Tournament

**Tournaments** are special multiplayer Stage events that occur during the weekends. Here, players and their in-game friends race for the highest scores.

## Description

Tournaments start at 12:00 GMT on every Friday and last for three days. *[Need verifications]*

There are 5 normal Tournaments and a special Christmas Tournament. Tournaments cycle in a looping calendar, meaning it is possible to predict which Tournament Stage will appear. During December near Christmas, an exclusive Christmas Tournament is added to the calendar. Tournaments require an Internet connection, a Google Play Games account and at least 3 in-game friends.

Tournaments are comprised of the same looping segments, meaning the player will encounter the same enemies, survivors and background scenes over and over and creating an endless Stage. Bosses and powerful mini-bosses are absent. Tournaments lack the Difficulty options as well as medals, instead the hidden difficulty of the Stages is increased every time the Stage loops, in the same way that normal Stages do with faster screen scrolling speed, tougher enemies..., though the amount of Star rewards will stay the same.

Unlike normal Stages, maintaining a chain of survivors will add a 100 points bonus to the rescue reward for each rescue, eventually stopping at a 5000 points limit per survivor. When the Plane explodes and the Stage is lost, the final score is the raw score that the player accumulated throughout the Stage without any point multiplier, since there is no Difficulty and medals. With all things said, the player can theoretically survive forever in a Tournament, eventually racking up higher and higher scores and finally losing as the only option.

In the main menu, a leaderboard of every player in the friend list will be displayed, sorted from the highest scores to lowest. Both participating in the Tournament and getting 1st place is a requirement for the last Prestige tiers and unlocking all Technicians, especially Hayes Core.

Weapon Upgrades, Power-ups and Health Restore items are rarely dropped in the Tournaments, while Bonus Cards, Aircraft Parts and Wingman Cubes are entirely absent. No Dispensers are present, therefore the Hayes Core Technician has no use here.

## Strategy

Due to the scarce amount of Health Restore items, staying untouched is crucial for survival in the Tournaments, especially if Card 19 is missing. Charging up many Power-ups before the Stage is also advisable.

Consider picking Planes with great firepower to deal with the increasingly tougher enemies, such as The Classic with Laser Whip upgrade, Gladius or the PC/Console Octopus version. Limp Berserker is also a decent option due to the limited Weapon Upgrades, but its "ridiculously low health" perk makes it an unreliability.

The longer the player survives, the tougher the armaments will be and eventually they will be so durable that attempting to destroy them will take too much time and risk being trapped in the hell of bullets. In that case, it may be better to ignore them and focus on dodging their projectiles and rescue all survivors, which would reward 5000 points each unless the player misses one. Planes that help with this strategy are Ambulance and Iron Clad, the latter of which has Main Weapon Supercharge ability that can clear harmful projectiles. You can try and achieve the maximum *Dominating* Chain Bonus rating before doing so, which rewards up to 160000 points.

## Tournaments Details

This is a list of all Tournament Stages in *Sky Force Reloaded*. Note that neither their names nor numerical orders are official, but they do appear in this arrangement (except Christmas Tournaments).

*The following part may appear lengthy on default mobile browsers. For the cleaner looks, switch to "Desktop Mode" option or use desktop/laptop devices.*

* Tournament 1
* Tournament 2
* Tournament 3
* Tournament 4
* Tournament 5
* Christmas Tournament

### Tournament 1

#### Key Notes

* There are 12 survivors in the Stage.
* Three Dune Buggies can be seen right at the start which, similar to those in normal Stages, are counted towards the Chain Bonus.
* There are some destructible towers and a large pile of crates that may drop Health Restore or Power-up items when destroyed.
* This Stage feature two Chain Gun Turrets that shoots fast blue bullets.
* At the end of the Stage cycle, there are some survivors standing near a river, who are tough to rescue due to the ambush of the massive fleet of Gunships, as well as the risk of letting the fast Cyan Prop Planes escape and ruining your Chain Bonus.

#### Trivia

* The background of the Stage bears a resemblance to that of Stage 1, with the same desert, trees and destructible towers.
* This is one of two Tournament Stages which feature a day-night cycle: every time the beginning is reached, the scene will eventually change from noon to night and repeat.

#### Gameplay

Below is the gameplay of the Stage (4th cycle):

### Tournament 2

#### Key Notes

* There are 14 survivors in the Stage.
* Near the start of the Stage, some survivors can be seen along with a large number of scattered red Prop Planes. Trying to both shoot them down and rescuing the survivors might be tough, especially on later cycles.
* Right after, there is a Chain Gun Turret which fires at a rate higher than normal. On later cycles, it will fire an uninterrupted stream of bullets, similar to those found on Stage 8 of *Sky Force 2014*. Destroy it quickly to avoid running out of moving space.
* Battle Tanks on this Stage shoot two bullets at once instead of the usual single.
* Halfway through the Stage, a large temple can be seen with many survivors on it. But beware: they are located next to Radial Cannons that shoot very fast projectiles as soon as they appear on the screen, which could catch the player off-guard.

