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If there's something that the Warriors Orochi games know how to do well, it's giving you a ton of things to do - you'll seriously never run out of goals to pursue, characters to experiment with, and fights to master in a game like Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate.
Gauntlet Mode is one of the three ways to play this game - alongside Story Mode and Duel Mode. It's a fresh experience that features five warriors fighting alongside each other, high stakes, and a tough difficulty spike that might catch you a little unawares when you first boot up a battle.
What Is Gauntlet Mode?
Gauntlet Mode is an alternative way to play the game with a far more limited cast of playable characters and more difficult challenges. Here are the basic principles that make Gauntlet Mode unique:
- When you start a new Gauntlet Mode playthrough, you will pick five officers - these will make up your playable party and cannot be changed except in a specific circumstance. If you want to play with different characters, you'll have to start a new Gauntlet Mode playthrough.
- The aim of Gauntlet mode is to complete four series of battles that increase in difficulty.
- In battles, all five of your party members fight simultaneously. You can switch the character you control on the fly and alter the formation that they fight in.
- Different formations grant access to different special skills that consume power from a gauge beneath the characters' portraits.
- Between battles, you will be able to explore the same Camp that you have in Story Mode.
You can only choose characters that you have already unlocked in Story Mode.
The actual battles are also very different from what you may be used to. The goal of battles is not to eradicate the enemy but to find an escape point. Dotted throughout each map are Dragon Gates - glowing circles on the ground that you must find. If you hold the Guard button (the left shoulder button) while standing on a Dragon Gate, there's a chance you may reveal the location of the Escape Point. Once you Guard on top of the Escape Point, you have completed the level.
How To Beat Gauntlet Mode
Gauntlet Mode stages are arranged on a map of connected battlefields - each with a difficulty, a set of officers to fight, and a color. There are four colors that stages can have - red, yellow, cyan, and purple. To be able to play on these stages, you must unlock them with a keystone of the same color. At the beginning of a playthrough, you will have a single red keystone, and you acquire them by beating stages of the same color.
Playthroughs are split into cycles, which are split into layers. Each map of connected battlefields is a layer. Once you reach a specific battlefield and beat it, you'll progress to a more difficult set of battlefields on a new layer.
The fourth layer is the final one and will eventually pit you against a boss - Hundun. Upon defeating this final challenge, you have the option of starting Gauntlet Mode all over again, beginning a new cycle, but this time you'll also start with one keystone of the next color. For example, after completing your first cycle of four layers, you'll start a second layer with a yellow keystone.
Beating Hundun will unlock him as a playable character.
With four cycles and four layers per cycle, you'll need to beat sixteen layers in total to 'beat' Gauntlet Mode.
Some stages will have their names colored red. These stages are far harder than the other stages on the layer - take them on with great caution. If you're successful, you'll be able to get great rewards.
Managing Miasma
A feature unique to the fights in Gauntlet Mode is Miasma. This is represented by black fog on the battlefield and a ticking meter on the right side of the screen.
Miasma increases the strength of your foes - when the number is very high, even mooks will be able to damage you significantly. At its highest levels, officers and mooks alike will be one-shotting you.
Miasma increases as you fight - defeating officers will boost it quite high, letting their compatriots avenge them with impunity.
The key to managing Miasma is knowing that it's based on location. Miasma levels are not universal - if you fight too long in one area and the Miasma level skyrockets, you can simply move away from that area to a less-filled part of the map. You can also lower Miasma levels by interacting with Dragon Gates.
Otherworldly Invaders
There is a chance, when playing on Gauntlet Mode, that you'll be notified of some invaders. The game will tell you that a specific officer has arrived to challenge you, but in reality, there are multiple - other parties just like your own.
Beating these officers will give you great rewards, but they are very tough. They can use their Musou skills freely and will do so readily. Only attack them if you have plentiful resources and health.
Dragon Portals And Treasure Chests
As you explore Gauntlet Mode maps, you'll notice an abundance of treasure chests. Strike them with a light attack to open them, but be wary - chests might not only have items in them, they can cause other effects, too. The same is true of Dragon Portals. While they may reveal the Escape Point to you, there's also a chance for positive or negative effects to occur.
Some of the more notable effects include having your party members all teleported to random points on the map, alerting nearby enemies to your presence, and healing your party.
Despite the risks, you should be opening all the chests you can. The materials used to make incredibly powerful weapons can only be found in this way.
Unlocking New Characters
While you cannot initially alter your party setup in Gauntlet Mode, there is a way to acquire new characters.
Sometimes, beating an enemy officer or (rarely) opening a chest will let you acquire an item called a Sworn Ally. These can be traded to the Mystic back at camp after completing a battle to unlock the associated character for that Gauntlet Mode playthrough, if you so wish.
There aren't many things you can do to increase the chances of acquiring a Sworn Ally item - just focus on fighting officers.
You cannot get Sworn Ally items from Otherworldly Invaders.
Tips And Tricks
- Enemies hit hard, especially if you wander into high-Miasma territory. Skills that heal you, such as certain characters' Special Attacks (such as Susano'o), are fantastic for survival in a pinch.
- Gauntlet Mode is a great way to increase the bonds between specific characters without spending a ton of money at the Tea House. Even if you fail a battle, your party will all get +40 relationship points with each other.
- You'll want to have very powerful weapons before heading into Gauntlet Mode, such as fully-leveled Big Star Weapons or Battlefield Bonus Weapons.
- Some stages have multiple battlefields to beat - you have to beat them all in succession to complete the stage. The stages that allow you to head to the next layer are always multi-battle stages.