Dynasty Warriors 3: Xtreme Legends Item FAQ Table of Contents 1. Version History 2. Before you Begin 3. Blue Items 4. Red Items 5. Bodyguard Items 6. Break Limit Items Explanation 7. Shadow780's Method to Break Limit 8. My Method to Break Limit 9. Other Stuff like Contributors 1. Version History Version 1.0 (1/29/03): All the new red and blue items and the methods to get them. Version 1.1 (2/2/03): Added something to the Divine Helm strategy. Version 2.0 (2/14/03): Added three new sections on break limit items and on how to get them. Special thanks to Shadow780 for coming up with his kick butt strategy and giving me permission to put it in this guide. Version 3.0 (2/15/03): Finished up the Bodyguard Items section. Version 3.1 (3/20/03): Fixed the Tortoise Amulet's break limit max and added the Seven Star Orb that I forgot. Also added new information about the Seven Star Blade. Sorry for the lack of updates lately. Just managed to temporarily fix my good computer long enough to save these FAQs onto a disk. 2. Before you Begin Along with new musou modes, new weapons, and new challenges, there are also new items! Before you begin getting new items, remember that the red items cannot be gotten on Novice mode. I'm not completely sure if you can get them on Easy mode, but I know for sure that you can get them on Normal mode and above. In fact, for all but one item, I recommend Normal mode for getting the red items. The blue items can be gotten on any level from item bags found on defeated generals and inside boxes. However, you must unlock the appropriate levels and sides for the red items, then do certain tasks to make the item appear. To unlock these sides, you must play through musou mode with the appropriate character. For example, if you want to get the Divine Helm, you must play through Lu Bu's musou mode to unlock the appropriate stage and side. 3. Blue Items Mountain Quiver Effect: Adds to your initial arrow count. Range: +1-32 (Break Limit Max: +40) Item Assessment: If you use arrows a whole lot, then you might want to equip this. The only time this would really be helpful is when trying to get Zhang Liao's fifth weapon or killing Sun Quan from a distance on Yi Ling. Mountain Pouch Effect: Increases the amount of life meat buns give you. Range: +1-20 (Break Limit Max: +35) Item Assessment: As much as we all sometimes want more life from meat buns, it just isn't practical enough to merit taking a spot, especially on Very Hard when meat buns are hard to find. However, this combined with a Seven Star Orb and a high luck weapon can mean you will always have life at hand when you need it. Bronze Flask Effect: Increases the power of your charge attacks. Range: +1-12 (Break Limit Max: +15) Item Assessment: Out of the three new blue items, this is probably the most useful. If you want a powerhouse character, equip a maxed out Tiger Amulet and this. Not only will all of your attacks become more powerful with the Tiger Amulet, your charge attacks will become even more powerful with the Bronze Flask. However, this item still should not come before a maxed out Elixir or Tortoise Amulet. 4. Red Items Divine Helm Effect: Prevents dizziness after strong attacks (meaning you won't get stunned from someone's Charge 2 attack or any other attack that can stun). Stage: Chi Bi, Lu Bu's side, Xtreme mode Requirements: Kill all generals other then Dong Zhuo, including reinforcements and sub generals. Location: Near the southeast gate (the one that's on the east side of the level, not the one that's near Dong Zhuo). My Method: There are a lot of generals here and you must personally kill each and every one of them, including Dong Zhuo's sub generals. What makes things worse is that there are constant ambushes and reinforcements that happen, putting even more generals on the map that you need to kill. The main generals are easy to find. However, the sub generals are the problem. Jia Xiu is located near Li Jue and normally travels up the west side. Wang Fang is also located near Li Jue and also heads north along the west bank. Niou Fu is located in the center area with Li Meng and Xu Rong and normally tries to get to Diao Chan. Zhao Cen is near Xu Rong, but can travel and normally either tries to go west towards you or north towards Diao Chan. To start off this level, head towards Li Jue and take out Jia Xiu and Wang Fang. Make sure Wang Fang is dead before you kill Li Jue. Quickly go back north and start making your way towards the middle boat. Zhao Cen should be around here. Kill him as fast as possible, as he likes to die to your troops. By the time you have all four dead, Dong Zhuo's reinforcements should arrive. Huangfu Song arrives near your gate captain on west side and Zhang Chao shows up on the east bank. Go to Huangfu Song and dispose of him. Now, go towards the ship that's directly south of Diao Chan's camp. Niou Fu and Xu Rong should be there just waiting for you to kill them. Li Meng should also be in the area, so don't forget to leave him out. If you have time before the Wu army attacks, take out Zhang Chao's troops first. If not, just start working on the Wu army. Get Lu Meng first because he will die quickly to Diao Chan and her