The Late Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms era were periods overflowing with legendary heroes, classic battles, and iconic tales. If all of it were developed into the game at launch, the initial storyline for the public beta would have been overwhelming.

An overly long starting storyline risks making players impatient—especially for meta-focused players who skip cutscenes and only care about power progression. If the main campaign dragged on for months, these players would quickly get frustrated and quit.

Xie Yunfan preferred a progressive approach to game design, carefully pacing the rhythm of content updates.

Therefore, he only adapted a portion of the Three Kingdoms storyline for launch, limiting the character banner pool to Liu Bei, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Cao Cao, and Sun Quan. Other historical figures would be introduced gradually through future updates.

This allowed launch players to complete the main campaign in about two weeks, after which they could focus on cultivating the heroes they had recruited.

Systems like War Manuals and Equipment Crafting were set to unlock right around this time.

Just as Xie Yunfan had anticipated, by early November, most players had cleared the launch main storyline.

Upon reaching Player Level 50, the War Manual Challenge officially opened.

This system served as a single-player trial mode, similar to “Tower Climbing” or “Abyss Trials” in other games. It featured 108 floors in total. Every three floors dropped a strategy manual from the Thirty-Six Stratagems, while the remaining floors awarded generous amounts of Spirit Charms, hero ascension materials, and Manor upgrade resources.

A player theorycrafting group compiled the breakdown of rewards from the War Manual System and posted it on Weibo:

“The rewards from the 108-floor War Manual Battlefield are insanely generous! They include 36 strategy manuals, 15,000 Spirit Charms (equivalent to 100 gacha pulls), enough ascension materials to max out five Solar-tier cards from scratch, and enough construction materials to upgrade your Manor to Level 3. On top of that, Floor 50 and Floor 108 reward two exclusive Lord Costumes.”

“And best of all—everything above can be obtained completely for free~”

Seeing the post from the theorycrafting group, countess players were thrilled.

There are this many free resources?! Then this War Manual Battlefield is a absolute must-run!

Floors 1 and 2 featured standard enemy mobs and were extremely easy, essentially acting as free giveaways.

Players assumed the rest of the War Manual stages would be just as trivial, with many complaining, “The devs got lazy, these mechanics are boring.” However, upon reaching Floor 3, a massive number of players were caught off guard and wiped out unexpectedly.

On this floor, stealthed enemy mobs made their debut.

These minions entered stealth every other turn. Your skills couldn’t target them, yet they could freely strike your party with absurdly high critical hit rates, instantly bursting down many players’ main DPS units.

A wave of players rushed to online forums to cry out: “How on earth do you deal with these stealthed mobs?!”

One player replied: “Just bring Zhuge Liang with his Kongming Lanterns and it’s a breeze. If you don’t have Zhuge Liang, borrow one from your Support Friend list. If none of your friends have Zhuge Liang… add me and you can borrow mine!”

In an instant, the World Chat channel was flooded with messages:

— “Who has a maxed-out Zhuge Liang? Add me so I can borrow him!”

— “I have Zhuge Liang set as support! Anyone stuck on Floor 3, feel free to add me.”

Around the same time, the well-known content creator Uncle Flying Bear published a stage guide on ACFun.

He even created a dedicated playlist titled: “‘Turbulent Spring and Autumn’ Low-Budget War Manual Challenge Guide.”

What did “low-budget” mean? It meant using a team composed entirely of heroes that F2P (free-to-play) players could easily acquire.

“Pay close attention to the debuff icons above the enemy mobs’ heads. When you see an eye icon appear, they will go into stealth on the next turn, boosting their crit rate to one-shot your main DPS. My strategy is simple: bring a few Lunar-tier cards that boost defense or max HP so your main carry doesn’t get burst down in one turn, and bring Fan Li.”

“Fan Li is an absolute MVP for this stage. His healing relies on stacking ‘Thousand Gold’ charges, reaching its maximum healing potency after three full turns of stacking. No matter how low your team’s health drops, hold your ground and only use his burst heal after he stacks 3 charges of ‘Thousand Gold’.”

