Abyss Mode

Abyss Mode is one of the two new modes featured in the handheld versions of BlazBlue: Continuum Shift II, and in the console versions of BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend.

In-game description
"Defeat waves of enemies, strengthening your character along the way. Reach the bottom level of Kagutsuchi."

Special mechanics

 * 1) Shop: Here, the players use their accumulated money earned from playing other modes (or Abyss Mode) to buy status boosts or special abilities for their chosen character. Items are either unlocked by finding them in Abyss Mode or by increasing the player level. Each item can only be bought once per Abyss Mode playthrough, and are not permanent. When the player loses, the Shop will be reset and items may be bought again.
 * 2) Depth: While fighting enemies in this mode, a "depth counter" will steadily increase, depending on the number of successful hits, including Astral Heats. On most occasions, Depth will increase every two successful hits, except during Astral Heats that have extreme combo lengths, such as Makoto's or Litchi's. After a given depth, players will encounter "boss characters". Depth may not be accumulated during a Boss Fight.
 * 3) "Boss characters": These characters have special status levels, and only appear at predetermined levels. They appear at Depth Levels 30, 60, every 100 Depths, Depth 999, and the special Ragna the Bloodedge boss at Depth 666. Special statistics vary between the bosses. Early on, the bosses will be buffed-up versions (by way of status levels) of the standard characters, but later on, the player may also encounter strengthened Unlimited characters. After defeating a boss, the player can choose one reward out of five from a list. These are always randomly chosen, but can consist of status boosts, Reward boosts, Special abilities and positive (skip a certain number of floors) or negative (go back a certain number of floors) Depth boosts.
 * 4) Reward: After defeating enemies, the player recieves a Reward. The total Reward can be seen in the upper left corner, above the player's HP gauge (where normally the points in Score Attack/Arcade would be shown) and in the upper right corner every 100 floors on the Abyss Menu screen, where the player can decide whether to go forward or leave the Abyss. The Reward added to the total after defeating an enemy depends on the Depth the player is at. However, keep in mind that if a battle is lost, players leave the Abyss empty-handed. The Reward accumulated until the loss will drop to the next 100th Depth. For example, losing on floor 236 will drop the Reward on floor 300, and to reclaim it, the boss there will have to be defeated. The reward will also stay on floor 300 if the battle against the boss is lost there, as players never got past that point. Another thing to remember is that if while trying to reclaim the last loss players were to lose on the way there, the old loss will be gone forever and the new loss will be assigned to its position (e.g. players have a loss to be reclaimed at floor 300, but lose on floor 150. The loss at floor 300 is erased and the new loss can be found at floor 200). The reward and EXP for playing Abyss Mode can still be received, as the two items are separate.

Status levels
Players can equally strengthen their own character to be able to match up with stronger bosses during the course of Abyss Mode. These boosts are listed in four categories.
 * StrLv: Short for Strength Level. Boosts in this category give more attack power to the character's attacks.
 * DefLv: Short for Defense Level. Boosts in this category give more health to the character.
 * HetLv: Short for Heat Level. Boosts in this category give more Heat to the character at the start of a fight. This also effects how much Heat is gained from attacks.
 * SpdLv: Short for Speed Level. Boosts in this category increase the overall movement speed (walking, dashing, Air Dashing), as well as the number of double jumps available to the character. A normal character with normal movement options in the air can have a maxiumum of four aerial jumps, and three air dashes with Speed Level maxed.

The maximum level of each category is 50. Above that, no more status boosts are accounted for. With level 50 on every status, the character has:


 * Twice as much HP.
 * Doubled damage.
 * A Heat stat of 100 at the start of a round, along with a much higher heat gain ability.
 * Doubled speed, along with four extra aerial jumps/three air dashes.

Initial Status levels can be bought in the Shop at the beginning. Those boosts range from +1 to +9. Should all of them be bought, Abyss Mode could potentially be started with Level 45 on all stats. After defeating a boss, there is a chance to get single Status boosts, or (albeit rare) a boost to all stats (called "All +1" or "All +2"). This makes for faster level gain on all stats.

Special abilities
Special abilities come in various forms. They can give another Break Burst Symbol, reduce the Heat consumption for Rapid Cancels to 25%, etc. Not all of them are unlocked by player level progress, some of them have to be won from specific bosses.

Only three Special abilities can be active at a time. When a new Special Ability is selected, the top one will be erased and the new one is placed at the bottom. That said, it is better to choose abilities wisely, only switching out when truly necessary.

List of Special abilities
Here, all available Special abilities form Abyss Mode will be listed, along with unlock conditions, their in-game description and their prize in the shop. Some of them will unlock with rising player level. This is NOT listed here. Instead, it is very well advised to raise player level to 20 before tackling Abyss Mode in full.


