Dunk Lords

Calliper does have some great tips in his guide. However, I'd just like to add some of mine due to unlocking it today.

I used Orwell and Emrion. All I did was constantly use Orwell to dunk because every dunk you obtain one special and Orwell has a good one.

So therefore, dunk with Orwell every chance you can and then hold for his charge ability Spinning Records. If you do this straight after a dunk you'll occasionally stun the other team making the basketball an easy pick up and another consecutive dunk.

I use Emrion as team mate as she's super tall and the AI controlling her does a good job at defending with her. Also, if you even need to control her she's got a good first ability by pressing once without holding. It'll stun an enemy of aimed well enough. Leading to ball drops for Orwell to pick up and dunk again.

I had a rough 3 hours or so trying to find the best combo and these two combined are perfect 👍. I did the 4 matches without too much hassle with these two and using my method you'll also hopefully have an easier time obtaining the achievement.

Edit*
Scoring while standing on those red coloured orbs will add an additional special. So you can continue to spam Orwell's charge ability for easy ball drops. :)
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Mainstream has mentioned in comments that Orwell's standard special by pressing without holding was easier as opposed to his other special, so definitely mix up his charge along with his other special for those ball drops.

For this achievement you must complete the gauntlet game mode, which is 4 consecutive games against expert level CPU’s where you must win every game, and without buying any items throughout. If you lose a match it ends and you must return to the main menu to start again. I would recommend that as soon as the shop option comes up to press Y and ready up, else you accidently buy an item.

The matches and enemy team appears to be randomised, however thus far I have only gotten to the end once and so I am not sure if there are any consistencies with opponents/teams/items.

Unfortunately the opposing team will have a major advantage which will only worsen as each match progresses with their ability to buy gear. I would advise trying to play as aggressively as you can especially during the early parts where the playing field is more even. Sometimes it can be worth restarting in the earlier matches if you feel it is unwinnable, however I would try and perservere especially in the 3rd and 4th ones as a comeback can always be on.

I used Orwell and Bagelov for the achievement. Orwell as his stamina increases when in possession of the ball, which made counter attacks and dunking much easier, and I find his B ability one of the more consistent with accuracy and effect. I found Bagelov good for his defence, and B ability as it does not require aiming, however it was a 50-50 whether it went for the ball carrier or their teammate.

My tactic was just dunking every time. I did not even attempt 3 pointers as they were less consistent and more likely to be blocked. I did find that when the opponents were group under the net and planning on upper cutting me out of the animation, using your ability could stun them for long enough to score.

When I was counter attacking I would try and lead with Orwell, or if Bagelov was in possession and passes where blocked move up the court slightly until I could pass to Orwell. There were a few times in the early stages where I tried to counter attack with Bagelov and would run out of stamina before getting far.

I repeated the tactic I used when I went for the Slam Stars achievement and would get a few dunks in succession; however the expert level bots would strafe my attacks far more often. After playing a few games you start to learn when they are going for Alley-oops and other moves, and can work out when you try for uppercuts. I do not think I had a successful dash-steal for the entire run; however the AI can be very helpful if you let it mainly defend.

For opposing MEGA sections and some sections where I was in the lead, if I felt it was too risky to go for a dunk or was being over powered, I would just launch the ball as hard as possible, which can buy several sections and whittle down their power-up time.

The worst games I had were where I was against Frank the Berry, as he got an item which allowed him to use his Jar ability repetitively and prevent me from having any input and has a very good 3 pointer accuracy, and the final match where the opponent also had a Bagelov and Wilbur, which made seeing the ball harder as they were so large.

I will say if you tackled PRO mode prior to taking on the gauntlet, this achievement will seem like a cake walk since you can use two of the best characters in the game. My personal choice to complete this was Orwell and Marlon. Orwell for two reasons:

1) He recharges energy quickly just by having the ball making it easier to cover ground and get dunks off. This is especially important since it leads to the second reason.
2)Orwell’s special ability when tapping the B button, is a highly accurate laser beam (hits like 95% of the time just by aiming in the general direction) that can not only take down both opponents at the same time, but will knock the ball straight out of their hands into Marlon’s.

