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What are Campaigns?

Campaigns are faction vs faction wars that decide who takes over the city. If you have played the Empire expansions from the console games, the concept is similar to that. Unlike Showdowns, they are not 12v12, they are 4v4 melee battles. They are the most important part of Dynasty Warriors Online and will determine which faction is victorious in the end.


When do they happen?

Campaign dates are announced by the GM, there are usually 1 or 2 battles for each Faction depending on how many factions are in the scenario. They last until one factions troop pool is depleted.

You will know when your city is about to participate in a campaign as the following things occur before a campaign is about to start:

  • The town music changes into a battle-theme. The theme again changes when campaign is in progress
  • There will an Antique Dealer, Blacksmith, Tailor, Broker, Merchant, and Campaign Officer in each plaza. These NPC serve the same function as their market counterpart (Campaign Officer is like the Marshal, but with only the Campaign function) except that you cannot get or turn in quest to them.
  • All the Generals will be walking around town, if you need to talk to them personally, you will have to wait for them to pass by, although you can go to the chief in their officer if you need to: turn in a quest you already have, abandon a quest you already have, get a stipend, or take a promotion. When campaign is in progress, participating commanders won't be around at all.
  • The exception to the above is the faction leader, even if they are part of the campaign, they will stay in their office. During a campaign they will automatically be the one who gives you a stamp on your musou board. If you are under them then you can also get quests as normal. They do not replace your normal general during campaign, and you can't get quests from them if you don't serve under them.

How are the cities that are contested decided upon?

The area with the most conflict points will be the ones that will be fought over in a campaign in most circumstances. However, this is ultimately decided by the GMs. The two factions that are contesting that area will be the ones fighting over that city. When the campaign ends, the conflict points for that area will be reset to 0.

The force with more conflict points decides which faction starts off with more morale when the campaign begins. Starting troops is influenced by the battlefield distance from the capital of each faction. The farther away the battlefield is from your capital, the less troops your faction will start off with.

NPC factions that are in under campaign will call upon a faction or coalition to help them out. Whoever is helping them will fight as normal. If the attackers win then they will gain the territory, but if the defenders win the city leader will make an alliance with them and they gain that city. So NPC factions are still played against another faction with people in it.

How can I participate in a Campaign?

If your faction is involved in a campaign you can join by going to the Marshal and selecting the "Campaign" option. Do note you must be Lt. Major rank or higher to participate in a campaign. Please note that the Marshal you go to must be the one for whom the battle is for. If you are in a coalition, say Sun Jian and Yuan Shao, and you are in Sun Jian where the campaign is for Yuan Shao, then you must use the Peach Nymph to go over to Yuan Shao and you will then join campaign there. If you do it from Sun Jian you will simply be shown how the campaign is doing, but you cannot join from a faction that isn't directly involved in the campaign.

When you select to participate in a campaign you will taken to another menu with a map

Campaign Battleb

1. Troop Bar: Indicates the number of remaining troops on each side. As the campaign wages, the bar will turn red or blue depending on which side has more troops. When one side reaches 0 troops, they will be defeated and the campaign will end.

2. Morale Bar: Indicates the current morale of each force. The amount of morale will effect how many troops are taken off for each win in a campaign for the losing general(s). Consecutive streaks of players in each faction greatly effect the morale bar. Getting consecutive wins will increase the morale bar for your side, while losing a win streak will greatly decrease the morale for your side.

3. Battle List: Indicates the battles going on that you can join. This will tell you what two commanders are fighting and it will highlight which position they are in on the map. The two commanders that appear here are the ones that will show up in the battle you fight in. When generals lose all their troops they will be removed from this map, the generals that were fighting him/her will go to reinforce an allied general in the same force and team up. When you win a battle against generals who are teamed up, the troops lost will be split up among them.

4. Ranking List: This ranking list shows the position of each player's standings, as by wins, and consecutive wins in the current campaign. If a player, or party of players, get a certain amount of consecutive wins, they will be announced to every player on both factions to all players in town.

