Marvel vs Capcom 2/System

This page will detail the basic system mechanics available to all characters in Marvel vs Capcom 2. Much of this information can also be found in Andor's video guide.

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Movement

On the ground, every character is able to walk in both directions. Characters are also able to dash by either double-tapping the desired direction (66 or 44), or pressing the desired direction alongside both punch buttons (6PP or 4PP). Dashing can be cancelled by almost any action, including any attack, jumping, crouching or even a dash of the opposite direction. The flexibility of dashes also allow for movement techniques such as wavedashing - watch this video by G Conceptz to learn more.

Characters are also able to jump by tapping any upward direction, as well as super jump by pressing any downward direction before jumping. Normal jumps and superjumps have a number of different properties which are worth noting.

Normal jumps:

• Travel less overall vertical and horizontal distance compared to superjumps
• Only allow for one aerial action before landing
• Allow for assist calls
• Cannot be used to cancel attacks
• Impart more restrictive combo properties to attacks, ie normal jump attacks cannot trigger flying screen, and normal jump special moves cannot cancel into Hyper Combos.

By comparison, superjumps:

• Travel a greater overall vertical and horizontal distance than normal jumps, and also allow for further horizontal control via aerial drift (performed by holding 4 or 6 during a superjump)
• Allow for an unlimited number of aerial actions before landing
• Do not allow for assist calls
• Can be used to cancel certain attacks
• Often allow for much greater combo possibilities

These movement mechanics are also augmented by character-specific movement options, such as Magneto's eight-way airdash, Storm's float or Sentinel's flight.

Team Systems

In Marvel vs Capcom 2, players select teams of three characters to take into a match with them. A game ends when all three of a player's characters has been defeated, or when time runs out. If a game runs to time, the player with the largest overall remaining life total will win.

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 A1, the player can swap the first and second characters shown during the loading screen. Holding down A2 results in swapping the first and third characters shown during the loading screen. Holding down both assist buttons swaps the second and third characters.

First Attack Glitch

In the arcade and Dreamcast versions of the game, switching the point character at the versus screen will enable a glitch which allows for inputs to be buffered at round start simply by holding down the input. Buffering the input in this way will cause the input to be executed on the first possible frame after the game starts - this is extremely common with characters that have exceptionally fast attacks, such as Magneto and his 1F 2LK.

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

Recoverable Life

When a character takes damage, a portion of that damage will be left as recoverable life (referred to as "red life"). This red life will be recovered passively whenever the character is not in play. If a character has red life remaining when they are tagged in, either via raw tag or via Snapback, they will lose whatever red life they had at the time. Switching out characters via Delayed Hyper Combo will not have this effect.

Crossover Tag

It is possible to perform a Crossover Tag (also called a "raw tag") while on the ground by pressing LP+LK to switch to the second character in the team order, or by pressing HP+HK to switch to the third character in the team order. Raw tag will cause the point character to briefly pose while gaining invincibility before jumping out, while the selected character jumps into the fight with one of their jumping normals, at which point they will also perform a short taunt after landing. These raw tag attacks will always track to wherever the opponent's point character was at the time the tag was input.

Raw tags see some situational use both offensively and defensively. They are treated as special moves for move cancelling purposes, so they can be cancelled into from normal attacks, and will also launch the opponent high into the air on hit (assuming the opponent isn't knocked down), all of which can make raw tag an occasional combo starter or extender. At the same time, the invincibility on startup allows raw tag to be used as a reversal option, though this can be very risky due to raw tags being very punishable on block and whiff.

Variable Assists

The defining feature of Marvel vs Capcom 2, Variable Assists (referred to as simply 'Assists') are where most of the magic of the game happens. When selecting a character, players will also be prompted to select that character's assist type, which will determine what attack they will perform when called as an assist. In-game, assists are called by pressing either the A1 or A2 button. A1 will call the second character in the team order, while A2 will call the third character in the team order. Calling an assist will cause that character to jump into play, perform their move, and then strike a pose before jumping off-screen.

Assists define almost everything about how neutral, offense and defense function in Marvel vs Capcom 2, so understanding how to use them and how they interact with everything around them is critical to success.

Assist Types

Each character has 3 distinct Assist Types, listed in-game as α, β and γ. While the specific move indicated by any given assist is not noted in-game, character movelists will make note of which assist attacks each character has access to. In the game itself, however, each available assist option is signified by a broad "assist type" category. These categories are outlined below:

• 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!

