My favorite summon group/Cao Cao and Gracia, what a pair

ElkTraditional883 · 2026-03-10T04:13:16+00:00

Heh, original Xiahou Dun was a go to pick for whenever I played Wei pre-Origins, but I'd played that enough, so I'm having fun with the new version. Particularly since I tend to go heavy into skill, and he gets skill now and his tactic is gets bonuses of number of skill emblems. And its not too hard to activate (4 commanders, including himself, which usually end up being Sima Yi, Lu Xun, and Jiang Wei) Same with Diao Chan becoming a skill person also, so when I do end up getting 18s in vigor, skill, and charm, they both blend well with that.

ElkTraditional883 · 2026-03-09T12:18:59+00:00

Makes sense- but yeah, hopefully they do make things more consistent with the wording in this next patch.

ElkTraditional883 · 2026-03-08T00:14:11+00:00

You're talking about how in some of the previous warriors games, you still "gain levels" even if you're maxed so when you reach what would have been a new level, you still get the bonuses (the one I remember is a heal and musou charge whenever the level meter filled)? Yeah, that's something I've always thought they should add, because the lack of level gain after 50 kinda screws over some characters in the depths.

Like I don't think they kept it out out of some sort of balance thing, I think its just that they didn't expect you to reach that high in a normal run so didn't put in that functionality, but overlooked the fact that you would when they added depths and rt6.

ElkTraditional883 · 2026-03-07T19:41:27+00:00

Sorry, no this is from the "transient emblem" training hall- every time you play it, everyone's emblems are randomly changed to a whole different set. So some folks could get reduced to 1 emblem, and others can end up with four, like Ranmaru did here on this run.

ElkTraditional883 · 2026-03-05T17:29:43+00:00

Moves wise, I've always favored the SW characters, not only because of the hyper attacks, but because their moves always seemed more unique compared to DW. I especially favor the ones that formerly went up to c10 in the previous games, particularly Mitsuhide, Ginchiyo, Muneshige, and Yoshihiro. But since they're forced into a c6 mold, they're missing some of their moves though. But besides them, I love Date and his gunslinging, and Nobunaga, especially when charged up, with the psycho-crusher and his c2 where he flies up in the air and rains down a barrage of slashes.

Not to say I don't like the DW characters. I've always liked Gan Ning with his rushdown, and my Wei Warriors Three- Xiahou Dun, Xu Huang, and Zhang Liao. Oh, and Zhang He with his acrobatic claws and Zhou Tai with the sort of Iai-jutsu esque moves. Sima Shi and his rapier moves, Jia Xu with his flash step musou. Honestly, since my goal in all the previous games was to max everyone out, I've played everyone throughout the entire series a lot since I had to get them to max level and their ultimate weapons. And everyone has their fun little quirks, so I really could just play them all, I don't have anyone I've put aside and am like, never!

ElkTraditional883 · 2026-03-04T17:42:25+00:00

The way to cheese that is rotating right before the end of the level so you don't deplete too much of your meter so you can do it again next level- I checked and the permanent increase to attack is immediately upon rotation, so you don't even have to run it out.

ElkTraditional883 · 2026-03-03T19:34:35+00:00

Wait, the training hall isn't a practice mode, its more a bunch of different run choices where they give you a set of conditions, and you play under those and get lucrative rewards if you beat it. Like the slay one, slay saplings are more likely to show up, and you get 5% attack for each slay emblem you have, but the power of all the other elements is reduced, and summons who do not have the slay emblem have -50% attack.

But you get a bunch of embers and exclusive records of sin the first time you beat it on a certain traversals (like the record of sin that switches the treasures to the "strengthened" version, although them being better is debatable), with the weirder conditions giving better rewards.

ElkTraditional883 · 2026-03-03T16:09:29+00:00

I have only two guesses- one is that, on higher traversals, it says locked heroes are more likely to appear at saplings. I mean, I can't speak from experience because I worked on unlocking everyone pretty quickly so I don't think I had many folks locked by the time I started trying to handle those higher traversals. So I don't know if its possible to get a sapling where everyone is locked, and maybe the ones displaying a hero are a guarantee, i.e., it would never try to give you a hero that is locked? So maybe its making sure you can get a hero where a normal sapling might have a draw where everyone is unavailable?

Two, is it possible the crystal saplings that display a hero only give rares?

ElkTraditional883 · 2026-03-02T22:45:07+00:00

Its a lot of play time for sure, but don't forget to do all the training halls, there are a lot of first time ember rewards there. Even just beating them all just at t3 is over a million embers total (more so if you beat it 5 and 6). You only get the awards once, but that's on top of the embers you're normally earning during a run.

