Guide to NPCs

A guide on how to find and recruit the many companions found in Gloria Sinica in one convenient place plus a few tips.

Introduction

I thought it would be worthwhile to collect all the Companion information in one convenient place for players so I'll start off with a pair of tips before jumping into the meat of the subject matter. Sorry if the formatting sucks never made one of these before.

1. Pick the Han Archer equipment at the start of your military career as it will provide the majority if not all of the swords necessary for the Sima Qinxin quest over the course of its promotions. Hold on to one of each of the six following swords as you claim your equipment: 10-, 20-, and 30-folding Short and Ring Hilt swords.

2. Once you complete the Han storyline and are given free agency to roam about beeline straight to the Liu Ciwu quest. The two Explorer Associates he gives you to help with the quest are the best known unit to create a custom troop out of as they end up with 5 points in quite a number of skills, decent stats, and 10 unassigned skill points once trained. Any unit promoted to a companion from this stock will be stronger than basically any other NPC outside of quest given ones.

NPCs

According to the manual NPCs in taverns only spawn during the daytime (not sure if this applies to ones standing around in cities as well) and only if the players relation with town is around neutral or better.

Sometimes the rate of them appearing in taverns/city locations is quite low. A-hai took me the better part of an hour entering the town of Dian and quick traveling to her spot, repeat ad nauseum until insane.

For the sake of clarity I arranged this list in accordance with the Chinese videos so you can look them up more readily if lost.
https://www.bilibili.com/video/av17119299/?p=1

Video	Name	Location	Description
1	An Le	Donghu King's Camp	In the tavern.
2	Custom NPCs		You can promote custom troops into companions (I am not sure if there is a limit because I just got my 11th custom troop promoted: 6 males and 5 females so far); troops become eligible for promotion when they kill more than a certain amount of enemies within a battle, this threshold becomes progressively larger which each promotion.
3	Jiu Gaungde	Panyu	In the tavern.
4	Mahador	Bactra	In the tavern.
5	Qin Miaofang	Linxiang	Outside the city walls underneath tree near merchant, left at T intersection from entering town. See Video if necessary.
6	Sima Qinxin	Chang'an	Stands in front of a house behind the arena. See Quests.
7	Sun Ming	Linzi	In the tavern.
8	Wuyou	Chanyu's Frontier Camp	In the tavern.
9	Yi Lie	Loulan	In the tavern.
10	Yi Xu	Weiyang Palace in Chang'an	At the far gate on the road from the town center entrance.
11	Zhi Qianqiu	Luoyang	In the tavern.
12	Jing Huai	Chengdu	Near the county head's assistant.
13	Ziyu	Byeonhan	Left from the entrance near a structure for storing hay.
14	Mangfeng	Xianling Qiang	Standing next to a group of three tents immediately to the left of the starting walk around the city position.
15-16	Guo Jie and Ji Shaogong	Anyi and Luoyang	See Quests
17	A-hai	Dian	See video for exact location in the city, setting a custom quick travel point can save a lot of headache.
18	Lei Bei	Souchon	In the tavern. See Quests.
19	Eamane	Red Valley	Outside walls by solitary tent. See Video if needed
20-21	Zhong Li	Vicinity of Souchon	When you have a Lingnan bandit/raider prisoner you can encounter her on the world map around Shouchun. See Quests.
22	Xu Bulan	Right Wise King's Camp	Quite a distance into the camp suggest you check the video and make liberal use of a custom quick travel point; (Leaves the party under two circumstances: a) if you talk to general Zhang Qian completing the quest she gives you upon entering Han lands b) if you come into close proximity with Zhang but don't talk to him she will leave the party as well a couple days later. Pretty easy to unknowingly do the latter when answering a Han marshal's summons.)
23	Liu Ciwu	Linzi	Find any traveler in any tavern and ask them about other travelers and they will tell you about this explorer. Then head to Linzi and find Liu Ciwu behind the tavern who will task you to travel all over the known world over the course of several quests. See Quests
24-25	Bao Lizhang	Fulu	See Quests
26	Kamsa	Ailao	In the tavern (has an elephant mount in his personal luggage).
	Dunzi	Storyline	Dunzi has no video since he joins you automatically at the conclusion of the Han faction storyline.

