Stone Mechanics
Infinity Stones, though not entirely unique to the VS. series, adds a new dimension to the game by allowing you to select a stone during character select and change the outcome of battle. Stones offer the ability to change your experience in how the game is played, even if you use the same team! Finding the stone that fits for your team is important but experimenting with multiple stones is encouraged.
There are two primary functions for a stone, the Surge and the Storm.
Surge
The Surge is a basic one button input that acts as a special attack, stones can be chained or canceled from any normal or command normal and can cancel into hypers. Each time a Stone is used, it builds a bit of Stone Guage Meter which when built to 50% or above, can activate it's Storm. Learning how to use each stone's Surge is extremely important in neutral, combos and mix-ups.
Storm
The Storm is an important come back mechanic that grants you special abilities based on your stone. Storm can be activated multiple times per match once you reach 50% of your meter which is built by either taking damage or through the continuous use of your Surge, even if it doesn't hit your opponent. You also gain a large chunk of Stone meter when your partner is killed as long as you aren't already in your own Storm. You can activate Storm during combos or even during block stun and gain a large portion of invincibility, though you aren't at frame advantage. By activating Storm again while it's active, you get a free level 3 at the cost of your remaining Stone Gauge. Strong use of your Storm will be optimizing your buffs and using the last bit of your Storm meter to get access to a level 3.
Tip: As soon as you activate your Storms Level 3, your Storm immediately ends frame 1 and if your opponent has enough gauge to activate Storm, they can do so to escape your level 3 by gaining invincibility.
All Storm activations are 27 frames long and fully invincible through it's duration.