Strategy Guide: Generals – choosing, leveling, equiping, formations, etc by katapult

I. About this guide
II. Generals
III. Unlocking Generals
IV. Recruiting Generals
V. Placing your Generals in formations
VI. Battle game mechanics
VII. Formation philosophies
VIII. Leveling Generals
*Post 2*
IX. Gear
X. Obtaining gear
XI. Enhancing gear
XII. Gear Colour
XIII. Scouting
XIV. Research
XV. General limits
XVI. Building a winning formation
*Post 3*
XVII. Starting Generals
XVIII. Stage Generals
XIX. Shu Title Generals
XX. Reincarnation

I. About this guide
This guide is intended mostly towards new players, but can also help anyone who reaches a new function in the game that concerns generals, or as a refresher if you forgot how to do something.

II. About Generals
Generals are an important part of Dynasty Saga.  As such, you will be visiting the Recruit page often to find out which new Generals are available to you.

III. Unlocking Generals
You can unlock new Generals by defeating bosses.  The first such General you will encounter will be in the Yellow Turban stage, called Zhang Liang.  Another way to unlock General is by obtaining imperial titles.  The second title, Junior Attendant, will unlock a new General depending on your faction (shu, wei, or wu).

IV. Recruiting Generals
After you unlock Generals, you will not immediately be able to use them.  You must first recruit them, and each General has his own fee.

There are multiple ways to reach the Recruit tab:
1) In the bottom right icons, click Army.
    OR
    Select your Academy and click Research.  
2) Both of those open a new box which contains the Recruit tab.

V. Placing your Generals into formations
After you recruit a General, you will need to place it in a formation if you want it to fight.  You will need to reach the Formation tab in the same way you reached the Recruit tab.

1) In the Formation tab, select a formation, such as the Diamond Form.
2) Select the General you would like to add to the formation.
3) Click Add.
4) Select the position in the formation where you would like to place your General.
5) Repeat until all the spots of your formation are filled, or you run out of Generals.

VI. Battle game mechanics
Before suggesting where to place your generals, we’ll begin by discussing how Generals attack.  Generals are placed anywhere on a 3 x 3 grid as follows:
7 4 1       a d g
8 5 2  VS  b e h
9 6 3       c f i
I will use numbers for your Generals, and letters for the ennemy Generals.  Your generals will attack in the following order: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9, and the ennemy will attack in a-b-c-d-e-f-g-h-i.

Generals attack the ennemy on the same line as them first, so General 2 will hit General b, e, and h.  After that line is cleared, he will attack the Generals on top, a, d, and g, and finally the bottom ones: c, f, and i.

VII. Formation philosophies
Now that you can predict who will attack whom, lets talk about the different types of Generals, and where you should place them.

Tankers
Tankers are the solid Generals with very high defensive.  Most use a Gambit, “Iron Will”, which will reduce all damage until your General’s next turn to either 1 or 2.  An alternative is the General Yuan Shu, which has no Gambit, but has very high defense.  It is recommended to place your Tanker in the front line.  If you know your opponent, place your Tanker in front of the opponent’s biggest offensive general.  Your tanker will hold off the attacks while your other Generals clear the field.

Offensive Gambits
Most Generals have offensive Gambits.  They can target a single opponent, or an Area of Effect (AoE), hitting an entire line of Generals, an entire column, a cross, or even all ennemies in the field.  Those Generals benefit from having a high level Horse to deal massive damage.  Since they tend to be solid, and they benefit from getting hit (it builds their morale faster), it is usually best to place them in the front line also.  You can place them in front of a weak opponent in order to get rid of it faster, and ensure your offensive General survives, or you can place him in front of the strongest General, in hopes to overpower it, and then safely clear out the others.

Miscellaneous Generals
There are other generals such as healers (Hua Tuo), Dancers (Cai Yan), and drummers, which you should safely put behind other Generals.  They are not very solid, and very often your strategy will depend on your misc Generals surviving.

VIII. Leveling Generals
You must level up your Generals if you want them to become stronger and use higher level gear.  You can level up your Generals with your Academy.  The higher level your Academy is, the faster your Generals will level.

