Common Community Misconceptions
Due to UMvC3s age and the lack of solid information gathering tools during the first near decade of its release there are many common community misconceptions on a variety of topics ranging from game mechanics to hitspheres and more. We hope to address these all in one place to stop the spread of misinformation and make sure it doesn't make its way onto the wiki.
Phoenix Wright Objection Hitspheres
A common piece of misinformation that likely spread as a joke is that the hitsphere for PW's Bridge to Turnabout or "Objection!" / Cross-Examination "Hold It!" is larger when playing the Japanese voiced version of the characters. This would seem to have some basis in reality as the size of the text is indeed larger when switched to Japanese VA. However, this is simply not true.
Below is an image of the hitspheres in English and Japanese layered on top of each other, note that while the text is different the hitspheres are identically sized, shaped, and positioned between the two versions.
As another point of reference here are the two above images separate, even this way it's fairly clear the hitspheres are the same. So in conclusion, play in whatever language is your favorite as it has no bearing on the gameplay.
Phoenix Wright Evidence RNG
While the exact details of the mechanics behind PW's Evidence RNG are not currently fully known there is a good amount of information confirmed by modders.
When evidence is pulled there is a "roll" that has it's result determined by a seed, this seed is set at the start of a match and if two matches happened to have the same seed and the evidence is pulled on exactly the same frame then the resulting evidence would be the same.
The table for the rolls can be interpreted as:
| Roll | Result |
|---|---|
| 0-5 | Good Evidence (Item based on number rolled) |
| 6-7 | Bad Evidence (Secondary roll determines evidence) |
| 8 | Food |
- The seed resets on both rematch and exiting the match to character select. A combination of the starting seed for the match and the frame you pull the evidence on determines what evidence is pulled. As such there is no reason to go to character select to "reset" a particularly lucky run of evidence, or a bad run of evidence.
- When bad evidence is pulled there is another "roll" the determines what specific piece of evidence is pulled. How this is determined is not fully known but it is based on the same seed as the overall evidence RNG.
- It is not possible to pull three pieces of bad evidence, at worst you can pull two bad pieces and then food, and after eating this food your next item will always be either food or good evidence.
- If all conditions are the same a Player 1 and Player 2 PW will have different evidence, they may use the same seed but get different evidence based on some other factor or have different seeds. This is presumably to prevent a mirror match from having both PWs pull the exact same evidence.
In conclusion there is no reason to waste time going back to character select to "reset" bad RNG for evidence pulls. If you want a breather in a tense match it might be a good idea, but please don't spread this misinformation any further.
X-Factor Duration Differences
Probably the most commonly held misconception about this game is that the length of X-Factor varies per character. It does not, but there are two factors that have led to this belief becoming widespread.
- Hitstop: Hitstop is a fairly common piece of game design used in nearly all fighting games. Hitstop occurs when any attacks make contact and pauses the game for a fixed amount of time in order to add the feeling of impact to attacks. When hitstop occurs everything in the game is paused, which includes any installs, the in-game timer, and resources like the XF Timer. So during hitstop you are not losing XF time. The reason hitstop can make XF Duration feel longer is that characters with lots of hitstop on their attacks cause the length of the time they are in XF to extend in real-time but not in in-game time. This means that for gameplay purposes hitstop does not affect the duration of XF, but can make it feel like XF is lasting longer.
- X-Factor Startup Animation: There is a brief animation a character does after entering X-Factor that is either a characters taunt or their landing from a tag-in animation. The duration of this animation varies per character and the timer for XF does not begin until this animation ends or is cancelled. There are videos that show some XF durations being longer but the mistake they make is not cancelling this animation. It can be universally cancelled on the same frame meaning that in practical terms there is not difference in XF durations.
Hard Tag Scaling Reset
A common idea that is often heard when Doom is Hard Tagged in to kill. Made extra confusing because Hard Tagging done in some circumstances can remove scaling. Hard Tagging into a second character does not reset normal damage scaling that increases with the number of hits in the combo. It also does not reset or modify Hitstun Decay which operates off of a timer. It can reset the additional scaling applied specifically to normal throws and non-hyper command throws. However, this only occurs when the character being hard tagged into does the next hit after the throw.
So when a character is hard tagged in during a combo without a throw involved or a combo is done after a throw before a character is tagged in, no scaling reset of any kind occurs. The confusion on this topic is likely partially due to the common characters to hard tag into like Doctor Doom and Doctor Strange have high minimum damage scaling and high base damage on their attacks, making them hit harder than one might expect.
I'm new, where do I begin?
Getting Started
Welcome to the Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 Wiki! Here you will find a everything you need to play UMvC3 competitively. As time goes by, more resources will be added, so make sure you stop by regularly for your UMvC3 fix!
- The Spectator's Guide to UMvC3 is a good starting point to get you up to speed on what is going on in the game.
- The(S)Alt+Tab Guide for UMvC3's Roster is very useful if you're having a character crisis and you're not sure what character to pick.
