The Liberator Tournament is the fifth and final tournament available to contestants in the combat sports show DreadZone in Deadlocked. It is available after acquiring two black medals and enough Dread Points from the challenges on Stygia and Maraxus, and features the Exterminator Ace Hardlight as the final boss. Completing the tournament grants the Liberator rank and armor, as well as access to the final battlecourse; the Ghost Station.
The DreadZone vendor will only offer a new Wrench Upgrade, aside from the incredibly expensive The Harbinger. The combat bot vendor at Al's also sells a final armor and damage upgrade (Hyper-Tron).
Note that starting the Liberator Tournament will force you to play all three challenges in order, without being able to use a vendor in between.
Challenges[]
Swarmer Surprise[]
The first two rounds of "Swarmer Surprise" will pit you against a continuously spawning number of Shriekers and Rhyno Swarmers. In round two dropships also appear to drop off a few Cycloids, which also appear on their own alongside Blade Balls in round three. The last fourth round is only against (small) Beam Turrets and a few more Swarmers. Note that for this challenge you are without your combat bots, so you need to rely on your own tools against the Swarmer numbers. The Shock Mod is recommended, and works well with autonomous weapons like the Holoshield Launcher and the Mini Turret Launcher.
Accelerator[]
"Accelerator" provides a unique mechanic in which your speed slowly increases (up to double, at 200%) which each enemy kill, meanwhile you have to kill 135 enemies within the 155 seconds time limit. This means you move and attack faster over time, making it much easier to avoid and kill enemies. At first there will only be large numbers of Swarmers and Blade Balls, though at forty kills the difficulty rapidly increases. First a dropship shows up, which spawns a large group of Tremors and DZ Annihilators, the dropship stays as well, and if not destroyed quickly enough will be supported by three armored leviathans. A few more Tremors and minor enemies show up after the leviathans, after which the type switches to hordes of robot zombies and several Laser Backs. At this point you will be more than fast enough to run circles around them however, making it easy to mop them up and finish the challenge.
Ace Hardlight Battle[]
Ace Hardlight only has four attacks, the first of which is his pistol with which he will fire in a spread depending on the direction you move in. He is smart enough to aim ahead of you, then trails backwards, guaranteeing a hit if you do not jump or quickly dash the other way. He then follows this up with shockwave grenades, several in a row, which are easily avoided by jumping. At around 50% health left, which should be quick, he will gain a temporary shield and use a med-pack to restore around 30% of the damage taken. After this he will teleport a short distance to the center of the arena and reappear alongside a dozen hologram clones.
All clones will use the pistol like Ace himself, so it is crucial to take down the whole group with area of effect weapons as fast as possible (The Arbiter with the Time Bomb Mod is most effective). Clones will flicker and disappear quickly, although you can also focus down the real Ace to force the rest to vanish. After the second time he heals himself he will throw out a homing dart that moves slow enough you can avoid it by walking, but it does force you to keep moving which can be annoying. Thankfully it blows up if it hits a Holoshield. Eventually he will use the med-pack for the third, after which he will have run out (Which he notices himself when he uses the shield a fourth time). At this point it is only a matter of repeatedly avoiding Ace's attacks while countering with your own weaponry until he is finished.
Completion of "Ace Hardlight Battle" rewards the player character with the Liberator rank, with which they can access the Ghost Station and attempt its challenges.
Dread Challenges[]
Dynamite Baseball[]
Despite the name "Dynamite Baseball" is just a seven-round long arena challenge. The only notable rounds are the second, in which you face off against three Laser Backs at the same time (the Freeze Mod is excellent here). You otherwise only face off against Cycloids and robot zombies, along with several more Laser Backs, until the challenge is over.
Less is More[]
The final Dread Challenge is difficult as it employs a drain on both your health and ammunition, along with a continually shrinking forcefield around the arena. To compensate this there is plenty of ammo to be found from ammo crates and by killing enemies, the same of which goes for the nanotech crates. For the first round-and-a-half you have to contend with dropships (dropping off DZ Annihilators) supported by Blade Balls. Burst down the dropships right away to avoid drawn-out firefights, including the Laser Backs at the end of round two, and during round three. Round three also includes a huge swarm of Blade Balls.
Round four starts with successive spawning pockets of Annihilators and Tremors, forcing you to be careful of both their ranged and melee attack venues. In round five a few (small) Beam Turrets start appearing round the square in the arena center (along with some Annihilators), although you will still have enough space to hide behind a Holoshield at the arena edge if you want (rather than take them on in the center). The final three rounds are the hardest, pitting you against Executioners (supported by Swarmers) and Beam Turrets that rapidly drop one after the other, along with Tremors that also show up at the end.
Due to the arena size and enemy numbers it is recommended to now unleash your full arsenal of automated weapons; the Mini Turret Launcher is highly capable to handle large enemy groups, and especially with the Freeze Mod is effective in slowing down tough targets the turrets cannot destroy rightaway. The Hunter Mine Launcher is also effective when coupled with the Napalm Mod, as the large number of mines and high rate of fire means you can quickly enact an area denial screen of lava in the little space left around you. Lastly the Scorpion Flail is effective due to its limited range, high damage, and high rate of fire in confined spaces like the final few rounds.