Annihilation Nation

Annihilation Nation is a legal gladiatorial combat competition in Up Your Arsenal, taking place on a space station in the Solana Galaxy known as Station Q9. The competition offers prizes, handed out by famous pop star Courtney Gears, for completing its major arena challenges and gauntlets. Ratchet and Clank first competed in search of the Tyhrra-Guise, after Sasha Phyronix suggested it to them. Later, they competed to meet Courtney Gears and ask her about her ties to Dr. Nefarious.

Bolts are awarded for completing each challenge, but the bolt award will diminish each time it is repeated. Completing all challenges will earn the Annihilation Nation trophy for the Starship Phoenix trophy room.

History
Sasha Phyronix suggested that Ratchet and Clank travel to Annihilation Nation to obtain the Tyhrra-Guise, shortly after the two restored Captain Qwark's memory by playing the vid-comic, Booty is in the Eye of the Beholder. In the mission "Win the Tyhrra-Guise", Ratchet competed in the "Deathcourse Challenge", the first gauntlet, winning the Tyhrra-Guise and the second Qwark vid-comic, Arriba Amoeba. Ratchet then completed various challenges and gauntlets, including against Gary and Helen, ending in the "Championship Bout I".

Later, after viewing a music video by Courtney Gears in which she spread propaganda for Dr. Nefarious, Ratchet and Clank returned to the Annihilation Nation in order to meet with her and ask more. Gears refused to speak to Ratchet when giving out the prize, but showed great interest in Clank, offering to give him more information if he gave her a role on the Secret Agent Clank show.

At some point, Dallas Wanamaker originally wanted to be an employee, but turned down to work for Gleeman Vox.

Layout
Station Q9 is a space station built into an asteroid, in which the Annihilation Nation takes place. The inside of the asteroid is largely filled with lava pits, above which both the gauntlets and the arena challenges.

The hangar in which the Star Explorer lands is a small, circular room entered through a round opening outside the station leading into it. Past this small hangar is a hallway leading to a screen in which the challenges are selected, with a carpet along the path leading to it, and podiums with an audience surrounding the challenge select screen.

The arena is a circular room contained in a glass dome, with a view of space in the windows that make up the ceiling. Podiums are seen surrounding the arena in the middle, which is a circular platform in the middle of a pit of lava. Six bullpens surround the arena, with three on either side, separated by a wall with the Annihilation Nation logo on either end of the arena. Small cameras attached to the walls follow the action.

The gauntlets are held within a lava pit inside a rock crater within the asteroid. Between the obstacle courses are rooms found within buildings along the gauntlet path. The gauntlets all start from the same starting point, and lead into rooms within the buildings in which the path leads either left or right depending on the challenge. The paths all lead around obstacles and through various rooms until ending in one of two areas: on the right, a small path leading to a final stretch of obstacles before the final small room at the end, and on the left, a wider room where enemies are fought before the final room.

Arena challenges
The "Grand Prize Bout" is renamed to "Practice Challenge" after it is first completed.

Each arena challenge is made up of a few waves of enemies, spawned him from bullpens around the arena when the current arena is empty of enemies. The enemies fought here are blade bots, gladiators, bash bots, laser bots, and ninja bots. Blade bots are small, melee enemies that are destroyed in a single hit. Gladiators and bash bots are medium, tougher melee enemies that can sustain some damage first, and will charge to Ratchet to then swing their attacks. Laser bots are medium-ranged enemies that can provide a threat but are avoidable as their laser can be predicted. Ninja bots are particularly agile enemies that either attack with their sword or with a long-ranged shuriken attack.

The arena also has several hazards. These come in the form of spinning blades and electric traps in the ground, and a retractable floor in the center that can reveal a large repeating gatling turret which is invincible. All of these hazards must be avoided either by not stepping on the traps while they are active, or in the case of the gatling turret, running away to avoid its fire.

Some challenges feature restrictions as a gimmick. These include time limits, forcing a certain weapon, cycling between weapons, sleeping gas that reduces nanotech over time, or challenges that end if Ratchet takes a single point of damage. During the Championship Bout challenges, these gimmicks are cycled between the rounds.

Occasionally, an inferno crate will spawn, that can last a few rounds. This provides temporary invincibility and causes all attacks to instantly kill, making it a very worthwhile pickup.

Practice Challenge
This challenge is identical to "Grand Prize Bout", and is renamed after it is beaten once. It consists of ten rounds.

The first round consists entirely of gladiators, which are best dealt with by using weapons such as the Shock Blaster, Nitro Launcher, or Plasma Whip when they cluster in a group. The second round consists of laser bots and bash bots, for which a similar strategy applies. For the third round, blade bots appear; these can either be dispatched quickly with weapons such as the Plasma Whip, or sucked using the Suck Cannon to then spit them out at the enemies in the fourth round, which are laser bots, bash bots, and gladiators. The fifth round also consists of blade bots.

