Metal Slug: Awakening

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Metal Slug: Awakening
Year	June 2021 (Beta Tests) April 18, 2023 (China) August 22, 2023 (SEA) July 18, 2024 (Global)
Developer	TiMi Studios
Publisher	Tencent VNGGames (SEA) HaoPlay (Global)
Genre	Platformer, Run n' Gun
Platforms	Android, iOS, Steam

Metal Slug: Awakening (formerly known provisionally as Metal Slug Code: J) is a run-and-gun title for iOS and Android published by Tencent Games and developed by its subsidiary TiMi Studios. The game was released in China on April 18, 2023 and in Southeast Asia on August 22, 2023.

The global version was released on July 17, 2024 for iOS and Android. The Steam versión, however, got delayed to July 19, 2024 after the site's awaiting for its review and approval.

Times and events for the Chinese and SEA versions are set at UTC+8. Global times are at UTC-5.

Current seasons are as follows:

• China: Season 5
• SEA: Season 4
• Global: Season 2

Characters

The game features new playable characters alongside the six heroes from the main series. Like Metal Slug 6 onward, each character has their own abilities and skills. Characters are recruited by collecting tokens given by rewards or using the various Dig gachas in the Mining Site. Extra tokens are then used to promote the respective character and unlock passive abilities.

Playable Characters

Names with an * are currently only available in the Chinese/SEA version.

Special

Character	Skill	Ultimate Skill
Marco Rossi	Throws grenades.	Slows down time and uses the Two Machine Guns.
Fio Germi	Swings a large teddy bear horizontally on the ground or vertically in the air.	Drops multiple refrigerators. Food dropped can be collected for extra rate of fire.
Eri Kasamoto	Tackles and then throws small grenades.	Throws a gas can that explodes and generates a Lava Field.

Excellent

Character	Skill	Ultimate Skill
Tarma Roving	Throws a large wrench. If caught, rams enemies with his motorbike.	Calls in the Cyclone Crossbow Mecha to assist.
Nadia Cassel	Heals herself and her weakest teammate.	Becomes overweight and bounces all over the place. Produces an aura around herself and her allies that auto-heals and increases attack.
Eva Glenn	Sends a Magnetic Ball towards the target location. Magnetic Balls in close proximity will become linked by electricity. Her attacks are slightly increased.	Sends a larger Magnetic Ball with a wider field. It and any other linked Magnetic Balls will emit an explosion every two seconds.
Haran	Drops a large icicle above the target. Allies near the icicle receive extra attack bonus.	Creates a massive snowstorm and freezes enemies for a second.
Gru Kang	Throws a series of jabs and increases Rage. When throwing jabs while fully raged, his weapons temporarily increase attack.	Drops a Ring of Rage that damages slows down enemies within it. Gru Kang Rage regen rate is increased when within the ring.
Violet	Rolls forward and fires a Penetrating Cannon. When her Enhanced Weapon meter is filled, then she tosses a Blast Grenade.	Fires multiple cannonballs from a mortar. Her Penetrating Cannon is enhanced to trigger an explosion behind the targeted unit.
Kyo Kusanagi*	Does an upwards kick and inflicts ignite.	Does a three attack combo, knocks his enemies airborne, and gains a stage of Rage. Once 3 Rage is collected, Kyo summons multiple fire pillars in front of him.

