Battle

A Battle in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.

List of Battle modes in the Guitar Hero series where two or more players verse, clash, and hinder each other with Battle Power-Ups/Items.

Battle

In Guitar Hero, a Battle is a competition between two players or a player and a computer player. In Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, Battle Power-Ups (simply known as "power-ups" or "attacks") in place of Star Power to disrupt your opponent and make them lose.

Battle mode was very popular in online play, however Guitar Hero officials claim that it was not a true way of beating another online player, as it was not a true show of talent.^{[citation needed]}

Guitar Battles in Career

In Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock's Solo Career, the player will face against Tom Morello (Mitch's Moose Lounge), Slash (Shanker's Island), and Lou (Lou's Inferno) in Guitar Battles at the end of each gig. The player and the rival will have their own guitar tracks and will play unique guitar riffs one after another. There are no battles in Co-op Career.

There is a Guitar Battle against Joe Perry in Guitar Hero: Aerosmith at the end of its Career, and—upon beating him—Joe Perry is unlocked as a playable character.

Guitar Duels in Guitar Hero World Tour

In Guitar Hero World Tour's Guitar Career (but not in other instrumental Careers), the player eventually battles Zakk Wylde and Ted Nugent in a "Guitar Duel". Unlike the previous games, the "Guitar Duel" in Guitar Hero World Tour's Guitar Career act as Pro Face-Off rather than Battle mode, where the player verse their rival guitarist for a high score, which means there are no Battle Power-Ups in Guitar Career's Guitar Duels to hinder the opposing guitarist. The A.I. opponent's note streak resets on each of their hits, giving the player a chance to win. The player wins if their score is higher than their rival guitarist's score by the end of the song.

Apparently, Kirk Hammett of Metallica had recorded a Guitar Duel for Guitar Hero: Metallica, but was ultimately scrapped from the game.^{[citation needed]} It is rumored that the Guitar Duel would have been very challenging, with many slider and HOPO sections.^{[citation needed]}

Battle Powers-Ups

Battle Powers-Ups (also referred to as Battle Powers and Attacks during the tutorial) are earned by successfully completing Battle Power sequences (replacing Star Power sequences/phrases) without breaking combo. Each player can store up to three Battle Power-Ups to be used against the opponent to make them fail the song. Tilting the guitar controller or pressing the Star Power button triggers the player's latest stored Battle Power-Up. Players may activate multiple Battle Power-Ups they have stored to maximize the disruption on their opponent. If a player acquires a new Battle Power-Up after storing three Battle Power-Ups, the latest Battle Power-Up will be replaced.

Using Battle Power-Ups against an A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) opponent, regardless of what it is, also reduces the A.I.'s performance while the Power-Up is in effect against them.

In Guitar Hero: Metallica, some Battle Power-Ups were renamed after titles of their songs and were given different visual effects based on the title name.

