Dynasty Warriors 4 / Shin Sangoku Musou 3 - Diao Chan / Chousen Character Guide By LordKarasuman This Guide (Copyright 2003) was made entirely on the experiences of LordKarasuman. This Guide may not be altered in any way without my consent, and may not be distributed without my name as author on. This FAQ may be distributed, but not sold. ----------------------------------------------------------- Table of Contents: 1) Guide History 2) About Diao Chan 3) From Dynasty Warriors 3 to Dynasty Warriors 4 4) Character Stats 5) Orbs 6) Why Use Diao Chan? 7) Moves, 10th Weapon Acquiration, and Costumes 8) Overview and Character Strategy 9) Beating Lu Bu 10) Stage Flowchart 11) Final Words ----------------------------------------------------------- 1) Guide History 2/9/2003 - Started this FAQ. ----------------------------------------------------------- 2) About Diao Chan Taken from the DW4 Character Database: "A young songstress unequaled in beauty a well as song and dance. Raised by Wang Yun as his own daughter. For the sake of Wang, who is fearful of Dong Zhuo and Lu Bu, she gets chose to both of them, and succeeds in tearing their relationship apart, with Lu Bu later killing Dong." LordKarasuman's notes: It is unknown what Diao Chan's style-name is. In fact, it is in question whether or not Diao Chan really exists. The reason for this is that there are almost no historical records that show anything about a person named Diao Chan. There are, however, small mentions of a woman whom Dong Zhuo and Lu Bu fought over. But no names, except for in a book called "Han Shu Tongzhi", which no longer exists, that included even her name, but supposedly the word "Diao" was in a different character than ones usually used for her name. Another thing to note. You may have seen Diao Chan sometimes named as Diaochan. You might be wondering about this if you've seen it. This is due to the fact that Diao Chan's name does not contain her last name, as most of these people do. Diao Chan is in actuality her first name, which is why she is sometimes refered to as Diaochan. This is just a way of acknowledging that fact. It is not known what Diao Chan's last name is... ----------------------------------------------------------- 3) From Dynasty Warriors 3 to Dynasty Warriors 4 I have honestly never played Diao Chan very much... Or rather, I never liked her at all in DW3. After giving her another go in DW4, I think she's extremely cool, especially now that she has a Musou Mode -- I never bought DW3:XL, you see. But from what I remember from her, she hasn't changed much. She only has the basic changes: a different T Charge, and a different SST Charge. She still seems to have a maximum of five items to equip, at least eventually. I think her SSSSST has grown in range and width. ----------------------------------------------------------- 4) Character Stats Dynasty Warriors 4 has a lot of different character stats. Here are definitions for each of them. A. Attack Attack is the amount of attack power that a character has. B. Defense Defense limits the damage done to a character. C. Musou Musou stats gauge how long your Musou bar is. D. HP HP or Life stats are how long your life bar is. E. Bow Attack/Defense Bow Attack increases your arrow attack power, while defense increase your durability to arrow attacks. F. Mounted Attack/Defense Mounted Attack and Defense increase your mounted attack power and increase your durability on horses respectively. G. Musou Charge Musou Charge increases your ability to charge up your Musou while getting hit, attacking, or charging up using circle. H. Luck Luck increases your ability to get meatbun, war-god axe, and armor items. I. Jump Jump increases your maximum jumping altitude. J. Reach Reach increases the range of your attacks. K. Speed Speed is how fast you run. ----------------------------------------------------------- 5) Orbs Orbs are a fun new feature in Dynasty Warriors 4, allowing any character to make use of any Element in the game. You must have full Musou to make use of an Orb, unless you have a 10th Weapon which removes this requirement. A. Fire Orb Sets the enemy on fire. Those on fire will receive extra damage. B. Lightning Orb Adds lightning to your attacks. Enemies hit by lightning will hurt other nearby enemies when they hit the ground. C. Vorpal Orb Instantly kills enemy soldiers and does a set amount of damage against enemy generals. D. Ice Orb Freezes the enemy. Enemies will be frozen if hit for a time. E. Blast Orb Deals out more damage, and enemies will still take damage even when they are blocking. F. Poison Orb When enemies are poisoned with this Orb, they will take more damage when you attack them rather than if they were not poisoned. ----------------------------------------------------------- 6) Why Use Diao Chan? Diao Chan is a speedy character, with both fast attack speed and fast running speed. She's a character who could probably run in, take out the enemy general, and run out with a few minor bruises here and there. She's also got the advantage of being really cute, heh. A good female character whom you could play if you're a veteran of the game. ----------------------------------------------------------- 7) Moves, 10th Weapon Acquiration, and Costumes Moves Key: S - Square T- Triangle Regular Attack - S's Regular Diao Chan's attacks begin by hitting mostly in front of her, without much regard to anybody to her side or behind her. But eventually she starts hitting more people in front of her, and then does a 360 swing with one of her maces. Jump Attack: Diao Chan merely whacks the person with her mace. Mounted Attack/Musou: Diao Chan hits people to one side with her mace, constantly switching sides as you keep pressing square. Dash Attack: Diao Chan does a flip kick. Air Charge (Jump, then T): Run-of-the-mill Air Charge. Diao Chan jumps up and slams her maces into the ground causing a shockwave. T: Diao Chan does a slide kick on the ground. ST: Diao Chan's first launcher. Launches them up with her maces. SST: Diao Chan's Charge Rush. She constantly keeps kicking the enemy while moving forward with an ending of two hits. SSST: Diao Chan does a double-hit attack with her maces first then a kick. SSSST: Diao Chan's second launcher. Launches them up with one mace. SSSSST: Diao Chan sends two energy waves on the enemy, one moving diagonally left and the other moving diagonally right. Musou: Diao Chan begins by flip-kicking the enemy then doing constant spin-kicks, then ends with a flip and a downward thrust from her maces. 