Damage Scaling
Combo Scaling
To prevent incredibly high damage combos, each move's damage in a combo sequence is scaled by 10% * (the number of moves in the combo - 1) up to 10 hits, after which a move will do 10% of its base damage. The first hit of a combo does 100% of the moves total damage, the second hit does 90%, the third does 80%, and so on down to a minimum of 10%. For Ryu's basic 3 hit combo sequence of MP, crHP xx HP Shoryuken the total damage is 245 (60 + (90 * 90%) + (130 * 80%)) rather than 280 as it would be without it. Below is a quick chart for easy reference.
Note: Minimum damage possible from a hit is 1 point including all types of scaling
The formula applies to each move, not each hit. Multi-hitting moves such as Ryu's b+HK or EX Tatsumaki Senpukyaku still only count as 1 move for the purposes of the above chart. This means b+HK, LK xx EX Tatsu would count as a 3 move combo dealing 219 damage (((40 + 40) * 100%) + (30 * 90%) + ((28 + 28 + 28 + 28 + 28) * 80%), not an 8 move combo.
Because of combo scaling, it is important to try to place more damaging moves earlier in a combo instead of later when possible. Starting a combo with a light attack will quickly increase the combo scaling leading to less damage overall. Similarly, filling especially long combo with low damaging attacks early in the sequence can lead to less damage overall.
Crush Counters
As of Season 3, a Crush Counter causes a combo to start at 2 hits instead of 1, meaning all subsequent hits will do 10% less damage than they normally would as the next hit will start at 80% instead of the normal 90%. For example, with Ryu performing HK, HK with the first being a Crush Counter, the first hit will do 108 (90 + 90*20% from the counter hit bonus), however the second hit will do 72 damage (90 * 80%). Because of this for punishing reversals it is now a decision of getting the max damage possible or gaining V-Gauge.
Critical Arts Scaling
Critical Arts will always do a minimum of 50% of their total damage. Because of this they are great way to win a round.
GUTS
GUTs is a term used to describe how damage works at lower health levels. The lower an opponent's HP is, the lower damage they will take. This system is implemented in all modern Capcom fighting games, and is designed to de-emphasis rounds being closed out by small pokes.
- Below 50% HP, moves cause 95% of their normal damage
- Below 30% HP, moves cause 90% of their normal damage
- Below 15% HP, moves cause 75% of their normal damage
GUTs applies to every move that connects under that threshold, and stacks on top of combo scaling. For example, if M.Bison (who has 1000HP total) has 500 HP left and is hit by Ryu's crMP, it will inflict 100% damage. At 499 HP (<50% HP left) remaining however, it will do 95%. These numbers also apply mid combo. A simple example is Ryu attacking Bison with crMP xx Hadouken when Bison is at 559 HP remaining. The crMP will inflict 100% of its normal damage (60) bringing Bison under 499 HP left, under 50%. Because Bison is now under 50% the second hit of the combo, the Hadouken, will inflict 90% of its original damage (due to combo scaling) * 95% damage (because of GUTs scaling) = 60 * 95% * 90% = 51 damage, brining the total combo damage to 111 HP. For more examples:
- If Bison is at 560 HP and Ryu performs crMP xx Hadouken, the crMP will do 60 damage bringing him to 500HP, >= 50%. No GUTs takes effect, so only combo scaling applies and the combo does 60 + (60 * 90%) = 114 damage.
- If Bison is at 499 HP and Ryu performs crMP xx Hadouken, the crMP will do 60 * 90% due to GUTs scaling as will the Hadouken. The total damage becomes (60 * 95%) + (60 * 90% * 95%) = 108 damage.
- If Bison is at 300 HP and Ryu performs crMP xx Hadouken, the crMP will do 60 * 90% due to GUTs, bringing Bison below 30%. The Hadouken will then do 90% scaling from being in a combo, and an additional 90% from being under 30% leading to the total damage being (60 * 90%) + (60 * 90% * 90%) = 102 damage.
This also applies to multi-hitting critical arts. Akuma's Raging Demon does 400 damage when the opponent is at maximum health, however when the opponent is at 49.9% HP it only does 332 damage, or 83% of its total rather than the expected 95%. The total damage will be slightly lower if the opponent is at 45%, as the opponent will reach 30% HP earlier in the move meaning the last few hits will be scaled further.
Similarly because of GUTs, there are certain ranges where an opponent would have been killed by a Critical Art at 50% HP but is able to survive at 49.9% HP. Balrog's Critical Art is a single hit that does 330 damage normally, 313 if the opponent has between 30 - 50% HP remaining (330 * 95% = 313), and 297 if the opponent has 15 - 30% HP remaining (313 * 90% = 297). If an opponent has 1000 HP, they will be killed at 300HP remaining (300HP means 95% scaling, 300 - 313 = -13, <= 0 means dead) but live at 299 HP remaining (299 / 1000 is < 30% so the Critical Art does 297 damage, 299 - 297 = 2 HP remaining).
For a deeper dive into the GUTs system in Street Fighter V, see WydD's Deep Dive Into SFV Guts Medium article. The health and damage values are based on Street Fighter V Season 4, however the concepts still apply.
Note: when checking damage values in training mode, it is important to let the opponent's HP regenerate. Otherwise GUTs will be in effect and give different data.
