GAROU: MARK OF THE WOLVES – Survival Mode (Tips and General Strategies)

Survival Tips

It is not so much a question of which character, but what strategy to employ. Normally, I think of general tactics first and foremost, and individual tactics secondarily.

You see, the deal with survival mode is that you need to pick a character that:

1. You are good at beating pretty much the entire cast. Because this will be required. If you still struggle with Arcade mode, Survival is a big no-no. It is pointless to try to defeat all of them when beating them individually remains problematic. First you must master walking before attempting to run.
2. Your character of choice should be able to land several hits. So Griffon is really one to avoid. Kevin is also not recommended. Grant can be a bit of an exception, if you set up your special attack to a place at the lifebar that allows you to spam it.
3. You need to collect as many power ups as possible. To heal your life-guard. While it may seem counter-intuitive, a strong character with isolated powerful hits is actually a worse choice than a weaker character capable or generating multiple hits.
4. Also, you should not be afraid to use super moves, because items will allow you to fill your bar quickly. While it is totally ok to keep on stock in storage for emergencies, as soon as the second bar is filled, you should try to find an opening for using the super move.
5. Be mindful that the time will run out and it is constantly racing against you. The hardest opponent is the secret character named clock. He will be there from start to finish trying to sabotage your progress.

The only way to prevent it from happening is to collect items that will extend the timer by granting you extra seconds. So remember that you will have this extra concern. You wont be simply facing a single opponent, but two. The clock will ALWAYS be there against you. A constant source of concern for the entire survival experience.

This is why it is so important to focus on using special attacks that cause several hits. With each extra hit there is an additional chance of getting the item that you need the most at that particular moment.

While on Arcade/Story mode you just need to preoccupy yourself with defeating opponents separately – with all stats resetting at the start of the next fight against another enemy – survival is way, way more complex. Your actions and/or inactions do carry long lasting consequences. You will have long term concerns.

You have several simultaneous objectives. Failing at any of them will result in complete loss for you.

1. Your health bar. Your first rule is to protect it. And remember that it will be carried over to the next match. It is not enough to destroy the opposing lifebar. You need to be conservative in regards to yours. You NEVER know when the next bonus point that restores health will appear, so do your best as you try to avoid getting hit. Instead of thinking “need to beat all opponents” think first of “need to stay alive.” Do protect your character. Dont let the lifebar be wasted. Pay close attention to the damage your character is suffering. He/she can only take so much. It is one lifebar against several. So do take protective measures.
2. Beat the opponent. With expedience. But dont dance with your single lifebar too close to the bonfire. The CPU has 14 lifebars. You have only one!
3. Pay attention to the timer. While on all of the other modes a timeout while having more life than the enemy means victory for you, in here it means automatic victory for the CPU and game over for you. I always pictured Garous survival mode as a 1 character vs 2 characters match. The timer is a invisible, but still ever present assist partner playing along the CPU opponent. And this secondary opponent can be beaten by defeating his partner with competence, as well as collecting time extenders.
4. Collect the good items. Prevent the enemies from collecting power-ups and extra life points.

What character to use? One that fits this mentality of gameplay for you. Someone who is able to sing, play and dance to this tune.

It is most certainly possible to beat survival with ANY of the characters. this does not mean that all have the same degree of difficulty.

While there is a certain degree of subjectivity and personal preference, from a technical standpoint some characters can be regarded as more qualified than others. Specially in regards to generating items – with multi-hit attacks – and causing a fair amount of damage.

My personal list involves: Marco, Terry, Gato, Grant, Kain… That is my top 5 podium for the survival mentality. And even though I will be stating again that it is entirely possible to beat this mode with any character, people like Griffon and Kevin do struggle because their movesets are harder to generate new items on the screen.

Marco is great because his zanretsuken is multi-hit and will very likely make at least one item appear. His hien-shippukick, specially the weaker version is great to end combos and generate items.

Also, 2 of his DMs are multi-hit as well. And there is the advantage that he can attack from a distance with his fireball. He has a good balance between causing a lot of damage and also generating a decent number of items to appear. He can also attack quite effectively from long, medium and close distances. He is easy to use, versatile and effective.

Terry can also attack from a distance with his Power Wave. His 3-part shoulder attack is great in order to obtain items. His danger move buster wolf also hits several times. Good for items.

Both characters are also decent at causing damage. My suggestion would be to try one of them.

Gato is a good choice because one of his special attacks with kicks is great at making items appear.

Kain is indicated for people who are not good at combos and like to fight from a safe distance, since he can put a lot of pressure, attack from far away, and has ok damage.

Grant causes a LOT of damage. But he relies mostly on few but strong attacks. Items rarely appear, so whenever you need items it is a good tactic to press strong punch together with strong kick so he can land a combo. It is good to set this move to be readily available, but you will need to avoid taking damage in order to keep using it.