King gaining a red aura as his Rage activates in Tekken 7.
The Rage System is a gameplay system introduced in Tekken 6. Rage activates when a player is low on health, giving the fighter's health bar a red glow, the fighter a red aura and increasing the damage output of their moves. It works similarly to the Revenge Gauge in the Street Fighter IV series as both mechanics give losing fighters the opportunity to turn the tide of battle in their favor.
The rage system resembles the Netsu Power system in Tekken Tag Tournament, in which an off screen character's health bar would glow red and their damage output would be increased if their tag partner had taken a certain amount of damage.
Tekken 6[]
Paul's rage activating in Tekken 6.
Rage was introduced in Tekken 6. Characters gain a red aura around themselves and their life bar and an increased damage output. Initially, characters gained rage when they reached 10% of their full health but this was changed to 5% in later builds. Rage can also be customized with a different color, but this requires the player to win the jackpot of a Super Roulette.
In the Scenario Campaign only, Players can equip costumes and items that increase the damage output and health level trigger of Rage.
Tekken Tag Tournament 2[]
King executing a Tag Crash in Tekken Tag Tournament 2.
See Main Page: Tekken Tag Tournament 2/Netsu System
The Rage System was expanded upon in Tekken Tag Tournament 2. Similar to the old Netsu Power system, found in Tekken Tag Tournament, an off-screen fighter will gain rage if their tag partner has sustained a certain amount of damage. The off-screen partner also instantly gains rage if a Tag Assault is performed on the active character. Having a partner in rage status then also allows them to instantly spend their rage to perform a Tag Crash, a move that lets them "crash" into their opponent, and safely tag the wounded character out. Another catch to the Tag Crash is that the escaping character will also lose all of their recoverable health.
If an active character with Rage is hit during a Tag Assault, they will instantly lose Rage while their partner gains theirs. If a solo character with Rage is hit, however, it will simply reset Rage's duration.
The amount of damage taken needed for the partner to gain rage also depends on the characters' personal relationships with each other.[1] For example, since Paul likes Marshall Law, Paul's rage activates earlier when Law takes damage, than it does with other fighters. It also works the opposite way, in that the rage activates slower when the character getting hurt is someone they don't like (like with most Mishimas). This only works on characters from the original arcade version, though, and doesn't affect the console only characters like Kunimitsu.
The Rage system functions the same way it did in Tekken 6 when playing the game's 1-on-1 fight mode. Rage Customization items are now obtained from Gold Lucky Boxes.
Tekken 7/Fated Retribution[]
Gigas' Rage Art in Tekken 7.
Tekken 7 expanded on the Rage System further and increased the rage threshold. Characters are now able to use a powerful attack called a Rage Art while in rage. Using a Rage Art removes a fighter's rage status, so the damage increase will no longer be in effect once the move has been executed. The damage increase for regular attacks, however, would be decreased significantly from 25% to only 5%.
Gigas' Rage Drive in Tekken 7.
Tekken 7: Fated Retribution added two new features to the Rage System. The less health a fighter has, the higher the damage increase they will receive while in Rage. Rage Drives, powerful modified versions of regular moves similar to EX Specials in the Street Fighter series, were also added. Rage Drives generally open up combo opportunities or extend existing combos. As with Rage Arts, using a Rage Drive will remove a character's rage status.
Rage activates when a fighter is at roughly 20% of their full health in Tekken 7: Fated Retribution. Rage customization has also been removed.
Tekken 8[]
Both the Rage System and Rage Arts return, with the game retaining Tekken 7's visual of Rage's threshold on the health bar. Being in Rage also reduces chip damage received. Additionally, damage in Rage has been rescaled to 10%, but is now also affected by combo scaling reduction. (e.g: If combo scaling reduced the attack damage to 40%, Rage will only provide a 4% bonus)
With the return of the Tekken Ball mode, Rage Arts will now be replaced with Rage Bursts, which push the ball away from the user to instead track and follow the opponent at the opposite side. Rage Burst is also featured in segments of Chapter 10 of Tekken 8's Story Mode, serving as a replacement for Rage Arts. In this instance, the player pushes their enemies away while regaining half of their health.
Trivia[]
- The standard jab and generic FC+1 will not have their damage altered by rage in Tekken 7.
- If a player enters Rage but heals back above the threshold, they will not lose their Rage.
- In Kazuya's appearance in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Rage appears as a once-per-life feature whenever Kazuya's damage number is at 100 and will increase his attack damage. Like in Tekken 7, it can also be consumed when Kazuya performs his Rage Drive.
- In the beta for Tekken 6, a character with Rage is indicated with a burning animation on their hands rather than the red after-images on the release version. Additionally, the threshold for Rage was higher than on launch.[2]