Final Fantasy 15 Episode Gladiolus - Score Attack mode and how to unlock shirtless Gladiolus outfit Rugged Attire
Final Fantasy 15 Episode Gladiolus Score Attack mode is an arcade-styled take on the main episode, pitting you against the same encounters using the tweaked combat system to ratchet up a high score.
As well as the chance to put the tweaked combat system through its paces, it's an opportunity to pick up a few bonus Trophies / Achievements, and most importantly, unlock the shirtless Rugged Attire outfit for the main game.
If you're after help for parts of the DLC, consult our Final Fantasy 15 Episode Gladiolus DLC guide and walkthrough.
How to unlock the Rugged Attire shirtless Gladiolus outfit in Episode Gladiolus
To get the outfit, first you must unlock Score Attack by simply clearing the Episode's main storyline, allowing you to select the mode from the main menu.
Then, you must complete Score Attack with a score of at least 500,000. How Score Attack works is it allows you to play through the entire Episode facing every enemy encounter again (bar cutscenes) under a time limit, and your combat performance is graded after each boss and totted up for an overall high score.
Once you reach a score of half a million and unlock the outfit, it'll be available to select in the main story. Load up a save, jump into the menu and change to a new outfit as you would any other, and it'll be there waiting for you. Here's how the game describes Rugged Attire:
"This ensemble puts Gladiolus in tune with his wild side and exposes his upper body, boosting his strength and perception while reducing vitality."
As hinted, it has the highest attack of any outfit for Gladio, but on the flipside, the lowest defence (much less than Kingsglaive and even the starting Crownsguard clothing). So if you to see Gladio go all out in battle, this may well be the outfit to pick.
How to get a high score of 500,000 in Score Attack
Getting a high score is easier said than done. Here's some things that helped us reach the total:
- Aim to string together as many combos as possible. Doing so increases your score multiplier, and is easily managed when coming up against weaker groups of enemies. Holding down attack and going from foe to foe should do the trick. You can break away momentarily to use a Potion or aim for a parry, but be wary you have just a few seconds to do so.
- Parries are a great way of getting a huge point boost at the start or during a combo. Just as an enemy is about to strike, guard and if successful, you'll get an attack prompt on screen, which sees you retaliate with an attack giving you a score bonus in the four digits, and not the usual three.
- Avoid using the columns to bash enemies around with; while they can be used to get a multiplier going, you cannot parry with them, and also they leave you open to attack. Not using columns also means enemies take more hits to kill, giving you more opportunities to extend your combo.
- A nice score boost and damage dealer is the Maelstrom Glaive Art followed by Dual Master, which triggers when the meter is full. This is an old-school Limit Break style attack where every slash adds a ton of points. It's best used against bosses, especially in the later trials. You can use it on regular monsters, but they would crumble very quickly when used against them.
- Collectible items won't appear in the mode, but thankfully have a set of curatives on you - Potions, Hi-Potions and Phoenix Downs. While this means you can sprint from one area to the next without having to explore, you only have a finite amount of each item. Phoenix Downs were something we ran out of by the end, potentially putting a premature end to our efforts, so make sure you try and top up your health to avoid that from happening.
Need more help? Our Final Fantasy 15 guide and walkthrough can provide tips on main story, as well as the open-world's many quests and activities. Learning how to get AP fast, EXP fast and money or Gil fast will aid you in many optional dungeons and tombs - including how to open and explore their locked doors. There's also plenty of interesting side-quests, too, such as the Scraps of Mystery and Professors Protege frog locations. And if you want to get around easier, you can rent a Chocobo, learn the infinite sprint trick and later in the game, get the flying car Regalia Type F. There's also more to see and do with DLC, such as Episode Gladiolus and Episode Prompto.
- Don't worry about watching the points score too much - some trials (particularly the second) are shorter and so give you less points, while the final two is where you'll find most gains. It's possible to not complete the Score Attack and get a score above 500k, but you'll want to get as far as you can to give yourself the best chance. After all, the more enemies you fight, the more chances you have to add to your score.
- The thing you may have to keep a closer eye on is time. You have around 10 minutes to complete each segment, so be aware if you're taking your time with parries you may run down to the wire. The only section we had trouble with was the penultimate boss fight against Humbaba, a foe who has a lot of defence; we recommend actually avoiding parries (the suplex move that follows takes a while for little damage) and focusing on getting those hugely powerful Malestrom attacks in as much as you can.
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