Rising Thunder/System

Controls

The above image doesn't tell the whole story.

• H & Numpad 0 can also be used for throws.
• Arrow keys can also be used for movement.
• Numpad 4/5/6 can be used for specials.
• Numpad 1/2/3 can be used for normals.

//TODO: Update the image to include the extra stuff?

Defence

Blocking

Holding back (away from the opponent) will block incoming attacks, making you take no damage from normals or a small amount of chip damage from specials/supers. Blocked moves also always have worse frame advantage than moves that successfully hit.

Low attacks must be blocked crouching (Down-Back).

Jumping attacks and standing overheads must be blocked standing (Back).

It's a good habit to default to blocking low, as all jumping attacks and overheads are much slower than lows.

The universal crossup (jumping Down + Heavy) must be blocked in the opposite direction.

Throws and command grabs cannot be blocked.

Projectiles must be blocked based on the direction the character last touched the ground. For example: Vlad is on the right, puts a delayed projectile on top of you, and jumps over. If it lands before he touches the ground, you have to block it as if he was still on the right. However, if he lands from the jump you must switch which direction you block. This rule is can be abused by Vlad & Crow who can adjust their landing timing to create unreactable 50/50s.

Breaking Throws

Throws cannot be blocked; the main way to escape throws is to tech them. By throwing within a small window of being thrown, you both escape and return to neutral with no advantage to either side. The window is too small for it to work as a reaction, so it's always as guess.

Another important note is that you cannot tech throws while holding down-back. Nothing will come out. This makes it so you must be weak to lows in order to break throws.

Invincibility

All backdashes, supers, and some reversals have a period of invincibility (commonly referred to as i-frames). This is denoted by your character receiving a golden aura for its duration.

During the invincibility period, you cannot be hit or thrown; it's used to pass through attacks and punish them.

Armor

Some moves have a period of armor. This is denoted with your character receiving a blue aura for its duration.

Armor accomplishes the same things as invincibility, with a few differences:

• Armored moves can still be thrown.
• Armoring through an attack still causes hitstop. This means that cancels can still come out since the move doesn't whiff.
• Armoring through a move still makes you take the damage as recoverable white life.
• There is only 1 hit of armor, so multi-hit moves or a sequence that hits twice before the armored move lands will still stuff the move.

Kinetic Deflect

Selecting Kinetic Deflect in your loadout shows up as a green meter that fills up above your Overdrive meter.

When you have at least 1 full bar, pressing any 2 Special buttons while in blockstun or hitstun will make a shield bubble appear on your character at the cost of half a bar. This bubble stays up until you exit blockstun or hitstun. If you are hit when this shield is up, Kinetic Deflect will activate, consume another half of a bar, and push the enemy full screen while also deleting any projectiles on the screen. This effectively works as Killer Instinct's Shadow Counter combined with an Arcsys-style Burst.

You are still considered to be in hitstun or blockstun with the shield bubble up, so if you have the extra meter, mashing 2 Special buttons will put up multiple shields. This accomplishes nothing other than wasting meter.

The shield bubble is reactable, so if it's done too early the attacker can choose not to hit the defender. This still forces the attacker to end their combo or pressure sequence early, so it accomplishes the goal of preventing further damage, but it doesn't give you the reward of pushing the opponent full screen.

A weird limitation with KD is that you can only carry 1 bar over into the next round. If the round ends with you having more than 1 bar, you're simply set to 1 bar for the next round. Most people forget about this rule and end up wasting a free burst/combo breaker.

Quick Getup

After being knocked down, hitting any normal button will cause you to get up earlier. It's recommended to drum the normal buttons in order to basically guarantee you land the timing.

Emergency Tech

Moves that cause twist, backslide, wall bounce, or ground bounce can be emergency teched by pressing any Special button as you hit the ground. It is recommended to drum the Special buttons to basically guarantee you land the timing.

This causes a brief period of invincibility and then extended recovery.

If read or close enough this can be severely punished, so it's not recommended.

Some moves are a guaranteed safe tech, like Talos's super, Dauntless's far Target Combo, and Crow's Soul Cleaver.

White Health

Any move that is armored through will inflict its damage as white health instead of real damage.

White health is recoverable and begins recovering immediately, even in blockstun.

Getting hit will remove all white health that has been accrued.

You cannot be chip killed by white health.

Offence

Throws

Throws can be performed by hitting the dedicated Throw button.

Throws cannot be blocked, and as such they serve as a guard break to punish people turtling. They have very short range, so you usually have to expose yourself by walking up to throw.