For the sixth round, an inferno crate appears. The enemies for this round are laser bots, bash bots, and gladiators. For the seventh round, laser bots, bash bots, and blade bots appear. The eighth round consists of blade bots and gladiators, while the ninth round is similar, consisting of gladiators, bash bots, and blade bots. The final round is made of gladiators, laser bots, and blade bots.

90 Seconds Of Carnage
90 Seconds Of Carnage was an Annihilation Nation challenge where you must kill all of the enemies in 1:30 (90 seconds).

Onslaught
Onslaught was an Annihilation Nation challenge. Here the player would face 9 rounds of enemies in two minutes.

Champion Bout
Champion Bout was a challenge at Annihilation Nation that was separated in 24 rounds. The first 23 rounds were regular A-Nation rounds, and the last was a showdown with Gary and Helen. A reward of 15,000 bolts could be earned by winning the bout.

Champion Bout II
Champion Bout II was a challenge on Annihilation Nation. It was the same as the original Champion Bout but the final battle was against Scorpio instead of Gary and Helen.

One Hit Wonder
One Hit Wonder was an Annihilation Nation challenge that had to be completed without being hit. One cannot use the Shield Charger in this challenge.

Ninja Challenge
Ninja Challenge is an Annihilation Nation challenge. It is a normal arena battle challenge but introduced Ninjas on the arena.

Counting Ducks
Counting Ducks was an Annihilation Nation challenge. This challenge introduced Lombax Snooze Mist.

Naptime
Naptime was an challenge in Annihilation Nation. You must beat Scorpio while there is the Lombax snooze mist.

The Terrible Two
The Terrible Two was a fight against Gary and Helen in Annihilation Nation.

Two Minute Warning
The Two Minute Warning was another fight against Gary and Helen at Annihilation Nation. Compared to the other challenge, Ratchet only had 2 minutes to beat them.

Dodge the Twins
This was another battle against Gary and Helen at the Annihilation Nation. It involved going through a series of rounds without getting hit while attacking Gary and Helen.

Time To Suck
Time To Suck is an Annihilation Nation challenge. The contestant is required to use only the Suck Cannon/Vortex Cannon. If you fired all ammunition and there were no more blade bots and are still gladiators, you lose because you do not have ammo longer to fire at them.

Chop Chop
Chop Chop was a challenge on Annihilation Nation where the contestant was only allowed to use the Disc Blade Gun or Multi-Disc Gun to clear the arena.

Hydra'n Seek
Hydra'n Seek was a challenge in Annihilation Nation. This challenge could only be played out using the Spitting Hydra. When the challenge was complete, the player received some bolts as a reward.

Cycling Weapons
Cycling Weapons was a challenge in the holovision show Annihilation Nation. It was the first of the cycling weapon challenges. It consisted of 8 rounds in the first playthrough, but 16 on the second. In this challenge, Ratchet's gun would constantly change after a certain amount of ammo was used. Weapons with infinite ammo or non-combative weapons, such as the Shield Charger and Qwack-O-Ray did not appear in these challenges. The wrench was also unusable. Ammo used during the rounds was not deducted from Ratchet's ammo total.

More Cycling Weapons
More Cycling Weapons was an Annihilation Nation challenge. In this fight, Ratchet had to fight Scorpio with his weapons changing. This was a lot harder than the original fight due to Scorpio's high health and attack range. However, if Ratchet was lucky he could get weapons like the Flux Rifle and Plasma Coil, which would make the fight much easier. In Challenge Mode, if you have the RY3NO, you can take it out in 1–2 shots.

Sleep Inducer
Sleep Inducer was a challenge in Annihilation Nation. In this fight, Ratchet had to take on an army of gladiators armed only with the Rift Inducer. To add to the difficulty, Lombax Snooze Mist was sprayed on and on throughout the fight, draining Ratchet's health as he fought on. However, all of the gladiators were susceptible to being sucked into rifts and the challenge was only four rounds long.

The Other White Meat
The Other White Meat was a challenge in Annihilation Nation. In this fight, Ratchet had to kill many gladiators over six rounds with only the Qwack-O-Ray. It was very helpful to have the Qwack-O-Ray up to V4 or have the Qwack-O-Blitzer in this fight so Ratchet would have many of his enemies defeated by the exploding ducks or the Phoenix Duck.

Qwarktastic Battle
The Qwarktastic Battle was the most difficult challenge in Annihilation Nation. It consisted of 100 rounds and, if completed, awarded the winner with 200,000 bolts (and 2,000,000 bolts in challenge mode). Most notably, it featured nearly all aspects of the other challenges. It was not unlocked until the all other challenges were completed. The 50th level of Qwarktastic Battle was a fight against Gary and Helen and the 100th was a fight against Scorpio.

Qwarktastic Win is a silver trophy in the high-definition re-release of Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal also available through Ratchet & Clank Collection. Complete the Qwarktastic Battle in Annihilation Nation to obtain this trophy.

Gauntlet challenges
The "Deathcourse Challenge" is renamed to "Heat Street" after it is first completed.