- The SRK Wiki Basic Video Tutorials section has a comprehensive archive of great video tutorials through the game's history!
- Learn UMvC3 in 4 Minutes is a very short video about UMvC3 in a nutshell.
- An extremely detailed guide on the MvC3's community history can be found in The Hyperpedia of Marvel vs Capcom 3
What game modes are there?
Arcade
Arcade Mode is the main story mode of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. In this mode the player can choose between 5 difficultly settings and fight against the CPU with progressing difficulty until a final battle against Galactus and his Heralds. In arcade mode each character has their own story board ending.
Constant use of arcade mode can be misleading regarding the profficency a player is gaining in Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 because the player is essentially battling the same opponent with the same strength and weaknesses each time. The CPU often employes strategies unlike another human opponent and tends to disregard the use of "team synergy" found in the use of assists and delayed hyper combos.
Arcade Score
In arcade mode you are awarded point at the end of each match. After defeating all 6 opponent teams and Galactus the points from each match are summed into a final score that is tracked on each player's User Liscense. The points are divided into the following categories:
- Stability - Your remaining vitality at the end of the match.
- Basic Offense - Attacks, Special Moves and Basic Combos
- Advanced Offense - Aerial Crossovers, Crossover Assists, Crossover Combinations, X-Factor & Advanced Combos
- Basic Defense - Blocking
- Advanced Defense - Advancing Guards, Crossover Counters
The player can obtain up to 50,000 points in each category for each match. Some of points for actions is explained below:
- Perfect Victory = 50,000 (If a character is hit even once the points automatically drop to 20,000 and continue to count down from there.
- Character Switch = 1,500 (Maximum of 6 times per match
- Crossover Assist = 250 (Maximum of 24 times per match)
- Crossover Combination = 2,000
- X-Factor = 2,000
- Snap Back = 1,000 (Maximum of 2 times per match)
- Advaced Guard = 650 (Maximum of 24 times per match)
- Crossover Counter = 2,500 (Maximum of 2 times per match)
Mission Mode
Mission Mode includes a series of 10 trials which exhibits each character's abilities. Each of the 10 character specific missions advance in difficult with 1 being the easiest and 10 being the most difficult. It is helpful to know that the more advanced missions are not always the most practical strategies to use in actual game play, rather they seem to be designed to introduce players to the variety of moves and abilities contained within each character.
Mission mode is a great place for beginers to start when first being introduced to Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3. A video demonstration showing completion of each character's Mission Mode is available in each character's page in this strategy guide.
Completing 5 missions will give you a title, completing all 10 will give you another. Generally mission mode breaks down into very simple combos from 1 - 6 then introduces extended combos in 7, x-factor in 8, assists in 9 and a combination of them all in 10.
Training
Perhaps one of the most useful tools in learning the ins and outs of each character, developing a variety of combos and testing strategy is the training mode. In this mode the player can select their team and their opponents then use the in-game menu to adjust a variety of player and CPU settings to allow for tesing out and practicing character use. This mode also allows for damage and input to be displayed on the screen.
There are several options you can set the dummy to such as crouching, jumping, super jumping, reacting to throws and teching TAC's. It's important to utilize all of these functions to help understand set ups and learn how to option select. For instance, setting an opponent to Advancing Guard On will teach you how to continue your rush down despite their push block. You can even set the dummy to CPU or a friend can hop in and play against you. Turning off Health recovery and Meter recovery for both Dummy and Player will ensure it feels like a normal versus mode. You can even set Heroes and Herald cards on, the only way to play this mode offline.
A good way to train your anchor is by putting X-factor on level 3 and having it set from Normal to Infinite, allowing you to practice combos with your anchor for as long as you like. You can also change out your assists at any time, remember that character 1 is your current point character, character 2 is in the middle and character 3 is last. If you switch from character 3 to character 1, character 3 is now 1 and vice versa, so keep that in mind when changing assists around.
Did you know you can press select + start together to reset training mode? This is useful for when you want to try out a combo with a certain amount of health or meter. Holding left or right on the stick will force the dummy into the corner on reset. Holding Assist 1 or Assist 2 will start your other character on reset. You can even practice with two characters to practice Team Hyper Combos by setting your Health to non-recovery and giving yourself 10%, then turn the CPU on and let them kill your character, then turn the CPU back to dummy.
Want to play online even faster? Set match making to on with a variety of options during stage select. The response time is much faster and especially playing ranked mode, transitioning from one match to the next is also faster when you return to training mode(battle).
Online
Online gameplay in essential in order to introduce a player to a variety of combatants and fighting styles. Although the AI ramping of the Arcade mode gives a great experience to the casual gamer, the Online modes allow for matches between thousands of opponents.
Although the netcode used in Ultimate is superior to the version found in the previous version and allows for spectating (watching other online battles), there is still the constant potential for the speed to slow down or "lag" during a match, often interrupting combos or having a negative effect on strategy. To combat this, Capcom has put in a "battle accept" system that allows the user to see the opponents connection speed before accepting a match.
