In Koei’s Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI for Windows PC (non PUK, English edition), there are a total of 30 event stills ( basically, pictures of important events during a campaign, viewable under Settings -> Reference -> View Event Stills ). Upon collecting all 30 and winning any scenario to unite China, you will unlock top-tier skill sets and all historical portraits when you use Create Officer for your own custom officers. It’s one of the things required for One Hundred Percent Completion of the game. However, there has not been a very good guide as to how to achieve all 30 events, especially with problematic and rare ones like Secret Meeting.
This post is my attempt to catalog all the event stills and how to obtain them in game. The events are listed below in order of their appearance on the View Event Stills page. In general, you only need to view the Event Still once. That means that you can start a game, obtain the Events you want, without actually completing or even saving the game once. Even if you abandon that game later, once you’ve viewed the event, it counts toward your completion of collecting all 30.
Note that I will not suggest any unreasonably contrived means to get events, even if that might be faster, because I consider these tactics basically cheating. For example, I will not suggest that you send your sovereign out to die deliberately to get the Sovereign Death event, even if you might be able to do that. You may also create officers with birth and death dates to your exact specification, to achieve some of these events, but that, too, is basically cheating. Most of the fun in these events is trying to obtain them fairly while playing a game — it adds an additional dimension of strategic planning. If you’re just going to cheat, stop reading this and go download the fully unlocked sysfile that’s floating around the Web.
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- Plague – when a city receives a Plague event, causing all sorts of havoc. You will likely get at least one in any scenario.
- Locusts – when a city receives a Locusts event, decreasing food production in that city. You will likely get at least one in any scenario.
- Plenty – when a city receives a Plenty event during harvest season, increasing food production in that city. You will likely get at least one in any scenario.
- Bandits – when bandits appear in your territories, as the name suggests. The easiest way to obtain this still is to start the Yellow Turban Rebellion scenario. During the story intro sequence, the Yellow Turbans will rise against the Han court, and this will unlock the event still.
- Coronation – when an Emperor is crowned, or when you declare support for the Emperor after capturing the capital (Luoyang, Chang’an, or Xu Chang, depending on the scenario). Easily achievable in most scenarios if you’re winning.
- Unity: Male – when you unite China under a male sovereign. This event will be unlocked when you win a scenario with a male sovereign. I prefer Liu Bei, but YMMV 🙂
- Unity: Female – notes not yet available
- Downfall – when one of the forces in the game is eliminated. At least one ruler will fall in any game, so this is trivial to obtain. You can also get this by losing your city in Tutorial 3, Going into Battle.
- Independence – when a prefect or viceroy declares independence and forms his or her own force in a game. In Tutorial 6, Capturing Cheng Du, there is a good chance that Jian Ning will declare independence under the prefect Yong Kai, but it is not guaranteed. In the 190 scenario, the free cities in Jiangdong may declare independence under their prefects within the first two years. In any scenario, foment an independence movement in an enemy city via the strategy Collaborate. Alternatively, wait until one of your district viceroys’ or city prefects’ loyalty falls below a certain threshold, at which point an AI force is likely to foment a revolt in that prefecture or district. Finally, when you’re winning a full scenario, at the very end of the game one of your officers will ask you to investigate another officer for treason. If you choose to do so, that officer will be proven innocent, but will revolt anyway due to your distrust of him. This revolt will trigger an Independence event.
- Omen – This event is displayed at the start of the year, when your strategist warns that one of your officers is about to die (of natural causes, not in battle). If you play through a game with historical age settings, quite a few of your officers will die. Pick a middle scenario, when there are a lot of older officers around.
- Sovereign Death – when your own sovereign dies of natural causes. The easiest way to get this one, short of deliberate regicide on your part, is to use Tao Qian in 194, Rival Warlords. He will most likely die within the next two years, giving you this event.
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- Officer Death : Male – When one of your male officers die. This is relatively trivial to get – one will come within the year, after an Omen, for example. Your officer may also be killed by a cavalry charge or in a duel, if officer deaths are on.
- Officer Death : Female – When one of your female officers die. This is a little more annoying, given the sparsity of female officers. Still, at least one should die in any game. Your officer may also be killed by a cavalry charge or in a duel.
- Funeral – When any sovereign (except yours) dies of natural causes — that is, of illness or old age, not in battle. In the 194 scenarios, Tao Qian will die within the next two years. Play the scenario as a ruler other than him, and you will trigger this event still.
- 2 Sworn Brothers – when you arrange for two male officers to swear brotherhood with each other. Officers with sworn brothers on the same force will not defect, and will obtain bonuses when both are assigned to the same unit. You’ll need two officers of the male gender and at least 500 in Deeds each. You will also need 500 technique points (TPs). At that point, Sovereign -> Mediate will allow you to mediate sworn brotherhood between these two officers and unlock this event.
- 2 Sworn Sisters – when you arrange for two female officers to swear sisterhood with each other. Officers with sworn sisters on the same force will not defect, and will obtain bonuses when both are assigned to the same unit. You’ll need two officers of the female persuasion and at least 500 in Deeds each. You will also need 500 technique points (TPs). At that point, Sovereign -> Mediate will allow you to mediate sworn sisterhood between these two officers and unlock this event.
- Male Officer Appears – Triggers at the start of a new year, when a male officer (who is related to one of your current officers) arrives to offer his services to your ruler. For example, as Liu Bei in 211 Liu Bei in Shu scenario, you will likely receive Zhang Bao – Zhang Fei’s son, in 212. Note that your sovereign should be within a city for this event to occur.
- Marriage – when you marry one of your officers to another – married officers will not defect, and obtain bonuses when assigned to the same unit. You’ll need two officers of opposite gender, at least 500 in Deeds, and unmarried status. You will also need as 500 technique points (TPs). At that point, Sovereign -> Mediate will allow you to conduct a marriage between these officers and unlock this event.
- Fem. Officer Appears – Triggers at the start of a new year, when a female officer (who is related to one of your current officers) arrives to offer her services to your ruler. This one is fairly tricky, because there aren’t that many female officers. In general, play one of the middle scenarios as a prominent family. For example, if you play as Sun Quan in 211, you will get a female officer from the Sun family in 215.
- Resignation – when an officer resigns from your force due to low loyalty. This is also a hard one to get if you are a decent player, since you’d never let an officer’s loyalty drop low enough. Note that if your sovereign dies and your officers resign, you will not receive this event still. You must have this officer resign through low loyalty. Officers with loyalty less than 70 will tend to resign, and they usually do so on Jan of a new year. Best way to do this may be to play as Dong Zhuo in 190. Use your overwhelming starting forces to take down Cao Cao, then hire his wife Bian Shi. Use Bian Shi to hire Cao Cao. Dong Zhuo and Cao Cao are disliked officers, so Cao Cao’s loyalty will start in the 70s and drop fast. However, since you have his wife in your service, he will not be hired away by another sovereign. At the start of the next year, Cao Cao will most likely resign from your force.
- Decree – when an imperial decree arrives. For example, when the Emperor promotes your sovereign to the rank of Duke, he will use this kind of decree. Since to win a game, you’ll likely surpass the rank of Duke, this event is trivial to unlock if you win a game.
- Orders – when a different type of imperial order arrives. If you start 190 Cao Cao's Ascent, the story intro sequence to the scenario involves Cao Cao’s forged imperial edict arriving at Yuan Shao’s city. This will grant you the event still.
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- Fallen Castle – when a city falls to your forces. You are likely to receive this in Tutorial 6, Capturing Cheng Du…when you capture Cheng Du. Otherwise, take any city or base, and the event is yours. Trivial.
- Conversation – when one of your civil officers head off to search for a friend in the area and obtains his or her services after a debate. This seems to occur randomly, when your sovereign is in the same city as certain civil officers on his force. It is the analogous event to “Search”, which applies only to military (high WAR) officers. The event represents the “conversation” between your officer and his friend. This obviously only triggers when there are hidden officers to find in a city — so start an early scenario with lots of hidden officers for a better shot at the event.
- Coalition – pick up this event when the coalition against Dong Zhuo forms in 190 Cao Cao's Ascent, at the very beginning during the story intro sequence. Otherwise, play as a strong army (say, Cao Cao in 207), and eventually two of your weaker enemies will merge to form a coalition against you.
