Shibuya Progression Guide: Rank-Up Missions, Grade Exams and Gates

Quick answer

Climb the grades by running Soul Ignite rank-up missions at the glowing blue circle, taking Grade Exams at the red phone booth, and paying the gates between areas — and push for Grade 2, the main requirement to unlock a Cursed Technique.

• Rank-up missions: step into the glowing blue circle, open the Soul Ignite panel (shown at RANK 1/4) and press Start.
• Grade Exams: press [E] at the red PHONE BOOTH. At Semi-Grade 2 (準二, 02), the Semi-Grade 1 Exam is next eligible, and the panel lists TO PASS 1ST with 4 examinees.
• Gates: subway NPC Tomoe sells a Gas Mask for ¥5,000, and desert-gate NPC Jira opens the gate for ¥10,000.

Shibuya [Beta] is a Jujutsu Kaisen-inspired fighting game set 1,000 years after the original story. Progression means climbing the sorcerer grades, earning cursed techniques through hard trials, containing curses instead of exorcising them, and fighting in virtual Tube Simulations. The game is in its early stages and things are subject to change, so read every price and panel label below as a current observation, not a permanent value.

It is also a game with hardcore elements: the stronger your sorcerer gets, the more a careless death can cost you. Climb deliberately rather than recklessly — the death penalties guide covers what is at stake when you go down.

The route at a glance

Roadmap

1. 1

   Run Soul Ignite rank-up missions

   Push the RANK counter

   • Walk to the glowing blue circle
   • Open the Soul Ignite panel and press Start
2. 2

   Contain curses and deliver specimens

   Loot the field, pick Merit or Sin at HQ

   • Defeat a field curse and hold [E] CONTAIN
   • Deliver specimens via Agent Hoshino: HQ Lab for +Merit, Black Net for +Sin
3. 3

   Take the next Grade Exam

   Move your CURRENT marker down the ladder toward 01

   • Press [E] at the red PHONE BOOTH to open the Grade Exam panel
   • Enter the exam marked NEXT ELIGIBLE and aim for 1st
4. 4

   Reach Grade 2 for a Cursed Technique

   Grade 2 is the main technique unlock requirement

   • Clear a hard inner trial, such as the Blood Manipulation trial
   • Or buy from Yuki Sato's skill list
5. 5

   Pay the gates into new areas

   Open the subway and desert routes

   • Buy Tomoe's Gas Mask for ¥5,000
   • Pay Jira ¥10,000 at the desert gate and move within the ten-second window

Each stop below explains one of these stages: what you do, where the panel or NPC sits, and what the recorded session shows.

Rank up with Soul Ignite missions

The game shows two advancement panels as your character grows: the Soul Ignite panel for rank-up missions and the Grade Exam panel for the grade ladder. They are separate stops, so handle them as separate errands on your route.

Rank-ups start at the glowing blue circle. Walk to it and the Soul Ignite mission panel opens — shown at RANK 1/4 in frame-checked footage — with Start and Cancel buttons. Start commits you to the mission and Cancel backs out, so when you want to push your rank, the blue circle is the door.

Earn between missions: contain curses, deliver specimens

Containment is Shibuya's core loop — you contain curses instead of exorcising them. Defeating a field curse, such as the Brute from the recorded session, drops a loot box with on-screen text like “You have received Brute Tooth x1”. With the curse downed, hold [E] CONTAIN over it until the state flips to CONTAINED. The curse containment guide goes deeper into that mechanic.

Inside the HQ building, NPC Agent Hoshino is the specimen stop. His dialog offers “1 I've got a specimen for you” and “2 I need ofuda.”, and delivery carries a real choice: specimens can go to the HQ Lab (+Merit) or to Black Net (+Sin).

Grade Exams at the red phone booth

The red PHONE BOOTH is where grades actually change. Opening it brings up the Grade Exam panel with your current grade, the ladder, and the exams you can enter. For the recorded player at 準二 (Semi-Grade 2, shown as CURRENT 02), the panel displayed:

The ladder runs from 五 (05) toward 準一 (01), so climbing means moving down the numbers. The panel offers two modes, FREE FOR ALL and GAUNTLET, and marks the Semi-Grade 1 Exam as NEXT ELIGIBLE with TO PASS 1ST and EXAMINEES 4 — four examinees enter, and passing takes 1st place. Controls are [E] Enter and [C] Close.

Grade 2 (二) sits on that ladder, and it matters well beyond the exam — it is the requirement behind your Cursed Technique.

Grade 2 and your Cursed Technique

The main requirement to unlock a Cursed Technique is reaching Grade 2. That is what makes the exam grind worth it: techniques come from hard trials, and Grade 2 is the milestone that puts them in reach.

The recorded example is the Blood Manipulation inner trial:

1. Stand in the blood Geysers to absorb.
2. Press [E] on the heartbeat-ring QTE — the prompt reads “Press E on the heartbeat. Three beats.”
3. Kill the spawned blood enemies.
4. Interact at the altar to finish the trial.

Buying a technique is also on the table. Yuki Sato's dialog “Teach me my technique.” opens a skill purchase list:

For more on either route, see the cursed techniques guide.

Codes stretch this stage further: working Shibuya codes award clan and cursed-technique rerolls. A clan reroll is another try at a clan that suits how you fight, and technique rerolls let you chase the stronger abilities that come out of the hard trials. They are reroll chances, not guaranteed results — free extra chances, not promised upgrades. The maintained working list lives on the codes page.

Gates between stages: what new areas cost

Progression also opens the map physically, through paid gates and hazardous ground. Both recorded stops are priced in yen — the yen guide covers earning it:

At the subway, Tomoe sells a Gas Mask for ¥5,000 and is blunt about its purpose: “Wear it out there or don't come...”. Further along, desert-gate NPC Jira charges ¥10,000 — “¥10,000 once and I crank it open” — and opening the gate starts a timer: the frame reads “Ten seconds. Move.” The recorded desert run also carried Desert Gas Mask and Collision antidote in the gear hotbar, the same kind of preparation Tomoe's line warns about, so have your gear slotted before you pay.

Past the gate, the map keeps going. NPC Akone rents a bicycle, the ride runs through the desert ravine to an UNDERGROUND town, and a glowing marker there takes a Plant Relay interaction. That is the shape of progression in Shibuya: grades advance your character, gates advance the world you can reach, and both feed the same climb. The map guide helps you place every stop.

Where to start

If you are standing in Shibuya right now wondering what to do next: run a Soul Ignite mission from the blue circle, contain the curses you fight along the way, and deliver specimens to Agent Hoshino at HQ. Check the red phone booth for your next eligible exam, and start saving yen for the ¥5,000 Gas Mask and the ¥10,000 desert gate. Keep Grade 2 in sight — it is the main requirement for unlocking a Cursed Technique. New players can pick up the basics in the beginner guide, and the sorcerer grades guide stays focused on the ladder itself.