From the glamorous Yorknew City to the mysterious Greed Island, there are so many interesting and fascinating places in the world of Hunter x Hunter. No matter what you want to do, be it gambling your fortune away, or living among the strangest wild life you’ve ever seen, there is a perfect place for you in that world.
But what if all you want to do is fight? What if you are a budding martial artist and there’s nothing in this world that you want more than knocking down strong opponents? What if you simply know that you are strong and want to earn money from it? In that case, there is one place that you should visit. It’s called the Heavens Arena, and this is everything that you need to know about it.
What Is Heavens Arena
As mentioned earlier, the Heavens Arena is a place where you can either test your fighting skills, or watch some exciting fights, every single day for all year long. With an average attendance of over 1 billion people per year, Heavens Arena is by far the most popular combat arena on the planet. It’s not even an exaggeration to say that Heavens Arena contributes a lot to the economy of its surrounding cities.
Heavens Arena itself is actually a colossal skyscraper that stands proudly in the middle of a bustling city center. It has 251 floors, and a height of 3,250 feet, Heavens Arena is one of the tallest man-made structures on the planet. Each floor has its own battle arena that can house a couple of hundred people at the same time. Needless to say, the higher the floor, the bigger the arena will be.
However, battle arenas are not the only thing that this massive tower has to offer. For the regular public, there are also various entertainment and leisure facilities at various levels of the tower, such as restaurants, shopping centers, and many others. There’s also modest rooms and living accommodations for fighters at the lower levels. As for the high-level fighters, well, they can live in the luxurious private apartment complexes at the upper floors of the tower.
How Does Heavens Arena Works
In Heavens Arena, every new fighter starts their fight at the first floor where they will face fellow newcomers. If they win this first fight, they are allowed to advance to the next floor where they will fight against the other winner of the first floor. That is pretty much how it goes all the way to the top floor. There’s no time limit as to when each fighter decided to have their fight. Because once they are eligible to fight at a certain floor, those rights will remain theirs even if they decide to take a break for a few months, unless they decide to forfeit.
The prize money of every fight varies from one floor to the next. The winner of the fight on the first floor will only earn enough money to buy food and drinks at the tower. However, that amount increased as they progressed through each floor, with the winner of the 199th floor receiving as much as 200,000,000 Jenny. Not only that, winners of the 50th floor and above will also receive their own private room within the tower, ranging from a regular room to a luxurious room as they progress through the floors.
Every fight will have its own referee that will award points to each fighter according to certain criteria such as critical hit, the complexity of the techniques, etc. By the way, no weapons are allowed from the 1st to the 199th floors, and the fight will continue until one of the fighters loses consciousness or gives up.
The 200th floor onwards has its own special rules. For starters, the fighters are allowed to use weapons here. Not only that, they will no longer earn a prize money either, because the prize for the winners of the 200th floors and above are simply fame and glory. After all, those who manage to fight at the top floors are pretty much a celebrity already. Besides, since everything that they need, from living accommodations to unlimited shopping credits, are provided by the towers, they can really live as kings or queens as long as they live within the tower.
If a fighter manages to win 10 matches, he/she is granted the right to challenge the floor masters. The floor masters are the top 21 fighters in the Heavens Arena, and as the name suggests, they are given a dedicated floor to themselves, starting from the 230th floor to the 250th floor. If said fighter wins against the floor master, then they will be crowned as the new floor master for that particular floor. However, if they lose four matches, then they will be disqualified. As a special rule, those who fight at these top floors, especially the floor masters, are allowed to conduct a death match as long as both parties explicitly give their consent.
What Is The Role of The Heavens Arena In Hunter x Hunter
The Heavens Arena is one of the most important places in Hunter x Hunter. Because this is the place where Gon and Killua are first introduced, and learn about Nen. After all, you won’t be able to survive at the 200th floors and above if you can’t use Nen. Not only that, learning about Nen is actually a secret test to be a Hunter as well.
So in a way, Heavens Arena is the crossroad that allowed the story of Hunter x Hunter to progress from a regular action adventure story into a much more serious action thriller series that involves death and violence. You could even say that this is the place where Hunter x Hunter started to transition from its pure Shounen root, and into the realm of Seinen.