Dynasty Warriors 3: How to Unlock All Officers

characters By GuideLVL · Published October 9, 2026

In Dynasty Warriors 3: Complete Edition Remastered, every officer is unlocked by playing Musou Mode. Free Mode does not count, and difficulty has no effect on any unlock. Nine are playable from the start. The other 31 regular officers, Ziluan included, can all be unlocked in six Musou Mode clears if you pick the right characters and meet a few battlefield conditions along the way. Nuwa and Fuxi need five more clears after that.

The short version: clear Musou Mode as Xiahou Dun, Zhen Ji, Zhao Yun, Gan Ning, Da Qiao and Zhuge Liang, in that order. On the way, get all three Hu Lao Gate unlocks in a single battle, beat Meng Huo all seven times in the Nanman Campaign, and let the Battle of He Fei play out in full as Wu so that Sun Quan joins. Above all, unlock Gan Ning at He Fei during Xiahou Dun’s run. Run 4 is played as him, and missing him forces a riskier substitute for that run.

The Six-Run Route

Most officers unlock when you clear Musou Mode once or twice with a given kingdom. The regular roster needs two Wei clears, two Shu clears and two Wu clears, so six runs is the minimum for those 40 officers. Nuwa and Fuxi come on top of that. The characters below were picked because their campaigns pass through the battles with officer-specific conditions, which means those unlocks happen during runs you were doing anyway. Runs 1 and 3 use characters you have from the start. The other four runs use characters unlocked by an earlier run.

A few of these picks matter more than they look:

• Gan Ning is used for the first Wu clear because his campaign includes the Battle of He Fei and the Battle of Fan Castle, so Sun Quan, Zhang Liao and Lu Meng all come during that run. (Fallback if he is missed: see Battle of He Fei (Wei).)
• Zhen Ji is one of several Wei officers who could cover the second Wei clear. She is the better choice because her clear also counts toward Nuwa.
• Da Qiao is a better second Wu clear than Zhou Yu. Either one unlocks Xiao Qiao, but Da Qiao’s clear also counts toward Nuwa, and her campaign includes the battle where Taishi Ci can be recruited.
• Zhuge Liang is the only officer whose clear unlocks Jiang Wei, so he has to be one of your two Shu runs.

Shu Officers

Wei Officers

Wu Officers

Other Officers

Battle at Hu Lao Gate: Diao Chan, Lu Bu and Dong Zhuo

All three of these officers can come from one attempt at Hu Lao Gate. In that attempt:

1. Beat Diao Chan.
2. Beat Lu Bu.
3. Push your KO count to 1,000 before you end the stage.

Clear the stage with all three done and Diao Chan, Lu Bu and Dong Zhuo all unlock together.

Lu Bu is the hard part. On Normal he can finish off a low-level officer in two combos, so Beginner or Easy is the sensible setting for this battle.

Nanman Campaign: Meng Huo and Zhurong

Meng Huo and Zhurong can also be unlocked in one battle. Meng Huo keeps coming back, and you have to beat him at all seven of his appearances. Zhurong only needs beating once.

1. Play the battle normally and do not rush to end it.
2. Beat Meng Huo every time he shows up.
3. Beat Zhurong when she appears.
4. Only finish the stage once both are done.

Keep count of Meng Huo’s defeats. If you miss a single appearance, you have to play the whole stage again.

Battle of He Fei (Wei): Gan Ning

Xiahou Dun’s campaign in run 1 takes you to He Fei on the Wei side. Gan Ning unlocks if his surprise attack happens during this battle and you beat him when he appears. We cannot say exactly what sets the surprise attack off, so the condition is only that: it has to happen, and you have to defeat him.

This matters more than any other unlock in run 1. Run 4 is played as Gan Ning, so if he is not unlocked by the end of Xiahou Dun’s campaign, the route cannot continue as written.

If that happens, the closest substitute for run 4 is Sun Shangxiang. She is playable from the start, and any Wu officer’s first clear unlocks Lu Xun and Da Qiao, so runs 5 and 6 can still go ahead. Her clear also counts toward Nuwa. The catch is that we cannot confirm her campaign visits the Battle of He Fei or the Battle of Fan Castle, so Sun Quan, Zhang Liao and Lu Meng may not be available in that run.

Battle of He Fei (Wu): Sun Quan and Zhang Liao

You come back to He Fei on the Wu side in run 4, as Gan Ning. Sun Quan is the easiest unlock on the whole route to lose. Simply winning He Fei does not unlock him. Killing Cao Cao yourself does not work either. Cao Cao has to retreat, and that only happens after the battle’s scripted events have played out in order. Clearing the field quickly or killing key officers too soon can break the chain.

1. Let Taishi Ci be defeated. His fall here is part of the battle’s script, and this route still recruits him in run 5. Sun Quan pulls back after he falls.
2. Head to where Sun Quan has fallen back to: the eastern half of the map, just above the broken bridge. When you reach him, a cutscene plays and you both leap over the river.
3. Zhang Liao leaves the field once Taishi Ci is down and returns later near Sun Quan. Protect Sun Quan from this attack and beat Zhang Liao while you are there, which unlocks Zhang Liao.
4. Hold on until Wu launches its counterattack.
5. With the counterattack under way, defeat Cao Cao’s remaining officers, but leave Cao Cao himself alone.
6. The retreat comes from your allies. When every one of Cao Cao’s officers is gone, Sun Quan moves into Cao Cao’s camp and Cao Cao falls back. Sun Quan has to travel all the way to the map’s top-left corner for this, so expect to wait a while.

Wu District Conquest: Taishi Ci

You reach this stage during Da Qiao’s campaign in run 5. Its earlier name was Assault on Wu Territory, so you may see it called that too.

Taishi Ci surrenders and joins Sun Ce if you beat Liu Yong before you beat Yan Baihu and Wang Lang. Liu Yong is out of reach at first. To open the path, Zhang Ying and Chen Heng (the opening two enemy generals) must both fall in roughly the first two minutes, so make them your first targets.

Nuwa and Fuxi

Nuwa and Fuxi are mythological bonus characters and sit outside the six-run route. Each one needs Musou Mode cleared with a specific set of officers.

That leaves five more Musou Mode clears for both. All five characters are already playable by the end of run 6, so you can start on them straight away. If you only want the regular Three Kingdoms roster, you are done after run 6.