Assist Restrictions

There are a number of rules and restrictions to when it is possible to call an assist:

• 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.
• 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.

Punshing Assists

At all points during their animation (barring any invincibility granted by certain moves), assists maintain all their normal hurtboxes, leaving them able to be punished. Assists are often at a far greater risk than point characters are due to two key factors: one is that assists are incapable of flipping out of hitstun the way that point characters are, meaning that combos that would otherwise be impossible are possible to perform on assist characters; the other is that combos on assists are not subject to combo damage scaling like they would be on point characters - in other words, each hit of a combo on an assist character will deal its full damage, no matter what. This makes assist punishes especially deadly.

Offensive Systems

Throws

Throws are performed by pressing 4/6HP (and/or 4/6HK, depending on the character) while close to the opponent. Throws universally impact on frame 1, but due to their low reward and inability to consistently beat meaty attacks, they don't see much use barring some exceptional characters.

Throws can be softened (referred to in-game as a "Tech Hit") by inputting a throw as the player character is thrown. This will reduce the throw's damage and often prevent it from knocking down, instead returning the character to a normal jump state.

The Magic Series

Every character in Marvel vs Capcom 2 is capable of chaining normal attacks together in a sequence known as the "Magic Series". Magic series chains follow a basic order of allowing chains from any weaker normal to a higher-strength normal, as well as chaining from punch to kick normals of the same strength:

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

While this is the basic framework for how normal chains function, this is not universal. Rather, every character will have access to one of three different types of Magic Series chain:

• Hunter Chain: Allows a full six-normal chain (LP > LK > MP > MK > HP > HK)

• Marvel Chain: Allows chaining only from weak normals to strong normals (L > M > H)

• 2-Hit Chain: Allows light normals to chain only to medium or heavy normals, but not in sequence (L > M or L > H).

The order of Hunter Chains and Marvel Chains are not strict, in the sense that while they allow for full chain sequences, any step in the chain sequence can be skipped, so long as the basic order of the chain is followed.

Air Combos

Air Combos (known in Japanese as "Aerial Raves") are the most common way for characters in Marvel vs Capcom 2 to structure their combos, alongside use of the Magic Series. Air Combos largely revolve around the use of superjumps - as noted in the Movement section, superjumps often allow for chains and cancels that would not be possible from a normal jump. Almost every character in the game has access to at least one move which will launch the opponent into the air - on hit, holding an upward direction will cancel the launcher into a superjump, allowing the use of an air combo.

Flying Screen

Attacks that are flagged as air combo "enders", such as heavy normals during superjump, as well as some Hyper Combos, will trigger a state known as "Flying Screen," so called because it causes the defending character to "fly" back down to the ground at high speeds. Attacks that trigger Flying Screen are notable primarily due the fact that Flying Screen knockdowns disable the defender's ability to tech roll, which can create highly advantageous situations for the aggressor, including guaranteed okizeme and even niche combo extensions. These combo extensions rely on the use of an exploit known as FSD (standing for "Flying Screen Deterioration"), which will be detailed on the Esoterics page.

Defensive Systems

Blocking

Attacks in Marvel vs Capcom 2 are blocked by holding a directional input away from your opponent - 1, 4 and 7 are all valid inputs. Hold 4 to block all mid and high attacks; hold 1 to block all mid and low attacks. Most attacks can be blocked while airborne, which allows for chicken-blocking - holding 7 to jump and begin blocking airborne as soon as possible.

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.

Pushblocking does not result in ordinary blockstun - triggering a pushblock effectively puts the player character into what is best thought of as a set pushblocking animation. This pushblocking animation lasts for 23 frames, and has a number of unique properties:

• Attacks will continue to be blocked throughout the animation, but attacks will not inflict standard blockstun for its duration
• The pushblock animation is capable of applying high and low guard status at the same time
• At the end of the pushblock animation, characters will become actionable if they do not re-enter their blocking animation

These properties lead to two very important defensive techniques: Pushblock All-Guard and Pushblock Guard Cancel.

