Marvel vs Capcom 2/System

Marvel vs Capcom 2, like all fighting games has a series of basic commands you use to control your characters actions. These vary from normal moves, through special moves, to team moves or even ones with their own special abilities. Some of these commands are free, however others come at a cost of one or even five stocks of your super meter.

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Offense

The Magic Series

In Marvel vs. Capcom 2, you have six buttons, four of which control your point character's normal moves, being the first two columns. The top two are your Light and Heavy Punches and the bottom two are your Light and Heavy Kicks. The light attacks act a bit differently from the heavy attacks. In previous Marvel/Versus titles, you had six normal attacks: light/medium/heavy punches and kicks. It may look like Medium attacks got cut, but what they've done this time around is combined the Light and Medium attacks into one button. In most cases, pressing a Light button makes a Light attack come out, but if you press a Light button after a previous Light* makes contact, a Medium attack will come out. It is not possible to use Medium attacks unless a previous Light* attack has connected with an opponent, on block or hit.

To make the Versus series more fast-paced and combo dependent, they added a feature that is known as the Magic Series. The Magic Series is a combo 'guideline' of sorts that allows you to cancel between normal moves from weak to strong to create large, multiple hit combos. It has been in every Marvel/Versus game to date, and has even been used in other Capcom titles. The Magic Series attack sequence is as follows:

{{ LP > LK > MP > MK > HP > HK }}

The game allows you to chain all six attacks together in one combo. Unfortunately, not every character can do this full six-piece combo, but the rule still applies across the cast in other forms. Different characters have different 'types' of the Magic Series:

- there's the 'Hunter' chain of two-Lights > two-Mediums > two-Heavies (input as LP > LK > LP > LK > HP > HK) which is the most common, like Ruby Heart,

- the 'Marvel' chain of one Light, one Medium, one Heavy (input as Lx > Lx > Hx) which is what most of the rest of the characters have, like Cable,

- and the '2-Hit' chain of one Light into either one Medium OR one Heavy (input as Lx > Lx OR Lx > Hx) which only a few characters have, like Venom.

In the air, it's not always possible to combo two Heavy attacks, because air Heavies tend to knock down thanks to Flying Screen. Visually, the air HP will send them to the ground, causing the following air HK to whiff. But depending on the character and their moves, sometimes delaying the inputs can allow for all six hits (and more damage!)

{{ LP > MP > HP }}

{{ LK > MK > HK }}

{{ LP > LK > MP > HP}}

{{ LP > MP > MK > HK}}

Here are some examples of what you can do with the Magic Series. Although it has to be in on order, it's lenient enough to allow you to skip out attacks in the series of six, so you can shorten it to five, four, three or even two attacks. As long as it goes in the order of Light > Medium > Heavy with Punches > Kicks, it will generally be allowed.

Crossover Assists

A1 / A2 While your main four buttons control your character's attacks, you also have two buttons in the third column that call one of your partners on screen to help out! The top right button controls Assist 1, the second character in the list, and the bottom right button controls Assist 2, the third character. While on character select, you pick three characters as well as an assist type for each one. The assist type chosen determines what your partners will do when you press their respective Assist button. Crossover Assists come in various shapes and forms, but are usually Special Moves. Crossover Assists aren't instant, as the characters take a while to jump in from offscreen, so keep the delay in mind as you start learning timings for assist calls. You can call assist as much as you like while the character is alive, but don't over-use your assists either, as they're still vulnerable to attack from the opponent! Assists can be hit before they even perform their assist (for 1 frame, as they land), during their assist (unless they are invincible), and after the assist, depending on much recovery the assist has, plus the posing animation they do once they're done. While assists are on screen, their passive recovery of red health will stop until they are off-screen again and their health bar flashes with the 'ASSIST OK' prompt. If you need your teammates to heal up, let them rest and buy them some time!

While the game does have Negative Edge for Specials and Hypers, the assist buttons work like normal attacks. What this means is that your partners won't come out if you press and hold their button (for too long). Always make sure that you press and release the button to ensure your assist comes out.

Assist Types

Each character has 3 distinct Assist Types, listed in-game as α, β and γ. list of each character's assists, in order. Here's a general breakdown of how each one usually behaves, and examples to help. The name and color serve no functional purpose, they merely help distinguish the options from each other. Those with a keen eye may notice that the assist type chosen changes the color your character's health gradients to!