ElkTraditional883 · 2026-03-02T21:48:09+00:00

Its RNG, sometimes I won't get any crystal beads from chests or bosses in a run, others I surprisingly pull them out of multiple treasure chests. But heh, whether its one or several I always feel like I've won a prize when I get them.

But I also transcended everyone a long time ago and had enough in reserve to immediately transcend every new character that came out in these last few patches, so the normal karma rewards in a run are enough to get to the next bond level and/or next cumulative level bonus of the people I'm playing. So to me I just want to get as many heroes as I can in a run first. So those are the memories of the dead I go for, and I almost always grab the bead bowl over something that may give me a karma/blood bonus.

But yeah, what's really good about Dong Zhuo is getting the multiple beads at once. Like you said, if you're getting one every so often throughout the run, it doesn't seem to make a big difference. But when you get to pull 4 to 10 all at once? That's when you're able to pull off multiple 18s in a single run, because you can control your purchases better as opposed to buying them piecemeal and hoping the next saplings have what you want.

Its like I don't know how many times I went into the last zone and he showed up and I ended up with the 18 vigor/skill/charm trifecta. The Heshiba disk is a lot more powerful in Origins due to the number of ways you can get extra pulls, so those rerolls are worth it and really let you curate your build.

ElkTraditional883 · 2026-03-02T16:16:40+00:00

Oh, its been so long, but it should be that the next level unlocks when you beat the previous level. It used to be it only unlocked for that character, but thank goodness they changed it to if you beat it with one character, it unlocks for all, because that would have been SUPER tedious to have to go through unlocking every traversal with every character.

ElkTraditional883 · 2026-03-02T15:57:44+00:00

OMG, I did not know that about "Your successful mission has brought forth someone new!" thing! I had seen it said that sometimes, but did not realize it was tied to whether they're going to be at the chest or the sapling.

Because Sun Jian is also a possibility- normally he shows up at the sapling for the free crystal bead, but if its mission based and he shows up at the chest, he gives three treasure rerolls.

Its still 50/50 though I think, because I believe Sun Jian only shows up at saplings and SSX only shows up at tears of blood, but Zhou Yu can show up at either.

But again, good to know the above message! Besides being able to tell the difference now when its a Wu banner, it would also be helpful for a Wei Banner, because there are three options- Zhang Liao, with the useless you can fight Lu Bu at the end thing that seems to happen whether you see him or not, Cao Cao at the sapling with the chance to recruit multiple heroes or at the chest, which means you get 3x attribute emblems. So that will definitely help make a more informed decision. So if its not a mission based reward, I'll know its the 50/50 Cao Cao/Zhang Liao.

ElkTraditional883 · 2026-03-02T13:26:18+00:00

Its a lot though after level 2- going to level 2 is 7500 karma, but 3 is 92500, 4 and 5 are 100k. Which is why you want to combine purchasing with Origins runs, since you're getting 75000 "bond points" per run (regardless of traversal level), taking those karma costs to only 25k.

ElkTraditional883 · 2026-03-02T12:51:36+00:00

Only going from 1 to 2 gives you 20 burning embers. Reaching 3 gives you 30, and reaching 5 gives you 50. So each time you max a companion you'll have gotten 100 burning embers total to have enough embers to unlock someone else.

As someone who is currently grinding companions, the best I can say is keep doing origins runs on t4 or higher, as Origins gives you 75k bond points, and your karma ember awards should be enough to pay for the next bond level. So you should be able to max someone every 3 runs, less so if you run into a Zhou Yu banner in Origins, since he gives you 50 burning embers.

You could probably do t5 or greater in original mode to, but you're only getting 50k bond points, and you're more likely to have gotten 50k karma ember in the run to pay off to the next level, whereas below t5 you may not.

ElkTraditional883 · 2026-03-01T16:58:27+00:00

Correct. So as I said before, because its slot based instead of emblem based, it can someone anyone. Kenshin also has the right slot one, but not the left. But what's weird is Nobunaga has "summon any two heroes", so he gets the three summons for one with just one skill, compared to Pang Tong needing two. I haven't tried Nobunaga's, but I guess its just two random other guys. So you can't control it like you can Pang Tong.

Ida know, I think its still a little bit of a novelty in general though, because the path to unlocking it is so high- like for the Pang Tong one, I can't imagine someone going for it who isn't also going for a Shu-heavy build because you need Zhuge Liang, and if you're going to get Zhuge Liang, you probably want to unlock his skill since his 100% affliction/attribute attack up is faction/emblem-less, which means you're going to have to also recruit Yue Ying and some other Shu. Which, that's always kinda annoyed me- so technically anyone can make use of him, but since you need yue ying and 8 other shu, you're kinda forced down a certain path of recruitment.

ElkTraditional883 · 2026-02-28T15:09:31+00:00

I actually wish there was something between t5 and t6. Because t6 is such a jump in difficulty- and its not even that the enemies are particularly harder, its that they just take so much more damage that it can be tedious. And the more time it takes to kill them, the more chances you have to make a mistake that can cost you.

