UMVC3/Glossary

Throughout the guide there will be a lot of jargon thrown around and, unless you know what these terms are referring to, it might be difficult to understand some of the more complex lingo and slang used. For example, what is Hit Stun and Block Stun? What's a "Strike" or a "Wall Bounce" or a "Forced Ground Bounce?" What do we mean when we use the word "frames?" So before we begin, please take some time to look over the glossary to familiarize yourself with some of these terms so the rest of the guide will make more sense.

Attack Properties

Cancel and Movement Properties

Term

Definition

Several characters in UMvC3 have the ability to chain many Light Attacks in a row. For example, with Akuma, his Standing and Crouching Light Attacks can combo into themselves to allow for some easy hit confirms. Though this isn't universal to everyone, it's good to know which characters are capable to allow for easier confirms.

These are Special Moves or Hyper Combos that can be performed on the ground and in the air.

These are Special Moves or Hyper Combos that can only be performed in the air.

Some Normal Moves can be canceled into a Jump. Storm's Standing Medium Attack and Crouching Hard Attack are two examples of this. In the air, a Jump Cancelable Normal Move only works for those who have Double Jumps.

Same as a Jump Cancelable Normal Move, but for Normal Moves performed while airborne that can be canceled into a Double Jump.

A few rare Normal Moves can be canceled into ground Dashes. In fact, they almost all seem to be possessed by Doctor Doom. Pretty much every single one of his ground moves can be canceled into a Ground Dash, either forward or back.

Only certain Normal Moves in the air can be canceled into Air Dashes. In general, only a few characters are actually able to cancel their air Normal Moves into Air Dashes, Storm, Magneto, Iron Man, and Doctor Doom being the main ones.

This isn't really a property. This actually means it just lacks every single property imaginable. But the reason it's listed as a property is because it also carries the distinction that it can't even be Chained into any other Normal Move. Wolverine's Slide (Down/Toward + Medium Attack) is an example of a move that has No Cancel properties.

Hit Properties

Term

Definition

{{#motion:low}}

These are Normal Moves or Special Moves or even Hyper Combos that must be blocked while crouching. You can always Air Block these moves, however.

{{#motion:high}}

These are Normal Moves or Special Moves or Hyper Combos that must be blocked while standing. You can always Air Block these moves, however.

{{#motion:unblockable}}

These are moves that cannot be blocked at all. These moves are very, very rare. Taskmaster's follow-ups to a blocked Sword Master, X-23's Silent Kill, Firebrand's charged Demon Missle H and C. Viper's Level 3 Focus Attack are some of the only examples in the game.

{{#motion:chipdamage}}

Interestingly enough, some Normal Moves actually do Chip Damage even though they are Normal Moves. Doctor Doom's Hidden Missiles, Sentinel's Standing and Crouching Hard Attacks, and Wesker's Toward + Hard Attack are just a few examples.

{{#motion:throw}}

Ground Throws cannot be blocked. Ground Throws only connect on grounded opponents who are not in Hit Stun or Block Stun. All instances of being Dizzied or Staggered or Crumpled count as being in Hit Stun, so Throws will not connect on opponents in those states.

{{#motion:airthrow}}

Air Throws only connect on opponents in the air and also cannot be blocked. They cannot connect on opponents in Hit Stun or Block Stun. Character who are falling from a Knock-Down attack are considered to be in a Hit Reel state, so Air Throws cannot juggle opponents.

Hit Effects

Term

Definition

Launchers are moves that can be canceled into Super Jumps. Launchers, as mentioned before, cause special properties that allow for Air Combo Finishers and Aerial Exchanges. All characters obviously have Launchers when pressing the Special Button while on the ground, but there are a few other Launchers in the game, such as Doctor Doom's Doom Kick (Toward + Hard Attack on the ground), Haggar's Hoodlum Launcher, and Chun Li's Hoyokusen.

Air Combo Finishers are moves that will cause The Flying Screen when used during an Air Combo performed after a Launcher. All characters have Air Combo Finishers when pressing the Special Button in the air after a Launcher, but there are a few other Launchers in the game, such as X-23's Light Attack Talon Attack.

Strikes are moves that, when connecting against an opponent that is standing / crouching on the ground, will pop them into the air but does not cause any fixed reaction, such as a Soft Knockdown or a Wall Bounce.

Off-The-Ground: These are Normal Moves or Special Moves or Hyper Combos that can hit the opponent in a Floored State. These moves are few and far between, but very useful for extending combos after Hard Knock-Downs.