Quests Part 1 of 2

Guo Jie and Lei Bei end up wanted criminals and traveling around with them in your party can result in you being exposed as harboring fugitives and negatively impact your relation with the Han and possibly putting an end to your journey up their ranks. Even the doing the quests to recruit them in the first place can have a big negative impact, Guo's dropped my Han faction relation by 30 points.

Gear such as fully closed helmets, mask, and agent suits can reduce the risk of this exposure but they do not eliminate it so you might want to rethink pursuing them if you're a member of the Han empire. Speaking of which, Zhongli will not join players that are members of the Han empire. Still worthwhile to do her quest I suppose since it's one of the longer ones in game.


Sima Qinxin: video 6

Prerequisites: 100 or more renown to undertake her quest and 200 or more renown to recruit her.
Find her in front of a house behind Chang'an's arena. Will task you with bringing six swords to her: 10, 20, and 30-folding short swords and ring hilts. Which you should have most of if not all if you heeded my advice. The swords can be purchased from weaponsmiths, the han barracks in exchange for contribution points, looted from Han deserters, custom ordered from smiths, and can be claimed as part of gear made available to you upon your promotions up the Han ladder.

Upon bringing these swords to her she gives you the strong twohander simply named Horse-stabber. If/when you have 200 renown you are then free to recruit her to your party.


Guo Jie and Ji Shaogong: videos 15 and 16

Prerequisites: Chang'an, Luoyang, and Jinyang under Han control, Honor greater than or equal to 5, and Renown of 400 or more.

1. Talk to Ji Shaogong in Anyi tavern.
2. Talk to Guo Jie in Luoyang tavern and offer to help.
3. Optional: Can offer to talk to Wei Qing, confer with him on the world map and he will offer to bring the issue to the emperor. Wait a few days to find the effort futile and the Emperor has reaffirmed the relocation.
4. Put on the given Agent mask and suit and find, talk to, and kill the informants who are in Chang'an town center near the gates to Weiyang Palace. Flee the scene afterwords as guards will just keep spawning.
5. Wait a few days and travel just north east of Chang'an on the northern bank of the Wei River to trigger an encounter with Guo Jie and Ji Shaogong if you have spoken to him previously and they will join your party requesting that you bring them to their compatriots who are behind the tavern in Jinyang.
6. Go to the tavern in Jinyang and exit it and Guo and Ji will head to their contact behind it. Turns out Han investigators have replaced them and you will have to fight your way out of an ambush. Kill all the officers for a large 30 point hit to relations with the Han empire and you will leave the area and trigger a conversation with the Guo and Ji in which you can recruit them.

Note: Guo Jie is a wanted criminal.

Lei Bei: video 18

Prerequisites: Chang'an and Souchon under Han control, Renown greater than or equal to 100 and positive Honor. Relationship with Lei Bei greater than 0, can just talk to him once in Souchon tavern for a free point in relationship then talk to him again to begin his quest.

1. Talk to Lei Bei in Souchon's tavern.
2. Go to the palace in Souchon turn around and exit and you should see Lei in a standoff with another swordsman, speak with Lei after the duel.
3. Head to Changan's tavern 5 days or more later and talk to Lei there and offer to talk to Zhang Tang about the investigation for him; Zhang can be found in Chang'an at the ministries of the Office of Justice or Auditors. The conversation doesn't go quite so well and Lei Bei is to be tried as a criminal.
4. Wait 5 days and find Lei in the somewhat close proximity to Chang'an on the world map 5-10 map units. Lei tells you he is fleeing the city and you can either tell him to join your party or hide which will result in him never being seen again in game.