1) From the Train tab, select a General.
2) Select a session duration.  8 hrs costs silver, and the longer sessions are available when you buy Gold, and they cost a certain amount of Gold: 3 Gold for 24 hours, and 50 Gold for 72 hours.
3) Click Start Session.

While your General is in a training session, he will obtain experience as time passes by.  To help your General level up faster, there are two methods:  You can change the General’s training mode, you can use Instant Progress, or you can use Progress Tokens.

To change the Mode:
1) From the Train tab, select a General currently enrolled in a training session.
2) Click Change Mode.
3) Select the required training mode.  Modes give a bonus to the experience gained from the training session, but does NOT affect Instant Progress or Progress Tokens.
4) Click OK.

You can use Instant Progress every 10 minutes to exchange Battle Points (BP) for experience on a General.  To use Instant Progress:
1) From the Train tab, select a General currently enrolled in a training session.
2) Click Instant Progress.

Progress Tokens are free Instant Progress that you receive from events.  To use Progress Tokens:
1) From the Train tab, select a General currently enrolled in a training session.
2) Click Progress Token.

IX. Gear
Finally, Generals only become very strong with proper equipment, or gear.  There are 6 times of gear available in Dynasty Saga: Weapon, Scroll, Horse, Armour, Cloak, and Totem.

Weapons
Weapons boost your normal attack, and your units.

Scrolls
Scrolls boost your spell attack.  This applies to offensive spells, but also to some defensive spells, such as Hua Tuo’s heal.

Horses
Horses boost your gambit attack.  Overall, they are the most expensive gear to enhance, but are also the most useful.

Armours
Armours reduce the amount of regular damage you take.  They are relatively cheap to enhance, but they don’t go up as quickly as weapons do.

Cloaks
Cloaks reduce the amount of gambit damage you take.  They are very cheap to enhance, but horses go up much quicker in damage than cloaks go up in defense.

Totems
Totems raise your units.  All other gear also raise your units, but Totems specialize in it.  Units are like hit points in this game, so they can help your Generals last longer.

X. Obtaining Gear
You can buy gear through the Armory.  The higher level your Armory, the higher gear you can buy.  You can also receive Gear by finishing a campaign stage.  You can also obtain gear or gear fragments randomly through some campaign battles.  You need multiple fragments (I saw from 2 to 20 so far) to make a full item, but items that come in fragments are usually the strongest.

XI. Enhancing Gear
Gear starts out very weak.  By enhancing your gear, it will become much more powerfull.  Enhance gear through your Armory.  Your Armory level affects how high you can enhance each gear.  Enhancing is random, and the percentage goes up and down as the day progresses, varying between 20% and 100%, though it rarely reaches either extreme.  Only enhance expensive gear when the percentage is high enough.  If you fail, you keep your gear, and the game will refund you a part of the money needed to enhance.  If you succeed, your gear will go up in level, but not in General level.  So a Lv 0 sword can be equiped by any General, even if you enhance it 30 times.

Offensive gear gains more from enhancing than defensive gear, though it’s still good to keep a balance of the two.  Horses gain the most, but are extremely expensive.  Chances are you will only be able to enhance one horse to high level, to plan your formations accordingly.

XII. Gear Colour
Gear comes in various levels and colour, white, blue, green, yellow, red, purple, which represent how rare and powerful a gear is.  The better colour an item has, the more bonuses it gains from enhancing.  So a level 21 green horse might start weaker than a level 35 white horse, but if you enhance it many times, the green horse will become stronger.

XIII. Scouting
Once you level up more, you will be able to scout for either cloaks or horses.  You pay a certain amount of silver for a scout to find you either a horse or cloak.  Very rarely, the scout can find you an advanced scout which will find you even higher level gear.  Once you reach level 51, you will obtain one free scouting per day.

XIV. Research
As you level up your academy, you can level up new formations, but also invest Battle Points (BP) into research.  Research gives a bonus to all your generals, and can be more units, defense, attack, gambit defense, gambit attack, spell defense, spell attack.  Research is a good way to make all your Generals stronger at once.