“The speed at which Fan Li stacks ‘Thousand Gold’ perfectly aligns with the turn duration of the enemy’s stealth phase. The stealthed mobs burst your party into critical health, Fan Li lands a massive critical heal to stabilize everyone, and you tank through it! Once the stealth drops, unleash your DPS. Repeat this cycle over roughly 9 turns to clear the stage.”

This “low-budget guide” didn’t require Zhuge Liang at all. Instead, it relied on precise turn-counting to time attacks and healing rotations, using a team of Lunar-tier cards given out entirely by the system for free.

By following Uncle Flying Bear’s strategy, every player could beat the stage.

Countless players searching for guides flocked to the video comment section to leave heartfelt thanks:

— “Uncle Bear, you are my one and only GOAT!”

— “Finally cleared it by copying your homework! Followed—I’m sticking to your guides from now on.”

— “This is actually clever! I thought the War Manual system was just brainless auto-sweep, but it actually has this much tactical depth?”

— “Turn-based strategy is so fun! I was stuck for so long, finally beat it!”

If the War Manual system had been a brainless auto-sweep mode focused purely on stat checks, players would have grown bored within a week—breezing through on auto-battle deprives a game of its core engagement.

Because it operated as a long-term single-player trial mode, players who put in real thought could eventually clear every single stage.

The immense sense of accomplishment earned through strategic problem-solving was entirely different from the empty satisfaction of auto-sweeping—and that was precisely where the charm of a true strategy game lay.

Since Floor 3 featured stealthed enemies, the reward for completing it was the War Manual: 《Deceive the Heavens to Cross the Ocean》.

Description: Thirty-Six Stratagems: 《Deceive the Heavens to Cross the Ocean》. Can be cast by the Lord during your heroes’ turn to grant the entire team Stealth for 1 turn. Can only be used once per battle.

After acquiring this strategy manual, many players went back to re-challenge main campaign stages.

Someone posted: “This manual skill is incredible! I went back to re-run the Qin Shi Huang boss fight, predicted the exact turn he was going to unleash his AOE ultimate, and popped 《Deceive the Heavens to Cross the Ocean》. We went completely stealthed and dodged his entire burst, taking a massive load off my healers!”

Discovering just how powerful and practical these strategy manuals were, players became even more motivated to conquer the War Manual challenges.

Floors 4 and 5 were easy freebies, but Floor 6 ramped up the difficulty once again. This time, the enemy mobs would collectively target and dogpile your team’s highest DPS character to burst them down immediately.

The counter-strategy was to bring three or more DPS units alongside a single-target healer. The healer would keep the main carry alive to absorb the focus-fire, while the secondary DPS units eliminated the enemy mobs.

Alternatively, players could bring a heavy control unit like Zhang Liang to lock down the enemy “Squad Leader.” The mobs would then pivot to rescue their leader, spending their turns cleansing and healing him, giving players time to wipe out the minions before finishing off the leader.

Clearing this floor awarded the War Manual: 《Besiege Wei to Rescue Zhao》.

Description: Thirty-Six Stratagems: 《Besiege Wei to Rescue Zhao》. Can be cast by the Lord during your heroes’ turn to target the enemy hero with the highest Attack Power. Unless the enemy target halts all attacks to aid them, that hero will be forcefully Banished after 1 turn. (Banishment: Forces the target off the battlefield, rendering them immune to all healing and resurrection skills).

Players gasped: “Holy crap!”

This forced Banishment is absurdly strong!

If an enemy was focused down or killed, a healer could restore them or Bian Que could resurrect them. But banishing an enemy hero?

They were removed directly from the battlefield—poof, gone!

This Lord skill was an absolute lethal counter against core enemy carries.

Players online quickly analyzed its mechanics: “The manual skill from Floor 6, 《Besiege Wei to Rescue Zhao》, cannot banish Bosses (like Qin Shi Huang). It only works on mob enemies in dungeons or opponent heroes in PVP.”

