One of the reasons why I decided to start fresh on Dynasty Warriors 3 is that I can't import my Dynasty Warriors 3 file to its Xtreme Legends version, so I haven't really been able to properly play the Xtreme Legends version. I only tried one stage on the Xtreme Legends version with a fresh character since I, of course, couldn't import anything. This is very likely because I used Action Replay Max to get all items, particularly the stat increasing items, such as the Peacock Urn (life) with all of them increasing their respective stats by 50. The problem is that some items the game didn't intend to increase its respective stat by 50. (I also used Action Replay Max for max stat increasements for Dynasty Warriors 4, but I had no problem importing that to its Xtreme Legends version because they didn't go past what the game intended.) These are the maximum amounts stat increasing items were meant to be increase stats by: Cavalry Armor (Mounted Defense): 40 Dragon Amulet (Musou Bar): 60 Elixir (Musou Bar Recharge Rate): 20 Horned Helm (Mounted Attack): 40 Huang's Bow (Bow Attack): 40 Peacock Urn (Life): 60 Seven Star Orb (Luck): 20 Shell Armor (Bow Defense): 40 Speed Scroll (Movement Speed): 16 Tiger Amulet (Attack): 20 Tortoise Amulet (Defense): 40 Wind Scroll (Reach): 20 Wing Boots (Jump): 16 The lowest all these can increase stats by is, of course, one, and the amount of increasement one of those items contains when dropped (seen after a battle ends on the result screen) is random. The later the stage and the higher the difficulty, usually the better the drop. Officers' unique fourth weapons, which have fixed stats and never change, can, of course, ignore this limit as, for example, Xu Zhu's Stone Crusher increases his HP by 86. It increases some other stats as well, of course. It's actually not that hard to max characters' stats out. You can get a character almost maxed out just by playing through Musou Mode with each of them. Attack and defense are pretty easy as it's just a matter of defeating enemy generals, which can drop attack and defense increasements anywhere from +1 to +8 depending on the stage and difficulty (I think with regard to the latter). They can also drop weapons and items. Gate captains can drop measly +1 defense drops, but every little bit helps. It's the life and musou bar increasement items (dim sum and fairy wine) that most players new to the series probably don't know about because those you have to find. That's probably one of the reasons why I was stuck at The Siege of He Fei Castle for so long when I doing Musou Mode for the first time with Zhang He from the Wei side. That and I still had his first weapon, and I don't think I had the best stats at the time, so I died easily... a lot. I think life and musou are the two I needed to increase the most when I finally went through and maxed out everyone. I think it only took so long (or at least felt like it) because of the amount of characters. Battles can also drag on as most battles have a 90-minute time limit, with some having a 30-minute time limit when the stage isn't as big, and if you're like me who likes to defeat every single enemy and seal all the gates before taking on the enemy commander, they can especially drag on. However, had I known that the cheats I used would be a problem then, I wouldn't have maxed even one character out and started fresh back then. This time I started with Xiahou Dun, also from Wei like Zhang He, and I almost have him maxed out. I think what I'll do instead of doing Musou Mode with each character after I finish one Musou Mode is finish maxing out Xiahou Dun's stats, get his fourth weapon, and then use him to get all the items and the max stats for the stat increasing items as that'll make it easier when playing through Musou Mode with the other fresh characters. The items are, thankfully, not specific to a character. Weapons are, but not items. I also don't specifically have to play through Musou Mode and Free Mode works just as well, but with Musou Mode, I can just do stage after stage until the last stage, which I think is a little more beneficial in the long run even though there's no actual "difference."
