Critical Stun (DoA4)

Overview

Some moves on normal hit (and most on counter hit, and all moves on hi-counter hit) induce what is known as critical stun. This is similar to other stuns and staggers seen in other fighting games, but is a much more pronounced.

You will know when you have induced a critical stun when the game flashes the words "critical stun" on the game HUD when the move connects.

A character's only options once put into a critical stun is to either execute a defensive hold to cancel the stagger, or to struggle escape the stun to shorten the length of the critical stun.

Critical Limit

A character, once put into a critical stun, can be restunned by being hit while in the critical stun. However, a character can not be kept in critical stun indefinately -- there is a damage limit that a character can take in one sequence of critical stuns. Once that damage threshold is reached, the character will (usually! -- see the section on critical limit breaks below) go into a different stun animation (usually falling down) and no follow-up hits are possible.

The damage limits are as follows:

• Stun induced via a normal hit: 25 points of damage.
• Stun induced via a counter hit: 35 points of damage.
• Stun induced via a hi-counter hit: 45 points of damage.

Launchers and Critical Stuns

Normally, the height a character is launched is dependent on two states -- if they are standing or crouching, and if the move hits in a normal, counter, or hi-counter state. The first still applies to launches hitting characters in critical state, but the second is not possible. However, there is another way the game determines how high a character is launched. This is based off the amount of damage done during the stun before the launcher connected.

It should be noted that a lot of launchers have a normal-hit launch height that is not reproducable outside of critical stuns. This is to say that a lot of launchers will launch a critically stunned character, but will not launch a neutral character without hitting as a (hi)counter hit. The amount of damage required for each state changes with the type of stun induced.

During a critical stun induced by a normal hit:

• 0-10 points of damage induces a normal launch height.
• 11-20 points of damage induces a counter launch height.
• 21-25 points of damage induces a hi-counter launch height.

During a critical stun induced by a counter hit:

• 0-12 points of damage induces a normal launch height.
• 13-25 points of damage induces a counter launch height.
• 26-35 points of damage induces a hi-counter launch height.

During a critical stun induced by a hi-counter hit:

• 0-15 points of damage induces a normal launch height.
• 16-30 points of damage induces a counter launch height.
• 31-45 points of damage induces a hi-counter launch height.

(Remember, doing more than the amount of damage listed for a hi-counter launch will result in either a critical stun finish or a critical limit break.)

Examples of Launchers and Critical Stuns

(Credit to Trag for the following examples.)

Tina versus Hayate -- HC 8P, BT PPP, PP6PK. The launcher hits by itself on high-counter with no previous stuns. The BT PPP, PP6PK sequence is then possible because of the height.

Tina versus Hayate -- 9P, P+K, 66G, PP, 8P, BT PPP, PP6PK. The initial Critical Stun hits on a Normal Hit. The P+K inflicts 12 stun damage. The following PP inflicts an additional 10 damage (+22 total). The opponent is now primed for max height launch, and the 8P performs as expected - it allows the BT PPP, PP6PK follow-up. Quite awesome seeing as there was no counter-hit OR high-counter needed!

Tina versus Hayate -- HC 9P, 8P, BT PPP, PP6PK. This sequence will not work! You may score a Critical Stun on a HC attack. If you then try to launch with 8P (without doing any additional Critical Combo damage), the opponent will now launch at the lowest height! Even though you scored an awesome high-counter, the follow-up launcher was performed too early and resulted in a low height/damage juggle. Keep this in mind!

References

The Critcial Stun thread on doaliive.com

The offical Japanese DoA4 Strategy Guide