Street Fighter 6 doesn’t release until June, but players are already having their worlds rocked by a secret boss hiding in plain sight within the game’s demo.
When the demo for SF6 launched for PlayStation consoles on April 20, most fans were focusing on the avatar creator and a small chunk of World Tour single-player content that was made playable. But there was a little bit of the Fighting Ground offline mode included, too.
Within the FIghting Ground, players are only able to choose between playing as Ryu or Luke, along with a number of settings to customize the matches before they start. This includes a level selector that will dictate the difficulty of any CPU you face off against.
You can scale a CPU from level one to eight, but that max difficulty is giving players real issues.
Even if you just run a round against a regular level eight CPU, you better have your basics down because one mistake can lead to a full combo hitting you in the face. There are plenty of seasoned players who have already been bested by Ryu ending them with a Shin Shoryuken or Luke battering them with Eraser.
It has reached the point where players are challenging themselves to train using the SF6 demo’s included tutorials and character guides to prep and then take on the CPU with the goal of beating them in a best-of-three. But that isn’t where it stops.
In the settings for the Versus mode, there is an option to give yourself or the CPU an advantage. This slider will increase certain states or decrease the consumption of gauges during a match, which is typically meant to provide less experienced players with more resources when playing in friendly settings. But fighting game players love making things more challenging for themselves, too.
Related: Players can use fully customizable characters online in Street Fighter 6, with one catch
Some players have added to the level eight CPU challenge by trying to take on a CPU that is at max level and a five-star advantage state right from the start of a match. This means they do triple damage with each hit, start with a level three Arts Gauge, only consume 20 percent of their Drive Gauge per move, and have faster auto regen for their Vitality bar.
It only takes six normal hits for the hardest CPU in the game to kill a normal player character, and the reaction times are absolutely ridiculous. Things can go even faster if you open yourself up to a Super or Special Art, as they can take half of your health away in an instant.
As shown by fighting game community highlighter HiFight, you have to learn exactly which of your moves are safe through trial and error if you ever want a chance to complete that challenge. Even a single mistake can lead to a quick loss.
This wrinkle in the Versus mode is just one piece of content coming out of the demo, with players all over the world mainly taking time to explore the opening minutes of World Tour or get a headstart with practicing mechanics and moves ahead of SF6’s launch. You can expect that content to more than double in the coming days as the beta releases for Xbox Series X/S and PC on April 26, opening the door for even more players to take on the challenge.