 * Regeneration (Levels: 1 - 3): Hit points will be restored over a given period of time. (Cost: 1000)
 * First Aid (Levels: 1 - 3): The amount of HP regenerated after each battle will increase. (Cost: 1000)
 * Lifesteal (Levels: 1 - 3): Upon landing an attack on an enemy, enemy hit points will be absorbed. (Level 2 is unlock by beating the boss on Floor 666. All other levels of the ability are found as random loot. Cost: 5000)
 * Burning Soul (Levels: 1 - 3): Heat will automatically be restored over a given period of time. (Cost: 1000)
 * Rapid Canceler (Levels: 1 - 3): Rapid Cancels can be performed using less Heat than normal. (Percent depends on the level of the ability. Cost: 1500)
 * Burning Embers (Levels: 1 - 3): Abilities now consume less Heat than before. (Percent depends on the level of the ability. Cost: 4500)
 * Human Fortress: Guard Primers will no longer be consumed. (Cost: 2000)
 * Free Barrier: The Barrier Gauge will no longer diminish. (Cost: 3500)
 * Extra Burst (Levels: 1 - 3): Break Burst can now be performed an extra time. (One for each level. Cost: 2000)
 * Super Burst: Increase the power of the Break Burst. (Cost: 4000)
 * Penetrator: All attacks have a chance to become unblockable. (Cost: 2500)
 * Armor Grinder (Levels: 1 - 3): Chip damage has been increased. (Cost: 2500)
 * Lucky Puncher (Levels: 1 - 3): Attacks have a chance to deal extra damage. (Cost: 3000)
 * Revenger (Levels: 1 - 3): Damage increases significantly when remaining HP is low. (Level determines how much extra damage is delt at low health. Cost: 3000)
 * Balance Breaker: All attacks have a small chance to instantly defeat the enemy. (Cost: 4000)
 * Berserker: Damage increases significantly, but at the cost of HP over time. (Cost: 4500)
 * Counter Puncher: All Counter Hits are now Fatal Counters. (Cost: 1500)
 * Absolute Field: Lower the opponent's combative abilities. However, this will cost a percentage of the reward. (Cost: 5000)
 * Maze Walker (Levels: 1 - 3): The rate at which the player goes deeper increases. (Cost: 3500)
 * Red: The character will be surrounded by a red aura. (Cost: 100)
 * Black: The character will be surrounded by a black aura. (Cost: 100)
 * Silver: The character will be surrounded by a silver aura. (Cost: 100)
 * Gold: The character will be surrounded by a gold aura. (Cost: 100)
 * Rainbow: The character will be surrounded by a colorful aura. (Cost: 3500)
 * Turn Unlimited: The character will unleash their true potential, becoming unlimited. (Cost: 10000)

Depth Specific Bosses
Certain depths in Abyss Mode have boss enemies at preset depths, and these bosses are generally randomly picked. However, certain depths will always have a certain character for that specific depth, in Unlimited form. There's been no reports of the following characters appearing as Unlimited bosses in any other depth in Abyss Mode outside of their specific depths.
 * Depth 666: An Unlimited form of Ragna will appear.
 * Depth 980: An Unlimited form of Hazama will appear.
 * Depth 999: An Unlimited form of Mu-12 will appear.

Continuum Shift II

 * Welcome to the Abyss Hole - Defeat the boss on Depth 100.
 * We Have To Go Deeper - Defeat the boss on Depth 300. (This achievement is a reference to the Christopher Nolan movie Inception)
 * That's Deep, Man - Defeat the boss on Depth 500.
 * Gotterdammerung - Defeat Ragna, the boss on Depth 666. (Gotterdammerung means Twilight of the Gods in German, or Ragnarok in Norse)
 * Seek a Way Out! - Defeat the boss on Depth 999. (This achievement is a reference to the visual novel Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors)
 * All You Need Is Love - Did not buy any items when starting the game.
 * ...And I'm All Out of Bubblegum - Do not buy any starting items and defeat the boss on Depth 999. (This achievement is a reference to Duke Nukem)
 * If It Bleeds, We Can Kill It - Defeat the boss on Depth 999 without learning any special abilities. (This achievement is a reference to Predator)
 * Your Clothes, Give Them to Me - Obtain all of the items from the shop. (This achievement is a reference to Terminator)

Continuum Shift Extend

 * Just the Beginning - Defeat the boss at level 100.
 * About Half Way - Defeat the boss at level 500.
 * Getting Down to Abyss-ness - Defeat the boss at level 999.
 * *Wheeze*... Just Getting Started - Increase all character stats to 50.