Dynasty Warriors 7

Ok so, this is not just a guide on how to acquire all achievements, but it's the methods I used, which helped me do everything in the minimum amount of time possible. But of course, I didn't realise these time saving methods, so if anyone uses this advice i'm sure they could knock a good few hours off my 1000 point time.
First and foremost, do all 4 stories first. You can grind seals and max out a fair few characters, not to mention get some dollar for buying weapons and whatnot. I'm sure this goes without saying. But anyway, the main point of this guide is to try and help you spend less time grinding in conquest mode, and what grinding has to be done, kept to a minimum.

Here's the tldr version:
Always do legendary battles in 2 player.
Grind money and bonds at 'The Conflict at Shouchun' (Top left of the map, the hex above Zhang He's legendary battles).
???????
Profit.

But seriously, it's far better to read the entire thing as I have so much to say it's hard to know when exactly to mention things. I'll just quickly discuss each area you'll be grinding in detail then give you a roadmap if you like of the order I did things to make sure there were no wasted battles.

Bonds
To start with, I know it might be hard, but hold back on getting 5 men and female characters to max bond. I know the gamerscore feels nice when it pops, but it will have some impact on how long you're sat there grinding bonds for. Infact leave it as long as possible to max any characters, the most efficient and ideal scenario is to have every single officer on 90% bond at the same time. That's because when you randomly get a defense battle or whatever, you don't want the guy who's about to start brown nosing you to be someone you've already maxed bond for. When I properly started grinding bonds, I had over 75% of Wu at max... that was not fun. Obviously, have Congeniality on both weapons at all times.

Weapons/Seals
This isn't much of an issue. You will DEFINITELY have enough money by the time you get everything else to acquire all the weapons. And besides, the more money you have, the less seals you have to learn by using the weapons. My honest advice is to learn 'X Master' on any weapons with 2 slots, at the blacksmith. They're a ballache to use for reasons I will elaborate on in a bit. Also, try to have every seal available to you learnt by the end of the 4 stories. The quicker you can get every seal on the game learnt, the more time you can spend grinding using your weapon of choice, and less time with the bloody claws. Also, as soon as possible get the weapon Dragon Breath. It's from the Flute weapon battle. It's by far the earliest weapon I came across with 5 slots. Mega useful. Later on when you have smithing prioritize the "Royal Halberd" and the "Qinggang Sword" (Rapier). This is just for the setup I used though, however i'm sure we all agree that the Halberd is the quickest and most efficient weapon to kill things. Also, the Qinggang Sword has the same element as the Halberd, and 5 slots.

Skill Points
This is really not as bad as it seems. I should have got this ages before bonds and fame, but, I somehow missed one skill on Dong Zhuo and didn't notice. Essentially, just make sure you do every legendary battle in 2 player, even if one of them is idle. Also, if you really want to, and get it out of the way, any level that says "No Sworn Allies" rag a 2nd player on those too. Also, obviously, have Skill Points up on both weapons at all times.

Fame
This was my next to last achievement, because of having to play on beginner a lot, believe me when I say it's not that bad if you know when you can sneak a cheeky battle up to normal.

Ok basic overview of how long this took me...
Weapons Achievement - 355 battles
Max out all Characters (Except for the one skill I missed) - 362 battles
Max Fame - 380 battles
Max bonds - 382 battles
Believe me, this was with me prioritising Bonds from early on.

OK, now i've rambled on, here's how I actually tackled Conquest Mode.
Here's a very useful link which tells you which reinforcements you can get from each province, etc. http://koei.wikia.com/wiki/Dynasty_Warriors_7/Conquest_Mode
Do levels as they come on normal with your first few characters, why not. They're low level stages.
Try to never do a stage that allows sworn allies unless you hire reinforcements from the merchant. As levels that don't allow sworn allies don't allow reinforcements. You may aswell get the forbidding levels out of the way while you don't have reinforcements, and before the merchant reappears again. Sworn allies and reinforcements are also not allowed EVER in 2 player mode, which leads me to my next point.