The gauntlet challenges are obstacle courses that award the player for successfully reaching the end of the course. Each gauntlet takes place over a set path over a pool of lava, with a specified path between rooms until the end is reached. After reaching a room, Ratchet stands on a switch in the middle of the room, and an arrow will then open up a door either right or left to continue the path (though the arrow appears random, it is always the same for that challenge).

The obstacles in between the rooms include fire traps that occasionally light up, platforms that may fall if Ratchet lands on them, push blocks that will push Ratchet into the lava pit, and small laser turrets that appear from a hatch and fire a green laser as Ratchet approaches. The fire traps, when observed, all follow a pattern, meaning it is possible to predict when flames will activate on a platform, and jump around it to avoid damage. For falling platforms, it is best to simply jump quickly in between the platforms and guarantee safety. Push blocks can be more tricky, as there may not be enough space in between the push blocks to avoid them entirely. In situations like these, it is best to observe when the push blocks expand and retract, and stand on some to then jump further past them when it is safe. For the small laser turrets, either shooting them when they appear can disable them, or the Refractor can avoid any damage from them.

In addition to obstacle courses, enemies will appear, in the form of the blade bots, ninja bots, and laser bots. In some cases, teleporters will appear where the enemies will simply teleport in, often in groups, until the last ones are destroyed, while in other cases, the enemies are just encountered as normal. Laser bots can provide various forms of hazards throughout the challenges, as some move in a set pattern, either by spinning or by moving back and forth across a set path with the laser firing. Laser bots and ninja bots can also be positioned on elevated platforms to fire ranged attacks at Ratchet on approach. In both cases, weapons that outrange them, such as the N60 Storm, are preferable to deal with them before this becomes an issue.

There are four gauntlet challenges available on the first visit to Annihilation Nation for the "Win the Tyhrra-Guise" mission, while remaining challenges are available upon returning for the mission "Meet Courtney Gears". Two titanium bolts can be obtained along the gauntlet paths, depending on the challenge.

Heat Street
"Heat Steet" is the same area as the "Deathcourse Challenge", which is renamed after it is completed once. It opens with a set of three platforms, two of which are flame traps while the inner is safe, into the first room with blade bots. It then leads left to a path across with laser turrets stationed around and a laser bot moving left to right at the end, after which are two laser bots situated on elevated platforms before the path leads right to a series of flame traps in front of another room. The room opens up the path right to a bridge across to a different room, which opens the path left to a small path at the end, with push blocks along the path before leading to the final room.

Crispy Critter
"Crispy Critter" is the second gauntlet challenge. It opens with a set of falling platforms and flame traps leading to the first room, which opens a path to the right. Past this is a series of falling platforms along the way to the next patch of ground where several blade bots circle around and fly towards Ratchet while crossing the platforms. Up from this is a set of flame traps on the steps up where a spinning laser bot will teleport in, and as the path continues, two laser bots will fire at Ratchet from elevated platforms while two spinning bash bots will warp in and move between the flame traps around the area before the next room is reached. The room will open a door on the left to a bridge with blade bots across to the next room, which will open a door on the right to the last room. The final area is guarded by a laser bot and three ninja bots, before the gauntlet is complete.

Pyro Playground
The third gauntlet, "Pyro Playground" opens with floating flame trap platforms crossed to reach the first room, which teleports in blade bots and then opens a path on the left. A series of falling platforms are used to cross to the next patch of ground, guarded by two laser turrets, and to the left of this, several blade bots as will as a spinning bash bot teleport in. The path continues with a set of push blocks over a lava pit to reach the next room, guarded by a laser bot. This room opens a path on the left, with several blade bots and two laser bots guarding the final area.

Suicide Run
The fourth gauntlet challenge, and the final challenge on the first visit of Annihilation Nation, "Suicide Run" opens with a series of flame trap platforms in a square shape in front of the first room. This room opens a path to the right, where a bridge made of flame traps is used to cross to the next patch of ground. When continuing the path, three teleporters warp in blade bots, and after this, two laser bots on elevated platforms as well as flame traps guard the path to the next room. The tunnel to the room is guarded by ninja bots, and the room opens up a path to the right, with push blocks across the wall that must be avoided when crossing the path to the ending.

Behind the scenes
The Annihilation Nation challenges were programmed by Anthony "Moo" Yu. As the arena challenges had been a huge success for Going Commando, his approach for Up Your Arsenal was for the challenges to have the same feel and retaining the best parts of Going Commando challenges, as well as to keep the challenges focused and simple then escalate them properly. Though Maxim Garber, who had programmed the arenas for Going Commando, had had to move on to early development of Resistance: Fall of Man, he was nonetheless able to provide advice to Yu throughout development and impart knowledge, particularly when Yu ran into the same problems that Garber previously had. Most of the gauntlets were designed by Colin Munson.

One common bug for the arenas during development was that the player would be unable to progress if an enemy bugged out of the level. To resolve this, Yu placed a pill around the entire arena, and any enemy that fell out of it would be killed instantly, ensuring this would not happen.