5. Battle Location: Shows where exactly in China the current campaign is being wagered.

6. Troop Count: Shows how many troops in hundreds that particular general has left. So in the screenshot above the general that is circled has 13,500 troops (135 x 100 = 13,500). When the troop count reaches zero, that general will withdraw from battle.

7. Battle Intensity Indicator: Represents whether that particular general has a lot of battles currently taking place. There are 5 levels indicated by a clashing sword symbol.

8. Campaign Council Participants: How many players are currently participating in the campaign.

Campaign Basics

The ultimate objective of a campaign is to deplete the troops of the opposing faction. Campaigns run until one side loses. When the campaign ends the winning faction will take over the city if one was fought for, and the in game timeline will be updated to reflect the campaign result.

Campaigns are pretty much Melee Battles. However there are couple of things that are preset about them:

1. Generals will ALWAYS enter the battle, the general in the battle are the commanders that are currently clashing in that area. If you defeat a general during battle you will gain their General Spirit. You can use their spirit in battle to transform into that particular general. However, it will overwrite your advanced skill.

2. The map in which you fight on will be randomly decided. Chosen from the list of maps that are normally available for that battlefield in normal melee.

3. Difficulty for the battle is set to Musou mode. So there is no restriction on who can enter what battles. You can be Lt. Major matched up against Generals.

4. Generals will NOT have their full rank displayed. Ex: A Field General would only be shown as General in preparation screen. A counselor general will look the same as a field general. (This rules applies to elite melee matches as well.)

5. You will be matched up with enemy players based on your fame and the number of consecutive wins you have. It is the average of all players in the party/group. So if you have a high number of consecutive wins you will be matched up with other people with high consecutive wins.

Winning Condition of Matches

The winning condition of campaign matches are randomly decided from the following set:

  • Achieve 2000 KOs.
  • Achieve 3000 KOs.
  • Capture all enemy bases.
  • Capture all enemy and neutral bases on the map.
  • Defeat the Enemy Leader (General)
  • Destroy the Enemy Force (Fighting Strength)

If you notice, there is no defeat 10 enemy commanders mode or treasure hunting mode. The winning condition will be displayed in the preparation screen so you will have time to prepare. Secondary condition is troop KO for all modes.

Tips for Campaign

  • Consecutive wins in campaign do more damage to troops then singular wins. So if you build up a hot streak, you will do more damage to the enemy then 10 other parties who have just won for the first time. However, if you build up a hot streak your name will be announced to both factions to make other players aware of skills.
  • You should create a team that you know well and can communicate easily with. This will allow you to build up a winning streak and do more damage to the enemy.
  • Your party should also be versatile and be able to handle any mode, as you cannot decide which mode that you will be thrown into.
  • Stop the consecutive wins for the opposing faction. Stopping players with a high number of consecutive wins will deal a huge blow to the enemy morale.

Campaign Aftermath

The winning faction will take the city of the losing faction (if one was fought over) and gain domestic points. The losing faction will lose domestic points and the quality of items found in melees decreased.

Sometimes when taking over NPC factions new generals will join you. For example, taking over the Nanman faction will add Meng Huo and Zhu Rong to your forces. In other scenarios taking over Liu Biao will add Gan Ning, Huang Zhong, and Wei Yan to your forces or taking over Ma Teng/Ma Chao will add Ma Chao and Pang De to your forces. These generals get new offices in the courtyard and you can choose to serve under them.

Campaign FAQ

What kind of weapon should I bring into a Campaign?

A weapon that is versatile for defeat, base capture, and general killing. As you cannot decide which kind of match you will fight in. You can also have multiple weapons catered for each specific mode. You will be able to see what kind of mode you are fighting in the preparation screen.

How come <insert map here> never gets played?

Each campaign takes place on a certain battlefield of China. Each battlefield only has a certain number of game maps that are available based on geographic location. So battlefields near Wu will have the water maps like "Marsh" and "River Port" as a playable game map. While battlefields in the northern part of China will have game maps like "Plains" available to them.