Because you cannot tech throws while crouching, you have to expose yourself to lows in order to escape them. This makes low vs throw one of the main mixups in the game.

Some characters have air throws. You can tech air throws without having an air throw yourself, so it usually serves as a combo tool.

Back throws deal more damage and stun than forward throws. However, you can KA cancel forward throws into a combo for better damage, stun, and oki afterwards. The only exception to this is Crow, whose forward throw deals more damage but his back throw can be cancelled instead.

Dashing

Tapping forward twice will cause your character to dash towards the opponent. This is usually the fastest way to cover space.

Most characters can also run by holding forward when dashing.

Dashes and runs have recovery as they end, meaning they can be checked and punished.

Cooldowns

Every special move has a dedicated cooldown associated with it. This is to balance out the fact that they can be performed with a single button.

Using KA in a combo will reduce all active cooldowns by 2s.

Stunning the opponent will reduce all active cooldowns by 5s.

Flipout

Most moves when hitting an airborne opponent will cause flipout. This state has a brief period of vulnerability before complete invincibility until landing.

This can be used to set up predictable timing for oki by removing the options of quick getup vs delayed getup from the opponent.

Stun

If the stun accrued reaches the character's stun value, they become stunned. This causes them to become standing and completely vulnerable for X seconds.

Mashing normal and Special buttons reduces the stun duration. Mashing directions has no effect.

Getting a stun will reduce all active cooldowns by 5s.

Combo System

Juggle Points

As the character is getting comboed while being airborne, every hit will consume a juggle point.

The maximum number of juggle points and current juggle point count is displayed under the combo counter.

When the max number is reached, the juggled character becomes invulnerable to any further hits.

Kinetic Advance

Selecting Kinetic Advance will show up as a blue bar above your Overdrive meter.

This is built up by doing damage and advancing forward.

It can be used to extend combos by dashing out or jumping out of a KA-cancellable move.

Usually the move needs to make contact to become KA cancellable, but projectiles (including projectile supers) can be KA cancelled on whiff.

Everyone can KA cancel their forward throw, except for Crow, who can cancel his back throw instead.

KA cancel consumes 1 bar, makes your character ignore the recovery of a move and immediately perform the action buffered, be it a dash, backdash, or jump.

KA cancel removes 2s from all active cooldowns if done on hit. Doing this on block just makes the cancelled move safe.

KA cancel removes 1 from your current juggle count, effectively increasing the number of possible combos.

Because projectiles can be KA cancelled on whiff, this can be used to set up mixups as well.

Power Hits

Power hits are certain moves that have a minimum scaling of 33% as opposed to the usual 15%-20%.

All supers are power hits.

Power hits do not ignore the additional reversal starter scaling, so their damage is still cut down another 50% in those situations.

Backslide

Certain moves will cause a backslide on hit.

This cannot be comboed out of and can be emergency teched by the opponent.

Wall Bounce

Certain moves cause a wall bounce on hit, putting the opponent airborne and vulnerable until landing.

This can easily be followed up after. The opponent can emergency tech on landing if nothing is done as a pickup.

Only 1 wall bounce can be done in a combo; if a 2nd wall bounce would be done, it becomes a backslide instead, ending the combo.

Ground Bounce

Certain moves cause a ground bounce on hit, putting the opponent airborne and vulnerable until landing.

This can easily be followed up after. The opponent can emergency tech on landing if nothing is done as a pickup.

Only 1 ground bounce can be done in a combo; if a 2nd ground bounce would be done, it becomes an untechable spike to the ground instead, ending the combo.

Free Juggle State

Certain moves cause a free juggle state on hit, putting the opponent airborne and vulnerable until landing.

This can be easily followed up after.

There is no limit to how many free juggle states you can incur in a combo.

Meters

Kinetic Meter

Depending on which Kinetic mode you selected in your loadout, this will either be green or blue.

Advance is built up by connecting with attacks and advancing forward.

Deflect is built up by getting hit.

Advance carries over between rounds. Deflect can only carry over 1 bar.

Overdrive Meter

Your super meter. Once full, your super can be performed with a dedicated Overdrive button.

Built up by dealing damage.

Carries over between rounds.

Miscellaneous

Loadouts

Before readying up or queueing for a match, you have the option of selecting your loadout.

Everyone can select between Kinetic Deflect and Kinetic Advance, but the options for specials depend on the character.

Only 1 version of each special can be selected at a time.

After a game, you have the option to change your loadout to better suit the matchup.