Cervantes (Mission Mode / Arcade Route)
Cervantes walls players in Mission Mode’s early stages and mid-tier arcade runs—his Soul Wave (↓, ↘, →, A+B) pistol shot stuffs approaches, and his teleport mixups read like coin flips. Block the pistol at mid-range, then sidestep 8-way (tap up or down) during his recovery; Cervantes has poor tracking on follow-ups. Punish with your character’s fastest horizontal (A attacks for most of the cast). In Mission Mode, equip any weapon with “Auto Grapple Break A” or “HP Drain A” from the shop—these passive effects swing damage trades hard in your favor even when you’re eating chip.
Inferno (Arcade Final Boss)
Inferno mimics a random character’s moveset each round but layers in unblockable fire pillars and a guard-crush aura. The pillars telegraph with brief ground-glow; react by holding G and tapping 8 (up) to sidestep. The real trap: players rushdown and get clipped by the aura mid-string. Use single pokes at max range (Mitsurugi’s 3B, Xianghua’s 4B, Kilik’s 2A+B), then walk backward to reset neutral. Inferno’s AI doesn’t pursue aggressively if you hold spacing. Chip him down—slow, consistent, boring wins.
Edge Master Mode (Weapon Unlocks)
Edge Master’s 10-stage gauntlet demands specific win conditions per fight (ring-outs, time survival, no-damage rounds). Stage 7 (“defeat with a ring-out within 30 seconds”) stalls players because the AI turtles center-stage. Pick Nightmare or Astaroth (high throw damage + ring carry), bait a whiffed attack, then execute their forward throw (→ + A+G) near any edge. The throw animation repositions the opponent toward the nearest boundary. For no-damage stages, equip “Auto Counter A” or “Hyper Mode” weapons from Mission rewards—these proc on block and create safe punish windows even against Edge Master’s input-reading defense.
