Destiny of an Emperor: Level 51 – Ultimate Happiness!
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Destiny of an Emperor, a well-played and well-loved game, contains a number of secrets which fans have discovered over the years. Normally, the highest level you can attain in Destiny of an Emperor is level 50, and level 50 provides you with enough power to face the strongest of enemies with a fair degree of confidence. But what if you want to smash them, or take away Sima Yi’s heavyweight title for having the most soldiers in the game? Read on, and the secrets of level 51 will be revealed to you.
The Secret Level 51
By the time you reach level 50 in Destiny of an Emperor you have already become strong enough to do battle with even the toughest of foes, but you will have also probably noticed that levels at this point in the game have become more valuable than ever, offering the most wonderful soldier increases you have ever seen. Sima Yi may make you jealous with his 40K+ troops, however, but there is a way to get the last laugh with the secret level 51. Curious? Read on!
Level 51: Introduction
In Destiny of an Emperor, the highest level you can attain normally is 50. It is, however, possible to reach the secret level of 51. Inside Ji Zhou (a castle guarded by Yuan Shao, the final castle in the snowy region after Yuan Shu) there is an outdoor hut inhabited by a sage (to reach it you will have to walk around the Ji Zhou walls—see the map below). Out of respect for your cause, he gives your entire party a free level up. You might be inclined to snatch it up right away, especially if the area has been tough, but if you are patient and wait until you reach level 50 before talking to him, you will receive the oh-so-secret level 51—and this is the only way to reach it.
Map of Ji Zhou; Location of Outdoor Sage
To reach the sage’s hut, walk out the east entrance a single space,
and turn up to continue outside the gate. You will not exit the city.
Notes on level 55. It is worth mentioning that we have received reports of people reaching level 55 in the Japanese or Chinese versions of the game using the ‘Super Rebels’ secret (which only exists in those games), but we have not yet validated these claims.
Level 51: Making It Happen
When you reach Ji Zhou, take note of the sage’s old hut’s location (see map above), but do not talk to him. You will not return to this location until you have reached level 50. Continue with the game normally, but when you reach Wei you will finally be fighting battles that provide enough experience for you to slowly creep your way up to level 50 (which you will reach with 817,116 experience). Be sure to save often along the way; you never know what can happen to your computer or Nintendo’s power or software. When you are finally there, return to the hut and talk to the old man. He will increase (or decrease) your experience to 999,999, and you will be promoted to level 51 (note that you cannot reach level 51 by simply collecting 999,999 experience—the game simply continues into the millions without so much as a mention).
Your New Promotion
Talk to the sage at level 50, and you will receive a most unnatural promotion.
As you can see below, the soldier increase for this level is exceptional indeed. Zhang Bao will now have 43,332 soldiers! Zhao Yun and Jiang Wei, who used to fall behind Guan Xing, will now have 41,340 soldiers. You will now have more soldiers than Sima Yi. Congratulations, you have achieved the highest level possible in Destiny of an Emperor.
Sima Yi Would Be Jealous
As you can see, Level 51 isn’t anything to sneeze at.
Technical Background
I honestly couldn’t say for certain if this was intentional or not. It is clear all the officers with varying soldiers achieve their bonuses relative to a mathematical equation (which theoretically means the game supports level-ups well beyond the screen’s ability to display in numbers). It also means the game knows how many soldiers Zhuge Liang should have when he is level 1, not that you’ll ever get to see it. The game itself probably has a level-up cap of 50, at which point it stops evaluating experience for level-ups. The level-up sage, however, doesn’t pay attention to experience, and assigns you an experience value that falls outside the mathematical equation—as well as outside the game’s programming. This is how you reach level 51. They could have easily resolved this ‘issue’ with a line of code to see if you have already reached level 50, though, and the issue wasn’t corrected in the English translation, so it may have been left in the game intentionally, just for fun.
Copyright © 2001–2023 James Peirce
© 1989 Hiroshi Motomiya, © 1989 M and M Co., © 1989 Shueisha, Produced by Capcom Co. Ltd.