Game Mechanics
Crawl
Hold 3 to walk while crouching. This is slower than walking normally, but maintains a low profile.
Backdash
Input 44 to quickly retreat backwards. This is a very powerful defensive tool as it provides strike invincibility for almost the entire animation, and the few vulnerable frames can be cancelled into special moves for potentially even more invincibility. While they lack any throw invincibility, all backdashes (with the exception of Mai's) are considered airborne, keeping them generally safe as only a handful of characters have air throws.
Throw
Press 4/6C (and/or D for some characters) when close to the opponent to throw them. All throws are instant, unblockable, and have no whiff animations, but cannot be done while the opponent is in hitstun or blockstun, or for a few frames after they wake up from a knockdown. Many characters have additional throw inputs unique to them, and Axel is the only character who only has D throws.
Taunt
Press C while far away from the opponent to taunt them. Taunts serve no purpose and can be cancelled into any sort of movement at any time.
Lane Sway
Press A+B to jump to the opposite lane. If both fighters are on opposite lanes, they cannot perform special moves, but can still move left or right. Inputting 8 in the front lane or 2 in the back lane will roll into the opponent's lane. If a player is on the upper plane, he/she can jump, while the player one the bottom plane can crouch. If the player on the upper plane attempts to crouch, he/she will roll to the bottom plane, while the player on the bottom plane rolls to the upper plane if he/she attempts to jump.
Attacking a player on the opposite plane will have the character do a Line Sway Attack, depending on the button pressed. Press A or B for the Low Line Sway Attack, and C or D for the High Line Sway Attack. Pressing left or right on the D-Pad will move the character into that direction during the attack, instead of making the attack home-in on the opponent. All this attacks are overheads.
Lane Blast
Press C+D on the ground to do a special attack that knocks to the opponent to the opposite lane. On normal stages, characters can meaty the opponent with a left/right lane attack afterwards. On single-lane stages, Lane Blasts will cause additional damage and stun as the opponent collides with the background hazard.
Dodge Attack
Press 6A while in proximity guard (character is visually blocking but isn't in blockstun) to do a Dodge Attack. Dodge Attacks have upper-body invincibility and can be canceled. Attacks in Fatal Fury Special will trigger proximity guard from a very far distance and for a very long time, so they can be used in many situations.
- Note: Dodge Attacks will cause a character to enter their 5A animation for 1 frame before it is kara cancelled into their Dodge Attack. This 5A frame is not counted in Dodge Attack frame data on character pages.
Below, each character's Dodge Attack has been ranked based on reach, startup, how easy it is to use, and finally, how well it compliments the rest of the character's moves.
| Character | Reach | Startup | Ease of Use | Complimentary Factor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Geese | 4 | 5 | 3 | 3 |
| Andy | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 |
| Joe | 4 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| Axel | 5 | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| Mai | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| Bear | 4 | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| Jubei | 2 | 4 | 1 | 2 |
| Cheng | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| Krauser | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Terry | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 |
| Duck | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Billy | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| Tung | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Laurence | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Desperation Moves
When a character is at 33% life or lower, their life bar will start flashing. Each character has a unique Desperation Move that can only be used in this flashing-health state.
Dizzy Points
Every character in FFS has an invisible stun gauge which when filled will make them dizzy. When dizzied, a character will be knocked down regardless of what move hit them, and after waking will be vulnerable for an extended period of time that can be reduced by mashing buttons and directions. Below is a list detailing how many dizzy points it takes to stun each character.
| Dizzy Point Limit | Characters |
|---|---|
| 13 | Jubei, Mai, Tung |
| 14 | Billy, Terry |
| 15 | Andy, Cheng, Duck |
| 16 | Joe, Kim |
| 17 | Laurence |
| 18 | Axel, Geese, Ryo |
| 22 | Bear, Krauser |
Generally, light normals will add 2 dizzy points, heavy normals 4 points, light specials 3 points, heavy specials 6 points, throws 3 points, Dodge Attacks, Lane Blasts and stage hazards 5 points, and Desperation Moves 4 points.
After being dizzied, a character has 8 points added to their limit. For example, if Tung Fu Rue is stunned, he would then require 21 dizzy points to stun a second time.