• Projectile: A ranged, usually horizontal shot or beam, like Ryu's Hadoken.
• Dash: Quick horizontal attack wherein the character himself charges at the opponent, like Captain America's Charging Star.
• Ground: Horizontal attack that covers an area of ground in front of you, like Felicia's Sand Splash.
• Anti-air: An attack effective against airborne opponents, usually covering above and in front of you, like Psylocke's Psy-Blade.
• Launcher: Close-ranged normal attack that pops your opponent into the air for a combo. Usually visually identical to their universal launcher, but sometimes the properties vary!
• Balance: A combination of the character's other two assists. Either copy of the character's first assist but with the second assist's Variable Counter, or vice versa.
• Expansion: An attack that has a wide area of effect in front of you and can be used to 'expand' your combos with their hit properties, like Ken's Tatsumaki Senpukyaku.
• Variety: Unique attacks that may not fit the other labels, like Doctor Doom's Photon Shot.
• Capture: Ranged attempt to immobilize an opponent for a short duration, like Thanos's Death Sphere.
• Throw: Attempt to grapple the opponent with an unblockable throw, like Rogue's Power Drain.
• Air Throw: Jumping attempt to catch an airborne opponent with an unblockable throw. Zangief is the only one with an Air Throw assist!
• Heal: Creates a pickup that restores some of the point character's red health on contact. Amingo, Jill, and SonSon are the only ones with Heal assists!
• Enhance: Creates a pickup that improves the active character's offense or defense for a short time. Ruby Heart and Amingo are the only ones with Enhance assists!

Rules for Assist Calling

• Assists can be called when your character is actionable (not in hitstun or blockstun) while grounded or when in the Normal Jump state.
• You can't call out an assist when in the Super Jump state.
• Assists can be called when attacking with grounded normals (or aerial normals, when in the Normal Jump state).
• You can't call out an assist during Special Moves nor Hyper Combos.
• You can't call an assist that has been snapped out until the red X over their life bar goes away. Their life bar will briefly flash "ASSIST OK!" when they are enabled again. They also won't heal until the X goes away.
• Once an assist hits during a combo, you may not call another assist again in that combo. Vidness says that his "triple assist" combo exploits the glitch whereby an assist that is the same as the point character does not get counted as an assist. You can also call the assist multiple times before the first hit of the combo, which can let the assist hit multiple times in some combos.

Vulnerability

As you will notice if you play against MSP more than once, your assists cannot block. They will be called in, perform their move, pose afterwards, and then leave. At any point, they can be hit (subject to their normal hurtboxes) and will try to leave as soon as they recover and hit the ground. If juggled, they can be hit infinitely until death. You will want to protect your assists, or you will lose.

Depending on the character, sometimes it can be worth considering less useful assists that put them at less risk when called, especially if they have low defense. You may find unique use cases for your alternative! Experimenting with your team assist loadout and character order can put give you new perspectives on different parts of them.

Assist Quirks

• Tron Bonne's "Y" Projectile assist should be her medium attack (5 pts per hit) but uses her fierce damage (15pts per hit). This is true for all medium normal attack assists but is only particularly useful for Tron.
• Per Vidness, an assist that is the same character as the point character does not get counted as an assist hit.

Snap Back

QCF+ A1 / A2

Snap Backs are attacks that will cause the character hit to leave the screen and another to come in (depending on which button you used) in exchange for 1 Hyper bar. The snap back makes whoever you snapped out unable to be called nor switched to for a few seconds. You also cannot DHC into nor Variable Counter into the snapped out character. Some snaps have very good reach and speed. Others might have speed but the range is very bad. If you land a snap on your opponent's assist, instead of leaving the screen, their body stays in play. If you snap your opponent's character while their assist is on screen, your opponent has to sit and watch while you have the opportunity to attack their assist. If you snap your opponent's character AND their assist, that's a Double Snap, and with the right follow-up, you can kill their assist uncontested.

Snap oddities

The A2 snap back causes strange effects for some characters:

• Gambit does A2 snap back and right after a Cajun Strike (make sure he goes to the left wall) and he’ll fly out of the screen.
• Ruby Heart does a phantom and before it comes out does a snap back (a2) and if the phantom doesn’t hit anyone it will cause the other person to go into block animation even when there is nothing on screen.