- Search – when one of your military officers head off to search for a famous hero in the area and obtains his or her services after a duel. This seems to occur either randomly or scripted to resemble randomness. This obviously only triggers when there are hidden officers to find in a city — so start an early scenario with lots of hidden officers for a better shot at the event. The 190 scenario with Cao Cao in Xu Chang or Chen Liu should be an easy way to get this event, as you recruit various notables like Dian Wei or Xu Chu.
- Secret Meeting – when you meet a hidden character for a philosophical discussion. This one is ridiculously obscure and difficult to obtain, to the effect that many people do not know how to obtain it. Forum posts and such suggest that you’d receive this when the AI foments unrest with one of your viceroys or prefects (one of the in-game log messages say “your prefect blah is meeting someone secretly”. However, that is a red herring. One post correctly identifies that the Secret Meeting event is awarded for meeting a hidden character such as Xu Shao during a Search. As Cao Cao in 190 Cao Cao's Ascent, if you keep Searching the area around Chen Liu or Ru Nan, against your strategist’s advice that nothing would be found, you will eventually encounter Xu Shao, who will do a physiogamy reading for you, unlocking this event. One of the early scenarios, such as Rise of Dong Zhuo, is preferred for obtaining this event. Just keep Searching your city, a lot, and fruitlessly most of the time. You’ll get this eventually ( took me under two game years of on-and-off searching in Chen Liu while holding off Dong Zhuo’s army ). A comment from Lance Lidner reports that using Kong Zhou in Rise of Dong Zhuo works best, as Xu Shao appears in Ru Nan at that time. Kong Zhou is also out of immediate reach from most hostile factions in that scenario, so you can afford to take your time.
- Appoint – when the emperor issues a new title to you. This occurs when you’ve captured enough cities to reach the next rank, and that your sovereign is currently in a city (as opposed to being on campaign). As Liu Bei in the 211 Liu Bei in Shu scenario, taking Xiang Yang (via Jiang Ling – you’ve got Zhuge Liang, Pang Tong, Zhang Fei, Liu Bei, Sun Shang Xiang, Zhao Yun … that’s plenty to take the city from Cao Ren early on) and Yong An will bump you up to Field Marshal, and Emperor Xian will award you the title and this event. As Cao Cao in 190 Cao Cao's Ascent, taking the free cities of Xu Chang and Xin Ye will grant the title of Lt. Governor, which once again easily unlocks this event.
- 3 Sworn Brothers – when you arrange for three male officers to swear brotherhood, much like the historical Oath of the Peach Garden of Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei. Officers with sworn brothers on the same force will not defect, and will obtain bonuses when two or more are assigned to the same unit. You’ll need three officers of the male gender and at least 500 in Deeds each. You will also need 500 technique points (TPs). At that point, Sovereign -> Mediate will allow you to mediate sworn brotherhood between these officers and unlock this event.
- 3 Sworn Sisters – when you arrange for three female officers to swear sisterhood. Officers with sworn sisters on the same force will not defect, and will obtain bonuses when two or more are assigned to the same unit. You’ll need three officers of the female persuasion and at least 500 in Deeds each. You will also need 500 technique points (TPs). At that point, Sovereign -> Mediate will allow you to mediate sworn sisterhood between these officers and unlock this event. The hardest part of this is rounding up 3 female officers to begin with.
Can you send me the game saves of yours.I’ve tried my best but i only find 25 events
Hi friend,
You might notice that as of today, I’m still missing Unity: Female — I just don’t have the time to play these days. You should check out the Koei forums for RoTK 11 or GameFAQs and ask for the syssave.s11 file — there are at least two or three versions available that unlocks everything.
The easiest way is to use kong zhou in rise of dong zhuo and search about 2-3 times, that 2-3 times, you will find an officers, then at the fourth/fifth time you will encounter xu shao, then you are more than welcome to return to the title screen.
At first i am frustrated about how to find it, but after i read in wikipedia that he’s around ru nan and live abou 180-195, i immediately tried this one and it works, less than 5 minutes, i assure you all.
thanks! I’ve updated the post.
after year 195 can i still find him? cause it is stated 180 – 195
Personally, I have not been able to find him after. If it’s already after 195, you might try starting another game.
Sorry to leave a note for the comment above, its to unlock secret meeting event still.
