Essential tips and strategies for surviving the Tang Dynasty court in Road to Empress
Every Bad Ending contains a character’s inner monologue and hidden information. Dying is a learning process — the game rewards curiosity. The branch tracker in the UI clearly marks unexplored options, so you always know what you haven’t tried.
Don’t obsess over the “optimal choice” on your first playthrough. Follow your instincts, make mistakes, and learn from them. The game is designed so that understanding comes from failure.
The game UI provides a horizontal tree diagram showing all branches. Unexplored options are clearly marked. Use this to systematically find every path.
Each Bad Ending may include a voice message — a character’s inner monologue. There are over 100 across the entire game. These reveal true character motivations and hidden plot details you won’t find anywhere else.
Before beginning either game, check the main menu mailbox. RtE I gives 20,000 gold coins; RtE II gives 5,000 gold coins. This is essential for the Millionaire achievement.
The bottom of the storyline screen has a hint mode toggle. When enabled, it helps you identify the correct choice at each decision point — invaluable for difficult chapters.
The recommended approach: complete the main storyline first → go back and explore branches → finally clean up the Ch8–9 dual branch and Ch10–11 scene variants. The 97% bottleneck is almost always an incomplete branch in Chapters 8–11.
Combine Ch50%/75% exploration rewards, Feats bonuses, and mailbox gold. Most players reach 100,000 gold around Chapter 13.
In Chapter 2, when choosing an outfit, select “Let me try another one” 10 times in a row.
The upper-right petal is the easiest. The lower-left petal requires 100% exploration. The top petal is typically completed after endings where Liu Xi is killed.
Slap Liu Xi across both games a total of 15 times. This is a cumulative counter that spans RtE I and RtE II.