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How the World Tour Mode works in Street Fighter 6
Street Fighter isn’t the first franchise you think of when it comes to expansive story modes, but Capcom decided to change that with SF6. Here’s what you should know.
Street Fighter V’s story mode featured cinematics and an overall narrative but wasn’t anywhere near as feature-rich as SF6. While the fifth instalment of the fighting game continued the trend of just having simple battles with every enemy, it added cutscenes to bring you up to speed before the next match.
That was definitely an upgrade over previous Street Fighter games, which didn't even do cinematics. Since Street Fighter 6's launch in 2023, Capcom have taken further steps in evolving what a fighting game’s story mode could be by introducing World Tour Mode.
01
What is World Tour Mode?
Welcome to Metro City
© Capcom
World Tour mode acts as the story portion of Street Fighter 6 and it’s how you upgrade the avatar you bring into the Battle Hub. Along with the story, it features many teaching tools, blends overworld exploration with classic 2D fighting and provides a satisfying levelling system.
This mode incorporates elements from popular RPGs like Yakuza, such as the overworld encounters with goons and other baddies bent on KOing the player and the mid-fight items that replenish health, boost stats and more. This leads to hilarious confrontations in the middle of the streets as an NPC turns the corner and hits you with a mean Shoryuken.
Street Fighter’s global representation is key in World Tour. The core idea is to get the iconic characters in the game to be your master and teach you their fighting styles. As you grow and learn from each of them, you will gain their special moves, and get to combine them into your own mashup of techniques.
02
What's new in World Tour in 2025?
Terry takes a tour
© Capcom
How to level up faster in World Tour mode
Street Fighter 6's World Tour mode lets your avatar character grow and gain Experience Points (EXP) with each fight and battle, letting you become stronger and stronger, much like RPG titles. While early on in the game, you'll find that you'll garner lots of EXP and will level up quickly, but as you progress through the World Tour, levelling up becomes harder. Enemies become stronger, fights become harder and you'll no doubt want to boost your character's level to compete with the toughest fighters out there.
Street Fighter 6 also has a secondary EXP system called Style EXP. This reward system is for each Master's techniques, and you can gain these points by using Stances, Special Moves and Super Arts from those specific characters; in turn, you'll earn new moves, techniques and will add to your Bond Level with each Master.
Here's how to boost both to get you levelled up.
How to level up quickly
Gaining EXP in World Tour can feel like a chore at times, especially if you're at a higher level, but there are always more ways to boost your EXP.
There are a number of foods and supplements your character can consume to make gaining EXP easier. Certain foods such as Specialty Biryani, Deluxe Chanko Stew and Pot-Au-Feu can each give you a solid boost for 300 seconds, and you can grab them from various eateries found in the World Tour mode.
Style and supplements are another way to help you level up: different outfits and clothing items you'll find in your journey can give you different boosts to your avatar, giving you statistical buffs, making it easier to conquer higher-level foes. Supplements, meanwhile, will be able to give you temporary boosts in a similar way too, letting you take on enemies a few levels higher than you with a bit more gusto. These do cost money, so make sure you're keeping an eye on your Zenny as you traverse through Metro City and beyond.
M. Bison on his travels
© Capcom
Gaining more Style EXP
There are a number of ways to level up your Style EXP, such as simply using your Master's techniques in battle, but you can also add a boost to your gains by using consumable items during your adventures throughout the World Tour mode.
Blueberry Smoothies, for example, will give a huge increase to your Style EXP for three minutes, leaving you to then take on a group of enemies, or head down into the Subway to duke it out, letting you maximise your Style EXP. You can grab a Blueberry Smoothie from the Deliveries app on your smartphone, as long as you've unlocked it from a mission in Metro City.
You can also hunt down enemies that use the same style that you are trying to level up, which will give you an additional boost.
How to earn more money in World Tour
Money makes the world go round, and that's the same in Street Fighter 6's World Tour mode. Zenny lets you buy new clothes, food and drink, as well as items that will help you out on your travels.
You can boost your bank balance in a few different ways. First of all, you can make sure you tick off every fight condition you come across during your battles through World Tour. These usually involve pulling off a specific type of move, or winning within a certain amount of time – and if you complete these, you'll get some extra handy items, or some cash for your hard work.
If you don't like any of the items you get from your fights, you can also sell them. If you're not keen on a certain style of clothing you've received, or if you found a Nugget in your inventory (which exists solely to be sold), you can exchange these items for a wad of cash.
Aside from earning Zenny through fights, you can also earn money the ol' fashioned way: through work. There are a number of part-time work minigames throughout the World Tour mode, and these can be completed swiftly – and replayed as many times as you like.
Ed makes new friends
© Capcom
Is Street Fighter 6's World Tour still worth playing?
Since launch, Street Fighter 6 has added a host of new characters to the game, and these additions are also relevant to the game's World Tour mode too. What started off as 18 characters you can choose to learn from as your Master, has now expanded to 26 Masters you can learn from – and with more DLC characters on the way as part of Season 3, you can expect that list to expand.
The DLC characters that have been released with each season can be only found after you've finished the World Tour – but after that, you'll be able to learn the skills and stances from these latest additions to the game.
Master
Location
A.K.I.
Tian Hong Yuan, China
Rashid
Old Nayshall, Nayshall (Central Bazaar)
Ed
Metro City, USA (Beat Square Station)
Akuma
Enma's Hollow, Japan
M. Bison
Ruined Lab
Terry
Pao Pao Cafe 6, USA
Mai
Aokigahara, Japan
Elena
Reniala Remains, Kenya
Sagat
TBA
C. Viper
TBA
Alex
TBA
Ingrid
TBA
Completionists will no doubt want to unlock all of the Masters and get their Bond levels maxed, while World Tour itself still offers a plethora of activities for newcomers and veterans alike to sink their teeth into.
