Controls
The above image doesn't tell the whole story.
- H & Numpad 0 can also be used for throws.
- Arrow keys can also be used for movement.
- Numpad 4/5/6 can be used for specials
- Numpad 1/2/3 can be used for normals
//Todo: Update the image to include the extra stuff?
Defence
Blocking
Holding back (away from the opponent) will block incoming attacks, making you take no damage or a small amount of chip damage if it's a special. Blocked moves also always have worse advantage as opposed to having hit.
Low attacks must be blocked crouching (Down + Back).
Jumping attacks and standing overheads must be blocked standing (Back).
It's a good habit to default to blocking low as all jumping attacks and overheads are much slower than lows.
The universal crossup (Jumping Down+Heavy) must be blocked in the opposite direction.
Throws & Command grabs cannot be blocked.
Projectiles must be blocked based on the direction the character last touched the ground. For example: Vlad is on the right, puts a delayed projectile on top of you and jumps over. If it lands before he touches the ground, you have to block it as if he was still on the right. However if he lands from the jump you must switch which direction you block. This rule is can be abused by Vlad & Crow who can adjust their landing timing creating unreactable 50/50s.
Breaking Throws
Throws cannot be blocked, the main way to escape throws is to tech them. By throwing within a small window of being thrown you both escape and return to neutral with no advantage to either side. The window is too small for it to work as a reaction so it's always as guess.
Another important note is that you cannot tech throws while holding down+back. Nothing will come out. This makes it so you must be weak to lows in order to break throws.
Invincibility
All backdashes, supers and some reversals have a period of invincibility (commonly referred to as i-frames). This is denoted with your character receiving a golden aura for it's duration.
During the invincibility period you cannot be hit or thrown, it's used to i-frame through attacks and punish them.
Armour
Some moves have a period of armor. This is denoted with your character receiving a blue aura for it's duration.
Armor accomplishes the same things as invincibility, with a few differences.
- Armored moves can still be thrown.
- Armoring through an attack still causes hitstop. This means that cancels still come out since the move doesn't whiff.
- Armoring through a move still makes you take the damage as recoverable white life.
- There is only 1 hit of armor, so multi-hit moves or a sequence that hits twice before the armored move lands will still stuff the move.
Kinetic Deflect
Selecting Kinetic Deflect in your loadout shows up as a green meter that fills up above your overdrive meter.
When you have at least 1 full bar, pressing any 2 special buttons while in blockstun or hitstun will make a shield bubble appear on your character at the cost of half a bar. This bubble stays up until you exit blockstun or hitstun. If you are hit when this shield is up, deflect will activate, consume another half of a bar and push the enemy full screen while also deleting any projectiles on the screen. This effectively works as Killer Instinct's Shadow Counter combined with Bursts of Arcsys games.
You are still considered as in hitstun or blockstun with the shield bubble up, so if you have the extra meter, mashing 2 specials will put up multiple shields. This accomplishes nothing other than wasting meter.
The shield bubble is reactable, so if it's done too early, the attacker can choose not to hit the defender. They still have to end the combo early, so it accomplishes the goal of ending damage, just doesn't give you the reward of being put fullscreen.
A weird limitation with deflect is that you can only carry over 1 bar into the next round. If the round ends with you having more that 1 bar, you're simply set to 1 for the next round. Most people forget about this rule and end up wasting a free burst/combobreaker.
Quick getup
After being knocked down, hitting any normal button will cause you to get up earlier. It's recommended to drum the normal buttons in order to basically guarantee you land the timing.
Emergency tech
Moves that cause twist, backslide, wallbounce or groundbounce can be emergency teched by pressing any special as you hit the ground. It is recommended to drum the special buttons to basically guarantee you land the timing.
This causes a brief period of invincibility and then extended recovery.
If read or close enough this can be severely punished, so it's not recommended.
Some moves are a guaranteed safe tech, like Talos' super, Dauntless' far Target Combo and Crow's Soul Cleaver.
White health
Any move that is armored through will inflict it's damage as white health instead of real damage.
White health is recoverable and begins recovering immediately, even in blockstun.
Getting hit will remove all white health that has been accrued.
You cannot be chip killed by white health.
Offence
Throws
Throws can be performed by hitting the dedicated throw button.
Throws cannot be blocked, as such they serve as a guardbreak to punish people turtling. They have very short range so you usually have to expose yourself by walking up to throw.