army. Once their entire army is dead, kill Zhang Chao if you haven't already and then go down the east bank and get Guo Si and Li Ru. The item should appear. Grab the item and show Dong Zhuo who is the man (or woman). The last tip I have is to save often in case your bodyguards or some one else gets a kill on accident. Item Assessment: If you're tired of feeling helpless when a general or a gate captain does a Charge 2 or even just some random soldier hitting you with a lucky shot, then this item is for you. However, you might want to look for other items that may have more use. Scroll of Accuracy Effect: Attack x 2 but defense drops after getting knocked down (means you get more attack for a small amount of time but your defense goes down). Stage: Mt. Ding Jun, Dong Zhuo's side, Xtreme mode Requirements: Defeat Huang Zhong. Location: Dropped by Huang Zhong. My Method: Step 1: Run to Huang Zhong. Step 2: Give whooping to Huang Zhong. Step 3: Collect item he drops. Step 4: Finish level. Step 5: You have now quit smoking in four easy steps! I mean you have now gotten your item in four easy steps! >_> <_< You might want to watch out for the ambush parties that show up when you charge Huang Zhong and when you defeat Huang Zhong, but they should not be major problems since you should be on Normal. Item Assessment: Why did they make a Scroll of Accuracy have nothing to do with accuracy? It should be called the Scroll of Worthlessness, or at least the Scroll of Attack or something like that. However, there are better items then this one. The names of those better items make more sense also. Imperial Harness Effect: Run over all enemies with any horse (means your horse acts like Red Hare, but doesn't run as fast as Red Hare). Stage: You Ting, Nanman side, Xtreme mode Requirements: Before the East and West Forts fall, defeat Gan Ning and Sun Shang Xiang. Location: South of the northwest gate, on the small tip of land. My Method: This item is deceptively hard to get. Kill Pan Zhang first. This should trigger an ambush party of Dong Xi, Jiang Qin, and Ling Tong. Kill all of them and Han Dang, then go towards Da Qiao. This should trigger Gan Ning and Sun Shang Xiang to make ambushes on Meng Jie and Yong Kai respectively. If Meng Jie or Yong Kai die, then you lose a fort and the item along with it, so go directly to Gan Ning and take him out. Then go directly to Sun Shang Xiang and take her out. Don't mess around with Da Qiao because Meng Jie and Yong Kai don't last too long. Don't worry about Zhu Rong and his ambush, as he doesn't go after the forts. Once Gan Ning and Sun Shang Xiang are dead, the North gate should open and now you can get the item and finish the level. Item Assessment: If this item also made horses run as fast as Red Hare, then things would be different, but since it doesn't, just equip the Red Hare Saddle instead. However, if you want to just have some fun and run over generals with a brown horse, then equip it and have fun. Seven Stars Blade Effect: Makes it easier to receive high scores on your combos. Custom says that it makes the combo points last longer, meaning you have more time to do combos, making it easier to get perfect combos. Stage: Combo Mania Challenge, Xtreme mode Requirements: Get over 1000 combo points in 3 minutes. My Method: I used Zhou Yu. I just did SST, ST, SSSSTT. This should get around 55 combo points per combo. Do this about 20 times in the 3 minutes and you have your item. Item Assessment: Easily, this is one of the better items. This item is almost necessary when trying to get the break limit items. It also helps when you are getting the Musou Armor. The Musou Armor may be the best item for playing the game, but this item is definitely the most useful. Lightning Bow Effect: Can shoot lightning arrows (like weapons with the lightning element). Stage: Yi Ling, Yellow Turbans' side, Xtreme mode Requirements: Huang Zhong must stay alive for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, a supply team will appear. Location: Northeast camp, heads south. My Method: You might want to set the difficulty on Hard for this item. I would suggest you also use Zhang Jiao so that he doesn't die. Head south and take out all of Liu Bei's sub generals and also Wei Yan (they should all be in the same general area, which is near the two gates on the right side). Then, I would take out Shamoke and Ma Dai and Guan Ping (sub generals of Ma Chao). Ma Dai and Guan Ping might be hard to find, but if left alive, they will start killing off your peasants. Once these two are dead, save your game and then kill Ma Chao next. If killing Ma Chao brings about the death of Huang Zhong, then restart the game and don't kill Ma Chao. Killing Ma Chao does a huge number on Shu's morale. However, if you don't kill Ma Chao, your peasants split up into two groups, with one group going into the Stone Warrior Formation and the other going towards Ling Tong. The item should appear right about now if Huang Zhong is still alive. Go into the camp, get your item, and kill Huang Zhong. Huang Zhong will also start killing peasants if you let him. There should be three ambush parties that come along. One in the Stone Warrior Formation (Liu Bei's troops led by Wu Lan) and two in the southeast camp (Huang Quan and Zhuge Liang). Kill all these troops so that you can keep at least one peasant group alive. Also, if you can, kill Ling Tong. Your peasants should stay alive for a good amount of time, but it won't be long. Once at least one group of peasants escape, kill Liu Bei to finish the level. Item Assessment: This is a good item for Huang Zhong or Xiahou Yuan. Also, if you tend to use the bow a lot, you should consider this weapon. It's good for dealing lots of damage to a lot of people at a long range. Seal of Darkness Effect: Imperial Seal has twice the effect (the Imperial Seal is the Musou for 10 Seconds bonus you find in boxes). Stage: Guan Du, Yuan Shao's side, Xtreme mode Requirements: Enter the southeastern castle and get a cut scene of Cao Cao not being in the castle. Yuan Shao will then order a search for Cao Cao and the item will now appear. Location: Near the northeastern fort. My Method: Take out Guan Yu first. Try to get him before he gets kills Yan Liang automatically. Cao Hong and Cao Ren should be the next two you take out. Cross the bridge and knock off Zhang Liao. When you enter the castle where Cao Cao is shown to be when you look at Unit Info, you will get a cut scene of Cao Cao not being there. Yuan Shao will then order a search of the forts. The item should appear. Grab the item, search each fort like you would search for the supply depot under Original mode, and then finish the level. Item Assessment: While having musou for an even longer time is fun, it's not as important as other items. I believe if you equip The Art of War and the Seal of Darkness, you will get 40 seconds of musou time! Imagine forty seconds of Gan Ning's musou! Beast Harness Effect: Shows the position of the last horse you rode (it will be a star on the small map). Stage: Speed Demon Challenge, Xtreme mode Requirements: Get to the goal in under 1 minute and 30 seconds. My Method: The easiest path to take is the left path and then the center path. I would suggest using someone with semi decent to good speed, like Lu Xun or Da Qiao. First, go left and knock Lu Bu off his horse. Quickly get on Red Hare and hope that Lu Bu doesn't knock you off. If Lu Bu does knock you back off, then restart. Now, continue to go left. Do not try to run over archers because about 3 will fire, then one more will fire, and the last archer will fire a charged arrow. If you try to run over archers, one arrow is bound to hit you. Instead, go around archers. You can run over everyone else. Once you get to the end of the left path, pass through the gate. Your time should be under 1 minute. If it's not, then I would suggest you restart again. Now, take the center path. There's not much here other then memorizing where the spikes are. If you go left or right, the archers will probably knock you off your horse. Once you get to the end of the middle path, either perform your musou attack while still on your horse all the way to the goal or, if you are confident in your skills, just ride to the goal. There are a whole lot of archers here, but it is possible to make it to the goal without getting hit or using the musou. The musou attack on your horse will make it so that the archers cannot hit you off your horse. However, at the end of your musou, your horse will stop for a second. However, this should not be a problem. Item Assessment: This is one item that should be automatic instead of being an item. Unless you are constantly frustrated over not being able to find Red Hare after getting knocked off, I would suggest equipping better items. Marching Drum Effect: Increases the rate at which your units morale increases (this affects all ally units alive as well as your own). Stage: Nanman Campaign, Yellow Turbans' side, Xtreme mode Requirements: Defeat Zhuge Liang. Location: North of the southern gate where the peasants escape, just southwest of the bridge. My Method: Zhuge Liang will appear as an ambush either after a certain amount of time or after you get too far south. Just kill enemy generals until Zhuge Liang shows up. Run directly to Zhuge Liang because he will put the peasants in danger. If you lose all the peasants, you lose the level, so don't let too many peasants die. Defeat Zhuge Liang and the item will appear. Just finish the level normally and don't forget to pick up the item. Item Assessment: This item is one of the better items, however, it might not really merit a spot in your item list. It's good because it keeps generals on your side alive longer, however, on Hard and Very Hard, your generals will still die pretty fast. Divine Gauntlet Effect: Get the Attack x2 item and even guarding enemies take damage (if you get the War Axe, then your regular attacks will still deal damage to enemies who block). Stage: Wu Zhang Plains, Dong Zhuo's side, Xtreme mode Requirements: Defeat Wei Yan, Jiang Wei, Zhao Yun, Ma Chao, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei to make a supply team show up. Location: The supply team will show up in Liu Bei's camp and then head south towards the southwestern most gate. My Method: You do not have to kill Jiang Wei, Wei Yan, and Zhao Yun