| abstract | - Players can use standard controls and airbrakes to navigate their ship around the track. Like Zone, the ships have no way of slowing down and gradually gain speed as they progress through the Zones. However, unlike Zone, boost pads, also known as Zone Pads, also fill up the Zone Gauge. They are positioned similarly to the ones in races but play a big role during Zone Battle. As players go over the boost pads, they act like normal boost pads and give players a small boost of speed. As players continue to go over the pads, they also accumulate an amount of energy in the gauge that can be used to either "Boost", advancing the number of indicated zones without having to gradually build speed (and dropping a Zone Barrier behind), or activate a protective and energy restoring "Shield". Ships can be destroyed in Zone Battle, but this does not result in elimination. When destroyed, they will respawn with a few energy remaining, but will be brought down 5 zones and must work again to recover lost ground. The Zone Gauge is also completely depleted when this happens. This makes Zone Battle intense as destruction is easy to come by due to Zone Barriers and slamming into walls once players reach the higher zones. In hopes of achieving victory, players must achieve a balance of "Boosting" and "Shielding". To win, a player must reach the target Zone either by slowly building speed into the Zone or "Boosting" into the target Zone (The in-game annoncer tells players, "Target Attainable", when they have the ability to "Boost" into the target Zone). Once a contender reaches the target Zone, the event ends and the result screen comes up. From here, players can view their stats such as "Boosts" used, Perfect Zones and Perfect Laps. Loyalty points are also awared to the player based on how many Zones cleared, perfect Zones, perfect laps, and eliminations.
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