Every 5 levels, you will have access to new formations, and usually new research.  The following list shows you the formations and their bonuses:

• Diamond Form – Increases block rate.
• Serpent Form – Increases normal damage.  *Recommended until you get a strong horse, dancer and drummers.
• Anvil Form – Increases gambit damage.  *Recommended when you have AoE gambit attacker with horse, dancer, and drummers.
• Crescent Form – Increases critical strike rate.
• Arrowhead Form – Increases dodge rate. *Could be an alternative to Anvil form, use this to try to dodge ennemy AoE gambit attacker.
• Eight Trigram Form – Increases spell damage rate.  Use this if you have a lot of casters.
• Seven Star Form – Increases counterattack damage.
• Wild Goose Form – Increases defense.

The following list shows you the different researches, in the order you will obtain them:

• Arsenal Expansion – Increases units by 10.
• Honed Steel – Increases attack by 10.
• Plate Armor – Increases defense by 7.
• Martial Prowess – Increases gambit attack by 25.
• Unbreakable Lines – Increases gambit defense by 18.
• Gears of War – Increases spell attack by 12.
• Divine Providence – Increases spell defense by 8.
• Inspiring Insigna – Increases units by 20.
• Superior Tactician – Increase battle points (BP) received by 1%.
• Herbalism – Decreases unit losses. (1% per level)
• Juggernaut – Reduces all damage received.
• Reinforcing Vigor – Decreases number of reserves needed to replace units lost in battle.
• Siege Tactics – Increases the chance to destroy buildings when attacking cities.
• Stone Walls – Decreases the chance for ennemies to destroy your buildings.

XV. General limits
Your title affects how many Generals you can have, and your Formation level affects how many Generals you can place inside the formation.  For titles, you get your 4th General at 100 prestige, then 5th at 15’000 prestige, then 6th at 70k, 8th at 420k.  For Formations, level 2 formation (Academy level 10) for 3rd General, Level 5 formation (Academy level 25) for 4th general, and Level 10 formation (Academy level 50) for 5th General


XVI. Building a winning formation
There are multiple things to take into consideration when building a team.  First of all, think of your long-term goal: how will you defeat your opponents.  Then think of what will be required to achieve your goal: which Generals will help, and what gear they will need.  Then ensure your build is feasible: if you need 5 horses to win, which cost over 250k each to enhance to a strong level, you won’t be able to afford to reach your goal.

Currently, the winning strategy is to have an AoE gambit attack, such as Zhang Liang.  You will need to give him a very strong horse.  At level 21, the Ebon Spryhoof is a good choice, or a green Soaring Steed.  After you finish the Yan Baihu stage, you will obtain a level 38 yellow horse, the Bronze Knight, which is very powerful.  Once it reaches +2000 gambit attack, you can one-hit-kill everything.

As you know, it takes a while for morale to build up so you can use your gambit, so the rest of the Generals will support Zhang Liang.  Cai Yan is a dancer, and sets the morale of a random General to 100%.  Since Zhang Liang is our only General that can use morale, she will always target him.

Yi Ji and Liu Biao are drummers and raise your morale of all your Generals by 34%.

The last part of the strategy is figuring out who plays first.  The following diagram shows the order your team will play.  I used light gray to remove the positions that don’t appear in the anvil formation:
741
852
963


If you put Cai Yan and your two drummers in positions 1, 2, 3, and 5, and Zhang Lang in position 8, they will boost him up to 100% + 34% +34% = 168% morale by the time he plays, unleashing a very strong attack.

Finally, I like to use Hua Tuo as a healer to keep everyone alive.  I would replace him with a 3rd drummer if I find one.

Since writing this guide, I found a marching band at 43k Shu prestige which I now use.  So I put Cai Yan in position 1, my 2 drummers and marching band in positions 2, 3, and 5, and I now use Fu Shiren in position 8.

XVII. Starting Generals
The following list shows you the Generals you can start with:
Jade – 63 str, 45 brav, 72 int – War Elephant (High block rate) – Full Onslaught
Daisy – 43 str, 77 brav, 60 int – Inferno Rider (High damage and initiative) – Linebreaker
Zen – 76 str, 50 brav, 54 int – Maul Infantry (High damage) – Iron Will
Rock – 52 str, 80 brav, 48 int – Phoenix Rider ( All stats boosted) – Thunder Strike
Dragon – 47 str, 59 brav, 74 int – Mounted Bowman (High critical strike rate) – Special Forces
Jasper – 74 str, 57 brav, 49 int – Magma Launcher (High damage and critical strike rate) – Demoralizing Shout
Orchid – 79 str, 49 brav, 52 int – Guerilla Corps (High initiative) – Subterfuge
Jasmine – 52 str, 57 brav, 71 int – Stone Bowmen (High block rate) – Ambush

