and hit and run attacks
Charge 5: He creates a tornado around him that knocks anyone it hits into the air. Basic high pop up move, best used for combos against officers.
Charge 6: A pair of sliding slashes. Good in a few situation, best used as an elemental attack
* Jumping Charge: He spins upside down with both claws out. Powerful move to clear out a crowd with.
Running Attack: A sliding kick. Good for meeting onrushing enemies, and due to the fact it’s low to the ground, is a good safety move to use.
* Musou Attack: A series of sliding slashes. Not a good anti officer move since it’s hard to aim, but you can hit anyone around you once, and then get to safety
True Musou Attack: Same as above but it ends in a dive bomb attack which creates an explosion which gives a better crowd clearing radius to nail any foes you missed.
Assessment and Strategy: Zhang He is very fast, and has decent enough power to get by. He’s best played as a hit and run character who can cut through crowds with his charge 4. His Charge 3 is also very useful to defeat enemy officers. It takes some skill to play him since he’s different than the spear and sword wielding guys, but he’s a pretty effective character.
ZHANG LIAO
Basic String: Zhang Liao’s basic string is pretty powerful, and covers a fairly wide radius, and is good enough to use in crowds, or against single enemies.
Charge 1: He dashes forward, twirling his weapon. This is a good move for escaping a jam, and getting you away from a group of enemies.
Charge 2: Basic juggling attack. It will hit a fair number of the enemies standing on your left
Charge 3: A rapid fire series of attacks. Good to use as an anti officer combo.
* Charge 4: A sweeping slash that has great range, and it very effective as a crowd control move.
Charge 5: Creates a small whirlwind all around you that will hit any enemy close to you up into the air. Good protection move.
* Charge 6: Creates a Big tornado type energy blast all around you. This is a great move that will easily help you thin out a crowd. Not bad damage either.
Jumping Charge: He shoots a shockwave towards the ground. Does nice damage, and is good to hit incoming enemies, or knock a guy off his horse.
Running Attack: Sweeping slash, that is pretty fast, and good for taking down enemies
Musou Attack: Creates a small whirlwind at the start, then a series of slashes. Good standard Musou attack, no real trick to using it.
True Musou Attack: Similar to the regular attack, with a big fireball at the end that does heavy damage to anyone you hit with it.
Assessment and Strategy: Zhang Liao is a very good overall character. He doesn’t have any glaring faults in him, and his charge 6 gives him excellent crowd control, so you can use that move often and watch the body tally rise. He’s got good speed, power and a nice moveset which makes him effective in any situation
ZHEN JI
Basic String: Zhen Ji’s basic string doesn’t cover a lot of ground, but is fast, and is useful on single enemies. The 6th hit of her chain knocks enemies down where they stand, and you can quickly get behind them to set up another combo as they get up.
Charge 1: Zhen plays her flute which sends out an energy ball which explodes after a few seconds. Does nice damage if it connects, and can throw enemies off balance.
Charge 2: An upward kick that sends anyone it hits into the air. Will probably only be good for hitting one or two enemies.
Charge 3: A series of slaps, which can dizzy an enemy at the end. This attack is somewhat slow, and not really worth using, except for maybe humiliation factor.
Charge 4: A powerful kick, sends enemies flying. It knocks enemies pretty far back, but since the kick is straight, it doesn’t really hit a lot of enemies.
Charge 5: An upward attack that creates a whirlwind that blasts anyone it hits into the air. This move is fast, and a decent crowd control attack.
* Charge 6: Zhen plays her flute which creates a wave of energy around her. This attack does pretty good damage and also dizzies enemies that it hits (assuming it doesn’t kill them) This is a very good attack to use in a crowd.
Jumping Charge: Zhen plays her flute in midair, creating an energy wave around her. Not very useful, as it doesn’t hit much unless you do it low to the ground. Maybe useful for knocking people off their mount, but that’s about it.
Running Attack: A double jump kick. This is a good move to use, you can run into a crowd, hit them, and land on the ground running, making it a good hit and run type attack.
* Musou Attack: Zhen plays her flute, which creates a series of energy waves around her, hitting anyone around her several times, for nice damage. Use this in a big group, and watch the KO count rise.
True Musou Attack: Same as above, but more damaging, and also sends out a series of energy balls at the end, which do big damage to anyone still standing that’s in front of her.
Assessment and Strategy: Zhen Ji doesn’t have great power, but she’s very fast, and has a good anti officer string, and a couple of good anti crowd charge attacks. She can fight well in any situation, but it takes some skill to play her well, because of her poor range. Her Musou attack is very powerful, and makes her a upper tier character all by itself. She had been nerfed somewhat in DW4, but it back up to speed here.
Recommended Equipment: I would avoid giving her a light weight weapon, as she’s fast enough without it, and her strength is already low, so weakening that doesn’t help matters. She can get by with a heavy weapon, but may get interrupted when going for her charge 6, which is her best attack. You may want to equip a wind scroll to compensate for her poor range.
DA QIAO
Basic String: Da Qiao’s basic string is very fast, although not too powerful. It does a pretty good job of clearing crowds, and the 6th hits propels her to safety
Charge 1: A flaming orb that explodes after a few seconds. Good for laying traps
Charge 2: A quick upward slash. Basic pop up move.
Charge 3: A fast combo with not much range, but good for attacking officers.
* Charge 4: A quick swooping attack. Covers good range, and is a great hit and run move.
Charge 5: She creates a small tornado in front of her. Good high pop up for working on officers
* Charge 6: Creates a whirlwind all around her. Great crowd control attack, especially with her speed.
Jumping Charge: She shoots a fireball at a downward angle in front of her. Good attack for dismounting enemies, or clearing a safe path.
Running Attack: A lunging strike. Pretty basic running attack, but still useful.
Musou Attack: She throws her fan in front of her, which you can control. At the end, she spins her fan around her rapidly. A little tricky to work with, but can still provide officer attacking and some crowd control
True Musou Attack: Same as above but ends with a big fireball which does a lot of damage.
Assessment and Strategy: Da Qiao was one of my better characters in DW3, and she retains much of what makes her effective in DW5. She attacks with great speed, and has several useful moves that make her an effective hit and run style character. Her Basic string and Charge 4 are very useful all purpose attacks, and she has good crowd control with her charge 6.
GAN NING
Basic String: Gan Ning’s basic string is average all around. Decent speed, power and range.
Charge 1: Dashes forward, slashing repeatedly. Good crowd control move, and useful for escaping enemies.
Charge 2: Upward slash. Basic pop up move.
Charge 3: A series of overhead strikes. Good anti officer combo, but not much range.
* Charge 4: Sweeping slash. Basic crowd clearing move, a useful all around attack.
* Charge 5: He creates a flaming blast, that hits enemies all around him and pops them up. Good move for crowd control.
Charge 6: He creates a whirlwind. Similar to the Charge 5, but a bit more range, and it also knocks enemies away from you, instead of upward.
Jumping Charge: An upward slash. Anyone who gets hit is knocked up in the air for more slashes and big damage.
Running Attack: A body check. Pretty standard running attack
!* Musou Attack: He dashes along the ground with his sword outstretched. Most people either love this Musou attack or hate it. I personally think it’s hard to aim if you’re looking to hit a specific enemy, but it does a lot of damage when it hits enemies and is great for escapes or clearing a big crowd.
True Musou Attack: Same as above, but it ends in a jumping attack and shockwave.. This is a good move because you can hit guys you missed with the regular part of the attack. It also does TONS of damage if it connects
Assessment and Strategy: Gan Ning is one of those guys you either love or hate. He’s good all around with a decent moveset and good speed and adequate power. His Musou is an all or nothing attack, which makes him somewhat of an erratic character. Depending on how well you can work with his Musou attack, he’s either middle of the pack, or one of the best guys in the game. Giving him Way of the Musou can help because he will be able to hit more enemies if he misses them with the initial running attack.
HUANG GAI
Basic String: Huang Gai has a good basic string. There are a couple of sweeping hits for crowd control, and a couple overhead hits that are good for dealing with officers.
Charge 1: Tapping the button once, lays a bomb on the ground, which explodes after a couple seconds. This is good for laying traps, but you CAN blow yourself up with it, so watch out. Double tapping it throws a bomb, which is good for dealing with a crowd in front of you. Also note that you CANNOT kill enemies with Huang Gai’s Bomb attacks. You can knock them down to 1 HP, but these attacks will never finish off an enemy.
Charge 2: An upward strike with your buckler. Standard pop up with very little range.
Charge 3: A series of kicks, followed by a buckler strike. Decent combo for officer attacking.
* Charge 4: A powerful swing that covers decent range in front of you and is a solid crowd control move.
* Charge 5: Creates an explosion in front of him that blasts enemies into the air. Decent frontal range on this move
Charge 6: A shockwave similar to the charge 5 but it has a bit better range and knocks enemies down instead of up.
Jumping Charge: He throws a bomb at the ground in front of him. A very nice move for dealing with oncoming enemies. Like his charge 1, you won’t be able to actually kill anyone with this move.
Running Attack: A shoulder charge. Good forward range, and is nice for greeting oncoming foes.
Musou Attack: A series of sweeping hits. Good serviceable Musou attack with decent range and power.
True Musou Attack: Same as above but at the end he throws out a bunch of bombs which cause heavy damage
Assessment and Strategy: Huang Gai is an exciting character to use with his bomb attacks, he can provide plenty of entertainment, so long as you don’t bomb your self. Besides that, he’s a pretty good character with good power, and adequate speed. He lacks a bit in the range department, but he’s still got a a couple good moves for dealing with crowds.
LING TONG
Basic String: Ling Tong’s basic string is really fast, and has good enough range where you can hit enemies all around him.
Charge 1: He dashes forward and does a spin kick. Very fast move, that is good for escape, or to hit oncoming attackers.
Charge 2: A flipping kick. Standard juggling attack.
Charge 3: A rapid kicking combo. Looks cool, and is good for dealing with enemy officers.
!* Charge 4: A quick forward flip and kick. This move comes out VERY fast, and hits a lot of enemies around you, making it a staple move. It also goes very well with the ice element
Charge 5: Creates a small whirlwind, which is effective for dealing with crowds in front of you, and knocks enemies into the air.
* Charge 6: Creates a blast of flame all around him. Very good crowd control attack, as it hits any enemies in your general vicinity
Jumping Charge: He kicks into the air and sends out a shockwave. The wave does pretty good damage, and is good for an onrushing horde, or to knock enemies off horseback.
Running Attack:
Musou Attack: A rapid fire series of attacks. Won’t hit a large group well, but it’s a good anti officer attack
True Musou Attack: Same as above, but more damaging
Assessment and Strategy: Ling Tong is extremely fast, and has a good moveset. His biggest weaknesses are that it may take some getting used to his speed, and that his power is somewhat low, but he more than makes up for that with the amount of hits that he can do, letting him dish out a lot of punishment in a short span of time. Giving him a Light Weight weapon makes him nearly unstoppable, as you can just mash the S button and devastate enemies.
LU MENG
Basic String: Lu Meng’s got a good basic string with a lot of range, and decent speed and power.
Charge 1: Shoots a flaming orb that explodes after a few seconds. Good for laying traps.
Charge 2: Upward strike with good range, and is otherwise a basic pop up hit.
Charge 3: A combo of overhead strikes. Nothing fancy, but good for battling officers.
* Charge 4: A short sweeping strike. Not as much range as some other similar moves, but a decent attack anyway
Charge 5: He creates a shockwave which covers a decent range around him, and pops enemies into the air. A decent move for crowd control
Charge 6: A jumping slash. Covers good range, and is better for crowd control than his charge 4.
Jumping Charge: Pounds the ground and creates a shockwave. Decent move for keeping yourself safe
Running Attack: A rushing strike. Pretty standard running attack that gets the job done in most cases.
Musou Attack: A series of slashes. Nothing fancy, but useful in pretty much any situation
True Musou Attack: Same as above, but a shockwave at the end provides better crowd control.
Assessment and Strategy: Lu Meng lacks flash, but is a good overall character. He doesn’t have any glaring weaknesses, but he doesn’t have anything that really sets him apart from other characters either.
LU XUN
Basic String: Lu Xun’s basic string doesn’t have a ton of reach, and therefore isn’t suited to crowd clearing. It’s best used to take down powerful enemies with a series of hits.
Charge 1: A fireball which explodes after a few seconds and does heavy damage if it hits. Useful for setting traps for onrushing enemies.
Charge 2: An upward slash with both sabers, that knocks anyone it hits into the air. Pretty poor range on this attack.
Charge 3: A rolling slash combination. This attack does pretty good damage, and is good for hitting powerful enemies.
* Charge 4: An upward somersault slash, followed by dropping down with another slash. This move doesn’t have good range, but will knock back all enemies in your immediate vicinity.
Charge 5: A jumping upward slash, which creates a small whirlwind, knocking anyone that hits it high into the air. Not a bad move, but probably not something you’ll use often
Charge 6: A spinning double slash. Does good damage, and is best used for finishing off a big combo
Jumping Charge: He does a somersault, and sends a shockwave through the air. This attack does fair damage, but doesn’t have much forward range. Good for getting yourself out of a jam
Running Attack: A spreading slash attack. This attack will hit everyone near you and knock them down and is useful against an onrushing horde
Musou Attack: A rapid fire series of attacks. This move doesn’t have much reach, but is effective against strong enemies and officers.
True Musou Attack: Same as above, but more damaging, and he shoots out a big fireball at the end of it, which does heavy damage to anyone who gets hit by it.
Assessment and Strategy: Lu Xun isn’t that good of a character because of his very poor range and lack of a good crowd clearing move. His Charge 4 is decent at beating crowds, but not exceptional. He is decent at killing officers however. He’s got good speed and decent strength, but nothing in his moveset that lets him take advantage of this.
SUN CE
Basic String: Sun Ce’s basic string doesn’t have much range, but it’s fast and reasonably powerful. With your speed, you can usually hit enemies all around you anyway.
Charge 1: A quick stomp. This move does very little damage, but knocks down anyone around you, and is useful for getting out of a jam
Charge 2: An upward strike. Basic juggling attack.
Charge 3: A series of tonfa strikes and kicks. This combo is good for hitting enemies in front of you, as it has good range.
Charge 4: A lunging strike move. Good for knocking back enemies and escaping a crowd.
* Charge 5: Hammers the ground, creating an explosion that blasts anyone in front of you into the air. A powerful move, that has pretty good crowd control ability.
* Charge 6: A series of rapid fire shots to a single enemy. Jam the T button for more hits. A very good move to use on a general for some big combos. You can also cancel this into a Musou attack for even more damage.
Jumping Charge: A downward kick. A useful attack for escaping a crowd, and knocking down some fools trying to surround you.
Running Attack: A quick spin kick. Not much range, but can be useful as an opening attack.
Musou Attack: A series of strikes, followed by a spinning attack at the end. Decent Musou attack, the last hit can be used for crowd control.
True Musou Attack: Similar to the regular attack, but the final two hits are a shockwave, then a powerful flaming strike for anyone still in front of you.
Assessment and Strategy: Sun Ce has great speed, and a very good move for dealing with officers (Charge 6) His Charge 4 provides him with a fair crowd control move. He’s not a particularly great character, but he’s fun to use, and has enough good moves and speed to get by. Somewhat lacks in power.
SUN JIAN
Basic String
* Charge 1: A spinning slash. A good move to use in crowds, it won’t do a ton of damage, but it will knock them away from you and keep you safe.
Charge 2: A jumping strike. Basic juggling move.
Charge 3: A fast series of slashes. Its speed makes is useful against enemy officers.
Charge 4: A powerful thrust move. Not a good crowd control tactic, but effective against enemy officers.
* Charge 5: He creates a powerful explosion that surrounds him and blasts anyone it hits into the air. A very good move for crowd control.
Charge 6: A powerful sweeping slash. Only good as a combo ender.
Jumping Charge: A quick triple slash. Will do good damage to anyone who it hits.
Running Attack: A quick sweeping slash. Effective, if not flashy
* Musou Attack: A rapid fire series of slashes. A standard Musou attack which is useful, the final hit is a sliding slash, that will be useful to get to safety afterwards.
True Musou Attack: Same as above, but it ends with a pop up hit, then he creates an explosion, which gives better crowd control and damage.
Assessment and Strategy: Sun Jian is probably the best character from the illustrious Sun Family. He’s got good strength, and doesn’t have any real weaknesses. He’s got moves in his arsenal for both powerful single enemies and groups of enemies, although he doesn’t get his crowd control moves till he acquires his second weapon. His biggest weakness is his lack of pizzazz that other fighters possess.
SUN QUAN
Basic String: Sun Quan’s basic string is nothing fancy. It will get the job done, best used against enemy officers, and medium sized groups.
Charge 1: A quick stomping move. This does very little damage, but will knock down anyone around you. Useful to get yourself out of a jam
Charge 2: Upward slash, basic high juggling move.
* Charge 3: Rapid fire combo, ending in a downward slash. This combo has good speed and is effective against powerful single enemies.