Legendary battles should ALWAYS be done in 2 player mode. Why not? Even if a character is maxed from story mode, you can still pick up skill points for someone. Plus, you can't develop bonds in legendary battles so it's the perfect place to grind skill points without it hampering your bonds, which are always a higher priority. Also, make sure you don't run out of characters you haven't maxed by not unlocking some from legendary battles.

Work your way all over the map using this method. Play on beginner after you max one or two characters as the levels will get harder and you don't really wanna have to pla ya level more than once. Also, change your sworn ally when their bar gets to about half full. You don't wanna have anyone maxed, and then waste them popping up for a bond boost. If you get to the point where there are no new levels available that allow sworn allies, then I recommend starting to play "The Conflict at Shouchun". Every 3 battles. You'll get a nice cash boost, and an opportunity to get 4 individual officers bond up.

So when the entire map is completed, and you still need to grind a hell of a load, here was my setup and what I did.
Weapon 1 - Black Dragon Halberd - Congenialty, Skill Points Up, Attack Up +++
Weapon 2 - Qinggang Sword - Congeniality, Skill Points Up, Attack Up +++, Halberd Master, Synergy.

All characters will have a few skills learnt, so it'll be fine that whenever you do "The Conflict at Shouchun" to just do it on easy. But yeah, just keep doing that battle. 2 out of 3 times in 2 player (you'll still get 2 officers bonds up), and then the time you're allowed reinforcements do it in 1 player. Keep doing this until you have just bonds or skill points left (fame is irrelevant).

If you have skills left, just do EVERY level in 2 player. If it's bonds, then pick Lu Bu. Swap the difficulty up to normal (for extra fame). On Weapon 1 change to "Attack Up +++, Health Up +++, Defense Up +++". On weapon 2 have the same as weapon 1 but add "Synergy" and another one of your choice (I picked "Attack Up ++" to kil things just a bit quicker).

Start the level, go save the guy in the first base, run through the main castle to the far end of the map and kill the intruder, then kill the commander. On normal that's about 2-3 minutes of playing. 4 characters bonds up, 12000 gold, and 7400 fame. You can't grumble at that. If it gets too easy, why not swap up to hard for a bit more fame per battle if you. But obviously if you get to 1 million fame and still have bonds to grind, just blast through the level on beginner.

That should be everything. If i've missed something i'll add it, but I don't think I have. Also GO TO THE GALLERY FOR THIS ACHIEVEMENT TO POP. Any questions just ask. Please leave constructive feedback as this is my first ever guide. It'll be much appreciated.

Also special thanks to psxfreak101 for getting me the names of things seeing as I traded in my copy a few days ago for Mortal Kombat >_>

Here's the process I followed that I found saved some time overall. I wasn't able to do every step exactly this way, but as I figured this out it certainly would have.

Step 1: Do all 4 story modes to get some built-up characters and decent weapons, etc.

Step 2: Progress across the conquest map, just to gain access to most of it and to get all the capital cities (allowing easy scholar access, merchant access, etc) Do some legendary battles for people who you have not already unlocked (IE characters who have to start from scratch). Do these legendaries in 2P mode with the 2nd character controlling people unlocked in Story mode but not built up by it (Sun Jian for example: Only played in the first battle, so he never gets updated to gain all the skill points earned by others). Priortize unlocking people who use a common weapon (ie people who you wont miss in step 4). Make sure you get Red Hare during this step (battle for supremacy on easy or beginner in 2p).

