I'M SORRY! You have NO IDEA how much your request has been nagging at me for the past couple days and how I haven't had any time at all to write it out. I'm going to help you!
This doesn't guarantee a win, it still takes work, effort, and a solid mindset but it's the difference between plainly looking for a needle in a haystack and someone giving you a magnet and a metal detector while you look.
First, you have to understand how the AI works. The way I've always seen DOA AI is that it's trying to get you to make your way around movesets to make a player more confident with a wider variety of attacks. It's a great sparring partner in terms of working on your game overall. However, that's all it's good for which is the main reason you can't play it like it's a human opponent. Make as many good reads and strategies as you want, the AI understands your tricks (because it literally reads your controller and uses that gathered information against you) and that's not what it cares about.
You're meant to kill early opponents/rounds against the Com. It's taking your attacks and fitting them into a pattern along with a list of moves you've used. Then, as you begin to repeat blows, you'll see the Com begin to block. Think of this as the Com gaining confidence because each successful block registers as a guaranteed counter the next time it spots that move or series of attacks. The next step for the com is to show you, the player, that you're not doing very well. It will begin to counter your single-hit power attacks you rely on and counter the last hit of any strings you go through. This is essentially a sign that, while you're not screwed
yet, you've made a dire mistake and you can't go back to those attacks again for quite a while. Now, let's say you just kept on with it. The final step is to punish you out of the session and make you lose by reading every first button press you make, whether you've done the attack before or it's completely new and unused. This is what happens to cause people say it's luck and that's not really true, it's almost completely avoidable (especially when you don't play on smallest life bar (idiots)).
What you need to do is memorize your movelist, write it down if you have to, and select 2-3 combos and 1 strong single-hit attack. Then wipe up as many as you can with JUST THOSE ATTACKS. Do not get fancy at any point, as in do not mistakenly use a combo or attack that you haven't been using for your past opponents. The Com is taking hits and recording you, if you put out an attack you weren't planning on using or you wanted to implement later in the event, either get the benefit of it now and start putting it into your set or basically trash it and never touch it again until emergencies late in your run. When you start seeing blocks, prepare to put the next set of moves into practice. The first time you get countered, drop all your shit and use a completely new group of attacks. The computer will literally stop blocking and countering and take every hit, just like it did when you first began. It might put up a fight for the duration of the opponent you just switched up on but it'll completely reset after they're defeated. At this point, you're rinsing and repeating. Once he catches onto your new set, go head and cycle a new set of attacks (best option) or feel free to go back to your first set (It'll still work but it seems to catch on sooner so you'll have to switch up sooner than before). The more groups of attacks you have to utilize, the longer you can make them last for their first runs and when you repeat them.
Now, there really is one enemy out of every 5(?) that will have your number, a "hitman," if you will. There are two different types with one worryingly testing the waters against you and the other that just goes for the throat. In both cases, although more the case for the latter hitman, it will just resort to reading your controller and beating you out through priority attacks and abusing the triangle system
but it will take hits for completely new attacks. They really don't begin to become a problem until you hit about 30 wins but depending on how well you're doing, you could take on the more aggressive hitman more times in a row. I can't be specific in terms of how to know which one it is but there's nothing more clear after you've gone through survival a few times so you'll eventually know what I'm talking about. Best thing to do is get as much as you can in on the Com until you get countered (something you can't afford AT ALL on low health settings). After any counter, block. When getting up, block. Find a gap to get a new hit in or wait until you see a a move you can react with a counter.
It's a fine line when you're on the defensive because you never want to rush out of blocking from the anxiety that eventually something's going to hit you but you don't want to sit there on the defensive so you just have to make sure you're making economical choices in terms of protecting what health you have left and out-prioritizing the Com. You can't take counter damage though so don't make random guesses with your counters and don't use wake-up kicks. It's okay to take some small thumps, you need to stay calm in your staggers and your blocking so you can see the opportunity get the offense back for yourself. I finished plenty of those fights with a mere sliver of health left after getting stuck in some really bad shit, but I won and that's the only thing that matters.
So that's the general strategy of going through survival, smaller tips aside from that are the following:
- If you use any character that revolves around single hits like Ein, Bayman, Bass, Gen Fu, drop them. I'm not going to say they're impossible to win with but you want as much of an advantage as you can get so go for characters that have many options available that have diverse areas of hit (you don't want to get accidentally countered by the opponent for switching to a new attack that just happens to be low-hitting just like the tool you were using). Hitomi worked great for me.
- Play on Normal or Large health. Do not think of this as making the Com easier or harder to kill, think about how much life you have to work with when the tables are turned against you at fight 78, 86, 99 (I fucking died at 99 twice)
- Don't take a break. Take away distractions, turn your phone off, use the bathroom beforehand, listen to music that keeps you focused and flowing - a long playlist would be ideal so that your music doesn't cut off on you in.the middle of your run disrupting your mindset. When you go without a break, you remember what combos you're moving through, what you need to watch out for from the Com, and most importantly, you stop thinking which helps your flow and momentum carry out efficiently and without hesitation.
- If the computer is murdering you too often near the start of your run, it's got you figured out. Go to another character, use them randomly for a bit so that the Com tosses out your habits with the character you're maining. Depending on determination, take your break here or try again with your main.
- Don't hold directions and mash buttons unnecessarily, it helps the Com read your controller. If you're not fighting a punching-bag AI, it's actually kind fun to test out. You can whip out the same attack twice and it'll take the hit on the cleanly executed attack and counter the mashed/held input.
- Don't pull punches; go through whole combos. The Com isn't looking for entire strings to punish or strategies that involve staggering attacks, it's only looking for repetition and gives way to variety. If you get a clean hit, follow through. If they hit the wall, kill them right there.
- Everything the Com's looking for is what you should be looking for. The Com uses repeat combos all the time, if you can keep in mind when it tends to go for specific combos and what attack in those combos is able to be countered, you can get yourself out of those times when you're fighting down to the nitty-gritty
- Don't pick up items unless you need them, just keep rushing the Com. If you let up off the Com, it will take the opportunity to mount an offense and it could take your progress away from you. So constant pressure and speed is stressed, that's what gets you the free kills.
- Lastly, don't panic, think of your health as currency. The last thing you want to do is freak out when you have no health left and make a shitty mistake costing you all of your hard work. You can still win with no health left and if you have to take a hit or two while blocking to find your opportunity, you can afford that. Taking hits to remain safe and securing the win is better than taking an impatient risk and causing yourself agony.
It's a lot but it's almost everything I kept in mind when going for the gold and I consistently made 80 wins on my runs. Losing's going to happen but it's all a build-up to the moment of victory. There's no luck, it's all you. Put in the time and you should have it no sweat. I learned Hitomi fully over a day (I used to main Ein and always dabbled with her so figuring out her options and retaining it wasn't too hard), played 5 hours each day for two days and got a gold on each one.
Let me know if it helps, here's hoping for the best!
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