LU BU Route - 29/04/01
By Rob Wilkins
shadowsorceror@hotmail.com
This route was provided by Domino for NeoSeeker.com on the above date.
DISCLAIMER:
This guide is the sole property of Rob Wilkins, and cannot be reprinted in full
or in part without his explicit permission.  In cases where just asking and
saying "pretty please" doesn't get his permission, the author suggests means of
bribery to turn him round to your point of view.  Well aged single malt works
well, as do large bundles of cash.  The author frowns upon sexual bribery,
although you might be able to bribe some of his friends that way.
The author does not accept responsibility for any neural damage, systematic
organ collapse or fanatical religious cults that arise from the reading of this document.
LU BU Route:
Hu Lao gate is the battle everyone wants to get a high KO count on - 1000+, and you
unlock the fearsome Lu Bu for your own use.  But it's hard to achieve, and some people
struggle to hit that mark.  There are all kinds of suggestions, from taking characters
that should already be there to slower characters, and all manner of ideas about what
level you should attempt it at.  This, though, is the way I did it - I used Zhao Yun the
first time, although I've hit this total with several other characters since then.
Zhao Yun, though, is a good choice because of his starting position - he's off to the
right
hand side of the battlefield, and that's where you'll want to be starting up from.  You
ignore the gate that you start near, and instead run up and down past where Cao Cao will
be fighting - ignore the gate where he is, and run instead to the one further down the
battlefield.  This gate is near one of the gated wooden walls, and is very plentiful
in terms of reinforcements.  Kill fast, here - don't try to be slow, or take your time.
If you do that, Cao Cao will catch you before your kill count has been allowed to build,
and you'll fall short - by killing quickly, you can hope to have a KO count around or
above
400 before you have to take down the first gated wall and progress.
Once you've done this, run as fast as you can to take down the second wall, then ignore
the
gate that's there and the archers on the wall - run instead to take on the troops to the
rear of Fan Shui gate.  There are troops on the way there, which you can engage - try to
stay clear of Lu Bu's troops, though, as they're tough and will slow you down.  There is
a reinforcement gate behind Fan Shui but it produces very few troops - once the troops
have
been cut down around the rear of Fan Shui, ignore the gate and jump over the wall.
The central reinforcement gate on the battlefield produces a lot of troops, and without
your
going to assist it earlier, this should have prevented the entire bulk of the main army
from making much headway.  This works to your advantage - you can now engage the flow of
troops from this gate, making a point to protect Yuan Shao when he needs it (you don't
want to lose the battle by having the silly idiot ko'd on you).  Also, you can take on
troops up the left hand side of the battlefield once the main gate starts to become
oppressed by your own side - there aren't many troops there, but the few extra kills will
at least be of some small help to you.  Once you're done here, you'll either end up
taking
down Fan Shui yourself, or having someone else take it down.  You should aim really to
have
around 750 kills at this stage, and probably to use one of the save points (just in case),
but it's not desperately important if you fall short by some stretch - Hu Lao is a very
plentiful area for kills.
>From Fan Shui, you should advance across the battlefield to the outside of Hu Lao -
there
are few troops there now (you should have cleaned up the excess while you were behind the
gate) and you can expect to have around a further 50 kills by the time Hu Lao gate opens.
Now, Hu Lao gate is the critical point - you may want to use the save point outside the
gate
before starting, if you can (before Li Ru is ko'd, basically).  The trick, really, is to
run inside the gate, attract the troops and then run back into the corridor, letting some
of
the enemy troops pass through the gate to the outside.  That flow prevents your side from
flooding into the rear of Hu Lao, which is something you want to avoid at all costs - it
can cripple the KO count at this stage, especially if they come close to the gate guards.
Try as best you can to control this flow, by killing slowly - at this stage, fast killing
is
not a benefit to you anymore, except in terms of keeping up a steady pace.  By doing that
carefully, you'll allow the two plentiful back gates to flood their troops out, and by
advancing every so often you'll attract the body of new troops towards the gate itself
and your army outside it.  Hopefully, you'll get to your 1000 kills here.
However, it is possible that you'll have friendly troops pass through the gate and into
the rear, and this can be a problem.  One way I've found to deal with this is to attract
Diao Chan towards you, then to try as best you can to drive her into the underside of the
gate - then, when she's down, run into the rear of the gate and up onto the wall.  Nine
times in ten, Diao Chan will then advance out through Hu Lao and engage the troops on the
other side - the troops who have broken through the gate will usually regroup, then
return
to the outside of the gate to engage her.  The time they spend doing this will usually be
more than enough for you to rack up your 1000 kills and dispose of Dong Zhuo.
Anyway...that's one way.  I've tried it several times, and I've yet to fail to hit the
1000 kill tally - I find Zhao Yun to be the easiest character, but he's also my favourite
in the game as a whole, so you may find that you suit another character better.  Still,
that said, the route is a simple and efficient one - hopefully, some of you will find
this
to be of help.
Domino.
Copyright 2001