Getting Items

New Update:

OK, so I've done a bunch of balloon tricks after my run of items (as outlined below) and I haven't seen a single item of any type. I went to a different arcade to check and see if I could get new items there to no avail.

So, now I'm simply collecting money. I have yet to see a single item tournament pop up (only emblem and money). I may have tapped out the game of all winnable items. I still have a handful to purchase in the store.

I also read somewhere that someone got all the items in the first three arcades, which seems totally feasible, especially after getting a ton of items in the first two. Given this new information, I think there might be a total pool of items to be gained from item battles, and PERHAPS the percentage of rivals beat determine how many you can win in a certain location (or maybe not). Since I haven't seen a single item in 30 item battles, I believe I have tapped all of the items out in the first 2 arcades. Once I get enough money to buy the remaining items in the item shop, I'll know if I have 100% of the winnable items or not. Will post as soon as I know.

Original post left below for reference.


This will probably have a lot of repeat information in it, but I figured since I had a theory to add, might as well put everything in one post.

By now, we should all know that you can get items from the store, from item battles, and from tournaments. The store is pretty straightforward; save your money and buy stuff. Tournaments are straightforward as well; win the tourney, get the item. For items battles, there's some luck involved, but I also believe there's a way to boost your odds.

My theory is that the lower percentage of rivals defeated in an arcade, the higher percentage chance to get an item out of an item battle. When reading up on the Balloon Trick (see below), I found that people were saying they eventually ran out of items to get. I had been working on the first arcade (Sega Arena Coast) and I was up to about 95% completion and I used the Balloon Trick 3 times. The first time, I had 2 emerald items, and 8 gold bags. The second time I had 1 emerald item, and 9 gold bags. The third time, I had 3 gold bags and then I quit out to enter a tournament. I figured that maybe I had already drained all items out of item battle (I had about 450 wins or so at the time).

Out of curiosity, I tried the balloon trick again but this time waited until it flew over the second easiest arcade. This one had a really low percentage of completion (maybe 20% or 30% complete). This time, I had 7 item battles! I tried it again, and I had 5 item battles (3 gold battled which resulted in 3 more ruby items). I'm on my third attempt now (same arcade) and I believe I will still get more items than my very first balloon battle (when I had really high arcade completion).

I am not 100% certain yet if the higher the opponent ranking results in higher quality items (more ruby / diamond items). I've only been trying this theory out in the low-level arcades. I will research item battles at higher-level arcades and report on the findings.


Balloon Trick:

The object here is to get the last digit of your wins and losses to match. For example: 145/5, or 487/7, or 9/9. Though I believe it needs to be an odd number, I have heard (not seen) that it can be done with 6's as well (according to sal). Anyway, I can definitely confirm 3 and 7, and other people have confirmed other #'s. When these numbers match, exit out to the main quest screen and look at the top right of the screen. A White/Blue Sega hot-air balloon should appear and float around the screen. When it is over the arcade you want to fight in, enter and battle.

Note: DO NOT back out once you enter the arcade or the balloon will be gone. Even if you have defeated everyone on the list already, play them regardless... for the items.

Also, Plague mentioned to try getting your loss # set first (for example, if you have say, 46 losses, lose one more to make it 47) and then do your wins. Once you win the matching number (say you had 106 wins/47 losses, and you win one more to make it 107/47) exit the next battle immediately, and look for the balloon.

Keep in mind that the balloon does not always appear.

Feel free to add anything.


Data:

On my 3rd Balloon Trick in a row (back to back to back) I am still in Club Sega Downtown. When I started, I was about 30% complete. Right now, I am about 41% complete. Here is some data regarding this last run:

I fought 7 opponents in a row that I had never fought before. They ranged from 3rd dan to 9th dan. I received 5 items and 2 bags of money in these 7 battles. Here's the breakdown:

Arcade Rival Percentage: 35% (estimated)

Rank | Fought Before | Battle Type | Reward

7th Dan | no | silv | emerald
7th Dan | no | silv | money
5th Dan | no | gold | ruby
9th Dan | no | silv | emerald
3rd Dan | no | silv | money
8th Dan | no | silv | emerald
7th Dan | no | silv | emerald
7th Dan | yes | silv | money
7th Dan | yes | silv | money
7th Dan | yes | gold | ruby

Side note: I fought the same opponent back to back to back (the final 7th dan on the list). This netted me 2 money bags (no more items from this opponent). I then fought one more 7th dan that I had previously fought before, but this time I received a Ruby.

