Tekken 8 gameplay mechanics: New Heat system, Rage Arts, Recoverable Gauge, and more explained

Tekken World Tour 2022 Global Finals saw a great number of reveals regarding the new gameplay mechanics which will be introduced to Tekken 8.

During game director Kohei "Nakatsu" Ikeda and executive director Katsuhiro Harada’s keynote speech, the developers went over some of the new systems that will be introduced and how they are looking to make the game more aggressive.

Along with the gameplay reveal, Nina Williams was also announced as the next character and showcased some of her new movesets and combat systems in action.

Some of the major things to talk about during the keynote were the new Heat System, universal Rage Art executions, and a Tekken Tag Tournament-style of Recoverable Guage.

There was indeed a lot to unpack from the 35-minute showcase, and today’s guide will go over some of the new mechanics that the developers have in store for Tekken 8.

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All new gameplay mechanics in Tekken 8

1) New Heat system

Tekken 8 will feature a new Heat system that will allow players to power their fighters up for a small duration. When triggered, it will quote the character in a blue aura while at the same time enhancing some of their abilities.

These enhancements will be unique to each character, in the sense that when triggered, Marshal Law will be able to do more damage with his nunchucks, while King, on the other hand, will be able to change his run into a Power Crush. This will help them have a deeper individuality and unique game plan in the fighter.

Additionally, while in the Heat drive state, each character will have access to two special actions, which are the Heat Dash, which will be replacing Tekken 7’s Rage Drive, and Heat Dash, which acts as an input cancelation and provides a dash follow-up.

Heat Condition can be tapped into at any time during a fight by pressing the R1 button, which in Tekken 8 will be called Heat Burst.

Moreover, it can also be tapped into automatically every time the player uses a Heat Engager.

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2) Rage Arts

The Rage system was introduced in the franchise a while back and was a trigger that would activate when the character’s health got low. In Tekken 7, Rage mode would unlock more powerful abilities as well as Rage Drives and Arts acting as a sort of counter mechanic during games.

Rage Drive will be replaced in Tekken 8 with Heat Dash; however, Rage Arts will be making their way to the game and will now be causing more damage based on the missing health the character has.

Rage Arts will also have a universal input in Tekken 8, which will be forward diagonal down and both punches or R2.

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3) Recoverable Gauge

Inspired by the Tekken Tag Tournament, the upcoming game will feature a similar recoverable gauge system where a character can regain portions of their missing health after attacking the opponent aggressively.

During the keynote, Nakatsu stated:

"We have made it so that the player regains strength by hitting with an attack, or by making the opponent guard against an attack. In other words, it is as if adrenaline is released from the body to recover from the damage."

While there is no recovery period during which players will need to regain the white bar back, however, the amount of health that can be recovered can be lowered by using low attacks, which will shorten the white gauge.