Charge 4: A powerful forward slash. Doesn’t have much range on it, but can be useful in certain instances.
* Charge 5: Creates a blast of flame in front of him. Good range on this move, makes it pretty useful for crowd control.
Charge 6: A spinning slash move, good for ending combos, but not much else. Decent crowd control capability. Like everything else he does, it will get the job done, but isn’t particularly flashy or exciting.
Jumping Charge: Drops down and does a ground smash attack. Runs the risk of getting hit out of it, but it will smash anyone who gets hit by it.
Running Attack: Quick forward slash. Like Sun Quan himself, generic but fairly effective.
Musou Attack: A rapid fire series of slashes. Surprisingly, this attack is generic, but effective, particularly against officers.
True Musou Attack: Same as the above move, with more damage, and a bunch of lightning bolts at the end blast anyone around him when he does it.
Assessment and Strategy: Sun Quan doesn’t have any glaring faults, but he generic fighting style doesn’t make him particularly enjoyable to play. He’s a good character for beginners and has well rounded stats, but overall there are a lot of better choices to use.
SUN SHANG XIANG
Basic String: SSX’s basic string doesn’t have much range, but it’s very fast, so you can spin around yourself in order to clear out a crowd.
Charge 1: A rapid fire cartwheel kick, that knocks down anyone it hits. Best used to get yourself out of a tight spot.
Charge 2: Basic uppercut slash. Nothing special here, move on.
Charge 3: A series of slashes, followed by a short throw attack. Will do good against officers, then the throw at the end will take down other enemies in front of you.
* Charge 4: A circular throw, which knocks down anyone it hits. Good range, and useful as a crowd clearer.
Charge 5: An upward flip kick, that will create a pinkish tornado to blast anyone in front of you. Fair crowd control ability, otherwise a pretty standard Charge 5 move.
* Charge 6: Similar to her Charge 4, but with more range, and hits several times in a row. Good for hitting a lot of enemies at once.
Jumping Charge: She throws her chakram below her, damaging anyone stupid enough to be standing there. Not particularly useful.
Running Attack: A quick double strike. Fast, but has pretty poor range.
Musou Attack: A rapid fire attack, followed by a spinning slash at the end. The beginning is best for damaging officers, but will also hit guys in front of you. The last part will clear out any stragglers in your vicinity.
True Musou Attack: Same as above, but more damage, and a tornado at the end will clear out anyone stupid enough to be standing near you that didn’t already get hit.
Assessment and Strategy: SSX is pretty much the same character she was in previous DW games. Great crowd clearing attacks and speed, but very little strength. She doesn’t have very many good anti officer attacks, so she’ll have to hit and run against them. She’s a pretty good character, but not among the top tiers anymore. Giving her an ice orb is a nice idea, because it takes advantage of her good radius on certain attacks, she can freeze a lot of people, and if she’s lucky enough to freeze an officer, she can hit them with a Musou attack for big damage. A wind scroll would help with her poor range.
TAISHI CI
Basic String: Taishi Ci has a pretty good basic string, It lacks in range somewhat, but has good power and decent speed.
Charge 1: Creates an energy blast that hits anyone around you, but does little damage.
Charge 2: Basic upward strike. Decent range on this one, is otherwise a basic pop up move.
Charge 3: A series of overhead strikes. Poor range, but good against officers.
Charge 4: A double lunging attack. Good combo ender against a single enemy, but poor range.
* Charge 5: Slams the ground creating a big shockwave. Good frontal radius, makes this a nice crowd control move.
* Charge 6: A series of lunge strikes. Great anti officer move, as the repeated hits will do a lot of damage.
Jumping Charge: Slams the ground creating a shockwave. Good radius on the wave, makes this a good escape or crowd control move.
Running Attack: A forward lunge. Good for meeting an oncoming enemy.
Musou Attack: A series of forward strikes. Not much range, but is best served to beat down a powerful enemy
True Musou Attack: Same as above, but it ends in a shockwave for better crowd control.
Assessment and Strategy: Taishi Ci is very strong and has decent enough speed. His weakness is a lack of good crowd control attacks. His only real options for crowd clearing are his jumping Charge and Charge 5. He is best suited for anti officer combat, as he has a lot of moves which are very good against single enemies.
XIAO QIAO
Basic String: Xiao’s basic string is fast, with decent range, but isn’t very powerful.
Charge 1: Swings her fans in front of her wildly. Not a very useful move, but funny to watch.
Charge 2: Standard pop up attack.
Charge 3: A series of jumping attacks followed by a spinning throw. Good for officer fighting, and decent for crowd control.
* Charge 4: Throws her fans both in front of and behind her. Will clear out enemies on both sides, and is a good staple move to use.
Charge 5: Creates a small tornado. Poor range, but throws enemies into the air for potential combos
Charge 6: A quick rolling attack. Good damage if you can connect with the enemy you’re aiming at.
Jumping Charge: She torpedoes forward with both fans outstretched. Good escape move and can hit a lot of enemies if you do it low.
? Running Attack: She dives forward landing on her face. Dangerous move to use because she’s vulnerable while getting back up.
Musou Attack: A rolling fan spin attack, which is sort of hard to aim, but if you land it on an officer, it does good damage. A sweeping fan throw at the end provides some crowd clearing ability as well
True Musou Attack: Same as above but ends in a shockwave which has a better crowd clearing range
Assessment and Strategy: Xiao Qiao has similar attributes to Da Qiao, however her moveset isn’t nearly as good. She’s forced to fight enemies more directly, as opposed to Da Qiao’s hit and run attacks. She’s not a total loss because she still has great speed, but she’s below average in every other aspect.
ZHOU TAI
Basic String: Zhou Tai’s got a very nice normal string with good speed and range, and decent power behind it.
Charge 1: A quick double slash. Good move to use as a surprise attack to get some quick damage.
Charge 2: Basic pop up hit.
* Charge 3: A rapid fire series of slashes. VERY fast, and devastating against enemy officers.
* Charge 4: Sweeping slash. Good standard crowd clearer
Charge 5: Creates a flaming blast in front of you. Decent move for combos and some crowd control ability.
Charge 6: A straight lunging slash. Powerful combo ender, not much range, good against officers.
Jumping Charge: Upward slash, anyone it hits is knocked into the air for several more hits and big damage
Running Attack: A standard running slash. Nothing fancy, but still useful.
* Musou Attack: Stands in one places and dices everyone in front of him. Will devastate anyone in front of you, and is great against officers.
True Musou Attack: A shockwave and a big ending slash at the end provide more crowd control and damage.
Assessment and Strategy: Zhou Tai is good all around. He’s best suited for anti officer combat, but has a couple good crowd control moves as well. He’s got decent speed and strength, and is also a good horseback fighter.
ZHOU YU
Basic String: Zhou Yu’s string is pretty basic, it’s not really suited well to crowds, but it will work fairly well on enemy officers.
Charge 1: Shoots out a fireball that explodes after a few seconds. Does nice damage, and is good for thinning crowds and laying traps.
Charge 2: Upward slash. Standard juggling move.
Charge 3: Standard combo of attacks, that will do good damage if done against an enemy officer.
* Charge 4: Press T rapidly to do a rapid fire series of jumping slashes. These do pretty good damage, but don’t knock enemies around much. You can use them in hit and run type attacks.
Charge 5: Creates a small tornado around you, which blasts anyone it hits into the air. Standard high juggle move, useful to keep yourself protected from enemies.
Charge 6: A powerful sweeping slash. Nothing fancy about it, best used for ending combos.
Jumping Charge: Shoots a shockwave through the air, then drops down with a ground pound type attack. The former is good for attacking at a distance, while the latter should clear your immediate area when you land.
* Running Attack: A series of running slashes, press S rapidly for more slashes. This move is a very good one, and can cut through a group of enemies without breaking a sweat.
Musou Attack: A series of sweeping slash attacks. Good anti officer Musou attack.
True Musou Attack: Same as above, with a big flame blast at the end, which will do big damage to anyone still standing in front of you.
Assessment and Strategy: Zhou Yu is one of those characters who is tricky to use, but can be deadly in the right hands. He’s got one of the best, if not the best, running attack in the game. He also has good speed, and enough power to get by.
DIAO CHAN
Basic String: Diao Chan’s basic string is fast, but she has very poor range. The 6th hit is a spinning attack, that provides some level of crowd control however.
Charge 1: A sliding kick. This move is pretty fast, and good for taking down officers, as you are well protected while doing it.
Charge 2: Standard upward strike to pop up the enemies.
Charge 3: A rapid fire combo attack, with a variety of strikes. Decent speed on this one.
* Charge 4: A quick strike followed by a spin kick. The latter hit is what knocks enemies away. This one doesn’t have much range, but due to its two attacks, it can do some damage.
Charge 5: Creates a tornado in front of you that hits anyone in its path into the air. Doesn’t have much range, but will clear out enemies in front of you.
* Charge 6: She sends out two small blasts, which travel a good distance, and also dizzy the enemy. A pretty good move to hit an officer with, as you can then follow up for some more punishment.
Jumping Charge: A somersault followed by a ground pound. This move has a nice radius once you hit the ground, so it can hit a number of enemies.
Running Attack: A somersault kick. Fast, and it can dizzy enemies. Best used as a surprise attack against single officers.
Musou Attack: A series of cartwheel kicks. Nothing fancy, but gets the job done, and is best used against a single enemy. Hard to aim.
True Musou Attack: Same attack as before, but with more damage, and a tornado at the end to clear out crowds.
Assessment and Strategy: Diao Chan’s only real asset is her speed. She’s best suited as a hit and run character, since she doesn’t have any really great moves in her arsenal. Her charge 6 is her best anti officer move, since it will dizzy the enemy, so you can follow up with more attacks, to wear them down quickly.
DONG ZHUO
Basic String: Dong’s basic string is nothing fancy, but is well balanced in speed power and range.
Charge 1: Creates an energy wave that hits everyone around you but doesn’t do much damage
Charge 2: Basic upward slash pop up attack.
* Charge 3: Basic combo move with good speed and range. Can damage officers, and is also a decent crowd clearing move.
Charge 4: A lunging attack. Best used against a single enemy, not a good crowd control move.
* Charge 5: A shockwave move that blasts anyone in front of you into the air. Decent for crowd clearing and combos
Charge 6: Similar to the charge 5, but knocks enemies down instead of up.
Jumping Charge: He hits the ground and stomps a couple times. Not very useful
Running Attack: Basic slash move. Nothing fancy, but still effective.
Musou Attack: A series of slashes with good range. Useful in all situations. A belly flop at the end provides some crowd control as well.
True Musou Attack: Same as above, but he rolls backwards and drops a bomb which explodes, covers a good range and does decent damage
Assessment and Strategy: Dong Zhuo is a decent character, although he doesn’t have anything that sets him apart from other guys. He’s got more power than speed, and his big weakness is his lack of crowd control ability.
LU BU
Basic String: Lu Bu’s basic string of attacks is powerful and covers a ton of ground. You’ll have no trouble keeping crowds in check with Lu Bu.
* Charge 1: 3 rapid fire burning slash attacks. These do some nice damage, come out reasonably fast, and are great to use in a crowd.
Charge 2: An upward strike with the blunt end of your weapon. Basic juggling attack.
Charge 3: A series of slashing attacks, that ends in a stomp which creates a shockwave that hits anyone around you. A great combo to use on an officer, that will also keep nearby enemies in check.
* Charge 4: A sweeping slash that covers a TON of ground and sends enemies flying. This will be a staple of your arsenal.
Charge 5: Creates a blast of red lightning in front of him. Pretty basic charge 5, but it looks very cool.
* Charge 6: Tap T repeatedly for a series of rapid slashes followed by a quick stomp. Great to finish off a combo with, and does nice damage. You can also interrupt this move with a Musou attack for even more damage.
Jumping Charge: Ground pound attack, which is then followed up by a sweeping slash. Pretty good move, you can hit one enemy, then slash anyone else near you.
Running Attack: A sweeping slash which covers good ground, and is great to meet onrushing attackers.
Musou Attack: Series of downward slashes, which do good damage. Ends with a stomp, best used as an anti officer move.
True Musou Attack: Same as above, but more damaging, and the shockwave at the end provides him with a bit more crowd control (as if he needed it)
Assessment and Strategy: In terms of pure statistics, Lu Bu is probably the strongest guy in the game. He’s also got a decent moveset to take advantage of his great stats. He’s not necessarily as dominant as he was in previous games, but he’s still probably among the top 10 characters in the game.
MENG HUO
Basic String: Meng Huo’s string is slow, but covers a reasonable amount of ground, and does a lot of damge. The 6th hit is useful for clearing crowds that are near you.
Charge 1: A body charge attack, that covers good ground and knocks down anyone in your path.
Charge 2: An uppercut attack. Basic juggling move.
Charge 3: A series of swinging punches. Short range behind you can give you some crowd control ability.
Charge 4: A flying body splash that covers good ground, knocks away anyone it hits, and can be used for escape purposes.
* Charge 5: A ground pound move, that covers a decent distance around you and juggles anyone it hits high into the air.
* Charge 6: An even bigger ground pound. Although this attack will come out slow, it’s a very effective crowd control move.
Jumping Charge: A double butt smash attack. This move is pretty quick, hits a fair number of enemies, and keeps them off balance.
Running Attack: A belly flop type attack, leaves you safe for a brief time at the end, and is reasonably effective
* Musou Attack: A series of ground pounds, which hit a lot of enemies around you and does good damage.
True Musou Attack: Same as above, with a slightly bigger radius, and a big smash at the end that hits a ton of enemies and clears them out.
Assessment and Strategy: Meng Huo has about as much subtlety as an elephant in a china shop. He’s pretty much entirely a brute force character, who pounds his foes into submission. He has great strength, but is slow in movement speed (although his attacks are fast enough to be effective) He’s got a couple good crowd control moves in his charge 5, charge 6 and his great Musou attack. If you can get past his lack of speed, he’s a good character.
YUAN SHAO
Basic String: Yuan Shao’s basic string is well balanced in speed, power and range and is useful in any situation
Charge 1: A diving headbutt type move. Good forward range, is useful for escaping danger and crowd control
Charge 2: Basic pop up upward slash
* Charge 3: A fast combo that is good against officers, and there’s a couple sweeping hits at the end for crowd control
Charge 4: Overhead slash. Quick but doesn’t have good range. Decent against officers.
Charge 5: Slams the ground, creating a shockwave with good frontal range. Good crowd control move for enemies in front of you, and for combos.
* Charge 6: Creates a ring of energy hitting anyone around you. Good crowd control move.
Jumping Charge: Dives into the ground, hitting everyone around you. Very nice range on the shockwave at the end making this a useful move.
Running Attack: Basic running slash with good range. Nothing flashy, but effective.
Musou Attack: Series of slashes. Good basic Musou with no outstanding properties.
True Musou Attack: Same as above, but it ends with a dive bomb style attack that clears out everyone around him.
Assessment and Strategy: Yuan Shao is a standard ruler type character in that he’s good all around, but doesn’t have anything really special that separates him from other characters. He’s got good stats and a decent moveset. He fights a lot like Liu Bei, but some of his moves are better, making him a somewhat better character.
ZHANG JIAO
Basic String: Zhang Jiao’s basic string is fast, but is somewhat awkward to use.
Charge 1: Stomps the ground creating a shockwave that hits anyone around him but does very little damage.
Charge 2: Basic pop up attack
Charge 3: A weird staff combo. Useful against officers, and ends with a shockwave that hits everyone around you.
* Charge 4: The flamethrower. You can aim this move to BBQ anyone around you. Good move for crowd control.
Charge 5: Creates a series of runes in front of you, that throw enemies into the air. Good frontal range.
? Charge 6: A shorter version of the flamethrower, that does more damage, but isn’t as prolonged. Still good crowd control move.
* Jumping Charge: Throws fireballs in all directions. A great crowd control attack.
Running Attack: Basic lunging move. Nothing fancy, but serviceable.
Musou Attack: Shoots a series of fireballs, followed by a short flame thrower move. Can do some good damage, but is hard to aim.
True Musou Attack: Same as above, but more damaging,, and the flame thrower at the end covers a bigger radius.
Assessment and Strategy: Zhang Jiao is fun to use, and has a pretty good moveset, but his stats aren’t very good. He’s VERY weak and will have a hard time killing enemies.. His Charge 4 flamethrower move is his best asset, and is one of the better crowd control moves in the game. However, past this move, he doesn't have a lot of offensive firepower, and he doesn’t take hits very well. Make sure to put a tortoise amulet on him to compensate for this.
ZHU RONG
Basic String: Zhu Rong’s basic string doesn’t have a ton of range, but it has decent speed and power. Good in most situations though
Charge 1: A series of sweep kicks. Good for clearing out enemies around you.
Charge 2: Basic upward slash pop up move.
Charge 3: A series of boomerang tosses. You can aim these for decent crowd control ability
* Charge 4: A circular boomerang throw. Good range makes this a good crowd control move.