Rare

Character	Skill	Ultimate Skill
Trevor Spacey	Kicks a traveling air slash from his knife boots that locks onto hit enemies. He then teleports towards them for extra damage.	Hacks enemies within radius. If max energy is collected, then he can temporarily use the Zantetsu Sword.
Lyla	Summons a mechanical octopus to attract nearby Puffer Fish. After 8 are detonated, an Elite Puffer with exact weapon type is summoned to assist.	An enormous Puffer Fish is thrown and explodes on impact. Six Puffer Fish are produced.
Scarlett	Violently fires a tennis ball. If hit on return, her weapon will fire extra bullets.	Summons a tennis ballista that fires larger tennis balls. These can be hit on return.
Kukik	Summons his hound to attack the enemies in his direction with his falcon dealing a secondary attack onto those being hit. His falcon also assists the player's team by launching sharp feathers.	His falcon deals multiple strikes in his direction. Struck enemies are marked and sustain extra damage.
Saya	Fires a Shark Turret at her target and creates an electric field around it. She can call it back to her position. Saya also gains a shield that other teammates can inherit.	Summons a Shark Battleship that continuously fires at nearby enemies. Once its ammo is depleted, the artillery strikes the closest enemy in front of it and explodes. Saya and her teammates gain an ATK boost.
Eiserner	Shoots missiles from her floating wing. The missiles and ammo used from her weapon recharges energy. Once the energy bar is filled, a round of lasers from floating pods are fired, and Eiserner gains a stack of Overload status which earns an extra round of lasers.	Fires a giant laser onto her target plus a volley of smaller lasers scattered around it. Enemies hit per laser earns Eiserner 15% of energy.
Joe	Swings his giant shield, and the entire team earns one stack of Overload. When he is switched off to a new member, Joe leaves his shield in place. Shooting in the shield's opposite side increases DMG at enemies, and when switched back, Joe pulls the shield back to him.	Slams his shield to the ground, dealing massive damage and knocking enemies high in the air. Once slammed, an Overload Field is generated for 8 seconds where Joe and his allies in range have their DMG stat increased. The player also gains a shield at 40% HP.
Alessio	Places a smoke grenade below himself. Those within the smoke increase their Dodge Rate and RoF. Allies in range are also not targeted by automatic attacks for the first 1.5 seconds of the smoke.	Jumps high in the air, enters Red Hawk Form, and gains 5 stacks of Enhanced Weapon. His arsenal is changed to a missile cannon for a limited time in which hitting enemies with it charges energy for an ultimate volley of missiles.
Lilith	Throws a Genetic Powerball onto the closest enemy. When it bounces back to Lilith, she, her teammates, and her allies all get healed. Bounced back Powerballs generate a Rabbit Drone over the deployed character giving increased CRIT and ATK for a short time.	Throws three Rabbit Drones that attach themselves over the closest enemy. Attached enemies suffer additional DMG taken for a short time. The drones then explode, return back to Lilith (or the deployed character), and heal the entire team.
Ame	Activates her Divine Wings and is able to fly for 5 seconds. The wings also fire projectiles dealing a percentage of her wielded weapon. When maximum energy is reached by dealing damage from both of her skills, the wings activate a Wing Cannon and fires a large shot at the targeted enemy.	Enhances her wings and flies for 8 seconds. Her projectiles turn into stronger and faster rapid-fire Wing Blades. The player also gains a shield at 30% of her Max HP.
Dong Huanlong	Aims and summons a circular bind that continuously pulls in and attacks enemies. During active combat, Loong and her teammates also summon a homing dragon dealing a small percentage of the team's DPS from the last 5 seconds.	Summons a dragon that inflicts DMG Augmentation (extra damage) onto enemies, then summon 10 more dragons one at a time.
Ilum
Freyja
Marco Polo
Eske
Aurora

Chinese Exclusive Characters

Characters here may appear on other versions once their respective season is active.

		File:MSAwk Icon Holly.png	File:MSAwk Icon Leona.png
玛蒂娜	沙都	荷莱	Leona Heidern	Sun Shangxiang	Mai Shiranui

Weapons

Most special weapons return with the ability of aiming at any angle (aside from the Iron Lizard). The Flame Shot is reduced to its version from Metal Slug: Super Vehicle-001 in which it fires a weak flame burst. New to the arsenal is the Blizzard, a gun firing a constant stream of ice that freezes enemies and large water pools.

The player starts a new game with a pistol but soon are able to wield unique weapons as their main gun. These weapons use one type of ammunition as the respective special weapon it is based on. It has limited ammunition but can be reloaded infinitely after running out of ammo or by not firing for a short time. The unique weapon classes are as follows:

