Skullgirls/Game Systems

Frame Rate, Timing, and Animation

Skullgirls plays and reads player inputs at 66 frames per second. This is a 60 fps base with a 10% frame skip rate. If a move has 3 frames (3f) of start up from base speed, it will execute in (3f / 60 seconds) * (1 - .1) = .045 seconds on average. Any individual frame has a 10% chance of being skipped and not shown on screen. Inputs for these skipped frames are still read by the game engine and frame skip cannot skip in a way that makes a 1f input timing impossible for the player.

The frame timing of any attack or movement acts as a useful refrence for experienced players. Common concepts that are best explaned in frames include:

• Start up: The number of frames as an attack has as it begins and before it hits.
• Active frames: The number of frames an attack can actually make contact with an opponent.
• Recovery: The frames after an attack's active frames or any other action completes before the character is free to act again. Canceling an attack will stop the active or recovery frames of the move in progress to start another.
• Hit stun: The frames of vulnerability on a defending player as they get hit and cannot take any actions of their own. Combos are sucessive hits that keep that defending player in hit stun. The length of hit stun is specific to the attack.
• Block stun: The frames after impact while the defending player blocks an attack. The defending player can't move or attack during these frames of stun, but they can still take some actions such as push blocking or calling a Stunt Double. The length of block stun is specific to the attack, but typically shorter than hit stun for that attack.

This guide refers to frame specific timing from the 60 fps base game speed. If an example charge move requires 35f of charge time before frame skip, it will require 35f * (1 - .1) / 60 fps = 31.5 real seconds of charge time.

Even though the game engine runs at 60 frames per second, this does not mean there are 60 distinctly drawn frames per 1 second of animation. Characters are typically drawn with 24 frames of animation per second and these are held from 2-5 frames at the 60 fps base game speed.

Character States

• Standing
• jumping
• other boring crap

Combo Mechanics

A combo is any series of attacks that are unblockable for the opponent after the first hit. The attacking player can create combos with several common fighting game mechanics.

When necessary, this guide uses the following notation to describe a combo in writing:

• > - A chain cancel (ie: LP > LP > MK > c.HP).
• xx - A cancel to a special move, super move, or air dash (ie: HP xx ↓↙←+PP).
• , - A link (ie: HK, c.LK). A comma may also separate other actions by the character like ending a jump (ie j.HK, c.MK) or pausing to walk or dash briefly between attacks.
• (action) - Any action or animation that the defending character might do during a combo. This includes actions like landing on their feet (land) or getting hit off the ground (OTG).

Chains

All characters can chain cancel their normal moves on hit or block. Any move from an attack button lower on the chain will cancel to an attack higher on the chain during all active and some of the recovery frames. Standing, crouching, and command normals can appear in the same ground chain. Air normals and air command normals work in the same air chain. Different characters have different chain combo sequences for their ground and air chains, and maximum number of attack buttons in the chain describes the different chain types.

• 6 button chain: {{ #motion: lp --- lk --- mp --- mk --- hp --- hk }}
• 5 button chain: {{ #motion: lp --- lk --- mp --- mk --- hp OR hk }}
• 4 button chain: {{ #motion: lp --- lk --- mp OR mk --- hp OR hk }}
• 3 button chain: {{ #motion: lp OR lk --- mp OR mk --- hp OR hk }}

Normal moves with the Chains Twice, Chains Thrice, and {{ #motion: rpdfire }} properties can all chain into themselves. Self-chaining moves can still cancel into higher buttons in the chain. Chain cancels do not usually work on whiff, but self-chaining attacks will.

Cancels

• Normals and command normals cancel into any special or super move during all start up, active, and most recovery frames. Normals that whiff can still cancel to a special or super move.
• Air normals and command normals all cancel to an air dash for characters that have an air dash. Air dash canceling works on whiff, block, or hit similar to canceling to a special move.
• Specials always cancel into supers on start up. They cancel during active frames and part of recovery frames on hit or block. Late recovery frames are never cancellable. No active or recovery frames are super cancellable for missed special moves.

