Controls

•  in any direction: Movement
• : Light Punch
• : Light Kick (gameplay)/Confirm (menus)
• : Strong Punch
• : Strong Kick (gameplay)/Cancel (menus)
• : Taunt
•  or  + : Call Out Striker
•  + : Dodge Roll
•  + : Blowback Attack
• : Pause
•  + : Soft Reset
•  +  + : Activate Counter Mode
•  +  + : Activate Armor Mode

Counter Mode and Armor Mode

Counter Mode lasts for 20 seconds and will allow the player to cancel any special moves into supers (known as Desperation Moves (or DOA Thrashings in-game) in KOF), the player will flash red while it is active. Armor Mode lasts for 15 seconds and will allow the player to counterattack an opponent whenever they are being attacked by them. In addition, the player will have a flashing green effect around them while the mode is active.In order to use both of those modes during gameplay, you will need to have a full meter and press either one of the two three-button combinations. Please note that you can only activate one mode at a time but you can activate the other once you build up meter again after the effects of the mode that you used wear off.You can also bind  or  to easily access Counter Mode or Armor mode without having to press three buttons at once to respectively activate them.

Fighting Zero

Zero is the game's final boss and one of the series' few "overpowered" bosses, keep the following things in mind while fighting him:

• The specials that are done with the punch buttons relate to the metal linings in his kilt, while his kick-centric specials relate to the darkness element.
• His Cutting Swallow attacks (which have him extending his kilt to attack his opponents with the sharp metal linings it has on each end) will allow him to build up one complete bar of meter if they make contact with the opponent. They also have potential to trigger a guard crush against you and the     version of Cutting Swallow will allow Zero to reflect projectiles, much like Athena's Psycho Reflector attack.
• His black hole super is a full screen attack; the normal version will trigger an 8 hit combo (16 if the opponent is in the hole) and can deal a heavy amount of damage against you if you don't guard from it. The spheres that appear during the move attack the player from anywhere in the screen if the opponent is far away from the hole. Zero is also invincible during this attack so it's recommended to stay far away from him until the super ends to attack him while he's open to damage.
• Zero also has another super that has him spinning around clockwise with the sharp linings on his kilt attack his opponent, like the Cutting Swallow attacks, this super can deal chip damage and have potential to trigger a guard crush on top of it dealing some damage against you.
• His last two attacks are associated with darkness: "Flashing Flame Fortress" and "Satan's Red Rage".
  • Flashing Flame Fortress has him summoning a shadow with small range that if it connects, he will begin his assault against his opponent. If the shadow does not make contact with the opponent as the move starts, this will allow the player to attack him since he will be open to damage.
  • Satan's Red Rage has Zero kneeling down against his opponent. If he makes contact, a pink flame will appear then he will turn his back and lift his kilt to blow the opponent away from him. Like Flashing Flame Fortress, if he misses contact with the opponent, this will give the player the opportunity to strike against him.

Keep in mind that he is also open to low attacks, such as sweeps and light kicks that are done while crouching, since he cannot crouch and guard against those attacks; Kyo Kusanagi's   attack is a good example of this.

Arcade Mode has two variations in this game i.e "Team Play" and "Single Play", Team Play stays true to the series' team-based fighting gameplay with the option to select four characters for your team (as opposed to three characters in games prior to KOF '99). The first three you choose in order are the characters you will play as, while the fourth character will be your striker character. Single Play plays like your typical one-on-one fighting game but with strikers added to the mix.There are a total of six normal stages in the game's arcade mode as you fight your way through to the game's final boss, Zero, in the seventh stage. If you are playing on Team Play, the game uses the team elimination system, where if you defeat a member of the opposing team in one round, you will fight the next member of the same team in the second round and so on. In addition, fighting against Kula is not required to complete Arcade mode since she is optional and only appears as a mid boss once you have attained a certain amount of Battle Ability (or B.A.) points as you progress through Arcade mode.

For tips on how to fight Zero, please refer to the Tips & Strategies section of the guide. Alternatively, if you are having trouble fighting against him, you can also change the difficulty of the game in the Options menu and set it to "1 - Beginner".The trophy will be unlocked once you have defeated Zero in either Team Play or Single Play. In addition, if you have completed arcade mode with specific team pairings or by defeating Zero with Kula, then you will also unlock some additional trophies.

The King of Fighters 2000 uses the "Striker" system, which was first seen in its prequel, this will allow the player and their opponent to call in an assistant character (who is the last character you pick when selecting your team's order) that can assist them in their game plan by either dealing an attack for additional damage, combo extension or supporting your team in filling up your meter. Alongside of the base character strikers, there are two other types of strikers you can select: Another Strikers and Maniac Strikers.

