Challenge (Mega Man 11)

In Mega Man 11 there are a variety of different challenges in the gameplay option known as Challenge Mode that a player can face to train or earn a bronze, silver, and gold ranks based on performance, similar to the medals from Mega Man Legacy Collection and Mega Man Legacy Collection 2. The best scores are each viewable on a leaderboard through Wi-Fi, and the gameplay of the top 30 players can be viewed by other players to watch. The record information is set up in the same format as the Challenges of Mega Man Legacy Collection 2.

For the stages that are fully available, it has the eight Robot Master stages along with Gear Fortress 1 and 2. For Gear Fortress 3 and 4, only the areas where the Boss Rush and the Wily Machine 11 battles are seen. The amount of lives the player has is unlimited in most challenges, excluding the Playground, Boss Rush, and Dr. Light's Trial challenges which only have one, though only the Dr. Light's Trial allow for the player to gain an extra life from collecting a 1-UP.

All special parts are prohibited. In addition, with the exception of Mega Boss Rush, the difficulty for the Challenges are set at Normal Mode.

Time Attack
Time Attack, known as Time Attack Stage in Japanese, is a challenge where the player must go through the selected stage fully and defeat the respective boss as fast as possible. Completing within a specific time will award the player with a rank.

Jump Saver
Jump Saver, known as Minimum Jump in Japanese, is a challenge where the player must reach the boss room as fast as possible and jumping as little as possible. Ranking is determined by the number that less than or equal to that specific number.

Buster Breakdown
Buster Breakdown, known as Minimum Attack in Japanese, is a challenge where the player must reach the boss room as fast as possible and by using as few attacks as possible from the Mega Buster and Special Weapons.

Score Attack
Score Attack, known as Point Getter in Japanese, is a challenge where the player must complete the stage with a high score. Defeating enemies earn points, but defeating multiple enemies simultaneously can provide combo bonuses to raise the score faster.

Balloon Rush
Balloon Rush, known as Balloon Attack in Japanese, is a challenge where the player must complete each stage within the time limit. Destroying blue balloons subtracts 30 seconds, but destroying red balloons or missing blue balloons can add 10 seconds to the player's total time. Balloons can be burst with any weapon and just by touching them. There are no enemies in this mode.

Medal Collector
Medal Collector, known as Family Plate in Japanese, is a challenge where the player must collect eight Medals as fast as possible. Mega Man will be warped back if he proceeds without collecting the Medal from an area. The Medals represent Mega Man, Dr. Light, Roll, Rush, Eddie, Beat, Auto and Dr. Light's Laboratory.

Playground
Playground is a mode with varying challenges. All challenges are time based, but only the first three Challenges are based around a score system for their ranking.

Boss Rush
Boss Rush is a mode where Mega Man must face all eight Robot Masters in consecutive battles during the Boss Rush at Gear Fortress Stage 3 in a time-based challenge much like with the similar Boss Rush challenges in Mega Man Legacy Collection 2. The difficulty level is set to Normal Mode and much like with the main game there is a large Energy Capsule to refill health.

After completing Boss Rush, a more difficult variant, Mega Boss Rush, is unlocked. It has the difficulty set to Superhero Mode, and much like with the difficulty in that mode there are no Energy Capsules. Since there are no Energy Tanks either, this challenge is more like a perfect run challenge as the player needs to try and take as little damage as possible during each fight.

Dr. Light's Trial
Similar to the Endless Attack from Mega Man 9 and Mega Man 10, Mega Man goes through different challenges on different rooms dealing with regular enemies and traps. Getting through some of the rooms will require for Mega Man to destroy a set amount of enemies. There are 30 different types of rooms available and for the ones marked as 10, 20, and 30, he must deal with the three Fortress Bosses. There are also refill rooms available after each Fortress Boss where Mega Man can refill his Energy or Weapon Energy, or pick up an extra life, but be careful as Anti-Eddie is there, underneath the Large Energy and Weapon Energy Capsule. However while in the normal challenge they can regenerate, in Endless Mode these items are single use items only and are gone once they are collected.