I recommended that you made a created officer with a maximized PQL about 2-3 officers.
Actually, if i am not mistaken, you can unlock the funeral event still even with your own sovereign death, because usually if another sovereign dies, it will only shows its picture and a note of its death and its heir will succeed it.
Addition to find xu shao, you must been able to search for about 5-6 searches in one turn, and you must do it in the begining of a month (YYY/MM/1), try to find with its sovereign (kong zhou), best way is to gain up AP until the next month, second way to find him is to use zhang jiao in yellow turban rebellion, conquer ru nan before a year, and at the beginning of a month, try to search without sovereign (recommendation) and when the strategeist says that a search will be fruitless, use zhang jiao to search, but it will take a longer time than kong zhou.
Great overall strategy, Lance. I just have a few things to add. The date and number of searches seem to not matter, since I found Xu Shao on 190/7/21 with my first search of that turn. Having the Enlister skill might help, as that’s what the searching officer had.
nope not realy, i met hm when playing in yellow turban scenaro and creating new officers in ru nan.. keep doing serch… you will meet him. 😀
To get a resignation event still, the easiest way is to create an officer that dislike an officer, and its spouse, assign them both on a force that the sovereign is the officer that created officer dislike. For about a year, and it will resigned.
To get a resignation put an officer or a bunch of them in a harbor ex. Xi He, and take away all the gold each turn, and do not reward them. In a couple of turns they’ll resign because they never got paid.
And for unity female, save the game before your male sovereign unites the county (ex. save one last city do not capture it), keep advancing until your sovereign dies and appoint a female sovereign then take over that city then you get the unity female without having to replay the game again.
“Addition to find xu shao, you must been able to search for about 5-6 searches in one turn, and you must do it in the begining of a month (YYY/MM/1), try to find with its sovereign (kong zhou), best way is to gain up AP until the next month”
i searched for 5 game years straight and still nothing! O_O!!
Read the discussion in here http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/genmessage.php?board=931351&topic=46557146. Download Trainer KuaKao gave http://www.mediafire.com/?nmmjy4tijxm. Keep searching in city where xu shao stays and you’ll eventlly meet him
Found it eventually, in the most unlikely circumstances, in the city of Ji while using Liu Bei.
Was controlling Cao Cao, Kong Zhou and Liu Bei at one go, searching frantically…
Found it eventually.
glad you were able to finally find him 🙂 it does take a bit of persistence and luck
i got unity female by playing as sun ce, then he dies and i chose his daughter to succeed him and win the game.
This is what I have been looking for.
Thanks for sharing this.
hey guys
i’m a new RTK XI player and i had a problem with the Secret Meeting event until i found a very useful program (RTK Editor) i downloaded it and entered the game with a new force in Dong Zhou’s Rise campaign i used the program to edit Xu Shao’s Location and moved him to the city under my control then i choosed a created officer to search (the officer’s POL was above 90) here’s the program link http://www.mediafire.com/?nmmjy4tijxm
and Thanks yiming
Thanks for the link. While I don’t usually approve of game hacking, Secret Meeting is too insanely difficult to get as an event. I can definitely understand if someone wants to use this tool, rather than waste hours of time searching for a completely hidden character.
This is a great post.
Even though i’m just playing the game and currently playing my first scenario, Cao Cao Ascent, i somehow manage to get quite bunch of event, but the rare one. I’ll add some additional information.
Independence:
When you get to capture a city where the emperor is, choose to dethrone him, and you’ll get this event still.
So save before capture it, and select one option, return to title screen, load and select another option to get coronation and independence.
2 sworn brothers/sisters & 3 sworn brother/sisters and Marriage:
your best bet is tutorial, capturing Cheng Du. There you have enough TP (500) and male/female officer. If not, you can always hire Pang De, then use him to get Ma Dai/Ma Chao then use them to hire Ma Yunlu.
You can use the TP for marriage as well. I’ve manage to earn at leas 1000+ TP there.
Female Officer appear:
I accidentally unlock it while playing Cao Cao Ascent Preset Scenario. I somehow manage to capture and employ Wang Yun quite early in the game (around 1st or 2nd year). And Diao Chan showed up later in the game. just make sure Wang Yun to be idle in the beginning of the year just to be safe.
