This gonna be a short guide. I'm gonna use the sections just for ease of search, so don't scoff at a Section with 1 picture or something.

1. XP is proportional to the ammount of OPPONENTS you fight.
DO NOT BOTHER TO FIGHT 1 OPPONENT unless it is a quest or Battle has a reward in ST+.
2. LEVELING will increace your stats and give you ability slots and some abilities revelant to your character.
2.1. Using them is good just for clearing this mode faster (why not pick +15% attack power if you have it?)
Best one is "JUST DEFENCE BOOST" at the bottom of the list, that stuns opponent on JD. Just Defence is 8 frames (133ms) window before attack connects, which is a lot for fighting games. Giving 2 seconds stun for JD is insanely good.
2.2. You gain +2 points to the ability slots every 25 levels (or so you will have 11 points at 60 LVL and 18 at 99 LVL). You gain everything else as reward for the story progression.




3. All important rewards ARE IN SOUTH TOWN+. ST+ will be unlocked after you clear the normal mode. You need to do this for each character.
3.1. Rewards are TITLES, AVATARS, and PATTERNS for color edit.

1. Every part of South Town has a secret location with golden opponent.
1.1. IT IS INVISIBLE UNTIL YOU CLICK ON IT.
1.2. IT'S POSITION IS RANDOM AND MIGHT BE ANYWHERE (water, roads, corner of the zone).
1.3. Winning against them has huge XP reward, but random nature of their ability make farming them... well random.


2. If you click around the place where this location is you will hear the jingle. Its even has different pitch if you closer. I don't know why SNK even bother to do that, but it shows some care.

3. GOLDEN OPPONENT has 1/66 chance the damage, but when they take the damage - they instantly KOed.
3.1. This is calculated per hit, so character with multihitting moves will have easier time.

Yeah...