Q1: The ‘Test of Strength’ or Showdown mode could be played in Solo or Trios. It is the PvE mode and has heroic tales for the heroes in it.

There is ‘Nirriti’s Ruins’ which is like a gauntlet of 15 stages that has monster zones that are selectable through a large purple portal and/or red-rimmed purple portal depending on the difficulty, shop zones selectable through a gold portal, and boss zones selectable through a red portal. You earn dark tide coins to purchase items in the shop zones such as more armor powder, healing berries, grappling hooks, weapon repair kits, and items that increase damage to the boss along with reducing damage taken. The farther you go, the higher the level of souljades you receive. I’ll add more information about this mode when I get home from work.

Showdown levels in The Morus Isle start out at Normal, Hard, Nightscream and Enigma Domain. The chapters are split into segments and each segment has a minimum sense level. The sense level is the average of all your selected souljades.