Dynasty Warriors 6: Empires
Chen Gong Character Guide - Ver. 1.0
LordKarasuman/Shokatshin
2009      
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This Guide (Copyright 2009) was composed by LordKarasuman/Shokatshin.
This Guide may not be altered in any way without my consent, and may 
not be distributed without the proper credit attributed. This Guide may
be distributed, but not sold.

=
Index
=

 0. Version History
 1. Introduction
 2. Terminology
 3. Why Chen Gong?
 4. Stats and Moveset Analysis
 5. Optimum Weapon Configuration
 6. Available Scenarios
 7. Special Thanks

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|0. Version History                                                 +
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Ver. 1.0
7/30/09 - Touched it up a bit before re-submitting.
7/29/09 - Finished this guide and submitted.
7/28/09 - Started this guide.

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|1. Introduction                                                    +
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A combination of the Encyclopedia of DW6:E and sources easily reached 
from internet search engines tell us the following:

Chen Gong was an early advisor in the Three Kingdoms period; first to
then-warlord and future King of Wei Cao Cao, and then to rival warlord
and legendary warrior Lu Bu. In Luo Guanzhong's novel, The Romance of
The Three Kingdoms, this was because Chen Gong did not believe Cao Cao
to be a virtuous person.

After assisting Cao Cao in gaining control of Yan province, he later 
defected to Lu Bu. Following the siege of Puyang, both Chen Gong and Lu 
Bu were captured. Though Chen Gong's service was of value to Cao Cao,
Chen Gong requested his own execution anyway; Cao Cao had previously 
made it a rule that those captured in a siege shall be executed. 
Because Chen Gong had been so thoughtful even in the face of his 
impending death, his family was cared for by Cao Cao after he passed 
away.


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|2. Terminology                                                     +
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[This Terminology was designed with the PS3 in mind]
Renbu Rank: Refers to the Renbu level of your weapon. The higher it is,
the more unique hits are in your attack strings.

Basic String: Refers to the attack string used by your character by
pressing the Square button.

Charge String: Refers to the attack string used by your character by
pressing the Triangle button; breaks Guard.

Power Attack: Refers to the attack used by your character by holding
down the Triangle button; breaks Guard.

Musou String: Refers to the attack string used by your character by
holding down the Musou button; breaks Guard eventually.

Musou Attack: Refers to the attack used by your character by either
releasing the Musou button after pressing it, or holding onto it until
the Musou bar has been depleted; breaks Guard.

Throw Charge 1: Refers to the attack you can do by attacking from an
unmoving Guard with the Square button.

Throw Charge 2: Refers to the attack you can do by attacking from an
unmoving Guard with the Triangle button.

Jump Charge: Refers to the attack used by your character by pressing
the Triangle button following a jump; breaks Guard.

Guard: Refers to blocking done by your character through holding L1.

Evade: Refers to the evasive maneuver used by your character by
pressing the R1 button.

Beasts: Refers to the tiger and wolf-type enemies you can face in
Mercenary missions.

Assignment - As a subordinate Officer, you take these missions from a
Ruler every season (on January, April, July, October). They can range
from basic Mercenary missions, to special missions, to invasions.


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|3. Why Chen Gong?                                                  +
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Chen Gong wasn't so bad of a guy, a fact that is a bit exaggerated in
Luo Guanzhong's novel. Those who have played Dynasty Warriors 6 might
remember the scene in which he casually dodges Lu Bu's weapon; he had
quite a master before he died. This makes him a bit more interesting.

Keep in mind though...

Chen Gong is still a "generic officer"; he shares the Resourceful 
Strategist character model with many other playable characters in 
Dynasty Warriors 6: Empires. His strategy card is Jeer, which has few 
practical uses. Due to his apparent lack of unique qualities, you might 
find him uninteresting to play if you lack interest in the flavor of 
his history during the Three Kingdoms period.

However! 

He has notably better stats than other generics. Where other
Strategist-types have around 200 life, Chen Gong has about 50 points
more than that. You see something similar with his Musou, Attack, and
Defense. His weapon is also already equipped with something: Fire,
which while not an incredible addition, is a helpeful thing to have
nonetheless.

