Hero’s Adventure: Road to Passion – Optimal High-Difficulty / Freemode (1690) Route

This guide tells you the optimal routing strategy for high-difficulty runs. Aspects include Starting Traits, which events to go for, and which sects to join.

Routing Strategy Guide

Сrеdit gоеs to Avenging Angel!

Abbreviations

• AS = Action Speed
• DR = Damage Reduction
• GoG = God of Gambling Trait (its 50% accuracy and a free turn after using throwables)
• CIB = Crime Investigation Bureau

Starting Traits

Here is a list of the most optimal starting traits:

Note: any traits obtainable in-game will not be listed as they are a point waste.

• Reincarnated Monk (30) [Big Damage]
• Replenishing Qi and Blood (30) [A lot of HP]
• Loner (25) [AS]
• Lone Wanderer (25) [Big Damage]
• Learn from Everyone (25) [Good Damage & Def]
• Mighty as Thunder (20) [AS]
• Effective Learner (20)
• Regenerative Body (15) [only if using Archdemon, 9 Province Internal, etc.]
• Seal Immunity (15) [Don’t play 1690 without it unless Tank+Counter build]
• Internal Injury Immunity (15)
• Rapid Response (15) [AS]
• Like a Rabbit (15) [AS]
• Hardy (15) [DR]
• Happy Fatty (15) [HP]
• 6 Blue Attribute granting Traits (10 each)
• Quick Reflexes (5) [AS]

All of the above Traits total to 345 Points. There are exactly 345 Points currently available.

Additional possibilities

• Perfect Adaptation (25) [for Long, Short & Musical]
• Fake Newcomer (25) [to skip grinding]
• Jianghu Conqueror (30) [to skip grinding]
• Special Guest (40) [to obtain Dragon Sword early on]
• Power of Money (20) [deal extra damage per 2.5 guan]
• Ravenous Reader

What to cut

• Happy Fatty
• Quick Reflexes
• Like a Rabbit
• Internal Injury Immunity

Why Did I Not Pick X?

Every man has his duty (25): Most end-game fights either start as 1v1 or evolve into 1v1. As such 3% crit damage is not worth using 25 points for.

Fist Master/Talent and others: I have done some testing on 1690 against the Shifa Sect Leader. In the table below you can see the damage I dealt to him when he is parrying with different amounts of Musical. TLDR: You get 2.3 Damage per individual stat as such 103.5 damage from Blade Master + Blade Talent. As such these are not worth taking unless there is nothing else worth investing points into

Important Obtainable Traits

• Acting for Heavens (AS & Damage): Join the Old Man and pick the 2nd option “Uniting the World”
• Way of Nature (AS & Guaranteed Combo): Do the Stargazing Event line at the Taoist Sect
• Enlightened Monk (50% Damage): Join the Shifa Temple as a Monk & read Books until you reach 500 Buddhist Comprehension
• Arhat Golden Body (+1Con/Luk & 35% DR): Join Shifa Temple and do the Heaven Level Bronze Formation
• Buddha Heart (+2Int/Luk & 25% Damage): Join Buddha Temple as a Monk
• Disciple of Confucius (25% Damage): Join Confucius Temple
• Heart of Benevolence (+3 Luck & AS): Join Swallow Nest, invite Hua Qingqing to Team, and head to Mountain Cave
• Upstream Walk (+20AS): Join Water Camp
• Discerning Eyes (30% Accuracy): Join CIB [Can be skipped not that needed]
• Burning Spirit (+50% Spirit gain): Join Blue Wind camp [can be skipped]
• Weapon Mastery (ignore Weapon equip conditions): Join Langya Sword Pavilion [can be skipped]
• Good fortune (20% Damage): Obtaining 1000 Guan
• God of Gambling GoG (50% Accuracy, Another Action after using Throwable): Clean out Gambling tables 20 times total. Extremely good on 1690!!
• Path of Loyalty (100 starting Spirit): Join Ye Army and annihilate the Yan Army. It also provides other benefits however with Way of Nature & Imperial Seal they do nothing [Can be skipped]
• Top Achiever (+3Str/Int): Rescue the Emperor as a Country Top Examiner & kill all Black Chiliarchs
• Bleed Immunity: Buy it from a Taoist in Lin’an City

You may ask “How do you obtain multiple Sect-specific traits in the same run & keep them?”.

The answer is by

• Completing the whole Quest storyline and then leaving the sect (such as Water Camp, Blue Wind Camp, …)
• Unofficially leaving the Sect. Such as getting kicked out, destroying the sect, … (3 religious sects as you can only complete the whole Questline for 1 of them).