“A friend and I tested it in PVP practice mode. Strategy manual skills have the absolute highest activation priority! Meaning if I cast my manual skill first, it doesn’t matter if the opponent tries to cast Stealth or Crowd Control Immunity afterward—they still get banished. So strategy manuals are vital, guys—these are Lord Skills under our direct control!”

Both manuals offered incredible strategic value.

Player enthusiasm reached a fever pitch. A dedicated #WarManualGuides# topic was launched on Weibo Super Topics, where streamers, content creators, and theorycrafting groups began dissecting optimized strategies for every floor.

Floor 9 proved to be particularly hilarious. The enemy mobs used the “Borrow a Sword to Kill Another” skill. If targeted at your primary DPS hero, your carry would turn around and slaughter their own teammates.

Many players were left laughing uncontrollably: “I died laughing on this stage—my Guan Yu turned around and slashed Liu Bei and Zhang Fei to death in two swings?!”

“Those of you running single-target carries got off easy; at worst they kill one teammate. My main carry is Bai Qi, the ultimate AOE nuker. He dropped an ultimate and wiped all 5 of his own teammates… I could only sit there typing ‘666’ in chat!”

“Borrowing a sword to kill… that’s brutal.”

“For this stage, you can bring four or more single-target DPS units. If one gets targeted and dies, you still have three left to quickly take out the mob casting the debuff.”

The resulting War Manual, 《Borrow a Sword to Kill Another》, allowed players to turn the opponent’s own weapons against their team during combat.

Floor 12 featured 《Await Leisurely for the Exhausted Enemy》, where enemy mobs would frequently declare “I’m tired” and go on break, preventing you from attacking while forcing your team to rest alongside them for a turn… oddly considerate?

Floor 15, 《Loot a Burning House》, pitted players against a “Burn Comp” squad. The enemy leader would set the entire party ablaze, inflicting a continuous “Burn” damage-over-time debuff.

This stage proved to be a headache for many, requiring either a support unit capable of cleansing negative debuffs or two healers brute-forcing health recovery to pull through.

The strategies for the War Manual system were endlessly varied.

As a permanent endgame mode, the difficulty of the manual-dropping floors every three stages scaled progressively. It couldn’t be designed for players to sweep through in a single week.

While stages 3 to 15 could be cleared by simply following online guides, starting from Floor 18, stages began imposing hard stat requirements on hero power.

As a result, players began taking hero progression seriously.

Clearing the main storyline provided ample ascension materials and EXP, leaving most players with at least one fully leveled core team. However, a player’s main team wasn’t necessarily suited for every War Manual stage. Furthermore, hero gear needed to be forged and enhanced.

Naturally, the Equipment System, which unlocked alongside the War Manual system, drew immediate player attention.

The dungeon for farming equipment was called the “Divine Armory,” consisting of 8 floors in total.

Odd-numbered floors dropped Helmets and Chest Armor, while even-numbered floors dropped Leg Armor and Boots. Higher floors yielded superior equipment tiers.

The Divine Armory featured high-difficulty co-op matchmaking complete with powerful bosses.

For instance, the Floor 1 boss was a dual boss pair: Xiang Yu + Liu Bang. Xiang Yu dealt devastating team-wide AOE damage, while Liu Bang brought heavy group control. Soloing the stage was nearly impossible for average players, but in co-op, you only needed to deploy your single strongest hero.

With six players contributing their single best fully built unit, the success rate surged dramatically.

The launch of the co-op system provided incredible convenience for F2P and low-spending players.

At the same time, it gave high-spending “whales” a massive sense of flex value—they could bring their fully maxed-out Solar-tier cards into co-op raids and bask in the admiration of fellow players, making every cent spent feel completely worth it.

Not long after co-op opened, a hilarious video went viral across the community: “Witness the terrifying destructive power of 6 Lian Pos.”