Because you cannot tech throws while crouching, you have to expose yourself to lows in order to escape them. This makes low vs throw one of the main mixups in the game.
Some characters have airthrows. You can tech airthrows without having an airthrow yourself so it usually serves as a combo tool.
Backthrows deal more damage and stun than forward throws. However, you can KA cancel forward throws into a combo for better damage, stun and oki afterwards. The only exception for this is Crow, whose forward throw deals more damage, but his backthrow can be cancelled instead.
Dashing
Tapping forward twice will cause your character to dash towards the opponent. This is usually the fastest way to cover space.
Most character can also run by holding forward when dashing.
Dashes & Runs have recovery as they end, meaning they can be checked & punished.
Cooldowns
Every special move has a dedicated cooldown associated with it. This is to balanced out the fact that they can be performed with a single button.
Using KA in a combo will reduce all active cooldowns by 2s.
Getting the opponent stunned will reduce all active cooldowns by 5s.
Flipout
Most moves when hitting an airborne opponent will case flipout. This state has a brief period of vulnerability before complete invincibility until landing.
This can be used to set up predictable timing for oki by removing the options of quick getup vs delayed getup from the opponent.
Stun
If the stun accrued reaches the character's stun value, it becomes stunned. This causes them to become standing and completely vulnerable for X seconds.
Mashing normals & specials reduces the stun duration. Mashing directions has no effect.
Getting a stun will reduce all active cooldowns by 5s.
Combo System
Juggle points
As the character is getting comboed while being airborne, every hit will consume a juggle point.
The max number of juggles and current juggle count is displayed under the combo counter.
When the max number is reached the character becomes invulnerable to any further hits.
Kinetic Advance
Selecting Kinetic Advance will show up as a blue bar above your overdrive meter.
This is built up by doing damage and advancing forward.
It can be used to extend combos by dashing out or jumping out of a KA cancellable move.
Usually the move needs to make contact to become KA cancellable, however projectiles (including projectile supers) can be KA cancelled on whiff.
Everyone can KA cancel their forward throw, except for Crow, who can cancel his back throw instead.
KA cancel consumes 1 bar, makes your character ignore the recovery of a move and immediately perform the action buffered, be it a dash, backdash or jump.
KA cancel removes 2s from all active cooldowns if done on hit. Doing this on block just makes the cancelled move safe.
KA cancel removes 1 from your current juggle count, effectively increasing the number of possible combos.
Because projectiles can be KA cancelled on whiff, this can be used to set up mixups as well.
Power hits
Power hits a certain moves that have a minimum scaling of 33% as opposed to the usual 15%-20%.
All supers are powerhits.
Powerhits do not ignore the additional reversal starter scaling, so their damage is still cut down another 50% in those situations.
Backslide
Certain moves will cause a backslide on hit.
This cannot be combo'd out of and can be emergency teched by the opponent.
Wall bounce
Certain moves cause a wallbounce on hit, putting the opponent airborne and vulnerable until landing.
This can easily be followed up after. The opponent can emergency tech on landing if nothing is done as a pickup.
Only 1 wallbounce can be done in a combo, if a 2nd wallbounce would be done, it does a backslide instead, ending the combo.
Ground bounce
Certain move cause a ground bounce on hit, putting the opponent airborne and vulnerable until landing.
This can easily be followed up after. The opponent can emergency tech on landing if nothing is done as a pickup.
Only 1 groundbounce can be done in a combo, if a 2nd wallbounce would be done, it does an untechable spike to the ground instead, ending the combo.
Free juggle state
Certain moves cause a free juggle state on hit, putting the opponent airborne and vulnerable until landing.
This can be easily followed up after.
There is no limit to how many free juggle states you can incur in a combo.
Meters
Kinetic meter
Depending on which kinetic mode you selected in your loadout, this will either be green or blue.
Advance is built up by connecting with attacks and advancing forward.
Deflect is built up by getting hit.
Advance carries over between rounds. Deflect can only carry over 1 bar.
Overdrive meter
Your super meter. Once full can perform it with a dedicated overdrive button.
Built up by dealing damage.
Carries over between rounds.
Miscellaneous
Loadouts
Before readying up or queueing for a match you have the option of selecting your loadout.
Everyone can select between Kinetic Deflect & Advance, but the options for specials depend on the character.
Only 1 version of each special can be selected at a time.
After a game you have the option to change your loadout to better suit the matchup.