Icon	Power-up	Effect	Tips
	Amp Overload Ride the Lightning (Guitar Hero: Metallica)	Distorts your opponent's highway and makes their notes' visibility flicker, making them harder to see (the tails of sustains retain their visibility, however). Guitar Hero: Metallica's version of Amp Overload called "Ride the Lightning" sends a bolt of lightning on the opponent's highway, dealing the same effect.	Against real players, Amp Overload/Ride the Lightning may be useless the opponent knows the note patterns of the song or is on the same difficulty level as yours as they can look at your visible highway, this Battle Power-Up may not affect their performance unless used in conjunction with other Battle Power-Ups.
	Blackout (Guitar Hero: Smash Hits & Van Halen) Fade to Black (Guitar Hero: Metallica)	Introduced in Guitar Hero: Metallica as "Fade to Black" and later "Blackout", this new Battle Power-Up makes the opponent's highway and notes completely black, making the notes impossible to see. The highway's and notes' visuals are shortly restored.	Against real players, like Amp Overload/Ride the Lightning and Lefty Flip/Righty Flip, this new Battle Power-Up may be ineffective against players that are also playing on the same difficulty level as they may look at your highway unless used in conjunction with other Battle Power-Ups.
	Broken String Damage Inc. (Guitar Hero: Metallica)	Pulls one of the opponent's target icons up at random and the corresponding fret cannot be used to hit notes in that lane until the opponent repeatedly presses the corresponding fret multiple times until the sprung target icon back in base position. Guitar Hero: Metallica's variation is the same thing.	This battle power-up is best used when the opponent is playing many notes in different lanes, making sure they miss notes until they fix their "broken string".
	Death Drain (Guitar Hero III & Aerosmith)	A special Battle Power-Up that appears in Sudden Death that occurs if no player is defeated by the end of a song in a Guitar Battle, or—in Solo Career—it is activated against the player near the end of the Guitar Battle if the player doesn't defeat their rival during the rival's final solo. When activated, a skull appears over the opponent's highway and the gauge on opponent's Rock Meter will slowly head towards red until they fail. The Rock Meter drains faster for players on higher difficulties. This effect lasts until a player loses.	There is no counter against Death Drain and outperforming Death Drain may be difficult in most songs especially on higher difficulty levels. Against another player, try to get Death Drain on the first Battle Gem Sequence, use it immediately against your opponent, and play the best you can. Any mistakes can be your loss. Also, unused Battle Power-Ups do carry over from the play(s) of the song, so if you are at the end of a song before Sudden Death, save some effective Battle Power-Ups like Broken String or Whammy Bar to prevent your opponent from getting a Death Drain power-up before you.
	Difficulty Up	Temporarily increases the difficulty level of the opponent to the next difficulty level for upcoming notes if they were below Expert difficulty. This Battle Power-Up is not available to the player if the opponent was already playing on Expert difficulty.	Difficulty Up can be a downside if the opponent can play the next difficulty level very well but is best to use in conjunctions with other powerful Battle Power-Ups to potentially deal more damage.
	Double Notes	Temporarily adds an extra note to the opponent's upcoming notes as chords, usually 1 extra note to the adjacent right lane (left on Lefty Flip) if applicable (see below), while standard chords become three-button chords. There can only be a maximum of 3 notes per chord with this Power-Up. Single notes to 2-note chords: G > GR, R > RY, Y > YB, B > BO, O > YO. 2-note chords to 3-note chord: Usually adds 1 note adjacent to the right with exceptions being GB > GRB, RO > RBO. YO > RYO.	One of the most powerful Battle Power-Ups in the games when used at the right moments like if the player is playing fast streams of notes in multiple lanes. More powerful in conjunction with other Battle Power-Ups such as Broken String/Damage Inc.
	Lefty Flip / Righty Flip	Temporarily flips the opponent's fret board horizontally, making your opponent's to play on Lefty Flip (or "Righty Flip" if they normally play on Lefty Flip).	Battle Power-Up may be ineffective against players that are also playing on the same difficulty level as they may look at your highway unless used in conjunction with other Battle Power-Ups. Very effective when used with Double Notes.
	Mines (Guitar Hero World Tour onward)	Introduced in Guitar Hero World Tour, this Battle Power-Up randomly adds grey notes on the opponent's screen. If the opponent hits a grey note, his/her Rock Meter will greatly decrease, and they will lose their most recent power-up.	Can be effective when the opponent is playing a fast stream of notes.
	Steal Power-Up (Guitar Hero III & Aerosmith) Powerup Steal (Guitar Hero World Tour onward)	Steals the opponent's current Battle Power-Up if they have one. If the opponent does not have any Battle Power-Ups, it should be saved until they do.	Wait to use it until you can steal powerful Battle Power-Ups such as Double Notes, Broken String/Damaged Inc., Whammy Bar/Trapped Under Ice, etc., and use it against them at right moments.
	Whammy Bar Trapped Under Ice (Guitar Hero: Metallica)	Lifts up the opponent's target icons off the highway that completely disables their frets until the opponent repeatedly pushes in the whammy bar. Similar to Broken String, but it disables the entire strike line rather than a single button. Guitar Hero: Metallica's variation "freezes" the opponent's target icons into ice until they break the ice by repeatedly pushing the whammy bar.	One of the most powerful Battle Power-Ups in the games as Whammy Bar/Trapped Under Ice prevents your opponent from playing any notes until they fix their target line. Best used in fast stream of notes.

Sudden Death

In Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, if both players survive a song in Battle mode, both players replay the song in "Sudden Death" mode. In Sudden Death, all Battle Power-Ups in Battle Gem Sequences in the song becomes the Death Drain power-up. When Death Drain is activated, the gauge in the opponent's Rock Meter will slowly head towards Red throughout the entire song until they lose or until you lose against their Death Drain.