A player entered a random matchmaking lobby where, by pure coincidence, every teammate brought Lian Po. As a result, six Lian Pos stood lined up in a row. When casting his “Bearing Brambles to Ask for Punishment” skill, all six Lian Pos stripped off their shirts one after another, knelt down, and presented thorny brambles on their backs.

The opposing boss duo, Liu Bang and Xiang Yu: “???”

Players watching the video burst out laughing: “HAHAHAHA! What kind of theater performance is this?!”

On Floor 3, enemy heroes inflicted massive waves of negative debuffs on the party. Whales from top guilds formed premade teams running 6 max-level Zhuge Liangs.

At the start of combat, every Zhuge Liang entered the field accompanied by his own Kongming Lantern and Wooden Ox/Flowing Horse. Six glowing lanterns hung high above the arena, illuminating the entire stage!

The herd of Wooden Oxen and Flowing Horses went wild, shuttling debuffs back and forth. Any “Bleed” stacks applied by enemy mobs were instantly redirected back at the attackers.

The mobs were left speechless: “—You can’t just bully us like this!”

Other hilarious setups emerged, such as the “Immortal Comp” featuring 3 Bian Ques constantly reviving each other.

Or the “Empress Stall Comp” running 3 Lü Zhis, spamming “Consort Power” to repeatedly steal enemy turn actions, forcing enemy mobs to stand paralyzed on field, completely unable to act.

Others ran hyper-offensive squads with 6 God of War Bai Qis, syncing their ultimate AOE attacks to instantly disintegrate entire waves of enemy mobs in seconds.

For stages with hyper-healing mobs, players theorycrafted a setup running 4 Cai Huangongs to apply anti-healing debuffs, allowing two single-target carries to clean up the fight within 3 turns.

Because co-op mode allowed duplicate heroes, players felt like they had discovered a whole new world!

Players actively shared innovative setups in World Chat, while content creator Uncle Flying Bear published a video titled “Fastest Speedrun Comps for Equipment Dungeons,” compiling popular co-op strategies.

Queueing up for co-op every day guaranteed encounters with bizarre and creative team compositions. Chatting while farming mobs allowed many players to make lasting friends in-game.

Co-op also supported cross-server friend requests. Friend lists began displaying handles like “Server 33 BeanSprout” or “Server 21 BadBunny.” Between raids, players gathered to gossip about drama on other servers.

The player engagement metrics of Turbulent Spring and Autumn left competing game studios green with envy.

In most online games, the majority of players drop off after a single week. Games that retain players for a month are considered highly successful with great prospects, yet even those rarely boast a 30-day retention rate above 60%.

Retaining half the player base after a month is usually considered a massive triumph.

Yet a full month after launch, Turbulent Spring and Autumn maintained a jaw-dropping 65% player retention rate…

To retain this proportion of players after a full month proved its player stickiness was terrifyingly strong.

The most critical factor was—there was zero market alternative!

Players were fully immersed: upgrading heroes, running co-op raids for gear, climbing the War Manual trial tower, or simply hanging out as casual players visiting hero Manors and building custom houses for their roster.

No one seemed bored; every day was filled with vibrant community fun.

Meme edits and strategy showcases dominated Weibo and ACFun, with wild party setups and hilarious plays keeping the internet endlessly entertained.

Surely, after a month, player enthusiasm would finally start to cool down?

Just as rival developers assumed the launch hype would gradually fade, the official development team released an announcement—Turbulent Spring and Autumn was dropping its very first major game update event.

On September 25th, exactly one month after launch, the major event debuted.

This update had been meticulously planned by Xie Yunfan long before public beta, with all assets fully developed prior to launch. The event was titled: “The Twin Jewels of Jiangdong.”

The main storyline expanded significantly, unlocking rich narrative chapters focused on the Eastern Wu state during the Three Kingdoms period.

Simultaneously, a massive wave of Wu historical figures joined the gacha banners: Zhou Yu, Sun Ce, Huang Gai, Lu Su, Sun Shangxiang, Da Qiao, Xiao Qiao, Lu Xun, Lü Meng, and more.

The introduction of these heroes dramatically expanded tactical depth.