For example, by reducing your Benevolence (stealing, poisoning) you can trigger the Punishment Event at the Confucius Sect. By refusing the punishment and winning the fight you’ll be kicked out yet still keep the trait. Alternatively and exclusive to Confucius, you can ask to leave the Sect at night when no one besides the Sect Leader is in the main hall. This will trigger a fight after which Cai will die and you’ll leave the Sect.

An example of this is shown in the video

Stats / Attributes

When creating your character you generally want to max Dex, Con, Str, Int, and then put remaining points into Luck. Luck will then be trained at the Statue in Chuxiang.

You do not want to put points into Int when doing the Enlightenment Strategy (see the specific section).

Besides Starting Stats and trait Stats you can also obtain Stats in the game:

Obtainable generic stats:

• +10 from Levels
• +20 from Caidie Poison Testing
• 5 from Pills
• 1 from Cross Hill Event
• 2 ALL from absorbing Cais cultivation

Specific Stats:

• +1 Luck from obtaining the Imperial Seal for the first time
• +1 Int from Enlightenment (need less than 10 Int)
• +2 Int from 100 Wisdom
• +2 Luck from -100 Wisdom

Possible Endgame Stats in certain builds:

• Pure Attack/Strength Build
• 54 Str, 16 Dex, 24 Luck, 29 Int, 17 Con
• 54 Str = 10 Base + 10 Levels + 6 Traits + 20 Poison Testing + 5 Pills + 1 Cross Hill + 2 Absorbing

Maximum Value obtainable in each Stat:

• 54 Str | 52 Dex | 62 Luck | 65 Int | 53 Con

Early Game Route

When starting as Level 1 it’s advisable to help one of the two and obtain the Revitalization Technique.
The first video describes how to advance at Level 1. There are however further strategies applicable.
The second strategy involves using a game oversight to instantly reach Fame Level 7 thus allowing access to the Homestead (shown in the 2nd video).

The exact sequence is to follow the first video right until it encounters the very first snake (4:50) which was skipped at first. You then save your game; and open a different save file. In this 2nd game file, you will then challenge a Sect leader to a duel. In the middle of the duel, you quit to the main menu & open the first (new) save file again. Encounter the Snake and beat it. Congrats you are now at Fame Level 7.

Afterward, you head to the Nameless Village and become a disciple of the old man. You pick the 2nd option to obtain the trait Acting for the Heavens.

Now you’ll want to simply level up until you are strong enough to help out the Shopkeeper of the Glittering Artifact Auction. Doing so will grant access to the Homestead & your powerful items from the previous saves like Imperial Seal, Armors, Manuals.

General Route

• Join the Old Man and obtain a trait. Obtain Immovable Mountain, 1 of each Pill, 5 Snow Lotuses & buy the Way of Fist/Sword from the Sect Store. Leave after the 9 Faction Quest in each City.
  • Remember to clear out gambling places whilst at Daliang & Lin’an to get GoG. Incredible Trait regardless of early or late-game.
  • By killing everyone at the legendary auction you can amass a lot of money 1000+ Guan. This allows you to easily get the Good Fortune trait.
  • Also try to buy Bleed Immunity early on when you visit Lin’an City. Not having to worry about passive damage makes the game easier. 5k should not be hard to obtain when gambling.
• Join Taoist Sect. Obtain Way of Nature. If you want to keep the Sect Trait get kicked out, otherwise just leave the Sect. The trait is purely a 25% MP consumption reduction and as such not needed.
• Join Ye Family Army (Optional): By annihilating the whole Yan army you will obtain the Path of Loyalty trait. No needed but specific builds such as -Qi reduction sword benefit from it quite a bit. Certain other builds can simply ignore it.
• Join Swallow Nest. Recruit Hua Qingqing to obtain Heart of Benevolent trait. Furthermore, buy a lot of throwables from the Merchant. He restocks every day. Throwables are very good on 1690 with GoG. Use your Sect Contribution to buy Throwables Manuals. Use 14 Normal & 10 Rare ones. This should put your Throwing Level at 102. Leave the sect (no need to keep the Sect Trait)
• Join Jiujiang Fortress (Water Camp). Complete the whole Questline and then leave the Sect. This way you keep the Upstream Walk trait.
• Blue Wind Camp (Optional): Burning Spirit trait (50% Spirit gain). Not needed but can be obtained. Complete Questline and leave.
• CIB (Optional): Discerning Eyes trait (30% accuracy). Not needed with GoG but can be obtained. Complete Questline and leave.
• Langya Sword Pavilion (Optional): Weapon Mastery trait (no accuracy down when not fulfilling Equipment conditions). Very niche. Generally, just skip it.
• Join Shifa Temple as a Monk. Banish the guard at the bronze formation. Complete all 4 Levels of the Bronze Man formation to obtain the Arhat Golden Body trait. Now you also have access to all 3 Scripture Tower Floors. Collect all the books and read them. This will grant +90 Medical, a lot of Exp, some Manuals, a good Ultimate & the Enlightened Monk Trait. Complete the 2nd Shifa Temple Quest to obtain another Ultimate (1 instance of Take no Damage per use). Get kicked out of the Sect or destroy it to keep Buddha Heart.
  • You should have become a Scholar at this point. So save the emperor if you haven’t already and grab the Top Achiever trait. The additional damage & def it provides will be very helpful against demonized Cai.
• Join Confucius. Do the Longevity Questline (Hard Boss fight as such typically last Sect) and absorb Cais Cultivation by having the Archdemon Soul Eating Skill learned. This will grant +2 ALL stats as well as 10% max HP & MP. Now you can also go for Unity of Action & Knowledge by reading all 10 Books. This will also enable another surrender/subjugation method for Confucius allowing the use of the Imperial Token on CIB. Get kicked out, destroy the Sect, or ask to leave the sect at nighttime to keep Disciples of Confucius. Or just stay in the Sect.