He does have one feature that few other strategists have: in the phases 
of gameplay outside of battles, Chen Gong, being one the chief 
counselor for Lu Bu, wears *black*. While this serves no practical 
purpose, that's pretty nifty, eh? Because it's his "default" color, any 
army he controls will also be dressed in black. The only other 
strategists who have the same color do not also have the same stat
boost that Chen Gong has.


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|4. Stats and Moveset Analysis                                      +
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This section assumes that you're using an optimum weapon as per the
suggestions in section 5.

Chen Gong uses a moveset similar to Yuan Shao, Sun Quan, Strategist
generic officers, and Ruler generic officers, with a few differences.


At Level 1, Chen Gong has these stats:
Life: 252
Musou: 270
Attack: 246
Defense: 264

At Level 50 with the proper Training, Chen Gong has these stats:
Life: 920
Musou: 938
Attack: 914
Defense: 932

As you can see, Chen Gong's stats aren't exactly terrific. Well, he's
better than other Generics, but everything peaks in the low 900's. Then 
again, these stats start to not matter as much in Chaos, where most
enemies have astronomical Defense and Attack.


Each of the "String" hits (except for the Musou String) will be denoted 
by the number of required button presses.


(Basic String) 

[Renbu Rank 1]
S1: Slash
S2: Slash
S3: Slash
S4: Forward stab

[Renbu Rank 2]
S5: Upward slash
S6: Upward slash
S7: Forward stab w/ trailing orb

[Renbu Rank 3]
S8: Slash
S9: Forward stab
S10: Slash

[Renbu Rank 4]
S11: Sword spinning attack
S12: Sword spinning attack
S13: Sword spinning attack
S14: Sword spinning attack
S15: Sword spinning attack
S16: Sword spinning attack
S17: Sword spinning attack

- The first Renbu Rank of this attack string (i.e., the first four 
hits) are probably going to be the most useful due to having the best 
range for hitting either crowds of foes or enemy officers. After which 
point you want to evade and start the string again. However, if the 
opportunity presents itself against enemy officers, or if you're 
fighting Beasts, you may want to use the full Basic String. Though a 
few hits of the second Renbu Rank of this string are going to miss on 
certain sizes of Beasts.


(Charge String) 

[Renbu Rank 1]
T1: Launching swing
T2: Launching swing

[Renbu Rank 2]
T3: Sweeping swing

[Renbu Rank 3]
T4: Sweeping swing

[Renbu Rank 4]
T5: Sweeping swing

- Terrible, even with Phantom Hand and Swift Strike. While its fine if 
you can get it going, even that can be impossible as the first hit 
simply takes too long and does not have enough range. However, it does
have element as opposed to the Basic String.


(Power Attack)

[All Renbu Ranks]
Spinning double slash

- Useful in lower difficulties and you lack a twinked weapon, as it can 
send a considerable amount of enemies flying. Otherwise, you'll be 
using the first Renbu Rank of the attack string more often.


(Musou String) 

[All Renbu Ranks]
Similar to S1-S10 of Basic String; Longer range, and forward stabs have
extra hits, continuously loops around back to S1 after S10 if held long 
enough

- While it doesn't look different in terms of movement from the Basic 
String's first three Renbu Ranks, don't let that fool you-- not only is 
its range much extended, but the forward stabs in the Musou String are 
VERY good, being both wider (and able to get way more enemies as 
opposed to the Basic String's pathetic width/reach) and having a bunch 
of extra hidden hits inside it. It's possible to take >50% of an enemy 
officer's health on Chaos difficulty with Flash if you land one of 
these forward stabs, especially the first and third one.


(Musou Attack)

[All Renbu Ranks]
Rolling jump into shockwave

- The rolling jump does do damage, but otherwise it's pretty average.
Can be useful for adjusting the space between yourself and enemies.


(Throw Charge 1) 

[All Renbu Ranks]
Forward stab into three slashes if it connects

- Eh. Interesting to watch as all Throw Charges tend to be, but it has 
bad range and the enemy is liable to block most of the time anyway.


(Throw Charge 2) 

[All Renbu Ranks]
Slash into two kicks, sends enemy flying

- Eh again. This time, while the range isn't too bad, it has too much 
startup time.


