Survival Mode Guide

Streets of Rage 4's Survival mode: power-up details and gameplay advice.

Patch changes

In March 2023, the long-awaited 1.08 patch finally arrived for Streets of Rage 4, bringing many changes specific to Survival mode:

• Glass Cannon damage taken by the player (not dealt) changed from +100% to +60%.
  
• Heavy elemental attacks are more powerful.
  
• Full Of Yourself power-up (more damage when at full health) bonus increased.
  
• Sharpen Tool power-up (more weapon durability) bonus increased.
  
• More health pick-ups in later waves. (Formerly you'd barely get any by wave 30.)
  
• Falling into a pit does less damage to players.
  
• "Elemental effects are toned down." (I think this just refers to the graphics.)
  
• Fire elementals have different graphics to tell them apart from molotovs more easily.
  
• Tweaks to Hey Buddy minions:
  T1:
  - Cop is more durable, and enemies can't escape his grab
  - Donovan can use more weapons
  - Galsia damage with gold weapons is fixed, unsure whether it was too high or low before
  - Steffie (Margaret?) spawns with a grenade, and throws them more often
  T2:
  - Condor has more health, blocks less often and "added wall bounce on hits"
  - Gold (pistol bodyguard) is stronger
  - Stiletto (Queen?) attacks faster
  T3:
  - Sugar (Caramel?) has armour (can't be knocked down or grabbed) during headbutt preparation, and has "improved wall bounce"
  T4:
  - Mr. Y has all his attacks unlocked from the start, and can juggle enemies with bullets
  
• Player healthbar turns a lighter colour when health is high or low enough to benefit from a power-up (Full Of Yourself, Last Hurrah or Survival Instinct). Not noted in official changelog.
  
• Bug fixes: A Little Closer To The Stars (more points) no longer gives you negative points when you bank a large combo, and if a Hey Buddy minion acquires a weapon, the weapon will no longer respawn every round. Not noted in official changelog.
  
• There's a vast array of tweaks fine-tuning player and enemy characters.
  
• And of course there's now a Custom Sim mode in which you can choose a variety of options, detailed here.

The patch also introduces a couple of game-changing Survival-specific bugs.

• The game always acts as if four power-ups are presented at the end of each round, even in standard matches, in which only two or three power-ups are presented per round.
  
  This is important, because each power-up can only be presented a limited number of times per game, regardless of whether or not the player chooses it. For example, Hey Buddy can appear up to four times, Survival Instinct appears once. After all power-ups have been presented the maximum number of times, you'll only be presented with gold consumable power-ups.
  
  So for example if Blood Thirst is one of the power-ups that the game selected as #3 or 4 in a round where you can only choose from 2 power-ups, you'll never be able to pick it up. This also means that you'll only be offered gold power-ups from around wave 40 instead of 70. A game-breaking problem.
  
  (The ability to choose from up to four power-ups at the end of a round was added to the game in the new Custom Sim mode. It's not available in ranked regular or weekly Survival, yet its power-up selection logic extends to those gametypes too.)
  
  
• ...But there's good news too. If you level up Sharpen Tool (the weapon durability power-up) to level 4 or higher, the weapon will have infinite durability, so you can pick up one of those massive Final Fantasy swords and just hack through everything indefinitely.

How Survival works

Survival is basically an infinite randomiser.

Every round takes place in a randomly-selected arena, filled with a random selection of items and enemies. As you progress through the rounds, difficulty escalates: you get fewer health pickups, more enemies, more advanced enemies, and enemies get improvements to their speed, damage and durability. By round 35 you'll be facing waves of boss-level characters that can virtually teleport around the arena and would be able to take you out in a couple of seconds... if it wasn't for the power-ups.


Power-ups
At the end of every round, you get a choice between two or three power-ups. Elemental power-ups add an extra damage property to one of your attacks, purple power-ups are only offered once per game but give you major new strengths and weaknesses, gold power-ups give you a consumable item that confers a huge advantage while it lasts.

If you're playing in multiplayer mode, only one player gets to choose a power-up each round, so you need to think tactically about who needs an upgrade the most. (For example, if one player chose Glass Cannon, they'll need all the durability buffs they can find.) The flip side is that multiplayer offers a critical lifeline as dead players can be revived at the end of a round with the Altruism power-up.

Something to keep in mind is that each power-up only drops a set number of times, whether you choose it or not. So if you want to reach the maximum level for anything, you'll need to take it every time it's offered.


Enemies
Survival features a few surprise enemies that you won't find in the campaign. Something you'll encounter early are enemy versions of playable characters. They can perform star moves and special attacks, and just like for the player, the character is invulnerable while performing them. You can interrupt them by catching them in the radius of a Fire elemental attack, but it's usually best to stay alert for them priming up one of these special moves and then keeping your distance.

Red enemies are another new addition. These only start to show up when the difficulty has seriously escalated, and you need to be extremely careful around them. Their damage, speed, durability and attack regularity are all massively upgraded, so they can take you out in seconds, especially in groups. It's essential to keep them disrupted with elemental blitz or weapon attacks, or even star moves if you get into trouble. Don't let them get into a position where they can attack you.

You'll also find newly-added enemies from previous Streets of Rage games. If you've found the hidden retro levels in the campaign (use a taser on the arcade cabinets), you'll be aware that they don't function exactly as they did in the older games. The boss-level characters have special attack states during which they're invulnerable, so it's important to keep them disrupted with elemental attacks and not allow them the chance.


Environmental hazards
Certain arenas contain traps, pitfalls and environmental weapons that can seriously ruin your day. The selection is randomised every time, but here's what you can expect.

Aircraft Carrier
- Wind
- Wet floor (same physics as Y Tower in the campaign. Building and stopping momentum is difficult, so throwing weapons can be a good way to suppress enemies until you can reach them)
- Lightning strikes (easily missed as it looks like weather VFX. Sometimes random, sometimes aimed at the player like Estel's missile strikes)

Ancient Temple
- Swinging balls
- Arrows (triggered by a nearby pressure pad)
- Vines (break the vine to drop a block from the ceiling)
- 4 pressure pads (triggers a damaging block or a bonus item to fall from the ceiling. Worth checking all four before the end of the round)
- 2 pressure pads (one pad will cause a cascade of blocks to fall from that side of the screen to the other, the other pad does nothing)

Volcano Base
- Random lava jets (the sprite subtly pulses a second before firing)
- String lava jets (always fires from the left to the right of the arena, so stick to the right for maximum warning)
- Twin lava jets (these continually fire one after another, just stay away from them)
- Missile strikes

Factory Platform
(All of these can sometimes be controlled by punching a switch at the side of the screen)
- Bombs on conveyor belt
- Lasers (more dangerous to the AI than you, like Mini Me they don't really understand lasers)
- Crusher

Absolute nightmare (Boxing Ring)
- Swinging balls
- Electrified perimeter ropes
- Pit
- Pyro (usually telegraphs before it fires, but some sets of pyros shoot in a continuous counter-clockwise succession)

Haunted House (SoR2)
- Vehelits (actually just a swinging ball with different graphics this time around. What *was* SoR2's Vehelits supposed to be? Anyway, it can be avoided by sticking to the top edge of the screen, or the sides if you don't jump)




Thankfully once you've been hit into the air, most subsequent hits deal very little damage until you get back up, which is a lifesaver in the bouncier arenas. The exceptions are attacks from the player-character enemies, and the Boxing Ring's killer pits.