Attacks that cause a Hard Knock-Down will put the enemy into a Floored State where they can be struck only by moves with OTG property. Hard Knock-Downs ignore Hit Stun Deterioration and, before the opponent hits the floor, they can actually be juggled. When they touch the floor, however, only OTG moves can hit the enemy before they can roll in either direction.

Attacks that cause a Soft Knock-Down have normal hit stun deterioration applied but will put the enemy into a Floored State at low hit stun. On hit the opponent can immediately roll upon touching the ground, therefore there is no period of time where the character can be hit by an OTG move.

A true soft knockdown is like a soft knockdown but will cause an airborne enemy to fall to the ground even at max hit stun deterioration. These moves are especially useful in combos as they will not drop even at 999 hits, many moves that have a soft knockdown will be become a true soft knockdown when performed during a TAC.

Attacks that cause a Forced Tech Roll behave exactly like a Soft Knock-Down move, except that when the enemy hits the floor, they will instantly perform a roll in a designated direction.

Certain Normal Moves or Special Moves will cause a Ground Bounce on the opponent when they hit. Ground Bounces can only occur once per combo, however, so a second move with Ground Bounce property connecting in a combo will just cause a Soft Knock-Down instead.

Some moves that cause a Ground Bounce actually reset the Ground Bounce state when the move connects. Essentially what this means is that the a move with Forced Ground Bounce property will cause a Ground Bounce regardless if there was a Ground Bounce earlier in the combo.

Certain Normal Moves or Special Moves will cause a Wall Bounce on the opponent when they hit. Wall Bounces can only occur once per combo, however, so a second move with Wall Bounce property connecting in a combo will just cause a Soft Knock-Down instead. The opponent won't even touch the wall at all.

There are only a couple of these moves in the game and they allow a wall bounce to be used even if it was done prior in the combo.

Some moves, when they connect, cause the opponent to slowly crumple to the floor. When this occurs, they are freely comboable up until they hit the ground, but they are considered airborne. Thus the first hit that connects on them will pop them into the air. When they finish the crumple and hit the ground, they are considered in Floored State for about half a second before they can escape with a Roll. But even when it looks like they are fully Floored, you can actually hit them with any move that reaches them and it'll pop them off the ground. It's only for that very brief half of a second that you need to hit them with an OTG.

This is a property where the opponent staggers backwards and are vulnerable to attacks, but they don't stagger for very long, especially compared to Crumples which last very long. But any hit on the opponent keeps them grounded, unlike Crumples, so you can perform whichever ground combo on the opponent you want.

These are attacks that will cause the opponent to become dizzy. Unlike Dizzies in other Fighting Games, you cannot shake out of these dizzies. Hsien-Ko sometimes throws item with her Anki Hon that have Dizzy Property. She-Hulk's Heaven Strike is another move with Dizzy Property. Also, Haggar's Headbutt (Up + Hard Attack in the air), will cause dizzy only on Counterhit (which makes it the only move that has a different behavior on Counterhit in the game other than Felicia's Cat Spike M, which causes Ground Bounce.

Some moves will cause abnormal "hit stuns" that leave the opponent in a captured state. This can either be something such as Hawkeye's ice arrows, which freezes the opponent for a spell, or Rocket Raccoon's net trap, which hangs the opponent into the sky for a while, or Spiderman's Web Ball, which captures the opponent in a blanket of webbing. Note that moves with the {{#motion:cptr}} property IGNORE ARMOR on {{#motion:armored}} moves!

Some moves are Armored and can absorb one hit without stopping. Hulk's Standing Heavy and Sentinel's Launcher, for example, can pass through one hit from the opponent. However, if you can manage to hit those moves twice before they hit you, you can break through the armor.

These are moves that will trigger attacks only when struck by the opponent. A lot of Counters counter only moves of a specific height, such as the Light and Medium versions of Amaterasu's Solar Flare (Light counters high and mid attacks, Medium counters mid and low attacks). Some Counters will counter any height, such as Taskmaster's Aegis Counter.

These are moves that will trigger attacks only when struck by the opponent's Projectiles.

Many, many moves in UMvC3 are qualified as a "Projectile". This is very important, as Projectiles have a very complex system by which they interact with each other, and there are many moves in the game that can counter Projectiles or nullify Projectiles. Knowing what moves count as a Projectile can make a huge difference in a match.

