How To Steal Heroes & Characters

Like Pokémon, the robust pool of characters in Total War: Three Kingdoms will have you itching to catch ‘em all. Luckily, the game provides you with several avenues to do just that. Use these tips and soon you’ll have assembled a veritable team of Eastern Han Dynasty-era Avengers.

Best Them In Battle

The most straightforward way to bring a new character under your banner is to beat them on the battlefield. While it’s not 100%, you can still improve your chances by equipping specific mounts and ancillaries.

Once a battle with a recruitable character is complete – and the stars are aligned just so – you’ll be presented with the “Character Captured” window. Here, you can choose to either employ them, release them, or straight up execute them.

Change Their Minds

Three Kingdoms’ robust Undercover Network system lets you deploy spies to the courts of enemy factions. Doing so allows you to manipulate that faction in a number of ways depending on how long your spy has been sub-rosa.

This is a particularly sneaky way to bring a new character or hero into your army. You can, for example, discredit Xiahou in Cao Cao’s court so that you can eventually add him to your roster via defecting to your side. Just make sure to take your spies away from Cao Cao’s court after that because they may switch sides.

Absorb Their Faction

Perhaps you fancy yourself a diplomatic mastermind, and want to manipulate opposing factions like clay. This is an equally viable route to increasing the number of characters you can recruit.

Earning the ability to confederate a faction’s assets and lands into your own means you’ll also gain all of their characters. Just be mindful of this: your new stewards may not appreciate being stolen and they just may abandon your army at any given time.

Arrange A Marriage

In ancient China, political marriages were a common way of establishing alliances, and Three Kingdoms is true to the practice. Not only is this an easy way to improve your relations with an opposing faction, but it’s also a great way to snag that character you’ve had your eye on.

Want to bring a general under your rival’s banner into your faction? Offer to have them marry a member of your court. Your retinue will have grown by one.

This method is obviously dependent on faction relations and which characters you already have in your court, but it’s nonetheless a reliable way to grow your army.