Links

A link allows a move to hit then completely animate and end without canceling, leaving the opponent in enough hit or block stun for another move to connect. Using links to combo normal moves often requires strict, frame specific timing and is more difficult than creating a combo using only cancels. The most important links appear in air combos that use unchained normals, which can be useful for getting a lander off of an otherwise simple launcher into air combo.

OTG Hits

The attacking player can hit the opponent off the ground once per combo. Anything can OTG if it hits low to the ground, even if it isn't a low move. During a typical knockdown any hit that lands on the opponent after a red impact effect but before the blue impact effect (and available ground recovery) consumes the one OTG. Hitting the opponent while the are on the ground from a slide stun or crumple stun also uses the one OTG for that combo.

Landers

If the opponent hits the ground in hitstun from a non-knockdown move they land on their feet and get 1 extra frame of hitstun. Landers are independent from OTGs and nothing restricts multiple landers in the same combo. Both ground and air moves can cause an opponent to land during a combo. Air moves with multiple hits can easily land opponents from an air chain combo. Getting a lander from other single hit moves may require strict timing during chains or a sequence of linked attacks.

Life and Damage

File:SG teamcompare.png

worldjem7's comparison chart for all possible team sizes and match ups.

Characters have 14300 base life points. All damage values in this guide assume base damage and base life (100%/100%).

Team Size

Selecting team size occurs before choosing characters and can have dramatic effects on gameplay. Picking at least 2 characters allows tagging between characters and techniques that require a teammate such as assists, Co-Star Combos, and Stunt Doubles. Picking a 2 character team will have a total life advantage over a solo character. A 3 character team will always have a total life advantage over a duo or a solo team. In addition to the life advantages from team size the ability to tag out enables an off screen character to heal recoverable damage, allowing an even greater total health advantage to larger teams.

Despite the clear total life disadvantage for smaller teams, a solo character team can still compete. The significant damage boost can lead to devastating, 100% combos on a single character from a smaller team. Newer players may feel more comfortable selecting a single character to avoid the complicated strategy surrounding assists. Experienced players may want to stick with one character if they are true master of that character. Overcoming the wide range of attacks, strategies, and assists that can come from a 2 or 3 character team can be difficult with no ability to tag out from a bad situation.

The exact individual character life and damage differences between solo, duo, and trio teams scale differently depending on the match up. The values do not scale linearly, allowing the consistent timer for all match ups and team size combinations.

Recoverable Damage

After characters take any damage, the red portion of their life bar represents the amount of recoverable damage dealt to that character. All attacks, including chip damage from blocked attacks, deal some portion of recoverable damage. Throws deal 100% recoverable damage. Life recovery begins when a character tags out or is otherwise off screen, starting at 90f after leaving. This recovery is always percentage based, at a rate of .5% per 30f. Team size and the remaining life totals do not effect life recovery in any way.

If a character takes non-recoverable damage for any reason, even if it's a single point of chip damage, life recovery cannot take them back up to 100%.

Chip Damage

All special and super moves cause some amount of chip damage when they are blocked. The amount of chip damage per move is specific to the move, is subject to all normal damage modifiers and scaling, and deals a portion of recoverable damage. Everything that can do chip damage must do a minimum 1 point of damage. Push block prevents the recoverable portion of chip damage, but nothing completely prevents it.

Damage Scaling

Attack damage scales down at a compounding 85% per hit after the 3nd hit in a combo. Damage scales to a mininum 25% for attacks with base damage of 1000 and above and 15% of base damage for hits under 1000 base damage. Throws with multiple hits keep the damage scaling of the first hit for the entire throw. Any combo after a throw scales damage as if the throw was a single hit. Minimum damage for any hit is 1 point.

Co-Star Combos reset damage scaling to 80% at the super flash. Projectiles have their scaled damage determined from when they hit, even if left on the screen during the additional super flash.

There's no hit stun or gravity scaling. Only damage scaling.