Something else to consider is that with Blood Thirst, a power-up that gives you health when you deal damage, environmental hazards (eg. throwing an enemy into a pit) won't reward you with health. It will still give you points though.

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There are no extra lives in Survival - just the Altruism power-up in multiplayer games. There's also no bonus at the end of the game for time or number of stars saved up, and obviously no health bonus.

Score still matters, but it's used for earning star moves rather than lives.

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Okay - that's the basics over, now let's see which power-ups are worth investing in.

Power-ups: elemental

These power-ups add an extra damage type to one of your attacks, disrupting and damaging the target or nearby enemies. It's essential to invest in elementals for at least one attack type, as they can be absolutely devastating. These are the three element types:

Electric
Damages and momentarily stuns groups of enemies in a wide radius around the enemy you've attacked. I don't think it has any effect 1v1, but it's excellent against large groups.

Electric damage differs from Fire and Toxic in that it's not a set amount, but is a percentage of the original attack damage (eg. the weapon slash). This makes Electric attacks particularly effective for the characters that hit harder, such as Floyd, Max and the SoR1 characters.


Fire
When the attacked enemy hits the ground, they leave a patch of fire that will damage and either stun or knock over enemies that touch it. This doesn't have the reliability or immediacy of Electric damage as the enemy needs to hit the ground, but it's far more disruptive. The stunning effect can even stop bosses in the middle of invulnerable moves, and enemies who are airborne when they hit the fire patch will be knocked across the screen.

Bear in mind that Fire only appears if you're able to knock the enemy over. Some of these attacks (such as the police baton) don't cause knockdown, so won't create a Fire patch unless you're able to knock them over by other means within the next couple of seconds.

Note, although Fire attacks leave flames on the ground, don't worry: unlike molotovs, you can walk unharmed through the blaze.


Toxic
Unlike the other two, this attack has no area-of-effect radius and doesn't stun or knock over - but it does directly affect the enemy you've attacked, which the others don't. The target will move extremely slowly for a few seconds and lose a lot of health.

Toxic attacks are particularly useful against bosses or enemies that can block, as they ignore any invulnerability and devastate individual targets, but they don't disrupt groups the way the other elements do.

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You can add elemental upgrades to these attacks:


Blitz Attacks (forward+forward+attack). For SoR1 characters, who can't blitz, this is replaced with Jumping Attacks.

By round 30, it will be essential to have investment into Blitz elementals. Enemies become so fast and heavy-hitting that you only stand a chance by disrupting them through a rapid succession of elemental attacks. This arguably isn't sustainable solely with Specials as it costs health, or Heavy Attacks as it takes too long. Even weapon attacks can be a problem if your character takes too long to swing, or drops the weapon. But blitz attacks can be performed instantly, typically have good reach and speed, and have frames during which you're virtually invulnerable. An effective technique for winning rounds 25+ is to continually spam elemental blitzes across the screen, pausing only to dodge up/down the Y-axis, block with a special or escape with an Air Master double-jump.

SoR1 characters instead get Jumping elemental attacks: these work particularly well with the Air Master extra jump, as you can drop down on enemies over long distances. Conversely, they become difficult to pull off if you choose the Ground Level tiny-jump power-up.



Heavy Attacks (the last move of a regular attack+attack+attack+attack combination, or holding+releasing the attack button).

By later in this game this becomes tricky to use for most characters, as it takes so long to charge up or finish the combination. It's most viable for characters with more rapid combinations or longer reach, and particularly SoR1 Blaze whose front-grab finisher counts as a heavy (so she can perform this elemental attack in a single move by grabbing an enemy, releasing the d-pad and pressing attack). Another great character for them is SoR4 Shiva, who's able to pull off heavy attacks during a jump.

Something to bear in mind is that elementals from heavy attacks cause more damage than the other attacks, so if you do have a character / playstyle that can reliably land heavy attacks at any stage of the game, elemental heavies are definitely the way to go.



Specials (the type that costs health, not stars). For SoR1 characters, who can't use health-depleting specials, this is replaced with Back Attacks (attack+jump simultaneously).

Does plenty of damage, but of course it's a high-risk strategy because it costs you health. Can't really be spammed mindlessly, but if you follow it up with a couple of blitzes or weapon attacks, you should win back the health you lost. You can find power-ups which reduce the health cost, making a special-intensive build far more viable.



Weapon Attacks (also including thrown weapons). For characters who can't use weapons, this is replaced with a Random Upgrade.

Usually it's a good idea to choose between investing in Weapon *or* Blitz elemental attacks, as you have to drop your weapon to perform a blitz. (Not always though: a few character and weapon combinations do allow you to perform a blitz attack *with* your weapon.) Weapon attacks do more damage, but of course they can be dropped or lost whereas you can always pull off a blitz.

If choosing Weapon elementals, combine it with Sharpen Tool durability upgrades: you don't want to lose your weapon when the screen's filled with high-level enemies.

If you can get hold of a green molotov, Electric Weapon is particularly devastating as it will continually electrify enemies caught in the goo pool until it dries up.

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Remember, these elements don't cancel each other out, they stack. You can upgrade an attack with Electric, Fire *and* Toxic - in which case, RIP enemies.

Note: an important power-up is Blood Thirst, which heals you when you damage enemies. Elemental damage is an exception to this: as far as I can tell, these attacks provide no healing effect.

Power-ups: white (A-H)

A Little Closer To The Stars

Significantly increases how many points you earn.
(+40% initially, +105% at level five.)

Points earn you stars, so this power-up increases how many star moves you'll have available in future. Star moves can be a life saver if you encounter a screen full of red enemies, or are at low health - especially when combined with Blood Thirst healing.

Note: A Little Closer To The Stars originally had a bug which would miscalculate and often *take away* points when banking a >3000 damage combo. I *think* this has been fixed as of the March 2023 update.