What happens if a faction loses all their cities?

When a faction loses all of their cities they will inherent the domestic stats of the faction that wiped out their last city and they will become a sub-faction. During the next campaign the faction will have a chance to rise up and reconquer their capital city and they will start with an overwhelming advantage in the number of troops during that campaign.

What determines the starting troops and morale for each force?

Starting troops have to do with the distance of the battlefield from the capital city of each force. For every city (except NPC cities) away from the capital that the campaign takes place at, the troop count is decreased by 7,500 troops starting from 90,000. If you fight from the capital, your force will start with 90,000 troops. Starting morale is influenced by the conflict points for the particular battlefield that are earned through regular melee.

What determines the amount of troops you take off after every successful victory in a campaign?

It is believed that force morale plays a huge part as does the number of total consecutive wins of the winning team. It is most likely a combination of the two and possibly rank/honor/fame. The exact formula is unknown. As consecutive wins and force morale are generally intertwined. However, the longer the campaign goes on, the more damage will be done after each battle.

What happens if a faction has less than 5 generals? Who participates in campaign?

Generic officers will take up the missing spots in campaign. Such as Jian Yong, Yan Liang, Hua Xiong, Ma Liang, Cheng Pu, etc. If you join a battle involving a generic officer the "Defeat the Enemy Leader" battle will never be chosen. It will be just like a regular melee battle. No generals will join the battle, even if the opposite side contains a musou general.

Troop count Calculation

Some people will wonder how to calculate starting troop count. Here are 3 examples of campaign situations Campaign Map 1 Campaign Map 2 Campaign Map 3

Each example shows the distance traveled which determines how many troops stay back for each city till the eventual battleground.

Distance 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Troop Count 90,000 82,500 75,000 67,500 60,000 52,500 45,000 37,500 30,000

The nearer to the capital you are, the more troops you have.
As you can see, 1 distance unit (of your force) = -7,500 troops.

What are Final Campaigns?

Final Campaigns are the battles to decide which faction is the unifier of the scenario so a new one can start. These battles are all on fair ground giving both sides 90,000 troops and even morale. Battles are based on number of factions and number of territories held. For example with 3 factions the one with the most lands will not have to battle till the other 2 have a victor between them. In case of 4 the factions with the most cities fight each other and the ones with the least fight each other, the winners of those matches fight to determine the unifier. With 5 the factions with the most land only has to battle once the other 4 decide who will battle them which goes in tournament style of 2 highest against each other and 2 lowest against each other, then the 2 winners then the victor between them versus the one with the most land. When the land is unified under one faction you will get to view your ending with your general and get transported to Limbo Town.

Short form examples
3 factions
Wei has the most territories, Wu has the second most, Shu has the least

Wei doesn't battle until day 2 (Sunday)
Wu battles Shu on day 1 (Saturday)
Wu/Shu winner battles Wei on day 2 (Sunday)

Winner on day 2 is the unifier

4 factions
Cao Cao has the most territories, Sun Ce has the second most amount of territories, Yuan Shao has the 2nd least amount of territories, Liu Bei has the least

Cao Cao battles Sun Ce on day 1 (Saturday), Yuan Shao battles Liu Bei on day 1 (Saturday)
Cao Cao/Sun Ce winner battles Yuan Shao/Liu Bei winner on day 2 (Sunday)

Winner on day 2 is the unifier

5 factions
Cao Cao has the most territories, Sun Jian has the second most amount of territories, Dong Zhuo is in the middle in territory count, Yuan Shao has the second least, Liu Bei has the least.

Cao Cao doesn't battle until day 3 (Monday)
Sun Jian battles Dong Zhuo on day 1 (Saturday), Yuan Shao battles Liu Bei on day 1 (Saturday)
Sun Jian/Dong Zhuo winner battles Yuan Shao/Liu Bei winner on day 2 (Sunday)
Cao Cao battles winner from day 2 on day 3 (Monday)

Winner on day 3 is the unifier

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