Ranked Battle
Through Ranked Battles a player is able to obtain and advance through a tier system. A icon reflecting the players rank is displayed next to their avatar before battle and on the HUD during a match.
The ranks are as follows:
- Beginner
- Amateur
- Rookie
- Fighter
- 9th Title
- 8th Title
- 7th Title
- 6th Title
- 5th Title
- 4th Title
- 3rd Title
- 2nd Title
- 1st Title
- High Title
- Master Title
- Mighty Title
- Cosmic Title
The Title a player recieves with each rank depends on the style of game play and the associated points assigned during each match.
- Lord - Stability
- Ranger - Basic offense
- Scout - Advanced offense
- Guard - Basic defense
- Judge - Advanced defense
Player Battle
For those who want more casual battles there is the Player Battle mode, which allows for the online experience without having an effect on the player's rank. Game lobbies also follow the same standards as the Player Battles. Player battles are best used for rematches as it gives you the option to rematch without going back to a lobby. You can also set a slot to private so random players can't join when trying to invite a friend.
Did you know you can easily find matches even quicker in training or arcade mode? Simply turn match making on during stage select below setting difficulty, timer and damage.
Rage Quiting
The act of quiting a match right before a loss, in order to avoid having the loss recorded on the player record is commonly called rage quiting. Although some players simply accidentaly lose a connection during a battle it is also common for a player to disconnect their system manually. To combat this online issue Ultimate uses a badge icon that goes over the player avatar to signal players who have maintained strong internet connections and a skull icon that is on the avatar when a player has a significant record of losing their connection during a match. This icon is visible before the player accepts a match against any opponent so the player can chose to accept or decline a battle according to these symbols.
Heroes & Heralds
Made available as free DLC in December 2011, the Heroes & Heralds mode allows the use of power up cards in order to enhance the game play of each team. Heroes & Heralds mode fuctions completely separate from the other online and offline game modes.
Offline mode allows you to play against the CPU for territory control, the CPU's are pretty easy to defeat and is primarily used to expand your deck. Use cards such as Professor X to increase your chances of getting rarer cards. Once you are good enough, you can use all three slots for cards like these to help get the rarer cards faster.
Online is nothing like Offline at all. Instead of fighting for territory you are given the option of choosing a side but you can't change sides unless you erase your player data. Once you choose a side you are then matched up against the opposite side in quick matches, there is no real customization for match making. Whether you win or lose will change the percentage bar that determines who wins at the end of the week. As far as we know, online mode is reset every Sunday at 5:00 PM PST and if your side won you get a free metallic color(the same you see for the heralds) for a random character. If your Heroes and you win you get a random H&H color for Capcom characters, and if you win as Heralds you get a random H&H color for Marvel characters. You will never get a color you already have, so theoretically if you win 25 weeks in a row for each side you will have every characters H&H color. Also no matter if you win or lose, you get a random card.
It's important to note that if you erase your data you will not lose the H&H colors you've obtained, so you can pick the side that's winning to further your chances of completing your collection. However you should beware that your online ranking, mission mode data and single player data will all be erased.
Galactus
Galactus mode can be unlocked on the console in one of two ways. First if the game system has a saved game from the original Marvel vs Capcom 3 then Galactus mode will automatically be unlocked. Otherwise the player is required to gain 30,000 player points to access Galactus Mode.
Once Galactus mode is available the player can highlight "Arcade" Mode on the select screen and they will find instuctions on the bottom that show how to start playing in Galactus mode. (e.g. By pressing LB + Back + A on the XBox 360 version)
Galactus Attacks
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+ What does the tier list look like?
Sacktap (generally agreed with by KaneBlueRiver and Readman in comments): https://twitter.com/thesackutapu/status/1170558160953720832?s=21
Four Horseman (top): Zero, Morrigan, Vergil, Doctor Doom
Top Billing (high): Magneto, M.O.D.O.K., Dante, C. Viper, Nova
Win Condition (character success depends on fulfilling a specific gameplan, or heavily depends on momentum): Phoenix, Firebrand, Hulk, Frank West, X-23
Contenders (mid): V. Joe, Trish, Wolverine, Chun-Li, Deadpool, Hawkeye, Thor, Wesker, Spencer, Spider-Man
Cheerleaders (support/assists characters): Doctor Strange, Amaterasu, Rocket Raccoon, Sentinel, Strider, Arthur, Dormammu, Storm, Iron Man, Akuma, Shuma-Gorath
Almost, But Not Quite (low): Taskmaster, Captain America, Chris, Felicia, Jill, Super Skrull, Tron Bonne, Phoenix Wright
"Not Actually Good, Stop Getting Hit By Lariat You Scrubs": Haggar
Oof (bottom): Nemesis, Ghost Rider, Iron Fist, Ryu, Hsien-Ko, She-Hulk
Are there any useful links I can use?
Hitbox Guides
Video Guides
Playlist for Hit/Hurtbox Guides
Finger Cramp's Character Select
