MvCI/Game Mechanics/Infinity Stones

Stone Mechanics

Infinity Stones, though not entirely unique to the VS. series, adds a new dimension to the game by allowing you to select a stone during character select and change the outcome of battle. Stones offer the ability to change your experience in how the game is played, even if you use the same team! Finding the stone that fits for your team is important but experimenting with multiple stones is encouraged.

There are two primary functions for a stone, the Surge and the Storm.

Surge

The Surge is a basic one button input that acts as a special attack, stones can be chained or canceled from any normal or command normal and can cancel into hypers. Each time a Stone is used, it builds a bit of Stone Guage Meter which when built to 50% or above, can activate it's Storm. Learning how to use each stone's Surge is extremely important in neutral, combos and mix-ups.

Storm

The Storm is an important come back mechanic that grants you special abilities based on your stone. Storm can be activated multiple times per match once you reach 50% of your meter which is built by either taking damage or through the continuous use of your Surge, even if it doesn't hit your opponent. You also gain a large chunk of Stone meter when your partner is killed as long as you aren't already in your own Storm. You can activate Storm during combos or even during block stun and gain a large portion of invincibility, though you aren't at frame advantage. Storms have the same priority as Hypers, as you can cancel out of your Specials at any time but you cannot cancel into Storm during Hypers unless you are able to tag and Storm through your partner. By activating Storm again while it's active, you get a free level 3 at the cost of your remaining Stone Gauge. Each of the 6 Storms have the same duration however your gauge will deplete faster each time you strike your opponent with an attack.

Strong use of your Storm will be optimizing your buffs and using the last bit of your Storm meter to get access to a level 3. A strong use of Storm is to use it after your first character died and on incoming to avoid the mix up and gain momentum back to your side. However, only one Storm can be active at a time, another strong use of Storm is to simply lock your opponent out of using theirs which can be important in maintaining momentum and preventing a come back. If your opponent has a very strong mix up that is difficult to block, you can also Storm on wake up to potentially get out of the mix up but understand that although you are invincible on activation, you can still potentially be meatied when you recover.

Tip: As soon as you activate your Storms Level 3, your Storm immediately ends frame 1 and if your opponent has enough gauge to activate Storm, they can do so to escape your level 3 by gaining invincibility.

All Storm activations are 27 frames long and fully invincible through it's duration.

Stone Selection

Reality

Infinity Surge

Reality Stone's Surge is a low priority, slow moving homing projectile that can be reflected. Seen as a strong stone for it's simple use of being able to track your opponents movements, it can help supplement a characters zoning tactics or offer additional support for characters who have none. Only one Reality Stone can be on the field per character, you can always Surge then tag and Surge again to have two on the field at once. This projectile goes away on hit or block and can be reflected back, if the projectile goes away you gain access to use another immediately. It's important to know that if Reality is on the field and the user who activated the stone is attacked, Reality will remain on the field and can help break combos.

Surge: 9f Start up, 2f Active*, 40f Recovery, -17 on block, -12 on hit*

• Reality is active until it runs out of duration or until it hits opponent, travels about 3/4 full screen. Hit advantage can change into a real advantage you can combo off solo depending on how late into the active window opponent gets hit.

Infinity Storm

Reality Storm is a powerful tool that adds elemental attacks based on the button you press, like the Surge, you can get two elemental attacks on screen if you tag. is a small wind attack that can be rapid fired, however this attack deals no hit or block stun. is a fire beam that spawns based on the height your character is currently at when activated. After a short delay, a full screen beam of fire will attack horizontally which is excellent for lock down but has minimal hitstun. is an ice attack that can only hit grounded opponents and will temporarily freeze them if hit which is great if you anticipate your opponents tag. is a thunder bolt that attacks from the sky vertically which is good for keeping your opponent out of the air, has minimal hitstun. Each time one of these elements is summoned, a bit of your Storm gauge is depleted.

Reality

Pick Reality if you want extra zoning support or a projectile you can use anywhere on the screen and tag out under the cover of this projectile. It's slow speed forces opponents to respect it, however it doesn't have too much durability and can be destroyed by most projectiles. This can be a double edged sword as opponents can also reflect this projectile back and will then track the original user. The Storm is strong as each of your normals can become powerful elemental attacks and through the use of Active Switch you can have up to two elemental attacks on the field at once. Every character can seemingly take advantage of this storm making Reality one of the most used stones.

Power

Infinity Surge

Power Stone's Surge is a powerful physical attack that can break armor and act as an anti-air. An extremely strong button that will cause a wall bounce into a hard knockdown making for an easy conversion. What makes Power appealing is that it can trade favorably against other moves and other stones. If used twice in the same combo however, opponents will pop up towards the top of the screen where they will recover making this stone only usable once per combo. Combining this Surge with a fast moving character can create mix ups, if this Surge is used while in the air it will auto correct to towards the opponent creating strong 50/50s that are hard to contest due to it's sheer hitbox size.

