Okay, so firstly I doubt this has been posted before because of the thread titles. I checked the ones in which it may be in, but I'm fairly certain this is new info (to this forum anyway)

Secondly, I know I'm a little late but (because my mommy and daddy don't buy me everything (I joke, don't be offended )) It took me a while to save up for the PS3 and in effect VF5. I took this method from the Virtuafighter.com forum, posted by a guy called Tragic (so if you want to thank anybody, thank him)

Basically, I'm sure a lot of you know about the SEGA balloon. Some of you may or may not know what it does or may think it's random. Let me clue you in. When the SEGA balloon is floating aimlessly around the quest mode screen, it means the next ten fights you have will be item matches (a match where you can obtain an item (duh))

Now, the basic rules for this balloon are simple. When it shows up, pick an arcade. Once you are in that arcade, there is no going out of it otherwise the balloon, and the item fights, disappear. Choose a machine, and opponent, in the arcade to play. If you choose to return to the arcade screen or if you lose, the item battles will disappear and appear randomly (as per usual) thus, you have to win the ten matches in a row. Now, if you're farming for orbs or gold than the best option is to choose the first arcade and fight weak opponents. They usually have Silver DT's (explained below). If you want rare clothing items, fight opponents of equal or greater strength to you. They are (usually) 50/50 between Silver and Gold DT's (explained below). If you are clinically insane/confident in yourself/desperately seeking to die, than fight opponent of much greater rank than you. They commonly have Gold DT's, but the good thing is they're (as far as I've seen and heard) the only people who have Coloured DT's (explained below)

DT's
DT stands for Dragon and Tiger. When entering an item fight a picture of a treasure chest will show on screen. Around the chest will be a dragon and a tiger (probably based on the old chinese myth of the dragon and tiger, who fought each other endlessly but always came to a draw... I digress). The DT will be either Silver, Gold or Coloured. Here's what they contain;
Silver: Contains Orbs, Gold and Common clothing items (usually either main clothe colour swaps or small things like minor accesories, though rarely you'll get the odd hairstyle or something like that)
Gold: Always contains rare clothing items (things like new hairstyles, skin colours and other such personalising options along with badass accessories like shotguns, swords, native American head-dresses (no prizes for guessing who for ) and other such badass things.) Occasionally, if you have the disc, it'll give orbs. I haven't seen one give gold yet, but it still might.
Coloured: Okay, these are ****ing silly. I've only ever seen them about three times, all while farming for orbs and trying to rank up with Vanessa. The first time I saw it was against an avenger (or gladiator, I can't remember) Pai Chan who wiped the floor with me. The second time was against a master Akira. Now, this is either a testament to how much I suck (because by that time Master's were like 1st Dan's to me) or how much the game wants to keep you from getting a coloured DT chest. Either way, everything I did was either reversed, counter-attacked or block (all of which were swiftly followed by a fist to the face). The last time I saw one was against Shun Di. Now, I feel bad because I repeated Vanessa's <- <- K+G while Shun Di kept blocking so eventually I just knocked him off (seriously sucky AI, I know) but I got the coloured chest, which contained a green hand thingy (I can't remember the name) leading me to believe that the coloured chests contain the most rare and precious of items (well, duh )

Yes, on to the part you've been waiting for. Getting that dam balloon to appear. Now, the only way I know of so far is to make the final number of your win/lose score match. For example, if you have 102/23 than all you need to do is win a match (elevating the win/lose to 103/23) and if you're lucky the balloon will appear. The most effective way to do it is to make your lose score an odd number (don't ask me why, but it just works better) and raise your win score so the final number is the number before it. Than save the game. Defeat another opponent and if the balloon doesn't appear just quit the game and do it again.

Once you have the balloon you can do something to never let it go. Fight for nine matches and than return to the arcade. Save the game and do what was said above and the balloon should appear again, thus giving you nine item matches, a normal match, another nine item matches, a normal match etc. etc.

Now, this was written in a rush so if there's anything I've missed or gotten wrong don't hesitate to point it out and I'll fix it ASAP (and I know there are probably some atrocious grammar mistakes as well, but like I said, in a rush ). Good luck to anybody who is still playing this game (as am I) and happy hunting

Edit: I found a coloured DT while farming for orbs against weak opponents. It seems that it is possible to get them against Kyu's and Dan's (though, the rate of success in finding them is higher when going against high tier ranked opponents (Master's, Warriors, etc.)

This message was edited by Tiger of Wu on Apr 06 2008.