Pushblock All-Guard

Pushblock All-Guard refers to the ability for the pushblocking animation to effectively block high and low at the same time. This allows for much safer defensive play than would otherwise be possible on the ground, effectively creating 23-frame windows where the defender does not have to choose to block high or low. To perform a Pushblock All-Guard, hold 2 while performing a standing pushblock or 4 while performing a crouching pushblock - changing the character's blocking stance during the pushblock animation will cause the character to take on the high and low blocking stances at the same time, making it a key tool for defending against the layered high-low mixup situations that many of the game's best characters are capable of enforcing.

Pushblock Guard Cancel

Pushblock Guard Cancel refers to a technique which takes advantage of the fact that pushblocking returns the character to a neutral action state at the end of the pushblock animation, so long as the character does not re-enter their blocking animation. It is commonly used against otherwise completely guaranteed blockstrings, such as those used by Sentinel and Spiral, allowing players to effectively "override" the standard blockstun of key attacks, creating gaps that allow the defender to escape. To perform a Pushblock Guard Cancel, simply pushblock and then perform any action that does not involve inputting a backward direction (as this will trigger the character's pre-block animation, and probably blockstun as a result). This frequently requires very specific pushblock timing so as to not get hit when attempting to escape, but it is a powerful defensive tool that is often vital for navigating common matchups.

Guard Break

In Marvel vs Capcom 2, it is only possible to perform one aerial action per aerial period during a normal jump. After this aerial action has been expended, the player character cannot perform any more aerial actions until landing, and will only regain their aerial actions upon jumping again. Blocking counts as an aerial action in this instance, so while in a normal jumping state, if the player enters and then exits blockstun, they will not be able to block a follow-up attack before touching the ground. This can be used to set up highly practical Guard Break situations that allow for guaranteed offense or even combos, and is particularly powerful when used against an incoming character, since the incoming state is treated as a normal jumping state.

Tech Roll

Most knockdowns in Marvel vs Capcom 2 are able to be escaped by performing a Tech Roll. To perform a tech roll, input 412K as the character hits the ground. This will cause them to roll a long distance forward along the ground, granting them full invincibility and often moving them out of the way of guaranteed offense. As noted in the section on Air Combos, attacks that trigger Flying Screen disable the defender's ability to tech roll.

Additionally, if a character is hit out of a non-Flying Screen knockdown, they will perform a Forced Tech Roll. Forced Tech Rolls will move the defender backwards, and critically, are vulnerable to attacks at the beginning of the animation. Attacks will often have very slightly different properties when hitting characters out of a Forced Tech Roll, making them situationally useful in certain combos and setups depending on the character.

Armor Types

Marvel vs Capcom 2 has two broad types of armor states: Super Armor and Hyper Armor. In both instances, armor is a passive ability applied to the character as a whole, rather than to specific moves.

Super Armor is used by Juggernaut, Hulk, and Sentinel, and allows these characters to ignore hitstun from one attack per combo/sequence. Certain heavy normal attacks and other high-damage attacks will "break" this armor, immediately placing these characters into hitstun.

Hyper Armor is used exclusively by Zangief and Colossus during their install Hypers. When Hyper Armor is active, it allows the character to ignore hitstun from an indefinite number of attacks, though they often take extra damage from common sequences due to combo damage scaling not being activated.

Stun

Stun (also referred to as "dizzy" or sometimes "undizzy") is Marvel vs Capcom 2's primary system for preventing infinite combos, repurposed from a more traditional stun mechanic. Each player character has an internal "stun" meter that begins at its maximum value of 80 points. Taking damage from normal attacks will lower this value, and when the stun value reaches 0, the player will be launched into the air in a "spin out" state. The spin out animation is similar to the animation that occurs when hit by a raw tag, but the player will be immune to further damage and recover at the top of the screen in a normal jumping state.

Stun damage is dealt primarily by normal attacks. Stun damage for attacks is semi-random, but stun damage ranges are inversely proportional to the strength of the normal attack - ie light normals deal more stun damage than medium normals, which deal more stun damage than heavy normals. Command launchers, special moves and supers do not deal stun damage. Attacks that hit knocked down opponents, as well as throws and Snapbacks will deal stun damage, but cannot trigger spin out. Additionally, attacks used against Super Armor that would reduce a character's stun value to 0 will instead force the stun value to 1.

The stun meter will reset after the player has not been hit by attacks for 60 frames. A character's current stun value will be retained if they are tagged in or out, but the stun value will also reset whenever they are called as an assist. If a Snapback would reduce a character's stun value to 0, it will instead be reduced to 1.

