If you're looking to crush those challenge modes really quickly, i'd say start with picking the right character - gan ning's probably your best bet since he's super fast, though zhou tai's pretty great too with his air moves. I've found that mastering those air dashes and jump cancels makes such a huge difference, especially when you're trying to shave off those precious seconds.

The basic idea is to plan your route through the bases before you even start, and stick to it like glue. Something i learned the hard way is that memorizing where officers spawn can save you tons of time, and you definitely want to skip those pesky siege weapons that just slow you down.

Red hare's awesome if you can get your hands on it, but honestly, with the right speed builds you can actually move even faster on foot. I usually save my musou attacks for those tough officers that pop up - nothing worse than wasting it on regular troops when you suddenly need it for a lu bu encounter!

One thing that's helped me a lot is bringing some defensive items along, cause there's nothing more frustrating than having to restart because you got knocked down at a crucial moment. Speaking of restarts, don't be afraid to start over if you mess up early - those top leaderboard times need pretty much perfect runs.

If you're playing with someone else, try splitting up the objectives - it's way more efficient than both of you running around doing the same thing. And here's something interesting: you can actually use a second controller to park your ai allies somewhere safe so they don't mess up your run.