#### Trivia

* Similar to the previous Tournament Stage, this Stage feature a day-night cycle that slowly changes after the beginning is reached.

#### Gameplay

Below is the gameplay of the Stage (4th cycle):

### Tournament 3

#### Key Notes

* There are 11 survivors in the Stage.
* This is perhaps the shortest Tournament Stage, which means the difficulty escalates slightly faster. The small number of Prop Planes means that Weapon Upgrades are scarce, resulting in weaker firepower.
* The Stage features rows of turrets which on later cycles, can rain down focused fire on the Plane. There are also some survivors located right before them whose rescues are defended by said armaments.
* Near the end of the level, there is a grid which consists of 17 type I and II AA Gun Turrets. These defenses cannot aim at the player but shoot straight downwards instead, creating concentrated gunfire if the ones on the front are not destroyed early.
* Cyan Prop Planes can be encountered at the end of the Stage, which are both fast and well-armored. Couple with the fact that the 1st and 2nd fleets appear on opposite sides of the screen, this part can potentially ruin your Chain Bonus.

#### Trivia

* The background is mostly sand with metal platforms in between, appearing quite similarly to Stage 8 but with less details.
* This is perhaps the only Stage in which the type I Laser Turrets is not angled either 45 or 90 degrees, but instead about 60 degrees (relative to south).

#### Gameplay

Below is the gameplay of the Stage (4th cycle):

### Tournament 4

#### Key Notes

* There are 11 survivors in the Stage.
* No armament here has targeting abilities, instead the Stage is filled with Radial Cannons and Plasma Turrets which discharge large amount of projectiles all over the screen in hope to hit the player. These armaments also have higher health than the normally encountered ones, which can become very durable on higher cycles. For this reason, charge up many Energy Shields and Mega Bombs at the beginning to both clear them and their surplus bullets.
* The Stage features an exclusive type of Prop Planes enemies which are blue triangular holograms. They are very similar to Drones and travel in tight fleets, often in curving trajectories. These holograms have higher health, which becomes evident on later cycles.
* The Stage includes a rotating green object that function exactly like normal crates but with much higher health points. Survivors in this Stage are also green in color instead of red and have ripple effects radiating from underneath their feet, making them easier to be spotted.

#### Trivia

* By far the most unique Stage in all of *Sky Force Reloaded*, enemies in this Stage bears unique appearances: Plasma Turrets which shoot straight streams of bullets are purple in color, the 12-directional Radial Cannons are blue while the 8-directional ones are aqua green. These also have unique explosion when destroyed and left behind an X with their color instead of a ruined base. The blue holograms also have exclusive explosions.
* The background resemblances the arcade theme: a simple grid pattern with black color in between, which is also used for the pre-stage screen instead of the clouds like normal Stages. The ground is completely flat and there is mostly no structure, except for four transparent walls on the side of the screen near the end. One of the music from the classic *Sky Force Reloaded* (2006) is used - it is the same one played during the credits at the end of Stage 13 if Omega is beaten.
* Due to the high amount of projectiles being discharged and the explosions of the many hologram enemies, the Stage may affect performances on low-end devices.

#### Gameplay

Below is the gameplay of the Stage (4th cycle):

### Tournament 5

#### Key Notes

* There are 9 survivors in the Stage.
* Cyan Prop Planes are one of the enemies in this Stage. They usually appear from the sides of the screen and travel almost horizontally, couple with their high speed and health makes them more likely to escape from the Plane's gunfire and ruin existing Chain Bonuses. Often, they appear in the middle of a large area shared with other turrets, which the player is likely to be distracted by.
* Halfway through the Stage, there is a large number of Railgun Turrets around the wreckage of *Sky Force 2014'*s Arachnotron. Unlike other groups of defenses which usually fire in unison, these Railguns fire out of order, which can result in an onslaught of deadly Railgun rounds unless they are destroyed early. Also be cautious when rescuing the survivor right in front of the first Railgun, which could instantly blast the Plane to pieces at point-blank when attempting rescue.
* At the end, the Stage feature a massive number of Helicopter Gunships that launches missiles with decent accuracy. It is comprised of two smaller fleets which appear from opposite sides of the screen and travel horizontally. To prevent being swarmed with missiles, stay on one side of the screen and try to focus on destroying one fleet as soon as they appear, while destroying the other as they pass by your line of fire.

#### Trivia

* The background is a mix of the blue scene of Stage 4 and the green toxic liquid found on Stage 7 and 10.
* The blue Helicopter Gunship enemies found here are the exact same from *Sky Force 2014* and cannot be found anywhere else on *Reloaded*.

#### Gameplay

Below is the gameplay of the Stage (4th cycle):