Charge 5: A small tornado which throws enemies into the air. Poor range, but good for combos
* Charge 6: A larger tornado that knocks enemies down. She also does a short back jump when doing it. Good crowd control move.
Jumping Charge: Throws a series of fireballs in front of her. Good move for dealing with enemies in front of you.
Running Attack: Basic sweeping slash. Pretty standard running move.
* Musou Attack: She throws daggers in various directions. Although hard to aim at a specific enemy, this move provides you with a good crowd control option.
True Musou Attack: Same as above, at the end, she runs around with her weapon spinning around here.
Assessment and Strategy: Zhu Rong is a pretty effective character. She’s a little bit like Sun Shang Xiang with her Charge 4, but she’s a bit slower and stronger. She’s got good crowd clearing, a pretty effective Musou Attack, and decent overall stats.
ZUO CI
Basic String: Zuo Ci’s Basic string covers a lot of ground, is fast and pretty strong as well.
Charge 1: Shoots either a flaming or ice orb (at random) Good for laying traps.
Charge 2: Pop up attack with his cards that hits pretty much everyone in front of you.
Charge 3: A combo of card attacks that will hit pretty much everyone in front of him. Very powerful for doing damage to a crowd or officer.
!* Charge 4: Shoots lasers in all directions. An incredibly devastating move against crowds
* Charge 5: Shoots a blast of dark energy a good distance away that does good damage, has great range and knocks enemies into the air.
* Charge 6: Creates two different explosions, one red and one blue that devastate anyone in front of him.
Jumping Charge: He floats to the ground with fire shooting forward that blasts anyone in front of him. Good for crowd control and making a safe path.
Running Attack: He shoots out a blast of dark energy, similar to his charge 5.
* Musou Attack: He walks around with cards surrounding him, which can do good damage to a single enemy. He follows it up with a lighting blast that hits everyone around him. Very powerful
True Musou Attack: Same as above, but before the lightning blast, he shoots out fire and ice blasts as well
Assessment and Strategy: To put things simply, Zuo Ci is the most powerful character in the game. This guy has a disgustingly powerful moveset, pretty much all of his moves are either heavily damaging, cover a ton of ground, or both. In other words, this guy is completely broken.
This List ranks the characters from weakest to strongest. Keep in mind that this ranking list is based on my personal style of play, and takes into account equipping each character with their optimal equipment. Also, this list is my own opinion. If you think a guy should be higher or lower than he/she is ranked, great but don’t tell me about it, because I really don’t care.
TIER 1 – THE BROKEN TIER
This tier is just what it says, guys ranking here are completely broken, and disgustingly powerful.
#1 – Zuo Ci (Nuff Said)
#2 – Ling Tong (With Light Weapon and Ice Orb)
#3 – Huang Zhong (With Fire Arrows)
#4 – Ma Chao (With Shadow Runner and Horned Helm)
TIER 2 – SUPER HEAVYWEIGHTS
These are all well balanced powerful guys, although none of which are quite as cheesy as the guys in the above tier. None of them have any real weaknesses, and any weaknesses they do have are outweighed completely by their strengths
#5 – Wei Yan (Combo Fiend, Charge 3 very powerful)
#6 – Lu Bu (Highest pure stats in the game)
#7 – Xu Huang (Behold his mighty skill)
#8 – Gan Ning (High Musou Attack damage, if it was easier to connect with, he’d be in the broken tier)
#9 – Zhang Liao (Good all around and a powerful Charge 6)
#10 – Xing Cai (Charge 1 attack can interrupt anything except a Musou Attack)
TIER 3 – CONTENDERS
These characters are all better than average, but most of them have at least one major weakness that keeps them out of the higher tiers
#11 – Zhang He (Hit and run specialist, also has a good Charge 3 combo)
#12 – Zhou Tai (Probably the best anti officer character in the game)
#13 – Guan Yu (Excellent all rounder)
#14 – Zhao Yun (Another Excellent All Rounder)
#15 – Zhen Ji (Awesome Musou attack and Charge 6, but lacks in power)
#16 – Xiahou Dun
#17 – Yue Ying
#18 – Zhang Fei
#19 – Da Qiao
#20 – Cao Pi
#21 – Pang De
#22 – Guan Ping
#23 – Dian Wei
#24 – Meng Huo
#25 – Sun Jian
TIER 4 – MID CARDERS
These characters are usually well balanced as well, but have certain weaknesses that limit their effectiveness. Many of them are specialized to fight well in certain situations. None of them are really bad characters, but the guys in the higher tiers are superior in various ways.
#26 – Jiang Wei
#27 – Zhuge Liang (Killer Musou attack, and a good charge 4, but not much else)
#28 – Cao Cao
#29 – Zhu Rong
#30 – Xiahou Yuan
#31 – Sun Shang Xiang (Great crowd clearer, but poor strength and horrible in 1 on 1)
#32 – Huang Gai (Bomb attacks are fun, but you can’t KILL anyone with them)
#33 – Zhou Yu
#34 – Cao Ren
#35 – Pang Tong (Good crowd control moves, and a great Musou, but akward to use)
#36 – Taishi Ci (Strong, but has no real crowd control)
#37 – Sun Ce
TIER 5 – AVERAGE JOES
These characters are all well balanced, but in a bad way, as in they’re so average that they have nothing to make them stand out from the other characters. They rank here because they’re not totally screwed like the guys beneath them, but don’t have anything unique that makes them exciting to play like the guys above them.
#38 – Liu Bei
#39 – Yuan Shao
#40 – Lu Meng
#41 – Sun Quan
#42 – Dong Zhuo (I ranked him at the bottom of this tier because I hate him)
TIER 6 – JABRONIES
These guys all pretty much suck. They may be entertaining to play as, but all have several glaring flaws that make them ineffective in general combat.
#43 – Xu Zhu (WAY too slow, otherwise he could be a powerful force)
#44 – Xiao Qiao (Anyone who has an attack where they fall on their face deserves to be ranked this low)
#45 - Sima Yi (Weak, poor range, and lacks a killer move to offset this)
#46 – Zhang Jiao (He could barely kill a fly with his strength)
#47 – Diao Chan
TIER 7 – THIS GUY SUCKS SO MUCH I GAVE HIM HIS OWN TIER SO HE COULD DWELL HERE BY HIMSELF IN RELATIVE OBSCURITY
#48 – Lu Xun
There are two kinds of items you can get. Field items and equipment items.
FIELD ITEMS
Meat Bun – Restore 50 HP
Double Meat Bun – Restore 100 HP
Meat – Restore 200 HP
Whole Chicken – Restore 400 HP
These items are pretty self explanatory. They heal you. They are good. Get them.
Wine – Fills Musou Gauge to the Max
Make sure to use up your Musou Attack if it’s full and one of these drops, then you can restore your Musou back up to full. These always drop from Guard Captains at checkpoints.
Elixir – Fills Life and Musou Gauge to the Max
These make you very happy. They always drop from supply base captains. Again, if your Musou is full when it drops, go ahead and use it for max effect.
Quiver – Get 10 Arrows
These drop from First Bow or Crossbow enemies, and can be found in boxes. They give you more arrows. Huzzah.
Musou Token – Enables you to activate Musou Rage Mode
This is a very useful item, make sure to get these. You can only hold one at a time, so if another one drops, use up the one you have, then pick up the new one when it wears off. See my section on Musou Rage for more info.
War God’s Axe – Doubles Attack Power for 30 seconds
If you get one of these, it’s very nice, you can do some big damage, try to go after enemy officers when you’ve got this for maximum effect. Combine it with Musou Rage for a party!
War God’s Armor – Double Defense Power for 30 seconds
This will keep you alive longer in a pinch, and as such is a useful item. Always grab these when you can.
Speed Boots – Max Speed for 30 Seconds
This item is useful if you don’t have a horse nearby and you need to get from point A to point B fast. Once you have a harness available, you probably won’t care too much about this item.
Imperial Seal – Unlimited Musou for 10 Seconds
If you get one of these, aim for the nearest general or big group of enemies and let a Musou attack rip. If you happen to have a Musou Rage token, activate it for even more fun.
Bronze Sword – Attack +1
Iron Sword – Attack +2
Silver Sword – Attack +4
Gold Sword – Attack +8
These permanently increase your attack rating, and as such are great. They drop from generals, and also from attack base captains. Attack Captains drop a +1 Attack normally, but if you finish them off with a combo of 8 hits or more, it becomes a +2 Drop.
Private’s Shield – Defense +1
Nobleman’s Shield – Defense +2
General’s Shield – Defense +4
Emperor’s Shield – Defense +8
These permanently increase your defense rating, and as such are great. They drop from generals, and also from defense base captains. Defense Captains drop a +1 Defense normally, but if you finish them off with a combo of 8 hits or more, it becomes a +2 Drop.
Dim Sum – Life Gauge Max +10
Large Dim Sum – Life Gauge Max +20
Musou Wine – Musou Gauge Max +10
Rice Wine – Musou Gauge Max +20
These increase your max life and musou gauge and are highly prize. The Wine is found in a jar somewhere in the stage. The Dim Sum is dropped by some officer in the stage.
Item Sack – Contains an item
Weapon Box – Contains a weapon
These are found in crates and also drop from generals. Get them. Usually two crates, one with a weapon and one with an item appear next to each other somewhere in a stage.
EQUIPMENT ITEMS
These are equipped to your character and improve their abilities. There are stat increase items, and special items that give you special powers. Stat Increasers have a level from 1-20, and the higher you get, the better the effect.
Stat Increase Items
Dragon Amulet – Increaes Musou Max
I personally never use this one, but if you like to prolong your Musou attacks, it can be useful.
Ginseng – Musou Gauge Fills faster
This replaces the Elixir from DW3 and 4. It’s very useful if you can get a higher level one, and I would recommend equipping it on a guy with a good Musou Attack so you can use it more often.
Herbal Remedy – Increases Strength of Charge Attacks
I’ve never really noticed a difference when using this item, but if you get a high level one, you might want to experiment with it to see if you notice a difference.
Horned Helm – Increases Mounted Attack and Defense
On most guys, this item isn’t very useful. But if your guy is a powerful force on horseback (Ma Chao) equip this on them to make them an even more powerful force while mounted.
Huang’s Bow – Bow Attack and Defense Increase
Archers aren’t as much of a threat as they were in DW3, so this item really isn’t necessary in that respect. The Bow attack power can be useful if you like archery or are playing with a guy like Huang Zhong who is adept with a bow.
Peacock Amulet – Life Max Increases
Very useful, this is always one of the first two items I equip on a new character
Seven Star Sash – Increases Luck
Luck gives you a better chance of having items drop when you defeat enemies. I usually don’t equip this.
Speed Scroll – Speed Increases (Duh)
I usually don’t bother with this unless I’m using a REALLY slow character and I don’t have a saddle.
Tiger Amulet – Increase Attack
Very useful, I always equip this on a starting guy. If you equip a high level Tiger Amulet on a starting character, you will usually have little trouble blowing past the first 2 stages or so of Musou mode.
Tortoise Amulet – Increases Defense
This is a useful item, I usually equip it on a guy if there’s not an item that is better suited to their fighting style.
SPECIAL ITEMS
For all these items, YOU have to be the person who makes the killing blow on any enemies listed. If a solider, other officer, or your bodyguard, makes the kill, it WILL NOT COUNT
Elephant Harness – Begins Stage Mounted on an elephant
How to get it: In the Battle of Nan Zhong on Nanman side… do not allow the enemy into your main camp. Rescue Wu Tugu, King Dusoi and King Mulu
Value: If you LOVE fighting on elephants, then this item is for you!
Hex Mark Harness – Begin Stage Mounted on Hex Mark
How to get it: Battle of Cheng Du on Liu Bei’s forces… wait until Zhang Ren’s ambush troops appear, then kill Zhang Ren before Pang Tong is killed, this happens fairly quickly after the ambush forces appear, so hang out on the upper part of the area near him, so you can kill him quickly.
Value: Hex Mark increases your luck when ridden which isn’t that great in and of itself, but since this is the easiest saddle to get, it’s helpful in the early stages. It’s better than having no harness at all.
Red Hare Harness – Begin Stage Mounted on Red Hare
How to Get it: Battle of Chang Shan – Yuan Shao’s Forces… After defeating Liu Bei, Guan Yu or Zhang Fei, beat the other two within 60 seconds. Be warned that killing Liu Bei will cause Guan Yu and Zhang Fei to retreat, so try to take him out last.
Value: Red Hare is the fastest horse, so it’s one of the best to have.
Shadow Harness – Begin Stage Mounted on Shadow Runner
How to Get it; Battle of Liang Province – Allied Forces… Defeat Zhang Ji and Hu Zhen within 45 seconds of their arrival
Value: You can’t get knocked off Shadow Runner. This horse is VERY useful for Ma Chao or other guys who are good horseback fighters, If you don’t do a lot of horseback fighting, and primarily use your horse for transportation, then you’re probably better off with Red Hare
Storm Harness – Begin Stage Mounted on Storm Runner
How to Get it: Battle of Guan Du – Cao Cao’s Forces… Defeat Yan Liang and Wen Chou within 5 minutes of the start of the stage. Be aware that you have to beat Guan Yu to Yan Liang because Guan Yu will kill him in a cutscene if he gets to him first.
Value: Storm Runner increases the experience you get upon beating a stage. It’s probably the third most useful horse in the game.
NOTE: YOU MUST BE PLAYING ON HARD MODE TO ACCQUIRE THE ORBS.
Orbs add an elemental attack to your weapons. Unlike DW4, you don’t have to have a full Musou Bar to activate the elemental attack. There isn’t any particular orb that works best for all characters, some guys do better with certain orbs than others.
Fire Orb – Adds Fire Damage to Attacks
How to get it: Battle of Si Shui Gate – Allied Forces… Kill 200 enemies within 2 minutes of the start of the stage. I used Ma Chao to get this item, stuck him on a horse, and let him ride to the middle of the map, which is where most of the enemies are, and let him go nuts. It might take you a couple tries to get this item, but it should work if Ma Chao is powered up.
Value: Fire Orb sets guys on fire, which damages them constantly while they are on fire. This is very good for anti officer fighting, but doesn’t do as well in large crowds. I consider this to be the most useful orb overall, and it can be equipped on any character without hurting them in any way. When in doubt of which orb to equip, use this one.
Ice Orb – Enemies may be temporarily frozen from attacks
How to Get it: Battle of Guan Du – Yuan Shao’s Forces… Defeat Cao Pi within 5 minutes of stage start. Again, I used Ma Chao for this and stuck him on a horse. He starts pretty close to Cao Pi, so it was easy to ride straight down and kill him.
Value: The Ice Orb is good for characters with wide radius attacks like Sun Shang Xiang or Zhuge Liang. If you freeze an officer, they become very susceptible to a string of attacks or a Musou Attack if you have one available. Being frozen lowers the enemy’s defense and also keeps them on the ground, where hits do more damage (Juggled enemies don’t take as much damage from hits) Probably the second most useful orb.
Light Orb – Attacks break enemy’s guard
How to Get it: Battle of Wu Zhang Plains – Shu Forces… Defeat Cao Ren, Xu Zhu and Zhen Ji within 5 minutes of stage start.
Value: Not particularly useful. There are better ways to get around an enemy’s block.
Shadow Orb – Attack empties Musou Gauge but may defeat enemy with one blow
How to Get it: Battle of Wu Zhang Plains – Wei Forces… Kill Jiang Wei before Zhuge Liang dies (which happens in a cutscene after a certain period of time
Value: The activation of the orbs power seems to be random, and it doesn’t require full Musou to use it. Since the one shot kill is only useful on lesser enemy’s, this isn’t as useful as it could be. It can be useful on characters that have a big radius attack though, as you can shred through weak enemy’s easily
Arm Guards – Cannot be interrupted during charge attacks
How to get it: Battle of Si Shui gate – Dong Zhuo’s side… Defeat Sun Jian before Cao Cao shows up as reinforcements.
Value: Not a particularly useful item, may come in handy for slower guys who have a delay in their charge moves.
Art of War – Lengthens duration of ability boosting items (Axes, Armor, etc)
How to get it: Battle of Chi Bi – Cao Cao’s forces…. Defeat Zhuge Liang after his unit starts to retreat. They retreat after either the wind prayer is successful (bad) or you beat Huang Gai and stop the fire attack (good)
Value: Ability boosters IMO don’t show up often enough to make this item really worthwhile. Waste of a slot.
Bodyguard Manual – Increases the strength of your bodyguards
How to get it: Guan Yu’s escape – Guan Yu’s side. Defeat Zhang Liao and Xu Huang. Be careful as Zhang Liao will retreat early in the stage.
Value: Good if you rely on your bodyguard a lot.
Demon Band – Extends Length of Musou Rage
How to get it: Battle of Xi Liang – Yellow Turbans… Defeat Ma Chao within 3 minutes of his appearance
Value: Good if you like Musou rage attacks, but not really worth a slot.