before the 7:30 minute mark. However, Fan Chou does have to die before the 7:30 minute mark for Guan Yu to appear. If Fan Chou does not die before the 7:30 mark, ally troops will appear instead of Guan Yu. What you do is absolutely nothing until the 7:30 mark (I played hopscotch on haystacks while waiting for Fan Chou to bite the dust). You might want to start moving towards Liu Bei's area, since that is where the supply team shows up. If you can make it to the area south of Liu Bei's plateau at around the 7 minute mark, you should be fine. Remember, DON'T KILL ANYONE! Not even a private. Fan Chou should die to Ma Dai and Ma Chao at around the 7 minute mark if you didn't kill anyone. If you do start killing people, Fan Chou's morale will rise and he won't die. Once Fan Chou is dead, wait for the 7:30 minute mark. Guan Yu should appear. Now, everyone should start going after you. Kill Jiang Wei, Wei Yan, and Zhao Yun first if possible. Make sure that these three are dead before the other three all die. You should get a cut scene of the falling star event (the one that would trigger the items for the Survival Guide and the Defender items). Once you get this cut scene, finish off the rest of the generals. The supply team should appear once all six generals are dead. Defeat the supply captain and then finish the level. You can do all of this on Normal mode. Item Assessment: Unless you have really high luck, this item won't help much. War Axes do not show up very often unless your luck is high. However, it is helpful against those generals that do nothing but block (Zhen Ji always seems to block! ~_~). Master's Cloak Effect: Automatically perform the mid-air evade (like pressing block in mid-air to recover and land on your feet) Stage: Balancing Act Challenge, Xtreme mode Requirements: Knock over 100 enemies off the bridge in 10 minutes. My Method: The character I used for this is Zhao Yun, although there are many others that are good for this challenge. You want a character that doesn't move around a lot when he attacks and also has a move set and a musou that has a wide range. The enemies will come at you in this order: 1 General in front of you 2 Archers in front of you 1 General in front of you 1 General in front of you and 2 Archers behind you 1 General in front of you and 1 General behind you 1 General and 3 Archers in front of you and 3 Archers behind you 1 General, 2 Archers, and 3 Soldiers in front of you and 1 General and 2 Soldiers behind you Go through at least four rounds and you will have 100 kills. Always try to knock the archers first because of the fact that they can hit you from a distance. Item Assessment: Unless you're not that great at hitting block while in the air, I suggest you use another item. This item really doesn't help much, other then giving you one less little thing to worry about. I normally mid-air evade on instincts. Legendary Scroll Effect: Even guarding enemies take damage during your Musou attack (if an enemy blocks, your musou still hits him). Stage: Siege at He Fei Castle, Meng Huo's side, Xtreme mode Requirements: Defeat Zhuge Liang before the East and West Gate open and before the South Gate closes. Location: On the boat where Zhu Rong is. My Method: First, make sure you are on Meng Huo's side and not Zhu Rong's side. These two can be confused easily. Now, the requirement for the East Gate opening is Cao Ren being defeated. The requirement for the West Gate opening is Zhang He being defeated. You cannot defeat either of these two generals before Zhuge Liang is dead. The South Gate closes if you pass through the South Gate. To get to Zhuge Liang, you can enter through the East Gate (the western gate) and then head towards Zhuge Liang. Kill Zhuge Liang before you kill anyone else. Killing generals tend to allow for gates to be open. For instance, if you kill Xiahou En, the East Gate opens. Killing Zhuge Liang first before any other generals should make the item appear. Also, remember that you have to enter the center area to get to Zhuge Liang. This will trigger the archer trap. Now, get the item and finish the level. Item Assessment: If you use your musou attack often, this item can help you out a whole lot. It can allow you to do damage to blocking enemies, which is really helpful. Musou Armor Effect: Prevents getting knocked back when hit by an arrow (you will still take damage, but you will not get your attacks interrupted or knocked off a horse). Requirements: Get overall over 12000 Combo Bonus Points (or 99999 in game points). My Method: When you get 3000 Combo Bonus Points (25000 in game points), you will get a blue blinking question mark in the very last box on the item list. When you get over 6000 Combo Bonus Points (50000 in game points), the question mark turns yellow. When you get over 9000 Combo Bonus Points (75000 in game points) the question mark turns red. Once you get to 12000 Combo Bonus Points (99999 in game) you will get the item. How do you get so many Combo Bonus Points? I got the blue question mark just going through the musou modes. I got the yellow question mark just getting all the fifth weapons. I was doing nothing special and no really great combos (a couple