Hyper Meter

Both players have access to a Hyper Meter (usually simply called "meter") which holds a maximum of five stocks. The Hyper Meter is a critical resource that is spent on some of the game's most powerful options.

Hyper Combo

Commonly referred to as "supers", Hyper Combos are frequently a character's most powerful attacks. They are performed with standard special move motions and either both punches or both kicks (depending on the character and move in question). Most supers can be cancelled into from special moves, and are frequently used as high-damage combo enders or even combo extenders. The vast majority of supers cost one bar of the meter to perform, but a select few have access to exceptionally powerful Level 3 Hyper Combos, which require three stocks of the meter to perform.

Delayed Hyper Combo

Delayed Hyper Combo (often referred to as "DHC") is a system that allows for a character's Hyper Combo to be cancelled into another character's super, and is performed by simply inputting another super while a super is currently being performed. Each DHC sequence allows for one super per character that is currently alive; for example, if the full team of Magneto/Storm/Sentinel is alive, then the DHC sequence of Magnetic Tempest > Hail Storm > Hyper Sentinel Force is able to be performed as long as the player has at least three bars of meter (one for each of the supers). Performing a DHC will immediately remove the point character from play, placing them into the third character slot and cycling in the second character. DHCs are extremely potent due to their ability to not only tag out characters with relative safety, but also due to their removal of otherwise standard startup frames from certain supers, making them much faster than they would be otherwise.

Team Hyper Combo

Team Hyper Combo (referred to as "THC") is a super attack that causes a player's entire remaining team to enter the screen, performing each character's super simultaneously. It is performed by pressing A1+A2, and will cost as many bars of meter as there are characters still alive on the player's team. The super a character performs during a THC is determined by their assist type - these will be noted on character pages. Note that THC can be performed without a full team or without three meters - performing a THC with only two characters remaining will simply perform a two-character THC, while performing a THC with less than three meters will bring in as many characters to perform the THC as there are meters to be spent on the supers. THCs are usually seen less than DHCs due to their utility being much more niche, but there are a number of specialist teams with notably strong THC synergy, especially thanks to the extremely simple input allowing for much easier on-demand usage than a standard super.

Variable Counter

Variable Counter (commonly referred to as "Alpha Counter") is a bespoke guard cancel mechanic performed by inputting 412A1/A2 while in blockstun, at the cost of one bar of meter. Variable Counters can only be performed while on the ground, and will immediately tag out the point character, bringing in the chosen character to perform a special move. The special move a character performs for their Variable Counter is determined by their assist type - these will be noted on character pages. Notably, since Variable Counters simply result in the chosen character performing their special move after entering play, it is possible to cancel Variable Counters into supers. The utility of this differs depending on the character, but for certain characters it can be an invaluable - if expensive - defensive option.

Snapback

Performed by pressing 236A1/A2 at the cost of one bar of meter, Snapbacks are a unique offensive option that, upon hitting, will force the opponent to switch their point character with one of their assist characters. The character that gets "snapped in" by a Snapback is determined by the button used to perform it - 236A1 will snap in the opponent's second character, while 236A2 will snap in the opponent's third character. On top of the standard benefits of a Snapback, such as forcing specific in-game matchups and creating incoming pressure/mixup situations, Snapback will also briefly disable the character that was "snapped out", marked by their life bar being darkened and marked with a red X. During this lockout period, the character that was snapped out will be unable to be used as an assist, or in DHCs, THCs and Variable Counters. If a Snapback is performed on a character with no alive teammates, they will simply be knocked down.

Double Snap

Another extremely powerful benefit of Snapbacks is found in the Double Snap exploit. If a player and that player's assist are both hit by a Snapback, the point character will be snapped out as normal, but the assist character will remain on screen in a knocked down state. If, in this situation, the Snapback is performed using the button that corresponds to the slot that the assist occupies on the defender's team (ie hitting both the point character and the opponent's second character with 236A1), the game will fail to send in a character from the opponent's team, as the character targeted by the Snapback is still on screen and in hitstun. Coupled with the unique weaknesses assist characters face when being punished, a well-placed Double Snap is capable of creating situations where a player is able to effectively freely combo the opponent's assist character to death with no worry of interruption, making them an absolutely devastating tool when used effectively.