They can be summoned by pressing either  or  +  at the same time but it's best advised to use a striker that can attack the opponent and deal damage (Like Another K', Candy Diamond or Andy Bogard, for example) when going for this trophy.

See  Less Than Zero for more information.

See  Less Than Zero for more information.

See  Less Than Zero for more information.

See  Less Than Zero for more information.

See  Less Than Zero for more information.

The objective of Party Mode is to defeat as many opponents as you can before you run out of health. There is also a five minute timer below your life bar, once it runs out, you will slowly begin to lose a small portion of your health over time until you have a small fraction of health left. Attacking your opponent with an attack or combos can help restore health in some increments and after every ten opponents you have defeated, you will gain an additional minute on the timer.

The requirements to unlock each maniac striker are as follows but after defeating the required amount of opponents, stop and have the opponent defeat you in order to unlock the one(s) whose requirements you have met and the trophies that correspond with the manic striker(s) you have unlocked, as they will have to be unlocked one by one in each run you do and not in one complete run.

• Heavy D!, Lucky Glauber and Brian Battler (Terry, Andy and Joe) - Defeat more than 14 opponents
• Orochi Iori and Orochi Leona (Benimaru and Ralf) - Defeat more than 27 opponents
• Mr. Big and Wolfgang Krauser (Mai and Takuma) - Defeat more than 36 opponents
• Heidern (Whip) - Defeat more than 40 opponents
• Orochi (Leona) - Defeat more than 70 opponents
• Krizalid (K') - Defeat more than 99 opponents

In addition to Party Mode, you can also unlock each of the aforementioned strikers above by clocking in a specific amount of hours in your play time as you play the game.

• Heavy D!, Lucky Glauber and Brian Battler - 5 hours
• Orochi Iori and Orochi Leona - 10 hours
• Mr. Big and Wolfgang Krauser - 15 hours
• Heidern - 20 hours
• Orochi - 30 hours
• Krizalid - 40 hours

It's highly recommended to turn on auto save by going into "Options" -> "Save or Load" before attempting Party Mode and unlocking these trophies because once you turn off the game and lose your progress (depending on which trophy you want to aim for next) you will have to resort to playing through and defeating that set number of opponents again before starting the next party mode run to retain the progress you have lost. You can check how many hours of game time you have clocked in by selecting "Chart" in the options menu. In addition, there is also a faster method to unlocking each maniac striker in the game on Party Mode by using Chang Koehan and spamming his Hiki Nige attack () which will let him slide with his ball in front of him. (Credit to Blaze Naruto Shippuden for this method)

This trophy is unlocked upon defeating Zero by using Kula as the character you are playing as. The striker you have selected and if you are playing on Team Play mode, the other characters you have selected in order select do not matter as long as you have Kula as the first player for the fight against Zero on Arcade mode.

For tips on fighting against Zero, please refer to the Tips & Strategies section of the guide.

In order to unlock this trophy, you will need to defeat Kula by using Another K', the "Another" striker of K', as your striker character and have him deal the finishing blow to Kula Diamond. Whatever mode you attempt this trophy on does not matter but you can easily achieve it in Vs. mode. For more information regarding strikers, please refer to Match Interference.

See  Metal Slug 2000 for more information.

The description for this particular trophy is vague but in actuality, this trophy will require you to complete Arcade Mode with a team consisting of Ryo Sakazaki and King with any of the following characters (for instance, I used Andy Bogard and Mai Shiranui when going for this trophy):

• Terry Bogard and Blue Mary
• Andy Bogard and Mai Shiranui
• Robert Garcia and Yuri Sakazaki

The order you choose to have these characters in or which character you want to use as a striker should not matter, providing you don't use their "Another" or "Maniac" striker in that regard. For tips on fighting against the final boss, please refer to the Tips & Strategies section of the guide.

This and the  Reunion Tour trophy will require you to finish the game using a team that utilizes an "Another" striker.

In regards to this, the following two characters have the "Another" strikers that are needed for those two trophies:

• Seth - Daimon
• Vanessa - Fio

When going for these trophies, you will need to select the "Another" striker for both characters each time you are in the order select after a match but do not play as either Seth (while in a team with Kyo, Benimaru and Shingo) or Vanessa (while in a team with Ralf, Clark and Leona) as this will lessen your chances of unlocking those trophies if they are not your striker characters.

For tips on fighting against the final boss, please refer to the Tips & Strategies section of the guide, and for more information on strikers, please refer to  Match Interference.