Marvel vs Capcom 3/Glossary

Attack Properties

Cancel and Movement Properties

Term

Definition

A few characters have Light Attacks that can actually chain into themselves. She-Hulk is one of the best examples, where her Crouching Light Attack can combo into itself to allow her for even more potent hit confirms. Not every character has this, in fact more seem to not have this ability than those who do.

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 two characters actually are able to cancel their air Normal Moves into Air Dashes: Storm and Magneto. There are a very few other moves that are Air Dash Cancelable as well, Doctor Doom's Foot Dive performed with the Special Button being one of them.

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, and C. Viper's Level 3 Focus Attack may be 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

{{#motion:launch}}

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.

{{#motion:aircombofinisher}}

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.

{{#motion:otg}}

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.

{{#motion:hardknockdown}}

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.

{{#motion:softknockdown}}

Attacks that cause a Soft Knock-Down will put the enemy into a Floored State, but 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. Soft Knock-Downs ignore Hit Stun Deterioration and, before the opponent hits the floor, they can actually be juggled. When they touch the floor, however, the enemy will instantly roll and be safe from further hits.

{{#motion:forcedtechroll}}

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 very short backwards roll as if getting up without rolling and have no option to perform an actual roll.

{{#motion:groundbounce}}

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.

{{#motion:groundbounceaironly}}

Some moves can only cause Ground Bounce when they hit the opponent out of the air. Hitting the opponent on the ground causes a normal reel. Otherwise, it has all the same properties as a regular Ground Bounce when it strikes the opponent out of the air.

{{#motion:wallbounce}}

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.

{{#motion:crumple}}

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.

{{#motion:stagger}}

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.

{{#motion:dzzy}}

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 may be the only move that has a different behavior on Counter Hit in the game.

{{#motion:startupinv}}

These moves have some invulnerability frames at the start of the moves, making them ideal for overriding the attacks from your opponents.

{{#motion:armored}}

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.

{{#motion:counter}}

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.

{{#motion:projectilereflect}}

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.

{{#motion:projnull}}

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 just nullify Projectiles if he punches them.

Controller Motion Terminology

Term

Definition

QCF

{{#motion: qcf}} Quarter circle forward

QCB

{{#motion: qcb}} Quarter circle back

HCF

{{#motion: hcf}} Half circle forward

HCB

{{#motion: hcb}} Half circle back

DP

{{#motion: dp}} Dragon-punch type motion. Forward, down, down/forward

RDP

{{#motion: rdp}} Reverse dragon-punch type motion. Back, down, down/back

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.

Requests?

Got a request for the definition for particular jargon you don't understand? Edit this page and put the term below as a request and we will define them if appropriate!

{{#motion: d}}ADD TERMS BELOW HERE{{#motion: d}}

• Please define "Physical attack". I heard Tron's giant servbot attack counts as a physical attack, and MODOK's barrier also counts as a physical attack....but what is a physical attack in the first place?
• Can X-Factor only be activated on the ground? Thank you

I think the following terms should be explained on this Jargon page:

• DHC Glitch
• Bnb
• BROKEN
• Cheap
• Nerf
• Buff
• Mix-up
• Reset