Cao Cao Guide & Talent Tree Builds

Cao Cao

Rarity: Legendary
China | Conqueror of Chaos
Cavalry | Peacekeeping | Mobility

Cao Cao is available in Tavern and shopping chests for any Kingdom.

Cao Cao is one of the most versatile commanders in the game! Thanks to his mobility, skills and performance in battle both PVP and PVE.
“King of Speed” as many know him, is the fastest commander in the game in terms of march speed, this is due to his “Mobility” talents as well as having a great variety of this skill throughout the talent tree.
Cao Cao is a fearsome commander leading Cavalry ideal to pursue any enemy that tries to escape or dodge us in battles, fast and deadly.
His role as a commander in both the Primary and Secondary game is excellent, he performs as a unique commander in his style thanks to the effectiveness he has in any situation or task that we assign him.

Advantages & Disadvantages

Advantages

Cavalry Commander, his talent tree and skills make him “the fastest commander in the game.” Perfect for chasing enemies or quickly fleeing from battle.
Its active skill is powerful, it causes a lot of damage to any type of unit that we face.
It has a troop healing factor.
His versatility, talents and skills are excellent both PVP and PVE.

Disadvantages

It has no AOE skill damage, only single target.
Being a fast commander, we are held back in “Hold Position” combats since our best weapon, speed, cannot be used.
The infantry will be Cao Cao’s worst enemy thanks to their great resistance and healings which Cao Cao does not have reductions to this.

Cao Cao Skills

Skill	Description
Dragon Rider Active	Deals direct damage to the target, and decreases target’s attack and march speed for 3 seconds. Upgrades: Direct Damage Factor600 / 800 / 1000 / 1200 / 1400Attack Reduction20% / 25% / 30% / 35% / 40%March Speed Reduction5% / 6% / 7% / 8% / 10%
The Qingzhou Army Passive	Increases the damage on Barbarians. Upgrades: Bonus Damage To Barbarians:10% / 20% / 30% / 40% / 50%
Tiger Knight Passive	Increases cavalry units’ march speed and attack. Upgrades: Cavalry March Speed Bonus:3% / 4.5% / 6% / 8% / 10%Cavalry Attack Bonus:10% / 15% / 20% / 25% / 30%
Lofty Ambition Passive	Troops’ normal attacks have a 10% chance to heal a portion of the slightly wounded units, restores rage, and increases troops’ march speed by 20% for 3 seconds. Effect can only trigger once every 2 seconds. Upgrades: Healing Factor Bonus:500 / 600 / 700 / 800 / 1000Rage Restored:50 / 60 / 70 / 80 / 100
Emperor Wu of Wei Expertise	Increases cavalry attack by 25%, decreases troop defense by 10%

Skill

Description

Dragon Rider

Active

Deals direct damage to the target, and decreases target’s attack and march speed for 3 seconds.

Upgrades:

Direct Damage Factor600 / 800 / 1000 / 1200 / 1400Attack Reduction20% / 25% / 30% / 35% / 40%March Speed Reduction5% / 6% / 7% / 8% / 10%

The Qingzhou Army

Passive

Increases the damage on Barbarians.

Upgrades:

Bonus Damage To Barbarians:10% / 20% / 30% / 40% / 50%

Tiger Knight

Passive

Increases cavalry units’ march speed and attack.

Upgrades:

Cavalry March Speed Bonus:3% / 4.5% / 6% / 8% / 10%Cavalry Attack Bonus:10% / 15% / 20% / 25% / 30%

Lofty Ambition

Passive

Troops’ normal attacks have a 10% chance to heal a portion of the slightly wounded units, restores rage, and increases troops’ march speed by 20% for 3 seconds. Effect can only trigger once every 2 seconds.

Upgrades:

Healing Factor Bonus:500 / 600 / 700 / 800 / 1000Rage Restored:50 / 60 / 70 / 80 / 100

Emperor Wu of Wei

Expertise

Increases cavalry attack by 25%, decreases troop defense by 10%

Recommended Cao Cao Talent Tree Builds

“King of Speed” Build

Cao Cao has some magnificent talents of March Speed, talents that make him the fastest commander in the game as we have said, however, these talents are also accompanied by exquisite skills that will make him even more powerful.

“Tiger Knight”, a passive skill of the best to lead cavalry, Cavalry March Speed Bonus 10%, Cavalry Attack Bonus 30%, this skill at its maximum power will be essential for our Build of “King of Speed”.

Although our talents in this Build are focused on March Speed, Cao Cao at no point in the fight will stop being effective in terms of damage and skill, on the contrary, it will be much more variable and agile while maintaining a high level of DPS:

Peacekeeping Talents

Quick Study: Increases experience obtained from defeating barbarians and other neutral units by 15%. A very useful talent for PVE if we decide to help level up another commander alongside Cao Cao.
Insight: Reduces action points cost to attack barbarians and other neutral units by 9%. Essential talent if we want to consume AP in any PVE activity.
Thoroughbreds: Increases march speed of all troops by 9%. It is the most important talent of Peacekeeping for our Cao Cao “King of Speed”.

Mobility Talents

Spiked Armor: Increases counterattack damage dealt by 1.5%. Good talent to return damage to our enemy in any battle.
Lightning Charge: Increases march speed of all troops by 6%. We continue to increase our march speed.
Vortex: Grants a 10% chance to decrease target march speed by 15% for the next 3 seconds whenever an active skill is used. Taking advantage of this probability we will reduce the speed of our enemy during any pursuit, which will be more favorable for our mobility.
Saving Cross: Reduces skill damage taken by 9%. Cao Cao will take less damage from any skill the enemy uses.
Hasty Departure: When troops led by this commander depart from a structure, increase march speed by 60% for the next 10 seconds. A fundamental talent to chase or flee as long as we enter a structure or resource point, we can use this 10 second bonus to increase our steps.
Swiftness: When troops led by this commander are attacked by an active skill, increases march speed by 15% for the next 5 seconds. Ideal if we escape from a fight, if an enemy commander attacks Cao Cao with his skill, he will be much faster for 5 seconds.