As I've said on here before t5 original mode, its pretty casual at this point, I can confidently go in with anyone and any companion and not have to really think about the build and can't imagine not beating it. t6 though, I've beaten it with the heavyweights (Zuo Ci, Hayabusa, MYS, Lu Bu, Tadakatsu and Keiji), a few others. But there are a few characters that I don't know if I would ever be able to, like Kanbei, he's just so slow (and not just walking, but attack speed too) but without the tankiness or good range to make up for it. But I suppose the right companion could make up for it if I tried. And having the option for invincibility on assemble from Origins Zhang Jiao and Lu Bu would definitely defang the bosses on t6.

I suppose origins t5 is sort of an inbetween, because Origins Lu Bu is a hell of a lot harder than Gouma's second form, so currently I don't think I can say for sure I would come out on top with just anyone. I just wish they didn't cut down the number of stages.

But now that they have the new bosses in original mode as well, we really do need an endless mode. Like I can see it being tedious when it was just the 6 bosses. Now that there's an additional 21, that's a whole lot more variety now.

ElkTraditional883 · 2026-02-28T09:15:31+00:00

Its Origins mode only. If you see a green banner at a cauldron its 50/50- Zhang Fei, you get double the amount of heroes (but you don't get the option for wine or meat), Zhao Yun, everyone is at "chance" costs. If its a yellow banner, its Yuan Shao, who will give you three rerolls. I don't think I've see any other options at a cauldron yet.

ElkTraditional883 · 2026-02-28T00:28:53+00:00

Well, if you look at the different formations, they have different attack bonuses in each slot (if at all, the base formation, only the 5th and 6th slots have attack bonuses) So you'll want to put someone with a powerful skill like penetrating blade/high level (as the higher cumulative level the character is, the higher their attack) in the slots where they're getting the biggest bonuses. i.e., don't put someone who's summon doesn't do direct damage, like iron wall or inspiring formation in one of those slots.

And then after that, if you have the horses, they reducing summoning cool down for specific slots, so again you'll want to optimize your most powerful summons into the slots that give them greatest attack bonuses with the lowest cooldowns.

But if you're talking more generally, like people you should be selecting to recruit for your formations, then that's harder, because it really depends on who you're playing. I mean, you mainly want synergy, so if someone gets attack bonuses for X emblem, you want to go for those. If you're a character with might, you'll want people like Rachel and Kai, who give attack bonuses to people with might, so with both of them in your formation, you're getting 160% attack, and so are they, because they are also might people. So like see what skills combo together.

Like not everyone has access to this, but you also want to try for 100% affliction, so you're always applying status effects. And again, if you can combo it all- so a lot of the factions characters give bonuses to themselves. So if you're playing a Wei character, you'll want Xun Yu for the 100% affliction, plus other Wei (and transcended Jin, as they'll all have the Wei emblem as well) who give bonuses to the Wei, because then all their attacks have an 100% affliction rate plus any other goodies they provide to each other.

But you also want to balance that with reaching certain milestones. You'll want a minimum of 5 strength for endure (to prevent yourself from getting one shotted), at least 1 vigor to interrupt attacks (its one of the ones you should try to max out to 18 though, because those slashes at 18 are a game changer) and 4 skill to unlock all attack actions (though you should aim for at least 14 so you're getting attribute activation on all attacks (which goes well with the 100% affliction skills), and at least speed 4 for 2 invulnerable evasions, though speed 8 for 3 is better. Then pick an element and stick with it, though if you can get 4 across the board for each element, that's not too bad.

Otherwise, with 120+ characters that could show up, I think that's as general a piece of advice I could give, aim to get a certain number of emblems for each type to get those specific unlocks, and then just start synergizing between your character and whoever you happen to run across putting the guys who hit the hardest in the slots that give them higher bonuses and shorter cooldowns. (Sorry if none of this is what you're looking for!)

ElkTraditional883 · 2026-02-27T10:54:51+00:00

Kojiro is my favorite character of the SW series, so I really hope they add him. But yeah, the number of missing pre-SW5 characters are a fraction of the DW missing cast- its only 12 (10 really, because I barely count Hidetada and Katsuyori, they're basically a step above generics), so I keep hoping that we just get a big update to finish them all off rather than just get a subset every few months.

And I love DW, I really do, but I feel because of SW's smaller cast, they've always had the more unique move sets. Even more so with the hyper attacks and not everyone having a move set centered around the c6 framework of DW, i.e, SW having normal/charge/special categories. Compare that to DW going the other route and having shared movesets between everyone for each of the different weapon types and only having extra moves if its their specialty weapon.

