Guide To The Hero Colosseum & How To Defeat Vados

Intro

I’ll admit when I first saw a figure battling mini game in Dragon ball Xenoverse 2 I was sceptical to say the least. I could only wonder how they could implement a strategy game into what is essentially a button mashing fighting game. I wasn’t expecting much from this but with and open mind I played the new mode as soon as it was released I played it and I was proved absolutely wrong. Comparable to the popular Dragon ball Heroes this new game mode brought a whole new and incredibly fun way to play in the Dragon ball universe.

With strategy and planning being paramount to success rather than having the most broken moves and spamming them. I quickly found myself grinding Expert Mission 16 for TP Medals to buy new figures and even though it took a while I eventually got some great figures that have allowed me to complete the story and the extra missions. With my knowledge of the Hero Colosseum I decided to write this guide on how to be successful in there.

A Balanced Team Will Always Have A Better Chance Of Winning

If you get some insane luck and get characters like Beerus, SSGSS Vegeta and other major attacking characters it can be so tempting to put them all in think you’ll one shot everything. This mentality will lose you a lot of matches, your heavy hitters will either have very low speed or low defences and health. Either way there is a good chance that your attackers will be crushed by the enemy, you may pick up an early kill or two but the enemy will hit back and wipe you out.

A good team composition has damage dealers, speed characters and at least one tank to take damage and can be used to hide a heavy hitter. I personally go with three attackers who all have good speed but poor defence, a speed figure who does little damage and can’t take much either and finally a tank to protect the softer figures and ensure that my points don’t go to zero.

Posing Skills are Crucial

Every figure has a Posing Skill which either boost your stats, grant you a special ability or lower the enemies stat, these only activate when placed on a specific place on your side of the table. Using these skills at the opportune moment is key to gaining an advantage over your opponents.

For example Super Vegeta if placed in the front middle or back right position he will gain a whopping 1500 attack which stacked on his already incredible attack stat means he will crush almost anything outside of Goku Black, Whis or another heavy defence character. This comes with a downside though, he will also lose 700 defence which with his already abysmal defence will mean that he wil get ripped apart. Knowing when to play a powerful figure like that will be what pushes you up through the rankings and help you beat tough missions like the battle against Vados.

Choose Character Skills that fit your play style

Every figure can equip up to three characters skills depending on the rarity of the figure, lower rarity figures can only have one or two while the higher ones can have three. Character skills either boost your stats or lower the opponents much like Posing Skills however Character Skills will activate either on a certain turn or when a condition has been met for example the figure being below half health.

Analyse Your Opponents Figures

Looking at your opponents figures and calculating what their strategy is can ensure victory before the game has begun, for example if they have a Beerus it’s almost guaranteed he’ll be hitting your left side and hitting hard. This gives you two options you either put a figure with massive health in front of him or double up two of your heavy hitters and wipe Beerus out before he can make a move. Anticipating what your opponent will do in the upcoming turns makes it much easier for you to counter them and pick up and easy victory.

Charge The Spirit Bomb

Always have a Plan A, Plan B and even a Plan C

No matter how good your figures are or how much higher level you are to your opponent there are times where even the best laid plans can be in ruins. An unlucky first turn where you get a poor speed multiplier since the high number didn’t turn up can lead to you losing a couple of your best figures. So you have to be ready to react to that eventuality since it will happen at some point, usually against Vados from my experience. Another thing to remember is that sometimes you have to leave a column open and take a hit so that you can deal the damage you need to elsewhere.

Counter Attacking

Sometimes after your figure has attacked the enemy you can do a Counter Attack afterwards. A button prompt will come on the screen and you'll have to press a combination of five buttons,the more you get correct, the more damage you do. The Counter Attack will do quite a bit of damage, up to fifty percent of the damage you do regularly from what I've seen which is massive on a character like Kid Buu who will almost certainly knock out any figure in one turn with a successful counter attack.
 