There are some moves that are Projectile Reflectors. Whenever a Projectile strikes these moves, they are bounced back at the opponent. These moves, however, do not work on beams.

Though very rare, there are some moves that are tagged with a Projectile Nullifying property. Sentinel has a bunch of Normal Moves, for example, that can nullify Projectiles if he punches them.

Controller Motion Terminology

Term

Definition

QCF

Quarter circle forward

QCB

Quarter circle back

HCF

Half circle forward

HCB

Half circle back

DP

Dragon-punch type motion. Forward, down, down/forward

RDP

Reverse dragon-punch type motion. Back, down, down/back

Base Magic Series

Every character has a rule set they must abide to that dictates what Normal Moves can be chained into which other Normal Moves: the Magic Series. However, most characters have a ruleset unique to themselves, especially given the fact that many of the Unique Attacks have their own idiosyncrasies on how they can be used in Chain Combos. But for the most part, almost every character has a sequence derived from one of four "base" Magic Series.

Zig-Zag Magic Series

In the Zig-Zag Magic Series, you have the ability to chain all 6 different forms of attacks (L, M, and H while standing and L, M, and H while crouching) into each other. The order which you can perform your moves is as follows:

1. Standing {{#motion: l }}
2. Crouching {{#motion: l }}
3. Standing {{#motion: m }}
4. Crouching {{#motion: m }}
5. Standing {{#motion: h }}
6. Crouching {{#motion: h }}

Stronger Magic Series

In the Stronger Magic Series, you can typically only chain into a stronger attack. The order which you can perform you moves is as follows:

1. Standing or Crouching {{#motion: l }}
2. Standing or Crouching {{#motion: m }}
3. Standing or Crouching {{#motion: h }}

Stronger+ Magic Series

The Stronger+ Magic Series is exactly like Stronger. The real only difference is that you are allowed to chain two Light Attacks, so long as one is standing and the other is crouching, into each other before needing to move to a stronger button. The order which you can perform you moves is as follows:

1. Standing or Crouching {{#motion: l }}
2. Standing or Crouching {{#motion: l }} (in the opposite state from previous attack)
3. Standing or Crouching {{#motion: m }}
4. Standing or Crouching {{#motion: h }}

Light Start Magic Series

For the Light Start Magic Series, Medium and Heavy Attack buttons all fall into one group, and you can only start the Chain from a Light Attack and chain into any of the four stronger buttons (standing or crouching m and standing or crouching h). But that's the end of it from there. The order, thusly, is:

1. Standing or Crouching {{#motion: l }}
2. Standing or Crouching {{#motion: m }} or Standing or Crouching {{#motion: h }}

If a Magic Series is more than two buttons long, you can skip any of the middle buttons and jump straight to later buttons in the series. However, you can never go backwards in a series. For example, Wolverine has the Zig-Zag Magic Series listed above. But he does have to go in that specific order. He can choose to just do a Standing Light Attack -> Standing Medium Attack -> Crouching Medium Attack -> Crouching Hard Attack, skipping the Crouching Light Attack and Standing Hard Attack all together. However, he cannot do a Standing Light Attack -> Standing Hard Attack and then back to a Crouching Medium Attack. You can only progress forward in the series.

In the case of Stronger+, things get really confusing once you start throwing in Rapid Fire Light Attacks. For example, Akuma has a Stronger+ Magic Series, but he also has a Rapid Fire Standing L as well as a Rapid Fire Crouching L, meaning those attacks can chain into themselves. The best way to understand it is that every time you chain a Light Attack into itself, it "resets" the state of the Magic Series. However, if you chain into the opposite Light Attack, it counts are part of the Magic Series. Thus, you cannot actually perform a Chain like so: Crouching L into Standing L into Crouching L. Once you chain into the opposite state, it counts as part of the Chain. However, if you switch states and then Rapid Fire an L attack into itself, it RESETS the Magic Series, so now it's as if you are starting from scratch and you can chain back to the opposite state again. So you CAN do: Crouch L into Standing L into Standing L into Crouching L. The Crouch L into Stand L counts as the Magic Series, but Chaining from Standing L into Standing L is a Rapid Fire L chain, so it resets the Magic Series so you can now, using Magic Series, chaing from Standing L into Crouching L again. But to be honest, all of this, while confusing, will almost NEVER come up in a real battle, as chaining multiple L's into themselves is a really bad idea thanks to Hit Stun Deterioration, so not understanding this whole paragraph really won't affect you at all in the long run.