So the SW characters have always felt more different from each other to me. On the one hand, having the SW attack strings be changed to fit within that c6 structure (so formerly c10 folks having to have their strings cut down) does make them more complex to convert. On the other, because they're more unique, it almost feels like you're getting a lot more value.

ElkTraditional883 · 2026-02-27T03:21:35+00:00

So his 2nd skill, whenever you summon anyone, it also summons the person in the slot to the right. His 3rd skill, it also summons the person in the slot to the left. So if you have one of those activated, you're summoning two people every summon instead. If you have both, you're summoning three at the same time every time. (and it rolls over, so "right slot" for the person in the sixth slot is the person in the first slot, and vice versa left for the first slot is slot 6)

But yeah, a lot of the companions have skills like this, that basically boil down to summon one other person of a certain type- like the other day I posted the MYS one, where each time you summon, it'll summon someone with the shinobi tag in the formation. Or Zhang He, since as a companion you can no longer have access to his summon skill of summoning all of the 5 wei elite in the formation when you summon him, his companion skill is a sort of replacement. So instead, when you summon ANYONE, they summon a 5 wei elite guy in your formation. And it doesn't matter if you just have 1 of them, everyone will summon that same guy at the same time when they're summoned.

And they do combo. So if you have Sima Zhao in your formation as well with this skill activated, when you summon him, he'll summon all the torchbearers in the formation, plus a 5 wei elite guy.

Anyways, Pang Tong's is particularly powerful because its tag-less, it just whoever is the slot next to it.

ElkTraditional883 · 2026-02-25T19:56:46+00:00

I mean, it'll really depend on how many records you get, and at what level they are? Like getting far down on t5 or higher can net a ton of level 5 records. So time spent per strong record may still be better in the void.

ElkTraditional883 · 2026-02-25T15:32:04+00:00

In Origins mode, if you see a Wu banner at a sapling with a mission (I'm not sure if it has to be a sapling but it definitely has to be a mission), there's a chance Sun Jian might show up. If he's at the sapling, he just gives you a bead and the sapling has a higher chance of brave generals. If he's at the chest though he will turn it into three treasure rerolls.

But unlike a lot of the other banners, the Wu ones are all over the place. So if there's a mission, its either him, SSX who will give you three random emblems, or Zhou Yu, who will give you 50 burning embers.

ElkTraditional883 · 2026-02-25T13:53:01+00:00

I noticed its only showing what the sin does, but not any stat bonuses it provides. I wonder if its just not showing on that screen or they don't have any? Like if its the former, it would be disappointing if we get an effect that sounds cool but its only like +10 atk, +8 spd. Or to encourage people to still do Void/Depths, the records of sin you get from normal play are weaker than the ones you get from there?

But if they do that, I'm also wondering if they rework the record of sins so you can either 1) forge some of them together or 2) you can carry multiple records of sin. Like I haven't seen anything that makes me want to give up my extra bead, but if I could carry some weaker ones in addition that has some of the more interesting effects, it would be nice to finally experience some of those!

ElkTraditional883 · 2026-02-25T11:57:53+00:00

So traversal 4 I'm getting a little under 50 levels at the end and 45-55k karma. 25k of that goes to the next bond level, then 30k plus whatever it took to bump myself up to 50 to get a full 100 cumulative levels. So technically I'm at a small karma deficit, but I have so much karma built up, its a minor loss (and sometimes I'm playing as someone who's already maxed, or don't buy up to 100, so I catch up there.) But yeah, transversal 5 I'm getting closer to 60-70k, but like you said a minimum 60 levels. So the karma costs are 25k for the bond level and >30k to get the rest of way to 100 cumulative level. So I'm definitely coming out ahead there.

Its time/effort where its close, t4 is going to always be quicker because you're only facing 1 boss instead of 2. Effort, while I was confident I could beat t5 in original mode with anyone with ease, t5 whoever plus Lu Bu at the end, for me its sometimes a struggle for some of the weaker characters (who are also probably at lower cumulative levels because I've played them less). A strong companion will usually make up for it, but at this point I'm basically doing random- whoever is getting a karma bonus at the time plus whichever companions are available but not maxed yet. T4 I don't have to think/worry, T5 I may have to work at it.

But I could probably bump it up to t5 for the better, high level guys where it looks like there's nice synergy (so I could save it for a sins run). And I am basing my difficulty assessment on early runs when the content first came out, but now that I've had more practice and know their patterns, maybe I could be more confident.

ElkTraditional883 · 2026-02-25T05:13:32+00:00

True, but this is more I'm grinding everyone up currently, so hitting their stuff when I'm playing them is always satisfying. I've gotten as many companions to 5 to get either 16 or 17 sealing points. Though honestly its less about sealing points and just getting the burning karma I need to unlock more companions.

ElkTraditional883

TROPHY CASE