My Current Team

Since the release of Hero Colosseum there have been various figures in my team but these are the five that will in all liklihood be my permanent team. A couple of these figures were some of the frst i got so have put in a lot of work for me.

Kid Buu (UR)

By far my favourite figure to date, Kid Buu has an immense amount of power and with a successful counter attack can one shot a Beerus which is invaluable as the God of Destruction is appearing in more and more teams. His Posing Skill means he hits everyone in the column he's attacking and he gets an extra 1000 attack if he knocks someone out (this stacks as he knocks out more figures). This little monster has won me quite a few victories in the Hero Colosseum.

SSGSS Goku (UR)

A good spread of stats and his Posing Skill that increases his attack every turn makes SSGSS Goku a force to be reckoned with. This form of Goku is immense as he keeps getting stronger as the game goes on to the point where he can one shot anything short of a figure like Goku Black. Of my current team he's probably the most likely to be rotated out as with Kid Buu and Super Vegeta already in the team he can be a little redundant.

Future Trunks (SR)

The wimpiest member of the team is quite possibly the most invaluable one. Trunks provides the most vital stat of them all – Speed. With only 30 levels into Trunks he already has just under 4000 speed which is almost double most heavy attack figures speed meaning that Trunks will almost always out speed two attack oriented characters. His Posing Skill adds and extra 1000 onto his speed for the turn making you even faster and ensuring that you'll be attacking first. I usually sit him behind Piccolo or Kid Buu for protection. 

Piccolo (UR)

The tank of the team and crucial to the more aggressive team composition I go for. It'll take a heavy attacker two turns to knock him out and by then your attackers will have torn through the rest of their figures. He also allows you to comfortably leave a column open since he boots the defence of your hero by an enormous 5000. He was one of the main reasons I was able to defeat the hardest challenge thus far – Vados

Vegeta (UR)

The newest member of the team, it was a tough choice swapping out Goku Black for him but had to put him in after trying him out in a couple of matches and seeing just how devastating he can be. With very high attack and decent speed Vegeta is an excellent character and with the ability to boost his attack for the turn by 1000 with his Posing Skill he really does become a sweeper. While Kid Buu is still my go to Figure when I’m looking to someone to carry me to victory Vegeta is certainly a very close second.

Other Top Figures

Beerus

With his ability to ignore opponents defences he can one shot most figures and deal a ton of damage to the enemy hero, he also has a very high health stat meaning the enemy will probably have to double up on him to stop him. This will leave one column empty though so you can have something like Super Vegeta hitting your opponent directly for up to 6000+ damage. Either way you’re gonna come out on top, unless he has an UR Piccolo in which case it won’t be quite as simple.

Goku Black

Very high health and a decent attack mean that Goku Black is a solid figure to have in your team. His Posing skill means that if you’re out sped he’s at an advantage as he gains attack and lowers the defence of any figures that hit him. Basically if he gets doubled up on and lives he can hit back hard and knock someone out. Plus he’s a good choice to stick up against a Beerus since he’s one of the only figures that could tank him..

Whis

Despite not being one of my main figures Whis is one of the best figures in the game and if you have him he is usually in you team. His main appeal is his Posing Skill which when activated means that ally figures take 20% less damage which is obviously immense and has really crippled my opponents in some matches. He won’t do much apart from that but making sure your damage dealers live is more than worth it.

SSGSS Vegeta

Defeating Vados

Universe 6’s Angel is as of right now the final challenge in the Hero Colosseum and it is an extremely tough one especially without the right strategy. Below is a video I recorded and uploaded on my YouTube channel of me beating Vados with two slightly different strategies. Certain figures can be replaced but the UR Piccolo is a must have figure if you want to use the strategy I used in the first example.

Conclusion

While not being the most in-depth strategy game you’ll play the Hero Colosseum still will take some practice, a lot of skill and a generous helping of luck to be successful. it's a nice change of pace from the main fighting game and you can certainly put a lot of hours into it. With the main game done I find myself playing the Hero Colosseum most of the time rather than the Parallel Quests or starting a new game with a new character.