Once again, though everyone's Magic Series follow those three patterns closely, everyone has exceptions to the rule that will deviate from the expected pattern.

Commonly Used Jargon

Hit Stun and Block Stun

Two terms will be used a lot in this guide: Hit Stun and Block Stun. If you notice, whenever you land an attack on the opponent, the opponent gets "stuck" in a state. When you hit them, they go into an animation of reeling from getting hit. When they block your attack, they get stuck in a blocking pose for a fixed amount of time.

These are what are referred to as Hit Stun and Block Stun. Hit Stun is the concept that, when hit, you are stuck in the reel animation for a while. Any hits that connect during your Hit Stun are considered a hit that combos on you. And Block Stun is the concept that, when you block an attack, you are stuck in the block pose for a while. Any attack that connects on you during Block Stun is considered a true Block String. These are very important concepts to know about, and they will be talked about a lot throughout this guide.

Frames

The word "Frame" is going to be used a lot in this guide. We're going to be talking about Active Frames, Frame Advantage, animation frames, etc. etc. So without understanding what a frame is, you're going to get very lost very quickly. The easiest way to understand frames is to think about everything that happens on the screen as a cartoon. In a cartoon, you have to draw one picture at a time so that, when played in rapid succession, each picture creates an animation. Each of these pictures can be called an animation frame.

That's what happens on the screen in Marvel Vs. Capcom 3. Every movement a character makes, every attack they perform goes through a set of what you can call an animation frame. So some moves are made up of 20 animation frames. Some moves are made up of as many as 200 frames. This is all we are referring to when we talk about frames. And keep in mind that Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 is a game that outputs 60 frames per second. So if we say something like "there is a 6 frame window you can perform this action," that means you have 1/10th of a second to perform the action.

Frame Data is included in each characters move list. Currently frame data is set up as so, Start up/active/recovery and is followed by advantage on hit/advantage on block. So for instance 6/9/13 means it has a start up of 6 frames, the move is active for 9 frames and has a recovery period for 13 frames. Additionally if you see +9/-5 it means you have 9 frames to link the next move on hit and on block you can be punished within 5 frames.

Damage Scaling

"Damage Scaling" is an effect hits within the same combo have where each successive hit deals less damage than they normally would, eventually leading to the character-specific "Damage Scaling Minimum". Click the following link for the full page of details regarding Damage Scaling and Damage Scaling Minimum Values.

• Damage Scaling

Extra Terminology

Here are a bunch of terms used commonly to describe different aspects of Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3. In fact, many of these terms are universal among all Fighting Games. Read on to see what they mean.

• Bn'B - Bn'B stands for "Bread n' Butter." The term basically is a euphemism for something "standard" and very common. So when used in the context of Fighting Games, it refers to the very basics. The most common area it is used with is in reference to Combos. When someone refers to something as a "Bn'B Combo," it refers to the basic, standard, most common and effective Combo that is typically used for a character. However, don't think of it as the most simple combo possible -- Dante's Bn'B, for example, involves Bold Cancels and all sorts of Combo trickery -- again, it refers to the most useful and practical combo for the character.

• Buff / Nerf - You're gonna hear a lot of things referred to as a "buff" or a "nerf" in UMvC3, mainly because of the vast amount of changes to the varying characters. A "buff" is simply that: a change that has improved the character in any way possible. A "nerf" is the exact opposite: a change that has reduced the quality of the character in any way. The term "nerf" comes exactly from where you'd think: the Nerf toy lines. Basically, a "Nerf" item usually is padded, soft, and has none of the deadly abilities of its real life counter part (like Nerf guns). Thus, when a move is made less deadly, it's been "nerfed."

• Lag - This is in relation to on-line game play, due to the transfer of data between long distances over a network the game can slowdown or even pause at times. Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 has a lag simulator in training mode that can be activated to allow practicing in situations where the game may slow down.

• Mix-up - Mix-ups can be referred to as pressure applied to your opponent that your opponent has great difficulty defending against. Mix-ups typically involve getting the opponent to block the wrong way (in terms of a high / low attack or a left / right attack).

• Reset - Resets typically refer to the act of purposefully ending a Combo early simply to land a Mix-up that gets the opponent into a new combo. The advantage of this is that many opponents may not be expecting a reset, and thus get caught with a new Combo. Of course, the new Combo also has its damage and Hit Stun Deterioration reset as well, so you can get a lot more damage off of a reset than just finishing a Combo fully.