(Jump Charge) 

[All Renbu Ranks]
Ground stab, which causes ground pound

- Kind of fun to throw out now and again, as it has more range than the 
ground pound would have you believe. Otherwise, it's not of much
practical use except maybe as a fancy alternative opener to breaking 
through an enemy's Guard, as opposed to say using Guardian Spirit.


In conclusion, Chen Gong's not bad. His bread and butter lies in his
Renbu Rank 1 Basic String and the forward stabs of his Musou String;
attack crowds with your Basic String, or use Guardian Spirit to gain
Musou, then use the Musou String to destroy base Lieutenants, Guard
Captains, or enemy officers. 


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|5. Optimum Weapon Configuration                                    +
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(Weapon) 
Officer's Sword - maxes out at 85 Attack at Level 10

Of all the Dynasty Warriors games, DW6:E is probably the easiest game
in terms of getting the best, highest difficulty-viable weapon. They're
fully customizable and all upgrades and materials can be purchased with 
Gold, which you can...

1) Get every month as an Officer.
2) Acquire through Mercenary missions and/or Ruler Assignments.
3) Amass by using Steal + anti-crowd capabilities such as Chen Gong's
   first Renbu Rank Basic String, or Steal + Guardian Spirit + Evade
   spam.
4) Wait every season for taxes or suggesting Domestic policy; best to
   be in a Faction with a non-generic Officer.
5) Gain through Random Events, most notably Pride of a Nobleman (Yuan
   Shao) and occasionally through Secrets (Zhang Jiao).

Considering that the "time limit" of any scenario is until 300 AD, you
can take all provinces except one, and then run the clock until you've
properly forged everything you need on your weapon through the above.

Best of all, regardless of whether you played through the game in a
lesser difficulty (such as Easy), your weapons can carry over into
another campaign of any difficulty, such as Chaos, so long as you
toggle the relevant Bonus.


[Recommended Imbues]
(Flash) 
- Has a chance of instantly being able to OHKO weaker enemies and take 
off large portions of strong enemies' lifebars. Virtually a requirement 
to use in Chaos difficulty, where enemy defense can oftentimes be too 
high to do meaningful damage.
 Needed materials:
 Star Topaz x9 Dragon Claws x3, Dragon Hair x5, Dragon Scales x7
 You can get the materials you need from Cheng Du.
Rating: (5/5)

(Phantom Hand) 
- Increases the attack range of your weapon. This does WONDERS for Chen 
Gong's range, making most attacks not only usable (as it's quite short-
ranged without} but also makes his Musou String, especially the first 
four hits, quite beastly in reach.
 Needed materials:
 Ruby x1, Pure Diamond x1, Pure Steel x1
Rating: (5/5)

(Guardian Spirit) 
- Sends out a shockwave upon using Evade. Incredibly useful for 
building up your Musou bar in addition to making your Evade safer. The 
shockwave is capable of breaking Guard and flinching even Lu Bu with 
his special aura.
 Needed materials:
 Moon Topaz x1
 You can get a Moon Topaz from Cheng Du.
Rating: (5/5)

Other Imbues you may find useful: True Musou, Concentration, Wind Seal,
Ice Seal, Arrow Sight


[Recommended Specials]
(Recover) 
- Heals a portion of your lifebar. Incredibly useful for Chaos
difficulty, where having to go back to base to heal can mean the
difference between a successful bullrush of the Main Camp and a failed
invasion. The healing scales as your lifebar increases in length, as
well.
 Needed materials:
 Star Amber x2, Star Diamond x2, Dragon Jaw x1, Dragon Beard x2
 You can get the needed materials from Cheng Du, Xu Chang, and He Fei.
Rating: (5/5)

(Double) 
- Adds extra hits to your attacks, as represented by the "doubles" 
following you. Makes the forward stabs of your Musou String even 
deadlier.
 Needed materials:
 Malachite x1, Pure Ruby x1
Rating: (4.5/5)

(Taunt) 
- Lowers defense and negates enemy blocking for a short period of time. 
VERY good for when you've finally pulled the enemy commander out of his 
Main Camp and want to take care of him with a Musou String without too 
much hassle; he'll be unable to block.
 Needed materials:
 Crystal x1, Pure Silver x1
Rating: (4/5)