Fire Arrows – Arrows become fire Arrows,which do more damage
How to Get it: Battle of Ji Province, Yuan Shao’s forces… Defeat Zhang Bao, Zhang Liang then Pei Yuan Shao in that order.
Value: Not really worth it unless you’re Huang Zhong, in which case they are extremely powerful and useful and put Huang Zhong into the “Broken” tier of characters.
Green Scroll – Increases your attack but lowers defense
How to Get it: Battle of Jie Ting – Shu Force… Rescue Ma Su, and successfully defend your base. Rescue Ma Su by defeating Zhang He and Xu Zhu, and anyone else attacking your base, and defend it by defeating Sima Yi as soon as he appears.
Value: Only useful if you’re good at avoiding taking hits
Musou Armor – Archer attacks don’t stun you
How to Get it: Conquest of Nan Zhong – Nanman side… After defeating one of the Juggernaut units, you have 5 minutes to defeat the others (there are 7 altogether)
Value: Archers are not particularly threatening in this game so this item isn’t as useful as it would have been maybe two DW games ago.
Serpent Earrings – Attack Increases +2 for every 100 enemies you defeat (Note, this is a permanent attack increase)
How to Get it: He Fei Castle – Wu Forces… Defeat Xu Huang and Xiahou Dun within a minute of their appearance
Value: A great item to stick on a beginning character, as their attack will rise quickly, especially on stages with a high number of enemies.
Survival Guide – Attack power doubles if you are knocked down while your health is red
How to Get it: Battle of Hu Lao gate – Dong Zhuo’s forces… defeat Cao Cao, Liu Bei, Sun Jian and Gongsun Zan
Value: Not really useful, if you’re constantly at low health to the point where this item is useful, you should probably rethink your playing strategy.
Tiger Collar – Begin Stage with a Tiger Bodyguard
How to Get it: Struggle for Nan Zhong – Meng Huo’s forces… Defeat 3 beastmaster units within 60 seconds of the beginning of the stage. The beastmasters are hanging around King Mulu. Watch out for the elephants in the area.
Value: The Tiger attacks at random, but he’s reasonably powerful and provides a good distraction for foes. Basically it’s like having a second bodyguard, who also happens to be invincible. I wouldn’t replace one of the essential items (Peacock Urn, Tiger Amulet, Tortoise Amulet) with this, but if you’re hard pressed thinking of another useful item to equip, this isn’t a bad one.
Tribal Remedy – Recover life after every 100 KO’s
How to Get it: Battle of He Fei Castle – Wu Forces… Defeat Jiang Qin, Pan Zhang and Sun Shao, and destroy both rams that appear (one appears from the south, the other from the east.
Value: I haven’t used this yet, but it’s probably better to equip stat boosters, and rely on a fan bodyguard to heal you and pick up the items that appear
Way of the Musou – Can use True Musou Attacks Regardless of Health remaining
How to Get it: Battle of Mt. Ding Jun – Shu Forces… Defeat Xiahou Yuan before Cao Cao’s unit arrives
Value: Not as thunderously useful as its been in previous games, but if you have a guy with a powerful Musou attack, it can be useful.
Wind Scroll – Attack Range increases
How to Get it: On the Battle of He Fei Castle, Wu side… defeat Cao Ren within 5 minutes of the start of the stage. Basically you’ll want to take a horse, enter the castle from the west side, and get to Cao Ren as quickly as possible and defeat him.
Value: This item is useful on guys with medium range (Sword fighters mainly) Guys with low range weapons (like Lu Xun and Sun Shang Xiang) don’t get enough help from this to make it worthwhile, and guys with long range weapons (spears and polearms) don’t need it because they already have good range. Equip it on your character of choice to see if you feel it’s worth having on them or not.
This is a list of all the Weapons in the Game for each character, and their base stats. Keep in mind that weapons 1-3 for each character can have variable bonus stats which are random. The 4th weapon has fixed bonus stats that are listed. Also, each weapon can have one of 3 weights, either Light, Medium or Heavy. Light weapons are faster than normal, but do less damage. Heavy weapons are slower, but stronger. As a general rule of thumb, I do not recommend equipping heavy weapons on characters as they will become slower and more susceptible to having attacks interrupted. I will also list how to obtain 4th weapons for each character. 4th weapons have a set weight and bonus abilities, they also give you a Musou Rage for each 100 kills you make. NOTE: YOU HAVE TO BE PLAYING ON HARD MODE OR HIGHER TO OBTAIN THE FOURTH WEAPON
CAO CAO
Broad Sword (Power 3, Attacks 4)
General’s Sword (Power 7, Attacks 5)
Sword of Heaven (Power 11, Attacks 6)
* Wrath of Heaven (Power 34, Attacks 6 Charge +17, Bow +15, Life +17, Mounted +17, Attack +17, Average weight)
How to Obtain: Battle of Xia Pi – Cao Cao’s side (duh)… Defeat Gao Shun and Zhang Liao within four minutes of the start of the stage
CAO PI
Twin Blade (Power 3, Attacks 4)
Dual Fang (Power 7, Attacks 5)
Pure Havoc (Power 11, Attacks 6)
* Chaos (Power 34, Attacks 6, Fill +15, Defense +15, Musou +19, Speed +19, Attack +15, Average weight))
How to Obtain: Battle of Wu Zhang Plains – Wei side… Destroy all the arbalest units that appear while Cao Ren and Sima Yi are alive.
CAO REN
Buckler Blade (Power 4, Attacks 4)
Strike Buckler (Power 8, Attacks 5)
Crane (Power 12, Attacks 6)
* Roc (Power 32, Attacks 6, Fill +15, Bow +15, Defense +18, Attack +15, Life +19, Light weight)
How to Obtain: Escape from Chi Bi – Cao Cao’s side… Defeat Cheng Pu, Han Dang, Zhu Zhi, Zhao Yun, Zhang Fei and Guan Ping before any of them can slow Cao Cao’s march. Also defeat Sun Quan
DA QIAO
Twin Fans (Power 2, Attacks 4)
Violet Fans (Power 6, Attacks 5)
True Beauty (Power 10, Attacks 6)
* Qiao Beauty (Power 32, Attacks 6, Luck +18, Attack +16, Life +15, Defense +15, Musou +19, Heavy weight)
How to Obtain: Battle of Xia Kou – Sun Quan’s side. Defeat Gan Ning and Cai Mao before the ships are launched and before Ling Tong is killed
DIAN WEI
Hand Axe (Power 5, Attacks 4)
Strike Axe (Power 10, Attacks 5)
Bull (Power 16, Attacks 6)
* Mad Bull (Power 38, Attacks 6, Charge +15, Fill +15, Attack +18, Musou +17, Life +17, Light weight)
How to Obtain: Battle of Wan Castle, Cao Cao’s side. Once Cao Cao begins his escape, stay in front of the gate and slay enemies. You cannot let any task units get through the gate for 150 seconds.
DIAO CHAN
Mace (Power 2, Attacks 4)
Great Mace (Power 6, Attacks 5)
Enchantress (Power 10, Attacks 6)
* Diva (Power 32, Attacks 6, Fill +18, Luck +18, Speed +19, Defense +16, Musou +18, Heavy weight)
How to Obtain: Keep Hou Cheng from getting killed until Cao Cao arrives. Defeat the major enemy generals to get him to appear.
DONG ZHUO
Tyrant Sword (Power 4, Attacks 4)
Great Tyrant (Power 8, Attacks 5)
Fear (Power 12, Attacks 6)
* Horror (Power 36, Attacks 6, Luck +17, Mount +17, Defense +15, Attack +18, Life +15, Average weight)
How to Obtain: Battle of Liang Province, Dong Zhou’s side – Take over the 5 enemy bases and defeat Ma Chao and Pang De
GAN NING
Pirate Sword (Power 5, Attacks 4)
River Sword (Power 10, Attacks 5)
River Master (Power 16, Attacks 6)
* Sea Master (Power 38, Attacks 6, Charge +15, Luck +18, Speed +15, Attack +19, Musou +15, Light weight)
How to Obtain: Defeat Ling Cao, then defeat Ling Tong within 90 seconds of his appearance
GUAN PING
Iron Blade (Power 4, Attacks 4)
Giant Blade (Power 8, Attacks 5)
Flying Dragon (Power 12, Attacks 6)
* Young Dragon (Power 36, Attacks 6, Charge +16, Luck +15, Bow +15, Attack +17, Life +15, Light weight)
How to Obtain: Escape from Chi Bi – Allied side… Defeat all of the main generals that appear (Xiahou Dun, Zhang Liao, Xiahou Yuan, Cao Ren, Cao Hong, Cao Zhang, Jia Xu and Xun Yu
GUAN YU
Crescent Blade (Power 5, Attacks 4)
Moon Blade (Power 10, Attacks 5)
Blue Dragon (Power 16, Attacks 6)
* Blue Moon Dragon (Power 38, Attacks 6, Charge +16, Mount +16, Defense +17, Attack +18, Life +18, Light weight)
How to Obtain: Battle of Fan Castle – Shu side… Defeat Yue Jin and Niu Jin (both are subordinates of Cao Ren) then successfully carry out the water attack
HUANG GAI
Iron Rod (Power 4, Attacks 4)
Great Rod (Power 8, Attacks 5)
Shadow Rod (Power 12, Attacks 6)
* Dark Shadow (Power 36, Attacks 6, Charge +15, Luck +16, Defense +17, Attack +17, Life +15, Average weight)
How to Obtain: Yellow Turban Rebellion – Han Forces… Defeat all the generals and sub generals, except for Zhang Jiao and his men
HUANG ZHONG
War Sword (Power 4, Attacks 4)
Veteran Sword (Power 8, Attacks 5)
Sage Sword (Power 12, Attacks 6)
* Oracle Sword (Power 36, Attacks 6, Charge +18, Mount +15, Bow +20, Defense +15, Musou +15, Light weight)
How to Obtain: Battle of Mt Ding Jun – Shu… Take over Mt. Tian Dang by defeating Xiahou De. After that you have 5 minutes to defeat Xiahou Yuan. After killing him, you must defeat Zhang He before Cao Cao appears as reinforcements.
JIANG WEI
Trident (Power 4, Attacks 4)
Great Trident (Power 8, Attacks 5)
Vapor (Power 12, Attacks 6)
* Blink (Power 36, Attacks 6, Luck +15, Speed +15, Attack +16, Musou +18, Life +17, Average weight)
How to Obtain: Battle of Tian Shui – Wei Side… After Ma Zun flees, defeat Gao Xiang
LING TONG
Wood Nunchaku (Power 4, Attacks 4)
Iron Nunchaku (Power 8, Attacks 5)
Rising Phoenix (Power 12, Attacks 6)
* Dragon Fury (Power 36, Attacks 6, Charge +16, Speed +19, Life +15, Luck +16, Attack +17, Average weight)
How to Obtain: Battle of He Fei – Wu Side… Defeat Zhang Liao each time he appears (4 times in all)
LIU BEI
Long Sword (Power 3, Attacks 4)
Imperial Sword (Power 7, Attacks 5)
Gold Dragon (Power 11, Attacks 6)
* Gold Moon Dragon (Power 34, Attacks 6, Luck +20, Mount +15, Speed +18, Defense +18, Musou +15, Average weight)
How to Obtain: Battle of Yi Ling – Shu Forces… Defeat Gan Ning, Ling Tong, Sun Shang Xiang and Lu Xun. Be careful because SSX will try to retreat after meeting Liu Bei
LU BU
Halberd (Power 6, Attacks 4)
Great Halberd (Power 12, Attacks 5)
Sky Piercer (Power 18, Attacks 6)
* Sky Scorcher (Power 40, Attacks 6, Mount +20, Defense +20, Attack +20, Musou +19, Life +19, Average weight)
How to Obtain: Battle of Chang Shan – Yuan Shao’s side… Kill 1000 enemies
LU MENG
Glaive (Power 4, Attacks 4)
Great Glaive (Power 8, Attacks 5)
Tiger Hook (Power 12, Attacks 6)
* White Tiger (Power 36, Attacks 6, Charge +15, Mount +16, Bow +15, Defense +17, Life +17, Average weight)
How to Obtain: Battle of Fan Castle – Wu Forces… Get Mi Fang and Fu Shi Ren to defect. Then when Zhang Fei shows up, beat him while Mi Fang and Fu Shi Ren are still alive.
LU XUN
Twin Sabres (Power 3, Attacks 4)
Wing Sabres (Power 7, Attacks 5)
Eagle (Power 11, Attacks 6)
* Falcon (Power 34, Attacks 6, Fill +15, Luck +18, Speed +20, Attack +15, Musou +19, Average weight)
How to Obtain: Battle of Bai Di Castle – Wu Forces… Defeat Ma Chao and Jiang Wei before Yue Ying arrives. She shows up if you beat Xing Cai, or enter the castle
MA CHAO
Iron Spear (Power 5, Attacks 4)
Stallion Spear (Power 10, Attacks 5)
Silver Stallion (Power 16, Attacks 6)
* Stallion Fury (Power 38, Attacks 6, Mount +20, Defense +16, Life +15, Speed +15, Attack +17, Average weight)
How to Obtain: Battle of Tong Gate – Allied Forces… Knock Cao Cao off his horse before he crosses the river to the north.
MENG HUO
Nanman Gauntlet (Power 4, Attacks 4)
Beast Gauntlet (Power 8, Attacks 5)
Beast Master (Power 12, Attacks 6)
* King of Beasts (Power 36, Attacks 6, Charge +15, Fill +15, Mount +15, Attack +18, Life +19, Light weight)
How to Obtain: Conquest of Nan Zhong – Nanman Side… Beat Huang Zhong, Wei Yan and Yue Ying before any of your allies defect.
PANG DE
War Pick (Power 4, Attacks 4)
Sturdy Halberd (Power 8, Attacks 5)
Pole Axe (Power 12, Attacks 6)
* Heavenly Halberd (Power 36, Attacks 6, Luck +15, Mount +17, Defense +15, Attack +16, Life +18, Light weight)
How to Obtain: Battle of Mt. Ding Jun – Wei Side… Defeat all the enemy generals (Wei Yan, Zhao Yun, Huang Zhong and Guan Ping) before Cao Cao arrives
PANG TONG
Vision Staff (Power 2, Attacks 4)
Mirage Staff (Power 6, Attacks 5)
Wind Staff (Power 10, Attacks 6)
* Tornado Staff (Power 32, Attacks 6, Fill +18, Luck +15, Bow +16, Defense +17, Life +15, Average weight)
How to Obtain: Conquest of Nan Zhong – Shu Forces… Complete the juggernaut mission, the poison swamp mission, and the explosives mission. The first two simply involve taking over the necessary bases. The explosives are completed by beating Wu Tugu before the task captain is killed.
SIMA YI
Strategist Fan (Power 2, Attacks 4)
Command Fan (Power 8, Attacks 5)
Black Feather (Power 10, Attacks 6)
* Dark Feather (Power 32, Attacks 6, Charge +15, Defense +16, Musou +19, Fill +15, Attack +15, Average weight)
How to Obtain: Battle of Chen Cang – Wei Side… Capture the 3 enemy bases within 7 minutes of the start of the stage.
SUN CE
Tonfa (Power 4, Attacks 4)
Studded Tonfa (Power 8, Attacks 5)
Conqueror (Power 12, Attacks 6)
* Overlord (Power 36, Attacks 6, Charge +15, Attack +18, Life +15, Speed +18, Musou +15, Average weight)
How to Obtain: Trials of Sun Ce… When the last set of phantoms appear, you must beat them all within 5 minutes.
SUN JIAN
Tiger Sword (Power 4, Attacks 4)
Tiger Claw (Power 8, Attacks 5)
Lone Tiger (Power 12, Attacks 6)
* Savage Tiger (Power 34, Attacks 6, Fill +18, Defense +16, Mount +16, Musou +15, Life +15, Light weight)
How to Obtain: Battle of Si Shui Gate – Allied Forces… Defeat Lu Bu within 5 minutes when he shows up.
SUN QUAN
Wolf Sword (Power 3, Attacks 4)
Wolf Claw (Power 7, Attacks 5)
King Wolf (Power 11, Attacks 6)
* Master Wolf (Power 34, Attacks 6, Fill +15, Bow +15, Attack +16, Musou +18, Charge +17, Average weight)
How to Obtain: Battle of Chi Bi – Allied Forces… Carry out all 3 parts of the fire attack. (Huang Gai’s attack ships, linking the ships and Zhuge’s prayer ceremony)
SUN SHANG XIANG
Chakram (Power 2, Attacks 4)
Moon Chakram (Power 6, Attacks 5)
Luna Chakram (Power 10, Attacks 6)
* Sol Chakram (Power 32, Attacks 6, Luck +19, Bow +15, Speed +19, Defense +17, Life +15, Heavy weight)
How to Obtain: Invasion of Nan Zhong – Wu Forces… Defeat every enemy general and sub general after getting the meeting cutscene between Sun Quan and Sun Shang Xiang.