Note: Lei Bei is also a wanted criminal.

Zhongli: videos 20 and 21

Note: she won't join you if you are part of the Han faction but you can still complete her quest anyways.

Prerequisites: More than 5 Honor.

1. Capture a Lingnan troops (hunter/raider) and travel around Souchon to encounter Zhongli
2. Sell the prisoner to her or give for even more relationship points; if you refuse you fail the quest and she may ambush you in town.
3. Go to Xu and talk to Zhongli in front of the prison during the afternoon. Talk to Zhongli every other day to increase relationship (Zhongli will compete in Souchon tournaments and will confer further relation points if the player defeats her). Talk to her uncle who can be found between dawn and afternoon immediately to the left when passing through the gates from outside of Xu and ask for further information about Zhongli.
4. At 20 relation (not displayed in game) she will ask you to deliver an order to the craft master at Luoyang. Ask the bartender in Luoyang for directions and find the craft master in the market next to the weaponsmith. For accelerating the delivery date of the arms he will ask for 3000 zhu, I didn't test out what happens if you do not pay this for her.
5. At 33 relation she will ask you to find Wu Bei, head to Souchon tavern ask the bartender about him to find out what city he travelled to. Head to that city's tavern and ask about him to find he already left to Souchon in the meantime.
6. Talk to Wu Bei in Souchon tavern and he will request that you kill a few officials who can be found down the side streets in Souchon's marketplace. Kill them quickly once you initiate combat because more agents will arrive otherwise. Even if you fail to kill them all the outcome doesn't matter as long as you didn't turn Wu Bei into the officials. Talk to Zhongli/Her Uncle in Xu to learn they are leaving Xu.
7. Zhongli can be further encountered in random taverns garbed in an agent outfit (not sure if this is just limited to the Han Empire never saw her in Xonghu camps for example). Her location will be randomized every couple of days.
8. Upon your third meeting with Zhongli she will attack you, do not kill her just parry her attacks or go full Benny Hill for a little over a minute and she will regain her composure and decide whether or not to join you based on your stats (not sure which ones) and if you are not a member of the Han empire. If you're Han you will go your separate ways. Took me a month in game to run into her again after her second encounter.

Quests Part 2 of 2

Liu Ciwu: video 23

Find any traveler in any tavern and ask them about other travelers then further ask if they know anyone in need of a quick foot. Then head to Linzi and find Liu Ciwu behind the tavern who will send you all over across a series of 4 quests.

Quest 1 Retrieve Four items (what is this a Bioware game?):
Stone from Ou mountain: wander area around the city of Wu to collect this ocher,
Pinewood from Daizon: enter Mount Tai location and collect it,
Frost from Juyan: circle small lake west of Fuyangju Camp to collect halite,
Copper from Shoushan: wander around in the triangle formed by the cities of Yangdi, Pingyu, and Suiyan to collect the malachite.

*Note the explorer associates he gives you are the best known unit to form a custom troop out of as they end up with 5 points in several skills, decent stats, and 10 unassigned skill points once trained. The explorers are quite fragile and you only ever get two of them so it's best to train into a custom troop and armor them up immediately, and bolster the newly formed troops numbers.

Quest 2 sends you to Dalai Nur north of Left Wise King's Camp to collect beaver furs, there is a month time limit on this stage shouldn't take more than 2-3 tops depending on your overland speed of course.

Quest 3 sends you to Golden Atai to the northwest, more precisely in the mountains north of the oasis region home to Loulan and many other cities.

Quest 4 sends you to Mount Kailish, draw a line basically straight west from Salt Well deep in the Himalayas.


Bao Lizhang: videos 24 – 25.

