Shadow Lab and Shadow Points Questions

General Discussion
1

Hey all,

I started toying with Shadow Labs last night, and I think it’s a really cool and great concept. A question I have is: How many Shadows can you create. I’ve only created one so far, and there’s two slots by default. Can you create more than two?

Also, are you able to send challenges to Friends for your Shadow? I saw I could find and challenge Shadows my friends have made on their own, which is handy.

For Shadow Points, I see you need to spend them to challenge your friends, or others on the Leaderboard (though you can do a sparing set for free). What else are Shadow Points used for, and what would you all recommend I save them for?

2

  1. No, there were limitations to the system in which they were only able to give us two shadows. I believe they were planning on upgrades that would eventually make it possible to have more than two shadows, but they just never had the time or resources to make it possible.

  2. You can’t really send your friends challenges to face your shadow, but when you face their shadow, they will receive notifications of when you fought theirs and major statistics on how the fight progressed, and I believe you may even be able to watch replays of the matches. This would generate a back and forth exchange for most of the shadow mode usage.

  3. Shadow points don’t really do a lot, but they can be used to buy Shadow skins. They are basically purple colored base costume skins with a purple smoke effect, and within the Shadow Lords story, they have a lore to their existence. If you build up enough shadow points, you can purchase these skins. Alternatively, you can acquire KI gold and buy the skins, but Gold is like premium currency, and I kinda feel like MS had more to do with that than did Iron Galaxy. Gold can also be acquired in small amounts through daily login rewards and challenges, but the amount gained is fairly small.

If you want to gain big shadow points to buy skins, I’d try challenging the more expensive shadows, like the 1000 point cost shadows, and winning. There are several higher expense shadows that have very basic AIs that you can beat with the right strategies if you want to farm shadow points.

Not all shadow skins cost the same, most are 30000, but some can be as high as 75000 or low as 15000.

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Thanks again for the reply!

Okay. I currently play four characters, so I’ll want to choose my two favourite to Shadow then.

For Shadow Points, okay. I saw that you could purchase Shadow skins with them. I didn’t find said skins overly appealing myself, so I’ll likely hold off on them for now.

For Gold, am I correct in that the only way to earn it really is through the Daily Challenges or log-in rewards? Otherwise, you’d need to purchase? I haven’t spent any of my KI Gold yet. Recommendations on what it should be spent on?

I haven’t touched the Shadow Lords story mode yet, as I have Season 2 Rivals still to playthrough, but I am looking forward to it as it looks fun!

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Well, some Shadow skins are more appealing than others, Shadow Jago’s in particular, but he has several awesome colors. Just look through and see what fits your taste.

I guarantee that if you try all the characters out, like trying to get the achievements for those particular characters, you may find several you like.

Yes, only the daily rewards and challenges (to my best knowledge) are how you earn gold. However, the amount you earn grows as you do more days on the login system. The closer you get to 100 days, the more significant the rewards get, and gold is no exception.

Outside of challenges, you got to buy gold. you really don’t need it for much though. Gold may also come with certain purchases like the Definitive Edition package. Gold can be used in shadow lords to buy special guardian packs, but you can also buy them with your earnings from playing shadow lords, which it’s fairly generous with anyway, so I wouldn’t waste my gold on that.

Really, gold should be used to purchase alternate outfits and accessories for your character in the store and collection menu. Most of the accessories can be earned by ranking up your character’s level, and some of them can only be earned that way too. Others have to be bought with KI gold, or usually are sold as part of a package deal like the Definitive Collection I think has all characters, costumes and accessories unlocked for you by default. Gold can also buy mimic and shadow skins as well, but those can be earned in game other ways too. There’s almost nothing you can’t get through the course of gameplay.

Shadow Lords is really deep, it can be a bit intimidating at first, but after you learn it a bit, it is quite fun. Eventually though, no matter how well you play, no matter what difficulty, the Shadow Lord descends. If you lose at any point though, all the items and things you earn carry over from one playthrough to the next, even if you change difficulties. So start easy, learn it, then progress to harder challenges as you go.

Hope that answers some of your questions.

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It does indeed, thanks for being so thorough!

It is Killer Instinct: Definitive Edition that I purchased, and by default, all thew Retro skins, colours, and accessories seem to be unlocked. For primary skins, there’s one extra unlocked for everyone (for Riptor, it’s her “dinobot” look, as an example), but the rest you need to unlock by levelling up. There also the Gold and Terror skins.

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I forgot about the gold and terror skins, some of those I’m not sure about if you still have to buy separately or not. I know Omen has a skin pack that adds a few more colors for him. You may could use your Gold for that. Otherwise, if you have all the stuff you want, there’s not too awful much you actually can do with gold.

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All the Gold and Terror skins are included, so that’s already looked after.

The Omen Skin Pack, I believe, is real money only. It’s real cheap, around $1.29 Canadian I think, but I don’t play the character so I have no desire to pick it up. I believe it’s the only skin pack not included with the “Definitive Edition” in some form or other.

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As you play your shadow remember to not just record your wins, but also your losses. Any really close game you had you should save to your shadow.

The shadow mode uses all data to make your character better. If you only record matches where you steamroll the opponent the shadow will not know how to handle when an opponent fights back so you want to teach your shadow how to block and how to break.

Example: I got challenged by a Spinal who would only crouch block. He wouldn’t move, wouldn’t do anything except crouch block and then retaliate. My Thunder shadow had no idea what to do with it and lost easily.

So I rechallenged the spinal and had my Thunder do his forward heavy punch overhead, and some clean jump ins to counter the blocking. Then when the Spinal challenged me again my Thunder knew how to overhead and was able to beat the Spinal.

I recorded the matches and made a video. I was so proud of my shadow. I imagine it’s how Pokemon trainers feel.

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Also Shadow Lab is by far the coolest thing Iron Galaxy brought to the table and they do not get enough credit for inventing something so unique.

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10

Very cool. For my Shadow, I simply planned to save all my matches period, good or bad, since I want the Shadow to play like me. I have good and bad days like anyone else, and want that reflected.

And I think the concept of the Shadows is fantastic!

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Isn’t it an Amazing feeling when you get pummeled by your own Shadow ? :innocent:

Im currently working on my own shadows now since I’m not in a position where I can play anyone directly… The one thing that makes the shadow grind appealing is just how they are different from fighting the AI. Every fighting game should have this… and Good Rollback Netcode.

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Yeah, while shadows have their exploitable factors, they are infinitely better than standard fighting game AI.

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Speaking of Exploits… My ability to counter Cheap Hit and Run Tactics Sucks. Need to work on my Approach… and my ability to Convert off of Spirit Orb Attacks… I keep accidentally Doing an Ender since my go to Hit Confirm is usually hard button.