Destiny of an Emperor Yuan Shao Jing Zhou Walkthrough
2006 September 12 by: Lord Yuan ShuDoaE Yuan Shao Ji Zhou : Jing Zhou, Huang Zhong, Wei Yan, Liu Du, Zhao Fan
Rest up and head back out and north. After you touch the bridge, Yuan Shao will stop you. If you had Lu Bu, he will betray you. If you didn’t he will appear anyway, with Yuan Shao, Guo Tu, Wen Hun, and Yan Liang. What a group of warlords! They will surprise you and dominate you, but fear not as they will spare you. Head back in Nan Yang, rest again and explore the city. Buy the Silver Key from the man near the weapon store, as you’ll need it later like he says. Also, search the area to the northwest of him to find a Trident. A great weapon for now, give that to Zhang Fei.
Get some weapons/items, and invite Liu Bei. Liu Bei thanks you for killing Yuan Shu, even if you let him run away, and advises you to be careful of his brother Yuan Shao. But you already know that. Rest up, you have another fork in the storyline; you can go southwest of Nan Yang and liberate the Jing Zhou area, or you can attack Yuan Shao to the northeast (the snowy area (Ji Zhou)). Technically I believe you are supposed to go through Yuan Shao’s section first but actually switching between them works best.
First go southwest to Wu Ling castle. Just follow the gold road all the way there, you will pass Ma Su, Ma Liang, Yi Ji, and Zhuge Liang’s house along the way. The battle at Wu Ling presents you with a decent fighter in Jin Xuan and a mediocre strategist in Gong Zhi. However, once you get Jin Xuan under 1000 this is an easy battle, just utilize the new found trident and Yan Re/Tong Xian if you have them. You cannot recruit Jin Xuan after this battle but Gong Zhi is recruitable and even though his attack is low and his tactics aren’t too much higher than average, he is useful for his soldier count so recruit him if you see him and plug him in if necessary.
Head into Wu Ling and rest up. Check out town, and search the last well to find a Bow. This is a great weapon and in all reality the only reason you went all the way down to Wu Ling in the first place. Give this to Zhang Fei and give the trident to your next best fighter (either Zhang Xun, Ji Ling, Guan Ping, Guan Yu). Head back to the Nan Yang area and go to the upper left cave in the snow. Stick to the top and head left, recruiting Zhou Cang. He is a good fighter and worth subbing in over Guan Ping or Liu Feng if you have them still. That is all you can do in the cave for now so head to Nan Yang, heal up and head to the northeast.
At Bo Hai castle you are greeted by Lu Guang, who has Shen Pei and Gao Lan with him. Lu Guang is a decent fighter while the other two are pushovers. Quickly kill Lu Guang and then all-out. Going in, you realize you cannot advance across the bridge and thus can’t move on with the game. Talk to everyone and you will see Shui Jing again, and he will offer to give you gunpowder to destroy the rocks in the western cave. Agree to this and go do that.
Once in the cave, head to the northwest portion of the cave and use the gunpowder and recruit Dan Fu (Xu Zhe). He is the best tactician you can find right now and a serviceable fighter as well, so I’d suggest cutting down to a 5 person party to accomodate him in battle and to have him be strategist as well. Generally, I have Zhang Fei, Guan Yu, Ji Ling/Zhang Xun, Xu Zhe, and Zhou Cang right now. Xu Zhe also has the Fu Bing tactic, which allows your character to get two hits (although I think the second hit is .5 damage as the first, but still 1.5 overall). After you are done formatting your party, head back to Bo Hai with Xu Zhe in front to get to the other side of town and move on. Check the weapon store if you wish and head straight east and then south to the gate once you are past the mountains.
Another very difficult battle. Wen Hun and Yan Liang, who attacked you with Yuan Shao earlier, are two of the best generals in this area. Xu Shou at the same time is one of the better tacticians of this area. Recruit any of them that you can after the fight. For the battle, quickly use Yan Re with Guan Yu and Xu Zhe to help get Yan Liang and Wen Hun under 1000. Once they are both under 1000 concentrate on one of them and then move on to the next one, and slowly but surely you will be able to all out. Go in and use the silver key and the gate and free the lady. She is Zhao Yun’s sister, whom you met at the bar near Chang An, and she will give you a letter to give to her brother.
