Archive / Ramblings / Exploring Strive's Source Code (5/10/2025)

- SPOILERS INBOUND -

This goes without saying, but this page contains major spoilers for Unika, Dual Rulers, Lucy, the new stages, and potentially even Season 5. Read at your own risk.

I request that nothing on this page gets shared elsewhere. I am doing all of this for archival purposes only, and for people that want to see these things early. Unrequested sharing of leaks is a shitty thing to do, and I will not be the reason someone gets spoiled on new content. Also, don't just post links to this under popular posts. I don't want to put this site in danger just because too many people see it or something.

Strive's source code got leaked. Everyone knows that already. Along with some other stuff, like various beta builds! I will not be discussing those there. This is about the new stuff in the source code.

Unika is fully complete and ready to be released. She has everything that any other character would have.

Main Mechanic : Mode: Arbalest ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mode: Arbalest is a pseudo stance accessed from many of Unika's command normals (S5S, S2S, H5H, H2H, j.D, or 6H). Specials gain better advantage, comboability, and damage among other benefits when canceled out of Mode: Arbalest normals. (Signified by the blue coloring)

Specials ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

236H : A.M.T.G. Streak - A big laser blast. It has slow startup, but travels fullscreen. Generally more of an anti-zoning / whiff punish tool than for fullscreen pressure.

j.236H : A.A.T.G. Blitz - An air fireball. Its pretty weak but flies at a decent angle.

236K : A.T.T.G. Penetrate - Essentially just a bigger version of Ky's Stun Dipper. Only -3 in Mode: Arbalest. Generally very useful as a combo from longer ranged Mode: Arbalest normals.

214K : A.T.T.G. Top-Attack - Similar to Greed Sever from the older games. A really big overhead that is nearly unreactable and low crushes. Also groundbounces in Mode: Arbalest. The non-Arbalest version shares Rin's property of being unable to combo even with a Roman Cancel.

623S : A.C.T.G. Blast-Off - A gigantic grounded DP. Can't be Roman Canceled, even in Mode: Arbalest. Still a great combo tool due to the large wallbounce.

214S : Blaze a Trail - A long ranged strike forward. Guard crushes, but is minus. Oddly does not interact with Mode: Arbalest in any way.

Overdrives ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

632146S : Megadeath Buster - A fairly standard reversal / wallbreak super that sends fullscreen. The cinematic only occurs up close.

214214H : Weapons Free - Best described as an overdrive version of a 5[D]. Replaces all of Unika's air normals to make a custom air combo along with cancelable 8-way dashes. Similarly to Ky's Dragon Install, it can only be used at low health. Also does not lead into the cinematic on air / wallstick hit.

[Automatic] : Star Deviation - The automatic ender to Weapons Free. Very similar to a Finish Blow during a homing jump. It activates once the opponent reaches the edge of the screen.

S + H : Star Deviation: Annihilate - A metered higher-damage alternative to Star Deviation. Does not improve theknockdown afterwards.

Arcade ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Unika's arcade partner is Giovanna, and the boss is Sin!

[WIP] Not entirely finished, but very close to playable.

Presumably part of Lucy's intro or outro. I haven't watched Edgerunners, so I don't really know how this relates to Lucy.

Full Scene

Lucy Closeup

[WIP] the code calls them 旧キャラや表示テスト用キャラ, or "Old characters and characters for display tests"

[WIP] Jam crashes on load, as it doesn't work with the current moveset building system (presumably due to its age). Apparently there is a fix, but I haven't found it yet.

Assuming she is the same as the recently leaked beta builds, she is basically Xrd Jam shoved into Strive along with a new super. She was likely used as the test character for the entire game.

There is also some alleged Season 5 Jam concept art going around, but I haven't found proof that it is real.

However, she is almost certainly coming in Season 5 due to one of the stages that is potentially being added...

[WIP] An early version of A.B.A. changing and swaying is 236H. 236S~6S gives less meter. 214H gives half meter.

