Hard Survival Tips

Has anyone completed this? What are your strategies once you hit level like 25 ish? This is clearly when your inputs are being read. I had Ken back dash around 8 throw attempts in the corner in a row. and they crush counter buttons left and right.

Yeah it took me 7 times to beat Bison in normal. I don’t think I’m in any hurry to try and beat hard. I think it’s without a doubt the hardest survival with how low his damage is and how your bound to take damage as FANG.

I beat hard with Fang, but failed a lot in the process. Honestly, I wish I just focused on getting better at the game, than wasting my time to get his color 10.

I think if there’s one major factor that helped me complete hard with Fang, it would be using his lp nishikyu (poison balls) as cover to jump in for free on the AI. The AI often responded by crouch blocking shortly after the poison was in the air. This essentially locked them in place to safely go for the jump in, so characters like Laura don’t fuck you in the air. I opted a lot to go for his j.mk, st lp, st mk(1) xx lk ryobenda (poison cloud), since it was safe, and put me back in the range to repeat the process. On knockdown, I’d generally go for the more damaging combo.

Also, make sure to use the match making trick, and set it to ask so you can decide if you’re in enough danger to warrant accepting it. I usually could guarantee perfecting Zangief on 45 if I played correctly. Repeating the method above, I’d pick the right time to ex dash out of the corner so that I have enough space to repeat the process. Since this match is slow, if you fuck up, more often than not you can take the match to reset your lifebar. This helps a lot since you can go for the attack/defense buffs into the last fights. The same thing could almost be said for Birdie, which is the next match. It doesn’t work as well, since he’s a little faster, and sometimes you might get unlucky from a random chain grab.

No matter what you do, you’ll need at least some luck on your side, and personally I’d wait for the March update to see if colors are purchasable.

This won’t help much, but in the early rounds the cpu is free to df HP. If you keep yourself at the correct spacing they will just eat it over and over again. For most characters this will stop working around match 15, but Zangief and Birdie will always lose to it.

Finally beat it. Ugh.

Anyway, my main strategy was to to go nuts until around stage 40.

s.HK abuse, for the most part. If it hits c.MP, Light Sotoja. HK Dash after them to continue pressure.

If counter hit, s.HP, HP Sotoja. HK Dash after them.

If they block, s.LP, s.HK. Repeat.

At higher levels I focused more on traps and zoning. If the opponent is at the end of the screen, HP balls will really really effectively lock them down for awhile, their AI just likes to sit there for awhile. Let that poison sink in.

Vs Stage 49 Bison, I just tried to make as few mistakes as possible. Wait for scissor kicks, c.MP Lt Ryobenda. If it hits, put on the s.HK pressure. If it doesn’t, block and wait for the next one, or try to escape and start fortress.

Vs Stage 50 Necalli, c.MP into MK Ryobenda really ruins him. He runs into it a lot, so just continue doing that and look for opportunities to capitalize. Pray you got decent health before the match too, just in case.

yeah, i gave up.

Well, I hope they’ll be adding the option to buy the colors in the Store with the March update at least.

I don’t want to do Hard Mode again for the new costume.

Any tips for Laura? I can get to stage 42 where input-reading Laura blows up literally every button I press.

if you do hardmode once does that work for all future costumes? or does each costume require its own hard mode?

Unfortunately, if the Chun?Cammy/Bison/Ryu costumes are anything to go by, you’ll need to unlock colors for each individual costume. I am not looking forward to doing Hard mode a second time for F.A.N.G… But hopefully I can just buy them in the store (it looks like we can).

People assume that costumes you buy with money in the future (Not fight money, real money) will have all the colors unlocked, but everything else you gotta work for it.

I remember forcing myself not to jump at her. Don’t bother throwing. If you’re full screen, HP Fireballs (seems to confuse the AI). If you’re mid screen and she has no meter, try to keep that wall up and punish her if she walks into it.

She’s one of the more annoying opponents though. Like much of Survival Mode, there’s a degree of luck.