XVIII. Stage Generals
As you advance through the stages, you will unlock many Generals.  Here are the ones I unlocked so far.  I put the stats, unit type, and gambit/special that I could find:

Yellow Turban Stage
Zhang Liang – 68 str, 50 brav, 49 int – Scimitar Warrior (High damage) – Full Onslaught
Zhang Bao – 43 str, 69 brav, 63 int – Spear Hurler (High damage) – Subterfuge
Zhang Jiao – 63 str, 42 brav, 81 int – Raider (High initiative) – Ambush

Dong Zhuo Stage
Xu Rong – 62 str, 51 brav, 51 int – Siege Tower (High damage, 1 target) – no gambit/special
Hua Xiong – 62 str, 87 brav, 38 int – Shield Guard (High defense against archers) – Iron Will
Li Ru – 46 str, 35 brav, 88 int – Thunder Caller (low success, high damage)
Dong Zhuo – 61 str, 80 brav, 28 int – Sharpshooter (High critical strike rate) – Thunder Strike

Renegade Forces Stage
Jia Xu – 33 str, 28 brav, 93 int – Pyromancer (High success)
Cai Yan – 43 str, 29 brav, 87 int – Dancer – boosts morale of 1 target to 100%
Hua Tuo – 68 str, 30 brav, 103 int – Medic – Heals all your team, based on spell attack

Gongsun Zan Stage
Gongsun Yuan – 71 str, 65 brav, 31 int – Charger (High damage) – Ambush
Gongsun Zan – 77 str, 78 brav, 48 int – Spearman (High damage against cavalry) – Spearhead

Zhang Lu Stage
Zhang Lu – 59 str, 57 brav, 41 int – Ballista (Attacks column)

Yuan Shu Stage
Lei Bo – 43 str, 67 brav, 33 int – Immortal (High block rate) – Treacherous Ploy
Ji Ling – 31 str, 79 brav, 30 int – Equine Nataton (High block rate) – Subterfuge
Yuan Shu – 68 str, 58 brav, 37 int – Tortoise Tank – Defensive unit

Yan Baihu Stage
Sha Moke – 52 str, 93 brav, 30 int – Woodland Ranger (High counterstrike rate) – Linebreaker
Yan Baihu – 72 str, 88 brav, 43 int – Inferno Squad (High damage and initiative) – Inspiring Blow

Liu Biao Stage
Cai Mao – 72 str, 58 brav, 43 int – Phoenix Cross (all stats boosted) – Sweeping Offensive
Yi Ji – 47 str, 58 brav, 77 int – Corps of drum – boosts morale of all units by 34%
Wen Pin – 73 str, 82 brav, 30 int – Dragon Knight (High offense) – Special Forces
Liu Biao – 69 str, 43 brav, 72 int – Corps of drum – boosts morale of all units by 34%

Liu Zhang Stage
Leng Bao – 52 str, 82 brav, 19 int – Shadowrider (High critical strike rate) – Linebreaker
Li Hui – 70 str, 58 brav, 61 int – Fire Ballista (Column attack)
Yan Yan – 71 str, 73 brav, 49 int – Iron Ram (Single target attack)
Liu Zhang – 65 str, 29 brav, 57 int – Assassin (High damage and initiative) – Spearhead

Ma Teng Stage
Ma Dai – 48 str, 69 brav, 34 int – Thunder Catapult (Row attack)
Han Sui – 75 str, 62 brav, 57 int – Magma Launcher (High damage and critical rate) – Zealous Barrage
Ma Teng – 84 str, 85 brav, 38 int – Mounted Bowman (High critical strike rate) – Desparate Measures

Meng Huo Stage
Wutu Gu – 70 str, 101 brav, 36 int – Crusher (High critical strike rate) – Iron Will
Zhu Rong – 68 str, 80 brav, 43 int – Rattan Infantry (Reduced damage from archers) – Stampede
Meng Huo –

