Since my last post on DW6, I've recently discovered the use of blocking and grappling, played He Fei Castle and Yi Ling in Chaos Mode, and played with more characters. And boy, did playing He Fei Castle and Yi Ling in Chaos Mode changed my values on the best character. Seriously, one of my officers was routed just 10 seconds into playing.

Chaos Mode Analysis

After playing in Chaos mode for a while I've taken these things into consideration:

-Your Horse is your life. Literally. Steel Hoof is staple for getting through crowds and Musou Gait can speed up your killing time which is also a need. But this doesn't really play into the best character.
-Your Musou is practically your only weapon outside of stampeding through crowds with your horse. So longer Musous are practically staple.
-Don't get me wrong though. You need good combos too when only trying to take over bases with corporals and archers.
-You are in constant danger of being killed whether you are in red health, yellow health, blue health, or full health. Seriously. Even Lieutenants deal damage like Lu Bu!
-You need Flash and True Musou in your weapon. It's a MUST. Soldiers are way harder to kill too in Chaos Mode. True Musou is needed for a more effective Musou Last Ditch Effort.
-I guess more Life and Defense can be an added bonus. But it won't make that much of a difference.
-Oh yeah, Specials. They're last ditch efforts. Don't use them only when you're facing one or two officers unless you're in red health. Trust me, you'll find yourself in positions where you face like three, four officers at the same time that's when you use it.
-Oh, and never turn your back when facing an officer. If you have to flee, never RUN away. Always DODGE ROLL away. It'll look stupid while you're rolling but if you just run through huge crowds I guarantee you'll get hit.

Your basic strategy in Chaos mode is to fill up your musou while riding your horse and if there's only one or two officers, get off your horse and use Musou while they are off guard or if there are more than two officers, you need to just stay on your horse and use Musou because it's way too risky. That's your basic plan in combat.

Strategy wise, you always want to spend your time killing the main officers only. Once they're killed, their sub officers, lieutenants, and troops will all flee. That's why you need your musou. This way you can just get to the heart of the crowd and target the officer without getting interrupted.

Taking over the right bases is also necessary. Once you get to know your level pretty well, you'll realize there are some bases that are key to take over. For example, in the Battle of Yi Ling Shu side, taking over the three bases on the right side of the field before the Wu raid will considerably slow down the raiding unit from attacking the fleeing Liu Bei. Do you get it now? Basically, the opponent can't just past an enemy base without having to take over it, so the bases that they have to go through towards your leading commander is key bases you need to make yours or your commander will be in danger consistently.

I think that's pretty much it on Chaos Mode. Strategy is pretty simple because you're not given that much choice, because there isn't much of flexibility in Chaos Mode. You have to go with the best plan or you're finished, you can't just roam around wasting your time. Not in the first minutes of the battle anyways.

Best Character
I'll do it like last time, starting out with the list of 41 playable characters.

Zhang Fei
Guan Yu
Zhao Yun
Zhuge Liang
Huang Zhong
Pang Tong
Yue Ying
Liu Bei
Guan Ping
Wei Yan
Ma Chao
Sima Yi
Dian Wei
Xiahou Dun
Zhang Liao
Xiahou Yuan
Xu Huang
Zhang He
Xu Chu
Zhen Ji
Cao Ren
Cao Pi
Sun Shangxiang
Lu Xun
Zhou Yu
Zhou Tai
Sun Jian
Sun Ce
Sun Quan
Lu Meng
Taishi Ci
Xiao Qiao
Ling Tong
Huang Gai
Gan Ning
Diao Chan
Zhang Jiao
Lu Bu
Dong Zhuo
Yuan Shao
Cao Cao

You need speed. It isn't my opinion anymore. Unless, you never find yourself fleeing from an enemy before with red health, then you don't need to worry about speed. The main reason is, sometimes you find yourself accidentally knocked out of your horse while in the crowd of 5 some officers ready to beat your ass. That's a really awful situation. You can dodge roll away from the crowd but you won't outrun them by rolling all the time. They'll keep chasing you. So you need speed. That's what I'm saying. Especially when you're getting chased by Lu Xun. So, in this cut I'm going to eliminate first the characters that are too slow for Chaos mode. I'm also eliminating all the clone characters using clubs. They're a horrible weapon. Seriously. The Swinging down motion that they have in the middle of their combos just ruins them. I'm also going to eliminate just one sword characters like Cao Cao, Yuan Shao, Sun Quan, etc. Even though they're not as horrible as clubs they're just not as good as spears and other weapons. Maybe this analysis is just my opinion but I feel their combos just doesn't have as great coverage as spears and can't make it up with great precision as Zhuge Liang's fan.