of perfects here and there, but not often). When I started going for the break limit items, that's when the question mark changed from yellow to red and then red to the item. The Seven Star Blade does help in getting more combo points. Just play through the game normally and eventually the item will show up. There's no special way of making the item appear faster, unless you want to play a stage over and over again and get 30 Perfect Combos on the level. Item Assessment: The item that takes the longest to get is also the best new item. This item turns archers into the most annoying enemies ever in the history of gaming into just minor annoyances. Archers will still do damage to you and should still be the first people you take out, but they will no longer disrupt your combos and knock you off your horse. 5. Bodyguard Items All bodyguard items are blue items and can be found in item bags dropped by officers or found in boxes except the BG Healing Scroll, which is the only red item for bodyguards. BG Peacock Urn Effect: Bodyguards have more life. Range: +1-32 (Break Limit Max: +40) Item Assessment: This item is good if your bodyguards don't have that much life and already has a lot of attack and defense. BG Dragon Amulet Effect: Bodyguards have a longer musou bar. Range: +1-32 (Break Limit Max: +40) Item Assessment: I've found no use for this item since bodyguards don't tend to have long musou attacks. I would suggest never equipping. BG Tiger Amulet Effect: Bodyguards have more attack power. Range: +1-20 (Break Limit Max: +25) Item Assessment: This item is good if your bodyguards have a lot of life and defense. Also, it's only really useful if you have melee bodyguards. BG Tortoise Amulet Effect: Bodyguards have more defense. Range: +1-20 (Break Limit Max: +25) Item Assessment: This item is good no matter what. Your bodyguards can never have too much defense. I tend to have bodyguards survive longer with more defense then with more life. This is probably the second best item for bodyguards. BG Huang's Bow Effect: Bodyguards have more bow attack. Range: +1-12 (Break Limit Max: +15) Item Assessment: This item is only good if you bring archer bodyguards and also is only good if you have good life and defense on your bodyguards. However, if you do bring archer bodyguards, a maxed out BG Huang's Bow is better then a maxed out BG Tiger Amulet. BG Shell Armor Effect: Bodyguards have more bow defense. Range: +1-12 (Break Limit Max: +15) Item Assessment: This item is only good if you know you're going to be facing a lot of archers (like Wu Zhang Plains or Wan Castle). Otherwise, it's a waste of space. Overall defense is better then just regular defense. BG Speed Scroll Effect: Bodyguards have faster running speed. Range: +1-12 (Break Limit Max: +15) Item Assessment: This item isn't that great since your bodyguards really don't need that much running speed. Other items are better. BG Wind Scroll Effect: Bodyguards have a longer reach. Range: +1-12 (Break Limit Max: +15) Item Assessment: If you ever see this item, consider yourself lucky. This item is the rarest item. However, this item really isn't that great because your bodyguards tend to get up in the face of the enemy anyways and don't really hit whole groups of people. BG Elixir Effect: Bodyguard's musou gauge charges faster. Range: +1-12 (Break Limit Max: +15) Item Assessment: This item is a lot more common then the regular Elixir. This item allows your bodyguards to do more musou attacks, but their musou attacks aren't really that impressive. There are better items. BG Healing Scroll Effect: Bodyguards will heal self only once (like how generals and gate captains do for 100 life). Stage: Ironman Challenge, Xtreme mode Requirements: Get over 350 total points. My Method: I used Zhou Yu because he's quick for Speed Demon and he's great for Combo Mania. He is tough to handle on the Balancing Act, but you don't have to do really great on Balancing Act if you can get great scores on Speed Demon and Combo Mania. For tips on each challenge, look at this FAQ for the Seven Stars Blade, the Beast Harness, and the Master's Cloak. I got around a 150 for the Speed Demon, but then only knocked off around 60 guys in the Balancing Act. I did get close to 1000 combo points in Combo Mania, which translated into 190 more points added to my overall score. My total was 406. If you do poorly on one event, you can make up for it on the other events. Item Assessment: This is the item I normally equip on my bodyguards. It's the only red item for bodyguards. However, if you can keep on getting meat buns and have high luck on your weapon or have a high Seven Stars Orb on, you don't really need your bodyguards to do healing on their own because you will probably find plenty of meat buns. If this is the case, then you can equip something else on your bodyguards to make them more powerful or give them more defense. 