TAISHI CI
Twin Rods (Power 5, Attacks 4)
Spiral Rods (Power 10, Attacks 5)
Wolf Slayer (Power 16, Attack 6)
* Tiger Slayer (Power 38, Attacks 6, Charge +15, Mount +15, Bow +15, Defense +18, Life +18, Average weight)
How to Obtain: Battle of Wu Territory – Allied Forces… Lure Sun Quan to the fortress to trigger the ambush attack of him. Don’t allow Sun Quan and Zhou Tai to meet, and defeat them both.
WEI YAN
Double Voulge (Power 4, Attacks 4)
Strike Voulge (Power 8, Attacks 5)
Double Star (Power 12, Attacks 6)
* Comet Strike (Power 36, Attacks 6, Charge +16, Luck +15, Defense +16, Attack +18, Musou +15, Average weight)
How to Obtain: Battle of Chen Cang – Shu Forces… Defeat the four defense captains in the castle to stop the enemy weapons within 10 minutes of the stage starting
XIAHOU DUN
Scimitar (Power 4, Attacks 4)
Great Scimitar (Power 8, Attacks 5)
Kirin Blade (Power 12, Attacks 6)
* Kirin Fang (Power 36, Attacks 6, Mount +16, Defense +17, Attack +17, Musou +16, Charge +17, Average weight)
How to Obtain: Battle of Fan Castle – Wei Side… Prevent the Water attack (Kill Guan Ping to stop it)
XIAHOU YUAN
Rod (Power 4, Attacks 4)
Strike Rod(Power 8, Attacks 5)
Power Rod (Power 12, Attacks 6)
* Enforcer Rod (Power 36, Attacks 6, Charge +16, Attack +16, Life +17, Bow +19, Musou +17, Average weight)
How to Obtain: Battle of Chi Bi - Cao Cao’s side… Kill Pang Tong, Zhuge Liang and Huang Gai, in that order, to stop the 3 parts of the fire attack.
XIAO QIAO
Double Fans (Power 2, Attacks 4)
Peach Fans (Power 6, Attacks 5)
True Grace (Power 10, Attacks 6)
* Qiao Grace (Power 32, Attacks 6, Charge +17, Fill +15, Speed +19, Defense +15, Musou +15, Heavy weight)
How to Obtain: Battle of Jing Province – Sun Jian’s forces… Defeat Cai Mao and Lu Gong before Sun Jian is killed.
XING CAI
Long Fork (Power 4, Attacks 4)
Cobra Fork (Power 7, Attacks 5)
Sacred Light (Power 11, Attacks 6)
* Ambition (Power 34, Attacks 6, Mount +15, Speed +16, Defense +17, Musou +17, Life +15, Average weight)
How to Obtain: Rescue the peasants by beating Zhou Tai and Ding Feng. Then when Liu Chan visits you, escort him back to Ba Dai Castle
XU HUANG
Battle Axe (Power 4, Attacks 4)
Great Axe (Power 8, Attacks 5)
Destroyer (Power 12, Attacks 6)
* Marauder (Power 36, Attacks 6, Attack +17, Life +18, Speed +15, Fill +15, Luck +15 Light weight)
How to Obtain: Battle of Chang Ban – Cao Cao’s side… After Liu Qi arrives, kill Zhang Fei and Guan Yu
XU ZHU
Club (Power 5, Attacks 4)
Spiked Club (Power 10, Attacks 5)
Bone Crusher (Power 16, Attacks 6)
* Stone Crusher (Power 38, Attacks 6, Fill +17, Bow +19, Life +20, Luck +15, Defense +19)
How to Obtain: Battle of Tong Gate – Cao Cao’s Side… Defeat Ma Chao and Pang De before Han Sui dies.
YUAN SHAO
Noble Sword (Power 3, Attacks 4)
Regal Sword (Power 7, Attacks 5)
Sword of Honor (Power 11, Attacks 6)
* Sword of Kings (Power 34, Attacks 6, Attack +18, Mount +15, Bow +15, Defense +18, Musou +17, Average weight)
How to Obtain: Battle of Guan Du – Yuan Shao’s Side… Open the gates to Guan Du castle while Yan Liang and Wen Chou are still alive
YUE YING
War Spear (Power 3, Attacks 4)
Martial Spear (Power 7, Attacks 5)
Horizon (Power 11, Attacks 6)
* Oblivion (Power 36, Attacks 6, Charge +15, Mount +15, Bow +16, Defense +17, Life +16, Average weight)
How to Obtain: Battle of Wu Zhang Plains – Shu Forces… Beat Deng Ai within 3 minutes of his appearance (before he can set up the catapults)
ZHANG FEI
Bronze Pike (Power 5, Attacks 4)
Iron Pike (Power 11, Attacks 5)
Serpent Blade (Power 17, Attacks 6)
* Viper Blade (Power 39, Attacks 6, Fill +16, Mount +16, Defense +15, Attack +19, Musou +17, Light weight)
How to Obtain: Battle of Chang Ban – Liu Bei’s Forces… Kill Wen Pin, Xiahou Dun and Xiahou En without letting any of them cross Chang Ban bridge.
ZHANG HE
Iron Claw (Power 4, Attacks 4)
Strike Claw (Power 8, Attacks 5)
Peacock Talon (Power 12, Attacks 6)
* Phoenix Talon (Power 36, Attacks 6, Fill +15, Speed +19, Attack +16, Musou +18, Charge +15, Average weight)
How to Obtain: Battle of Jie Ting – Wei Side… Surround Ma Su and force him to begin his retreat, then kill him
ZHANG JIAO
Magic Staff (Power 2, Attacks 4)
Mystic Staff (Power 6, Attacks 5)
Fire Staff (Power 10, Attacks 6)
* Volcano Staff (Power 32, Attacks 6, Life +17, Musou +19, Fill +17, Charge +16, Defense +18, Light weight)
How to Obtain: Yellow Turban Rebellion – Yellow Turban Side… With all your officers alive, carry out the rockslide, and convert Cao Cao and Sun Jian’s troops to your side.
ZHANG LIAO
Pole Blade (Power 4, Attacks 4)
Great Blade (Power 8, Attacks 5)
Blue Wyvern (Power 12, Attacks 6)
* Gold Wyvern (Power 36, Attacks 6, Life +17, Attack +15, Bow +19, Fill +18, Charge +12, Average weight)
How to Obtain: Battle of He Fei – Wei Side… Kill 750 enemies before Cao Ren appears, or defeat 9 generals.
ZHAO YUN
Bronze Spear (Power 4, Attacks 4)
Great Spear (Power 8, Attacks 5)
Dragon Spear (Power 12, Attacks 6)
* Fierce Dragon (Power 36, Attacks 6, Charge +16, Attack +17, Life +17, Defense +17, Musou +17, Average weight)
How to Obtain: Battle of Cheng Du – Liu Bei’s side… Within 5 minutes, defeat Liu Xun to occupy Luo castle, and open the east, north and west gates.
ZHEN JI
Flute (Power 2, Attacks 4)
Iron Flute (Power 6, Attacks 5)
Moon Flute (Power 10, Attacks 6)
* Dark Moon Flute (Power 32, Attacks 6, Fill +20, Mount +17, Bow +18, Defense +18, Life +17)
How to Obtain: Battle of He Fei Castle – Wei Side… Kill 300 enemies, then meet up with Cao Pi, causing a cutscene
ZHOU TAI
Eastern Sword (Power 4, Attacks 4)
Katana (Power 8, Attacks 5)
Dawn (Power 12, Attacks 6)
* Dusk (Power 36, Attacks 6, Charge +16, Attack +17, Life +15, Speed +15, Musou +18, Average weight)
How to Obtain: Battle of Yi Ling – Wu Forces… Beat Zhao Yun before the fire attack is launched, then successfully launch the attack
ZHOU YU
Bronze Sword (Power 3, Attacks 4)
Iron Sword (Power 7, Attacks 5)
Elder Sword (Power 11, Attacks 6)
* Ancients Sword (Power 34, Attacks 6, Charge +17, Defense +15, Musou +18, Bow +16, Attack +16, Average weight)
How to Obtain: Battle of Wu Territory – Sun Ce’s forces… Defeat Yan Bai Hu and Wang Lang with Dong Xi and Jiang Qin still alive.
ZHU RONG
Boomerang? (Power 3, Attacks 4)
Spitfire (Power 7, Attacks 5)
Magma Wheel (Power 11, Attacks 6)
* Inferno (Power 34, Attacks 6, Charge +16, Fill +17, Bow +15, Defense +15, Musou +18, Average weight)
How to Obtain: Invasion of Nan Zhong – Nanman side… After King Mulu breaks down the gate to the enemy camp, kill Gan Ning and Jiang Qin
ZHUGE LIANG
War Fan (Power 2, Attacks 4)
Warlord Fan (Power 6, Attacks 5)
White Feather (Power 10, Attacks 6)
* Peacock Feather (Power 32, Attacks 6, Fill +15, Defense +18, Bow +15, Musou +20, Charge +18, Average weight)
How to Obtain:
ZUO CI
Cursed Deck (Power 6, Attacks 4)
Mystic Deck (Power 12, Attacks 5)
Crane Deck (Power 18, Attacks 6)
* Trump Deck (Power 40, Attacks 6, Charge +15, Bow +15, Fill +20, Defense +15, Musou +20, Average weight)
How to Obtain: Battle of Hu Lao Gate – Allied Side… Defeat Lu Bu
Well here we go, a walkthrough of every stage in the game. Please note that there may be slight variances to the stages, depending on which character you are playing, since every character sees the stages through their own perspective, events may be somewhat different. I’ve tried to outline things that will happen for every character, although I have noted if playing a different character makes the stage considerably different in any way.
180 AD – BATTLE OF XI LING
Dong Zhuo’s Forces – Early on, those zany Yellow Turbans create a rolling log of doom that blocks your path. Take the alternate path, but watch out as an ambush unit will appear, and this guy summons a rockslide along that path. Take him out to stop the rock slide and also create a bridge, so that your men may get around the log of doom. Or just kill Zhang Liang to put an end to that wacky log once and for all. This enables your army to commence its attack. Along the way, Zhang Bao will summon up a phantom army that you can’t hurt, so kill Zhang Bao to put an end to it. From there, you just have to kill Zhang Jiao, who’s not particularly tough in this level, and doesn’t have any special tricks up his sleeve once you’ve reached him. Ma Chao will appear to back you up if you need him.
Yellow Turbans – This stage starts off hard, but as you complete your tasks, becomes easier. Early on, you will be attacked by two of Dong Zhuo’s generals. Take them down quickly. You will get a message to rescue Zhang Liang who is in trouble on the northern part of the map. Go to his aid by beating the tar out of the enemies near him. On his way back, Zhang Liang will be ambushed by Ma Chao, so take him out too. Allowing Zhang Liang to reach the camp will enable him to summon the rolling log of doom, which will impede Dong Zhuo’s march and lower his morale. Make your way along the path (make sure to take the path towards Dong Zhuo where the log is NOT rolling. Along the way you will be asked to take over an enemy base which will further increase your morale. By this point, you should be able to finish off Dong Zhuo without any major trouble.
180 AD – BATTLE OF JI PROVINCE
Yuan Shao’s Forces – At the beginning of this, Zhang Jiao will summon a tornado near the middle of the map, by his altar. Try to make your way to the altar to stop the tornado, but don’t let it hit you, it will cause a lot of damage. Reaching the altar and walking on it will stop it, and get your troops back on track. Zhang Jiao will teleport to the northeast side of the map. Defeat the other yellow turban officers around before they get to the altar, otherwise they will pull more Yellow Turban shenanigans which will mess you up. Kill all the officers, then go head for Zhang Jiao, who shouldn’t pose to much of a threat, as long as you be wary of his fire attacks and such.
Yellow Turbans – This stage isn’t too bad, as long as you keep your men alive. First off, head for the altar in the center of the map. Beat the general here to claim the altar. Defeat the enemies remaining on the altar so that Zhang Jiao may summon his tornado of doom. This won’t faze Yuan Shao’s forces much, so you’ll have to go find Zhang Bao and beat the enemies near him so that HE can go to the altar to increase the tornado’s power. This hurts Yuan Shao’s morale and causes him to hold back on his march. Zhang Liang will head for the altar after a little while, so clear the path for him to increase the power further, which will finally drive Yuan Shao back, and enable your men to begin their offensive. At this point, it’s simply a matter of mopping up the rest of the enemy forces, and Yuan Shao himself.
181 AD – BATTLE OF LIANG PROVINCE
Dong Zhuo’s Forces – At the beginning of the stage, Ma Chao will make a beeline for your main camp, so defeating him will be your first priority. He can take a beating, so watch out. Your next concern will be to take out the two enemy bases on the southwest and northeast sides, to prevent enemy reinforcements. While you’re doing this, a couple enemies may threaten your camp, so if need be, take out whatever officer is harassing the camp to keep it safe. Once you take over both specified bases and halt the enemy reinforcements, your army begins its assault. Also, you get a couple of reinforcement troops yourself which is beneficial. From here, mop up the remaining enemies, the only one of note is Pang De. Ma Teng, the boss, isn’t particularly noteworthy, and you should be able to drop him with no trouble.
Allied Forces – This is a pretty easy stage. Basically, all you have to do is take out the various bases nearby, and open up the checkpoints. Taking out the bases in the northeast and southwest leads the way for allied reinforcements to join you. Taking down the checkpoints will keep enemy reinforcements from coming in. This is important, because the reinforcements will eventually swamp you if you let them get out of hand. Eventually, Dong Zhuo himself will show up and you will have to defeat him. He’s durable (probably from all the fat) but you should be able to take him down with patience.
182 AD – STRUGGLE FOR NAN ZHONG
Meng Huo’s Forces – This is a pretty easy mission. Your first task is to defeat the 3 rival Nanman kings, Wu Tugu, King Duosi and King Mulu. You also have to protect your main camp, but that shouldn’t be a concern for you. The three kings aren’t particularly tough, but you have to watch out for the various elephant and beastmaster units that are running around. Once the 3 kings have been defeated, 3 more enemies will show up, the governors of Nan Zhong. They are Yong Kai, Gao Ding and Zhu Bao. Beat these 3 guys to win the stage. One of them might make a beeline for the camp, so move quickly to intercept if needed.
Other Info: Meng Huo and Zhu Rong each have slightly different paths they start on for this stage, although the goals are the same.
183 AD – BATTLE OF NAN ZHONG
Yellow Turbans – Start this stage by heading toward the center of the map. You will encounter the poison marsh, which will sap your strength as you stand on it. Quickly defeat King Duosi and Ahui Nan. Once they are gone, Zhang Jiao will purify the swamp with his magic powers. This also converts some troops to your side. Head along the path, and you will convert more troops as you go. Zhu Rong will increase her pace to try and get you. On the southeast path, some Nanman troops attack with elephants. A few of them will be converted. Get King Mulu and Dong Tu Na off their elephants as quickly as possible, then take em out. You can now head for the main camp if you want, but it’s helpful to go back to Zhang Bao and pull his ass out of the fire. He’s probably getting attacked by Zhu Rong by now. Once you’ve helped him, go take on Wu Tugu in the northwest. He has powerful armor troops, but Zhang Bao will summon a phantom army to help. Finishing off the enemies here will result in another conversion. Doing all these steps will convert all the villages, and pretty much max out your morale, giving you a big advantage for the final battle with Meng Huo
Nanman Forces – This can be a tricky stage. During this stage, the Yellow Turbans will try and convert your men to the ways of the Yellow Turbans. Allowing this to happen, and having your allies get in a jam causes the troops’ respect for Meng Huo to decrease. If it gets too low, you lose. Beating down the main Yellow Turban leaders will release their control on your guys, recovering your respect. So basically, this stage is a race to beat the Yellow Turban officers and save your people before too many of them convert to the enemy. Once you’ve beaten down all the leaders, head toward the main camp to beat down Zhang Jiao, just watch out for his fire attacks.
184 AD – YELLOW TURBAN REBELLION
Han Forces – This stage isn’t too bad, so long as you can evade the various Yellow Turban trickery they will throw at you. Begin by charging up the map, in whatever direction He Jin directs your army. This will lead you to one of the main Yellow Turban guys, so whoop them. There are three Yellow Turban officers who will cause carnage. Zhang Man Cheng is in the center and he will turn Sun Jian’s troops against you. This is bad, but just ends up raising your kill count. Zhang Bao is on the west side, he will conjure up a rock slide. If you happen to be approaching him from the south, be careful as the rocks can be hard to avoid, and do a lot of damage. Zhang Liang conjures a tornado, which is also powerful, and can track you. Kill whatever Zhang is directly in front of you, then approach the other two from the sides, to get rid of their spells, enabling your allies to aid you in the final battle. Once all 3 are down, head for the altar in the northeast, whipping any generals still in your path. When you get to the altar, Zhang Jiao will summon a phantom army. These guys can’t actually be hurt, to get rid of them, you have to destroy the four torches on the altar. Then go after the man himself. Once you whip most of Zhang Jiao’s backup, you shouldn’t have too much trouble beating him, just be careful of his fireball attacks.