(Blizzard) 
- Sends out waves of ice in all directions. Not bad, can be used as a 
panic button and for building up Musou.
 Needed materials:
 Star Jade x4, Star Topaz x4, Lion Tail x1, Dragon Liver x1 
Rating: (4/5)

(Rockfall) 
- Causes boulders to fall from the sky. Extremely deadly on a sloped 
area, such as a hill; many people swear by its ability to take out 
hundreds of enemies and even opposing officers.
 Needed materials:
 Ruby x2, Pure Topax x1, Star Sapphire x1
Rating: (4/5)

(Steal) 
- While active, you gain gold from hitting enemies. While it lacks 
offensive capabilities, it's great for gaining tons of gold especially 
in huge bunches of enemies, such as the ones you face while you're 
storming a Supply Base.
 Needed materials: 
 Topaz x1, Pure Agate x1
Rating: (3.5/5)

Other Specials you might find useful: Focus, Fire, Hide


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|6. Available Scenarios                                             +
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This section assumes you'll be playing in Chaos difficulty with an
already optimized weapon and 5000 Bonus Points.


Chen Gong is available to play in three scenarios:

[The Yellow Turban Rebellion]
In this scenario, you start as a vagrant in the same province as Ding 
Yuan (Jin Yang).

While you can choose to serve under him, that isn't your only option.
I'd recommend getting the Training you need from the relevant places
first, before you decide whether to serve someone or to seize any
territories by force.

If you choose to become a subordinate Officer, of all the Rulers, He 
Jin and Zhang Jiao are in pretty good positions. There are also some 
solid two-province Rulers, such as Meng Huo.


[The Battle of Guan Du]
In this scenario, you start under the banner of Lu Bu's forces. 

If you choose to stay under Lu Bu, this may very well be Chen Gong's 
most difficult scenario. Puyang, the province in which Lu Bu starts,
only has a Forge. In other words, you cannot get the training you need
unless you choose to capture Luo Yang or Bei Hai, either of which can
be a difficult proposition.

Neither can you simply leave Lu Bu's service and go to a city with the
Training you need; once you leave someone's service, you cannot 
simply take service with them by going back to their territories. The
option simply does not show up under Events again.

Furthermore, you're sandwiched by Yuan Shao to the North and Cao Cao
to the South, two of the strongest powers of this early period.

So, what to do? You have two options here:

1) Remain under Lu Bu's service.
You'll have quite an uphill battle trying to get more territory, as
well as defending the single one you have. In order to even up the odds
so that Cao and Yuan doesn't just walk over you, try getting some
Friends that can act as extra units during battles. This will make sure
that you aren't at quite so much a disadvantage, especially with
regards to base placement.

2) Game the system.
Here's what you do: leave Lu Bu's service. Then, move to either of the
adjacent rulers; Cao, Yuan, it doesn't matter. Get the Training you
need. Then, try to get into a battle with Lu Bu's forces as your
Assignment. Once in the battle, you can defect immediately...

... Or, you can wait until the "enemy", Lu Bu's forces, finish their
usual AI tactic (it's usually the Sneak Attack, since both Zhang Liao
and Diao Chan use it), and THEN defect, giving you a significant morale
advantage.

Once you're victorious, you've now rejoined Lu Bu's ranks with the
Training you need in tow. Of course, your old allies will treat you
like crap, but eh, what can you do?


[Land in Chaos]
In this scenario, you're free to start wherever you want as a Ruler,
and serve under whoever you choose by starting out as a Vagrant.

If you want to play as an Officer, though, it may be better to start
out as a Ruler; you can simply step down once you've chosen your
province, and pick the three other Officers you started out with as
your Friends. That way, you'll start out with three Friends already
rather than having to play through Mercenary Missions.

Of course, there's really no fun in that; Chen Gong's default color is
black, so you could totally run your own forces with that color.


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|7. Special Thanks                                                  +
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Special thanks to...

-The PSO SB.
-The KoeiWarriors board.
-The GameFAQs Dynasty Warriors 6: Empires board.
-Koei and Omega Force, for making this game.

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Dynasty Warriors 6: Empires
Chen Gong Character Guide - Ver. 1.0
LordKarasuman/Shokatshin
2009