Super Meter

• Use super meter on super moves, Co-Star Combos, Stunt Doubles, and Snapbacks
• Max of 5 super meter stocks
• Meter gained per hit and meter gained for getting hit is move specific.
• Meter gain on whiff only works with less than 1 level of super meter. Even then attacks whiff when jumping away from the opponent will not gain meter.
• Meter gain scales down during a combo. Meter gained for getting hit scales up during a combo. It takes a ~40 hit combo of all normal moves before the defending team starts gaining meter faster than the attacking team.
• "Q: Why the meter-y stuff? The idea of gaining less meter than my opponent from my combo is eww. Before this note, it seemed the opponent already gained a good amount meter for being hit
  A: So...you want to do damage, get the advantage and get more meter? Generally that's not the case in Guilty Gear, and it's not even the case in MvC2! Interestingly, it is generally the case in MvC3 and BB. :^| This just serves to make a big imbalance even bigger.
  I always liked MvC2's meter system. (With certain exceptions, like Tron's drill giving the opponent a full bar.) If you got beat down, you a bit more of a chance to do damage afterward than your opponent had. Not Ultra-meter levels, just slightly. As it was in SG, if you got beat down - even if your oppponent used meter! - you still had much less.

It starts out with them not getting very much, so if you do a 5-hit combo, you get way more meter than they do. It scales up over the course of the combo so if you do a 40-hit combo, they get slightly more meter than you do if you used all normals. Previously the attacker got somewhere around twice to three times as much meter as the victim did, no matter what. Note that the attacker's meter gain isn't affected by this, only the victim's.

• "Q: Whats the meter gained on block and while blocking? is it a fraction of what it would be on hit? A: Meter gain on block is the same as before - 3/4 what the attacker would get if they hit, and the victim gets 1/4 that."

• "Q: Isn't meter based on damage or some independent value that increases/decreases based on team size like damage and health? A: No, meter is based on meter value, not your ratio. :^)"

Commands and Inputs

• Directional inputs are a +1 or -1 value to the game engine. Using a keyboard or a non-default controller to hit two opposite directions at the same time (← + → or ↓ + ↑) will give a 0, or a neutral input.

• Easy inputs/shortcuts: 360s on the ground, IADs, timing between direction inputs.

• Distinguishing DP and QCF; half circles

• negative edge: "You can negative edge specials and supers. You can't negative edge DHCs. The benefit to using it the same as in other games, to prevent yourself from accidentally doing something else in certain situations, like attempting a reversal and getting nothing->block instead of getting a normal if you mess up the motion for a special."

• Super flashes:
  • "The game registers inputs during superflash and passes them to the characters, but the characters will use them to change state only when not frozen. In other words, you can do D,DF,F during the superflash, but you have to hit P after it's over or you won't get a fireball. There's no superflash buffering like in BB or MvC3, it's more like MvC2 or XSF."
  • "Q: Two characters do the same super on the exact same frame. Who super flashes first? A: Simultaneous superflash will be P2 first, but after both they will be on the exact same frame, rather than P2 being a frame ahead like some games."

• Input priority/override: "Q: So what attack will come out if you set the custom assist to one of the assist commands (lp+mk, etc.)? A: To use a move as an assist it must be on a list of acceptable inputs. If you did something like that it would just pick whatever has highest priority, so in the case of lp+mk you'd just get standing MK."

• "Q: Does any of this sort of stuff change when I inevitably bind my assists to the unused buttons right of fierce/roundhouse on my TE stick? A: Nope, button bindings just count as those buttons being pressed, they're not separate inputs like they are in some other game engines."

The Infinite Prevention System

Hitting an opponent with an infinite combo allows the defending player to break out of the combo with a unique Infinite Escape attack. An infinite combo uses a repeated sequence of the same attacks and can deal 100% damage to the defending character. When the Infinite Prevention System (IPS) detects an infinite combo, hit sound effects and impact effects change and any attack input by the defending player will execute the Infinite Escape.