	HMG: A Heavy Machine Gun that also periodically fires homing missiles.
	Combo Shotgun: A Shotgun that does much more damage up close.
	Flame Shot: Fires a fireball that disperses into a stronger ring of fire.
	Freeze Gun: Fires a wider and longer stream of ice.
	Bazooka: Functions similar to the Super Grenade: firing multiple rockets per shot at rapid speeds.
	Gatling: A Heavy Machine Gun that slowly increases its rate of fire as the player keeps holding the fire button.
	Heavy Sniper Rifle: Fires a fast, penetrating shot.
	Boxing Gun: Fiercely extends a punching glove that produces an explosion behind the targeted enemy.
	Saw Launcher: Fires a spinning saw that sticks onto an enemy. When the gun is charged between shots, the saws will extend themselves when stuck for a larger area of effect.
	Bow: Fires a single speedy arrow. Around more than half of its ammo explode upon impact in which its remaining arrows create a smaller burst.
	Laser Gun: Fires a laser that randomly pulses bursts of energy for extra damage.
	Fission Gun: Fires a projectile spread of bullets. When the Barrage Rain bar depletes, it will only fire one bullet until the player stops firing to fill up the bar.
	Chainblade Rifle: Fires a fast, sharp blade and ignites enemies in flames for every 12 hits.
	Grenade Launcher: Fires grenades dealing an explosion affecting nearby enemies.
	Plasma Cannon: Fires a large wide ball of energy.
	Vortex Forcefield Cannon: Fires a vortex that traps enemies inside a forcefield.

The Rocket Launcher and Iron Lizard currently do not have their own set of unique weapons.

Collecting a special weapon will replace the weapon on hold for the character in play. Collecting a special weapon with the same properties as the unique weapon will instead temporarily boost its stats.

All weapons are able to afflict a side effect onto enemies. These afflictions are affected for a limited time but all of them can be stacked onto one enemy.

• Weak: Their weak points are exposed by a yellow glow. Firing at their weak points deal extra damage.
• Wound: Inflicts extra damage.
• Ignite: Accumulates damage by firing at them. Stacking enough damage triggers a large-area explosion.
• Freeze: Slows enemies down and deals extra damage.

Weapon	Special Ammo	Affliction
Heavy Machine Gun/HMG	100	Weak
Rocket Launcher	25
Shotgun/Combo Shotgun	36	Ignite
Flame Shot	30	Ignite
Laser Gun	80	Freeze
Iron Lizard	25	Weak
Blizzard/Freeze Gun	96	Freeze
Bazooka	N/A	Wound
Gatling	N/A	Weak
Heavy Sniper Rifle	N/A	Wound
Saw Launcher	N/A	Weak
Boxing Gun	N/A	Wound
Bow	N/A	Ignite
Fission Gun	N/A	Weak
Chainblade Rifle	N/A	Ignite
Grenade Launcher	N/A	Weak
Plasma Cannon	N/A	Wound
Vortex Forcefield Cannon	N/A	Freeze

Unique weapons are collected through certain game modes or by the Dig gachas from the Mining Site. Weapons can be leveled up, upgraded, and add extra stats to player characters using Cores. Each weapon has its own upgraded variant called an Awakened Weapon that further strengthens the weapon's ammo and abilities.

Slugs

The SV-001, SV-Camel, Drill Slug, and Slug Mobile (named the Metal Express) return alongside new Slugs. Slugs can be found in the battlefield or summoned by the player at any time when the Slug Meter is active. Summoned Slugs are destroyed when their health is depleted, their fuel runs out, or the player ejects from them once. The Slug Flyer is only found in select stages and cannot be dismounted.

A Slug's attribute is inherited from the pilot's ATK, HP, and DEF stats. Conversely, placing Slugs on a Research Hub also upgrades the players respective stats. The Slug's percentage of transferred attributes are upgraded (and go over 100%) by promoting the Slug and its individual parts.

Hubs are upgraded by using Gear Oil in random increments of 30, 60, and 90 points per fill. A hub is leveled up every 100 points, and the max level for each hub is Lv 700. The second and third hubs are unlocked at Lv 35 for Hub 1 and Lv 50 for Hub 2, respectively. The rest of the hubs require the previous one to be at Lv 100.

All returning and new Slugs have a Vulcan ready plus additional weapons. Additional skill information can be found by visiting the respective Slug's page.

