The world map is constantly evolving. Initially there are 12 available cities from which to start your journey from depending on whom is the first teammate selected. You cannot see the entire world map until you defeat the first level boss. From that point on the rest of the map opens up and you can see the entire world and almost, but not all of the available levels. Each level is considered one "Day" on the countdown clock. The entire game is based on 10 days in the Street Fighter universe. The paths on the map are important. Each path is the shortest route to a desired outcome. On the side of the “good guys” a path can slow down the advance of Mad Gear, Shadowlaw or the Illuminati (Gill’s empire). Very few teams or character selections can allow a player to defeat all of Mad Gear, Shadowlaw or the Illuminati within 10 days. After each level the player is allowed to select the next closest cities to advance to. During the advance the map changes to alert the player which cities have been taken over or liberated by the opposition.
The first member of the team selected determines the location of the first level. The War differs from the other fighting games, and even other team fighting games, in that each team of three has to defeat a team of seven opponents per level. Each fight is one-on-one and not a tag-team situation. Players cannot switch on the fly. A player can switch between teammates after defeating an opponent. The player regains 20% of the total energy for defeated opponents and may choose to fight the next opponent. A player “at rest” after defeating an opponent gains 20% energy back plus 5% for every round he or she sits out. The battles are not in the traditional SF format; levels in the War are only 1 round per opponent. If the player loses to an opponent then he or she can change teammates and battle that opponent again. If a player loses all three teammates, before fighting a boss, they can continue the level from the last match won. A player only has three continues per team. If a player loses to a boss, even if he or she has teammates in reserve, then that level is considered a loss. The player cannot revisit that level in story mode. If during a turn phase the player lands back on a lost level then they lose one day on the countdown clock and must move to another level.
Six of the opponents per level are “regular” characters of varying degrees of difficulty, some of the characters are top-level Street Fighters but the majority are lower-level Mad Gear gang members. To clarify this, it means some levels have a mixture of SF wild card characters and rival factions. These levels are in line to be conquered by Mad Gear or Shadowlaw; it is up to the player to prevent this from happening. The seventh opponent in each level is the boss character. The majority of boss battles will be against Mad Gear gang bosses in story mode, however there are also bosses that are neutral, chaotic or SF wild cards depending on the level. A player advances through each level by successfully defeating the opponents and level boss. A player can unlock characters and bonus items such as new costumes (colors) by beating each level. Successfully beating a team in story mode will reward the player with more selectable characters in VS and endurance modes, as well as in the Game + Story mode.
If a player successfully completes a level then any wild card or team friendly characters on that level may be added to his or her team, a maximum of two allowed to be added per level. A player has five empty slots available for new teammates. In theory a player can have eight teammates from which to choose from during the course of the game however they may still only select 3 to play a certain level. Some levels have only rival factions in which case none of those characters may be added to the roster. A player can replace any of his or her teammates with new ones at the end of each level. The original three teammates cannot be replaced.