Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires Cheats and Tips
Choosing A Character
When you begin a campaign in Conquest Mode, you will be prompted to choose a campaign and a character within that campaign. There are eight different campaigns in the game, with seven corresponding with different historical events in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms timeline. A final campaign with no historical counterpart allows you to pick any officer in the game.
Depending on the campaign and the character you choose, you will have different powers and roles in the game.
- Rulers are responsible for driving their kingdoms towards victory. They have the final say in most matters and may direct their forces during a battle. They will directly recruit unaffiliated officers while out on a Stroll.
- Grand Generals and Tacticians can make most of the same actions as a Ruler but are still beholden to their Ruler’s whims.
- Generals and Officers have less power than Rulers but can make a significant impact on the direction of a Kingdom by recommending certain officers and making suggestions during a War Council.
- Unaffiliated characters can travel across the land freely, pledge themselves to any Ruler that will take them, and even make a Vagrant Force of their own seize power and become their own Ruler.
It is possible to cycle through these positions (and more positions besides, such as Prime Minister and Emperor) through promotions and relinquishment.
War Council
War Councils occur every six months and dictate the kingdom’s direction for the next half-year. The Ruler of the kingdom will have to do two things:
- Set a Kingdom Policy
- Set some Kingdom Objectives
You only have input on the Kingdom Policy if you play as the Ruler yourself. A Kingdom Policy comprises four points put into four separate categories: Domestic Affairs, Human Affairs, Diplomacy, and Military Affairs. Officers in the Kingdom will carry out autonomous political commands according to the weights of the points allotted to each category.
Kingdom Objectives are chosen from a list of possible goals generated at each War Council. The Ruler is first prompted to select an invasion target, though they are not required to do so at every War Council. They then choose some goals.
For every goal met within that six-month period, you will receive a certain amount of Merit based on the goals set.
It is possible to influence a kingdom’s goals even if you aren’t a Ruler. If you are General rank or above, you can counter a Ruler’s announcement of objectives with your own, and there’s a chance that they will take your suggestion instead. If you are a Ruler and one of your subordinates suggests their own set of Kingdom Objectives, going along with them will increase your relationship with that officer.
Note: If you join a new kingdom as a new officer, the kingdom will have a War Council in the first month after you decide to join. If you begin a campaign within a kingdom, there will be a War Council within the very first month.
Political Commands
- Domestic Affairs: Commands that raise your gold and rations intake.
- Human Affairs: Commands associated with positions and allegiance.
- Diplomacy: Commands that deal with relationships and recruitment.
- Military Affairs: Commands that deal with Army Strength, Officer Merit, and Defense Levels.
- Battles: Invade another region or defend a region under attack.
- Strolls: Interact with other officers and potentially recruit them.
Use these commands wisely to meet your goals and react to what happens on a grand scale.
Invasion Battles
Invasions are how Rulers conquer China – they will take a force of soldiers into another region and attempt to take it by force. Invasion battles are made up of two distinct phases:
- Fortress Penetration
- Decisive Battle
In the first phase, the goal of the battle is to take bases from enemies by defeating soldiers within them. In addition, this is when you’ll be trying to enact your Secret Plans to give you an edge and disrupting the enemy’s Secret Plan to prevent them from gaining the upper hand.
You will work with your allied officers to spread out over the map to take the enemy’s bases before they can effectively reconquer them. The important bases to aim for are the Weapon Bases where Catapults, Rams, and Siege Towers are built. These will all attempt to gain you access to the castle in their own ways.
Once you have unabated access to the castle by destroying any set of gates, the Decisive Battle phase will begin. In this phase, the enemy commander will spawn with full health, and the only goal is to defeat them. They will spawn in the center of their castle with plenty of soldiers and officers around them, so learning how to deplete their health quickly is the key to success.
Tip: In battles, you may be able to make other officers carry out your orders with the Individual Commands section of the main menu. You can use this to make sure certain objectives get fulfilled and you spread your officers out efficiently. You can only order officers around if you are their ruler or if you have a close relationship with them.
