Dead or Alive 5

The infamous Survival achievement got even harder in DoA 5 but I'll try to explain it as good as I can.

First: I got the achievement with Lisa pre-patch today (17.10.2012) at around 11:00 MEZ (Germany, Europe). A friend of mine from Switzerland got the patch today so I guess it will be released regional in different blocks.

You have to clear all 8 Survival courses in order to get the achievement:

Rookie: 10
Easy: 20
Normal: 30
Hard: 50
Champ: 100
True Fighter: 100
Master: 100
Legend: 100


Before attempting Survival you must know that the first hours will be the hardest since you will die A LOT and get frustrated many times. Survival is all about patience, persistence and luck. Sometimes the CPU will fall for every combo and sometimes they will wipe the floor with you.

Champ took me like 30 tries, True Fighter 20, Master only one and Legend took me 4 tries. I needed like 12+ hours to actually clear the first 100. Just to give you an example of how deep the learning curve is.


The basic combo I used with Lisa is: 1PKK 236K Burst 8K 4PK 4PKK
Against Bayman and Bass you have to use: Burst 8K 4PK 4H+K (block and kick, RT on default button layout))

The most important thing is to actually realize when your opponent will go into critical burst with just one 236K or if you need to do another 236K. This will come with time and shouldn't a problem later on.

A really important thing to note is the use of your Power Blow whenever you have the chance to. It can be used right after getting the opponent into Critical Burst state by pressing 4P+K. The combo will then change into 1PKK 236K Burst 4P+K.

Just remember that you have to charge the Power Blow for a short amount of time and that your life gauge has to be at 50 percent or lower (it will flash red then). You can easily practice the timing in Training Mode by activating the Power Blow in the Training Options.


If you should find yourself with the opponent's back against the ropes and you get them into Critical Burst state, use 33P instead of 8K because the 33P will not cause a wallsplat and you can combo with 4PK... afterwards. The damage will add up in the long run. If you're not comfortable with the input you can always do 236P for huge damage, especially when you're nervous.


Another technique I found helpfull is 4P+K~K when you're at the wall with your back. Lisa will then swing behind the ropes and attack with a quick kick which is also a Guard Break. It's allways helpfull to get out of dangerous situations and the CPU rarely blocks it.


1H+K should be used a lot against the heavier characters since you can charge it and Lisa backsteps a bit which will evade some attacks if timed correctly. This move is actually really helpfull against Sarah. After you knocked her down, dash forward and then hold 1H+K. She will try to attack you but since she can't cover distances you will most likely hit her during her whiffed attack.


Akira: Many people (including myself) find him to be one of the most fearsome opponents in Survival. I got beaten by him many times but he's falling for a very simple trick which should make him one of the easiest characters if you get the timing down.

The key is Lisa's 8T (up+Throw) since Akira only knows 2 states: attacking like mad or blocking like mad. When the round starts, try to hit him with your 1PK... combo. I f he blocks you should start blocking as well and let him rush you. When he's finished just do the 8T, backstep and do it again. If timed correctly, he will always block and you can even jump over his wakeup kicks. If he got you, let him finish/counter him until you got him with a wake up kick or a combo and then repeat the process. Patience is the key.


My most fearsome opponent was Bass since he can drain your life gauge so fast if you're guessing wrong. Try to get him with 1PK pokes and hitconfirm into Burst when his guard is open. If he should ever pick you up from the ground with his throw, DO NOT COUNTER! Press down/back and block and see if he whiffs or throws you. You must be very carefull against him. I only got him with wakeup kicks into combos and 1H+K from a certain distance. 8T doesn't seem to work against him since he will duck it and punish you with a throw.


You can always try to mix up 1PK and 1PKK if the opponent is blocking all the time. If you don't seem to get a hit, try 7K ~P. It will guard break the opponent and you can continue with your poking game. 7P is also great to get some distance from your opponent after a knockdown ect.


That's pretty much all I can say when you want to attempt Survival with Lisa. If you're having trouble with certain characters, go into Training Mode and play against the on Legend difficulthy and look at their movesets. If you want any character specific tips (against Kokoro ect.) feel free to ask.

I included 2 videos recorded from members of the ps3trophies.org and the xbox360achievements.org community. They did a really great job.