Do or Die!

In Guitar Hero World Tour and newer titles do not have Sudden Death mode, but rather, if no one loses in a song in a Battle in the newer games, they do a "Do or Die!", where they replay the song like in Sudden Death, but the song plays at a higher speed, and some power-ups' effects—such as Amp Overload and Lefty/Righty Flip, are doubled in duration—while other power-ups—such as Broken String and Whammy Bar—now require twice as many button presses to fix their lane(s)' target.

Guitar Duels

The player is hit with the Pyrotechnics Battle Item in Guitar Hero: On Tour. Meanwhile, the player is storing (from top to bottom) a Difficulty Down, Bomb Notes, and Hyper Speed Battle Items, ready to be activated. Meanwhile, the opponent has two stored Battle Items unidentified and no active power on them.

The Guitar Hero: On Tour game series on the Nintendo DS has a variation of Guitar Battle called Guitar Duels. While they are similar in having two players in multiplayer (or an A.I. in Guitar Duels mode) clash against each other with Battle Items acquired by successfully hitting Battle Gem Sequences, the winning conditions are different. Guitar Battles on console has players fighting each other until one's Rock Meter hits red to make them fail the song while players in Guitar Duels on Nintendo DS fight for the highest score until the song is over (fails are disabled). The player and the opponent share a Guitar Duel Rock Meter that determines which player has the higher score with the position of the needle (the player's side is green while the opponent's side is red).

Battle Items

In Guitar Duels, each player can hold a maximum of three Battle Items and each player has one active slot (as their character icon; when their character icon is replaced with a Battle Item icon, another Battle Item cannot be used in that active slot until that power expires.

There are three types of Battle Items:

• Red Battle Items (i.e. most Battle Items) affect the opponent, disrupting the opponent's performance. While in play, the opponent cannot use Green or Blue Battle Items nor can you use another Red or Blue Battle Item until the effect expires.
• Green Battle Items (i.e. Difficulty Down and Shield) affect the user, proving support for the user. While in play, the opponent cannot use Red or Blue Battle Items against you nor can you use other Green or Blue Battle Items until the effect expires.
• Blue Battle Items (i.e. Steal Item) affect both the user and the opponent. While in play, no one can activate Battle Items of any kind until the effect expires.

