Daraku Tenshi's unique design approach and downright spaghetti code lead to the game having plenty of mechanics and oddities typically not seen in most other fighting games. Similarly to a game like Heritage for the Future, there are many oddities and exceptions that we have tried to define as best we could, and as such, there is a very high likelihood of there being missing data that simply was not found or documented properly yet. In spite of this, this page should be able to provide the most accurate information with what is currently understood about the game.
Movement
When grounded, every character is able to walk in both directions, and also dash by double tapping a direction (either 66 or 44). These dashes all work the same as dashes in a game like Street Fighter, where the dash is inactionable until the animation ends, therefore making them a commitment. Yuiren provides the singular exception, as his forward dash is actually a run that can be stopped at any time, allowing micro-dashes (although Yuiren stops in place when the dash ends, rather than sliding). Another note about dashes (excluding Yuiren's run) is that they prevent the character from being grabbed by grounded throws, but air throws will work instead. Characters hit by regular moves during a dash though will not be put into an air state; they'll stay grounded.
All characters can also perform jumps, including forward and back super jumps (2 then 7 or 9). Normal and super jumps function almost completely identically to each other, with the sole difference being that super jumps provide more horizontal (but not vertical) movement. Every character has a 4 frame prejump, with the sole exception of Haiji, who has 8. There also is no landing recovery of any kind when doing any or no action from a normal jump.
Offensive Systems
Damage
Damage in this game is random, similar to Street Fighter 2, although sadly no exact damage values are known at this time. It is believed that each hit of a given move has its own range of values to choose from, with the lowest and highest values being rarer than the middle ranges. Damage values can also change in strange instances, such as when inputting 5HK before hit 2 of Roche's 5HK to cancel to r.X, causing the damage to inexplicable lower. If you'd like to help out in finding the damage values, feel free, and be sure to let us know on the Discord!
Throws
Throws are performed with either 4/6HP or 4/6HK when close to an opponent, and are all frame 2 startup. The direction you held doesn't actually dictate where the throw sends, as HP is always forward throw and HK is always back throw, with the exception of Taro who has them swapped around for some reason. Yuiren and Yuiran also have access to a unique air throw, done by pressing 2HP when in the air and close to the opponent.
Throws do not have any whiff animation, meaning if a throw is missed, you will simply perform the button you used to do the throw instead. It should also be noted that some characters have very poor throw ranges, to where trying to get a throw with a back input is extremely difficult to do, so it is preffered to just use forward instead.
It is possible to tech a throw using LP+HP, with a generous throw tech window. Command throws can also be teched, but the tech window is significantly smaller, and command throw desperation moves are untechable.
It should also be noted that there is throw protection after waking up, as well as when being hit or in blockstun. A specific exception to the throw protection when being hit though, is during what is called Alt Sitstun, where command throws and pursuit attacks can hit this specific state.
Cancel System
One of the immediate differences to other fighting games new players will feel is in the game's cancel system. As the game was set out to be more realistic than its contemporaries, moves do not cancel immediately into another action, but rather have the animation sped up, typically once the active frames ends but this can vary from move to move. This applies to cancelling normals to normals (known officially as 'Rushing Combination') as well as cancelling normals to specials or supers. Due to this, the lack of a combo counter ingame as well as how the POW Meter affects hitstun, leads to new players feeling unsure if their combos are working consistently or not.
How long a move's recovery is during a cancel can vary in the same move, sometimes.
We will use Roche 5HK as an example:
- Hit 2 cancelled: Animation continues at a faster pace, 11 cancel recovery frames
- Hit 1 cancelled: Animation reverses, 9 cancel recovery frames
Another specific note is that cancelling into other normals or command normals removes a frame of cancel recovery, whereas this isn't true when cancelling into specials or supers.
Due to this unique and varying system, the recovery frames in the frame data tend to list more than one set of recovery frames, with the format being <Recovery> | <Cancel recovery>. These frames are counted after the active frames, even in instances where active frames may be shortened on a cancel (such as Harry 5LP; the shortened active frames will be listed in the active frames column if applicable), although exceptions are made with moves like Yuiran's 6HP which outright removes hit 3 if cancelled on hit 2.
Furthermore, the only hard rule regarding cancel routes is going from light to heavy. Otherwise, every character has their own cancel routes (or lack thereof), as well as 'target combos' which are really just normals that are able to cancel into reverse stance normals. Cancel windows can also vary depending on what move you're doing, and what type of move you're cancelling into; there's even instances of completely frame perfect cancel windows that only occur on hit/block.
There are also moves that only have specific recoveries on hit/block, which are listed with an asterisk. These are on a fair number of Torao's normals for instance.
Pursuit Attacks/OTGs
A small handful of moves are also capable of hitting opponents in a knockdown state. These are typically the 3HK sweeps, but this isn't always the case, and some characters may have more than one pursuit attack. These can also be used after throws, allowing for higher damage off of them. These OTG hits can only occur once, where the opponent is invincible afterwards and can get up normally.
It should be noted that Torao has a bugged knockdown, where if he is hit by a spike knockdown and ends up laying on his back, any move that reaches low enough can hit him. Luckily, the same 1 hit limit on OTGs applies.
Defensive Systems
GUR Meter
Under the red POW Meter is blue text that says GUR, with the number 99 next to it. This is a character's guard meter, which starts at 99 at the start of every round, automatically starts to refill (with no grave period) if lower than 99, and will lead to a guard break animation if it reaches 0. GUR refill rates vary from character to character, and some moves are coded to automatically perform a guard break on block, like Harry's 214236HK. If you don't want to pay attention to the number, you can instead look at the hitsparks when blocking; the normally bluish white circles turn to orange when at low GUR.
Due to the strangely quick animation of a guard break, a lot of moves actually end up being minus on guard break, oftentimes worse than if the opponent blocked the move normally. Be aware of this in your pressure.
POW Meter
This game possesses it's own unique meter, known as the POW Meter, the red bar under the character's health. It starts at 0 at the beginning of every round, maxes out at 44 (visible in Fightcade's training mode) and raises when pressing (not just whiffing!), hitting, getting hit by or blocking moves. The exact values are as follows:
- Pressing any move: +2
- Hitting any move (including throws, not including supers): +4 per hit
- Getting hit: +5 per hit
- Blocking a hit: +3 per hit
It is also possible to lose POW if the opponent taunts.
MAX Mode
Once at 44 POW, the bar will start flashing and automatically drain until it reaches 0, where it must be refilled again. During this state, you are in MAX Mode, which provides significant changes. The most notable change is that you can now perform super moves, which will automatically end MAX once performed. Another notable change is to the hitstun of your moves, where they all gain an increase based on the type of move they are.
- Lights: +9 frames
- Heavies: +4 frames, cause sitstun when hitting crouchers
- Aerials: +4 frames
Due to these increases, one may expect combos to become significantly easier and new routes to open up, however this is neglecting the fact that pushback on hit also increases, which can lead to unchanged or even worse combo ability in some instances, meaning MAX isn't exactly a positive effect in some scenarios.
Due to how easy it is to get to MAX Mode, a player typically enters it more than once per match, which is a major part of this game's explosive nature, especially as MAX allows a few characters to perform infinite combos until it runs out.