The exact duration that a dizzied character is vulnerable for is determined by another invisible "stun retention" value. Each move will add to this value on hit, and it will decrease by 1 for every frame that a character is not in hitstun or blockstun. The amount of time a dizzy character is vulnerable for is then equal to the number of stun retention points they had accumulated at that time. If a character's stun retention value decreases all the way to 0, they will lose all of their dizzy points. Below is a table detailing how much stun retention each character's moves will do.
| Character | Light Normals | Heavy Normals | Light Specials | Heavy Specials | Throws | Dodge Attack | Lane Blast | Desperation Move |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andy | 12 | 22 | 38 | 44 | 38 | 32 | 32 | 68 |
| Axel | 10 | 32 | 38 | 44 | 54 | 26 | 44 | 44 |
| Bear | 10 | 32 | 38 | 44 | 44 | 26 | 44 | 44 |
| Billy | 20 | 32 | 26 | 44 | 44 | 44 | 44 | 44 |
| Cheng | 12 | 14 | 38 | 44 | 50 | 50 | 56 | 26 |
| Duck | 14 | 26 | 32 | 38 | 38 | 38 | 38 | 38 |
| Geese | 12 | 20 | 38 | 44 | 50 | 50 | 26 | 38 |
| Joe | 18 | 30 | 36 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 42 |
| Jubei | 20 | 32 | 38 | 44 | 26 | 44 | 44 | 26 |
| Kim | 18 | 30 | 36 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 42 |
| Laurence | 14 | 26 | 38 | 44 | 26 | 44 | 44 | 44 |
| Mai | 14 | 32 | 32 | 50 | 38 | 38 | 44 | 56 |
| Terry | 14 | 26 | 32 | 38 | 38 | 38 | 38 | 38 |
| Tung | 20 | 32 | 26 | 44 | 26 | 44 | 44 | 26 |
| Krauser | 12 | 20 | 28 | 44 | 50 | 50 | 26 | 26 |
Damage Calculation
All decimal damage values will be rounded down
Round Victory Scaling
After winning a round, a character's attacks will do 0.75% damage. If both players have won a round, they will both have the damage reduction applied.
Health Scaling
Characters take different amounts of damage depending on how much remaining health they have, out of the maximum of 96.
| Remaining Health | Damage Modifier |
|---|---|
| 96-49 | 100% damage |
| 48-24 | 75% damage |
| 23-12 | 67.5% damage |
| 11-1 | 50% damage |
Combo Scaling
Attacks hitting opponents in hitstun will do reduced damage. Hitting an opponent on the last frame of their hitstun will not apply combo scaling.
| Hits | Damage Modifier |
|---|---|
| 1st hit | 100% damage |
| 2nd hit | 87.5% damage |
| 3rd hit and onward | 75% damage |
Chip Damage
Special moves that are blocked will do 25% damage.
Throw Scaling
Throws are not affected by normal scaling rules and instead follow a much simpler rule: If the opponent's health is 48 or less,
Basic Strategy
Advanced Strategy
Whiff-Canceling
I was experimenting with some of the whiff-cancelling like you've seen in the videos. It's pretty simple most of the time; with Geese, for instance, do D, D/F+C, F+C to to a crouching fierce immediately cancelled into Double Reppuken. Or Axel: Do QCF + B~A or C (in case you're not familiar with this notation, it means you press B then ASAP press A or C; it's best to put one finger over one button and one over the other) to do a standing B whiff-cancelled into Tornado Upper.
The interesting thing is that unlike in SF, some moves can't be whiff-cancelled; with Axel, for example, his far standing D cannot be whiff-cancelled. There's no real rhyme or reason as to which moves can be whiff-cancelled, it seems to be totally random; using Axel once more as an example, I thought his standing D didn't work because it is not a bufferable move. So I tried his sweep, a move which *is* bufferable, and that doesn't work either. So you'll just have to go by good ol' trial and error to figure it out. I can semi-consistently do Big Bear's close standing C -> command throw whiff-cancel, the one you've seen on the video; it's kinda hard to do and doesn't have any real purpose since his command throw is easy to do on the ground anyway.
Duck King's crouching D -> DM whiff-cancel, on the other hand, seems VERY useful...except it's insanely hard. I have only managed to do that once out of many tries, and still don't know how I did it. A good tactic I learned from this "experimenting": Geese's crouching C -> Reversal is a useful whiff-cancel to know. It's easy, too: All you need to do is move from Back to Down/Forward and press C, then move to Forward and press B or D. The reason it is useful is because the beginning animation of crouching C is clearly visible to the opponent, which can bait them into the reversal. And one more peculiar little note: It seems that you can whiff-cancel a normal move into a command normal.
Take Duck King, for instance...do his crouching D, and IMMEDIATELY move the joystick to the D/F position. You'll see the beginning animation of the crouching D and then it'll go straight into his slide. This is REALLY weird, because you could never do this in SF. But I like it.
Credit to Josh-TheFunkDOC