Go back and rest and then continue east from this gate to get to Guang Zhong. Zhao Yun confronts you, but once you show him the letter he warms to you and joins. Zhao Yun is one of the best overall characters in the game if not the very best. You will use him for the rest of the game. Plug him in along with Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Xu Zhe and either Wen Hun/Yan Liang/Xu Shou/Zhou Cang, in descending order. Attack the actual castle at Guang Zhong now.
Yuan Tan and his brother Yuan Xi are there to oppose you along with a good tactician named Tian Feng. Pretty tough generals, but nothing compared to the last fight and especially now that you have Zhao Yun. Kill them all and head in. FYI, you can recruit Tian Feng but not the other two (as you’ve noticed you can’t recruit family (ie dong min, yuan yin, yuan tan, yuan xi)). Rest up in the town and search it completely.
You will come across a general by the name of Yuan Shang. He has a lot of soldiers and is actually a good general, but he comes alone and thus his fate is sealed. He says he’ll kill you later but you’ll never see the clown again. Think about buying some weapons, and grab the Sabre at the lower end of the southernmost well (the well in the picture above). After all this is done, leave town and head east until you find a few gates.
The first gate is easy. Ma Yan is a complete pushover and Lu Xiang isn’t much better. The following battle involves Zhang Yi with Guo Tu. Now Guo Tu is as dangerous as Yan Liang or Wen Hun. Also, his intelligence is similarly low. Take advantage of the easier battle previously and unload all your tactical points on Guo Tu. Guo Tu is worth recruiting if you find him, and I suggest building up levels until you find either Wen Hun, Yan Liang, or Guo Tu to go along with the three tigers and Xu Zhe. Whichever one you get, head to the castle and prepare for what is quite possibly the hardest battle on the game (relatively speaking).
If your levels are low or your characters are subpar or your strategy is poor, you will have a very difficult time winning this battle. First of all, the enemies involved; Yuan Shao has more soldiers than you’ve seen and is solid overall, and if you didn’t kill Yuan Shu he will be here, identical to the previous fight with him. Zhang He is the best general in the Yuan Shao area (unrecruitable) and Ju Shou is the best tactician (recruitable) in the area. Then there is Lu Bu, who takes off 4 or 5 hundred a hit and goes first nearly every turn. First off, hopefully you are at the level where you received the tactic “Ji Rou” which doubles defense. This will buy you some time to take out Lu Bu and soften up the other heavy hitters such as Yuan Shao and Zhang He. Leave Yuan Shu and Ju Shou for last. The key is getting Ji Rou out there early and using Yin Xian when you are in trouble to get full soldiers. You may even wish to use Yin Xian with a slow character like Guan Yu on the first turn. Survive the first two or three rounds and you have a decent shot to win. When the battle is over, Lu Bu again flees and the Yuan brothers are killed.
Head on in. Invite Liu Bei who praises you as always, and then check out the area. New weapons/armor is available, and on the outskirts of town is an old wise man who can level you up for free. Don’t get greedy; save it for the end of the game, as when you reach the highest level (50), only the old man can then bring you to level 51. Rest up and leave for Wu Ling in Jing Zhou as another difficult battle looms.
The battle of Chang Sha is said by many, along with the Yuan Shao battle, to be the two hardest battles on the entire game. Since you have basically the same tactics as the battle you just fought against Yuan Shao you will find that the same tactics work well in this as well. Use Ji Rou to neutralize the power of Wei Yan and Huang Zhong. Yang Ling and Han Xuan are mediocre generals at best, but they can be a nuisance when paired with Huang Zhong and Wei Yan. Get them all under 1000 soldiers to lower their attack power, and if you get low don’t be afraid to use Yin Xian (in fact you might as well plan on using this a few times). You might have lost a guy or two but if you are on a decent level and can get the two heavy hitters under 1000 quick, then you should be okay.
Head in and recruit both Huang Zhong and Wei Yan. At this point, Wei Yan is a beast. His agility is very high and his soldiers are high as well, not to mention his attack is high and his tactical abilities are adequate also. Huang Zhong is a solid character who is a tiger and starts off with the same amount of soldiers as Guan Yu. While a solid character, he is ultimately the worst tiger and if there is one tiger who ends up getting lost in billetting it will probably be him. Zhao Yun should never be taken out, while Zhang Fei and Guan Yu can’t be taken out of the active party even if you wanted to. So look at your party; I’m taking Wei Yan and the four tigers with Xu Zhe the strategist south to Guiyang and I advise you do also after you grab the potent Sword on the well across the north bridge. Buy some armor while you are at it. The sword is a dominate weapon at this point, give it to Wei Yan and watch him obliterate the rest of Jing Zhou.