Cavalry Talents

Galea: Increases health of cavalry units by 3%. The cavalry led by Cao Cao will be much more resistant.
Charge: When the army led by this commander has been reduced to less than 50% strength, increases march speed by 30%. If our cavalry is seriously injured in any battle, this talent will be very important to withdraw in time.
Halberd: Cavalry units led by this commander deal an additional 9% damage to archer units. Like any cavalry commander, Cao Cao is strong against archer units, let’s take advantage of this talent if we want to defeat enemies easily.

Using this Build for Cao Cao we will realize that there are many other small talents that will increase our march speed, as well as we will have talents that will favor our stability on the battlefield. This will not be the way to cause the highest DPS if it is what we are looking for, but we will have an enviable versatility, we will be a chaos for our enemies.

Open Field Build

As primary commander Cao Cao will be very good in “Open Field”, he has a direct attack skill that causes a lot of damage to any enemy “Dragon Rider” we will even have another passive skill that will restore a percentage of our troops “Lofty Ambition” and restore much faster our Rage to use our active once more.

His ultimate skill “Emperor Wu of Wei” is amazing! If we really want to have a Cao Cao in a demonic, we must bet on unlocking this skill as quickly as possible, its bonus to cavalry makes it a destructive machine.

Peacekeeping Talents:

Play Rise of Kingdoms on PC to fully enjoy the game!

This time we will not use any of the talents of “Peacekeeping”.

Mobility Talents

Spiked Armor: Increases counterattack damage dealt by 1.5%. Our damage in battles will be much more effective.
Lightning Charge: Increases march speed of all troops by 6%. An extra speed as a cavalry commander that we are.
Vortex: Grants a 10% chance to decrease target march speed by 15% for the next 3 seconds whenever an active skill is used. We will effectively stop any escape or flight of our enemy during the battle.
Saving Cross: Reduces skill damage taken by 9%. Cao Cao will take less damage from any skill the enemy uses.

Cavalry Talents

Dragon Saber: Increases normal attack damage of all troops led by this commander by 1.5%. Excellent for leading our Cavalry troops and increasing their damage.
Halberd: Cavalry units led by this commander deal an additional 9% damage to archer units. Our cavalry is strong against archer units, we can say that “if or if” we will overcome many archery commanders; however, some can be strong and we need this talent to maximize our damage to those strong archer commanders.
Charge: When the army led by this commander has been reduced to less than 50% strength, increases march speed by 30%. If our cavalry is seriously injured in a battle, we will be on time and can quickly flee from the battle.
Galea: Increases health of cavalry units by 3%. Increases the life of our units therefore we will be stronger on the battlefield.
Undying Fury: Normal attacks grant an additional 9 rage. Our active skill will have less cooldown.
Equestrian Excellence: Normal troop attack have a 10% chance to increase march speed by 15% for the next 2 seconds. While we attack our enemy, we will have a chance to increase our march speed, ideal for chasing.
Emblazoned Shield: Reduces skill damage taken by 12%. “Emblazoned Shield” + “Saving Cross” = 21% Skill Damage Reduction, Good!
Disarm: Normal troop attacks have a 10% chance to reduce enemy attack by 20% for the next 2 seconds. While fighting with one or more enemies we will have a percentage of reducing the normal attack of these, so we will take less damage in combat.
Rallying Cry: Increases all damage dealt by 15% during the first 10 seconds after entering battle. It is a great talent that will improve our attack once we enter combat, the bonus only lasts 10 seconds, but the best way to use it is to enter and exit combat to have at all times 15% extra damage.

Cao Cao benefits from his Cavalry Talents with this build to increase his damage capacity and resistance on the battlefield, we lose some mobility, but we gain other statistics that will be more useful against any enemy we face. Both your talents and skills to the fullest will be important to get the most out of you in Rise of Kingdoms.

Best Commanders Pairings for Cao Cao

	His great Skill damage, cavalry upgrades, and rapid Rage regeneration will make him the best match for Cao Cao. It is a destructive pair of very high damage.
	Ideal for Open Field for its good damage skills and cavalry bonuses. Minamoto is an excellent option if we are chasing some weak enemy.
	Takeda is a cavalry commander with excellent skills, his improvements will be perfect for Cao Cao when defeating enemies in Open Field.
	She is the ideal commander to destroy barbarian forts, we can even use Cao Cao as secondary and Aethelflaed become primary commander, it works both ways effectively.
	Epic Commander with strong skills, secondary with Cao Cao is very effective both PVP and PVE.
	Another good option for defeating forts or killing some barbarians on the map, the PVE feature with Boudica still works great both ways, primary or secondary Cao Cao.

Recommended Equipment for Cao Cao

Equipment	Delay time	Stats
	5.5 Days	Cavalry Defense +5% Cavalry Health +5%
	72 Days	Cavalry Attack +4% Infantry Attack +3% Archer Attack +3%
	3.5 Days	Cavalry Health +2% Infantry Defense +2% Damage to Barbarians +3%
	48 Days	Cavalry Attack +3% Cavalry Health +3%
	3.5 Days	Cavalry Attack +4% Cavalry Health +1%
	2.5 Days	Cavalry Attack +1% Archer Attack +1% Damage to Barbarians +3%
Total	135 Days	Attack + 18.5% Defense + 6.5% Health +14%