Also: Cody is arriving one day early!

Survival Mode is one of the most reviled aspects of Street Fighter V: obnoxiously difficult while punishingly random, only the hardest of the hardcore have spent any significant time with the frustrating single-player gauntlet — especially after it became possible to unlock costume colors with real money.

Capcom has finally decided to address this promising new features that will roll out alongside the latest DLC fighter, Cody — now arriving June 25, not June 26. The Capcom-Unity blog describes a myriad of changes:

*CURRENT SURVIVAL MODE

As you likely know, Survival Mode is a single-player mode where you’re challenged to fight a consecutive number of CPU opponents until you either beat them all or are defeated – if you fail, you must start from the very beginning. There are four separate difficulty settings with different rewards:

Easy 10 consecutive opponents Unlocks Color 3 for Default, Story, and Extra Battle Costumes EXP awarded for the first time completed with each character

Normal 30 consecutive opponents Unlocks Colors 4, 5, and 6 for Default, Story, and Extra Battle Costumes EXP awarded for the first time completed with each character

Hard 50 consecutive opponents Unlocks Colors 7, 8, 9, and 10 for Default, Story, and Extra Battle Costumes EXP awarded for the first time completed with each character

Extreme 100 consecutive opponents Unlocks a title EXP awarded for the first time completed with each character



What’s new, then…? According to Capcom-Unity:

BATTLE GOODS

Similar to Battle Supplements, Battle Goods can be used to give you advantages or improve your chances of winning the next round. Unlike Battle Supplements, Battle Goods are consumables, meaning they will disappear once you use them. You can also use up to five of them between rounds whereas you can only use one Battle Supplement.

Once this update goes live, you’ll automatically receive some Battle Goods in your inventory to get you started. You can obtain more Battle Goods by completing Survival Mode – the higher the difficulty, the more rewards – or by participating in the new Fighting Chance mode, which will be discussed below.

CARE TO CONTINUE OR SAVE YOUR PROGRESS?

Currently, once you are defeated in Survival Mode, you must start from the very beginning. With this update, you can now spend Fight Money to continue after a loss. If you are defeated, you can spend 1,000 Fight Money to continue without losing progress. When continuing, you will start with a full health bar, EX Gauge, and V-Gauge to make the match fair.

100 consecutive matches can take a while! That’s why we’re adding the ability to save your progress so you can resume at a later date. After clearing a stage, you’ll have the option to open the Save Menu at the Battle Supplements screen. Upon doing so, you’ll be prompted with the ability to Save and Quit. Once you decide you’re ready to continue, you can head to Survival Mode again where a prompt will ask if you’d like to resume play.

OTHER IMPROVEMENTS

When playing Survival Mode, you can now select Standard or Random, which will affect the CPU opponents. In Standard, only the initial 16 characters will appear in a predetermined order. In Random, all currently-released characters, including those from Season 1-3, will appear in random order – except for the “boss” character that appears every 10 stages.

Finally, any unused V-Gauge will also be carried over into the next stage giving you more options as you take on the increased CPU difficulty..

As you progress in each attempt, you’ll rack up score depending on how quickly you defeat the opponent. In between rounds, you have the option of spending some of your score to purchase a Battle Supplement, which will help you against the next opponent in various ways.

Quite significant changes, enough to potentially make the mode worth a new look. But what is this new “Fighting Chance” all about…? Basically, Menat is setting up shop to do some fortune-telling, Street Fighter style:

INTRODUCING FIGHTING CHANCE

Battle Goods are potent items that can greatly increase your chance of completing Survival Mode, especially with the increased difficulty. This brings us to Fighting Chance, a new system where Menat will open up shop to tell your fortune! By spending 500 Fight Money, you can obtain a Fantasy Fortune Reading, which Menat can help you decipher. These readings contain multiple items, including some exclusive to Fighting Chance.

Battle Goods for Survival Mode

New colors only obtainable in Fantasy Fortune Readings

Rare costumes only available via Fantasy Fortune Readings Cammy’s Cannon Spike costume [below] is one of these rare costumes We’ll introduce more rare costumes as time goes on!

Classic pieces of Street Fighter art from across the series

Entertaining additions, quite possibly — though a bit disappointing that these features are going to part players with their Fight Money, rather than offer some new ways to earn the currency that has become scarcer and scarcer in the game’s system. Look for the new-and-improved Survival Mode, the Fighting Chance feature, and Cody to land in SFV on June 25th.

Source: Capcom-Unity