You’ll be surprised as you enter. Everyone is guarding the shops. Grab another sword from the well on the right (Give it to Zhang Fei). Go north to the palace and talk to the last guard. He warns you of Zhao Fan’s intentions. So when Zhao Fan offers a rest, decline twice, and you will fight. If you fall for it, you end up with 200 or so soldiers for each person starting the battle.
How to combat this? Well, have Wei Yan or whomever has Chi Tu Ma use Yin Xian and then it’s basically a new battle again minus the TP you just used up. Either way, with the two swords you just found this battle will be over in a matter of minutes. They’re all decent generals, but you’ll notice for the rest of this area that the enemy has no chance against your swords. After losing, Zhao Fan gives up, and is never to be seen afterwards. Bao Long and Chen Ying can be recruited (along with Yang Ling from the last battle), but at this point you probably have no use for these generic generals anymore. Rest up and head to the northwest.
You will come upon Ling Ling. The first gate is defended by Xing Dao Rong and Liu Yang. Xing Dao Rong is a decent fighter, but with two swords and the party you have, this is an easy all-out win. The castle is guarded by Xing Dao Rong again but with Liu Du as the leader. Another easy battle, so why was this after Chang Sha now?
Inside you should go to the left a bit first, wrapping the wall north and west and north again, and you’ll make your way to a cottage with Pang Tong inside. Search in front of him for a sword (sometimes it isn’t there, random glitch). Back in town, go to the inn and talk to everyone, and if you talk to the man in the upper left he will tell you that Pang Tong has left with his soldiers; this is the trigger to make Pang Tong come out and be available for random battle, and if you don’t talk to him you won’t see Pang Tong ever. So rest up and walk around outside, while AVOIDING WATER AREAS. You’ll see why.
Pang Tong is a tricky opponent. Checking his report you can tell his tactical ability is the best you’ve seen so far at 240. So don’t try tactics on him but rather gang up on him with the swords and hope he doesn’t Wan Fu himself or Da Re on you. So why avoid water? Because then he could use Hong Shui and kill your entire party in one hit. Not good news, so stay away from water and keep at it, he should give in eventually. Then he joins your team, and at 3765 soldiers he provides a cog in front of your line.
Rest up and with this done, head past Ling Ling for a moment as we have an old friend to meet. After a few battles (and probably the first battle you get in) you will see Lu Bu, with 7003 soldiers! Ouch, hope you’re at full health. Each hit of his will take off from 800-1000 depending on your equipment. That might be an entire line of health for a general of yours. However, use Yi Xin or Li Jian on Lu Bu with someone fast (Wei Yan with Chi Tu Ma, for example) and Lu Bu will never get to attack. Otherwise, prepare for a slugfest because he will trounce through your soldiers until you get him under 1000 and even then he takes off 400-500 soldiers a hit. After his demise he gives a final speech, and passes away. Another note, don’t try and save the Gemsword to use it here on him. It won’t work, as it only works at the Yang Zhou battle with Lu Bu.
With Lu Bu gone, head back to Gui Yang and invite Liu Bei to tell him of your victory. Xu Zhe will get word that his mother is ill and will leave, but not before telling you to search out Zhuge Liang. So get on that, and head to his house. Notice the music change! Personally I enjoy it more but I appreciate both, quality NES music. On the way, recruit Ma Liang and Ma Su. Ma Liang will be useful in about ten levels when he learns the An Sha technique. Ma Su can be valuable now too, but I suggest keeping Huang Zhong, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, and Wei Yan together for now, with Pang Tong as the strategist and the other spot open (for Zhuge Liang).
When you get to Zhuge’s house, his sister says he went off to Lou Sang Village. Return to Xu Zhou (first castle) and go to Lou Sang Village, to the right of Xu Zhou. The old man in the house says he left, and when you return his sister just says she’ll let you know at Nan Yang when he does come back. The chase continues as you head back to Nan Yang (hint; buy like 4 gullwings, and save yourself some time). Invite Liu Bei and then he will say a boy named Jin (Zhuge Jin) came here to say that Zhuge Liang is back at home. Return to his home past the Ma Su house and he will be sleeping. Choose to not wake him, and then wait without clicking anything. He will then get up and join the party, but says to meet him at Gui Yang with Liu Bei. Speak with the two there and a trip to Liu Zheng’s land of Shu will be in order. NOW you can finally continue on with your quest past the guy with red clothes in the house south of Ling Ling.