Zhang Fei
Guan Yu
Zhao Yun
Zhuge Liang
Huang Zhong
Pang Tong
Yue Ying
Liu Bei
Guan Ping
Wei Yan
Ma Chao
Sima Yi
Dian Wei
Xiahou Dun
Zhang Liao
Xiahou Yuan
Xu Huang
Zhang He
Xu Chu
Zhen Ji
Cao Ren
Cao Pi
Sun Shangxiang
Lu Xun
Zhou Yu
Zhou Tai
Sun Jian
Sun Ce
Sun Quan
Lu Meng
Taishi Ci
Xiao Qiao
Ling Tong
Huang Gai
Gan Ning
Diao Chan
Zhang Jiao
Lu Bu
Dong Zhuo
Yuan Shao
Cao Cao

I'm gonna focus with the second cut on eliminating inferior clone characters. There's just so much characters that are just practically the same.

Guan Yu His lower musou, worse special, and slowness.
Zhao Yun I really liked him but he has a great flaw that I just cannot stand. In the middle of his Musou, he does this downward swing that knocks down the opponent. If you're targeting an officer with this, you'll mess up your musou combo, which just annoys the hell out of me.
Zhuge Liang
Pang Tong
Yue Ying This is merely on stats honestly. These two are pretty much identical. I prefer SSX's higher Musou.
Liu Bei
Guan Ping
Ma Chao He turn and twist too much. I might just be being picky here, but I gotta eliminate all these spear clones!!! He's still not as good as Zhuge Liang so he'll be eliminated later on anyways.
Sima Yi It's like he's trying to be straight forward and wide coverage at the same time. Stick with one next time.
Zhang Liao
Xu Huang I have to give it to Guan Ping and Ling Tong with a better distributed stats on this one.
Zhang He After a while, I find him not as bad as I first thought of him, but he's still not as good as others.
Zhen Ji The most erotic character in DW6, but perverted comments in battles doesn't make her better than the more faster Daio Chan
Sun Shangxiang
Zhou Yu Sorry Zhou Yu, you are the most cool character in DW6 and you hav an awesome renbu, when it's completely full, but he just twist and turns so much leaving a lot of holes and not that great aim.
Sun Jian
Sun Ce
Lu Meng Guan Ping and Ling Tong better stats.
Taishi Ci He is actually Cao Ren's clone but I personally don't like the lack of coverage his double headed spear has.
Xiao Qiao Just. Not. That. Good. I mean fans? It'll be nice if you blow wind like Zhuge Liang but you hit people with fans!
Ling Tong
Gan Ning
Diao Chan
Zhang Jiao Fire looks awesome, but just isn't great. Pang Tong's wind element is better.
Lu Bu

Wheew. I'm getting tired of this honestly. I'm gonna narrow it down to the bests now.

Zhuge Liang
Pang Tong The only reason that I didn't eliminate him yet was because there was Zhang Jiao as his clone, but honestly, I'm not a fan of the magic staff thing. His charge counter also feels as though it doesn't have that much range. If you're looking for a wind element, Zhuge Liang really beats him at it.
Liu Bei
Guan Ping [[They're alright. True Speed lacks the continous motion that Zhou Yu and Zhang Liao have.]]
Zhang Liao
Sun Shangxiang
Sun Jian Just a sword. Lack of originality is beaten by Liu Bei's double Sword.
Sun Ce I'm just looking for uniqueness now. I also his special is just isn't as good as fire and volley.
Ling Tong [[They're alright. True Speed lacks the continous motion that Zhou Yu and Zhang Liao have.]]
Gan Ning The only DW character to utilize a traditional roundhouse kick. I feel like it's harder to aim with him and with the combination of his straight forward moves, Zhuge Liang is just better at it.
Diao Chan
Lu Bu Is it just because I hate bandwagons? Maybe. Lu Bu has the best stats and he's not that slow too. I'm just going to eliminate him because the end of his musou leaves a gap for you to keep getting hit and also his horrible charges.

If I look back, a lot of my reasons are mainly on preferences. There's no clear cut winner but I'm going to point out characteristics in these characters I find is advantageous in this game.

Zhuge Liang
Liu BeiLiu Bei and Zhang Liao is making it this far because they have two weapons. Two is better than one right? I think that the Flash effect takes more effect when you strike more than once with Liu Bei and Zhang Liao. That's his best part, but he's a little slow, low attack, and he twists and turns a lot. I'd like to also point that he has the best dashing charge in the game. BEST.
Zhang Liao His Musou deals a lot of damage for some reason. His two axe is awesome. Great precision in his combos and musou. I love him personally. But I'll only eliminate him because true speed is still lacking in perfect success. You're always running the risk of still being hit. And you can't use it effectively on horses which I am usually on all the time.
Sun Shangxiang A lot of people will argue with this. If you get too close to the enemy, your aim will really be off and you can't escape without at least some people around you all the time so you end up getting hit a lot. Great musou though, one of the best charge, but I just don't like archery. I like to get on my enemy and just slice em, you know.
Diao Chan I don't like her true speed that isn't continuous.



Zhuge Liang is Our Winner!
You gotta love how easy you can aim with his fan. His charges are amazing but you rarely get to use them anyways. You can also aim with the end of his musou which is great. Lastly, his fire special is the best besides volley in my opinion.

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