There is a bug that happens with Snap Backs with the A2 button, where if you counter with assist two while the 'x' is still on your name you will disappear and hop back (the animation of a counter) as if you were leaving but instead stay on screen in addition to that you become invisible and semi-invincible. A general rule for invisibility is that you have it as long as your character doesn’t come back to standing animation after doing a move. So say you were Doom and you were invisible and you did his S.LP after the move was finished he would go into standing animation and that is when he will be visible. Also, jumping requires you to go through standing animation so it will cause become visible. As for the semi-invincibility, some characters are safe from being hit low or high, and some characters, both. The characters that have immunity from high and low attacks can only be hit if they move and turn visible again or if the other character causes them to turn around. Snap backs can cause things to hit more than they should. For instance Cyclops does a LP Optic Blast and right before it hits the other character performs a snap back, if timed right the Optic Blast will hit more than it should. A snap back kills frames and this affects characters in strange ways some will lose the frames of when their move hits others will get extra hits for their moves.

Alpha Counter

back, downback, down (412) + A1 / A2 (facing right)

Variable Counters, mostly known as Alpha Counters, are a defensive tool that lets you switch your characters out while you're blocking for the cost of 1 Hyper bar. It can only be done on the ground, and you can extend the input window for it by push-blocking to increase how long you're in blockstun for. When you Alpha Counter, the character associated with that assist button is brought in, and they perform their Counter move (as specified by their Crossover Assist's type). Alpha Counters are usually Special Moves, and they can be cancelled into Hyper Combos as usual. However, the Alpha Counters that are normal attacks (like those seen with Launcher assists) are treated like Specials, which means they can also be cancelled into Hypers, but they *can't* be cancelled into Specials or Super Jumps. The most popular Alpha Counter is Cable's Anti-Air Assist Alpha Counter, the Psimitar, which is typically cancelled into his Air Hyper Viper Beam (AHVB) for a speedy reversal if he has the meter to burn.

If a character on your team has been hit by a Snap Back, and their health bar is Xd out, they cannot be switched to via alpha counter.

Delayed Hyper Combo

A Delayed Hyper Combo (DHC) is when you cancel the super attack of your point character with a super from the next character. The classic MvC2 example is hitting the opponent with Storm's Lightning Storm super and then DHC'ing (canceling) that late into Sentinel's Hyper Sentinel Force. You can DHC up to twice in the same super sequence: the normal super screen background is blue, the first DHC screen background is green, and the second and final DHC screen background is red. You cannot reuse the same character in a DHC sequence: to DHC twice you would need all three characters alive.

If a character on your team has been hit by a Snap Back, and their health bar is Xd out, they cannot be used in a DHC.

Team Hyper Combo

A1+A2 The Team Hyper Combo (THC) is an attack used by pressing both assist buttons at the same time when your character is on the ground and actionable. It can be activated with a minimum of 1 Hyper meter level, and can use as many super levels as you have characters left on your team (up to 3). For each super meter consumed, one character is activated, from top to bottom. The activated characters then perform their designated Team Hyper Combo super, as determined by the assist selected.

Even if you have five meters but only one character left, only one super level will be consumed and your point character will do their THC super. If you have two meters but three characters, only your first two characters will do their THCs.

THCs are generally derided but are useful for:

• Accessing super moves the character can not perform normally. Examples are Zangief's Mega Lariat, Rogue's Rushing Punches, Kobun's Walking Forward Kobun, Spiral's one-level Transforming Punches.
• Accessing a super for the other character without requiring a switchout. This is commonly popular when Captain Commando is on your team: you can use the THC to attempt to punish super-jumping characters who are not in block with Commando's Captain Sword.
• Heavy damage. This was popularized via "one hit kill" teams such as BB Hood / Juggernaut / Captain Commando : the tactic is to build three meters and get one clean shot on your opponent.
• Trickery. Since it takes one hit per character to stop them from performing their part in the super barrage, if one character is going to eat the hit, the other characters will continue the THC and possibly deal out the damage you need.

