To begin Unification Mode, a character must first be selected. The characters that can be selected from the start are:
- Kenshin Uesugi of the Uesugi Army
- Masamune Date of the Date Army
- Nobunaga Oda of the Oda Army
- Nouhime of the Oda Army
- Shingen Takeda of the Takeda Army
- Yukimura Sanada of the Takeda Army
The chosen character determines where on the map the story will start from, and in turn who can be fought. Kenshin, Masamune, Shingen, and Yukimura start on the northern end of the map, and can therefore fight each other. Nobunaga and Nouhime start in the center, and can therefore fight Shingen on the northern end as well as Motochika Chousokabe and Motonari Mouri on the southern end. Once a character is selected, a difficulty must be selected (if a story is already in progress, you will be asked to either continue or start a new one). The difficulties are:
- Normal (ふつう): The easiest difficulty level, and the best choice when starting a character on Level 1. This difficulty became "Easy" in the Devil Kings localization.
- Hard (難しい): Enemies deal more damage on this difficulty, so make sure to level a character so that their health and strength is decent before attempting this. In Devil Kings, this became "Normal."
- Ultimate (究極): The toughest difficulty, most suitable for characters at Level 15+. It is only unlocked after clearing Unification Mode on Hard.
- Random (おみくじ): A difficulty is selected at random. This difficulty is only unlocked after clearing Unification Mode with Tadakatsu Honda, and is a good way to obtain rarer drops.
The higher the difficulty, the more rare drops you will receive (represented on the battlefield in the form of gift-wrapped presents, called 玉手箱 or tamatebako in-game). This includes accessories and weapons; the lower the accessories are in the menu, the more rare they are. As for weapons, the last two of each character can only be obtained on Extreme, so to collect all weapons, all characters must go through some battles on Extreme.
In this guide, the battles are organized in no particular order, as the order all depends on which character you select and which land is left by the time you clear a battle (battles between other factions are usually done completely randomly, though it's a safe bet that a warlord with more land will defeat one with less land in a battle). Conquer all of Japan to see the chosen character's ending, taking place after they have successfully unified the country under their faction's rule.