Surge: 11f Start Up, 5f Active, 30f Recovery, -7 on block, +95 on hit

Infinity Storm

Power Storm grants an additional damage modifier (+30%?) and higher hitstun through out the Storms duration and each attack will cause a wall or ground bounce depending on whether they hit the ground or wall first. Important to know that while all damage is seemingly improved, the Storms level 3 is not affected. Using Power Surge during the Storm will not place opponent into a wall bounce, instead, opponents will pop high into the air for a soft knockdown that can lead into a combo. Each successful attack will seemingly cause infinite wall bounces and each attack will also drain a bit of Storm meter.

Conclusion

Pick Power if you want a close quarters button that is good for anti-airs, trades and easy confirms. The Surge is also quite amazing at setting up 50/50s and forcing the opponent to respect you at close distance. Characters with air mobility can use their air dash to get in close and abuse the Surge, if the opponent is in a defensive position, you can dash over their head then Surge for an auto-corrected 50/50 into full confirm. Having no other bonuses except for damage and hitstun, this Storm is one of the more honest stones to use as a come back factor however once a hit is made, opponents could potentially die in one touch due to how much raw damage is output.

Space

Infinity Surge

The Space Stone pulls the opponent towards you, giving you Light Armor whilst this occurs. The pull itself is affected by momentum meaning a character running away from you will get pull less than normal, and a character running towards you would be pulled further than normal. The uses of this are varied and versatile. It can be used to supplement a zoning game by pulling your opponent into your projectiles or activating the stone when they jump at you so they fly overhead. It can also supplement a Rushdown game by pulling the opponent closer towards the Rushdown character or pulling them into a lockdown move like Stalking Flare™ so they can't dodge it and are forced to endure the ensuing mixup.

Infinity Surge

It's Storm locks the opponent in a box that they cannot move out of even with teleports or any other movement option. This box also behaves much like the corner during comboes letting you basically have corner comboes without actually having to be in the corner. This can either let zoners toss out projectiles without having to worry about characters rushing after them, or it can also be used by Rushdown characters to force the opponent to block their mixups with nowhere to run to.

Conclusion

Pick Space Stone if you want control over your opponents movement and force them to block your projectiles or eat your mixups.

Mind

Infinity Surge

The Mind Stone's Surge is a command grab that then leaves the opponent standing for a full combo. It can be used to surprise the opponent when they thought blocking was their best option. However, this stone isn't all that good to be honest. The startup is 21 frames which is slow enough for essentially anyone to react to making it far too slow to be an effective tool in hit/throw mixups. The combo it gives is also scaled like crazy dealing roughly half as much damage as usual. Basically it's very hard to hit the stone's attack, and even when you do you aren't rewarded all that much for it.

Infinity Storm

The Infinity Storm of this stone generates meter passively while you battle. Unlike Mind Stone's Surge this is actually really good as basically every character enjoys having more meter to work with. This can pair especially well with characters that possess an install to ensure they spend as much time powered up as possible.

Conclusion

Pick Mind Stone if you want a command grab and want access to your supers as much as possible. Generally Install characters and those with high mobility can benefit from this stone the most.

Time

Infinity Surge

The Time Stone's Infinity Surge is a dash that's invulnerable and goes through enemies. It can be good for escaping pressure, wading through zoning patterns or stealing the corner to mix the opponent up.

Infinity Storm

The Time Stone's Infinity Storm lets you cancel all attacks into one another infinitely and reduces the cooldown on Active Switching. This can be used in a variety of ways such as creating complex zoning patterns, creating your own lockdown for mixups, extending comboes in ways you previously couldn't as well as a myriad of other ways you can use this stone.

Conclusion

Pick Time Stone if you want to escape pressure or ignore zoning entirely. Generally the characters who make the best use of this stone are this with poor mobility or poor defensive options as they appreciate its invulnerability the most.

Soul

Infinity Surge

The Infinity Surge of the Soul Stone is a long range attack that heals you for 500 HP on hit. It's range is nearly full screen and it can break armor and also flips the opponent out when used in an combo which can be used for left/right mixups. It is worth noting however that depending on the size of the character you tag into and the size of your opponent crossing under them may not work as you won't be small enough to cross under them. This can be used in neutral, in zoning patterns or in block strings as a way to keep the pressure on from distances characters usually can't.

Infinity Storm

The Soul Storm revives your teammate with 20% HP (10% if revived a second time or doesn't heal then if they're still alive) and then brings them out to fight alongside you. Whatever attack you do they'll do the same attack as well. Things worth noting is that if you do an attack with a DP motion, but they only have an attack with a quarter circle for that button then they'll do the quarter circle move instead. They'll also do ordinary normals if they don't have a command normal of the same input and if there's no special of that button that shares any of the same inputs then instead they'll do a normal.

Where this gets complicated is how if you hold the Active Switch button your partner will not do attacks when you attack and will not move either. This means by holding the Active Switch button, doing a laggy attack and then releasing the Actuve Switch button you can make your partner move to a different area than you or do completely separate attacks than you. This can be used to create wild mixups, oppressive neutral and complex zoning patterns when done well. It handles far more similarly to De-Sync with Ice Climbers than a traditional puppet character would for comparison.

Conclusion

Pick this stone if you want a strong long range poke that heals you. Or pick it if puppet characters are your usual main and the lack of them in MVCI irks you. I genuinely think most characters can use this one. Basically every character can benefit from the Surge in some way and the Storm with its partner revival and sheer versatility with enough practice any character can make the stone look good.