The difference with the Dr. Light's Trial: Endless mode is that once Wily Machine 11 is defeated, Mega Man will have to go through these rooms again, and his health and weapon energy will continue to deplete even further over time. The only way to get the gold ranking in this mode is to complete everything a second time which is really hard to do.

Unlocking Features for Challenge Mode
When starting the game most of the challenges are available, but Mega Man only has use of his Mega Buster along with Rush Coil. The Special Weapons and Rush Jet will only become available when first collected in the main game. Gear Fortress Stages within the main challenges are locked until they are completed in the main game. Similar to Mega Man 10, defeating the sub-bosses, Robot Masters, and Fortress Bosses in the main game allows their challenges in The Playground to also be unlocked at Normal Mode difficulty.

Completing the main game will unlock the last two categories of Boss Rush and Dr. Light's Trial. Completing either of these will unlock the more difficult variants for these two challenges.

Strategy
Playing through the challenges can help provide a number of benefits for players during the main game. First of all, it can provide standard training by practicing against bosses and sub-bosses to improve performance during the main game (and earn Buster Achievement for the Robot Masters in particular). Mega Boss Rush can be a huge help in training players for Superhero Mode, by practicing against the Robot Masters from that difficulty. Challenge Mode is also helpful for understanding the stage layouts for most of the stages and make it easier to go through them in the future. For the maximum benefit, it is recommended to wait until all eight Robot Masters have been defeated in the main game so Mega Man will have access to his full arsenal for Challenge Mode.

When doing Balloon Rush, remember any kind of contact with Red Balloons will increase the time, making it harder to get a higher ranking. Avoid use of weapons that might accidentally pop them, with Tundra Storm's Power Gear-enhanced attack being the prime example. In a dangerous stage like Torch Man's stage, using the Speed Gear can help deal with the wall of flame to get further ahead of it.

For Jump Saver and Buster Breakdown, only Jump or Shoot when necessary based on which one is currently active, even if it takes multiple tries for that Stage. For Buster Breakdown in particular, using Special Weapons is easier, as each regular shot from the Mega Buster counts as an attack, making it potentially harder to get a higher ranking. For Medal Collector, using creativity along with skilled use of Speed Gear, Rush Coil, and Rush Jet is necessary to get the character medals. For Score Attack, using weapons like Tundra Storm or Block Dropper which can destroy multiple enemies is recommended to get a better score, other than well-timed attacks which the Speed Gear can help. Having knowledge of the enemy weaknesses can make the "One Hit Wonders" challenge in the Playground easier.

Most notably, the Challenges can also help make it easier to earn several achievements for the main game, which are really hard to do. The best example is the "The Blue Flash" achievement, which requires beating all twelve stages in under an hour with the Time Attack challenges. Since unlike Gear Fortress Stages 3 and 4 which are simple, training through any of the other stages can help improve time and make it easier for players who are not Speed Gamers. Other main cases are "Go Blue or Go Home" by not taking any damage before reaching the boss in the Robot Master stages, and the stage based achievements that are harder such as "Live to Fight Another Day", by reaching Impact Man's room without getting damaged by the Impact Brothers. There are three achievements that are related to Challenge Mode called by "Built to Win", "Tuned for Performance" and "Programmed for Perfection" by claiming each rank five times. This is very easy to accomplish through the Sub-boss and Boss battles in the Playground as it is easier to obtain Gold Rank by exploiting their weaknesses.

Lastly, for Dr. Light's Trial it is recommended to not only practice regularly to get through the thirty rooms to get the "Survival Skills" achievement. In addition, using the Playground challenges against the Gear Fortress bosses is recommended to improve performance and working towards taking as little damage as possible. It is also a good idea to use those challenges to train in a Buster-only fight, as the limited weapon energy for the Special Weapons which are the weaknesses for the Gear Fortress bosses can be a hassle, especially in Endless mode, where Mega Man will keep going through those thirty rooms endlessly until he uses up his last life.

Practicing Mega Man's ability to go through weapons without going to the menu can help make it easier especially in Time Attack Mode. Using the joystick command will take more practice through.