1. When the Han control the four camps of Minor Yeuzhi, Hunye King's, Xiutu King's, and Zhelan Kings they will build the cities of Fulu and Dunhuang in the valley to the west.
2. Enter and leave Fulu and Lizhang will approach you offering a quest.
3. Enter the nearby lair. Note that you will probably want to immediately hammer hold position and go further in alone as one errant arrow or two to the Horse can kill it failing the quest and prevent you from recruiting Bao.
4. You need permission from the ruler of Fulu for Bao to leave the area. Persuade whoever gets placed in charge of Fulu. Note that the Emperor will take several days after founding Fulu to confer it to a vassal (this step can go poorly resulting in the Lord collecting the horse from you or skipped entirely if you get made the lord of Fulu like I did).
5. Next bring the horse to the Emperor himself if you have enough promotions to be given access to him. If you cannot access the Emperor directly, speak to the minister of transportation in Chang'an and tell him you have a horse to send to the Emperor. I am not sure if you need to credit Bao during the delivery to recruit him but I would advise you to play it safe and do so because I didn't test the alternative.


Xu Bulan

Xu Bulan will task you with bringing her to Zhang Qian upon entering the domain of the Han. Delivering her will result in her leaving the party and rewards you with some money and experience, and Zhian gives you a Jade Plate that is supposed to increase your reputation with some of the more western Han settlements. What effect this has if any is unknown to me, it might come into play with regards to founding your own nation or not.

Miscellaneous Tips

Custom Troops

If you’re having trouble getting promotions only bring your custom troops out with you and string multiple groups of enemies together as needed. Stringing 600+ enemies together with low tactics and promotions are pretty much a sure bet depending if your custom troops are strong enough. Especially against soft targets like looters and rebels which lack decent armor and don't usually present with too many mounted units to impede the slaughter. Also nice way to up the odds of acquiring special armors/weapons.


Mahador/Eamane/Yi Lie/Loulan Flying Shoes

Best to combine picking these three NPCs up in one trip if you’re going to go all the way out to Bactra anyways. Plus you can pickup several of the best footwear, Loulan Flying Shoes, in the game, okay third best technically but so much lighter great for keeping the weight down so as to not impede archery.

You can find the shoes not in the armor shops but by actually going and speaking to the dress merchants in the capital cities of Loulan, Quici, Yuanqu, Jiaohe, Beitan and Schule. Pickup at least 2, one to wear and another to manufacture in your arsenals.

Speaking of weight, over encumbrance can decrease your ranged accuracy. The simply named Han Lamellar Armor punches above its weight class offering a decent armor to weight ratio. Note the specific archer/footman/halberder named Han Lamellars are not as good so hold onto a Han Lamellar you get early in your ascent up the Han ranks. Technically the Wa Painted Armor has 1 more torso protection at 1.5 less weight but it is rare to encounter and pretty goofy looking.

Han Power Gloves are the only other and better gauntlet than the ubiquitous Leather gloves I have encountered. You get just one at the final promotion rank and can on rare occurrence see them in armor shops so it pays to peruse the inventories. Also check the weaponshops for Nomadic March Arrows which do one less damage than the best damage dealing arrows but come in a quiver of 60 so you and your npcs/custom can larp Mongolians all day long.

Horse Archer Ring tactics can be learned in Didao IIRC and it’s a great tactic for the cavalry to whittle down the opposition in a much safer manner than they would otherwise engage in.

Closing/Thanks

Thanks to Snowmanbysong for translating the Chinese playerbase’s knowledge about locations and linking the videos here:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/688470/discussions/0/1692659135913006511/#c1696043263496553855

The manual for the game provides in-depth walkthroughs for the quests even if it can be a little unclear about how to begin some of them. It’s worth a read just to see all the features they added to the Warband engine for the game.

Tried to clarify locations, feel free to point out things that need to be corrected/clarified and I will try to rectify the issue.

[DUCATISLO]

nice

[Karbun]

thx

[✪ Commi Buni]

Finally there is a full guide about this topic. Thanks pal

[Kriegstofu]

If you don't credit Bao during the delivery to recruit him he will leave your party but you will get the same reward (80 Renown and 6000 Zhu), So not worth it at all.