It is possible to rake in tons of XP, gold, and all those ancient coins all in one go in a relatively short span of time if you know what to do.

This method is not interesting in the least, but it will grant you access to end-game weapons, accessories, and gems much earlier than you should have them – which is a must-have for Chaos mode since enemies have health bars bigger than their egos.

So the first question is:

What is This Grinding Method?

If you’ve played the Dynasty Warriors 9 for at least a few hours, you’ve probably noticed the odd group of bandits out in the wild. Bandits with no nameplate or anything at all, just regular ol’ bandit dudes. Ignore them, because you’re looking for the higher-ups.

In certain mountainous areas (or just uninhabited plains) are multiple packs of Bandit Chiefs and Bandit Leaders, which are far more lucrative than their no-named brothers.

Your mission (should you choose to accept it) is to hunt these groups down and kill’em dead.

Killing each of these bandits nets you random ancient coins, XP, and exceptionally rare vendor trash that sells for 3000 ~ 6000 gold each. Interested yet? Heckin’ yeah, you are.

How Do You Do It?

Well, you just find them and kill them. Here are the steps:

Find them Kill them ????? Profit!

More seriously, the fastest way to kill these bandits isn’t to assault them head-on. Rather, you should shoot them with your bow. A single shot will kill them depending on where you hit and the type of bandit it is.

Sometimes you have to shoot them in the head, sometimes you have to shoot them in the nameplate (no joke) – but you should be able to kill them with a single aimed shot. This is something that takes practice, but it doesn’t take a long time to get the hang of.

If you really want to speed up the process, you need to invest in a stack of Exploding Arrows. Shooting a group of bandits with Exploding Arrows won’t necessarily kill all of them, but it will almost always kill enough to more than make up for the expense of the arrows and your time.

When you find one cluster of these bandits, you will surely find more nearby. Once you find one group and take them out, just run around the area and try to find more groups nearby.

Bandit Locations

There are a ton of places you can find Bandit Chief and Leader groups, but I did take screenshots of a few locations as I played the game.

These are definitely not the only places you c6an find these enemies as they are fairly common, but these location markers will help if you’re not sure where to go hunt them at a given time.

In these pictures, I’ve zoomed the map all the way out, but it’s still hard to tell where they were taken. Nonetheless, maybe they will help you.

Where to get Exploding Arrows

There have been some towns that I’ve had to use as Explosive Arrow-buying hubs when I’m grinding, but I honestly can’t say if the Shopkeeper inventories stay the same forever.

I believe I was initially buying them in Shouchun, but I don’t see them there anymore. Currently, in my game, I’m seeing them for purchase in Xuchang. I’m not sure if the locations rotate, but it shouldn’t take you long to find a town where you can buy them if you’ve played the game for a bit. Just fast travel from town to town to find them and cough up the pricey 4000 gold per arrow – which you will more than make back with ease.

If you take the time to hunt down Bandit Chiefs and Leaders, you’ll be handsomely rewarded with all the gold, XP, and ancient coins you could possibly want. It’s worth the effort, that much is for certain.

If you found this guide to be helpful on your journey around China, take a look at our other Dynasty Warriors 9 guides.