As you should be able to see, the THC is not generally of great use, but can be an effective tactical addition to your game if your character/team has a good THC. For Psylocke or Tron based teams you would likely never want to use your THC, but for Commando-based teams it's of high occasional value. For low tier teams, it may be a critical gimmick for your team.

If a character on your team has been hit by a Snap Back, and their health bar is Xd out, they cannot be used in a THC.

Dizzy

As with other Capcom games, the opponent can get dizzied if they take enough hits over time. There is an internal counter for Dizzy that starts at 80. Each time you land a hit, that meter decreases. When it decreases to 0, there is a Spin-out animation. The opponent's timer resets itself to 80 after 60 frames of not being hit.

The amount of Dizzy caused is random. However, Light attacks (LP/LK) cause the most stun, Mediums cause less, and Fierces cause the least.

Offensive-Crouch Launchers (Down+Forward+P/K), Specials and Supers do not add to the Dizzy Counter.

Off the Ground (OTG) attacks, Snapbacks, Throws and some capture attacks add to the Dizzy Counter, but cannot trigger the Spin-Out animation.

If the value is 0 during an OTG, Spin-Out will not be triggered.

Once the opponent is in another state while their value is 0, any attack will trigger the spinout until the timer resets itself.

If the value turns to 0 on a hit that Super Armor absorbs, the spin out will not happen. Instead, the value increases to 1.

The dizzy value is retained after a snapout, but calling the assist resets it. If the value turned to 0 as a result of the Snapback, it will change to 1 when the character returns.

Super Flash Glitch

During the super flash screen the game pauses characters for about four frames but projectiles advance. This four frame kill most notably lets Magneto combo hyper grav into Magnetic Tempest. Additionally, if the super flash starts on exactly the frame that an assist hits, that assist will hit twice. (Further discussion on SRK.)

Switching Characters at the Vs. Screen

The order in which the player picks their team can be altered during the "Vs." screen. By holding down the assist 1 button, the player can swap the first and second characters shown during the loading screen. Holding down assist 2 results in swapping the first and third characters shown during the loading screen. Holding down both assist buttons swaps the second and third characters.

The First Attack Glitch

By swapping your starting character during the Vs. screen you activate a glitch. Once activated it allows you to hold any of the four attack button and when the fight begins, if it's still held those attack buttons will automatically come out. Bear in mind though it is said a perfectly timed attack is more accurate than using this glitch, so don't always expect to get away with it at high level play.

Typically it is most advantageous to 'glitch' something very quick such as Magneto's 1-frame cLK, but you can also glitch a dash (2P - you can glitch either a forward or back dash), a switch-in (LP+LK or HP+HK), or a button-only special move such as Storm's Lightning Attack.

Note that this input glitch applies to all available inputs, so you can also glitch directional inputs which lets you superjump almost immediately.

Defense

Marvel vs Capcom 2 continues the defensive logic originated in Street Fighter 2 and evolved throughout the Vs series of games.

Blocking

To prevent or minimize damage from an attack, you need to block it appropriate to that attack. Attacks can be normal, high, low, or jumping. Blocks can be low or standing (normal). A low attack must be blocked low. A normal attack can be blocked either low or standing. A high or jumping attack must be be blocked standing / normal.

Chip Damage

Certain moves will inflict damage even if you block: this is called chip damage. Doom-B's rock assist and Iceman's beam attacks are notable examples of moves that cause chip damage. Additionally, certain characters will cause chip damage even with their normal moves: these include Sentinel and Jin with Saotome Shine active. Iceman uniquely avoids chip damage from most energy type moves that chip and only takes chip damage from physical type moves.

Super Armor

Certain characters, such as Juggernaut, Hulk, and Sentinel, have Super Armor. This allows them to take up to one non-heavy attack without going into hit stun. Heavy attacks and certain other attacks bypass this Super Armor.

Hyper Armor

Hyper Armor allows the character to take an unlimited number of hits of any type without entering hit stun. Mech Zangief and Colossus with his super active have access to Hyper Armor. Rogue can also gain access to it by copying it from someone with it active. This video shows two examples of hyper armor: the Mech Zangief assist continuing through attacks and Rogue (with Hyper Armor copied from Mech Zangief) continuing to attack regardless of taking hits.