Credit goes to:

cyric79 from gamefaqs and a558Ra1N from ps3trophies.org for providing the combos and general tips/videos. They both have my gratitude and deserve a medal.

Kayin Amoh for providing a great video with usefull tips using the Lisa method.

All people from doaworld.com and ps3trophies.org for their awesome tips and posts in the Survival threads. Great community.


Many thanks for reading and good luck! I hope i could deliver some helpfull advice.

Hi Guys
I just wanted to add to the previous post with a video I made with a full 1-100 run on legend using the above methods.
:-)

This guide requieres a basic knownledge of the game ; don't vote negative if you don't understand something I say, just ask me and i'll answer you. I'll try to be as complete as possible. Hope you'll get it, it's not THAT hard !

This guide is very inspired by Nevan's one. Thanks to him for the advices.

Intro

Now this is a tough one. The amount of time you'll spend on it really depends on your experience of the game and some habits you may have. But don't be afraid, eventually it'll pop, you just have to stay calm and keep trying.

Because I play a lot to DOA5U I was able to nail all the survival courses in a row without failing too much time. So your experience of the game (if you play a lot online, for instance) can really helps you on this one.

What character ?

For my guide we'll be using Lisa. Why this character ?
Because of her 1P and their follow-ups. 1P is one of the best TC moves of the game, it means that it can crush high and a lot of mid strikes. The range of this move is awesome and it has several follow-ups that are all delayables.

Only because of this move, I think she's the best character to use if you have basic knownledge of the game. Now if you really have no experience at all I will recommand to switch to Alpha-152 once you unlock her, since she can make huge damages with easy strings. Scroll down to the video if you don't want to use Lisa.

Now enough talk, what should you do to beat the survival ?

First, I recommand you to do some training with Lisa while you play the first survival (because they are easy). Here's a list of the combos you should learn :

On all the weights except Super Heavy (Bass and Bayman)
1PKK, 236K (critical burst), 8K, 4PK, 7K, 66P+K
WALL 1PK, P, 236K (critical burst), 33P, 4PK, 1PKK
1PP, 2K, BT7P (critical burst), 8K, 4PK, 7K, 66P+K

On Bass and Bayman
1PKK, 236K (critical burst), 8K, 4PK, 4K+H
WALL 1PK, P, 236K (critical burst), 33P, 4PK, 4K+H

Those are not the max damage combos but it's interesting to use theme because of the position you'll have at the end. I highly recommand to end your juggles with 7K, 66P+K since Lisa is one of the best zoning character of the game, there's no one but Ayane better than her in this field so use this as a key to win. This combo ender will send your opponent very far and it's useful because you can actually use your zoning once they're far from you. This is where you are going to use what I call the 1K+H ABUSE .

Once your opponent is far from you. You'll have to abuse of the 1K+H. This move is also awesome because it crushs high, is delayable as hell and its hitbox is ridiculous. You can hold it and release it when the opponent is coming too close from you, and keep doing that until you defeat him.

Wake-up tip

Another very useful tip is the special wake-up of Lisa. When you're down (only on your back), you can actually use another wake-up than the generic mid/low kicks. You have to press K+H to do it. Remember that this is only when Lisa is laying on her back, it'll not work if she's on the other side.
This awesome trick saved my life a lot of time, because it'll bring you to CB EVERYTIME WITHOUT EXCEPTIONS. It'll stun your opponent everytime they're near you, all you have to do is add a jab (P) and you'll be able to CB (236K) and then put your combo. Abuse this everytime you're on the floor !

Dealing with opponent's wake-up kicks

I'm going to tell you a very interesting tip but it can be tricky due to its specific timing, so be careful using it. When an opponent is down, they'll mostly do a rising kick (mid or low) to take the advantage again. Instead of guessing a hold, i recommand you to use the 9K.
Why ? Well, this is a sit-down-stun that have a good guaranted launcher (BT 4P). If the opponent do a low rising kick it'll be good for you. 9K will sit-down-stun and you just have to do this combo afterwards : 4P, 4PK, P+H or 4P, 4PKK depending of the weight.
If they do a mid kick, no problem, you won't be stunned because 9K is a jumping attack, so you'll fall on the floor and will even be able to do her special wake-up kick like I told you before. Just be careful because if you don't have the right timing you could be stunned in hi-counter, and that is very, very bad.

How to open the guard ?

I found sometimes difficult to open the guard of toughest opponents. The key is in this move : BT1P. Indeed, it's a low strike that have enough stun to let you do 1PK after and go for the CB again. So... The combo : BT1P, 1PK, 236K and then the juggle.
To go BT (back-turned) you can simply do 8P, it'll put Lisa in her back turned stance.

Even though usually it'll be enough to just spam 1PKK and 1PP to open the guard, it still is a nice advice.

Slow-escaping

Slow-escape (or stagger escape) is an advanced technique that allows you to literally escape a stun. To do so, you have to press H (hold) and do 360° with you left joystick.
DO NOT COUNTER/HOLD WHEN YOU ARE STUN, BUT SLOW ESCAPE !! It'll save your life a lot of times too! Trying to guess holds is very risky since the opponent can do a hi-counter throw and kill you in an instant.

Ropes combos
This is the funniest thing. You can perform ropes combos by sending the opponent straight into the ropes. I usually use 236P or 1K+H to do so. Then, once they "bounced" on the ropes, use 4PK, P, 236K and then the juggle. It worked very well for me and it's 3/4 of their bar of damage!

Powerblow
When you have the powerblow, use it ! In the other hand, be careful of the opponent's powerblow because they will use it from time to time into their stun game and it can kill you really fast.

"match-ups"

Okay so here i'll give you some advices to face what are IMO the worst characters to face in survival. They can really be a pain.. even more if they are a "mini-boss" (9th, 19th, 29th, etc).

Akira
Using 8P+H didn't seems to work very well for me. Instead I used BT1P, 1PK, 236K everytime to open his guard. Of course the 8P+H OH can be useful too. try to combine them.

Bass & Bayman
Keep your distance and spam 1K+H on their faces. They won't hold it and you can kill them pretty fast.

Brad Wong
He was THE WORST for me. When I died it was mostly because of him. Fortunately, Lisa have a very good low OH that you can abuse against him to absorb his moves. You can perform it by doing 33P+H.

Kokoro
She have a really good gap closer (66P) that she'll abuse against you. Don't panic, keep your distance and remember to step her a lot.

Lei Fang
Really annoying due to her sabakis and very damaging holds, try to do some throws from time to time and don't mix too much into her guard. If she blocks, then throw or do 66P+H (this is her fastest OH).

If you are struggling with any other characters just ask me and i'll tell you what to do.

Mental tips
As it has already been said, don't hesitate to make pauses when you reach a certain streak. For exemple, every 20wins, just pause the game and relax a few minutes. Then go back.

I listened to music while I was doing the achievement and it worked very well on me too. Try to listen to music you like while you play, it'll be less frustrating when you get beaten.

And also, please excuse my bad english. I'm not a native speaker.

For the Alpha-152 method, please see the video above. I take no credits for this video/method ; i'm just sharing it.

`This really is about paitence and knowing the ai. Similar to doa4's survival but with a few tweaks.
1- the first 5 a.i opponents in a set are usually dumb but when you get to around 6-10 they get to be harder.
2- the tenth of every opponent is designed to have beter a.i. meaning they usually counter more or combo better. these are considered "bosses" so be VERY careful when fighting them.
3- If you ever fight Akira abuse throws. As stated Akira only knows two sates to be extreemly combo happy and attack you like mad or block everything you do. When you throw him notice he does NOTHING to stop it. He won't even get outta chain throws. Note this ONLY applies to his a.i.
4- Some characters seem to have better a.i regardless of whether they are the "boss" or not. gen-fu.Kokoro ( the worst imo),Lisa, Brad Wong, Sarah, Pai, and to an extent Jann Lee. fight these get a bit more cautiously even if they are not the tenth opponent .
You can use anybody really. hell I used Christie and got it. So you don't have to use Lisa, lei Fang, hayabusa etc., BUT they do have techniques that can handle survival better than most epecially Lei Fang. Regardless, it attainable but pratice and paitence are what are really needed. Try and find a good combo into a critical stun and use that. 90 percent of the time you will get the a.i. but remember to change it up at times to reduce the possibilty of being countered. good luck