The Crusader Tournament is the third tournament available to contestants in the combat sports show DreadZone in Deadlocked. It is available after acquiring two blue medals and enough Dread Points from the challenges on Shaar and Orxon, and features the Exterminator Reactor as the final boss. Completing the tournament grants the Crusader rank and armor, as well as access to the Valix Belt and planet Torval.
The Mini Turret Launcher will be newly available from the DreadZone vendor, as well as a second Wrench Upgrade. The combat bot vendor at Al's also sells another armor and damage upgrade (Go-Comet X) and the Range Warrior (long range rifle). The Mini Turret Launcher should be acquired first and foremost, followed by either combat bot upgrade to your choosing.
Note that starting the Crusader Tournament will force you to play all three challenges in order, without being able to use a vendor in between.
Challenges[]
Static Deathtrap[]
You will only have access to the Hunter Mine Launcher for this challenge, which is otherwise a simple arena challenge of five rounds without Merc and Green. If you haven't purchased it yet you receive it for free temporarily, but it remains at V1 and cannot be upgraded. It will automatically restore ammunition, but you should avoid spamming it regardless to ensure you have enough ammunition to immediately destroy the more dangerous enemies. You should also be using either the Napalm Mod or the Mini-Bomb Mod.
Most of round one only contains Claw Tooth Swarmer and a few DZ Vipers (the Crusader variant of the DZ Berserker), while round two introduces a few Reapers. Small Beam Turrets and a few nanotech crates drop in round three, with the former dropping in quick succession with enough spread to be able to cover most of the arena, so seeking cover is recommended. Round four features more Reapers, as well as Swarmers and Vipers. Round five only sees the latter two, but in immense numbers, after which the challenge ends.
Marathon[]
This time you must capture four nodes within four minutes. The timer is essentially a non-issue, so focus on destroying all enemies; starting with the Swarmer and DZ Viper spawns along with the Executioners. Capturing the first bolt crank will adjust the glowing grind rail, which leads to the second node. More Swarmers, Vipers await here, along with another Executioner and a leviathan. The third node is closeby as well, which will be defended by Shriekers and another leviathan. The fourth node is located past the floating platforms and is only defended by a slight group of Swarmers and accompanying DZ Vipers.
Reactor Battle[]
Reactor will begin by sending forth a rapid-fire spray of blasts in your direction from his palm. You cannot dodge it normally by strafing and will either need to keep moving backwards while flipping from side to side, or simply place down a Holoshield. He follows this attack up with a charge, which you can at least dodge, which he then follows up with a ground slam causing a short shockwave. When he has lost about a third of his HP he retreats to the second arena section, after which he starts sending forth directed energy blasts that leave behind damaging blue energy on the floor. These can still be blocked by the Holoshields however, which is convenient as he follows it up with his standard blaster attack. From here on the fight remains entirely identical, except for the floor panels that flip up to emit fire when he has about a third HP left.
Completion of "Reactor Battle" rewards the player character with the Crusader rank, with which they can access the Valix Belt and its challenges, as well as the challenges on Torval. Before heading to either planet you should also acquire the remaining bot upgrades from Al's vendor.
Dread Challenges[]
Zombie Attack[]
This challenge re-introduces the robot zombies from Catacrom Four in a 135 second endurance round, including weapons that have to be picked up from the floor. The arena can essentially be considered to be safe on your half, and dangerous on the zombies' side, which also includes constantly respawning explosive barrels. The zombies are a lot stronger than before, but their only threat is their endlessly respawning numbers. The bigger concern is being overwhelmed as you get too distracted by the few DZ Vipers and Executioners being included closer to the end. As it is an endurance round it can be advantageous to rely on the Freeze Mod over killing enemies (as this only forces new ones to respawn).
Heavy Metal[]
"Heavy Metal" focuses entirely on the biggest enemies that DreadZone can field, opening up with two Executioners, followed by a dropship that only drops a few Swarmers before focusing on you. These enemy types persist for round one, whereas round two includes leviathans and Reapers, and another dropship. Round three features another leviathan, except supported by robot zombies this time. In round four a Laser Back appears, followed by another, as the amount of zombies steadily starts to increase and peaks near the end.
Executioners show up again in the fifth round, which is also when the odd devices spread along the rim of the field begin to activate. The sole thing they do is to serve as area denial for you, although you can order EMP Grenades to deactivate them temporarily. At this point you only need to finish off more dropships, Executioners, Reapers, and Laser Backs to end the challenge. Note that due to the amount of enemies the Napalm Mod is recommended against the zombies, whereas the more dangerous enemies are best held back by the Freeze Mod (especially on the Mini Turret Launcher, as it is excellent in micro-managing multiple threats on its own).
Endzone[]
"Endzone" introduces a unique mechanic in which you must stop an endless horde of Claw Tooth Swarmers from reaching the red barrier on your side for exactly 150 seconds. If a 100 get through you fail the challenge, as well if you die to the supporting DZ Vipers, Executioners, and leviathans. The latter three enemy types are manageable, but you will have to juggle them (preferably with the Freeze Mod) while handling the Swarmers (a non-issue if you rely on the Shock Mod, as it can endlessly spread to every single enemy in range.