10th Weapon Information: The 10th Weapons don't come with as much fanfare as the 4th and 5th weapons do. They no longer come with an Element attached. That's what the Orbs are for. They lack special stats, too -- the only advantage that the 10th Weapon has for the 9th Weapon is that the 10th Weapon has some extra attack on it, as well as allowing the character to make use of the Orb they're using without having a full Musou. 10th Weapon: Diva +51 Attack How to get his 10th Weapon: Stage - The Battle of Si Shui Gate Method - At the Battle of Si Shui Gate, Sun Jian will send a Messenger to Yuan Shu. Let this Messenger accomplish this task, and do NOT kill any enemy generals as you wait. Afterwards, wait until Sun Jian routs Hua Xiong, then defeat any two of these generals: Liu Bei, Cao Cao, Sun Jian. Afterwards you will get her 10th weapon, then complete the stage. I got this method from Muni, so thank Muni, not me. In fact, you should've looked at Muni's FAQ for 10th Weapon methods, not here. There is a popular trick to getting tenthth weapons. Pick the person you want to get the fourth weapon in one of the player slots. Pick a maxed out, powerful character in the other slot. Then, fulfill the requirements needed to get the fourth weapon with the maxed out character, and get the weapon. Afterwards complete the level. This may not work depending on the requirement, though. Costumes: 1) Beginning costume. 2) A nearly all reddish-pink version of her beginning costume. 3) Beginning costume, but with a shorter skirt and a different hairpin (a rose) and a different tiara. 4) Reddish-pink version of number 3. 5) Original DW2 and DW3 Costume. 6) A purple version of her original DW2 and DW3 Costume. ----------------------------------------------------------- 8) Overview and Character Strategy For me, Diao Chan's greatest strength is the fact that she moves around so much in her attacks. She moves so much forward, especially in her Charge Rush, that she could pull off focusing on a general and not get hit, except for against bodyguards that like to do that Charge where they ram their spears into your back. Frankly, no one can do anything about those. I find her range to be quite bad at the beginning. However, her speedy attacks are enough to get her through. Her defense is quite good, though it's doesn't stand out like Zhen Ji and Zhuge Liang's Defense does. She starts out with a long Musou Gauge, although her Musou doesn't seem to do as much damage as it should due to the way each hit wastes Musou. Although I will point out that it is easy to get behind a person's defense with her Musou. I do find that she has a bit of a problem with dealing with crowds on her attacks. I think that her normal T and a Lightning Orb are awesome solutions for this setback. The slide-kick comes out extremely fast and it's very difficult to be interrupted out of it. I have a bit of a problem with her launchers. They connect the first time quite easily and quickly, but when using it again on an enemy I found it difficult to reconnect. This is due to her range. Then again, it's really hard to juggle with anybody in the first place because most generals recover out of a juggle. Connecting the last hit on Diao Chan's SSSSST proved quite hard, and in fact it's impossible if the enemy's on the ground. However if they're being juggled you can pull it off without a hitch, though all you'd get ouf of it would be mere juggle damage. Her horseback skills are nothing to speak of, and are actually quite bad. In a nutshell, the Pros and Cons of Diao Chan: Pros - Good Attack Speed - Good Running Speed - Good Defense - Enough room to equip whatever you need - Long Musou Gauge - Easy to get behind people's defense with Musou - Average Crowd Control with T and Lightning Orb Cons - May seem a bit unwieldy - Musou probably isn't as powerful as most people's - Range - SSSSST doesn't connect well Recommended Equipment: Shadow Runner (Cannot Be Knocked Off Horse) or Red Hare (Fastest Horse) Lightning Orb (Watching Fireworks and Clearing Crowds!) Tortoise Amulet (+ Defense) Tiger Amulet (+ Attack) Peacock Urn (+ Life) Elixir (+ Musou Charge) Wind Scroll (+ Range) ----------------------------------------------------------- 9) Beating Lu Bu Lu Bu seems impossible to beat... But is it impossible? There is in fact a way to beat Lu Bu on the battlefield, though I don't think it's possible for anyone to win in a duel except with countering and a powerful character. To beat Lu Bu, you have to keep your life bar at red and constantly make use of a True Musou. A very cheap and very tedious way of doing it, but still, it's better than nothing. ----------------------------------------------------------- 10) Stage Flowchart Diao Chan is available in two Musou Mode scenarios: Dong Zhuo and Lu Bu. Here is the stage flowchart for the Dong Zhuo scenario. ActI: The Battle of Si Shui Gate The Battle of Hu Lao Gate ActII: Campaign Against Sun Jian ActIII: Campaign Against Liu Bei Campaign Against Cao Cao ActIV: Lu Bu's Revolt Here is the stage flowchart for the Lu Bu scenario. Act I: The Battle of Si Shui Gate The Battle of Hu Lao Gate Act II: Lu Bu's Rebellion Act III: The Battle of Xia Pi Campaign Against Cao Cao Act IV: Campaign Against Sun Jian Campaign Against Cao Cao ----------------------------------------------------------- 11) Final Words Special Thanks to: The www.3kingdoms.net Crew, for their opinions and ideas in the first guide. And also people like The Historian and Shu-Han Zhao Lie Di, whom I learn a lot from there and take some info that you might find in the 'about' sections. Muni Shinobu, Orochian, Xiao Qiao, and all the others at GameFAQs for providing so much info. Koei, for making this ubertacular game! ----------------------------------------------------------- Dynasty Warriors 4 / Shin Sangoku Musou 3 - Diao Chan / Chousen Character Guide By LordKarasuman