03
The creation of avatars
You can make the perfect Street Fighter 6 avatar
© Capcom
World Tour poses the question: what does it mean to be strong? To figure this out, you’ll create an avatar, which you can customise immensely, to represent you through both their fighting style and fashion sense.
The character creation has wildly free customisation. You can shape your avatar exactly how you like, with precise sliders to get the look you want. Your avatar can look exactly like you, or you can accurately recreate a character you want to look like.
Some people choose to create absolute monstrosities, but hey that’s part of the freedom the character creation allows. Walking around the Battle Hub, you will see anything from winged turtles and regular-looking people to someone who has recreated Naruto Uzumaki down to the sandals.
Customisation continues with crossover items from other games, franchises and popular media. Popular anime Spy × Family has been represented in the game, with costumes and hairstyles up for grabs to customise your character as the show's protagonists, while even the iconic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have been available in the game to dress-up as.
You too can look as good as Donatello
© Capcom
Items from Fatal Fury tied to DLC characters Terry and Mai are also obtainable, such as outfits and accessories. Just recently, K-pop group aespa have collectable items and an outfit for Juri in the game, while Capcom's courtroom visual novel series, Ace Attorney, has been represented with costumes, poses and in-game visual items too.
With some cosmetics only appearing for a limited amount of time, you'll have to act quick to grab them for your avatar – or keep your eyes peeled for further collaborations in the future.
The freedom doesn’t stop there. Your avatar will take on the fighting styles of your choice of the masters you’ve unlocked, and you can switch whenever. As you progress through World Tour, your avatar will level up, gaining health and damage. You will also gain more slots for the special moves of the masters who’ve taught you.
More from the world of Street Fighter 6
04
The actual story
Meet your World Tour rival, Bosch
© Capcom
The first character you encounter is Luke, the bridge between Street Fighter five and six. He serves as your first master and you start with his fighting style and special moves. He teaches you the basics, but you also meet your rival, Bosch.
Here, you get to check out Metro City, as Luke and others introduce you to the basics of Modern control, item usage and enemy encounters, as well as places to grab food in order to heal up after your training.
Metro City and Old Nayshall are the only places big enough to really explore, all around these maps are stops where you can do more than fight. This is where the Yakuza feel comes in, running around the map, stopping for entertainment or food, that always has an extra purpose. The other maps are mostly just one screen with NPCs and their pertaining roster character
After a quick spar with him, Luke sends you on your way to attain strength. From this point on, the story takes you across the world, seeking out guidance from each character in the game, getting closer and closer to the evil that connects the events of the game, as well as many of the characters’ backstories.
05
Gameplay changes
World Tour combat differs slightly
© Capcom
Combat in World Tour isn’t exactly the same as in Fighting Ground and Battle Hub, the other major modes available.
Enemies are all over the map, from gangs and other groups in the game that will attack you on sight, and fights are rarely one-on-one. If you manage to get an attack in before they engage you, you’ll do a little damage to them before the fight starts. You can use the Drive Stall mechanic to slow time down to do that, or just keep it moving if they aren’t worth your time (of course you’d never run away from a fight because you’d think you’d lose..right?).
One way they make it feel more like a single-player experience is by allowing the player to pause the game mid-battle to consume an item, a la Yakuza. This only makes sense since it’s usually not one one-on-one battles.
You can even get your master’s help in some situations.
06
The masters of World Tour
Who wouldn't want to pick up some skill from Manon?
© Capcom
Luke is just the first of the masters you can get teaching from during the World Tour. As you go through the story, you will meet each of the game’s characters, and be able to learn from them.
You can only equip one fighting style at a time, but you will grow to have many slots for the masters’ special moves. You can combine Manon’s command grabs with Kimberly’s run specials, and throw in Guile’s Sonic Booms to create a top-tier fighter.
Capcom designed parts of the World Tour to need certain abilities, such as flying over gaps with Chun Li’s Spinning Bird Kick. You can also use these moves when you fight other players in Avatar Battles (Manon’s command grab is weirdly popular). Yes, many of the created characters are supposed to be funny, but there’s some real menaces making insane combinations.
In order to attain these styles and moves, you have to develop a bond with the masters. Primarily you can do this by equipping their fighting styles and accruing time fighting with it. You can also text with them, give them gifts, or do requests they might ask of you. As you develop a deeper bond with them, they can even join you in combat!
New DLC characters to the game are also represented in the World Tour mode, and you can pick the likes of Elena or Mai as your master to develop a bond with. Head to Aokigahara, Japan to meet crossover character Mai, or to the Reniala Remains stage where returning fighter Elena hangs out, and learn the stances and moves from these extra fighters. These areas and fighters are only available to learn from after the main game has been cleared and you've purchased the requisite DLC.
07
Extra attractions
There's lots to do besides fight in Street Fighter 6
© Capcom
The World Tour is designed to feel like your own personal adventure in the world of Street Fighter. We know no journey is just strictly one activity, so Capcom elevated the experience by adding stops along the way. These come in the forms of shops and restaurants to buy gear that will actually affect your avatar's stats, and eat food to restore health or gain boosts.
There are minigames that will teach you many important aspects of gameplay, such as placing attacks where you want on the screen, motion inputs, parrying and timing.