Icon	Battle Item	Effect	Tips
	Amp Overload	The effect of Amp Overload in the On Tour series is different than the console versions' Amp Overload attack. A guitar feedback sound effect plays in the opponent's speakers and their song's music volume will temporarily be muted.	Effectively useless against another player since the player can still visually see their notes, but against an A.I., Amp Overload may cause them to miss a few notes.
	Bomb Notes	This Battle Item temporarily replaces some upcoming notes at random on the opponent's highway with bomb-like notes. If the opponent plays a bomb note, their score will decrease. Ignoring/missing these bomb notes will automatically play these notes as if they were normal notes, ignoring the bomb's trigger.	May be useless against another player depending on how well they can react and avoid bomb notes, but against an A.I., Bomb Notes may cause them to lose some of their score.
	Broken String	Randomly breaks one the opponent's strings and disables one of your opponent's fret. That fret cannot be used until the broken guitar string is pulled from the bottom to the top of the guitar on the touchscreen.	One of the better Battle Items. Best used when the opponent is playing multiple notes in multiple lanes.
	Camera Flash	A bright light quickly flashes on the opponent's highway screen that lasts for a few seconds.	Quickly blind the opponent's screen during a Battle Gem Sequence to try to prevent them from acquiring a Battle Item.
	Difficulty Up	Temporarily increases the opponent's difficulty level by 1 level. This Battle Item is not available to the player if the opponent is already playing on Expert difficulty.	May effectively be useless against real players that can player higher difficulty levels, but against an A.I., Difficulty Up will cause them to miss a few notes for a few seconds.
	Difficulty Down	Temporarily decreases the difficulty of the user but increases the user's base score of notes hit during that time (A.I. opponents that use this Battle Item do not get an increase in base score which benefits the player instead) and temporarily prevents the opponent from activating Red or Blue Battle Items while this is active just like Shield. This Battle Item is not available to the player if the player is already playing on Easy difficulty.	The player using this Battle Item can also use this Battle Item as a "Shield" (see Shield's tip). Even though the player will receive less notes, the player will earn more points for them.
	Hyper Speed	Temporarily increases the scrolling speed of the opponent's highway.	May effectively be useless against real players if they know their upcoming notes and some players prefer Hyper Speed, but against an A.I., Hyper Speed will cause them to miss some notes for about 10 seconds.
	Pyrotechnics	The opponent's guitar will catch on fire, disabling the ability to play notes until the opponent continuously blows into the microphone of the Nintendo DS hardware to remove the flames off the guitar.	One of the better Battle Items that prevents your opponent from playing any notes. Removing the flames requires constantly blowing into the microphone but the player could emit any kind of sound (except their Nintendo DS's speakers) to remove the flames.
	Screen Flip	The two screens on the opponent's Nintendo DS will temporarily swap. The touchscreen when swapped still operates the same as its original screen (they can still activate Battle Items by tapping on the same location) but the victim cannot open the pause menu until the effect ends.	Effectively useless against another player since the player can still see most of their notes as they swipe their highway, but against an A.I., Screen Flip may cause them to miss a few notes.
	Shield	Temporarily prevents the opponent from activating Red or Blue Battle Items for a lengthy amount of time while this Battle Item is active.	Useful before going into a Battle Gem Sequence to prevent your opponent from disrupting you obtaining a Battle Item.
	Signature	A fan in the crowd will ask the opponent to sign their random object, disabling all of his/her actions until the opponent writes/scribbles on the item until the item goes away. Such items can be a piece of clothing (shirt, sleeve, shoe, etc.), book, purse, mobile phone, skateboard, mobile phone, and more including fish.	While it prevents your opponent from playing any notes, it may not last long. Fast scribbles will get rid of the item really quick. But still a good item to use against an A.I. opponent.
	Steal Item	Allows the player to see their opponent's stored Battle Items and steal any one of them if they have any stored. If a Battle Item has not been selected within 4 seconds, the user forfeits stealing an item and this effect ends.	The player using this Battle Item can also use this Battle Item as a "Shield" (see Shield's tip) and wait a few seconds before grabbing one of their opponent's Battle Items. Try stealing one of their better Battle Items like Pyrotechnics, Bomb Notes (against A.I.), Hyper Speed (against A.I.), Signature, or another Steal Item.

Videos

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock

Guitar Battles featured in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock's Solo Career. These are essentially "boss" battles. "Guitar Battle vs. Lou" is the final song in Solo Career. Co-op Career doesn't feature Guitar Battles.

"Guitar Battle vs. Tom Morello" in Career on Expert difficulty.

"Guitar Battle vs. Slash" in Career on Expert difficulty.

"Guitar Battle vs. Lou" in Career on Expert difficulty.

Guitar Hero: Aerosmith

"Guitar Battle vs. Joe Perry" is the only Guitar Battle and the final song in Guitar Hero: Aerosmith's Career.

"Guitar Battle vs. Joe Perry" in Career on Expert difficulty.

Guitar Hero World Tour

Guitar Duels in Guitar Hero World Tour's Guitar Career do not feature battle power-ups. Rather, it is essentially Pro Face-Off: The goal in Guitar Duels in Guitar Hero World Tour's Guitar Career is to aim a score higher than the A.I. opponent to win like in Pro Face-Off. Other instrumental Career modes including Band career do not feature duels.

"Zakk Wylde Guitar Duel" in Career on Expert difficulty.

"Ted Nugent Guitar Duel" in Career on Expert difficulty.

Trivia

• Although the Broken String power-up randomly disables one of the fret buttons and has an icon of a pair of scissors, the attack is misnamed; if a string actually was broken, it would be permanently disabled. It's possible that power-up doesn't actually break the string, but instead pulls the string loose and out of tune, and pressing the fret button twists the machine head, tightening the string and putting it back in tune.
  • Additionally, the power-up implies that each fret button represents a string on the guitar. However, this is also a flawed implication, as a real guitar has 6 strings, whereas the guitar controllers (at least until Guitar Hero Live) have only 5 buttons.
  • In Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock's Career, some Power-Ups only appear in later battles; Broken String first appears in Slash's Guitar Battle, and Lefty Flip only appears in Lou's Guitar Battle.
• The A.I.'s multiplier never goes up to x2 in Guitar Duels in Guitar Hero World Tour's Guitar Career.