Challenge Mode

One feature that hasn't really been talked about much is the new challenge mode, so I thought I'd write my experiences with it and create a new thread so people don't have to go digging through the other, older FT threads if they want challenge mode info.

Overview:

When you start a new game (or when you beat an opponet in versus mode) you'll get the chance to choose either arcade mode or challenge mode. Challenge mode is a mode where you can select your path and fight 8 two round, 30 second matches. Each match has a different goal, and you'll be given a rank (C, B, A, AA, AAA) based on how well you do. The goal may be something simple (hit the opponet 15 times) or something difficult (get an excellent). No matter how many rounds you win or lose and how many goals you complete or not you will be able to play all 8 matches in challenge mode. After you finish a match you have a choice to either stay at the same difficulty or move towards a more difficult path. Once you finish the 8th match you'll get either money or a gold coin depending on how well you do. If you collect 4 gold coins you'll get an item and your gold coins will reset back to zero. If someone challenges you while you are in challenge mode you will be able to continue challenge mode as long as you win. If you lose a match but win the next and your opponet stops playing, you'll be presented with the choice of arcade mode and challenge mode. Even if you choose challenge mode you'll have to restart. /versus/images/graemlins/frown.gif You can play challenge mode with or without a VFNet card but I don't see the point of playing it without one.

The Challenges:

Here is a list of some of the challenges off the top of my head.

- Win a round
- Throw the opponet
- Hit the opponet
- Win (throws do no damage)
- Hit dodge attacks
- Hit throw X
- Hit combo X
- Get a 7 hit combo (half gravity)
- Hit combo X (you can cancle moves)
- Get a tough KO (your moves drain less)
- Defeat a challenging opponet (ie: your opponet has great AI)
- Get an excellent on a challenging opponet (and no, ring outs don't count! I tried)
- Defeat the opponet in 15 seconds
-KO your opponet with move X (must be major counter?)

The AI:
As you may have read, the AI is pretty damned good. Of course on the easier missions the AI is easy, but towards the later missions it's a royal pain in the ass. The AI will counter any move it can with either a throw or a guaranteed combo so you don't be getting away with murder if it blocks one of your big moves. I've found that the computer will usually dodge after a non-throw counterable move instead of going for the reverse nitaku, so that's a good time to throw. The computer seems to escape those throws a lot less frequently than after a blocked throw counterable move. The computer seems to be good at avoiding charge attacks (the computer will ALWAYS avoid wolf's charge attack), so I guess the programmers over at Sega wanted to make sure we didn't get away with murder in this version.

Getting A Good Score:
- You get a grade based on how well you do as well as a point score. (the top score for each mission is saved on the machine, as is the top scores for each route). To get a good grade try to do the following:
- Win the round
- Win the round with a lot of life over (excellents really help)
- With the round with a lot of time left over
- Complete the mission

During some matches you can complete more than the minimum required number of missions. (ie: you can hit the opponet 30/15 times during the "hit your opponet" challenge) However, I don't think this increases your score nearly as much as does finishing each round fast. I think winning the round, winning it fast, and winningn it with a lot of life are far, far, FAR more important than completing more missions than necessary.
For example, if you are on the "throw your opponet" mission and keep throwing your opponet with wolf's surprise exchange over and over, you'll get a ton of mission successes but your score won't be as high as if you got the minimum number of successes and won faster. So for this mission I'd suggest opening each round with a shoulder ram (which will probablly hit on this low difficulty mission) and take off a lot of damage. Then surprise exchange once or twice and then finish the round ASAP. Do the same thing in the second round, trying to kill the opponet with the last necessary throw. I suggest using shoulder ram's because they do a lot of damage a lot faster than waiting for a slow throw animation. Also, if you divide the number of successes you need into the two rounds and thus end each round more quickly, you'll receive a higher score and grade.
Here's my rough estimation of the breakdown for the grading based on my experiences. I don't have any official data but these are reasonably accurate:
C - 0 successes, lost both rounds, got owned
B - A few successes but not enough, won one or two rounds
A - Completed the mission.
AA - Completed the mission and won one round, or won both rounds but very slowly and with little health
AAA - Complete the mission and won both rounds, one of the rounds was especially good (ie: you won very fast)

From what I've gathered I think winning by KO is the best, then by ringout, and last by time over. Some of the missions are difficult to complete within the time limit, especially the "get a tough KO", because your moves drain so little it's hard to kill your opponet in 30 seconds.

Gold Coins:
This is perhaps the most mysterious part of challenge mode - the gold coins. If you do really well in challenge mode (lots of As, AAs, and AAAs) you might get a gold coin once challenge mode is over. Collect all 4 and you get an item, which is pretty cool.
After getting my first 4 gold coin item with wolf I went to a new arcade and I got the next three gold coins with my next 3 challenge mode attempts, so that seems to show that it is possible to get a gold coin every time you play, although I don't know exactly what causes it. For those 3 gold coins in a row I played the same course (1-1 and 1-2, and then increasing difficulty all the way down), and when I finally got my second 4th gold coin with him it was on the same course, so I don't think you need to own up the most difficult course to get a gold coin.
Other than getting a ton of AAs and AAAs on the more difficult courses I don't have any real insight as to what makes the gold coins tick.

Money:
After you finish challenge mode you'll see "Money Get" on the screen and a little treasure chest which, I'm guessing, is full of money. The money is used to buy items, outfits, win poses, etc. on VFNet. Again, I'm not sure exactly what determines how much money you get after challenge mode. It could be the number of successes, your pounts after a match, your grade after a match, the difficulty of your path, etc. Obviously the better you do on a more difficult course the more cash you'll get but I can't tell you which weighs the most heavily on how much cash you'll get.

That's about it for now. I'll be happy to answer any questions I can. If anyone else out there has any sources on what exactly you need to do to get a coin and what is weighed the heaviest with how much $$$ you get at the end please let me know. See ya guys