Buy Dàshídài: Sānguó Lìzhì PC key

Dàshídài: Sānguó Lìzhì is a Three Kingdoms game built around open-ended systems rather than a fixed main story or prescribed route. You can develop your character, make relationships, learn skills, recruit officers, raise troops and build a faction. At the start, you have 6,666 coins, a sword, a cloth shirt and three kinds of medicine; after your first conversation with an old man, you also receive a copy of Records of the Grand Historian.

Build relationships

Relationships underpin making friends, recruiting officers, learning skills, swearing brotherhood and marrying. Gifts are a main way to improve them, with help when someone is ill or in need also increasing regard. A gift’s quality determines its effect, and matching the recipient’s interests doubles it: the quality-4 Records of the Grand Historian raises a general’s relationship by at least 4 points, or 8 if they like books.

Relationship thresholds include:

• Joining a faction requires one heart (4 points) with its ruler.
• Learning a skill requires two hearts (8 points) with the teacher.
• Swearing brotherhood or marrying requires four hearts (16 points).
• A better relationship increases the chance of recruiting an officer.

An officer’s personality also affects recruitment: people with similar personalities are easier to recruit. Both unaffiliated officers and officers serving factions can potentially join you, though faction officers are harder to recruit. Officers ranked general or higher, and those known for loyalty, will not betray their ruler.

Learn skills and titles

Skills define officers’ abilities and unlock active abilities, titles, recipes and medicine formulas. The five basic skills—carpentry, masonry, mining, herb gathering and fishing—gain experience through use. Other skills are learned from officers, who can teach only up to their own skill level, so advanced training requires finding an expert.

Titles act as passive abilities: some add new ways to play, while others improve attributes. Every special troop type has a corresponding title, which you need before you can train that troop. Active abilities include troop commands, powerful combat moves and battlefield tactics. You trigger them manually and can assign three at a time, making your selection part of your battle strategy.

Fight across the land

The game has several kinds of combat:

• Siege battles: Only a ruler can start a siege. You can join any siege launched by your faction or defend one of its cities when attacked, controlling your own unit alongside other officers.
• Field battles: These are common outdoor fights against bandits, rebels and officers from other factions. You control your unit, and companions travelling with you also take part.
• Exploration: Battles at specific locations, usually caves or wilderness areas, pit you and your companions against enemies without soldiers. They are fought to obtain items, plans or titles.
• Hunting: You hunt for pelts or meat with companions, without soldiers, and can stop at any time.
• Duels: One-on-one fights, usually held in martial arts schools, are sparring matches and cannot kill the main character.

Manage illness

Officers can become ill, and illness can reduce their abilities. Losing a battle can cause an injury, which does not reduce ability and can be treated with medicine. If an injury is left untreated and the officer loses another battle, it becomes a severe injury that halves their health; a Life-Restoring Pill or a doctor can treat it.

Repeated exposure to rain or snow can cause a cold, halving stamina. Staying awake too long causes weakness and reduces defense to 1, while kidney deficiency reduces attack to 1. A Spirit-Boosting Pill, a Lingxi Pill or a Leopard Tendon Pill, respectively, or a doctor can treat these conditions. Apart from ordinary injuries, illnesses should be treated promptly: losing a battle while suffering from one causes the game to end. Giving an ill officer the medicine suited to their condition cures them and greatly improves their regard for you.

Raise and supply troops

Your troops consume food each day in proportion to their number. When supplies run short, morale falls; at zero morale, soldiers begin to desert. You can recruit militia in villages through the village chief and train them, or capture soldiers after winning battles against non-regular groups such as bandits, brigands and roaming outlaws.

Soldiers have attack, defense, health and experience attributes. They gain experience in battle and can level up, but training them requires the appropriate instructor title. For example, reaching level 2 in military strategy grants the Regular Army Instructor title, which allows you to train regular troops. Special units also require their own titles, sometimes earned through battles at particular locations. The Vine Armor troops require the Vine Armor Instructor title; Tiger and Leopard Cavalry are an exception and can be obtained through Cao Cao’s story. Captured non-regular troops generally cannot be trained unless you encounter the legendary Black Yama.

Soldiers lose health in battle. You can treat an individual with medicine, let health recover over time by resting from battle or staying at an inn, or, if you belong to a faction, arrange group recovery through the instructor at a military camp.

Found and govern a faction

To establish yourself as a ruler, choose a place to launch an uprising and win local support. Your personal fame plus your local reputation, minus your infamy, must exceed 160; you can then speak with the village chief to start the process. Battles and duels raise fame, while completing local commissions builds reputation.

Factions such as Liu Bei’s, Cao Cao’s, Sun Quan’s and Liu Biao’s consist of a ruler, officers and cities. Only a ruler can declare war. At the government office, a desk opens domestic administration, a model of mountains and cities opens the war menu, and an incense burner opens diplomacy. To attack, choose a city and then the officers to send; you do not need to travel there yourself, and capable officers can capture the target after a few months.

Choose how to begin

There is no fixed main story or step-by-step route. You can pursue faction membership, develop your character first, spend your time gathering and crafting, or try to earn money fighting bandits. The Records of the Grand Historian you receive at the start has quality 4: giving it to a ruler can earn enough regard to join their faction, while giving it to an officer who likes books can earn enough to learn skills. You can ask around to discover who likes books; Wang Yi, from Yanmen, is one example. Alternatively, you can sell the book to fund your own activities.