Yellow Turbans – This stage combines near overwhelming odds with the fact that you’re using a character with the strength of a gnat (Zhang Jiao) to create one of the hardest battles in the game, and certainly the one I hate the most. Zhang Man Cheng will head toward a rockslide path at the start, which he should have no trouble reaching as long as you clear out the few enemies near your main camp, killing Gongsun Yue should give him the space he needs. Next take out the enemy general harassing your camp from the south. After that, meet Zhang Liang at the altar and wait there so that he can convert Sun Jian’s men to your side. Now head to the west and meet up with Zhang Bao and do the same thing to Cao Cao’s troops. At this point, Liu Bei will head toward your camp. If you weren’t having enough fun yet, Dong Zhou will also show up as a reinforcement and harass you. At this point, the mission of the stage turns from defeating He Jin to defeating all the remaining Han officers, which includes He Jin, Liu Bei and Dong Zhou. Have fun.
191 AD – BATTLE OF SI SHUI GATE
Allied Forces: This stage isn’t particularly tough at first. Be careful that Sun Jian will retreat if he doesn’t get his supplies from Yuan Shu. Make sure to take out the supply route when asked to, to keep him in the fight. A big surprise will appear in the form of Lu Bu once the gate opens up. Avoid him, or if you’re really powered up (or crazy) you can try to take him on. Hua Xiong is the boss of this stage. He’s not particularly hard by himself, but if you engage Lu Bu, he’s probably chase you over while you try to fight Hua Xiong, which can make the final battle pretty dicey, especially when combined with the archers that like to roam around the area. Try to lure Lu Bu away from the area, then come back and take out the boss. You can also take the road that leads to the south to go around Lu Bu and attack Hua Xiong from the other side. Jia Xu will ambush you, but he’s a wimp compared to Lu Bu.
Dong Zhuo’s Forces – The first job you have is to take down the enemy base in the northeast. Doing so will cut off the enemy supply line, which forces Sun Jian to fall back. Then head past and Kill Yuan Shu to take over their supplies completely, which hurts their morale. Now head towards the center of the map and battle Guan Yu. Be careful, he’s one of the tougher foes on this stage. From here, start attacking whatever enemies are left, but be careful, as Cao Cao will show up as reinforcements and make a beeline for Si Shui Gate. If your morale is high enough, the guys there might be able to hold him off, but you will probably want to go kill him yourself, just to be safe. Once he’s out of the way, head over and defeat Yuan Shao. By this point your morale should be pretty much maxed out, so you should have plenty of men helping you fight him.
191 AD – BATTLE OF HU LAO GATE
Allied Forces – This stage is similar in concept to the Si Shui gate stage, although now you’ll be fighting the man himself, Dong Zhuo, rather than one of his crummy subordinates. Most of the enemies you fight when getting to Hu Lao will be cannon fodder for you to build up your power. Once you reach Hu Lao gate, beat the generals nearby, and the gate will open and out will pop (surprise!) Lu Bu! Unless you’re really buffed up (or suicidal) you don’t want to fight Lu Bu, so take Yuan Shao’s advice and go around the detour. You’ll go through a base, and Zhang Liao is also here, so take him out. Once you get to Dong Zhuo, you’ll have to fight him, as well as a few chumps he has for subordinates. DON’T use your Musou Rage on Dong Zhuo right away if you have it. Fight Dong normally for a while, when you take off about half his power, he’ll whine for Lu Bu to come save him. At this point, you’ll have to finish off Dong Zhuo quickly, or you’ll have to deal with Lu Bu as well. This is the best time to use your Musou rage if you have it.
Dong Zhuo’s Forces – Start by taking out any enemy officers in the vicinity. One officer will miraculously slip through the gate, so go take him out. After that, some officers will try to go along the detour route (scared to death of Lu Bu I guess) so head that way and thrash them. This will cause Yuan Shao to pull back his forces, although Liu Bei and his brothers may be hanging around near the gate, so kill them if they are.
NOTE: VERY IMPORTANT IF YOU ARE PLAYING DONG ZHUO!!! During this stage, Lu Bu and Diao Chan can turn on you after a while. This is a very bad thing to have happen for obvious reasons. I don’t know if there’s anything you can do to stop it, but stay the hell away from Lu Bu. I don’t think this happens if you are playing another character. It might also happen if you are playing on Free Mode with another officer, which is even worse, as with Dong Zhuo, at least you can run, whereas a CPU controlled Dong Zhuo will probably sit there like an idiot and get butchered.
If Lu Bu turns on you, run like hell and let your subordinates get eaten by him. He may not play too big a part in the rest of the battle, but you probably don’t want to engage him either. Head toward Yuan Shao, taking out Sun Jian and whoever else gets in your way. Wen Chou and Yan Liang will show up to reinforce Yuan Shao, but probably won’t make a big difference in the battle. Get to Yuan Shao and finish him off.
192 AD – BATTLE OF CHANG SHAN
Yuan Shao’s Forces – During this stage, it will be revealed that Lu Bu and Yuan Shao don’t trust each other. If you are Lu Bu, this means that Yuan Shao won’t send any reinforcements to back you up (of course, if you are Lu Bu, you don’t really need them) Killing Zhang Yan in the west causes him to trust you again. If you are not Lu Bu, you will have to beat Zhang Yan to reinforce Lu Bu, otherwise Lu Bu will turn on you, which is very bad. Either way, once you’ve dealt with Zhang Yan, you can make your way into the castle. Various powerful enemies are lurking in the castle, you’ll have to clear them out to open the gates which eventually lead to Gongzun Zan. Zhao Yun is here, along with Liu Bei and his brothers. Once you get by all these guys, you will find that Gongsun Zan isn’t particularly powerful, although he will be able to take a fair amount of punishment before dropping.
192 AD – BATTLE OF JING PROVINCE
Sun Jian’s Forces – There’s nothing really memorable about this battle. The only interesting thing that happens here is when Sun Jian falls into an ambush and gets killed. If you’re playing as Sun Jian, you don’t even get to see THAT. You can chase the guy who tries to lure Sun Jian into the trap (Huang Zu) before the ambush to keep Sun Jian in the fight, but it really won’t make a big impact. There’s no other real strategy I can give you on this stage other than “Kill everyone in sight, and go whip the boss. Liu Biao is a chump and you should have on trouble with him.
197 AD – BATTLE OF WU TERRITORY
Sun Ce’s Forces – This stage isn’t too bad, as most of the enemies you will face are wimps. Take over the closest neutral base, then make your way along, destroying anyone in your path. Along the way, several extra units will join you. Sun Quan will get ambushed at one point, and you’ll have to go to his aid, or risk him getting killed (which won’t lose you the round, but he is one of your better officers, so losing him ain’t good) When you get to the central force, the boss, Liu Yong, will usually chicken out and flee, leaving Taishi Ci as the boss. He’s pretty hard to beat, and is very strong, so use your Musou rage if you have it, and wear him down. Hopefully, you’ve got some backup to help you take him out. To my knowledge, there’s no way to kill Liu Yong in the fight long enough to kill him, unless maybe you go straight at him in the beginning of the stage.
Allied Forces – At the start of this stage, one of your guys will head out and taunt Sun Quan, setting him up for an ambush attack in the eastern fortress. You will want to be there so you can help in kicking his ass, but watch out, because Zhou Tai will come to Sun Quan’s aid. Beat them both, and shortly after (or during) this fight, Sun Ce’s main force will show up. Check to make sure your main base is OK, because if the enemies get in (even if it’s just chump forces) your morale will take a hit. Start whooping on Sun Ce’s various generals, which include Sun Shang Xiang, Zhou Yu, and a couple chumps. When enough of them drop, Sun Ce himself will begin his march. Head up to Sun Ce and finish him off, but watch out, he has good stamina and becomes super powered after he loses about half his health.
197 AD – BATTLE OF WAN CASTLE
Cao Cao’s Forces – This battle is easy, but can be a little bit annoying. Start by rushing to Cao Cao’s side, and defeating anyone around him. This will enable him to begin his march. Hu Che Er will ambush you, so whoop him, then kill everyone left so that Cao Cao can continue. Along the way, Jia Xu will show up in another ambush. Kill him, and Cao Cao will escape through the gate. Now you must make a stand at the gate, and prevent enemy task leaders from getting through. The task leaders are very weak and die in 1 or 2 hits, but are sort of fast, will try to avoid you, and since you’re probably playing this stage as Dian Wei, who isn’t exactly a speed demon, it might be tough to catch them. If they do get by, you can turn around and shoot them with an arrow which will usually take them out. If they do escape, they will hinder Cao Cao’s escape, making this stage longer. If too many get through, they’ll kill Cao Cao and you lose. Beat enough of them, and Zhang Xiu will show up. You have to keep him from getting through, and he’s tougher than the task leaders. Keep him away from the gate so you don’t have to worry about him making a break for it. Kill him, and that should be the end of the stage.
198 AD – BATTLE OF XIA PI
Cao Cao’s Forces: Start by taking on any enemies within your area, as well as the enemy bases. Lu Bu is the boss here, and he’s tough as always, the trick is to get his morale lower so that you can fight him. Early on, you will be told to open the floodgate to flush the enemies out. You must defeat Gao Shun to do so, he’s up the upper half of the map. Opening the gate causes the north gate to open, which clears the path to Lu Bu. Some of his generals might surrender to you as well, except for Zhang Liao, who you’ll probably have to beat yourself. Once you get to Lu Bu, he may try to retreat, which will also end the stage, as he’ll get captured while retreating, otherwise you’ll have to beat him. If you dilly dally too long on this stage, Yuan Shu will show up with reinforcements for Lu Bu, but if you take down the floodgates quickly enough, he’ll probably decide it’s not worth bothering saving Lu Bu’s sorry ass, and he’ll go home. I’ve actually never had him show up during the stage, so I don’t know if he makes any significant impact.
Lu Bu’s Forces – There isn’t any real strategy to this level, the floodgates have already been opened. The big thing to note here is that there are a lot of powerful enemy officers to deal with, including Liu Bei and his brothers, and the Xiahou Bros. And Cao Cao. You can probably just beat this stage by sweeping the south and destroying everyone in your path. You’ll encounter Liu Bei’s men first, so deal with them, and make your way around to fight Xiahou Dun and Xiahou Yuan. Taking them down will trigger Cao Cao’s appearance, and beating him will finish the stage. Some reinforcements for the enemy will show up on the northeast, but you probably won’t have to worry about them. If you hold out long enough, Yuan Shu will send out reinforcements to help you, but to be honest, I’ve never had this stage last long enough for them to appear.
200 AD – BATLE OF GUAN DU
Cao Cao’s Forces: This is always a popular battle in DW lore, as Cao Cao battles the mighty Yuan Shao for supremacy. Start as always by taking down any generals and bases in your vicinity. Guan Yu will whoop Yan Liang and Wen Chou if you leave him alone, so leave him alone to get these two pests out of your hair, or you can fight them yourself for power ups. Once you’ve beaten a few enemy generals, you will get a message about opening the Wu Chao compound. Continue beating down enemies until the Wu Chao gates open, then go inside and waste the general guarding the compound, Chunyu Qiong. (he’s a wimp, but watch out for Zhang He, who might be lurking nearby) There’s also a Musou +10 powerup in the compound. Destroying Wu Chao makes Yuan Shao’s forces take a big hit in morale, slows the siege towers from appearing (more on that in a minute) and causes your army to go into all out attack mode. As an added bonus, Zhang He will defect over to your side (because Yuan Shao’s crudeness is maddening) From this point, you can pretty much go up to Yuan Shao’s camp and waste him. He’s not particularly powerful, but he can absorb a lot of punishment, and has about 3 crappy sub generals in his general vicinity. If you dilly dally on this stage, Siege towers will appear near Guan Du castle, and you’ll have to go destroy them, to prevent the enemy from breaking into the castle, which causes a loss for you on this stage. The towers take a fair amount of punishment, and there’s a fair number of enemy generals guarding them as well. Also, if you’re playing Cao Pi, make sure to track down Zhen Ji for an amusing cutscene between them. If you want to be thorough, Liu Bei is also in this stage, he will withdraw and sit on the northeast corner of the map once he realizes Guan Yu is here. You can go kill him for a power up if you want.
Yuan Shao’s Forces – The first major threat in this stage is Guan Yu. He will automatically kill two of your top officers, Yan Baihu and Wen Chou in cutscenes, and then advance on the Wu Chao supply depot. Get to him as quickly as possible and defeat him to stop the carnage he will cause. Yuan Shao will say to ignore the sacking of Wu Chao, but ignore them because your morale will take a big hit if it falls. Once Guan Yu is out of your hair, this stage calms down a little bit. Take over both the castles on each side of the map, to provide you with an attack point for Guan Du castle. Some siege machines will appear and start to tear down the castle. You can help this by going to beat down the enemy generals there, which consist of Cao Pi, and a few generic generals. Beat these guys and Cao Cao’s men inside the castle will panic and open the side gates, enabling you to go in there and kill Cao Cao. The siege machines will also destroy the front gate after a certain period of time.
200 AD – GUAN YU’S ESCAPE
Guan Yu – This stage isn’t really tough, as long as you stay with the carriage. If you don’t stay with the carriage, enemies will destroy it, which causes a loss. Make your way through the stage and beat up all the generals to open the gates, also open the crates and stuff for power ups, you can get a fair amount of weapons in this stage. Most of the generals you face in this stage are chumps, although Xu Huang and Xu Zhu show up for your entertainment. Partway through the stage, Xiahou Dun will show up. If you are playing Guan Yu, just wait for him to show up (he’ll probably catch up to you at the last gate) then beat him to open the 5th gate and finish the stage. If you are NOT playing as Guan Yu, Guan usually stays behind to fight enemies, which will let Xiahou Dun catch up to him. Guan Yu will probably NOT beat Xiahou Dun on his own, so you’ll have to clear out the area by the carriage and go help him.
Cao Cao’s Forces – This stage is a lot tougher on Cao Cao’s side. You get swarmed by tough enemies early on, and you have to beat Guan Yu before the carriage escapes. This stage will probably result in your getting swarmed by a ton of guys, possibly including Guan Ping, Zhao Yun, Zhang Fei AND Liu Bei, oh yeah and that Guan Yu guy you’re supposed to be killing. Hopefully you’re skilled at dealing with a big crowd, or you’re in trouble. I would recommend equipping Ginseng on this board so you can use your invincible Musou attack more often to wear down the crowd and generals, as well as a fan bodyguard if you have one, so she can help keep you alive. You CAN destroy the carriage if you want. Doing this won’t get you the win, but it CAN prevent a loss. However, there’s one small catch. Destroying the carriage pisses off Guan Yu and makes his morale rise to 8 stars. This is not a good thing, because it makes him an even bigger pain to fight. It’s up to you which method you want to use.
200 AD – TRIALS OF SUN CE
Sun Ce – THIS stage is a pain in the ass. It starts off easily, but gets really annoying at the end. First you have to beat up Yu Ji the mystic. At that point, he will split into four phantoms, and you will have to find the right one and kill him. Next he does the same thing, only there are unkillable Phantom troops running around you’ll have to avoid. Next he will turn a bunch of your troops against you and you will have to kill enough of them to get ANOTHER four Yu Ji clones to appear. Beat the real one, and he will create false illusions of Da Qiao and Sun Jian you’ll have to kill. Then finally, he creates more clones of himself, however this time, you can easily pick out the real one, because he has a bigger life bar. These clones are REALLY annoying, and can freeze you repeatedly and juggle you around. If you kill a couple of them, the remaining ones will get stronger and make things even more difficult. Quickly find the real Yu Ji and beat him to end this hellhole of a stage.
208 AD – BATTLE OF XIA KOU
Sun Quan’s Forces – This stage isn’t really hard, but there are a couple hangups that can be dangerous. Early on, you will want to try and get to the center of the map and take out the two generals there, to prevent them from launching ships toward the main camp, where they will wipe out your leader if given the chance (of course if you’re playing as Sun Quan, it’s not a big issue) A couple minutes into this stage, Gan Ning will show up, and waste Ling Tong’s dad, which will piss off Ling Tong. Gan Ning is VERY powerful on this stage, and he will be the biggest threat you face on this map (I had him kill me in one hit with his True Musou once). Take him out or avoid him as you see fit, Ling Tong should be able to keep him occupied, so only go after him if you want to be complete. Other than him, none of the enemies on this stage are particularly threatening, and Huang Zu, the boss can be taken out relatively easily.