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Air Master

This allows you to perform an extra jump in mid-air. May not sound like much but it's really handy for escaping enemy attacks, as *nothing* can reach you at the apex of a double jump, and very few attacks can anti-air you on the way back down too. I'd say this is essential for slower characters who can't dash or run, giving them an otherwise lacking mobility option. Also extremely useful for SoR1 characters who get access to elemental Jump power-ups.

If you're really well co-ordinated you can create some nifty combos using this power-up, as you can jump-kick, then jump again while in mid-air and perform a *second* jump-kick.

Air Master also works during regular attacks with an airborne phase, such as Shiva's blitz - so you can cancel out of a badly-timed attack by quickly jumping out of it, or repeatedly jump/attack in mid-air to pull off a combo from hell if you're not afraid of carpal tunnel.

Note, if you got Ground Level which nerfs your jump, Air Master does *technically* still work, but it will just give additional tiny hops. If your co-ordination is absolutely masterful then you can use this to pull off interesting combos, but it won't enable you to escape enemies or cover ground quickly.

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Damage Up

Increases the amount of damage you deal.
(+10% initially, +40% at level five.)

I'm still unclear on whether general damage buffs affect elemental attacks (Electric's the most likely as it deals a percentage of the original attack's damage). They're essential upgrades to have for Blood Thirst healing though, as Damage Up buffs every attack that can give you health, so it's effectively an increased healing rate.

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Defense Up

Slightly reduces the amount of damage you take.
(-10% initially, -25% at level four.)

One handy aspect of defensive upgrades is that they protect you against environmental hazards as well as enemies. Personally most of my games end by bouncing into a pit in the Boxing Ring, so these upgrades can be a lifesaver.

Around wave 35, everything suddenly deals far more damage (even fodder enemies can knock off half your healthbar) so it's critical to invest in durability by then. Personally I don't like to miss more than one durability buff.

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Full Of Yourself

Significantly increases your damage dealt while you're at full health.
(+30% initially, +95% at level five.)

[Note: this is the new, higher bonus introduced by the March 2023 patch. Formerly it was 20 -> 70%]

Unlike other damage buffs this won't help your Blood Thirst healing, but it's such a large boost that it can change the game: fully levelled it's almost as powerful as Glass Cannon, without the penalty. It's not going to help you when you're in trouble, but if you feel that the best form of defence is to put the enemy down before it can do anything, this one's for you.

Your healthbar turns brighter when Full Of Yourself's damage bonus is in effect.

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Hey, Buddy

Gives you an AI-controlled minion. Minions take the heat off your back by giving enemies another target, and dish out a little damage and disruption of their own. Some can even pick up weapons and carry them between arenas.

Hey Buddy is offered 4 times per game, and each time it becomes far more useful. Tier 1-2 minions are handy distractions for new players, but don't last long enough to be useful after round 15 or so. Tier 3 minions remain useful right the way through the game, but typically won't survive full rounds after 25. Tier 4 minions are all bosses, so are absolute beasts, sponging massive amounts of damage and disrupting entire screens of enemies (especially after taking enough damage to unlock their second-phase attacks)... but you'll need to take Hey Buddy every time it's offered to get one of those.

Tier 1	Cop *	Donovan	Galsia	Margaret
Tier 2	Condor	Garnet	Gold	Queen
Tier 3	Big Ben	Caramel	Goro	Koobo
Tier 4	Barbon	Commissioner	Mr Y	Ms Y

Cop, Donovan, Galsia, Margaret and Koobo can all pick up weapons, including gold ones. They can carry them to the next arena if they survive a round carrying the weapon, but as of the March 2023 patch, the weapon no longer spawns every subsequent round.

If you have Blood Thirst, minion attacks give you health - but in tiny, tiny, tiny amounts.

If playing in multiplayer mode, you *can* give each player their own minion... but remember, Hey Buddy power-ups only appear up to four times per game, and a single level 4 minion is far deadlier than a pair of level 2s.

* The cop minion is technically Díck (the grabby one), but can pick up and use tasers like Barney.

Power-ups: white (I-Z)

Last Hurrah

Increases the amount of damage dealt when your health is below half.
(+15% initially, +50% at level four.)

A fairly significant damage increase, but only usable when you're in trouble. This is particularly handy for Blood Thirst builds (in which causing damage gives you health). After wave 35, if your health dips below a third, pretty much anything can kill you in an instant, so it's critical to be able to heal as quickly as possible. For non-Blood Thirst builds though, the damage buff is nice to have but it's likely that whatever other power-up you're offered will be more useful.

Your healthbar turns brighter when you're benefiting from Last Hurrah's damage bonus.

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Sharpen Tool

Increases how many times you can use a weapon before it disappears.
(+30% initially, +150% at level five.)

[Note: this is the new, higher bonus introduced by the March 2023 patch. Formerly it was 20 -> 60%]

If you've decided to go for a weapon-specialist build (Gold Weapon, Elemental Weapon Attacks) then increasing their longevity should be a priority; you don't want the weapon disappearing when you really need it. Later on you'll face so many enemies that Sharpen Tool investment is essential for keeping a weapon longer than half a round.

As of the March 2023 v1.08 patch, Sharpen Tool is now bugged: from level four (+120% durability) upwards, weapons have infinite durability. So for the time being, weapon-focused builds perform exceptionally well.

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Special Moves Reduced Health Cost

Reduces health penalty for using special moves.
(-10% initially, -30% at level four.)

Particularly useful if your playstyle spams a lot of specials, or for characters whose specials cost a lot of health (eg. Floyd). If you combine this with Old School Rules, you can reduce the health cost of specials by up 70% - a tiny penalty that's easily earned back with Blood Thirst healing.

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Speed Up

Increases your movement speed.
(+15% initially, +60% at level five.)

Dodging up and down the Y-axis is a key SoR4 skill, and the faster you can move, the easier this will be. Speed Up is also useful in combination with Air Master's extra jump, as it increases the length of your jumps as well as your walking speed. A particularly handy option for characters with limited mobility.

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Survival Instinct

Reduces the amount of damage taken when your health is below half.
(-12% initially, -30% at level three.)

Yes - Survival Instinct only drops three times per game, and it's a significant buff, so I wouldn't advise missing it more than once.

Note that you don't need to be at <50% health before taking a hit for Survival Instinct to work: it applies to all damage that would take you below the half-full mark. So if you're at 60% health and take a 65-damage hit, Survival Instinct will mitigate enough of that damage for you to survive.

Your healthbar turns brighter when your health is low enough for any damage to be reduced by Survival Instinct.

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Tactical Support

Rockets rain down near you after performing a star move.
(4 initially, 17 at level five.)

