Posted June 19, 2023 by Zortoise
#tutorial
Survival Mode is pretty different from the standard game mechanic wise, so I thought I may as well make a quick primer on it.
By the way, be sure to read the Advance Mechanics article before reading this.
https://zortoise.itch.io/holoversus/devlog/546647/advanced-mechanics
How Survival Mode works:
You can play with a friend via local co-op as well, but the mobs will be a little stronger and both players will have to scrample for dropped coins (coins are not shared) and Cards. When there are two players, if a player loses all their Stocks as long as the other player clear the wave the dead player will be revived with 1 Stock.
There are 4 difficulty levels but Survival Mode currently is not really balanced. I am not sure if the third and fourth difficulty levels can cleared without external tools, so don't take them seriously. Normal difficulty is not too hard to clear if you understand the basics of how the game works, and Hard difficulty can be pretty rough.
So, the first thing to know that the enemies you are facing are not actual Guras controlled by CPU. Mob Guras have their own attacks based on the moves of the real Gura.
The number below the mob is their remaining HP. The small bar under it is their Guard Gauge. Mob's GG work pretty different from player's GG though.
Mobs do not block attacks. To make up for it, they have a special mechanic called Hit Resistance unique only to mobs. When their GG is not broken, attacks on them will do less damage and cause staggering instead of proper hitstun, but will reduce their GG. Unless you are confident in Guardbreaking them, using non-EX Specials on them is pretty unsafe.
Mobs only enters true hitstun when:
Once they enter hitstun their GG will start rising (speed of rise depends on the "Combo Level", determined by the Attack Level of the attack that send them into hitstun as well as their remaining HP). When their GG rise back to 100%, they will automatically recover from hitstun. They will also recover and regain 100% GG if their hitstun runs out. After recovering from hitstun, mobs gain a special armor that protects them from further hits and grabs for a short while, so you may want to back off.
Due to Hit Resistance and the special armor, the best way to fight mobs is to combo them for as long as you can after sending them into hitstun. Mobs take extra hitstun compared to players, cannot DI or Burst, do not get damage scaling and their knockback is barely increased by their GG, making it easy for you to combo them into oblivion.
Note that some mobs do not have Hit Resistance. The mobs that do nothing but spam projectiles and run away when you get close can be hitstunned off any hit.
When there are multiple mobs, they will tend to come at you one at a time, with the rest hanging out only attacking once in a while. Passive mobs will still attack if you get too close though, and thus they kinda act as stage hazards while waiting their turn. Some mobs ignore this rule and will not hesitate to gang up on you.
Mobs are also different in that their Heavy Attacks have Superarmor. However, they take extra hitstop when Superarmoring through attacks, so you can actually react to their armor and Dodge Cancel your attack to evade the Heavy and land a punish hit. This behavior is mostly there to keep you on your toes.
There are kinda like Spirits in Smash Ultimate. Each Card grant you certain power-ups. They are not really balanced yet, and some Cards are much better than other Cards. Many of the Cards also have pretty generic effects that I may revise when more assets are made.
Explanation on some Card effects:
Most Cards with effects that trigger when you do an action are cooldown-based. You can kinda cheese Survival Mode by just running away and waiting for cooldowns, but that will probably take quite a while.
The price of Cards rises as you clear waves. You can also sell your Cards at half the current price. In the future I may use the mascots and fans as "common" rarity cards that are cheaper and give weaker effects for early game. Perhaps I can make different versions of the same Card using different costumes with different effects too. I want Cards that give you Assists too, but that wouldn't be anytime soon.
To exit the Card Shop, just select the Leave Shop button at the bottom. In local co-op both players must select it.
Wave 1:
Wave 2:
Wave 3: