Rage of The Dragons/System

Throws

Press either

+

or

+

when close to throw. The direction you choose is the way you throw the opponent. Throws can be broken by pressing

during the throw animation.

Running & Backdashing

To run, tap and hold forward twice (

). Let go to stop running. Every character has a run.

To backdash, tap back twice (

). Back dashes are invincible during start-up but are vulnerable during recovery. You can mitigate the recovery by simply crouching.

Dodges

Dodges are performed by pressing

+

. Dodges avoid strikes, projectiles etc., but are vulnerable to throws. However, you can still break normal throws.

Rolling

To roll, press

+

or

+

. The direction you choose determines the direction you roll. Rolls are another evasive move, but unlike spot dodges, they cannot avoid hits. Rolls shrink your hitbox, allowing you to move under some attacks like projectiles. You can get hit and thrown out of a roll.

Rolling Recovery

Every knockdown move can be recovered from by pressing

+

. The recovery window is fairly generous, ground bounces are only recoverable after the second landing. You will always roll back, no matter the direction held.

A few moves cause air resets, which force the opponent to recover standing. These are fantastic for 50/50s, which tech rolls help alleviate.

Tag-In

To tag your partner in, press

+

. They must be alive and the "CHANGE OK" bar below their health must be full to tag in. All characters do attacks on tag-in which can be canceled into command normals or specials, but the run can be canceled with a roll or spot dodge to prevent the attack. Additionally, tag-ins behave similar to command normals, meaning they can be canceled into from normals and First Impact, but not from command normals.

Duplex Attack

To perform a Duplex Attack, input

+

. You must have at least one bar of super meter, your partner must be alive and the 'CHANGE OK' bar must be full. Duplex Attacks are super tag-in attacks which deal much more damage. You can follow up for another bar of meter by doing

+

again. Each character team (teams are the characters who appear next to each other in the character select, e.g. Billy & Lynn) has their own unique Duplex.

Impacts

First Impacts are done by pressing

+

. Upon doing an Impact, your character's attack will have a faint shadow around them, and if the Impact hits, you will see a combination of buttons above the super meter. Each character has a unique combination, which can be changed by tapping

after landing the Impact. There's two types of Impacts: Air Impacts and Ground Impacts. Ground Impacts build 5 meter per hit, but can cancel into grounded command normals and specials, including tag-ins. Air Impacts build 10 meter per hit, but only cancel into aerial command normals and specials. One can still land and link into moves, such as a jab for an air reset, a fast special/super or a Duplex, but it's still a lot more limited.

Guard Cancels

Guard cancels are done by pressing

+

on block. You must have at least one super meter to perform a guard cancel. Guard cancels interrupt the opponent's attacks and send them flying away from you.

Surrender

To surrender, hold

+

with the stick in neutral. This will lend your current character's health to your partner and give you a maximum of five bars instead of three. Both teammates must be alive to surrender.

Stage Walls

Stage walls are found on every stage except for Disco (Radel/Annie), Ring (Jones/Kang) and Palace (Johann). Walls allow you to extend your combos with wall hits (usually seen as (WH)). Wall hits are done by doing any knockdown move near a wall, which includes throws, guard cancels, sweeps and plenty of special moves. When the opponent hits the wall, they'll bounce off the wall and give you time to do another attack. Walls can only be used once and will break if hit again, extending the stage.

Each character hits the wall differently and it's dependent on how big their hitbox is. For example, Abubo hits the wall the highest while Alice hits the wall the lowest.

Health

Health Total	Characters
240	Johann (Boss)
200	Abubo
190	Radel, Jones, Oni, Kang
180	Billy, Lynn, Cassandra, Pepe, Sonia, Jimmy
170	Annie
160	Alice, Pupa

Recoverable Health

Recoverable health is determined by a red bar behind your remaining health. You can regenerate health by:

Tagging in your partner regens your partner's health when "CHANGE OK" becomes full. Tagging them back in causes them to lose their red health. This loss also applies to duplex.
Surrendering refills your partner's health depending on how much health your current character has. The more health your character has, the more you give to your partner on a surrender.
Elias's Hell or Heaven and Maximum Delirium both refill 5-10% of his total health on hit.

Counter Hits

Counter hits are when you interrupt your opponent during a special or super move. You deal 1.3x damage during a counter hit, so make it count.

Stun

Stun has an invisible meter that depletes upon getting hit but regenerates while your character is actionable. Normals and specials will count towards stun, while throws, most supers, Impact, and tag attacks will not. Importantly, stun will only trigger when the character is knocked down while their stun meter is at zero, which means a dizzied opponent won't fall out of your combo; however, a combo on a stunned opponent will not accumulate any stun. There is, however, no indication you earned a stun. Stun lasts for three seconds, but it can be reduced via mashing. You can find each character's stun capacity below.

Stun Total	Characters
999	Johann (Boss)
110	Abubo
100	Billy, Lynn, Radel, Annie, Cassandra, Oni, Pupa, Elias
90	Pepe, Sonia, Jimmy
80	Alice, Jones, Kang

Guard

It is rare for a guard break to occur and even rarer to capitalize off of a guard break. Guard breaks usually happen mid-pressure, but never happen since guard cancels exist. Below is the guard value of every character. It rebuilds when you are not blocking. To ensure all guard breaks occur on the ground, air blocks render one immune to guard gauge depletion, although it will still pause.

Guard Total	Characters
999	Johann (Boss)
130	Abubo
120	Kang
110	Jones, Radel
100	Elias, Jimmy, Cassandra, Pepe, Oni
90	Sonia, Billy, Lynn, Annie
80	Alice, Pupa

Guard Break

Guard breaks happen when your invisible guard meter hits zero. A shattering animation will play when a guard break occurs, leaving you open for attack. Remember that if you guard break an opponent crouching they reset to standing. This may mess up any crouch-specific combos.

Guard Breaking Moves

The following moves break guard instantly:

Jones's 236C.
Oni's 236236D.

Dead Frame

Similar to games like HftF, ROTD has a dead frame where after you recover from a hit, you can only block. This reduces wakeup throw's viability and strengthens meaties and oki options. Normally, this is countered by the presence of tech rolls, but air resets help play around it.

Tag Gauge Recovery Speed

Depending on your active character, your reserve will take more or less time before they're able to tag in or regenerate health.

++ = 75% (320 frames)
+ = 85% (365 frames)
- = 100% (427 frames)
× = 120% (512 frames)
×× = 150% (640 frames)

Active/Reserve	Billy	Lynn	Radel	Annie	Cassandra	Oni	Pepe	Pupa	Alice	Elias	Jones	Kang	Sonia	Jimmy	Abubo	Johann
Billy		++	×	×	+	×	+	+	-	-	-	×	×	×	×	-
Lynn	++		×	×	+	-	+	+	-	+	+	+	-	+	×	-
Radel	×	×		++	-	-	-	-	-	+	-	×	+	-	-	-
Annie	+	-	++		+	-	-	-	-	-	-	+	-	+	-	-
Cassandra	+	+	+	+		++	-	+	-	×	-	+	+	-	+	-
Oni	×	+	+	+	++		×	-	-	××	-	×	+	×	+	-
Pepe	-	+	×	×	-	-		++	-	-	-	×	×	+	×	-
Pupa	+	+	-	-	+	-	++		-	-	-	+	×	+	×	-
Alice	+	+	+	+	+	-	-	+		++	-	+	+	-	-	-
Elias	-	+	+	+	-	××	-	+	++		-	×	+	-	-	-
Jones	-	+	+	+	-	+	-	-	+	-		++	+	×	+	-
Kang	-	+	+	+	-	+	-	-	+	-	++		+	×	+	-
Sonia	+	++	-	-	+	+	-	-	-	×	-	+		++	+	-
Jimmy	-	++	×	×	+	×	+	+	-	-	-	×	++		×	-
Abubo	×	×	-	×	×	×	×	-	×	×	+	+	+	×		-
Johann	××	××	×	×	×	×	×	-	×	×	×	-	-	××	-

Bugs

Fake Combos

Fake combos are when the combo counter goes up, but the combo actually drops. This happens when you hit the opponent right as soon as they exit hitstun. Above is a short video on identifying fake combos and how to avoid them.

Kang Float Bug

Kang can float by canceling his 5D into CD or AB. This can be reset by jumping or getting knocked down. This also makes his 5A an infinite.

Continue Bug

I actually have no idea how to do this.

Slide Bug

Happens when you block high and low too fast.

Alternate Guard

Similar to KOF titles, going from crouch to stand causes a character to stay in guard longer. This can be used to avoid tick throws. Unlike KOF, this also causes a slight amount of forwards acceleration. It is likely related to the slide bug.