Base Defense

Attack damage assigned to the defending character is scaled based upon that character's base defense. For example Akuma takes much more damage from the same combo than Sentinel will. The base scaling for each character is as shown:

Damage %	Characters
75%	Sentinel
81%	Colossus
87%	Blackheart, Hulk, Juggernaut, Zangief
93%	Captain America, Dr. Doom, Omega Red, Rogue*, Silver Samurai*, Thanos, Tron Bonne
100% (normal)	Amingo, Cable, Captain Commando, Charlie, Cyclops, Gambit, Guile, Iron Man, Jin, M. Bison, Ruby Heart, Ryu, Sakura, Venom, War Machine
106%	B.B. Hood, Chun-Li, Hayato, Jill, Ken, Magneto, Megaman, Sabretooth, Spiral, Storm
112%	Cammy, Dan, Dhalsim, Felicia, Iceman, Psylocke, Shuma-Gorath
118%	Marrow, Morrigan, Sonson
125%	Anakaris, Spider-Man, Strider, Wolverine
137%	Akuma, Roll, Servbot, Wolverine (Bone)

Tech Rolling

Tech Rolling is when you hit the floor and roll away. This technique helps to get characters out of extended combos. However, some people can make their off the ground combos (abbreviated as OTG/’s) unrollable by inputting their attack before you land on the floor. To perform a tech roll you have to do a reverse fireball motion (B,DB,D + any punch or kick button). Characters are invincible when falling down after being SWEPT. The only character in the game that can be hit before he lands after being swept is ----- Dhalsim!

Not every move that knocks you on your back will let you roll out of it – there are some moves that require you to mash if you want to get up quicker (ex. Gamma Crush). However, some moves are genuinely unrollable (ex. B.B. Hood’s Cruel Hunting super). Some supers that carry characters across the screen (ex. Magneto’s shockwave) are unrollable. Lastly, some moves require switching the way you input the roll command. Meaning that instead of rolling the way you’re supposed to (B,DB,D + any punch or kick button) you would have to do the opposite motion (F,DF,D + any punch or kick button).

The person who is not tech rolling can choose which direction the tech roller is going to go by placing their character on a certain side. If he/she moves to the right of the opponents character the opponents character will roll to the right. (Side note about rolling: OTGs do not cause stun so you cannot dizzy someone if all of your attacks are OTGs. One infinite that abuses this rule is Amingo’s QCF+LP (specials don’t cause stun) OTG with S.LK repeat: it can be done for 999+ hits.

Some properties about OTGs, rolls and wake-ups:

• The person who is rolling is invincible till they get up.
• Everyone’s roll is the same, meaning they travel the same distance and at the same speed.
• When a character is in their rising animation they are invincible. This means that attacks can go through them and they will not be hit until they are in their standing animation. This allows a character to be crossed up while they are getting up. For example, Magneto’s CR.HK can cross up characters. If Magneto’s sprite is RIGHT in the middle of the character that is getting up it will cause confusion regarding which side they should block, so it becomes a cross-up. This can also sometimes cause unblockables to occur. However, if the move the person is trying to do is a low attack the character getting up can jump straight out of the attack since there are some invincibility frames when jumping straight out of the rising animation. The only thing that can stop this is a move that would hit you from mid or high.
• Characters can control which direction their opponent will roll when tech rolling by standing or being above the opponent on a certain side. Some characters can perform this technique by simply holding their position after performing a sweep. For example, if you're Magneto or a character who moves forward during their sweep you would just sit there as the opponent rolls to the other side (forward).

Force-Rolls

Force-Rolls are when the character hits you right before you hit the floor or when you’re already on the floor and he hits you with only one move. That causes you to start rolling. However, this kind of roll is different than normal tech rolling. You can be hit during the first few frames of your Force-Roll. For instance: Psylocke does a CR.HK and OTG’s with a CR.LK (if she doesn’t do anything afterwards you’ll start to roll away from her but you’ll be in the air for some reason) if she waits and does a dashing CR.HP it will OTG you and won’t count as a move that produced stun. So, it’s possible to get two different kinds of OTG’s in a combo. On that example of Psylocke: she can do an infinite on Servbot by doing [CR.HP -> Psyblade -> OTG w/ CR.LK, pause for a little bit/let the CR.LK animation finish, -> dash] As you probably guessed, it can be done for 999+ hits.

