SHIN SANGOKU MUSOU 4 (DYNASTY WARRIORS 5) BODYGUARD FAQ (v1.1, 4-6-05) by Edward Chang (chang dot 459 at osu dot edu) Revision History v1.1 (4-6-05) Added the English names for everything for people playing the US version. v1.0 (3-3-05) First version. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction 2. Obtaining Bodyguards 3. Training Bodyguards 4. Bodyguards in Battle 5. Frequently Asked Questions 6. Credits 1. INTRODUCTION This is a FAQ for the latest in Koei's Musou action series, Shin Sangoku Musou 4 (which will be released in the US as "Dynasty Warriors 5", odds are). DW5 brings new life to the bodyguard system. Rather than having a squad of generic bodyguards, you'll now have one 'companion general' who can assist you in battle. This new bodyguard is an apt fighter themself and can help you out with a variety of skills and special abilities. This FAQ makes use of SJIS encoding in order to display Japanese characters. I included this feature so that if you do not know Japanese, you can easily match up the characters on your TV screen to the characters in this guide. You will need to have support for viewing Japanese characters on your computer, however. Certain versions of Windows should have it built in; otherwise, you'll either need to get a program like NJStar Communicator, or you'll need to get Japanese character support for Internet Explorer and open this file in IE instead of Notepad/Wordpad. The only websites authorized to post this FAQ are www.gamefaqs.com and www.kongming.net. If you see this document elsewhere, not only are they posting without my permission, but they likely do not have the most current version of this FAQ. Emails to me asking questions already answered in the FAQ, even if the answers are not in the version you are reading, will be deleted without response. 2. OBTAINING BODYGUARDS You have 8 bodyguard slots that are shared amongst all of your generals. You begin with 4 bodyguards; obviously, they suck. Every time you complete a battle, there is a chance that a new bodyguard will ask to join your army. At this time they'll be given a rating (more on this in a minute) and they'll join your army. If you already have the 8 slots filled, you can either dismiss the new recruit or dismiss one of your old bodyguards to make room for the new recruit. Each bodyguard will receive a rating when they first ask to join your army. This rating will determine how good they can get once they are fully trained. Each rating has two parts; the first part is one of the following: 一国 Ikkoku: One stat from life, musou, attack, and defense grows quickly 二国 Nikoku: Two of those stats grow quickly 三国 Sangoku: Three of those stats grow quickly 天下 Tenka: All stats grow quickly In the US version, these stats are simply called "C", "B", "A", and "S" respectively. Obviously, the last one ("Tenka") is the best, and of course the rarest. The second part determines how their stats grow upon levelling up: 神童 Shindou: Stats begin high, growth limited 秀才 Shuusai: Initial stats and growth average 傑物 Ketsubutsu: Stats begin low, growth high 奇才 Kisai: Initial stats and growth high In the US version, these stats are called Veteran, Remarkable, Brilliant, and Superior. Thus, you should avoid Veterans and Remarkables and shoot for Brilliants and ultimately Superiors. Again, the last one ("Kisai") is the best; although not as obvious, this list is arranged in order, so that once fully maxed, a Ketsubutsu general is much better than a Shindou general. Growth is also more important than which stats grow quickly; a Sangoku no Kisai (Superior/A) turns out to be better than a Tenka no Ketsubutsu (Remarkable/S) in the end. The chances of getting the best stats are rather low; in both cases the best title appears with only about a 7% chance. Thus, the best possible title of Tenka no Kisai appears only about 7%x7% = 0.49% of the time. The gender and name of the general that asks to join is random. The weapon they use is limited by gender. Males get spears, crossbows, and staves. Females get swords, bows, and fans. Incidentally the chances for all of these appearing is approximately equal, except for fans, which are the rarest. There is a good reason for this, and that is that the fan-using bodyguards are arguably the best, as although they are comparatively poor fighters they have the special ability to heal you during battle. The look of each general is determined randomly; the color scheme of their look, however, is determined by what general you were using when the bodyguard asked to join you. The colors are as follows: Wei General: Blue Wu General: Red Shu General or Zuo Ci: Green Lu Bu: White Yuan Shao or Zhang Jiao: Yellow Diao Chan, Dong Zhuo, Meng Huo, or Zhu Rong: Purple 3. TRAINING BODYGUARDS After each battle, bodyguards gain points like you do. A multiplier appears depending on difficulty, so that a bodyguard will train faster on harder difficulty. However, if the bodyguard dies during battle, their points modifier automatically drops to x0.5, so training on high difficulty all the time is not necessarily best. The bodyguard gains rank, up to the highest level of 6. The number of points needed for each level is as follows: Lvl 1: 0 Lvl 2: 1000 Lvl 3: 2000 Lvl 4: 4000 Lvl 5: 7000 Lvl 6: 10000 Along the way, the bodyguard will gain skills. There are 8 different skills that a bodyguard can have: 回復 Kaifuku: Bodyguard will heal self when low on health 猛攻 Moukou: Bodyguard will gain Attack x2 when low on health 鉄壁 Teppeki: Bodyguard will gain Defense x2 when low on health 鼓舞 Kobu: Own army's morale rises more easily 心眼 Shingan: Reduces combo needed to rank up items (see below) 推挙 Suikyo: Always makes a bodyguard ask to join you 献品 Kenbin: Adds one to the number of obtained items 探武 Tanbu: Adds one to the number of obtained weapons In the US version, these skills are called in order: Heal, Rage, Wall, Fame, Link, Hire, Item, and Find. "Rank Up" items refers to the fact that if you kill a general that, for instance, normally drops an Attack +1 item with a 8 hit combo, that he'll then drop an Attack +2 item. With the Shingan skill, the combo needed is reduced. Upgrading a +1 item can be done with a 6-hit combo, upgrading a +2 item requires only a 12-hit combo (as opposed to 16), and upgrading a +4 item requires only an 18-hit combo (as opposed to 24). When the general reaches level 3, they will gain one skill out of the first three (Kaifuku, Moukou, Teppeki). Upon reaching level 5, they will gain one skill out of the second set of three (Kobu, Shingan, Suikyo). Upon reaching level 6, the general may or may not receive another skill. If upon reaching level 6, none of their parameters (life, musou, attack, and defense) are maxed, they will receive no new skill. If one to three of these paramters are maxed, they will receive one new skill. Finally, if all four parameters are maxed, they will receive two new skills. The new skills are chosen at random from the entire list of eight; obviously the only way to get either Kenbin or Tanbu is at level 6. Upon reaching level 4 or 5 the general may receive an element added to their attacks. The element is the same as the orbs for the playable characters (Fire, Ice, Yin, and Yang). What determines what element a general gets is unknown; it may be random. A general who receives an element at level 4 may get a new element at level 5, which overrides the previous element. Because of the dependence on maxed stats, obviously a Kisai will have more skills than a Shindou. 4. BODYGUARDS IN BATTLE You can issue limited orders to your bodyguard in battle by pressing the select button. You can see the current order below your health bar. The sword icon means they will attack; the shield icon means they will mostly defend; and the hand icon means they will stay in place and not follow you. The points a bodyguard gets is mostly determined by their number of kills. Stil, if your bodyguard fails to get any kills, they will still gain some points. Bodyguards regain health whenever you do, as long as they are fairly close to you, so if your bodyguard is hurting, you should pick up that meat bun even if you yourself aren't so injured. Finally, the last special deal with bodyguards is that if both you and your bodyguard has full musou (you can tell because their hands are glowing) and you are close together (your hands will be joined by lightning), your musou will become the special "Geki Musou Ranbu", which is even more powerful than the True Musou attack. This attack hits everyone with a wave of lightning and then both you and your bodyguard will perform your respective true musou attacks. This appears to break guard (at least, I've never seen anybody be able to block the whole thing). 5. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS Q. The generals I get suck! How can I get better ones? A. There appears to be a small dependence on how good your own general is. Power up your general and try again. To get new bodyguards very quickly, I suggest using a powered up general and playing Guan Yu's Escape, Wei side, and taking along a bodyguard with the Suikyo skill (to guarantee that a new bodyguard will join afterwards). With Red Hare equipped, you can easily clear Guan Yu's Escape in about 30 seconds by just running up to Guan Yu and defeating him, as long as you're on Easy difficulty, that is. Q. When I look at my bodyguards in Camp mode, they look different than in battle! A. This is a known bug. There appears to be no solution, and at any rate it does not impact the gameplay. Q. How rare/common is each title? A. This table is taken from several thousand trials (credit goes to all the contributors of Shin Sangoku Musou 4 Wiki who compiled these stats: Shindou Shuusai Ketsubutsu Kisai Total Ikkoku 11.40% 11.73% 13.49% 3.14% 39.76% Nikoku 11.98% 10.31% 10.31% 2.22% 34.81% Sangoku 5.07% 5.74% 5.36% 1.59% 17.76% Tenka 1.68% 2.35% 3.32% 0.42% 7.67% Total 30.12% 30.12% 32.38% 7.37% So as you can see, the rates of getting Ikkoku and Nikoku are about the same, Sangoku is rarer, and Tenka is rarer still; on the growth front, the chances of getting Shindou, Shuusai, or Ketsubutsu are about the same, while Kisai is rare. Getting Tenka no Kisai, the most powerful bodyguard, is a little worse than one-half percent. Q. What are the best skills? A. Personally, I think Moukou and Teppeki are comparatively useless, as if your bodyguard is getting low on health often, you aren't doing such a great job. Kaifuku is useful in a pinch, but the best skill seems to be Kobu, since it affects your entire army, not just your bodyguard. If you play 2P mode and both players use a bodyguard with Kobu, the rate at which your morale raises (or enemy morale lowers) is insanely high. Shingan isn't all that useful in the long run and Senkyo is only useful when you're farming bodyguards; it's useless after you've got all the bodyguards you want. Kenbin and Tanbu are pretty useful when you're shooting for all level 20 items or shooting for getting good 3rd weapons. 6. CREDITS Thanks go to: Koei as usual. All contributors to Shin Sangoku Musou 4 Wiki (http://musou4.s114.xrea.com) eibra for telling me the English names to the ranks and skills. The only websites authorized to post this FAQ are www.gamefaqs.com and www.kongming.net. If you see this document elsewhere, not only are they posting without my permission, but they likely do not have the most current version of this FAQ. Emails to me asking questions already answered in the FAQ, even if the answers are not in the version you are reading, will be deleted without response. This FAQ Copyright 2005 to Edward Chang. Redistribution in any form, including reprinting in electronic or print media, without express permission of the author is strictly forbidden.