6. Break Limit Items Explanation Break Limit items are items that go past their normal limit. For example, a Dragon Amulet on DW3 can go up to +60 without Gameshark. However, in DW3:XL, the absolute max is +75. In DW3:XL, there are two limits. One is the normal max and the other is the break limit max. The break limit max is the normal max + 25% of the normal max. However, the only way to get a break limit item is to get 1000 combo bonus points before picking up an item bag, and even then getting a break limit item isn't 100%. That is because getting 1000 combo bonus points before picking up an item just gives you the chance to get a break limit item. Normally, 3 Perfect combos will get you around 1000 combo bonus points, but I would suggest you get as many Perfect combos as possible in the shortest time possible because 3 Perfect combos are not guaranteed to get you 1000 combo bonus points. Shadow780 has created a great method for getting break limit items. I revised Shadow780's strategy to get all my break limit items, except I was playing Free mode instead of Musou mode. Still, both modes work. Here are the new maxes for the blue items: Speed Scroll: +20 Wing Boots: +20 Dragon Amulet: +75 Peacock Urn: +75 Tiger Amulet: +25 Tortoise Amulet: +50 Huang's Bow: +50 Shell Armor: +50 Horned Helmet: +50 Calvary Armor: +50 Seven Star Orb: +25 Wind Scroll: +25 Elixir: +25 Mountain Quiver: +40 Mountain Pouch: +25 Bronze Flask: +15 Also, there are break limit bodyguard items: BG Peacock Urn: +40 BG Dragon Amulet: +40 BG Tiger Amulet: +25 BG Tortoise Amulet: +25 BG Huang's Bow: +15 BG Shell Armor: +15 BG Speed Scroll: +15 BG Wind Scroll: +15 BG Elixir: +15 7. Shadow780's Method to Break Limit First of, if you are using Gameshark or pro or any kind of codes to get all maxed-valued items, don't even bother to read this, you either belong to the loser's group or the noob gamers. This guide is only for hardcore-fans that want to complete the game totally. Okay, here it goes: This is the official formula of getting limit breaking items: The difficulty of the stage + Total combo points you gained + Time you finished the stage (the faster the better of course, usually within 10mins) = Better chances of getting limit breaking items Let me explain that little: The difficulty of the stage applies to the year of the stage you playing, usually the later the better, we all know that Yellow turbans will not have a high-value items whatsoever. Late Stages including You Ting, Jie Ting, Wu Zhang Plains and Siege of He Fei Castle. Combo points is the evualation of total combos you have done during the stage. Here's how they calculate: Perfect: 110-135 (added bonus each time you get a perfect) Great: 30-35 Good: 15-25 So even u got a 99 combo points in game, at the end it only counts for a merely 30-35, such a waste isnt it? SO ONLY AIM FOR PERFECTS! Guide of Perfect Combos: Those of you who played combo mania already I think you all have your people that you are good at, so I'm not going to try to make you change your favorite character. Just that the people whose SSSSST is shockwave type or wiping type is surely not suited. Here I listed some of the people that are easy to get Perfects: Zhao Yun Nu Wa Sun Shang Xiang Gan Ning Taishi Ci Sun Ce Xiahou Yuan Wei Yan Here's the simples Perfect combo formula I could think of: SST-ST-SSSST-SMALL JUMP S (this you might want practice on)-SSSSST(T)-MUSOU If you are just beginning, I recommend that you go to combo mania and practice your combos first before you getting into real combat. Few Tips: NEVER, NEVER, do your combos at privates, the lowest rank enemy. Even with Seven Star Blade equipped, you will end up getting a 99 points unless it's a crowd that you could immediately continues right after. Instead, aim for major or guards, they always guarantee a perfect count. If you get into too many people at once, think of your own combo. Don't let enemies cut down your combos. For example, if you are facing a typical groups of 5 enemies, do a SSST to either the right or left wing of that group. That will wipe 3 or 4 enemies away. Then turn immediately to the enemy/enemies left and do the normal combo without a small jump S. It still counts as a Perfect, so don't hesitate if you facing too much people at once. Okay, you practiced well, you done your combo very good, now let's get to business: Limit breaking items will mostly appear in Very Hard mode. I rarely found 1 or 2 during hard mode, so let's put your difficulty on Very Hard. For those who played the original DW3, I think u all know which stage have the most amount of items? That's right! You Ting! However, Wu Zhang Plains and Siege of He Fei Castle also wins because they are the last stages, which usually gets the best items. I leave out Wu Zhang Plains because it takes too long to go around and I have to defeat officers to get the items. Siege of He Fei Castle is my other choice because I could get the items through boxes. Now here comes your choice: Remember the formula for getting limit breaking items I mentioned earlier? If you are playing You Ting, a small stage that only have 30 minutes, you sure cannot add time bonus on, so at this stage you have to concentrate on your combos. The more combos you get the better. Let's say 22 Perfects or above will guarantee that all items you get is a limit breaking items. IMPORTANT NOTE: DO THE COMBO FIRST BEFORE YOU EAT THE ITEMS! The item's value is determined by how many combos you have done before