This is an essential upgrade if you have Blood Thirst healing, as these rockets deal a lot of damage, so can net you a huge wad of health if you're able to catch enemies in the blast radius. Star moves are the Blood Thirst player's emergency measure if health runs low, and Tactical Support greatly increases the efficacy of this.

The rockets are unaffected by Elemental Star Moves' damage nerf.

Tactical Support is an unusual power-up, in that if you're able to level it up past its usual maximum with Random Upgrade, each additional level does provide a bonus: a single extra rocket.

Power-ups: purple

Purple power-ups aren't upgradable; each is only offered once per game even in multiplayer mode. They offer an important choice which radically alters play, giving major drawbacks as well as perks.

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Blood Thirst

Damaging enemies rewards you with health - but healing pickups no longer work.

Blood Thirst frees you from worrying about where the next health pickup will come from, so it can be a lifesaver; I consider it an essential upgrade. That doesn't mean it makes life easy for you though: the healing effect is small, so you need to pick damage buffs wherever possible and play carefully to make it work.

Only conventional attacks heal you: Electric, Fire and Toxic power-ups do nothing for your health bar. Other non-healers include environmental hazards such as pits and swinging balls, and even special moves. (You *can* however be healed by star moves, weapons, blitzes, throw collisions and Hey Buddy minion attacks.)

If you end your round at low health, it might be a good idea to pick up a gold weapon, as their massive damage allows you to heal rapidly. When you get into trouble, the big life saver is your star move. You're invulnerable while performing it, cause a bunch of damage (= health gain) if you time it right, and even more if you choose Tactical Support rocket power-ups. Keep your star moves saved up for when you need urgent healing (or face opponents who can take you out within a second); don't waste them on fights you can win by other means.

In multiplayer mode each player does reduced damage, which means Blood Thirst gives you less health (I think this should be patched personally). Make sure the player with Blood Thirst gets the damage buffs, and the other player gets the elemental power-ups, which don't offer any healing. If you're capable of quickly building a 90+ hit combo, Heat Of The Battle can deliver such a massive damage bonus that the multiplayer nerf doesn't matter. More on HOTB in a moment...

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Elemental Star Move

All your elemental power-ups are applied to your star move, but raw damage is -50%.
(Doesn't affect Tactical Support rockets.)

If you're *not* going for Blood Thirst healing then ESM is an easy pick: a handful of elemental powers will do more than enough damage to compensate for the nerf.

*With* Blood Thirst, ESM is problematic: elemental powers don't heal you, so your star moves' healing potential is halved. ESM *can* still be useful though if you also take Heat Of The Battle, as the additional Electric and Fire attacks will increase your combo's hit count, therefore your damage, and therefore your healing ability.

Some characters' star moves cause no direct damage, in which case ESM does nothing. ESM is particularly useful though for characters whose star moves summon an AI minion (Shiva4/Roo), as these minions can stay on screen for a long time, using your elemental powers with every attack.

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Glass Cannon

+100% damage dealt, +60% damage taken.

This is the only power-up in the game that I just flat-out don't recommend taking. Yes the damage buff makes you an absolute wrecking ball, but it leaves you hugely vulnerable: many fights after wave 25 or so can reduce you from 100% health to dead in less than a second. You need incredible avoidance skills to make this work, and if you're that good Full Of Yourself gives you all the damage you need, far less dangerously.

GC is *maybe* worth experimenting with if you're a new player struggling to make Blood Thirst work, or if you're some godlike player who never gets hit by the AI. Otherwise? Pass.

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Ground Level

Gives you a bunch of significant buffs (+15% damage and speed, -15% damage taken)... but your jump is nerfed to a tiny little hop.

Some really well-co-ordinated players *like* the little hop as it allows them to repeatedly jump-kick to perform interesting combos, but for most people it's going to make jumping close to useless.

The usefulness of Ground Level is hugely variable depending on character and build. SoR1 characters will have a hard time with it, as these are the only characters that have Elemental Jump Attacks, *and* jumping is their only evasive mobility option. Slower characters such as Floyd and Max can also struggle without a jump unless your technique is fantastic; many players would instead benefit from *upgrading* their jumps with Air Master.

However if your character can run, dash or roll, or you spend most of your time blitzing or specialing across the screen, you're probably not reliant on jumping, so it's more important to have the perks. Ground Level provides the biggest durability bonus of any single power-up, and the other buffs noticeably sharpen your game too.

Note: Some characters have blitzes/specials which take you airborne, so you can still transform those into jumps using the Air Master power-up.

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The Heat Of The Battle

Damage increases by 2% for each hit in a combo, but starts at -90%.
(I'm not entirely sure how this is calculated, but you should be doing normal damage by hit 45.)

This is a difficult one to use effectively. Eventually you can do many times normal damage with Heat Of The Battle, as >200 hit combos are common in later rounds where you're just continually blitzing from one side of the screen to another. You'll be able to annihilate the toughest enemies in moments. However if you take a hit, you'll be in trouble until you can build up a combo again. This is even more dangerous when combined with Blood Thirst, as you'll also have slower healing during that time.

Heat Of The Battle can be fantastic, but it's for advanced players. You need to play fast enough to keep the combo alive, and understand enemy patterns well enough to avoid getting hit. If you're good enough for it, this power-up can allow you to breeze quickly through the rounds - and is arguably an essential power-up for rounds 35+. But if you can't quickly build a combo it can be a death sentence, especially against evasive characters such as Mr Y.

HOTB works particularly well for characters who can inflict a large number of hits very quickly, especially in combination with Electric/Fire attacks (which count as extra hits every time they affect an enemy).

Note: damage from Heat Of The Battle is the only case where the hit count of a combo means anything. The amount of score points you're awarded for a combo is based purely on its damage.

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Old School Rules

Your special moves cost 40% less health, but you no longer get any green restorable health.

I'd only suggest taking this in combination with Blood Thirst healing, as Old School Rules makes you reliant on being able to heal quickly and easily. With Blood Thirst, you can still spam specials anywhere on the map - without it, you'll have to be careful about when you use them, and be sure of a nearby health pickup.

OSR is particularly useful for slower characters that are more vulnerable to quick jabs between their attacks. Less useful for characters that depend on elemental damage, as this doesn't provide Blood Thirst healing; personally I like OSR for Max but not so much for Roo.

If you do take Old School Rules, try combining it with Special Moves Reduced Health Cost whenever possible, as this can shrink the health penalty to a tiny sliver.

Power-ups: gold

Gold power-ups are consumables: no long-term effect, but powerful items that give you a major advantage while they last.

If you're godlike enough to get to round 60-something, you'll eventually only find gold power-ups. This is because everything else drops a limited number of times, whether you acquire it or not. So if you choose a gold power-up while something else is available, you're giving up a permanent upgrade.