Slug	Skill 1	Skill 2	Passive
SV-001	Fires nine missiles straight ahead.	Fires a cannon from an arc.	The third cannon shot fires a triple-shot shell.
SV-Camel	Shoots a stream of fire counter-clockwise from the ground.	Summons a lightning storm cloud.	Increases Vulcan DMG by 5%.
Drill Slug	Extends its drill. If it hits a target, it'll then dash forward at them.	Lifts then slams itself creating a shockwave that knocks enemies in the air.	When the drill hits an enemy, the drill continues moving for 4.5 seconds.
Heavy Mecha	Does a jumping smash into the ground. When enhanced, the impact produces lightning around the mech.	Dashes forward and knocks enemies in the air. When enhanced, the dash produces lightning along the way.	Gains energy when hitting enemies during a skill. When fully energized, the next skill is enhanced.
Sonic Alpaca	Leaps at a rhythm crating ultrasonic waves every 0.5 seconds.	Summons 7 falling Bass Bombs that explode on impact.	Cooldown of Ultrasonic Leap is reduced by 1 second when an enemy is hit by a Bass Bomb.
Metal Express	Sprints forward while launching 4 Homing Missiles per second.	Turns the car around. If done while sprinting, then it creates a shockwave and recovers energy.	Gains energy when moving or drifting.
Powerball Drive	Turns into a ball and charges forward. Gains 2 energy on hit.	Jumps then activates a cyclone around itself. Enemies are stunned, and the Slug gains 1 energy per hit.	After using a skill, the next strike in the air creates a smash on descent. When energy is full, it can be expended for consecutive smashes.
Ironfin	Fires a high-pressurized water stream from a limited, recharging water tank onto enemies pushing them back.	Uses all recharges to slam a wave that travels at both sides of the vehicle. The size of the wave varies on the recharges stored.	Hit enemies increase energy up to three recharges.
Towering Reno	Gains speed using nitro, and dashes in front of enemies.	The kart performs a fast donut that knocks enemies into the air. Doing it twice forms a vertical magnetic field.	Creates a magnetic field that increases the attack of allied units within the field.
Crimson Warblade	Dashes in front of enemies, knocking them back.	Dashing forward and performing multiple slashes at enemies.	Rapidly shoots the Vulcan to increase the charge meter and sweeping them with a giant slash wave.
Shatter Ship	Dashes in front of enemies,knocking them up in the air.	Dashing forward and and continuously grinding them with Rotating Blades while shooting circular saw blades.

Modes

Each of the various game modes are accessed by talking to the respective mode's host. Clicking the mode from the map will automatically move the character to the desired location. The Club's submodes and the Treasure Digs can be done on the spot.

