Survival

This article is a stub.
You can help the F-Zero Wiki by expanding it.

Survival is a game mode introduced in F-Zero Climax. It consists of three different modes that the player can take on with the game's 36 different racers.

Survival is designed to provide a challenge to players, and as a result, the courses featured generally have sharp turns, frequent jumps, and similar obstacles. Furthermore, AI opponents are generally of a higher level. In order to further challenge players, a number of unique goals are present in Survival mode beyond simply racing to finish a course.

Survival is divided into four modes: Tour, Challenge, Battle and Violence, with Violence being unlocked after beating Battle once. In all four modes, scores are kept via time, with the fastest time recorded for each character.

Modes

Tour is the first of the three modes, and also the easiest. All tracks are from the Standard Bronze Cup. Players have five lives to get through Tour's five challenges.

Challenge is the second of the Survival modes, featuring an intermediate difficulty, with all tracks coming from Novice/Standard difficulties. Players have five lives like before, but now have to get through 8 courses.

Battle is the third of the Survival modes, having a hard difficulty. All courses featured are from Expert difficulty. Players have 3 lives to navigate through 10 courses. Unlike the other modes, Battle features randomised races, ensuring that no two runthroughs are the same.

Violence is the last and the hardest of the Survival modes. It's unlocked after completing Battle once. Players have only 2 lives to clear 12 courses. All tracks are from Master difficulty, including the Platinum Cup courses. The 12 races are chosen from a pool of 24 different courses, with random characters assigned for each race, meaning that you never see the same 12 events in each run.

Completing any of the modes will unlock a random Story Line, while clearing Challenge or harder with a character for the 1st time will unlock a Character Profile for the pilot used.

Completing with a specific character for the 1st time unlocks a secret technique that can be used by changing the control scheme in Options:

Character	Technique	Description
Captain Falcon (Blue Falcon)	Rocket Start	Hold the button at the start of the race for a guaranteed Rocket Start.
Rick Wheeler (Dragon Bird)	Boost Fire	Boosts are stronger.
Samurai Goroh (Fire Stingray)	Hard Brakes	Makes the machine brake faster.
Pico (Wild Goose)	Light Brakes	Makes the machine brake slower.
Dr. Stewart (Golden Fox)	Boost Accelerate	Makes the Rocket Start stronger. Also serves as an acceleration button.
Jody Summer (White Cat)	Long Booster	Boosts are longer.
Zoda (Death Anchor)	Auto Drift	Drifts are performed automatically.
John Tanaka (Wonder Wasp)	Drift Turn	Same as L/R + Left/Right.
Lisa Brilliant (Panzer Emerald)	Narrow Turn	Same as Up + Left/Right.
Jack Levin (Astro Robin)	Wide Turn	Same as Down + Left/Right.
Dr. Clash (Crazy Bear)	Slide Turn	Can be used as both steering and Slide
Lucy Liberty (Elegance Liberty)	Narrow Slide	Same as Up + Slide.
Mr. EAD (Great Star)	Wide Slide	Same as Down + Slide.

List of race modes

• Short Race: The player must finish first in a race with only one lap. The race starts under a rolling start and the track doesn't loop. Boosts are avaliable from the start of the race.
• 1 Lap Race: The player must come in first on a race with only one lap. Boosts are available from the start of the race.
• 3 Lap Race: Similar to the above, though the player must instead come in first after three laps. Boosts are available after the first lap is completed.
• Straight: The course is a straight track that the player must race to the end of before their opponents, akin to a drag race. All races take place in a variation of Mute City: Straight Link.
• Braking: The player has to stop in a specific area at the end of a straight before the opponent. All races take place in a variation of Illusion: Brake Link.
• Slalom: The player has to finish first after navigating a course with frequent sharp turns, akin to slalom skiing. All races take place in a variation of Red Canyon: Slalom Link.
• Death Race: The player has to retire the indicated racer in 3 laps. Once the rival is destroyed, the race instantly ends.
• Top Keep: The player has to stay in first place for the entirety of the race.
• Speed 800: The player needs to finish first without dropping its speed below 800Km/h, similar to Chapter 6 in F-Zero GX's Story Mode.
• Don't Crash: The player needs to finish first while having no energy, although hitting into a wall respawns the player to the track instead of retiring them.

Races

Tour

Race		Course	Opponent
1	Short Race	Mist Flow: Into	Octoman
2	1-Lap Race	Sand Ocean: High Speed Edge	Dark Soldier
3	Straight	Mute City: Straight Link	Draq
4	Slalom	Red Canyon: Slalom Link	Roger Buster
5	3-Lap Race	Fire Field: Heat Circuit	Blood Falcon
Replacement Race
R	Top Keep	White Land: Wolf	Antonio Guster

Challenge

Race		Course	Opponent
1	1-Lap Race	Port Town: Sky Highway	Billy
2	Slalom	Red Canyon: Slalom Link II	John Tanaka
3	Top Keep	Mist Flow: Double Link	Silver Neelsen
4	Short Race	Lightning: Braid	Mrs. Arrow
5	Speed 800	Fire Field: Front Line	Bio Rex
6	Straight	Mute City: Straight Link II	James McCloud
7	Braking	Illusion: Brake Link	Gomar & Shioh
8	3-Lap Race	Silence: Nightmare	Michael Chain
Replacement Race
R	1-Lap Race	Big Blue: Slip Down	Antonio Guster

Trivia

• Straight Link and Slalom Link are the only tracks in the game to feature four variants, indicated by the roman numerals "IV".
• In Challenge Mode, the words "Survival/Challenge" in the top right of the character selection screen is mispelled as "Survival/Challange".
• If you play as a pilot that also appears as a opponent in any of the 1st three Survival modes, the race is replaced by an entirely different one with a different opponent. As a result, some characters have different (and in some cases, easier) runs. For example, Blood Falcon's Tour run replaces his own 3-lap race with a 1-lap Top Keep race, meaning his Tour run is the shortest of all characters.