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3 Stars

After choosing this power-up three stars drop on the floor; collect them for the ability to perform star moves.

It takes an increasingly large number of points to earn star moves, so this can be a bit of a life-saver in the late game. By round 40, many enemies can finish you off in a couple of hits and zoom around like a laser pointer, so you'll be depending on star moves to clear the screen and keep you alive.

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Gold Weapon

Drops an upgraded version of a boomerang, knife, pipe or halberd. They're far longer-lasting, and deal more damage.

Gold weapons become extremely useful once you've bought Blood Thirst healing, as their high-damage attacks can heal you quickly. Combine with Electric Weapon to spread the massive damage to all nearby enemies.

If you're playing Dr Zan, gold weapons are the only ones you can carry and use like the other characters, but you'll have to find them in the arenas as you won't be offered them as end-of-round power-ups. SoR3 Shiva and Roo can't interact with them at all.

Beware: gold weapons can be lost or even turned against you. If you fall into a pit, the weapon will be lost when you reappear, so it's a good idea to put the weapon on the floor for these arenas. However, if they're on the floor, certain enemies can pick them up and use them against you (eg. Galsia can pick up the knife or halberd). The absolute worst is when fighting Koobo (the jumping robot) as they can levitate your weapons off the floor and throw them at you, after which the weapon disappears. If you get hit by a gold weapon, it will hurt. A lot.

However, if you use the Hey Buddy power-up to gain a Galsia or Donovan follower, they can pick up your gold weapon too, and use it without degrading its longevity. If they're still carrying it at the end of a round, they'll bring it with them to the next arena.

Power-ups: random

For certain characters, some power-ups will be replaced with a "random upgrade" option. This is due to these characters' limited ability to hold weapons or perform special moves.

Character	Power-ups replaced with randoms
Shiva	Sharpen Tool, Gold Weapon
SoR1 characters	Special Moves Reduced Cost, Old School Rules
SoR3 Dr Zan	Sharpen Tool, Gold Weapon
SoR3 Shiva	Elemental Weapon, Sharpen Tool, Gold Weapon
SoR3 Roo	Elemental Weapon, Sharpen Tool, Gold Weapon

There's only a small pool of power-ups that will be offered at random, none of which are elemental, purple or gold. However, it does mean that you'll get more opportunities to collect each of these power-ups than you normally would: bear in mind that once you get to their maximum level, upgrading them any further will provide no additional benefit.

Random upgrade pool

A Little Closer To The Stars	(increases score)
Damage Up	(increases damage dealt)
Defense Up	(reduces damage taken)
Special Moves Reduced Cost	(lower health penalty for specials)
Speed Up	(increases movement speed)
Tactical Support	(star moves also fire rockets)

Streets of Rage 1 characters also have a few extra possible replacements, as they can't receive Special Moves Reduced Cost.

Air Master	(extra jump)
Full Of Yourself	(increases damage dealt while at 100% health)
Last Hurrah	(increases damage dealt while below 50% health)
Survival Instinct	(reduces damage that takes you below 50% health)

Special thanks to TombKingsWill for pointing out that the latter power-ups aren't on the list for most characters.

Score

In Survival, score is no longer shown on the leaderboard: it's how far you get that determines your rank. You also can't earn extra lives, which is the other function of points in Story/Arcade mode.

Instead, in Survival the main function of score is that it earns you stars, with which you can perform star moves. You earn your first star at 10,000 points. The score required increases by 2,000 each time, so you'll earn them at:

#1:	10,000 points	#6:	90,000 points	#11:	220,000 points	#16:	400,000 points	#21:	630,000 points	#26:	910,000 points
#2:	22,000 points	#7:	112,000 points	#12:	252,000 points	#17:	442,000 points	#22:	682,000 points	#27:	972,000 points
#3:	36,000 points	#8:	136,000 points	#13:	286,000 points	#18:	486,000 points	#23:	736,000 points	#28:	1,036,000 points
#4:	52,000 points	#9:	162,000 points	#14:	322,000 points	#19:	532,000 points	#24:	792,000 points	#29:	1,102,000 points
#5:	70,000 points	#10:	190,000 points	#15:	360,000 points	#20:	580,000 points	#25:	850,000 points	#30:	1,170,000 points

...etc.

You can also occasionally find stars as pickups in the arenas, or as power-ups at the end of a round, but score is by far the biggest earner.

As in all Streets of Rage 4 modes, you can earn points a few ways...

• Damaging enemies.
  1 point per 1% of a player-healthbar's-worth of damage, I think. This includes toxic and environmental damage.
  (In 2-player games, the points for most environmental damage - such as swinging balls - are shared between both players, but throwing enemies into a pit only rewards the player who threw them.)
  
  
• Banking combos.
  The bigger the combo, the higher the multiplier. Although the display shows how many hits in the combo, the points are actually awarded based on damage dealt: so you could get a million hits against a corpse and be awarded zero points.
  The formula for combo score is complicated [(damage / 6) ^ 1.5 * 2], but basically if you increase the damage in the combo by 100%, you'll increase the points awarded by 183%.
  The combo gauge changes colour as the potential score increases:
  
  

  Damage in the combo	Combo colour	Combo name	Points awarded if banked
  60+	Yellow	Nice!	62+
  120+	Orange	Great!	179+
  200+	Green	Super!	385+
  350+	Blue	Excellent!	891+
  520+	Purple	Amazing!!	1614+
  700+	Pink	Sick!!	2520+
  1000+	Red	Out of this world!!!	4303+

  
  
• Picking up score items.
  200 for small ones, 500 for large.
  
  
• Picking up health items.
  Acquiring health pickups while your health is full (with no green in the healthbar) gives you points instead. If you have the Blood Thirst power-up, all health items are automatically treated this way, no matter what your health is. 300 for small ones, 1000 for large.
  
  
• A Little Closer To The Stars power-ups.
  In Survival you can acquire these upgrades to increase future points. The first one you find increases all point values by 40%, so for example a large health pickup changes from 1000 points to 1400.

Custom Sim

Newly added in the March 2023 v1.08 patch, the Custom Sim mode allows you to play a Survival match with your own choice of special settings.

Some of these settings have been requested by players for a long time, but the downside is that there are no leaderboards for Custom Sim; matches aren't even logged in your history. It also introduces a bug that breaks the game... But here's what the settings do.

Perks
Allows you to change how many power-ups you get to choose between at the end of a round. By default you get 2, with an extra one every fourth round. Using this setting, you can choose between 0 to 4.
This is actually a huge problem, because the game's logic always assumes that 4 power-ups are offered to the player each round, regardless of which setting is selected - and because each power-up is offered a fixed number of times (sometimes just once), it means that unless you're playing a 4-perk game, you won't be offered every power-up, no matter how long you play. This problem also applies to standard and weekly Survival games, even though there's no "4 perk" option for those modes.

Elemental perks
Determines whether you'll be able to receive elemental power-ups (electric / fire / toxic). If unticked, elemental power-ups will be replaced with a gold consumable power-up (usually a knife or boomerang in my testing so far).

Elemental stacking
If unticked, each attack type (blitz / heavy / special / weapon attacks) can only have one elemental effect. If you choose a different elemental power-up for that attack type, the one you'd chosen earlier will be deleted from your power-up roster.

Apply perk to all players
In multiplayer Survival, power-up selection can get a bit fraught because only one player gets to choose what they want at the end of the round. With this box unticked, the chosen power-up gets applied to all players.
Personally, I feel that this setting (or better yet, let every player choose a power-up at the end of a round) should be applied to standard Survival.

Starting level
Choose which round to start at. This is a way to sample what the gameplay is like later in the game, but it makes things a lot harder than getting there normally: you don't start with any power-ups, and will have missed all the ones which would have been offered in earlier rounds.
Remember, every power-up is only offered a fixed number of times, and the game isn't programmed to make allowances for the player skipping waves. No matter where you start from, once you get past wave 40 or so, you'll never be offered any non-gold power-ups.

Use weekly seed
If ticked, your Custom Sim game will use the same random seed as the current Weekly Sim. Random seed is the number chosen at the start of the match which determines all of Survival's random factors, so if the number is the same you'll get the same enemies, the same items, the same map progression, the same power-ups offered, the same Random Upgrade replacements. Weekly games use the same random seed all week.
So basically, ticking this box means you're playing the Weekly Sim, using your own custom settings.

Boss levels only
If ticked, the game only plays every fourth round, ie. the boss rounds. This means you can very quickly reach high-difficulty rounds. *However*, it also means you won't be offered the power-ups which would have been offered in the intervening rounds, so the game does become exceptionally difficult. (The game stops offering non-gold power-ups around wave 40, so with this option selected, you'll only be able to choose 9-10 permanent power-ups.)
Like the 4-perk bug, this is another problem with the game's random seed logic.

Enemy scaling
Normally, as you progress through the rounds, enemies will become more powerful, more durable, faster and with nastier AI. If the box is unticked, they'll always have the standard power and durability, which can make the game incredibly easy once you've acquired a few upgrades. I think their speed and AI is unmodified though.
Something to keep in mind: this change also applies to your Hey Buddy minion. They'll be particularly fragile with Enemy Scaling disabled.

Hazards
If the box is unticked, there will be no environmental hazards, except for the stadium arena's central pit and electrified ropes. However this does mean that you won't have access to the items that certain hazards can reward you with (such as the pressure plates in the ancient temple arena).

Destroyables
If the box is unticked, you'll no longer need to destroy objects to get the items inside, the items will just spawn straight onto the ground. It will also remove explosive / electrical / toxic barrels.

Heal
If the box is unticked, no healing items will appear. The only way to heal will be via the Blood Thirst power-up, so better hope you get it early!

Weapons
If unticked, no weapons will appear - except for the ones carried into the arena by enemies.

Character tips

Choose your build
It's important to think about long-term strategy when deciding between power-ups. They only drop enough times for you to reach their maximum level, whether you accept them or not. (Usually - you can increase some of them further with a Random Upgrade.) You won't be able to collect everything, so plan ahead for what you'll need and don't need in order to create a specialised build.

Also - some power-ups complement each other well (eg. Electric/Fire attacks and Heat Of The Battle), but some combinations are near-useless (eg. Ground Level and Air Master). Some others will become useless in the late game if you don't invest in several upgrades for them (eg. Hey Buddy).

So it's important to choose specialisations and invest accordingly.

• Am I going to specialise in weapons? Prioritise elemental weapons, Sharpen Tool power-ups, acquire Gold Weapons in later rounds, and definitely choose Blood Thirst because weapons are excellent for its healing effect.
  
  
• Am I going to specialise in special attacks? Prioritise elemental specials, Special Moves Reduced Health Cost, and choose Old School Rules. Maybe add one tier of Electric/Fire Blitz Attacks so you can follow-up special moves with a quick blitz to regain health and disrupt anyone still standing.
  
  
• Am I going to specialise in evasiveness? Add at least one level of Air Master, prioritise defensive buffs and Speed Up, choose some Fire/Toxic elementals to knock away or slow down enemies that get close, and invest in Hey Buddy every time it's available for a handy distraction.
  
  
• In multiplayer mode, am I going to be the player using Blood Thirst healing? Prioritise buffs to non-elemental damage (Last Hurrah and Damage Up), go for Gold Weapons, and grab stars or A Little Closer To The Stars power-ups.
  
  
• In multiplayer mode, am I *not* going to be the player using Blood Thirst? Choose Elemental Star Moves, lots of elemental attacks, and maybe consider Heat Of The Battle to bump your damage potential.

Using the characters
As you keep playing Survival, you'll unlock alternate moves for the characters you play as. These are almost always more useful: sometimes increasing the number of hits (very useful for Heat Of The Battle in which combo hit-count is essential), sometimes increasing the distance or speed, sometimes leaving you less vulnerable, sometimes adding the ability to damage fallen-over enemies.

Obviously every character has a slightly different playing style, but here are some broad generalisations between the main archetypes.

• SoR1 characters are particularly interesting to play in Survival, as they have some unique capabilities to make up for their more limited moveset. You'll be able to perform elemental Jumping or Back attacks, both of which are pretty simple to pull off. Combine elemental Jump attacks with Air Master and Speed Up to drop the hammer on enemies from across the map. Adam is particularly effective at this, as his jump-kick hitbox is longer than any other playable character's: you can even hit the Garnet jump-kickers out of the air.
  
  Something else to consider for SoR1 characters is that they punch much harder than other characters, handy for Blood Thirst and Electric attacks, and they benefit particularly strongly from elemental Heavy Attacks as their basic attack combo is so easy to pull off.
  
  
• SoR1 and 2 characters can't perform heavy attacks by holding+releasing the attack button. They're still fairly easy for SoR1 characters to pull off due to their increased reach (and Blaze can do them in a single hit while grabbing), but for SoR2 players, elemental heavy attacks just won't be as useful a choice as for other characters.
  
  
• SoR3 characters can all run and roll by double-tapping a direction button. This gives them an unusual degree of evasive capability, so they don't really need to jump - might as well invest in Ground Level. No other characters can roll, but Cherry, Shiva, Skate and SoR4 Adam can all run or dash, so the same applies.
  