Passive Tree for a Strength Build

• First, you want to abuse a bug to get the last nodes of the Thunder tree as shown in the video.
• Additionally, you want the bottom Fire tree route. These can be re-specced for 1v1 important fights.
• Then you also want the middle Mountain route for the DR.
• The bottom forest route can be used for more defense.
• Wind can be specced into for more Action Speed.

Enlightenment Strategy

Enlightenment is an interaction with the Shifa Temple Sect Leader Hui Yuan.

When sect-less and attempting to join the sect one of the options is “Please enlighten me, Master”.

If this option is picked while having 10+ Int you will only get 5000 Exp.

Picking it with 9 or below Int will instead grant +1 permanent Int

Now with starting Traits alone, you have +9 Int (Reincarnated Monk & Blue Traits). Alongside the minimum base stat of 1, you’ll be at 10 Int.

There are 2 ways to achieve a lower Int.

Start with Buddha Heart (10 Points). For every female team member, you’ll get -2 Int allowing you to easily hit 9 or below Int. However, taking Buddha heart at the start is a point waste as it can be obtained in-game.

The second option is to minimize your Base Int at 1 or 2. This means you are at 10. You then progress the Old Man’s storyline however do not complete the 9 Faction Lin’an City Quest.

Get everything you need from the old man. Afterward, trigger the fight at the poisoned well & lose it. This will poison you. Should the poison be cured (like talking to Caidie) you’ll get a Fatigue debuff lasting for 7 days reducing all stats by 2.

You will now want to finish the Lin’an City quest, head to Confucius Sect and do the Old Man Quest over there, head to the Nameless Village to obtain the Old Man’s last stash, rob his sect store, leave the sect and head to the Shifa Temple.

If you do everything correctly and fast enough you should have 8 (or 9) Int. Now talk to the Shifa Temple Sect Leader using the Join option and ask him to enlighten you. This will grant +1 permanent Int.

You can then decide to not join (or join if you want).

Recommended Weapons

For newcomers to 1690, I’d highly recommend using one of the following two weapons

• Fist
• Blade

Both can easily achieve very high damage, have good AoE, a lot of Manuals (6 legendary Blade Manuals), generally scale with Strength, and have a high-damage Manual (People’s Palm & Peerless Blade). Additionally, blue & purple manuals of that kind are easy to obtain making the early game smoother.

Both can comfortably deal with the endgame (Peak, Master, Conq, Succession).

Other weapon options

• Qi Reduction Sword
• Offensive Sword
• Perfect Adaptation Musical
• Musical sadly has to use Perfect Adaptation as there are not enough legendary Manuals of a singular Weapon like Zither.
• Musical will have a harder early game.
• Qi Reduction Sword can feel lacking in damage as it mostly relies on reducing Qi and preventing enemy turns while whittling them down.
• Offensive Sword I do not have experience in however I’ve heard it’s good.

Not recommended

The following weapons I would not recommend even with Perfect Adaptation unless you want a real challenge.

• Short
• Long

Without Perfect Adaptation, those weapons become even worse. Dagger for example mostly relies on the gimmick of Bleeding/Poisoning/Internal Injury and as enemies are immune to those statuses on 1690 they become worthless.

Best Internals

In no particular order

• Infinity Manual (wants Ravenous Reader Trait)
• 13 Confucius Sutras
• Archdemon Soul Eating Skill
• 9 Provinces
• Omnipotent Demon Sealing Move

Sources of Damage Reduction (Tank Build)

• Parry
• 35% Arhat Golden Body
• 45% Immovable Mountain
• 53% Hardy with 53 Con
• 79.5% Resilient with 53 Con
• up to 50% with Unmovable
• 50% with 5x Dragon Ring on Allies
• Increased Parry Effect from Every Man has his duty.

Now Shared Damage is not Damage Reduction, so not included.