Another interesting thing about force rolls is that if you are hit with a CR.LP or CR.LK you will pop-up into the air in a strange way. And if you’re hit with a sweep (normally) you will fall down as if you were knocked on your back again. Theoretically that would be an infinite ([OTG, CR.HK]). Oh, and if you’re hit with a standing move usually a S.LK you will be knocked on your feet in a strange way. It will look like you bounced a little then landed on your feet.

Tech Hitting

Tech-Hitting can also be called Tech Throwing. Which means you get out of a throw before the character does his damage on you or after he does his damage on you but before you land on the floor. EX: You can tech hit Sentinel’s throw after he throws you into the corner before he can OTG you. Or you can Tech hit out of Juggernaut’s HP throw in the corner before he kills you in 5 hits. To do a tech hit you have to hold the joystick left or right and press HP or HK while doing so. You can do it at the start of the persons throws or at the end right before you land. Not all throws are techable, you can’t tech specials or supers. An important thing about tech throws is that you can’t tech roll if the person performs an unrollable OTG on you. EX: Juggernaut can hit you before you land making a tech throw on the floor impossible. Some people’s throws and follow-ups to those throws are so dangerous that you must tech hit before they actually do their damage/animation.

Another big important thing about tech hitting is that you are put into normal jump which means you lose unfly and you can be guard broken no matter how high up you on screen. Although it’s not as bad as it sounds since you can block once + call an assist.

Tech Hit/Tech Roll Buffering

When you are thrown, do the motion for tech roll, then finish the motion when you hit the ground, (so if roll is half circle forward, you end on forward, when you hit the ground) and hit FP or FK.

That way, you've done the motion and button for the roll, but you also are trying to tech it, since you hit forward and fp when you hit the ground.

If you don't get the tech hit, you get the roll.

Guard Breaks

A character in normal jump mode can only perform one special action until they land. A character switching in to the game is in normal jump mode: so if you can get that character to block once, you can hit them after they recover from blockstun and start falling again.

Advancing Guard

Advancing Guard (referred to colloquially as "pushblocking") is a universal defensive system that can be used by pressing both punch buttons while in blockstun. It is possible to pushblock attacks both on the ground and in the air.

A successful pushblock will trigger a unique sound and special effect around the front of your character, and will push the opponent a set distance away from you. Pushblocking will only create distance when blocking attacks from the opponent's point character; pushblocking an assist attack will not result in any extra pushback. Notably, the "pushing" effect of pushblock only affects the player whose attack was blocked, meaning that if the player pushblocks an attack from an opponent who is in the corner, the pushblock will somewhat counter-intuitively negate the pushback of any attack. Performing a pushblock in the air will hold the player character in the air for a period of time, allowing it to be used to delay the player's landing from an airborne situation.

It's possible to very slightly delay your pushblock past an attack's regular blockstun, but this depends on the length of time it takes for your character to leave their blocking animation. The length of this animation differs between characters: for instance, Cable takes 23 frames to leave his blocking animation after blockstun ends, while Cyclops only takes 4 frames to leave his blocking animation. Practically speaking, this means that Cable has 23 frames of leniency on inputting his pushblock after blockstun ends, while Cyclops only has 4 frames of leniency in the same situation.

Pushblock Guard Cancel

A very important property of pushblock on the ground is that it places your character into a set amount of blockstun - approximately 23F after the game registers the pushblock input. After the blockstun from a pushblock ends, the game will return the character to neutral (assuming they don't re-enter pre-block). This allows for a technique known as a "pushblock guard cancel" that allows characters to escape what would otherwise be completely guaranteed blockstrings.

Consider a move such as the Hyper Sentinel Force super. If you are blocking the first set of drones and let go of the stick, you will remain in block stun for the duration of the super. However, if you push block you will cancel that block stun early after taking the currently blocked hit. If you keep holding back, you will keep blocking. If you instead put the stick in neutral, you will get hit by the next hit of the move unless you take actions to avoid it. The most common example by advanced players is to push block and superjump out of Hyper Sentinel Force, avoiding most of the chip damage and positioning yourself better. Slipgater made a tutorial video of this here showing just jumping out, and NKI has a nice video of punishing HSF with AHVB.