A-Groove is one of the six grooves in Capcom vs. SNK 2. It features a custom combo system that, with a full meter and after activation, allows the player to unleash a flurry of normal and special moves capped off with a Level 1 super finisher. With the right characters, it is a groove that can provide the absolute largest damage potential for the meter, despite being relatively harmless without any meter. A-Groove is inspired by the Street Fighter Alpha series, specifically V-ism in Alpha 3.
A-Groove is a clear top-tier, A+ grade groove in CvS2, rivaled only by K-Groove and its massive meter damage bonuses.
Groove Data
| Main Feature | After meter activation, Custom Combos allow for all normal and special moves to cancel into each other, ending with a Level 1 super | |
|---|---|---|
| Groove System | Custom Combo System | |
| Groove Subsystems |
| |
| Meter Length | 144 Units | (72 Units × 2 Sections) |
| Activation Time | 72 Time Units | (~7.2 seconds) |
| Guard Bar Length | 48 Units | Standard |
| Meter Bonuses | None | |
See Groove Subsystems for complete technical data on specific subsystems.
Meter System
The meter in A-Groove is a single bar divided into two equal sections. Upon filling the first section (half the meter), a Level 1 super and meter-equivalent system functions become available. (There is no obvious indication of this, other than a subtle white pulse of that half of the meter.) Any partial use of the meter will only deduct the exact amount needed for the action performed. This means that if you have 70% of the meter filled, and you do a Counter Attack, you will be left with 20% meter.
When completely filled, the meter will show "FULL" and a Custom Combo becomes available upon activation. (Unlike in Street Fighter Alpha, there are no partial-meter Customs in CvS2.) The player can activate the meter and enter the Custom Combo state by pressing 
+ 
while in neutral.
Activation must take place while the player is in a neutral state. It cannot be cancelled into from any move, or cancelled out of by any move. Activation can take place in the air, but only during a jump where no attack or other action has already taken place.
Upon activation, there is a significant amount of invincibility applied to the initial frames of the Custom Combo state. There is also some input invalidation during this phase to prevent the opponent from easily escaping the activation. The startup process for a Custom Combo activation is as follows:
- Activate by pressing
+ 
; invincibility begins immediately. - 5 frames later, the flash effect/ping sound effect for Custom activation happens.
- At the first frame after the flash, opponent inputs are invalidated for 1 frame; the player can begin their Custom Combo at this point.
- 14 frames after the flash (19 frames after activation), activation invincibility ends.
After activation, the meter bar turns into a timer that lasts approximately 7.2 seconds. During this time, the player can start, continue, or restart a custom combo until the meter completely drains.
The player can use a Level 1 super at any point during the Custom Combo state. Doing this will cost all your remaining meter. Combo scaling notwithstanding, the damage output of the super is the same regardless of how much meter remains in the "timer," so it is to the player's advantage to use the super as late into a custom combo as possible for maximum damage potential.
You cannot block when activated for a Custom Combo. If hit by the opponent while activated, you will lose half of any meter still in your meter bar at the moment of being hit. That is, if you still had 40% meter remaining, you will be left with 20% meter after getting hit out of activation state.
Meter is shared by the team and persists between characters and rounds. Any meter remaining after a round, win or lose, will carry over to the next round. If the round ends with the winning character (or either character in a Time Over situation) in the Custom Combo activation state, the meter will continue to drain post-KO until the player returns to neutral, after which point the meter will completely empty for the next round.
Unique Groove Abilities
Custom Combos
- Section in Progress -
Custom combo damage is scaled much more severely than normal combos in CvS2. The simple explanation of this scaling is that for optimal combo damage, begin a custom with a lot of high-damaging moves; then starting with the 10th hit, switch to rapid lights and/or fast multi-hit special moves to get in as many hits as possible before ending the custom with a Level 1 super. The exact formulas for custom combo scaling (as a Ratio 2 character) are as follows:
- For any one of the first nine hits of a Custom Combo:
AttackDamage × (10 - ComboCount) × 0.072
- All further hits starting with the 10th hit of the custom is a flat 100 points of damage.
- All custom combo hits do a minimum of 100 damage, even those in the first nine hits that compute to below 100.
- For the Level 1 super finisher for a Custom Combo, add on separately:
SuperAttackDamage × (10 - SuperComboCount) × 0.08- Any Level 1 super doing more than 9 hits will have any further hits do 100 damage.
During the activation state, you are unable to block any opponent attacks. Getting hit out of a custom combo will end activation and incur a 50% loss of any remaining meter left in the meter timer. This is a silver lining of A-Groove, in that blowing a custom opportunity will still leave you with a chunk of meter for you to build back up to another full meter and a chance at another go at a custom combo.
Groove Strategy
A-Groove is a top-tier groove in CvS2.
Strengths
Weaknesses
Character Considerations
Groove Comparisons and Matchups
The info in this section is for direct comparisons between grooves and generic groove vs groove matchups, which may apply differently to specific characters. For more detail on how a character plays in and plays against the different grooves, refer to their character info page.