Yuan Shao Stage
Xu You – 32 str, 12 brav, 85 int, Flamelord (Stronger than pyromancer, High success rate)
Yang Liang – 55 str, 95 brav, 24 int – Pike Brigade (High damage against cavalry) – Vengeful Strike
Wen Chou – 51 str, 97 brav, 29 int – Blitz Cavalry (High initiative) – Berzerker Rage
Yuan Shao – 79 str, 70 brav, 51 int – Phoenix Crossbowman (All stats boosted) – Thunder Strike

Lu Bu Stage
Zhang Liao – 82 str, 90 brav, 51 int – Redwood Tower
Diao Chan – 54 str, 33 brav, 87 int – Dancer
Lu Bu – 84 str, 120 brav, 33 int – Lion Brigade (High Damage) – (gambit attacks twice)

XIX. Shu title Generals
The following list shows you the Generals you can obtain from Imperial Titles if you play Shu.
500 – Zhang Bao – 57 str, 99 brav, 30 – Mounted Bow (High critical strike rate) – Thunderstrike
6000 – Fa Zheng – 57 str, 46 brav, 78 int – Flood Lord – average success, slightly increased damage
20000 – Zhao Guang – 78 str, 85 brav, 58 int – Phoenix Rider (All stats boosted) – Demoralizing Shout
25000 – Sun Qian – 45 str, 30 brav, 82 int – Pyromancer – High success rate
30000 – Fei Yi – 53 str, 30 brav, 75 int – Thunder Caller – low success, high damage
38000 – Fu Shiren – 63 str, 78 brav, 27 int – Guerilla Corps (High initiative) – Full Onslaught
43000 – Mi Fang – 55 str, 55 brav, 63 int – Marching Band
50000 – Qin Mi – 48 str, 54 brav, 72 int – Inferno Squad (High damage and initiative) – Linebreaker
60000 – Ma Liang – 47 str, 39 brav, 87 int – WoodLand Ranger (High counterattack rate) – Sweeping Offensive
80000 – Ma Shu – 63 str, 41 brav, 83 int – Doombringer (Cause panic on successful attacks)
90000 – Deng Zhi – 78 str, 47 brav, 62 int – Iron Ram (Single target attack)
100000 – Liao Hua – 63 str, 82 brav, 47 int – ? – Spearhead
130000 – Jiang Wan – 63 str, 45 brav, 87 int – Corps of Drums
150000 – Wang Ping – 78 str, 91 brav, 30 int -? – ?
170000 – Guan Ping – 74 str, 85 brav, 42 int – ? – Demoralizing Shout
190000 – Guan Suo – 70 str, 99 brav, 36 int -? – ?
210000 – Zhou Cang – 73 str, 88 brav, 44 int -? – ?
240000 – Guan Xing – 79 str, 79 brav, 50 int – ? – Subterfuge
260000 – Xu Shu – 52 str, 68 brav, 97 int -? – ?
310000 – Zhao Tong – 88 str, 82 brav, 53 int – Iron Ram (Single target attack)
340000 – Huang Zhong – 83 str, 94 brav, 50 int -? – ?
370000 – Pang Tong – 77 str, 43 brav, 108 int -? – ?
420000 – Wei Yan – 73 str, 97 brav, 68 int – ? – Demoralizing Shout
440000 – Ma Chao – 78 str, 112 brav, 48 int – ? – Inspring Blow
450000 – Jiang Wei – 95 str, 74 brav, 88 int – Tortoise Tank (High defense)
460000 – Zhang Fei – 82 str, 113 brav, 28 int – ? – ?
470000 – Liu Bei – 92 str, 93 brav, 76 int – ? – ?
480000 – Guan Yu – 99 str, 104 brav, 65 int – ? – ?
490000 – Zhao Yun – 95 str, 100 brav, 80 int – ? – ?
500000 – Zhuge Liang – 97 str, 53 brav, 120 int – ? – ?

XX. Reincarnation
Reincarnation is a great feature that makes your Generals much stronger.  Once a General reaches 51, you can reincarnate him back down to level 1.  After reincarnation, he will keep his equipment as long as you don’t remove it.  How does reincarnation work?  If you look at the enlighten tab, you will notice all your heroes have a level and a unit level.  The unit level determines how strong your General is.  After reincarnation, your General will restart level 1, but the unit level will start higher, around Soldier 7 or 9, randomly.  Then the reincarnate at will change.  My first 3 Generals can re-reincarnate at 59, 57, and 56.  I read somewhere that your city hall should be 9 levels higher than the reincarnate level.  So for the first reincarnation, your General should be 51, and your city hall should be 51 + 9 = 60.