Fire Comps and Water Comps officially took shape.

The core Fire Comp—built around Zhou Yu, Huang Gai, and Lu Xun—utilized “Chain Links” to bind all enemies together, unleashing “Burn” debuffs to melt enemy health bars over time.

Meanwhile, the Water Comp—centered around the legendary beauties Da Qiao and Xiao Qiao—relied on soft crowd-control abilities to drive opponents mad. Their party-wide Slow debuffs reduced enemy speed; as stacks accumulated, enemies were eventually Frozen solid. Because these were wide-area debuffs, even Zhuge Liang’s Wooden Oxen couldn’t transfer them fast enough.

Sun Ce was an ultra-high physical damage carry who scaled off attack speed.

Sun Shangxiang made history as the game’s very first “Offensive Healer.” Boasting incredible attack speed, her rapid bow-and-arrow barrages dealt heavy physical damage while leeching health to heal her “Marriage Alliance” partner.

A unit that could deal high damage, self-sustain, heal allies, and possessed a gorgeous character model—who wouldn’t love her?

The Sun siblings were incredibly versatile wildcard units, seamlessly fitting into almost any team composition.

Additionally, Lü Meng’s “Crossing the River in White” granted team-wide Stealth, while Lu Su’s “Vertical and Horizontal Alliance” swapped party debuffs—both proving to be top-tier utility options.

Releasing this many cards at once usually risked backlash for aggressive monetization.

However, what if four of these new cards were given away completely free through story quests?

The player base was stunned.

When clearing the launch main campaign, the game had already gifted players enough free Lunar-tier cards for F2P players to assemble a viable team. Now, clearing the Eastern Wu chapter handed out another four cards for free?!

Even Sun Shangxiang—the highly coveted Offensive Healer—was handed out for free…

Sailboat, if you’re going to be this generous, please keep it coming!

Beyond main story additions, the “Twin Jewels of Jiangdong” event introduced a high-reward challenge mode featuring 10 brutally difficult stages, pitting players against Zhou Yu’s Fire Comp and Sun Ce’s Eastern Wu Naval Fleet.

These challenge stages doubled as a comprehensive tutorial, demonstrating the tactical usage of every new hero.

Players discovered that Sun Shangxiang provided party-wide attack speed buffs, turning “hyper-offensive” glass-cannon comps into terrifying powerhouses when paired with her healing output.

Zhou Yu’s kit was equally devastating. When playing his zither, he granted party-wide Attack power buffs while passively inflicting “Burn” status on all enemies every time he acted.

As Burn stacks built up, HP bars melted rapidly. Allowing Zhou Yu to act for three turns made it impossible for even two dedicated healers to keep up—because Burn inflicted True Damage that bypassed all Defense!

Huang Gai operated as a massive tank, automatically sacrificing his own HP to shield allies.

Lu Xun further stacked Burn debuffs while gaining massive Critical Hit chance against burning targets.

The sheer power of the Fire Comp left players awestruck. This “dot-stacking burst” playstyle introduced a completely novel layer of team building to the player base.

Meanwhile, the Water Comp appeared gentle on the surface, but acted like a needle hidden in cotton, slowly draining the life out of opponents.

When facing the Da Qiao & Xiao Qiao Water Comp, players were horrified to realize…

After 3 turns, their entire team moved at a crawl!

The enemy team acted twice before player units could take a single sluggish turn.

How were you even supposed to fight that?! It was the equivalent of taking two punches for every single hit you threw back!

Predictably, countless players suffered brutal defeats at the hands of the Fire and Water comps.

Content creators and streamers immediately went to work, racking their brains to engineer counter-strategies.

Since the event challenges supported co-op play, players devised clever workarounds: running multiple Zhuge Liangs to continuously transfer Burn debuffs back, bringing Lin Xiangru to reflect debuffs with “Returning the Jade Intact,” or using War Manuals like 《Await Leisurely for the Exhausted Enemy》 and 《Deceive the Heavens to Cross the Ocean》 to stealth through the enemy’s burst turns.

