Even though the global launch of Three Kingdoms M went largely unnoticed, this is actually one of the most fun to play mobile strategies we’ve come across in a long time. In TKM, commanders have an important role in the way in which the game plays out. You can use them to raid bandits, kill event bosses, help nearby cities, occupy resource nodes, and more.

Unfortunately, these special units are also the focus of the entire gacha mechanic of Three Kingdoms M. Sure, you have two free draws every day (one for good generals and another for celestial/hero ones), but you shouldn’t rely on them to provide you with the best units. We’re not saying it’s not possible, just that you might want to “force your luck” whenever possible.

How do you do that? Read on to find out.

Getting a Free 10-commander Summon Token

From the very first moments of playing Three Kingdoms M, you’ll be asked to make a crucial decision for the future of your account: choosing a nation. We’ve discussed the topic a bit more in our BlueStacks guide to TKM. For the purpose of this article, you should know that letting the game choose for you, i.e. going with the random button, is probably your best bet.

Why? Well, aside from the free 300 gold, you also get a free 10-commander summon token that can land you a hero or celestial-quality unit. These babies are few and far in-between and, while the odds of you getting a SS-tier leader aren’t amazing, they’re worth taking over the alternative. For our first 10 raffle summon, we got two hero quality units and some fragments that will help us build a celestial-rarity one.

By a stroke of luck, we landed a legendary unit in our second batch of 10 summons, Zhang Liao. Whether it’s single or group summons, you can always opt to try again for a chance to get better loot. However, given how much gold it costs, we advise you stay away from such “offers.” They’re money pitfalls that are only meant to incentivize real-money purchases on your end.

One last thing you need to understand about TKM’s commanders is that they also carry troops with them.  Each leader has a base number of units, which gets increased when you upgrade the character itself.

Depending on their specialty, commanders can be focused on cavalry, technology, infantry, archery, or defense (shielding).

Our Favorite Three Kingdoms M Commanders

Here’s our list of the most fun to play generals. Please not that we’re biased and, even if there is a lot of competition going on, we usually prioritize fun-to-play mechanics over the best overall pick:

• Zhang Liao – he might not be a celestial unit, but his Tiger Roar delivers damage like you’ve never seen before. The ability makes Zhang attack 6 times in a row, each attack giving him at least 40% boost to damage. Once he kills a unit, Liao will also gain a minimum of 20 rage.

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His EMP passive has a 20% chance to spatter attack to targets, as well as add a damage reduction debuff, while the Renown (rare) passive gives his basic and spatter attack a 20% and respectively 13.5% chance to completely destroy the opponent. Talk about steamrolling enemies.

Lastly, the Strong Lords legendary passive will increase all Cavalry commanders’ spatter and evasion by a small percentage at the beginning of every battle.

• Zhou Yu – if you like burning things, he should be your top-pick tech guy. Zhou’s Chibi beacon will place 3 random enemy commanders under burning affliction. For the first two turns, the units receive over 35% of his basic damage per turn. Afterwards, everyone will take over 50% of his attack damage per turn.

You’ll love his Wrath passive, which has a minimum of 89% chance to increase the leader’s damage and crit by at least 10%. The Casual passive will place a debuff on all enemies upon Yu’s end of turn, while the Crimson Lotus triggers anyone’s burn state into an explosion. Enemies take additional damage, while allies lose the debuff and give Zhou a defense buff instead.

• Liu Bei – in terms of infantry units, this is as good as it gets. Hist Virtuous Sword active ability deals damage to no less than 5 opposing units for at least 50% of his base damage. If his sword lands on an empty tile, it will stay there until either an ally or an enemy will step on it. Friendly units get 5 rage, while opponents will lose 5 range. Oh, and the skill also gives Liu a bubble that’s worth 5% of his max troop count.

His Friendship passive makes him a really annoying adversary. For each ally commander on the battlefield, Liu gains a 10% increment to his Struggle stat. Each of his attacks have 20% chance to trigger a Virtuous Sword Cast, while crits have a 35% chance to proc. Someone needs a nerf.

The Noble passive increases your line-ups overall rage, while the Goodwill one increases the Virtuous Sword count. Also, if any enemy steps on it, they also take 30% of his basic attack as damage, while allies get a 12% boost to their own attack.

• Huang – she might not be the best tech support commander, but she’s really useful in tricky situations. Her Heaven’s Mysteries summons an Ice Phoenix on the battlefield to distract your opponents. The bird does damage to two random units adjacent to it and it will help you recover troops if there’s an IP in the field.

The advanced and rare passives, Hiding Intellect and Ordnance, allow Huang to become one with the summon and increase her defense, as well as attack values. The legendary passive, however, Skilled Professional, will increase Ld.’s crit and attack values for the entire duration of the battle. If you know you have low odds of survival, stack your frontline with durable leaders and let her do her thing.

Strategize on Your Own Terms

As you can readily tell, TKM has a number of useful commanding units you can resort to in times of needs. Higher-rarity leaders are usually better, but this doesn’t mean that everyone else is useless. From our experience, picking the right type of commander and pairing them up with synergizing allies will most often help you succeed even in the toughest of battles.

Even if it’s a gacha mechanic at its core, we wouldn’t advise you spend any money trying to summon or reroll commanders. Just try to level up and make those progression rewards count. We guarantee they’re worth it.

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