The King of Fighters XIII/Character States/Aerial State

Aerial State

• Committing to any type of hop, jump, or special attack that moves the character off the ground triggers an aerial state. Being airborne reduces the amount of options available to the player but can in some ways inhibit or enable combos.
  
  
  • By jumping, the player loses the ability to block, tech (air)throws and commits to an aerial arc that can only be altered with character-specific air specials.
    
    
• Depending on which attack hits an aerial opponent, the player can be put in different states afterward:
  
  

Normals

• The most fundamental of attacks and the easiest to anti-air with at times. Nearly all standing, crouching, and aerial normals will place an aerial opponent into a hitreset.
  
  
  • Blowback Attacks (CD attacks) will always cause a soft knockdown.
    
    
  • If the anti-air or air-to-air attack registers as a counterhit then it may be possible to hit the opponent again before the opponent flips backwards into a reset.
    
    

Specials and DMs

• If a special move hits an aerial opponent it will most likely cause a soft knockdown. This property can be taken advantage of as projectiles can anti-air for a knockdown instead of keeping the opponent standing.
  
  
  • Specific moves can cause a hard knockdown or register as a throw. The best way to find this out is to check out each character page.
    
    
• DMs behave exactly the same against grounded and aerial opponents if the super connects.
  
  

Air Throws

• Every airthrow in KOFXIII causes a hard knockdown and cannot be teched or broken. As the name would imply they can only register against airborne opponents.
  
  

Anywhere Juggles

• Anywhere juggles will always connect against an aerial opponent even in instances where the player is already in a hitreset and cannot be further hit by conventional methods.
  
  

Strategy Corner

• Being punished while airborne can hurt, although not nearly as much as eating a full grounded combo.
  
  
  • At times it can be advantageous to quickly become airborne rather than staying grounded while risking being hit by a damaging command grab. The initial startup of a hop is will keep the player grounded if hit though as soon as the player triggers an air state the worst a normal attack can do is cause a hitreset or soft knockdown. Characters without strong reversal options may want to consider occasionally trying to hop out of a situation where a delayed command grab attempt could deal heavy damage (as is the case with Iori's command grab). Even if the opponent attempts a normal throw and anti-airs with a Heavy normal, the damage dealt will be considerably less than the damage from the command grab.