you get them. So if you get items first and then do the combos, the game will recognize that you have not done any combos yet, thus giving you non-limit breaking items. Now if you want to include the time bonus but reduce sum of combo points, your choice will be Siege of He Fei Castle. If you do, let's say 4 Perfects, get the three items and finish the stage in 8~10 minutes will guarantee that all items gotten is limit breaking. So make your decision. You must want to say in Very Hard mode, the enemies are so strong! A simple private could interfere when I'm doing the combos! Yes, it is difficult to do combos properly without interference in Very Hard, plus sometimes, after your hard work, you find out that none of the items are max-valued limiting breaking items. It will be a challenge of patience. However, here is how I solved the problem which will guarantee at least one item will be a max-value limit breaking item: This method can be done only in Original Musou mode: Okay, out of the Original Musou modes, who has You Ting and Siege of He Fei Castle as their last stages? Sun Jian! Here's how I do it: If your Sun Jian is maxed out or somehow gained some stats, please don't be sad and reset him into original stats through the option. This I will explain later. Then, pick Novice mode for the first 8 stages and finish the stage using people that are strong and maxed out as the second player for a faster rate. I recommend the following items to be equipped as the second player: Seven Star Blade Seven Star Orb Elixir Tortoise Amulet Hex Mark Saddle Wind Scroll When you clear the 8th stage, should be the Nanman Campaign, the next will be You Ting. Save and then reset (start + select), go to Option and pick Very Hard. Pick one of the characters that you are best with combos at and with a maxed out stats as the second player. Go to the stage. You will find out the enemy is weaker! Note: Because your Sun Jian is reset, his stats are weak, which affects the enemy stats. Do not equip Sun Jian with the following items since you are not playing him: Peacock Urn Tiger Amulet Tortoise Amulet Dragon Amulet Elixir Wind Scroll Those items will increase the enemy's stats, so for your sake, don't! Equip anything else for him. It could be anything at all. If you have bodyguards, place the bodyguard's orders to shield just in case. Okay! Enter the stage. How is it? Ha ha, easy right? Only officers can interfere your combos now. Others are just scratching around you! Now start your combo journey! Don't forget, do not get items before you are Satisfied with your combo amounts! Important: Do not kill Man Chong and Cao Xiu early! Kill then after you Have done enough combos! I'll explain why: After you have done enough combos, your ally should be up in Cao Xiu's camp already. If not, kill Xu Huang, Zhen Ji and Zhang He/Dian Wei at the beginning for your ally to advance. Now, lure Man Chong to become close to Cao Xiu and kill them both together, but do not get the two items they dropped yet! This will be explained later. Now, quit! Select quit after you press start. Then continue the game, get the two items that they just dropped and get the rest of three items in boxes and finish the stage. After the battle, if you get a large amount of combo points, you should have gotten at least three of them as a limit breaking item, with some luck, you'll get them at max-value. If all of your items are limit break, but none are maxed, don't be angry and throw away your controller. Reset before the save screen appears! Now go to continue again and grab all five items and finish the stage, did you notice? The item values are different! This can be only done in Musou modes. The game varies item values in Musou modes. Keep resetting if you don't get any max-value limit breaking items. If you get one or more, save! Don't save it in the slot where you saved your previous game (save it for later use so you don't have to go through Sun Jian's musou mode again from the beginning). So now, one by one, you are getting more and more max-value limit breaking items! The same tricks apply to Siege of He Fei Castle, but here, you have to include time bonus, which will reduce the amount of perfect combos you could do in the game. Here's how I do it: Do 3 or 4 Perfect combos and go to the nearest item box in under 6 minutes. Quit, then continue and get the three items and finish the stage in under 10 minutes, the faster the better. In this case, the three items you got will most likely be limit breaking. Also, do the reset trick over and over until you get any that are maxed. Personally, I favor You Ting more than Siege of He Fei Castle simply because You Ting has more items and therefore, better chances, but if you want to be quick, Siege of He Fei Castle will be your choice. 