Huang Zu’s Forces – Since the only guy who plays this side is Gan Ning, I’m going to write it from his perspective. If you’re playing with another officer in free mode, your strategy may vary slightly. Head to the west at the start of the battle and whoop Ling Cao and the base nearby. This upsets Ling Tong just a little bit. He’s the super powered enemy of this stage. Engage him if you want, but if you can’t kill him quickly enough, you may want to run for now, and head north to take out the enemies attacking your leader’s camp. Ling Tong will probably chase you anyway, so don’t worry about him heading off and wreaking havoc somewhere else (you did kill his dad after all) Beat the enemies near the camp, then head back down and deal with anyone attacking your fleet in the center. While you’re doing this, get some shots on Ling Tong whenever he catches up with you. Don’t be afraid to use up a Musou Rage to finish him off and get him out of your hair. Once Ling Tong is gone, and you’ve beat anyone attacking the ships, head down and take out Sun Quan. If the navy finishes their preparations, they will help you battle Sun Quan, but don’t feel you have to sit around and wait for them to finish before you go attack Sun Quan. If you already beat Ling Tong, you should have no real trouble beating Sun Quan by yourself.
Note: There’s an alternative strategy that makes this stage much easier. Ling Tong doesn’t go into hyper mode unless you kill Ling Cao. So if you kill Ling Tong first, he’ll be a regular enemy (although still fairly powerful) THEN go back and kill Ling Cao and the other guys.
208 AD – BATTLE OF CHANG BAN
Liu Bei’s Forces – There are two ways to beat this stage, either kill Cao Cao, or help Liu Bei escape. Early on in the stage, take over some neutral bases nearby to set up a fire attack by Zhuge Liang. Then make your way down the path, clearing anyone that gets in your way. Eventually, your navy will appear, so Liu Bei can get his men to safety. Once he’s done this, he will make his way to the escape point. Jia Xu will ambush you near the escape point, so you’ll have to beat him to clear the path. Cao Cao will show up if you beat up enough of his generals, so at any point you can just kill him to beat the stage if you want. If you’re playing as Liu Bei, you HAVE to defeat Cao Cao to win. What often happens when I play this stage is that Cao Cao will appear after pretty much everyone on his side is already dead, and charge after Liu Bei, who by this point will be near the escape point already. Once I’ve cleared out Jia Xiu and cleared the way for Liu Bei to escape, I start heading north so I can kill Cao Cao just in case Liu Bei decides to sit around like a dunce and not leave like he’s supposed to.
Cao Cao’s Forces – This stage isn’t too difficult if you move fast. Watch out for Zhao Yun on the northwest corner of the map, defeat him if you want, but he’s pretty strong, in fact he’s in hyper mode while searching for Liu Bei’s baby. You’re better off ignoring him for now. You can also safely ignore Zhang Fei, despite his awesome cutscene, he holds off your guys a bit, but eventually leaves. The best thing to do is to get in between Liu Bei and the rest of your troops. This will keep him from slipping past you and reaching the escape point. Then you can just fight through all of his guys and defeat him. If you dilly dally, reinforcements will show up for him in the form of Guan Yu, and his ships will appear in the southwest. Liu Bei will pause at these ships to allow his people to escape on the ships. This gives you another chance to knock him off, but at this point you will have to deal with Guan Yu and some other powerful foes. After all of his people will escape, he will head to the escape point on the east side of the map. If he gets to this point and escapes, you lose, so kill Liu Bei before this point.
BATTLE OF CHI BI
Allied Forces – This stage involves a lot of jumping back and forth to aid your various allies in their tasks. There are 3 parts to the fire attack, completing all of them will devastate Cao Cao’s army and make victory a cinch. Part 1 is to knock down a bridge connecting Cao Cao’s fleet. This is easily done by simply killing one of the officers in the center of the map on the bridge that separates most of your guys from most of theirs. You only have to take down one bridge, not both. The next part is to protect Zhuge Liang’s altar so he can commence his prayer for wind. This is done by killing the sub generals on the west side of the map (They’re all subordinates of Zhang Liao, but you don’t have to go all the way up to kill him just yet) You should also scour this side of the map because there are 3 weapon and item crates over there. While you’re travelling in the middle of the map, kill any lesser generals you find, because with most of them out of the way, the third part of the attack, which is Huang Gai heading for the fire attack ship, should be a cinch and they’ll probably make it there without your help. If you are playing as Huang Gai, a task force will appear instead that you’re supposed to cover, although again, they will probably reach the attack point without help, so long as you’ve beaten up some of the enemies in the area. If all 3 parts of the attack go off successfully, Cao Cao’s side takes a huge hit in morale, and mopping them up should be no trouble. Be careful if Zhou Yu gets in trouble, as him dying will cause the fire attack to fail, which will make the stage much harder. You might want to take down Zhen Ji and her subordinates who may be harassing your leader’s force. You may also have to deal with Xiahou Yuan and Zhang Liao depending on what route you take to the top. Once up there, you will have to fight Cao Pi as well as Cao Cao himself.
Cao Cao’s Forces – For this stage, you will be racing to prevent the 3 parts of the attack mentioned in the allies strategy. Actually, the bridges will get knocked down automatically, so there’s nothing you can do about that. You should head for the altar first and deal with Zhuge Liang, as killing him will prevent the wind prayer, and lower the effectiveness of the fire attack, should it be successful. Next Huang Gai will make a beeline towards his fire attack point. You’ll want to stop him, but be careful, he’s in hyper mode. Beating him will cause an unconditional failure of the Fire attack, cause the allies to lose morale, and make the rest of this stage a snap. Sun Quan may be delayed in his appearance, so waste as many enemies as you can so that they won’t be able to save Sun Quan’s sorry hide when he finally shows his face.
208 AD – ESCAPE FROM CHI BI
Allied Forces – This stage is a pain in the rear. Start by charging towards Cao Cao. Along the way, Zhang Liao will blather about needing to protect the master. Take him out of commission, or he will make trouble for your commander, and possibly kill him. Cao Cao will wait near the center of the map, which should hopefully give you enough time to beat Zhang Liao. Then begin chasing Cao Cao down. Hopefully you have a horse by this point, or chasing him down will be tough. Along the way, Xiahou Dun and Xiahou Yuan will show up. Dun shows up on the west point of the map, you can take him down if you want, as Cao Cao will pause again near the top portion of the map. After beating (or avoiding Dun), chase Cao Cao to where he’s waiting, you’ll probably have to deal with Cao Cao, Xiahou Yuan, and a couple lesser fools here, most likely by yourself. This will be a tough fight because of the huge number of enemies. An alternate strategy is to race ahead of Cao Cao, and take down Xiahou Yuan before Cao Cao gets there, then beat him once he shows up. This will make the final battle a little easier for you. If you’re a bit buffed on this stage, you can often kill the powerful enemies earlier, and stay ahead of Cao Cao, then waste him once he gets to the top.
Cao Cao’s Forces – This stage can be beaten a number of different ways depending on if you are using Cao Cao or not. If you are not Cao Cao, you will have to meet up with him to get him to begin his march. A couple characters (Such as Cao Ren) start out right next to him. Once he’s going, you’ll have to protect him from the various enemies who show up to ambush him. There are a lot of ambush troops that show up here, so watch out. Most of the major Shu generals appear, including Zhang Fei, Guan Ping and Zhao Yun. Along the way, some of your main officers will show up to back you up, including Zhang Liao and others. When you reach the end, you will encounter Guan Yu, but he will let you pass, thus repaying his debt to Cao Cao. You can beat Guan Yu’s ass while he’s leaving and get a power up. Don’t celebrate yet, as Liu Bei will show up too and you’ll have to beat him in order to get Cao Cao to escape. If you’re playing as Cao Cao, a lot of the same strategies will apply, but you will have to beat Sun Quan when he shows up, as well as Liu Bei when he appears.
211 AD – BATTLE OF TONG GATE
Cao Cao’s Forces – This stage can play out a little different, depending on which character you are using, but the general goal remains the same. Cao Cao will take Xu Zhu up to start a sneak attack from the north side. If you’re not Xu Zhu, you’ll be directed to make a frontal strike at Tong Gate. Start by taking out the defense base in front of you. After taking out a couple enemies, Cao Cao will begin his march. You’ll encounter Ma Chao after the second enemy base. He’ll try to charge Cao Cao, so defeat him before that happens. Xu Huang will also show up to back up Cao Cao in the northeast. (Behold his mighty skill) Ma Chao is powerful, so if you have a Musou Rage, you may want to use it to bring him down. Continue toward the gate, whooping anyone in your path. Pang De is your second target, and like Ma Chao, is quite strong. Cao Cao will form a plan to get Han Sui to his side. Finish off Pang De, and head through the gate. Taking over Tong Gate will abort Cao Cao’s plan to persuade Han Sui. From this point, just head north, take out the remaining enemies and Han Sui, who isn’t particularly powerful. One enemy reinforcement will come in, but probably won’t make any impact on the battle.
Allied Forces – There’s not any really difficult strategy here, first head to the east and take out the officers there in order to keep them from invading your gate. Then you can either go after Cao Cao and chase him down, or sweep up to the top and surround him. Along the way, Cao Cao will try and convince Han Sui to defect, which will result in the allies in your army to lose morale, and possibly leave, but you should be able to defeat Cao Cao by yourself anyway.
214 AD – BATTLE OF CHENG DU
Liu Bei’s Forces – Early on in the stage, Liu Bei refuses to fight against his own flesh and blood. This actually isn’t a bad thing, because as long as you hold up your end of the bargain, he won’t go out and get himself killed. Depending on where you start, make your way west, killing and maiming as you go. Take down Luo Castle to the south if you’re in that area. Once you get to Cheng Du (the western castle) Take out Li Yan to open the south gate, then take down the other generals in the first part of the castle, and open up those gates. Zhang Ren will launch an ambush on Pang Tong. Once you hear that he’s starting the ambush, you can rush up and kill him quickly to stop it (this will enable you to get Hex Mark Saddle) Otherwise, Pang Tong will die in a cutscene shortly after. Actually, you have to pretty much be right next to Zhang Ren to kill him in time, or if you’re fast, just go up and kill him before Pang Tong gets there. Pang Tong dying pisses off Liu Bei and brings him into the fight. By now you should have taken down most of Liu Zhang’s generals, and opened the way into the small courtyard where he awaits. He’s not too tough, especially if you’ve brought plenty of backup (kept all your generals alive) and you should be able to thrash him with little trouble.
215 AD – BATTLE OF HE FEI
Wei – You will have to keep Zhang Liao alive for this board, but he’s powerful enough to take care of himself. Leave him be to carry out his ambush after securing a neutral base. Zhang Liao will destroy the bridge, splitting Sun Quan’s army in two. From here, you can go down quickly and defeat Sun Quan to end the stage, or make your way to the top, and whoop all of Wu’s men as you go. Do it however you like, but if you dilly dally, Gan Ning’s reinforcement troops show up and make a beeline for the fort where Cao Cao has stationed himself. Gan Ning is super powered too, so watch out. Unless your morale is super high, you may want to take down Gan Ning, just to keep him from killing Cao Cao. Beating him also gets Cao Cao to mobilize his force. When you go for Sun Quan, be careful because he has a couple powerful generals in that area, including Lu Meng, and possibly Taishi Ci if you didn’t take him out earlier.
Wu – This battle starts off easily enough, but you will want to make your way over to Sun Quan quickly, taking down any bases and generals that happen to get in your path. The reason for this is that Zhang Liao will ambush Sun Quan a couple minutes into the stage. Zhang Liao is VERY powerful on this stage, and will probably kill Sun Quan unless you help him. Zhang Liao is tough, but if you hurry to Sun Quan, you should be able to beat him with the help of your allies in the area. Then start working on the troops in the northeast part of the map. Wei will get a couple of powerful reinforcements, including Xiahou Dun. Beat these enemies up, eventually Zhang Liao will show up AGAIN, so try to take him down, or at least keep him away from Sun Quan. As you fight, eventually Gan Ning will show up as reinforcements for you near Cao Cao’s castle. Sun Quan will probably have made his camp in the southeast. Zhang Liao might show up a third time in the southwest, making a beeline for Sun Quan’s camp, but if you’ve done your job, your morale should be high by this point, enabling Sun Quan’s troops to hold him back while you finish off Cao Cao in the castle. Zhang Liao can show up a total of four times in this stage, but you probably won’t have to deal with him more than twice if you’re playing normally.
215 AD – INVASION OF NAN ZHONG
Wu – The beginning of this stage isn’t too bad. Make your way to the south, whooping the Nanman who get in your way, taking over their bases as well. On the southwest corner are Zhu Rong and a couple other enemies, who will be riding elephants. Take these guys (and girl) down, and head over to Meng Huo’s camp, where he will reveal his evil plan. A task force appears near Sun Quan’s base, as well as a couple reinforcement troops, and Meng Huo and his minions will all march toward Sun Quan. Make your way up quickly to take out the task captain before they can destroy your bridge. Note that Lu Meng is standing like 50 feet away from the task force who is trying to destroy the bridge, but he will not make any movement to try and defeat them himself, instead relying on you to trek across the entire battlefield to take them out. Once they’re gone, take out the reinforcements that show up on the east and west side of your camp. Then simply make your way over to Meng Huo and defeat him
Nanman – Start by taking the base on the south part of the map, and defeating the general there. Next head for the center of the map, where there are a lot of enemies. There is a base to attack here, as well as Zhou Tai (who is powerful on this stage) and Zhu Ran. Lu Xun is here as well. Once you’ve beaten these enemies, head to the bridge and destroy it, making sure to watch the goofy cutscene that ensues. This brings in reinforcements for you. Next take the western path up and deal with the enemies there, including Sun Shang Xiang. From there, make your way up to the enemy camp where you’ll face Lu Meng and Sun Quan himself. If you take too long to kill him, Gan Ning will show up as a reinforcement, but unless you REALLY dilly dally, he probably won’t make an impact on the battle since he shows up on an obscure corner of the map.
219 AD – BATTLE OF MT. DING JUN
Wei – This battle begins with a hilarious cutscene between Zhang He and Xiahou Yuan. It doesn’t quite match some of Zhang’s DW3 antics, but it’s still pretty good. Anyway, let’s get down to brass tacks. You have to defend the main camp until Cao Cao shows up. You’re on the defensive early on, as Shu will begin a march quickly. Stay near the start, and take down officers who get in your way. Once you’ve got the area by your main camp under control, Huang Zhong will begin to charge you. Head up the mountain to meet him. He brings Guan Ping with him for twice the fun. Huang Zhong is the obligatory super general on this map. He can power up both his attack and his defense when needed, so feel free to use Musou Rage if you have it to bring him down. Once you beat him, Cao Cao will show up. He’ll also launch the counter attack, so that’s your cue to destroy the remaining enemy generals, which are probably Wei Yan and Zhao Yun. Liu Bei will also begin an advance, which is nice because then you won’t have to travel as far to go kill him in the end.
Other Notes: If you’re playing Xu Zhu, Zuo Ci will show up early on in this stage to annoy you.
Shu – Start this stage by taking over Mt. Tian Dang, which is the large camp in the middle of the map. Do this by defeating all the officers there. Once there, you have a good setup point to attack the rest of the Wei camp. Start off with Xiahou Yuan. Watch out because he’s VERY strong. Also, Zhang He is running around this area, so you’ll have to deal with him as well, probably in a double team situation. If possible, isolate Zhang He and kill him separately. Once these guys are out of the way, you just have to deal with any other fools you wish to kill while waiting for Cao Cao to arrive, then go beat him. He’s tough, but if you got by Xiahou Yuan, you should be able to beat Cao Cao as well.
219 AD – BATLE OF FAN CASTLE
Shu – This is a big stage, with a lot of tough enemies, but you have the early numbers advantage. The first main goal is to launch the water attack, which Guan Ping is managing to the northwest. If he starts to get in trouble, go to his aid. Once the water attack is launched, Wei’s morale takes a hit. Eventually, Wu will show up to aid Wei, at which point you will have to beat both Lu Meng and Cao Ren to win the stage. Deal with the Wu forces first, then make your way over to the castle. Pang De is guarding the waterfront, you will have to defeat him so that your boats can create a bridge to the castle. Pang De is super powered, so watch out. Once you defeat him, make your way into the castle to defeat Cao Ren and whatever other enemies he’s got waiting for you in there.
Other Notes: If you are playing as Zhang Fei, GuanYu will get ambushed by the Wu guys and killed in a cutscene (don’t worry, you don’t lose the stage because of this, instead Zhang Fei himself becomes commander) At this point, you have to kill Lu Meng to avenge Guan Yu’s death, then finish the stage normally.
Wei – This will be pretty much the opposite of Shu’s battle. Head over to Guan Ping and take him out in order to stop the water attack. That’s your first priority. Once you’ve stopped the water attack, take out the enemy generals and bases, so that you’ll have plenty of backup for fighting Guan Yu, who is very powerful. He’ll get some reinforcements, which will include Zhang Fei (who is also hyper on this stage). You will also get backup troops from Wu. Get as many of your troops to the castle as you can, so you have assistance (or cannon fodder as the case may be) for fighting Guan Yu.