  
• Keep in mind that none of the retro characters can perform jumping special attacks (except Roo). This lowers the usefulness of elemental specials for SoR 2/3 players, though SoR1 players get no specials at all so the pick-up is replaced with elemental back-attacks. They generally don't handle quite the same as they did in previous games either, just as the retro enemies are all slightly different too.
  
  
• Some characters have limited or zero ability to use weapons. Dr Zan transforms most weapons into energy balls that he can throw at enemies, but he can still use gold weapons or throw-only (boomerangs, grenades, molotovs) normally. SoR4 Shiva can't hold weapons, but can flick them off the floor and throw them. SoR3 Shiva and Roo can't interact with any weapon in any way.
  
  All these characters will be offered random upgrades instead of Sharpen Tool or Gold Weapon. Elemental weapons are available as normal to SoR4 Shiva and Dr Zan, as they can still throw (Zan also has an unlockable star move which benefits from Electric/Fire/Toxic Weapon regardless of whether you have Elemental Star Moves), but SoR3 Shiva and Roo will again be offered random upgrades.
  
  
• Floyd and Max are very slow, which can make it difficult to avoid some attacks. Unless your special/i-frame technique is flawless, it's a good idea to invest in Air Master which allows you to leap clean over incoming attacks, Speed Up to improve your dodging ability, and to avoid Ground Level which nerfs your jumps.
  
  
• SoR4 Shiva has some unusual traits. One of the most useful is that you can pull off punch/kick combinations in mid-air, the last of which counts as a heavy attack, so can be upgraded with elementals. Pick up Air Master, and you can transition from a blitz into a heavy attack while still in mid-air!
  
  Speaking of blitzes, Shiva's alt-blitz deals an unusually large number of hits per second, so he makes a great choice for a Heat Of The Battle build.
  
  While Shiva can't hold weapons, you can carry them between rounds in multiplayer by starting to execute a weapon throw just as the other player walks through the gate.
  
  Shiva's other really useful trait is that his unlockable special and star moves allow him to create short-lived clones, which enemies react to as if they're human players. Handy for blocking enemy attacks, but also for distraction: sneak down the Y-axis while they're dealing with your clone.
  
  
• Roo has a particularly epic star move which spawns a Bruce (whip clown) minion to help you. Spawning three of them simultaneously gives you an achievement. Even better, the Elemental Star Moves power-up gives Bruce's whip attacks your elemental damage bonuses.
  
  Roo is also the best character for Heat Of The Battle, as his default special and blitz have massive hit counts. I've managed 1,800-hit combos against enemies pinned in a corner, which with Heat Of The Battle would generate enough damage for a slap to instagib anything in the game.
  
  Roo isn't unlockable through conventional means: as in SoR3, he's kind of a cheat character. Go to the main menu, keep up+special held down, press start, release all buttons, then select Story.

Gameplay tips

• Each power-up is only offered a limited number of times per game, aside from the consumable gold ones. Even if you reached level 1,000,000, you wouldn't max out every upgrade.
  
  Purple power-ups are only offered once each, so think about whether you'll need them later on, even if they're less useful at that exact moment. Most other power-ups drop 4-5 times, but give increasingly small bonuses the more times they're levelled up, with the exception of Hey Buddy which needs to be acquired all 4 times to gain a super-useful boss ally.
  
  
  
• Remember to hunt the arena for health items, score items and weapons at the end of the round. I know this sounds obvious but the number of people I see not doing this in multiplayer is bewildering.
  
  Even if you're fully healed or using Blood Thirst, health pickups still give points. Points give stars, which give star moves.
  
  
  
• Later on, even great players will easily have their combos broken by the lightning-fast enemies, so when you're on a roll it can be a good idea to jump out of combat and let the combo bank. Remember, score = stars!
  
  
  
• Red enemies hit like a freight train, and move so fast that they're hard to escape. Make disrupting and destroying them your top priority - especially if they're carrying weapons. It's well worth spending star moves on groups of them, Koobo especially.
  
  
  
• After round 30 or so, the amount of damage you take skyrockets. Before that point, save your star moves for when you're really in trouble... but after that point, consider using them whenever you dip below 60% health with dangerous enemies still left on the screen, as you can be finished off in a blink.
  
  
  
• In arenas with swinging balls, there should be a horizontal plane on which they can't hit you even if you jump (if in doubt, try the very top edge of the arena). Try staying there, blitzing/specialing back and forth, and spamming star moves to get rid of anyone elsewhere in the arena that the balls aren't dealing with.
  
  
  
• In the boxing arena stage, play slowly and carefully around the hazards. With swinging balls, avoid getting airborne, because this increases the distance they can knock you (so you're more likely to end up in the pit). Try smacking the swinging balls towards the enemy, then retreating up/down the Y-axis before it swings back to you. If there are flamethrowers, try to position yourself in between them. And be profuse with the star moves if you get into trouble, because this stage is where most games come to an end.
  
  
  
• Blood Thirst (damaging enemies gives you health) works particularly well with:
  
  - Damage buffs. Increasing raw damage also increases your healing. If you combine Damage Up, Last Hurrah and Ground Level, you can double your damage=healing rate.
  
  - Tactical Support. These rockets add a bunch of damage=healing to your star moves. This is particularly important if you're using a star move which doesn't deal any direct damage.
  
  - Gold weapons do such a vast amount of damage that they can fully heal you in moments. If you're low-health at the end of a round, it might be worth choosing a weapon over an upgrade.
  
  - Hey Buddy minion attacks give you a *tiny* bit of health.
  
  - Heat Of The Battle *sometimes* works well, as you eventually build up such a big damage bonus that you can fully heal in less than a second... but you're vulnerable until you can build up at least a 45-hit combo. I like HOTB + Blood Thirst in multiplayer, as it's a way of getting around the multiplayer damage=healing nerf, but you do need a character that can quickly build up hitcounts.
  
  - Blood Thirst does not work well with Elemental Star Moves, which nerfs the damage=healing of your star moves. Elemental attacks in general are also a low priority for Blood Thirst players, as Electric/Fire/Toxic damage doesn't heal you. In multiplayer, let the non-BT player have most of these.
  
  
  
• Heat Of The Battle (combo hits +2% damage, -90% general damage) works particularly well with:
  
  - Electric / Fire attacks. They add more hits to the combo every time they affect an enemy, so try to acquire at least 1 level of each. If you're also using Blood Thirst though, keep it at just the 1 level: you want most of your damage to come from regular (healing) attacks rather than elementals.
  