8. My Method to Break Limit I complete agree with most of this, however, I have found out that items do change in Free mode, so you can go through You Ting or Siege at He Fei Castle in Free mode and do the reset trick. My method is similar to Shadow780, but I do things a little different. I reset Sun Jian and equipped him with his first weapon, no items, and a couple of bodyguards. For the second player, I use Zhao Yun and equip him with his fifth weapon. I also equip him with a maxed out Tortoise Amulet, a maxed out Seven Star Orb, a maxed out Elixir, the Seven Star Blade, and the Musou Armor. The Tortoise Amulet give Zhao Yun more defense and helps him keep from getting his attacks interrupted. The Seven Star Orb might be worthless, but it also might help in getting better values on items. I don't know if it's true or not, but I'd rather have all the help I could possibly get in getting maxed out items. The Elixir allows Zhao Yun's musou bar to charge up in almost 4 hits (when combined with his fifth weapon). The Seven Star Blade is a must because it gives you more combo points. The Musou Armor is also good to keep the archers in the towers from interrupting your combos. I sometimes bring bodyguards, but sometimes I don't. I normally keep the bodyguards on defense and equip them with crossbows and the BG Healing Scroll. The level I play is You Ting on Free mode because of the six items. Yes, there are six items on You Ting. When the level starts, I normally take out Xu Huang, Zhen Ji, Zhang Pu, Zhou Fang, and Xu Zhu. I try to get at least two or three Perfect combos before I defeat Xu Zhu. After Xu Zhu is dead, I just stay on the bridge and get about ten to twelve Perfect combos. The combo I normally use is: SST-ST-SSSSTT-S (optional, while coming down, trying to hit another target)- SSSSST-Musou The SST-ST-SSSSTT is normally on the very same target. Here's what makes Zhao Yun's fifth weapon a lot better then his fourth: the lightning element on Zhao Yun's SSSST. When you knock the enemy down to the ground, the lightning element activates, hitting other people, giving you more combo points and gives you time to land and choose your next target. Also, if an enemy knocks you out of the air while trying to do the Charge Dive (the T after the SSSST), the lightning element will give you time to do a mid air recover and possibly hit someone with a jumping S without losing your current combo points. This is best when used in a crowd where there are multiple targets for you to hit after the SSSSTT. Also, SSST is good if you're becoming completely surrounded because it only clears out one side normally. The other side will then be still standing for you to continue your combo on. Once you have done about 15 Perfect combos total, save and quit. Restart the level and run to Man Chong. Defeat Man Chong and get the item he drops. Go to Cao Xiu, defeat him, and get his item. Get the item in the box in front of Cao Xiu's fort. There's a reason why I didn't tell you to kill Zhang He. His sub general, Hu Zhi, also is carrying an item! By the time you have done everything until this point, Hu Zhi should have defeated Da Qiao and should be near Sun Quan, Lu Xun, and your only ally gate captain. Run to where Hu Zhi is and defeat him. Grab his item, go to the second path from the left, get the item in the box and the full life meat bun from the urn if you need it. Forget about Zhang He and go directly to Sima Yi. There should be another box with an item to the right of the center gate captain. Get that and defeat Sima Yi. I have gotten all but 7 items completely maxed out with this method. If you don't like the items you get, press start and select before you are asked to save your game. This should allow you to redo from the place you last saved, which should be on the bridge. 9. Other Stuff like Contributors This is where the copyright and contributors and anything else I want go. If you have any good strategies about any of the items, feel free to e-mail me them at rampidzier@yahoo.com or at my now less used and less checked lightning345@yahoo.com I want good strategies though, not anything that is simple or too obviously. Little tips and tricks and such. If I like what you say, I'll put it in my FAQ. Just don't send me spam or hate mail or such. If you don't like my FAQ, then don't read it. You don't have to tell me that you hate it. I quite frankly don't care. Contributors: Muni Shinobu: For making the first and greatest FAQs on DW3: XL. His FAQs helped me get all the items and weapons. Shadow780: For creating his method on break limit items, which so far, has been the best method I've seen. Without his method, I probably couldn't have broken any limits. Craig Benusa: For his advice on killing Lu Meng before Diao Chan does, even though I had already planned on doing this already, but there's no harm in giving credit. Ark 5th: For being the first one to find that the Tortoise Amulet's break limit max was wrong. Custom: For telling me what the Seven Star Blade really does. Jason Burton: For informing me that I left off the Seven Star Orb off the break limit max list. The people on the DW3: XL message board who constantly try to help people in getting items and fifth weapons. They were the ones who asked for this FAQ and helped me find better ways of getting the items. And that's it. Have fun getting the items! This document is copyright 2003 by Robert Dohner. You may use this FAQ on your site or anywhere else, just don't try to make a profit on my FAQ. Otherwise, you won't like the consequences. ^_~ Yes I copied and pasted. Deal with it.