On any given day, I have the self confidence and anxiousness of someone who struggles with self confidence and anxiety. Maybe those issues are why I couldn’t think of a good punchline to that joke. Who can say? However, this intro serves to offset the rest of this article, because it might sound like a bit of a humblebrag, but here we go anyway:
Rumbleverse’s Extra Special achievement/trophy might be the hardest I’ve earned, and the satisfaction of finally earning it is nothing short of incredible.
For the uninitiated, Rumbleverse is the new battle royale title from Iron Galaxy and Epic Games, only instead of guns, your weapons are your fists and an assortment of moves cribbed from wrestling and fighting games alike. The results are a multiplayer brawler that demands a lot of the player due to its higher skill floor, but rewards the patient with an experience unlike any other on the market right now. It’ll never reach the heights of Fortnite and the like, but the community is dedicated and loyal to a fault. Expect it to stick around for a long time.
Rumbleverse still has loot like any other battle royale game, whether its items that refill your health and stamina, weapons like bats, chairs and mailboxes, or protein pods that can improve your max health, stamina or raw attack power. Also included in the general loot pool is skill books, which can give you special moves that diversify your overall moveset. These special moves range from shoryukens — uh, I mean — “Omega Uppercuts”, to sumo slaps, giant swings and Diamond Cutters.
It’s this specific part of the game where the Extra Special achievement/trophy comes into play. In order to earn the accolade, you need to win a battle royale match with no special moves equipped. Winning a match in Rumbleverse is no small task in and of itself, as you need to outwit and outplay 39 other players in order to get the dub. Maybe I’m just not cracked enough, but it’s not often I’m in the winner’s circle in Rumbleverse, especially now that the game has been out for a month or so. There’s some trained killers on those servers.
Trying to get that elusive dub while limiting your overall moveset and damage potential just makes the prospect of winning ten times harder, but as a seasoned achievement hunter who loves full sending on the stupidest challenges possible, I was determined to unlock it. Apparently, asking myself to write an article about anime games is like pulling teeth, but unlocking a stupidly hard achievement in a silly multiplayer game? Better put all my energy into that one.
As you can probably imagine, the process of unlocking Extra Special is an arduous one, again partly due to the fact that people are more experienced with Rumbleverse’s core mechanics. Certain special moves like the uppercut or the superkick are often a good failsafe option when fighting other players, so not having access to those tools means you have to play a weird mix of smart and aggressive.
Dealing damage to enemies unlocks perks and builds your superstar meter, so hiding on the outskirts of the circle isn’t going to cut it, as you’ll be left without perks to give you an edge in the final circle, and no superstar meter means no super special move or no comeback mechanic. Both are options that make the Extra Special achievement even somewhat possible. On the flipside, jumping into the middle of an active brawl is just going to leave you worse for wear. That goes doubly true if the other players are throwing out the high priority moves, as you’ll just be ragged around like a dog’s favourite toy.
Ultimately, you have to play the early game somewhat like a bully: establish who the weakest target is and eliminate them with extreme prejudice. Usually, that target is either a bot, or a genuine new player who’s still getting used to the controls, and while some might feel bad about this virtual hazing, there’s 200 gamerscore/a gold trophy on the line here. Think about what matters here, people.
Like all bullies though, you’ll quickly find that there’s someone bigger and stronger than you out there, and running into them at the start of a match can be one of the most demoralising parts of Rumbleverse. Being sent back to matchmaking within a minute or less of being launched out of the cannon towards Grapital City is infuriating, but perhaps it’s those hardships which make the victory taste all the more sweeter.
It’s in the final stages where you’ll need to play a bit more conservatively. Most players tend to hide on the high ground or around corners, away from the fight, preferring to let others wipe themselves out before coming in to mop up the scraps. It’s amazing what a challenge like Extra Special can do to change your perspective. Before attempting the challenge, I’d have considered those players cowardly, but when there’s an achievement on the line, apparently I’m the first to start hiding in bushes, letting my Meditative perk heal me by standing still.
Of course, the movement of the ring necessitates players getting stuck in eventually, and doing so with no special moves makes you feel almost naked. Compared to the Izuna Drops and Omega Cyclones the enemy is rocking, your little three hit combo doesn’t seem like much, but it can be enough. When I finally got the achievement, the final ring came down to just me and two other players. I managed to find a spot on the high ground, let them duke it out for a bit, only to come in and pick the bones. It wasn’t easy, as I nearly succumbed to some super moves from two players just as desperate to be victorious, but with some skillful dodging and one carefully timed super move of my own, I walked away with the win.
The screams of joy may have woken up the neighbours though, I’m not sure yet.
This feeling of elation still hasn’t subsided, hours after obtaining the achievement. As multiplayer achievements go, which are often tricky anyway, Rumbleverse’s Extra Special feels like the most difficult of its kind. Thankfully, the satisfaction of finally earning it more than matches the effort it takes to earn the bloody thing. As an added bonus, I imagine being able to use special moves again after this is going to be like the Rumbleverse equivalent of removing the training weights.
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