Guides of every variety flooded the internet.

By adopting strategies from top theorycrafters, casual players discovered the immense fun of managing buff/debuff playstyles.

Consequently, another massive wave of players rushed to the limited event banner to pull for Zhou Yu and Sun Ce.

As the first ruler of Eastern Wu, Sun Ce, alongside Eastern Wu’s Grand Commander and strategist, Zhou Yu, fully possessed the prestige and mechanical strength expected of Solar-tier cards.

Zhou Yu’s zither buffs and full-field ignition were top-tier, while Sun Ce’s single-target damage output set new benchmarks for physical carries. Best of all—both character models were insanely handsome!

Furthermore, the story of the Twin Jewels deeply moved many players.

Friends since childhood, the two had married the famous Qiao sisters, creating one of Eastern Wu’s most cherished historical tales. When Sun Ce was assassinated, he entrusted the entire Eastern Wu realm to Zhou Yu on his deathbed—a testament to profound, absolute trust.

PVP meta chasers pulled on the banner for raw mechanical power.

Casual players pulled purely for the aesthetics, eager to invite the handsome heroes and beautiful heroines into their custom Manors to live together.

The Eastern Wu event banner maintained the standard 2% Solar-tier drop rate, backed by a generous Wishlist and Token Redemption safety net. Whales spent upfront to pull 4 copies and max out skill levels immediately, while F2P players who had saved resources since launch had accumulated more than enough pulls to secure both featured heroes.

Uncle Flying Bear hadn’t spent a single gacha pull since launch day, acting as the ultimate “hoarder” for a full month and accumulating over 300 pulls. This time, he finally couldn’t hold back and dove into the banner: “Both of these hero models are way too cool. If I don’t pull them now, trying to get them off-banner from the standard pool later will be almost impossible.”

He took a deep breath, rubbed his hands together on stream, and laughed: “The resources I’ve been hoarding are finally coming out!”

Viewers in stream chat commented:

— “You truly are the King of Hoarders!”

— “What incredible discipline, holding back all those resources without pulling once!”

Yet Flying Bear served as living proof of just how generous the game’s reward systems were.

By accumulating free resources from launch until the first major event, a player who refrained from impulse pulling could easily save up 300 free pulls—a level of generosity unheard of in competing gacha titles!

Flying Bear’s luck proved solid: within 70 pulls, he secured both Zhou Yu and Sun Ce, immediately stopping to save his remaining reserve for future banners.

Upon pulling new heroes, players immediately set about customizing their housing arrangements.

Some paired Sun Ce and Zhou Yu in one room and the Qiao sisters in another, while others arranged them as historical couples—housing Sun Ce with Da Qiao, and Zhou Yu with Xiao Qiao.

Zhou Yu was a master of music; wandering through the Manor grounds, players would occasionally hear faint zither melodies echoing from a courtyard where Zhou Yu was playing to pass the time.

Although Sun Shangxiang was politically married to Liu Bei, her heart remained with Eastern Wu. If housed alongside Liu Bei, she would frequently run off to hang out and chat with her brothers, Sun Ce and Sun Quan.

Passionate about archery and horsemanship, she could sometimes be spotted sneaking off with her bow to practice target shooting at the Manor training grounds.

Lü Meng wandered around mysteriously, wearing his bamboo conical hat at all times.

Lu Su, ever smiling and diplomatic, loved strolling around trying to persuade people—so much so that several fierce generals grew annoyed by his constant lobbying and would actively hide whenever they saw him approaching.

As the main narrative continued to expand, the Manor filled with more heroes, becoming livelier by the day.

Players began eagerly anticipating future content updates.

Xie Yunfan smiled quietly at the community’s response: There’s still so much content in store. From the very beginning, this game was designed with a multi-year live-service roadmap in mind.

His goal was simple—to build a game that brought enduring joy to its player base, ensuring that even after two full years of play, the world of Turbulent Spring and Autumn would never cease to delight.