Any tips for gauntlet mode ?

[Labradogs]

Hello everyone, being a long time fan of the dynasty warriors serie, I'm having a blast playing WO 3 Ultimate, I had the original version on ps3 but this game sure brings back good memories. ( And tbh, I'm having way more fun on this game than on DW 9 or DW 9 Empires lol )

I've been playing in story mode for the most part, and I'm at the beginning of the chapter 5 and did every other battle except a few of the "newer ones" in chapter 4 that i recently unlocked.

Sometimes, I try to play in gauntlet mode, but I have to say that I'm not sure I really understand what we are supposed to do ?

I completed 2 or 3 battles somehow, now I'm at the Honnoji battle stage, and I try to deplete the "luminous spots" on the map by pressing L1 ( guard button ), but it feels pointless, the miasma keeps rising up to a point where I can't reasonably fight ennemies. ( My characters are around level 25-30 in this current team )

Am I missing something ? What's the point of this mode ? What is the "best" way to approach those battles ?

[CypressHillNo1]

Your goal is to find the dragon portal in each stage where you can "finish" the stage. You know it when there is a short cutscene (camera moves around your char for few seconds). Keep in mind gauntlet mode is tough if you are not very well prepared for this.

Anyway, the tips i can share. Be careful though because it can ruin your fun if you dnt want it but its recomnend later anyway as its getting tougher. Especially if you care about the achievements.

1. Team: Ayane, Lianshi, +3 Chars.
Its absolutly important to play as Ayane. Her musou is so op that you might try with others char first if you dnt want to get bored really fast. Other players playing Xu Zhou, yet i dnt really cant recommend him because he is boring and his "op" move is kinda janky. Anyway, the 2nd Char you can (but not must) is Lianshi. The reason is she is a ranged char plus she does decent damage and has a good air attack. The other 3 Chars doesnt really matter tbh. So pick who you like.
In case you want to play Ayane be absolutly sure you promote her as often as you can. She gets Speed as her 2nd "Skill" when you promote her the first time. After that try to max out her Speed Attribute and later Musou Attribute.

2. Weapon Slot Skill: Brawn, Windslay, Osmosis, Alacrity, Destruction, Wrath, Courage, Procrument.
These are the Skill you have to implemented by the end of your preparation. Keep in mind that Windslay, Alacrity, Wrath and Procrument are not available early on. They can be getting by farming Weapons from Story Mode (Difficoulty Hard or Chaos), getting lucky by the Lucky Ticket or if you play in Gauntlet Mode by random drops (Weapons mostly on higher Star Level). Another note is Procrument is optional but this can helps farming weapons easier. Also you can get this skills by some requests (some needs to be unlocked first though which happens over time).

If you dnt have these four skills, dnt worry about at first. As they comes really quick.

3. Items: Beasty Warrior, Charm of Alacrity, Mystic Bells, Amulett of Protection, Tenjia Armor, Belt of Vitality.
Actually you can put anything you like but i mention these Items anyway. Early on your Char only have 2 Slots open. Later when you promote your Char often enough the Item slot can increase up to 6 slots. Mystic Bells and Belt of Vitality are very rare. You can get these in Story mode by doing "specific task" which i dnt mention it as there are guides already existed or by rare drops in gauntlet mode (mostly against famous officer on higher star difficoulty).

4. Stages (where you can farm stuffs etc. Again be careful it can ruin your gaming experience): DLC - Anegawa, DLC - Dongkou, DLC - Koshi Castle or DLC Heavenly Emporers Palace.
First start with Anegawa. The reason you getting TONS of Exp and its one of the easiest stages in the entire game. Be sure to kill around 800 enemys first so that you can reach the area where Diamondback is and kill him and his companions quickly enough (because Miasma still can rise up). Once you have Ayane + Lianshi (maybe all Chars if you like) to Level 100) you can try Koshi Castle. Keep in mind that this stage is hard so i recomnend to have at least Alacrity + Osmosis + Wrath in your Weapon slot. If you have it then it should much easier. The reason why im saying Koshi Castle is, there is a chance to get a mystic weapon (strongest weapon in the game). Once you have a mystic weapon from this stage you can try to go to Heavenly Emperors Palace. And there begins the real fun. Its bascially the hardest stage in the game in my opinion but if you clear it there is a high chance to get a mystic weapon with high stats which can make any char you play "broken" after equip it.
I pointed out the stage Dongkou because in case you miss any characters you didnt unlock during your playthrough in gauntlet mode. Just open up any treasures in the stage and hope you get a gem that has your missing char.

5. Formation: Solstice, Demon Eye/Eagle Eye/Insight.
So now one of the reason why i mentioned the Dongkou Stage. You need Solstice Formation because it lets you teleport directly to the Dragon Portal (Exit) which saves a lot of time if you wanna beat ALL stages in gauntlet mode. You get it after unlocking around 95 Chars (cant remember how many you need). This takes a while so get it asap.
If you dnt have it you can use Demon Eye/Eagle Eye/Insight which shows you on the map (its blinks for a short time so pay attention) when activate. They unlocks after a short while.


So yeah thats sums around up. I put some spoilers here because you could try it out by yourself first before going with this tips. Good luck with gauntlet mode.