Host	Mode	Description	Unlock
	World Adventure	The main story mode. Clearing levels unlocks the various modes below.
Mia	Treasure Dig	The game's gacha system to earn weapons, characters, gear, and accessories.	Clear W2-3
Madoka	Arcade Carnival	The player's team enters a series of minigames to earn resources for their weapons and Cores.	Clear W2-3
Lambert	Hot Pursuit	The player's team clears a series of ambushes in closed arenas. An ability of their choosing is given in every mission within a chapter. Advancing through the worlds increases the amount of set rewards accumulated over time.	Clear W2-3
Gadd	Joint Operation	A group of three players team up to destroy the facility and earn Cores for their weapons. A seasonal variant called the Abyss has the player team fight one daily boss at increasing difficulty. Each season has its own stipulations and player effects.	Clear W3-4
Andre	Vehicle Garage	Owner of the Vehicle Garage, he stores and upgrades Slugs. He does not host the game mode, but he's required to be talked once to unlock it.	Clear W6-1
	Submarine Hunt	A Slug with an underwater propeller and special weapon ammo attempts to survive various waves of robots arriving from all sides of the arena. The Slug earns upgrades by defeating enemies and collecting dropped experience crystals. A boss appears after a few waves. Awards and new upgrades are given depending on the player's survival time and waves cleared.
Shirley	Ultimate Arena	All members of the player's team and their Slug are pitted against another in an arena. All battles are done automatically. The player earns Arena Coins based on their ranking per day to use in the Arena Store.	Commander Lv. 14
Eve	The Maze	The player's team runs through a level while their HP is constantly depleted. Keys are rewarded in a day depending on the distance traveled to the boss. These keys can be used in locked boxes in a series of shelves (shared by other players) for random rewards and gas tanks for the Slugs. Raiding all keys from the level and reaching specific commander levels will upgrade the shelves and its rewards.	Commander Lv. 20
Victor	Prime Showdown	The player's team is pitted against another in an arena. The player must be the first to earn six badges by either defeating their opponent's current character or by eliminating a roaming boss. The player earns Arena Coins based on their ranking per day to use in the Arena Store.	Commander Lv. 22
	Mecha Clash	A group of three players (on a guild or friends list) collect resources from wandering mechs to build and upgrade their own giant mecha and destroy the opposing team's tower. Points and rewards are given based on the team and individual's performance.
Djinn	Djinn Range	The player tests their team and their weapons against Djinn himself and earn rewards based on their personal highest damage score.	Commander Lv. 31
Lucas	Display Stand	The player's unused weapons are used as additional combat power for their main team.	Commander Lv. 45
	Endless Trial	The player runs through a short mission with an end boss that rotates weekly. Rewards are increased by adding gameplay modifiers of varying difficulty.
Crow	Rift Ground	Owner of the Rift Ground, he builds portals to the Abyssal Rift. He does not host the game mode, but he's required to be talked to so building can progress.	Clear W6-2
Asuka	Extreme Championships	The player runs through a mission using a character with a predetermined skillset, weapons, and limited health pool. Every section grants a new ability or upgrade for that particular run. Players are ranked based on the highest score from the toughest difficulty entered. This mode runs for a few weeks when it appears.	???
Club Butler	Club	The main guild system. Talking to him will give the option to join or create a club. Once in a club, he relays information given by the club's leader.
Club Manager	Shootout Challenge	A group up to three players collect potions in an enclosing room. These potions will boost their stats for their fight against an invincible boss. The players earn rewards based on the highest damage done to the boss as a team, and their individual damages are added to a grand total for the entire guild.	Join Club
Ace	Frenzy Showdown	Within one hour of the day, guild members fight teams from other guilds. Depending on the schedule, the player fights with their own team of characters or a group of three players fight with their own character of choice.	Join Club
Rift Guide	Abyssal Rift	The guild is spread over the shore of an island, and all players slowly traverse in a hexagonal grid to a specified location of the island. Conquering territories mines crystals per hour with larger and more difficult mines giving a bigger rate. These crystals can be used to upgrade the player's stats and activate special abilities. Players from the guild can cross paths to traverse faster and help each other on raids within the island. A new island is fought every season. Each week a new section of the island is opened, difficulties of early territories are reduced, and players earn rewards on their performance.	Join Club
Eugenia	Abyssal Cruise	The player deploys out two teams of three characters with each team fighting on a separate set of missions and bosses, gain temporary abilities per mission, and earn special items based on the player's response towards their crewmates. The individual teams each have a support crewmate who gives out their own powers if the number of abilities collected match their blessing. Hadar Meteorites are earned and used for the Deep Sea Detection: a small-scale gacha that increases in value as more items are collected.	???
Eileen	Phantasmic Geocenter	The player deploys out two teams of three characters with each team must defeat as many enemies in order to fill up the energy meter in order to summon and defeat the boss to earn Solvent Cores for your Source Energy Mech.	???
Rumi	Super Weapon Battlefield	The player flies around in a jetpack to face numerous enemies midair. Assembled weapons gradually unlock different accessory features as weapon quality improves during a single battlefield session.	???

Gallery

Videos

METAL SLUG CODE J (TBD)- Trailer

Gameplay of TiMi Studio Group's Metal Slug Mobile Game Authorized by SNK

Metal Slug Code- J - All Characters Reveal Trailer (MS- Awakening)

Metal Slug Code- J - Opening Movie Animation (MS- Awakening)

Metal Slug Code- J - All Bosses (No Death) - Metal Slug Awakening

Trivia

• Metal Slug: Awakening is the first Run n' Gun game with Eri, Tarma, Nadia and Trevor all playable together. Previously they appeared for the Tower Defense games.
• Characters from The King of Fighters series are playable first before the Ikari Warriors Team have yet to debut. Being from the same franchise, they can use more than one transformation (previously was only the snowman in Metal Slug 7/XX).
• The game features the most crossover titles, with 4 guest franchises currently present: Arena of Valor, The King of Fighters and Honor of Kings for the playable characters and Speed Drifters for the Towering Reno Slug.
• Tarma, Gru Kang and Trevor are currently the only characters who hasn't took any major role in any World Adventure level nor limited time events.

External Links

• Official Chinese website
• Official SEA website
• Official SEA Facebook page
• Official Global website