  - Tactical Support rockets. When you get into trouble and your combo is broken, you can launch your star move to quickly build the hitcount up again.
  
  - Elemental Star Moves. Again, this can massively increase the hitcount of star moves.
  
  - Full Of Yourself. HOTB leaves you at a disadvantage at the start of every round, with your hit count at 0, but this is also the time you're most likely to be at full health. So the massive damage bonus from Full Of Yourself can counteract HOTB's damage nerf.
  
  - Last Hurrah. The other time you're likely to have a 0 hitcount is when you've just taken a beating, so the significant damage bonus (when at <50% health) of Last Hurrah can again counteract HOTB's damage nerf and keep you combat-effective before you're able to rebuild your combo.
  
  
  
• In multiplayer games, please...
  
  - Stay in the game until the final tally is finished. Quitting before then ends the game for both players, and prevents it being logged on the scoreboard.
  
  - At the end of a round, give the other player a chance to find all the items and weapons they want before leaving the arena.
  
  - Think about who most needs the pickups and power-ups. Most power-ups provide their biggest bonus at level 1, then decrease every time you level it up. For example: Defense Up provides a 10% durability bonus at level 1, but only a 5% bonus at level 2, so your team will be better-protected if both players have level 1 than if a single player has level 2. (The exception to this is Hey Buddy, for which a single level 4 minion is more powerful than a pair of level 2s.)
  
  - If a purple power-up appears and you don't want it, leave it for the other player to decide whether they do or not, because there won't be another chance to acquire it.
  
  - If one player has Blood Thirst healing and they're at low health, leave the easier enemies for them to handle, as this is a healing opportunity for them.
  
  - Try to avoid staying on the same horizontal plane as the other player. Some enemies, such as Goro or Zeebo, can knock players into each other.
  
  - Try not to get so far apart that you're on opposite sides of the arena: this can allow enemies to lurk off-screen.
  
  - I suggest that one player always takes Blood Thirst, as this leaves all the health pickups for the other player. However BT is harder to use in multiplayer because each player has their damage reduced, so it's important for the BT player to get the raw damage buffs (Damage Up, Last Hurrah; Ground Level if they don't need to jump; Heat Of The Battle if they can quickly build up a high hitcount). It'll get easier later in the game, when there are clusters of enemies to hit.

Peace out

Damian put together a great video illustrating Survival's glitches:

....Aaaand that's all I can think of right now. Hope this guide's been some use: if my Alien Isolation and CS:GO guides are anything to go by, I'll probably be tinkering with this thing until Ash becomes playable. (ie: forever.)

[Capt. Butters Moore Crumpets]

Is the weekly sim supposed to be the same enemies? It never is for me, the only thing that remains the same each round is the perks.
Do we know if the perks changing to 3 gold weapon perks and 1 set of stars at level 37 is intended in custom sim? It is so annoying not being able to get more elementals or buddies after level 37.

[FixbotWill]

"Zan also has an unlockable star move which benefits from Electric/Fire/Toxic Weapon regardless of whether you have Elemental Star Moves"
I'm 99% sure this is not true. his alternate star move, Big Energy Ball, doesn't seem to benefit from any elemental weapon upgrades, unless you take Elemental Star Moves in which case it benefits from all your elemental buffs.

It is however true that his alternate Special move, Energy Ball (not Big Energy Ball) gives him an energy ball as if he'd picked up a weapon, and that energy ball does benefit from weapon elemental buffs.

[SHADOW]

I wonder if they will fix the error of four amplifications? Now it's just not possible to assemble a good build for the character

[FixbotWill]

speaking of Zan, in relation to gold weapons:
"If you're playing Dr Zan, gold weapons are the only ones you can carry and use like the other characters, but you'll have to find them in the arenas as you won't be offered them as end-of-round power-ups."
this is not quite true. Zan can pick up and use the Gold Boomerang if he finds it in the arena,(because it's a throw-only item), but if he picks up any of the other three gold weapons from the ground it gets changed to the usual energy ball. and if he actually chooses any of the gold weapon perks, including Gold Boomerang, he gets a random perk from the pool.

[FixbotWill]

good talk btw, I'm glad we were both able to get closer to the mark

As for the perk problem caused by the patch, for the sheer bants of it I've been keeping track of which perks you just straight-up can't get in Weekly Sims. This week you're not allowed Heat of the Battle, Glass Cannon, Ground Level or Elemental Star Moves, and two of the Hey Buddys.

Last week you weren't allowed Old School Rules, Elemental Star Moves or *any* of the Hey Buddys.

Really hope they fix this.

[|iG| Vertigo]

I think it's because SoR1 characters don't have access to Special Moves Reduced Health Cost, which is normally in the random upgrade pool. It's strange that they get *four* possible replacements for it though, why not just swap it for Sharpen Tool, which the other random upgrade characters can't have?

[FixbotWill]

so different characters have different replacement pools... interesting. Or, at least, different "invalid perks" have different replacement pools.

In that case, then speaking only for Zan, I can confidently say his replacement options are damage/defence/speed/score/cheaper specials/tactical support. And that's always instead of gold weapon or Sharp Tools.

[|iG| Vertigo]

I can definitely confirm that Air Master and Last Hurrah are possible Random Upgrade replacements for SoR1 characters choosing Special Moves Reduced Health Cost (along with Damage Up, Defence Up and Speed Up; probably the other usual suspects too but need to verify that). If you play the current Weekly Survival with an SoR1 character, choose SMRHC when it's offered and you should get Last Hurrah.

With Old School Rules, I've only had Damage Up and Tactical Support as replacements so far, but have just acquired it twice this evening.

[|iG| Vertigo]

So, with random power-ups... I've just dug up my notes, and had noted that I'd achieved Air Master and Last Hurrah via Old School Rules with an SoR1 character, and Full Of Yourself and Survival Instinct via Special Moves Reduced Health Cost with an SoR1 character.

I've been testing this afternoon, and sure enough you're right, I couldn't get any of those to be given as random replacements for Shiva4 or Roo. *However*, I think I did get it to drop for SoR1 Adam when choosing a replacement for Special Moves Reduced Health Cost, but wasn't recording so need to do a bit more testing to make sure I didn't make a mistake.

Anyway, either way, I definitely need to edit the Random Power-Ups section, and will give you a thanks there for bringing it up. I'll do a bit more testing first though, hopefully later today, and will pop another comment with the results.

[|iG| Vertigo]

@ TombKingsWill: Yup, the randomness factor in Survival is the seed selected at the start, like the random map seed in Civ or Age of Empires. Weekly games use the same seed throughout the week, so get the same enemies, items, power-ups and "random" replacements. I'm currently writing a section on Custom Survival and have it detailed in there.