Wu – Your goal here is pretty much the same as it is for Wei, kill Guan Yu. However, Wu enters the battle after the water attack has already succeeded. Your first goal should be to attack the two generals on the southwest corner of the map, Mi Fang and Fu Shi Ren. After beating them up a bit, they will turn to your side. From there, you will probably be asked to take over the checkpoint in the center of the map. Do so, and Xu Huang will show up as a reinforcement for you (behold his mighty skill) From there, Guan Yu will probably make an all out attack on the castle (by himself, although Zhang Fei might show up, he’ll start farther away from Guan Yu) Then just finish off Guan Yu, which is a tough task, but with enough troops on your side, you can win.
222 AD – BATTLE OF YI LING
Wu – This is a moderately difficult battle, but isn’t as bad as it’s been in previous DW games, especially on Wu’s side. Early on, Lu Xun will command you to clear the way for the fire attack. Basically this involves sweeping the area in front of Shu’s camp and destroying anyone in your path. Most of the generals here are midcarders, but Zhao Yun is on the far west side of the map, and is probably the toughest foe you will face. Eventually, you will hear a message that the fire attack is almost ready, keep assaulting enemies in front of the main camp. If you’re good, you may even beat them all before hand, in which case, you can just go into the main camp, kill Liu Bei and end the stage. But assuming you get the fire attack off, Liu Bei will retreat into the Stone Sentinel maze. You can pursue him into there if you want, but the map disappears, and it’s tricky to find your way through. I recommend skipping the maze completely. Eventually Zhuge Liang shows up to save Liu Bei’s ass, which leads to the gate on the far west side opening (Zhao Yun may have moved over to this gate and is guarding it, but killing him won’t open the gate) It’s easier to get in that way, but then you have to deal with Zhuge Liang, although he may go off to attack your forces, and probably get smoked if your morale is high enough. Either way, go into the camp and finish off Liu Bei.
Shu – The first thing you should do is deal with Wu’s fire attack. You can do this by defeating Zhu Ran (he’s a subordinate of Lu Xun if you want to track him on the map) Head down the east edge of the map to get to him quickly. Watch out for Gan Ning and Ling Tong that are protecting him. Try to ignore them while you head for Zhu Ran. Beating him stops the fire attack and makes the stage easier, because your morale won’t take a big hit. Zhu Ran will make a break for it if you let him get away, so get on a horse to track him down. When you see that the bridgelayers have finished their task, that means the attack will be launched soon. If you prevent the attack, you now have free reign to defeat the rest of the Wu officers, then finish off Sun Quan. If you fail, your morale takes a hit, and the Wu army will charge. Gan Ning and Ling Tong now get super powers if they’re still alive. The tactics will be the same, just beat the Wu officers and Sun Quan, but the fight will be tougher, since you’ll probably have less backup to help you.
Other tips for dealing with the fire attack: If you get some arrows, and get near where the bridgelayer is set, Ling Tong will take up position on the other side of the river. You can then snipe him, taking off a lot of his health, and possibly killing him outright. This will make things easier for you. It can be tough to take Zhu Ran down, because he runs fast, and he WILL NOT try to fight you, if he gets any break in the action, he will keep running towards the attack point. If he gets too far away from you, you may as well start fighting Gan Ning and Ling Tong now, as you probably won’t catch up with him in time. If you can make your way around to him before the bridgelayer is set, you have a better chance of killing Zhu Ran.
225 AD – CONQUEST OF NAN ZHONG
Shu – This stage basically replaces the Nanman Campaign stage from DW 3 and 4. It’s not as hard as it was in those games, but it can still be tough. Meng Huo will show up seven different times as you progress through the stage, assuming you kill him each time he shows up. You might as well beat him up, because he drops power ups each time. Along the way, you’ll have to kill various Nanman forces, taking care of the elephant troops that appear. Along the way you will encounter the poison marsh, you take damage walking in here, but if you take down the nearby base, you will create bridges so you can get across safely. None of the enemies in this stage are particularly powerful, except for Zhu Rong, who you’ll have to fight sooner or later, and Meng Huo himself, who is pretty powerful the 7th time you fight him. But by the time you get to this point, your army should be pretty much still intact and able to help you fight him. Other than his seven appearances and the elephant troops, Meng Huo’s army doesn’t have any major league tricks up their sleeve to combat you with. There are a couple of secret paths on this board you can take which can help you maneuver around the stage quicker.
Nanman – Head west to begin this stage, you’ll quickly be assaulted by a whole crapload of Shu warriors, lead by Wei Yan and a couple generic officers. This is probably the toughest part of the stage, if you can beat these fools, the rest of the level is within your grasp. Once you beat them, take over the base nearby. The next obstacle is a bunch of explosive pots. Stay away from these, and defeat the Task leaders in the area to disarm them. Along the way, certain allies may stop attacking because of their awe at Zhuge Liang’s strategy. Rescue these guys by defeating whatever officers are near them. At the top of the map, you will be besieged by Yue Ying and her Juggernauts, which can cause you some trouble. Defeating her gets rid of the juggernauts, and is more efficient than dealing with each juggernaut individually. Once she’s out of the way, you can make your way to Zhuge Liang and defeat him.
227 AD – BATTLE OF TIAN SHUI
Wei – I’m writing this from Jiang Wei’s perspective, since I’m pretty sure he’s the only guy that plays this side. Head for the castle to the south and defeat the officers there to save it from the enemy. Now head back up and take out any officers that have made their way into the area, including Wei Yan. Then head over to the other castle and save it from the enemies attacking. Be careful, as Zhao Yun is in the west castle, and will likely put up a tougher fight than the other generic guys. Saving both castles will allow Wei to mobilize and begin its counter attack. And that’s pretty much all there is to this stage. The only other major general that appears is Yue Ying, who can be thrashed with no trouble. Take over the bases so that your allies can help you and then go thrash Zhuge Liang.
Shu – Your mission in this stage, should you decide to accept it, is to take over 3 enemy castles, and convince Jiang Wei to join the forces of Shu. Jiang Wei will begin by charging Zhuge Liang, so work fast. Start by taking over the two castles on the southern part of the map. You may not get to the second one, before Zhuge Liang asks you to release one of the generals you defeated. The enemy will be released and send false info about Jiang Wei joining Shu. This causes suspicion among Wei, and cause Jiang Wei to head back towards Tian Shui castle. Surround him and defeat him to complete Zhuge Liang’s plan. Watch out, as Jiang Wei is the “super” officer of this stage. This pisses Ma Zun off, who will then try to retreat. You must now defeat Ma Zun before he reaches the escape point, or you will lose. As long as you have a horse, you should easily be able to catch up and beat him. Then take over any remaining castles to win the level, and a capable new officer.
228 AD – BATTLE OF JIE TING
Wei – This stage starts out fairly easy, but gets dicey after the first requirements are fulfilled. Your first mission is to surround the mountaintop. Eliminate the Shu officers which are at the points by the mountain and take over the area. This will eventually isolate Ma Su, at which point you can go up and defeat him. Be careful though, because he has super powers on this map. While you’re fighting him, a lot of Shu reinforcements will show up, including Zhuge Liang, who becomes the boss. Take out everyone you can en route to Zhuge and beat him to end the stage. You might be able to defeat Ma Su and end the stage BEFORE Zhuge shows up, but I have not confirmed this.
Shu – Head to the center of the map. You must defeat the enemies there to keep them from attacking that idiot Ma Su. An enemy task force will collapse the bridge and isolate him. Take out the officers in the middle of the map, none of which are too threatening. This will protect the camp from that side. Now head up and take down Zhang He who will be pressing on the main camp. That will buy you some time to plan your next move. I recommend charging down the north road and taking out Xu Huang. His mighty skill may be a threat later on otherwise. Now head toward the center and start taking out enemies. Eventually, you will get note that you rescued Ma Su, and he will begin a counterattack. This also causes Cao Pi to appear, who seems to replace Sima Yi completely. Now just kill any remaining enemy officers you want and then go kill Cao Pi.
229 AD – BATTLE OF CHEN CANG
Wei – Begin by taking out the enemies within your general vicinity. A ram is near the east gate, so beat that up as well. Yue Ying shows up early as enemy backup and brings some more siege weapons to the party. Head down the east path where you’ll meet Wei Yan. Kill him. It will be revealed that the enemy siege weapons are coming from their bases, so you will have to go take em out. The eastern base prevents the enemy from bringing in rams. Take down enemy officers in the area as well. Some reinforcements will also show up for the enemy, including Huang Zhong. The middle base holds the enemy siege ramps, so take it down. Taking down two enemy bases launches Wei’s counterattack. Not too long after, Zhuge Liang will probably show up. If your castle walls go down at this point, don’t worry too much about it. Finish off whatever remaining officers you want, then go kill Zhuge Liang. Taking out the third base is a moot point once Zhuge shows up because he will restock the enemy with siege weapons. Again, by this point in the stage, that really isn’t a concern.
Shu – The first task here is to protect your siege weapons from the horde of Wei forces that will attack. Fight the Wei officers that are on the shore, to protect the weapons. Be careful here of the cannon type things on the castle walls that shoot at you. Once you’ve beaten back the officers here, head along the path to the east. Sima Yi will create some ambush troops to assault you, but fight your way through them and beat the enemy guarding the gate to enter. From there, you just have to make your way through the castle and defeat Sima Yi. Beat enough enemies on the castle walls, and your guys will get their siege weapons set up and aid you in your quest to defeat Sima Yi. Cao Ren will pose the biggest threat on this stage, as he’s got super powers, so if you can get past him, the rest of the stage won’t be too bad.
234 AD – BATTLE OF HE FEI CASTLE
Wei – Start this stage by sweeping the area outside of your main gate and destroying any of the Wu forces there. Also, once you see the ram coming at your gate, destroy that too. Once you beat most of these enemies, your army’s morale should be boosted enough to get you through the rest of the stage. Lu Xun will summon another ram from the east after a few minutes, but you don’t have to worry about destroying it unless you really want to. Also, some Wu reinforcements will show up on the upper part of the map, but if your morale is high enough, your forces will beat them down without any assistance from you. Once you’ve beaten all or most of the officers, you can head down to put the hurt on Wu. Head along the southern part of the map and make your way over to Sun Quan. You’ll have to face Zhou Tai along the way so watch out for him. The final battle with Sun Quan is tough, but if you have enough backup helping you out, you should be able to prevail.
Other Notes: If you’re playing Xu Zhu, Zuo Ci will show up and annoy you in this stage.
Wu – Your first mission is to get the gates open so your troops can storm the castle. Take down the gate captain closest to you to get in, then make your way through the outer courtyard, wiping out anyone in your path and opening the gates to let the rest of your forces in. Make sure to beat Xu Huang to clear the way for your ram to break down the gate (and behold his mighty skill as well) Once you’re in the main courtyard, you’ll have to deal with Cao Ren, and a couple lesser enemies. While you’re kicking butt, Zhen Ji will take it upon herself to launch an attack (Isn’t it the princess who usually needs to be rescued?) You can go fight her, but she’s slightly out of your path of destruction. If you do decide to fight her, watch out as she’s super powered. Beating her up though eliminates the risk of the next part of the battle. Xu Zhu guards the gate to Cao Pi’s inner sanctum. He’s not particularly dangerous though. At some point, Sima Yi might summon a task force. If he does, they will attempt to set off a fire attack on Sun Quan’s fleet. If this attack is successful, Zhen Ji will stage an attack on Sun Quan, which isn’t a good thing to have happen. You can go off and kill the task force, but if you work fast, you can finish the stage without worrying about it. The main enemies in the inner sanctum are Sima Yi, and Cao Pi, both of which can be dangerous opponents, but neither of which are so powerful that you will have any great difficulty defeating them.
234 AD – BATTLE OF BAI DI CASTLE
Wu – Getting through this stage can be tricky, as there are several powerful opponents. Start off by taking down any enemies near you, as per usual. There are 3 paths to take to the main castle. The northern path leads you through a maze, and is probably the way you won’t take. The center path leads to a bunch of arbalests, and Xing Cai, who is super powered on this stage. The east path features Ma Chao, although he’ll probably rush you anyway. Huang Zhong is hanging around the middle part of the map, so deal with him before he becomes a threat. A peasant army shows up, and once they get splattered, Ma Chao will get pissed and come attack you. Ma Chao has super powers on this stage, so it’ll be tough to take him down, hopefully you have some backup for dealing with him. On the center path, are 3 arbalests. Head to the gate, so you can take them out from the back, while dealing with the super powered Xing Cai. After beating her, the gate will open, and you’ll find Liu Chan, the final boss for this stage. This is the final battle between Wu and Shu, and Liu Bei is no longer with us, and we don’t even get Zhuge Liang to take his place. Liu Chan is a complete wimp, and you should have no trouble pounding him. Just be careful of Jiang Wei and Yue Ying, who may show up as reinforcements to hassle you if you don’t take him down quickly enough.
Other Notes: If you’re playing as Huang Gai, Huang Zhong will taunt you, calling you an old man (if that isn’t a case of the pot calling the kettle black, I don’t know what is) Going after him leads to a trap, but Huang Zhong isn’t particularly tough to beat. Huang Gai is also supposed to advance through the Stone Maze on the top, but this is a bad idea. To beat the Stone Sentinel Maze, you have to wander around until you see a message that there is a sound coming from the center. Go through to the center and you’ll see an object. Smash this, and some pissant troops appear. Kill these guys to clear the maze, then move on to Jiang Wei and beat him to get into the castle. The problem here is that if you only went along this route, ALL of the other major enemies can swarm you, including Super Xing Cai, Ma Chao and Yue Ying, as well as dealing with Liu Chan and his subordinates. These are pretty overwhelming odds, even for an expert player. Also, taking this route leaves your leader more open to attack. There is NO tactical advantage to going through the Stone Maze, so I highly advise avoiding the northern path altogether and take a different path,
Shu – This is the final battle of Wu vs Shu. It’s not a particularly hard board (not as hard as it is for Wu at any rate) but there are a couple tricky points. Start by taking out whatever enemies are near you. Wearing out their ranks early will give you the advantage, and keep the enemy from sacking the castle. The other real trick Wu will pull on you is after you clear out Sun Quan’s forces, and head for his camp, he will change positions to the other side of the map. This is slightly annoying, but not a really big deal, just charge over and defeat him.
Other Notes: If you’re playing as Xing Cai, Liu Chan will get the brilliant idea to go after her at some point in the stage. If this happens, you’ll have to meet up with him, then escort him back to the castle (actually if there’s no enemies on the path, he can make it there himself) This doesn’t make the stage more difficult, but it’s annoying.
234 AD – BATTLE OF WU ZHANG PLAINS
Wei – Here it is, the final battle between Wei and Shu to determine the fate of the Three Kingdoms. As you’d expect, this is a very difficult battle. Start off by procuring the bases nearby, and wiping out any nearby generals. On the far eastern side of the map is an enemy supply route, so fight through the bases there and take out the Defense Captain you’ll meet to cut off the enemy supply line, this will help keep their morale in check. Eventually, there will be a lot of enemy activity near the northern middle part of the map. Wei Yan and a couple other generals will be there, so go deal with them. After a certain period of time, there will be a cutscene, announcing the death of Zhuge Liang, thus making Jiang Wei the commander of the enemy forces. When you get to the center of the map, a unit of arbelests will appear on a hill in the middle part of the map. Go up there and destroy the arbelests so that your army may resume its march. There are also a couple of enemy officers there you’ll want to take down. From there, you can head down either the left or right side of the map to attack Shu’s camp. The east path is more hazardous, as Yue Ying waits there, and she’s got a bunch of exploding barrels, and Juggernauts to deal with. Take the western path, and as long as your morale is high enough, your army will probably kill Yue Ying on their own. From there, head into the main camp, and deal with Jiang Wei. He’s pretty tough, and also has some Juggernauts of his own to impede you, so watch out for those.
Shu – Zhuge Liang is ill for this battle, and he will die after a little while (unless you are using him of course) Your first task is to take over the two central attack bases, which opens the way for your supplies. The wooden ox will appear after this, and you’re supposed to escort them to the front lines. As long as you’re beating up the enemies in the center of the map, the ox will reach their destination without trouble. Around this time, Sima Yi will order Deng Ai to ready the catapults. These catapults will lower morale for your side, and also slow their march. You’ll have to defeat Deng Ai to get rid of them, but watch out as he has super power, and is also backed up by Cao Ren. Around this time, Zhuge Liang will probably pass on from this world, which will cause Sima Yi to launch a counter attack. Of course, if you’ve done your job properly, most of Sima Yi’s forces will be decimated, so he won’t be launching much of an attack. Zhen Ji will show up to launch an ambush, and one of the generals on the path to the main camp will launch a rockslide, but you should be able to punch through them, on your way to Sima Yi, who will be your final opponent. He’s dangerous, but can be defeated without any extreme difficulty.
Other Notes: If you’re playing as Yue Ying, you will have to start this stage by defeating enemies around you until the wood oxen are prepared, then clear the path for them to reach the bases. The rest of the stage plays out normally.