Step 3: In 2P mode with 2p controlling start-from-scratch characters, do all the weapon battles. This should allow you to max about 3 characters worth of skills. Make sure you use this opportunity to unlock the Congeniality Seal. Difficulty will vary depending on character strength and such, but I would err on the side of speed (these battles provide no other benefits in terms of bond and dont feature a ton of officers, so do them fast)/

Step 4: Do all legendary battles. Priortize other characters you havent unlocked first, then do characters who are already unlocked. Do them all in 2p Mode for extra skill points. Use this as an opportunity to max out all the (xxx) Master skills for each weapon. Do 1, 2 and 3-star difficulty legendaries on Normal for extra fame. If you have unlocked some decent seals (Like attack +++ and attack range up, etc), you should be able to breeze through these with the special weapons on this difficulty. Always have Congeniality on both weapons. Having it's bonus will ensure that just doing legendary battles provides enough bond to also gain people as sworn allies. There may be an isolated few who don't, but you should get nearly everyone.

Step 5a: Time to focus on bonds. I suggest doing this on two specific maps, always with congeniality.

The map "Conflict at Guandu", located over near Xu/Qing provinces, is fairly easy (4 stars) and features many officers, including a rescue opportunity and a base capture. This battle always has a Shu general as commander, and you wiill gain bond with that person. Shu has the most officers, so you will need to prioritize bond gains with them (and with Wu, who have the next-most). Do this map a considerable number of times (30-40). This should get most Shu generals up to 50-75% bond. When you have maxed bond with about 5 of them incidentally, you are probably done here. Focus on Wei, Jin and Other generals as your sworn allies and buy reinforcements every 3 battles with the same priorities. You will gain misc bond with Wu because the enemy commander is always a Wu general. Do not worry about Wu sworn allies at this time. Use this opportunity to build up as many characters who start from scratch on skills as possible (this map is easier than the other map you will be bond-grinding on). Do it on beginner or easy depending on the strength of your character. In both this battle and in the next, do not use the following characters as sworn allies or reinforcements: Dian Wei, Taishi Ci, Liu Shan, Huang Zhong, Yuan Shao, Zhang Fei. There is a very small pool of officers from which the 'prove yourself by capturing a base' will be presented, and these guys are in it (there may be one or two more). The base captures alone will drive their bonds to max.

Step 5b: Move over to Conflict at Shouchun located over near Si/Liang provinces. This is a harder battle with the same benefits (base capture, rescue officer, commander who you always gain bond with). This commander is always a Wu general. You will use this opportunity to bring up your Wu bonds. The enemy general is always a Wei officer. This should help make up the gap with Wei as well. Focus on advancing bonds evenly - stop using sworn allies at 75% or so, and use reinforcements to support this plan. You will inevitably max people by rescuing them and/or having them as commander of your battle 5 times in a row. When you have every bond to 75 or higher, you will probably also have most maxed. At this point, you can stop doing these two battles (as you will primarily be wasting time on maps where everyone is maxed).

Step 6: Find an easy rescue battle where the rescued officer is of the faction you need the most work with. Shoot for one that is ranked 4 stars or less so you can do it extremely fast. I did Rescue on Mt Xianshi. Rescue the officer and finish the battle. If you requested reinforcements, wait, because you can beat the battle before they arrive. Rotate your sworn ally around until you finish everyone off.

Step 8: If any officers remain not maxed on skills, go to Battle for Supremacy on Beginner, use 2p mode, and max them. It should take no more than 3 runs for most characters, 4 for those with a 840 pt elemental bonus/invuln skill, and 5 for a few (like Lu Bu and Synergy). At this point I had 4 characters left so I did this in 7 battles (Yue Ying, Bao Sanniang, Meng Huo, Zhu Rong).

Step 9: You no longer need Congeniality or SKill Pts up, and Seal Master should be long gone as well. Suit up Lu Bu in your very best setup (black dragon halberd + qinggang sword, synergy on both, attack +++ on both, attack range up/officer assassin/defense +++ in your last slot). Lu Bu should be ferocious this way. Go to battle for Liang Province (the city battle) and kill Dong Zhuo as fast as you can on hard. If it takes you more than 75 seconds, consider normal instead. It should not. This battle took me 70 seconds at this point (including the load time!) and provides 5000 fame on hard or 3800 on normal. Repeat it to quickly hit 1m fame. I had about 250k fame to make up at this point and it still took less than 1 hour.