[WIP] An early version of Slayer. dash can be extended. has helter skelter. has ninja beam! hand of doom is a normal special, can only be canceled into with c.S. has white wild assault.

[WIP] An early version of Dizzy. wings of light can kill. imperial ray is closer to justice's version. j.D goes diagonally downward. michael sword goes less far. has two airdashes. ice spike has old hitbox

Last Modified: 1/23/25
Internal Name: Plateau

A grassy plain stage based on Xrd's Area 42. This is the stage releasing with Unika.

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Last Modified: 3/14/25
Internal Name: Callist

A new stage that seemingly takes place in Vialattea due to all the Gears, or perhaps Illyria due to the view of the castle. ~~Presumably the stage releasing with Lucy.~~ This stage is also releasing with Unika.

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Many character cameos are featured in this stage:

Ian & Neo

Malcolm Myers

Dr. Paradigm

Area 42 Fairy

Dual Horn

Last Modified: 4/23/25

A very early devopment China stage, with the latest edit date among the stages. Likely meant for Jam given the theme.

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Last Modified: 4/13/25

An alternate version of Banri, with some parts missing and some new parts.

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These maps all attempt to load a group of assets under the nonexistant folder "irontown."

Last Modified: 4/17/25

An early development map, filled with untextured buildings and floating Xrd Sols.

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Last Modified: 4/18/25

An much more complete version of TestYa_PL3, though still without most of the textures. The areas have also moved around a decent bit to accomodate the new geometry.

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Last Modified: 4/18/25

A town / arena(?) map in a crater. Not the same map as the previous two, despite the similar name and missing assets.

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Last Modified: 2/24/25

An ocean castle map with some small animations. Has multiple assets labeled as "S4."

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Last Modified: 1/29/25

A partially contructed Zepp map. The first area has a flashing alarm light, a functional opening door, and moving robotic arms. Perhaps evidence that Gabriel may become playable?

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Last Modified: 3/7/18

A barebones 6-area map with a few statues.

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Last Modified: 2/26/18

A 6-area cave map. A few major assets don't load ingame, making it not really much of a cave.

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Last Modified: 2/23/18

A snowy forest map with 6 areas that do not flow together. While 5[D] works fine, the camera in wallbreaks is very broken, and killing wallbreaks have both characters push through the wall into out of bounds areas.

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Last Modified: 2/22/18

A 6-area canyon map with a giant incorrectly aligned chain. There is a pink shine effect attached to the top left of the camera at all times.

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Last Modified: 2/16/18

A sunset cemetary(?) map.

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Last Modified: 2/6/18

An earlier version of Test2 with harsh pink lighting. This is the oldest map present.

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Last Modified: 3/25/18

A blank void map with some particle effects.

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Last Modified: 4/18/25

Identical to TestYa_Base.

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Last Modified: 7/19/19 (Final Version: 11/1/19)

An early version of Castle of the Silver Feet, as seen in some early trailers. The main difference is the Illyrian Guard, who is a 2D cutout.

DamPV

Castle of the Silver Feet

A simple test grid that appeared in previous ArcSys games.

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Frame Data Display will seemingly be releasing with Unika. On launch, this pop-up will appear:

Pictured here is Slayer's 2D on hit:

Total Action is the full length of the action, including startup, active time, and endlag.
Startup is... startup time. No surprises here.
Frame Advantage is the raw frame advantage, including knockdown time.
Follow-Up Window is also frame advantage, but specifically advantage that allows for linking (in other words, not including knockdown time). Had Slayer used f.S (which allows a link back into c.S), the follow-up window would 7. Since he used 2D instead, the follow-up window is 0 as he can not link out of it.

In addition to Frame Data Display, Training Mode got some new features:
- Frame count during input history.
- Negative Penalty can now be toggled.

[WIP] _____

Seemingly, the future will pan out as follows:

Season 4 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Unika
In the Name of Peace
Lucy
New Dawn, A Future Unfolding

Season 5 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Jam
Three unknown characters
China
Irontown

Season 6 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Four unknown characters (potentially Gabriel, due to Zepp)
Zepp
Ocean