General Reincarnation (I call it reborn~) by ShadowJ

When you select your hero by clicking on “Army” (located first icon on the left next to the server time on the bottom right of your screen), and you click on “Enlighten” you can see your ‘selected hero’s info with 3 parts displayed – General Level, Unit Level and Reincarnate at Lv??

I call Reincarnation – Reborn, so when your hero reaches lv51 initially you can reborn your hero. Now, I wouldn’t suggest to reborn your hero when your city hall reaches lv51, through research and testing my heroes, the best level to reborn your hero is when your city hall lv is great than hero reborn lv by 9.

Eg. Hero can reincarnate at Lv51 <<< this is reborn 0 times, then city hall better to be plus 9 level so city hall at lv60. What this does is gives your hero the max possible room to reborn with shortest training time. I repeat, no matter how you reborn your hero, they will end up around the same, it only takes how many times you need to reborn a hero.

Say a hero Zhang Liang first reborn at lv51, and the system shows the next reborn is at lv57, that means that Zhang Liang’s lv51 at the time of reborn will reborn to lv0, and what it means to you is retrain Zhang Liang from lv0 to Lv57 again and once your City hall is Lv66 (9 lv above lv57) you reborn Zhang Liang for 2nd time and so on until Zhang Liang reaches Lv110.

So you can do the calculation yourself, if Zhang Liang reborns 1st time and the next reborn level the system shows Lv52, that’s a lot sooner than example shown above.

Some people has made a big fuss about reborn / reincarnating hero, the way I see it is just how ‘fast’ can you train your hero by reducing the number of times you need to reborn / reincarnate that particular hero.

Hot Tip: When a hero reborn back to lv 0, DO NOT REMOVE HIS / HER WEAPON / ARMOUR because if you don’t touch it, a lv0 can still wear a lv8 armour… however if you have removed that hero’s gear then that hero needs to wait until that hero re-trains back up to lv8 before that hero can wear the lv8 armour again!!

Reincarnation Explanation by Raynor

when you reborn your hero what happens is very simple, but part of a far more complex thing in the game.  when you reborn, your hero level resets back to 1 while your unit level is increased. what that means is instead of starting at Novice 1 unit level with your hero at level 1 you will start with a higher unit level.  for instance, you may start at unit level novice 7 or even fighter 1.

now why is that important.  unit level helps determine the overall strength of your general.  in essence, you basically get stronger faster.  if you put a level 51 hero that hasn’t been reborn against a lvl 51 hero that has been reborn, the reborn hero will be stronger.  when you reborn you don’t lose all your equipment.  it all stays equipped on your hero.

however, there are downfalls to reborn.  your general is reset at level 1 so he will be very weak for awhile.  really until you get back up into the 30’s with levels i wouldn’t suggest trying to go further in campaign. this also leaves you vulnerable to PvP attack, thus i would suggest reborning your heroes during winter.

now, before you reborn there are things you need to know.  everytime you reborn your heroes, a new level to reincarnate appears.  this level is called a star.  there are 9 star levels 1-9.  when your hero is reborn he is automatically assigned a star.  the level of that star is how many more levels you need to reincarnate again.  For example the first reincarnate is level 51.  when i reborn and the new reborn level is 58 you take 58-51 and you get 7.  your hero got a 7 star.

the max amount you can increase per reborn is 9 levels, and you can only increase as high as your City Hall level.  what i mean by that is if your city hall is level 55 and you reborn your hero at level 51 the highest star you could get would be 4 and your hero could be reborn again at level 55.  so what that means is you need to keep your city hall 8-10 levels above your REBORN level NOT your GENERALS level.  now, why is this important?  your goal is to get a level 110 hero, but also get your reborn level to 110, so you want it to increase by the max possible everytime you reborn.  imagine reborning your hero at level 51 and then having to do it again at level 52.  that would suck.  you want to increase it as much as possible everytime.