All characters have identical properties for their Infinite Escape: 10f of invincible start up, 23f active frames, and 28f of recovery. The Infinite Escape can start the frame after an IPS triggering attack lands. The defending character is invincible during the the entire Infinite Escape and can take any available action at the end of recovery frames if the Infinite Escape hits or is blocked. If it does not hit, the recovery frames are vulnerable and there is an additional period of recovery as the character falls slowly to the ground and lands standing.

The IPS looks at combos for reptition in smaller sequences or loops. Many of it's rules are shown in this example combo by Urichinan:

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The complete combo can be written out as:

j.MK, j.HP xx air dash, j.MP, c.HP, s.HK xx qcf+LK, s.MP > s.HK xx qcf+LK, walk forward, s.MP (lander) > s.HK xx qcf+LK, walk forward, s.LK (lander) > s.MP > s.HK xx qcf+LK, walk forward, c.LK > s.MP > s.HK xx qcf+LK, walk forward, c.LP > s.MP (lander) > s.HK xx qcf+LK, s.MK xx super jump, j.MP, j.LP > j.MP, s.LP > s.LP > s.MP > s.HP xx qcf+MP, wall bounce, knockdown, c.MK > s.HP xx qcf+HK xx qcf+PP

Breaking this up into what the IPS considers loops gives the following:

• j.MK > j.HP xx air dash, j.MP - The 1st loop, ignored by IPS, ending when the attacking character hits the ground.
• c.HP, s.HK xx qcf+LK - The 2nd loop, also ignored by IPS, ending with a non-cancelled special move.
• s.MP > s.HK xx qcf+LK - The 3rd loop, and the first watched by IPS. IPS sees s.MP as the opening move of the chain and the loop ends with a non-cancelled special move. Even if there was an infinite detected here, the Infinite Escape will not trigger on the third loop.
• s.MP (land) > s.HK xx qcf+LK - The 4th loop, starting with s.MP, ending with a non-cancelled special move. s.MP will trigger infinite detection if used to start a loop for the third time.
• s.LK (land) > s.MP > s.HK xx qcf+LK - The 5th loop, starting with s.LK, ending with a non-cancelled special move.
• c.LK > s.MP > s.HK xx qcf+LK - The 6th loop, starting with c.LK, ending with a non-cancelled special move.
• c.LP > s.MP (land) > s.HK xx qcf+LK - The 7th loop, starting with a c.LP, ending with a non-cancelled special move. This sequence shows IPS does not care about landers.
• s.MK - The 8th loop, a lonely s.MK. This single move loop ends with the super jump cancel.
• j.MP, j.LP > j.MP - The 9th loop, starting with j.MP, ending when the attacking character hits the ground.
• s.LP > s.LP > s.MP > s.HP xx qcf+MP - The 10th loop, starting with s.LP, ending with a non-cancelled special move. The defending character enters a normal knockdown after the ground bounce.
• c.MK > s.HP xx qcf+HK xx qcf+PP - The 11th loop, ending the combo. This starts with c.MK, using the one OTG hit for the combo.

I'm not sure why people think this IPS is complicated [...] the rules are still simple to explain - "don't start a chain with something you already hit with, and your combo is always legit." You get 2 free sections before moves are even counted toward this limit (your first and second chains) and one more free section where moves are kept track of but the limit isn't enforced yet (the entirety of your jump if you're in the air, or your next chain if you aren't). That's it. You can determine exactly whether or not a combo is possible just by writing it out: "Did I already use s.LP? OK, can't start another chain with that." And if something doesn't work, the hitsparks change color and you immediately know which move caused it. You also immediately know why, because the ONLY THING that would cause it is you having used that move before.

- Mike_Z [1]

Additional IPS facts:

• Super moves get ignored by IPS. Infinite Escapes can be preformed while getting hit by a super if something else triggered IPS first.
• Infinite Escapes cannot be preformed during a throw.
• Continued use of moves with Chains Infinitely as a combo can only trigger IPS on the the first hit.
• Flight mode starts/ends loops for the IPS.
• When a team goes under 20% health, it does not get 5 levels of meter and immunity to the IPS. [2]