[Weyrlock]

If you don't wanna read/prepare a lot, like when you're just beginning with the game; you can use Sima Zhao and the Scout (or any blue) formation to clear gauntlet mode. But if you want to really do everything, Ayane is very useful indeed.

[Labradogs]

@CypressHillNo1

Thanks for your very detailed answer mate, I appreciate it ! :)

Alright, I'll try to keep everything you said in mind, ah ah I also prefer Ayane's gameplay over Xu zhu's one, I'll start a new game with Ayane & Lianshi then.

Regarding the promote system, it's funny because I don't know how most people play WO 3, but even after playing for 40-50 hours, I'm nowhere close to level 100 on any character. I usually try at least once every char and I followed the "recommanded team" of almost every battle in story battle, as a result, my highest chars are near levels 40.

I haven't tried the DLC stages yet, but I'll remember the ones you mentionned, I never tried so far to farm a single stage for xp. Regarding the rare items, I haven't unlocked any, and I only discovered their existence yesterday while checking for the conditions to unlock the 4 mounts of this game, but I'll have to get those items too !

I guess I'll keep playing story mode to farm a bit more and I'll tackle gauntled mode after promoting one or two of my favorite characters at least.

@Weyrlock Thank you for confirming that Ayane is op for this mode, I'll try to xp her in priority !

[CypressHillNo1]

Originally posted by Labradogs:

Regarding the promote system, it's funny because I don't know how most people play WO 3, but even after playing for 40-50 hours, I'm nowhere close to level 100 on any character. I usually try at least once every char and I followed the "recommanded team" of almost every battle in story battle, as a result, my highest chars are near levels 40.

The "recomnend" Team is for the dialogue in the stage mostly. So like the "correct" order of the "story". So if you pick 3 chars that isnt present in the stage then there is only dialogue about "i kill a officer x" etc but no story content. The recomnend team however will show up as a AI anyway thus the story content is still present. Sounds a bit confusing i know.^^

Regarding the horse. Tbh i never used them at all. Even in the original WO3 Game (except for the achievement). They "looks" faster if you use them but if you max out the speed attribute from any char (mostly chars with high speed) then its more then enough. Fighting from a horse its a bit......weird i should say.

[Labradogs]

Originally posted by CypressHillNo1:

Originally posted by Labradogs:

Regarding the promote system, it's funny because I don't know how most people play WO 3, but even after playing for 40-50 hours, I'm nowhere close to level 100 on any character. I usually try at least once every char and I followed the "recommanded team" of almost every battle in story battle, as a result, my highest chars are near levels 40.

The "recomnend" Team is for the dialogue in the stage mostly. So like the "correct" order of the "story". So if you pick 3 chars that isnt present in the stage then there is only dialogue about "i kill a officer x" etc but no story content. The recomnend team however will show up as a AI anyway thus the story content is still present. Sounds a bit confusing i know.^^

Regarding the horse. Tbh i never used them at all. Even in the original WO3 Game (except for the achievement). They "looks" faster if you use them but if you max out the speed attribute from any char (mostly chars with high speed) then its more then enough. Fighting from a horse its a bit......weird i should say.

Oh yeah, I understood that it wasn't mandatory to pick the specified characters, but I just like doing it this way, I never played any games of the samurai warriors franchise, therefore trying those characters in the battles they are involved feels like a "logic" way to discover the roster. :p

Ah ah, yeah the horses aren't that great ( the size of red hare is quite funny compared with the smaller characters like Himiko x) ) but it was annoying me to see an "empty slot" in the preparations menu. However, even if I love this game, I have to say that those conditions to unlock the mounts are a bit far fetched in my opinion, like how are you supposed to guess them without checking online guides ? x)

[William Shakesman]

Gauntlet is about being OP, one-shotting everything (and being one shot yourself), and not actually playing any of the combat. Everyone recommends Xu Shu and Ayane because they are capable of being completely invincible, practically, for all the fighting you wish to do.

Level 20-30 is a bit low but it's workable with a cheese system (I.e. Xu Shu or Ayane prepped for infinite musou). If not you're going to get one-shot REAL fast before you can get to the exit.

[Labradogs]

Oh alright thanks for the information William Shakesman, yeah it wouldn't be surprising if Honnjoji was a 'scripted" stage with a specific way to end it, because that's the reason why I created this post. After trying 2 or 3 times, I had the feeling that I had tried to press L1 on every luminous spot of the map but never found the exit. x)

I'll have to try to understand which officer do I have to kill, but anyway, I'll propably start another run of gauntled mode with a new team that includes Ayane & Lianshi.

[MarioFanaticXV]

Originally posted by CypressHillNo1:

Regarding the horse. Tbh i never used them at all. Even in the original WO3 Game (except for the achievement). They "looks" faster if you use them but if you max out the speed attribute from any char (mostly chars with high speed) then its more then enough. Fighting from a horse its a bit......weird i should say.

It depends on the character. Some are terrible on horseback, others are okay, and a handful are so good that I never want to dismount as them.

Susano'o in particular is absolutely insane on horseback- you can beat pretty much the entire game by just spamming his mounted C4. That being said, it's not exactly relevant to Gauntlet Mode...