6 Items (4 Emerald, 1 Ruby) | 4 gold bags

On the previous trip through, I received 5 items, 5 gold bags. Before that, I received 7 items, 3 gold bags. This is after coming from an arcade that gave me 2 items, 1 item, and no items in 23 battles.

On 4th Balloon Trick (back to back to back to back) here's some more data:

Arcade Rival Percentage: 41% (estimated)

Rank | Fought Before | Battle Type | Reward

1st Dan | no | gold | ruby
2nd Dan | yes | gold | ruby
10th kyu | no | gold | ruby
7th kyu | no | silv | money
1st dan | no | gold | ruby
10th kyu | yes | silv | money
1st kyu | yes | silv | money
1st kyu | no | plat | diamond
3rd Dan | no | silv | money
10th kyu | yes | plat | diamond

Not bad for this run. 4 rubys, 2 diamonds. 4 bags of money. On another note, I'm starting out my 5th Balloon trick and I already have 2 more diamonds in the first 2 battles. Crazy! More data coming soon.

In the last Balloon Trick run, I received 2 diamonds (as mentioned above) and no rubys or emeralds. 2/10. This can mean a couple of things. First of all, I might be extremely unlucky here. Second, it's not percentage of rivals beaten, but simple there is a pool of items per arcade, and once you clear them out, you have to move on. This might explain why at the arcade with 90+ completion rate, I wasn't getting any items at all (even though I hadn't done any balloon trick early on in low percentage - which, in this case, wouldn't matter). I may have gotten all the items just through regular battles, playing through this arcade. Once I tried to balloon trick, it only showed that there wasn't very many items left to get here.

I'm going to try another arcade and see what happens. One that I haven't fought much in. Then again, I may have all the items (sans shop items, which I need to buy). I'll check that out as well.[/size]

 

I don't think the balloon really needs to be right over the arcade you want to fight in. The first time I made an effort to get the balloon using the W/L numbers, it was over Route 101 and I fought in Club Sega Downtown and still got the 10 item battles in a row. I can also confirm that a last number of 5 works too. /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

 

I have just done 9, then 1 then 3 then 5 without getting it to work. I'm going to do 7 now to see.
I put it on expert and just stand there to lose then I put it on normal so I get quick wins. Should that matter?

Also, your examples only include single digit loses. Though I'm guessing that for it should be for example, 47/27.

 

Killbomb: One time I let the balloon get too far from the arcade I wanted to get the streak in, and I only ended up with like 3 item battles in a row (I think that was just a random 3). Not sure if it just needs to be on the main playfield or somewhere near. I'll test it out when I play a diff char in quest mode.

Steam: good point. Yea you can have dbl digit losses as long as the last digits match, no problem.

 

I have just done all the way to another one. I started at 79/19 then I worked my way through all the odd digits to 91/31 without a single baloon. Am I doing something wrong or is it this random.

 

I think it's random. I first saw it on 3. Never saw it on 5 (which other people have confirmed). I then got it on 7 multiple times, and often times I went on streaks of back to back to back balloon tricks on 7's.

 

Now I just got it on 5. Great. my first balloon on purpose. Thanks.
Also, I didn't change the difficulty betweent the matches this time so that might affect things?

 

I never changed the difficulty. I remained on "normal" the entire time.

 

Im glad you made this topic, Im trying to figure out the arcade-to-item distribution right now. Ill post any findings, if any, when I get to my PC later tonight.

 

As mentioned, I got the majority of my items in the first 2 arcades. Once I ranked up completely, I stayed in the two easiest arcades while I was working on 100% completion and I went on runs using the balloon trick. I'm going to test a theory again when I play another character, but I think that if you are high enough rank, you can probably get all the items from just one arcade (maybe two).