I haven’t get:
Bandits : even though i’ve lowed my order until 0 in my attempt to get secret meeting and bandits in 1 shot, i still haven’t gotten it. I’ve got the bandits citadel though. I still manage to get secret meeting though by using kong Zhou.
Male/Female unity : haven’t yet finished any game.
sovereign death : Cao Cao won’t die that fast (in my case).
Resignation : This will be the hardest for me. I might need to use the created officer method, or Dong Zhuo capture Cao Cao, but i already have Zhang ji and Zou Shi (both prisoners). There might be another way.
officer death Female, male officer appear & Decree : just wait and see. It’ll come eventually. Cao Cao has a lot of sons afterall.
I recommend new player to play Cao cao Ascent scenario. Not easy, but not so hard if you play your card right. This is my first time to plat ROTK series and i like it. You’ll also get lots of event from this scenario eventually, except secret meeting….perhaps.
ps: Sorry if the comment is too long. I want to show my gratitude for your great article and add some additional information to get them, from my own experience.
you can get bandit event when playing yellow turban rebellion
Get resignation event.
I got it by using Cao Cao, employ Han Sui (they are friends) and Ma Teng Through him. (66 loyalty) Since he’s Han Sui’s Sworn brother, it takes almost 2 year to get his resignation. I don’t reward him at all until his loyalty get below 63 (last time i check his loyalty 1 year after i get him).
fact : Sworn brother DO affect employment and loyalty decrement. and prevent from getting employed by another forces. It surprise me since i read from another source that Ma Teng dislike Cao Cao (which is reflected through his low initial loyalty) but his loyalty decrement is very low.
there is a way to see if and officer dislikes your leader is you click employ them the will say i will never serve you and if you imprison them they will “of all fates to be captured by you.” ma yulu ma chao and ma teng all don’t like cao cao
Dear all, the 30 event still is pretty easy to gather if you know what you’re doing (like i do playing these games for 30+ campaigns over and over again, adn still manages to find some joy in doing so)
For starter:
1) Play any character and finish the game, save the last city standing and clear all the Sworn brothers and sisters, or just do them once, reload, and do them again if you’re out of TP.
2) For female ruler, just create a female CC character and finish the game.
3) For secret meeting, I just accidentally found several playing on various campaign. If you’re desperate for it, try playing as Cao Cao and Kong Rong (IIRC holding Ru Nan) and do search all the way till you found it. It’ll bound to happen.
4) Resignation : Is rather easy… suicide or natural death to ruler can prompt this. Simply save your game before it happens and try assigning several new ruler and someone will bound to resign.
5) Independence, during one full campaign you’re bound to be asked about trecheary, simply order an investigation on it and the subject will claim independence.
PS: Don’t be so happy when you found 30 stills, the uber skills is cheating mode, it’ll dissolve all enjoyment from the game if being abused. Imagine (Focus – Lightning – Divine Potency)
I’m quite happy with the normal skills, as the actual most useful skill of all is “CAPTURE” 😀 you can practically dismantle cao cao defensively with capture + Execute 😀 but hey, it ruins the fun. I’m trying to set up handicap to make things enjoyable after years of mastering this game.
A genious from Koei.
You are a damn noob. Focus won’t work with Lightning and Resignation don’t work with ruler’s death.
Focus and lightning actually do work together lol
Hello friends,
Hi Bebo .. i ve downloaded the editor from the link as u ve gave above, but i dont understand how to use the editor. Can you or anybody here help me how to use the editor? Thx a lot
To unlock the Secret Officer, I’ve done it several times an very quickly each time (2-3 game years each time). Start by creating a very strong force, 15 or so officers with all 100 abilities at least one of them with each of the skills, “Fame”, “Efficacy” and “Breeding”. Then dispatch them into Ping Yuan on the Rise of Heros Scenario. You will be doing a lot of defending of your city from Yuan Shao in the north, so the strong officers and skills are necessary. While continuously defending and maintaining your city, you should search if your threat from Yuan Shao is not immediate. Employ all the available officers as they are found. Eventually, Cai Yan (I think), with the enlister skill will be found in about 1 game year. Once you employ him, continuously search with him first. You should find the secred officer Guan Lu very quickly. Its worked time and time again for me. If you continue searching, you will find more than one secret meetings.
