Arena 3V3 ‘Dark Prison’ Elite Map
INTRODUCTION
➥ Each route in the Arena 3V3 match has several branch points. There are various routes, such as a route that allows you to reach the goal quickly and a route that collects a lot of Goldfish Coin, so it will greatly affect the outcome of the match.
➥ During the match, the arrows that appear on the stage only show relatively safe routes. However, simply following the arrows is not the optimal route for collecting a lot of fish coins or for reaching the goal quickly.
➥ Remember that there are 2 types of Goldfish Coins that can be collected. The first one is the normal Goldfish Coin where picking up 1 of them will give you 1 Goldfish Coin. However, if you get all the Goldfish Coins in one row, it will be doubled!
Example: A row of Goldfish Coins have a total of 10 Goldfish. If you manage to get all of them, it will be doubled and you can get a total of 20 Goldfish Coins.
Important: Some maps may have some consecutive rows of Goldfish Coins that are given a bonus, and some are not. For the sake of fairness, I will not double the coins here since it's not easy to get all the coins.
➥ The other one is the skull balloon that is floating in the arena. By picking up one of those balloons, you can get 20 Goldfish Coins!
➥ On a rare chance, you might encounter Thief Imps on some maps. Not only those little gremlins dropped a random number of Goldfish Coins, but you can also get another 5 coins after killing them. When you see them, try to chase all of them so you can get extra Goldfish Coins.
➥ Don't forget that killing enemies (that can be killed) will also provide you with Goldfish Coins. Using a quick dash is really beneficial here because you can unalive the opponent while also sprinting faster to reach the destination.
➥ One last reminder, while the guide mentioned the possible total number of Goldfish Coins in certain routes, don't forget that there will be a (big) gap between the total amount of coins and the total amount players can get (you have to be impossibly skilled to get the exact amount of Goldfish Coins mentioned). Once again, this guide does not mention the total amount of Goldfish Coins in one stage, just a certain amount of coins in certain routes.
SPECIAL MENTION
➥ A special mention for this stage because the terrain is simple yet unique in its own way. You can see tons of forks determined by different acceleration portals here, and whether to choose the first portal, second portal, or skip both of them will bring you to a completely different route.
➥ In the first half alone, you will get to see 9 forks with 3 different routes to choose from. Since every fork starts with 2 acceleration portals, I won't be including those images except the one above because it would be repetitive. Instead, I will just include the screenshot of each route and why you should take it.
FIRST HALF ROUTE
〚 Fork 1 〛
➥ Route 1 provides 40 Goldfish Coins but you will reach the end of the fork much faster because of the acceleration portals.
➥ Route 2 provides much more coins but with the drawback that you will reach the end of the fork much later than Route 1. You can get 60 Goldfish Coins here.
〚 Fork 2 〛
➥ Fork 2 is basically the opposite of Fork 1. Route 1 provides more coins but you will reach the end of the road much later. You can get 60 Goldfish Coins here.
➥ Route 2 here provides 40 Goldfish Coins with the addition of speed acceleration portals.
〚 Fork 3 〛
➥ In Route 1, you will get 60 Goldfish Coins in addition to a few more coins if you manage to kill the Huge Samurai.
➥ Similar to Route 2, you can get 60 Goldfish Coins here. There will be no additional coins here, but the obstacles are super easy to avoid and all the Goldfish Coins balloons are in one row.
〚 Fork 4 〛
➥ There are absolutely no Goldfish Coins at all in Route 1, but you have a chance to surpass your rivals (and teammates) using the acceleration portals here.
➥ Route 2 provides around 40 Goldfish Coins but you would be late in catching up with the others because you can't use a quick dash here.
〚 Fork 5 〛
➥ Route 1 does not have any Goldfish Coins at all, but you can get one mystery card.
➥ Route 2 provides the 'most' coins (40 Goldfish Coins), which is not that many, and you are at risk of facing two Huge Ninjas while being surrounded by Shurikens.
➥ Route 3 is recommended because you can get a decent 20 Goldfish Coins and there is an acceleration portal at the end for you to sprint a little bit.
〚 Fork 6 〛
➥ Route 1 does not have any Goldfish Coins at all, but you can get a temporary shield skill. This buff is much more recommended compared to Route 2 because of the next fork.
➥ If Route 1 gives you a shield, Route 2 gives you the temporary ice spikes skill. Not recommended and you should choose Route 1 instead for the shield
〚 Fork 7 〛
➥ If you got the shield buff from the previous fork, you should go to Route 1 where there will be a few Goldfish Coins.
➥ But if you want to reach the end faster, you can choose Route 2 with many acceleration portals.
➥ If you don't have any of the buffs (shield or ice spikes), you can opt to Route 3 which has the magnet orb. It is not useful here but for the next fork. In addition, try to spam quick dash so you can reach the end faster.
〚 Fork 8 〛
➥ In Route 1, you can reach the end faster with the acceleration portals. This route is recommended if you didn't take the magnet orb in Fork 7 Route 3.
➥ If you get the magnet orb, make sure to enter Route 2 so you can take all those Goldfish Coins.
〚 Fork 9 〛
➥ The last fork has two decent routes: 1 and 3. In Route 1, you can use the acceleration portals to quickly reach the final destination. Route 2 is not recommended at all because there is no benefit for you to go there.
➥ The last route is Route 3 with 28 Goldfish Coins and you can use a quick dash to quickly reach the store and face the first boss.
SECOND HALF ROUTE
〚 Fork 1 〛
➥ The recommended route for the first fork in the second half is Route 2 because the amount of Goldfish Coins in both routes are the same (with the exception of small bonuses in Route 1 if you defeat the enemies), and you can also use quick dash at the bottom to reach the end faster.
『 Route 1 』
➥ You can get 60 Goldfish Coins from the balloon, and a few bonus coins if you manage to kill the enemies. The downside here is that you can't quick dash so you may waste your time here.
『 Route 2 』
➥ Route 2 also provides 60 Goldfish Coins but the difficulty is much lower since the obstacles are only the skeletons' hands and you can use the quick dash here.
〚 Fork 2 〛
➥ In Route 1, you can get 100 Goldfish Coins and 1 mystery card. In addition, there will be lots of acceleration portals so you can reach the end quickly.
➥ In Route 2, you can get 60 Goldfish Coins and 1 mystery card. Compared to Route 1, this one will slow you down quite a bit because there are no portals to take advantage of and you can't use a quick dash.
➥ Route 3 provides you with 88 Goldfish Coins and you can use the quick dash. It is better than Route 2 unless you want that mystery card.
『 Fork 3 』
➥ This is the last fork for the stage. In Route 1, you can get 43 Goldfish Coins. Yeah, it sounds little, but you can reach the final destination faster because of the acceleration portals.
➥ In the meantime, Route 2 provides you with 64 Goldfish Coins but you will be slow and can only rely on a quick dash to sprint faster.
VIDEO REFERENCE
➥ Thank you to NMD Guide for the thorough map for the Dark Prison Elite Map. You can check out the video above for the full layout of the said arena.