Which leads me to why I chose Marlon.
1) He cannot be knocked down. This means every time I activated Orwell’s special, even if it hit Marlon, he kept on pushing like it was nothing.
2) The AI handles him like a champ. Fairly consistent blocks, steals, and was always on top of the ball. Makes me wish there were a character select option on story mode.
So basically, the matches went like this:

As soon as I would start, I would execute an uppercut (RT + X) with Orwell, which almost always guaranteed I got possession of the ball first. Run the ball down to my side of the court, wait a second for the circle beneath him to turn green (this shows you have enough energy to execute a dunk) then jam that bad boy in. Then I would time it so as soon as the opposing team grabbed the ball and their shield dropped, I would press B to activate my laser. This would either hit 1 or both opposing team members and Marlon. However, since Marlon can’t be knocked down, he instantly catches the ball, allowing me to pass it to Orwell, dunk, rinse and repeat. It felt really good to dominate the AI so hard, especially after the abuse of PRO mode. Using this method, I won every match by at least 24-30 Points, and I did it on the first try.

Now somethings to keep in mind. My matches went as follows:

Match 1: Orwell & Bagelov
This team kept trying to laser me but since I used the method above and kept possession of most of the game. The only “problem” I had was on the 4th quarter they both bought chest items that prevented them from getting knocked down, but I was still up by 20 something points at the end.

Match 2: Wilbur & Frank
Thankfully the chest plates didn’t carry over. Wilbur kept stealing the ball and his passive skill is to “instasteal” the ball so that was annoying. He would then pass it to Frank who kept trying to shoot for three’s. This was an even greater annoyance since Wilbur had rainbow gloves, but I was still up like 32 points at the end of the game using my Orwell and Marlon method.

Match 3: D-Rock & Hope
This duo was frustrating. I still was up by like 22 points at the end. Hope kept on using her powers to turn invisible and teleport everywhere and D rock kept using his special to jump on his hoverbike to steal and dunk quickly. I was a little worried since he had the 3point dunk boots on and they held me at bay the entire 3rd quarter where I wasn’t able to score. If I tried to dunk Hope would teleport and Uppercut me. If I had the ball, Drock would jump on his bike knock me down and dunk for 3 points. They also had offensive gloves that kept hitting me tornadoes and plasma balls. I was still ahead enough that having a bad 3rd quarter was fine. By the end of the 4th quarter, I was up by 30 something points just staying true to my strategy.

Match 4:Emrion & Maurice
This one ended with another 30-point lead by the end. The AI carried over the magnetic chest so loose balls always enter their possession. But that was the worst thing they had. I kept laser blasting and Marlon kept tanking and passing it my way. I was worried since by the end of the 1st quarter when they were up by 14 points but that was the only because the AI went into this I’m going to intercept and steal everything off of you instantly. Qtr 2-4 though was a cakewalk.

Keep in mind the achievements did not unlock until the final score was calculated.

Obviously, there is a luck element to who you get matched up with and what items the AI gets. I was worried the AI would keep the rainbow gloves or the chest plate that would prevent them from getting knocked down but thankfully they kept neither.

There were a couple characters that if I saw them pop up, I was prepared to have to restart . Gwen the cat is straight trash. She constantly spams her breakdance and Yarn special and is just miserable to take on. Marlon would have made the above strategy difficult as well because he would have been tanking my lasers like my Marlon.

Vectox could have been troublesome with his time manipulation ability, but I still think the strategy would have worked fine. Chutney could have trouble since his special drains energy which would have made dunking harder and take longer to execute giving the AI enough time to execute their trash. Jules has that mind control ability that was abused on Pro mode. This still wouldn't have been too bad, because if she took over Orwell, Marlon would still tank his laser special,

I was hoping to get Tina or Abby as part of the match up as they are some of the easiest to dominate on the court but it never happened. In my experience the only thing you have to worry about with Abby is her going for threes or 2 point shots. As for Tina, I just never saw her as a threat. Her Special seems to always veer off into nothingness, and is so small I never had trouble taking the ball from her.

Anyway, there you have it. Good luck if you try to complete this as well. Some parts are truly mind numbing.

Cheers!