Let me know if this works.
1 – Hey, is this for ps2 version too?
2 – The elite skills unlocked for getting all 30 stills are Puissance, Black Arts etc.?
Sorry, I have only played the PC version. There is no good way for me to test whether it works the same on the PS2 version.
About the female ruler, I haven’t test it yet but can’t you just use a female ruler from a Created force?
Probably. I never played a created force long enough to win an entire campaign with it. It would take a long time, too — as you’d start with only 1 city and slowly conquer China. The only scenarios I’d play from a one city start was in Liu Bei scenario where he starts in Xin Ye, or the Cao Cao scenario, because you start with loads of good officers and easy expansion opportunities that lets you blitz the entire map in a few years. Otherwise it just takes forever, unless you also create a bunch of officers to start with your female ruler — at that point, you might as well just download the .sys file and save yourself the trouble.
yes you can.. i have finish all of 30 events…
If we play Liu Bei from The Warring Lords (194) can we get the three visits event / or recruit Zhuge Liang??
Three Visits isn’t a unique “event still” in RoTK XI. That is, it is not part of the 30 required to get the top tier skills.
That said, I believe you can recruit Zhuge Liang if you were in Xin Ye by the appropriate time. I think he’s in the 194 scenario, the 200 scenario, and, of course, the 207 scenario. However, I have not personally tested this, as I’ve never played from 194 — this is just something I’ve seen from forum posts. If it is possible, I strongly recommend you try to get him — otherwise, one of the AIs will have him, and an INT 100 officer with his special ability is very annoying to deal with. Zhuge Liang appears in game around 200s, so try to own all the Jinzhou cities — he appears around the area and moves to Xin Ye. Otherwise there is a chance the one of the AIs will successfully recruit him with one of his friends or family members.
I’m pretty sure the actual “Three Visits” event only trigger in the 207 scenario, though.
i see japan players have new things a develops how to get them o.o?
got other way to unlock secret meeting just play in dong zhuo and move hulao gate food gold troops and officers to chang an same to Luo Yang and if u can get the editor u can move the emperor to chang an to – ok next once u got them all in chang an wait till 192 and make sure that LU BU and Wang Yun also Li Jue r in your force u mut move Li Jue to an ding or tain sui once u r in 192 year wait any day and then Wang Yun will invite LU BU to a secret meeting to kill Dong Zhuo and marry Diao Chan then u got it 🙂 this way is easier and u dont need to do anything just rewarding ur officers only no need to search for Xu Shao ass alll day lol
I’m still playing and i lost saved data. x.x I’m really bored to play to unlock again. How should i do?
hey I’ve got a question. I am a beginner at this game haha. So lets say i march out a unit with 1 officer lets say liu bei. Assuming my unit is destroyed, why isn’t liu bei dead and he is back to my city???
If you read the book Romance of the Three Kingdoms, you’ll remember that famous officers don’t die in random battle 🙂
When the army is destroyed, the officer returns to the nearest city. To kill an officer, you must either duel him or lead a cavalry charge against him, both of which have a small chance to kill an officer.
I still can’t find xu shao yet x_x should I keep searching for him in ru nan till it pass year 195 and try again and again till I found him, or should I just gave up on xu shao and try the dong zhuo assasination / guan lu trick to get the secret meeting event ? or maybe someone has the easier way to get the event still, please share it 😀
the link of the editor is dead :(…
Create three female office will make it easy to get the 3 Sworn Sisters event
I’m not sure if anyone still visits this page, but I still want to contribute to your guide.
About the secret meeting event, another way to achieve this is to trigger the Dong Zhuo’s assassination event. In order to do this, you must play as Dong Zhuo in Dong Zhuo’s rises scenario. You need to control at least Luoyang and Changan. Have Dong Zhuo, Lubu, Wang Yun be in the same city (I think ChangAn works best) and be inactive with city order < 75. Also, Lubu & Dongzhuo should not be married and DiaoChan must not appeared yet at this point because Wang Yun will introduce her. This event will automatically triggered sometimes in 192 or later (not too much later). This is a series of 3 events (each happens 30days after the previous event) that lead to Lubu killing DongZhuo and you will get the secret meeting in the second event of the series of events. I find this method guarantees to work but takes longer time.