V-Trigger Cancels
Canceling into a V-Trigger automatically scales a combo by 2 hits, reducing the next attack by 20%. A simple example of this is with Ryu; doing MP MP will cause 114 damage (60*100% + 60*90% = 114). Doing MP VTC MP does 102 damage (60 * 100% + 60 * 70% = 102). Subsequent hits will be 60%, 50%, and so on. This means canceling into V-Trigger can actually REDUCE the total damage a combo would normally do despite being more hits. V-Trigger Cancels often allow combos from moves that normally are not possible to combo from such as Ryu's MK, however for normal combos they should be used as late as possible to get the heaviest hits up front before the additional damage scaling effect is applied.
Frame data
The word "frame" is used to represent the smallest unit of time in the game. In SFV and most fighting games, one frame is 1/60 of a second, since the game runs at 60 frames per second. Every action a character takes, like walking, jumping, attacking, or blocking, can be measured in terms of frames. Frames are often abbreviated with the letter "f", as in 60f = 60 frames.
As an example, if Chun-Li has a forward dash with a duration of 15 frames, this is equal to 15/60 or 1/4 of a second in real time. If you have a 5 frame window to input a combo link, this is a timing window of 5/60 or 1/12 of a second to properly time the combo.
When one character makes contact with another, both will be "stuck" for some period of time. Usually, one character will be able to act again before the opponent has fully recovered; this situation is referred to as "Frame Advantage" (or more specifically Hit Advantage, Block Advantage, Knockdown Advantage, etc). Frame Advantage is represented with a plus or minus sign; +3 means the character can act 3 frames before the opponent, while -6 means the opponent can act 6 frames before you; 0 indicates a neutral advantage where both characters can act simultaneously.
Move Stages
Keeping in mind that all actions are measured in frames, moves can be further divided into phases called Startup, Active, and Recovery. Knowing the definition of each will make it much easier to interpret Frame Data.
- Startup: The beginning portion of an attack before it can hit the opponent; think "winding up for a punch"
- Active: The portion of an attack that can hit or grab the opponent
- Recovery: The ending portion of an attack that can no longer connect with the opponent, and the attacker is unable to perform any other action such as blocking.
It's important to note that in modern Street Fighter games, Startup is measured to also include the first Active frame (known as FAF or First Active Frame startup). This is done to make it easier to understand which moves can be used in combos and in punishes (e.g. a move with +5 Advantage combos into a move with 5 frame startup; a move with 7 frame startup can punish a move with -7 Disadvantage). This means that if you want to know the total frame count of an attack, you should add Startup + Active + Recovery frames and then subtract 1 to account for that overlap.
Many older games use "True Startup", in which Startup and Active frames are completely separate; an attack that hits on frame 3 is considered to have 2 frames of Startup. Keep this in mind if comparing frame data between different games.
Hitstun/Blockstun/Hitstop
When you land an attack, the opponent gets "stuck" for a fixed amount of time from the impact.
- Hitstun - the opponent is stuck in a reeling animation from the hit. Any followup attack that connects while the opponent is stuck in hitstun results in a combo.
- Blockstun - the opponent is stuck in a blocking pose. Causing the opponent to block a series of attacks is a blockstring; if the opponent never exits blockstun, it is a true blockstring.
- Hitstop - also known as "Hit Freeze"; time essentially stops for both characters, making a move feel more impactful. Heavier attacks have longer hitstop, and Crush Counters usually have even longer hitstop. In addition to making the hits look more natural, hitstop helps to give players time to input a special move cancel and hitconfirm followup attacks.
Hit Priority System
Grounded Normal attacks in SFV follow a priority system, which refers to how two attacks interact when they collide on the same frame. In SF4, any two attacks that hit each other simultaneously would result in a "trade", causing both characters to take damage, and the resulting frame advantage would depend on the hitstun of each attack. In SFV, the higher strength normal attack will win over the lower strength normal.
It's easy to remember: Heavy > Medium > Light. This does not apply to air normals, so anti-air light and medium attacks can still be used against heavy jump-ins. It also does not apply to special moves, so any normal can trade with any strength special. Command normals like Ryu's f+HP or Ken's b+MP do count as grounded normals in this priority system. And when two normals of the same strength collide, they will trade hits just as the would in any previous Street Fighter game.
For example, a 5f medium punch that is +1 on block will cause a 4f gap between hits. If the opponent hits their 4f light punch in this gap, it will collide right as the attacker's medium punch becomes active. In SF4, this would result in a trade, allowing the defender to sacrifice a bit of health to escape pressure. In SFV, however, the medium punch simply beats the light punch, resulting in a counterhit. In the case of heavy normals, this often results in a Crush Counter for even better followup combo opportunities.
It's not just blockstrings that are affected by the priority system; it also has a huge impact on how the neutral game is played in SFV. Characters with strong heavy normals (especially Crush Counters) can throw them out to cleanly beat the opponent's medium pokes. As a result, fighting against this type of character forces players to focus more on whiff punishing the heavy attacks, rather than sticking out their own pokes to control space. Buffering special moves from light normals like Sakura st.LK or Birdie cr.LP is a higher-risk strategy when the opponent has a safe, bufferable medium attack that can stuff it cleanly in neutral.
On a related note, Throws have priority over Strikes when they land on the same frame. Some moves that appear to be throws, like Zangief's air EX Borscht Dynamite, technically have a strike hitbox, in which case it can trade for 0 damage.
Move Input Priority
When multiple inputs are entered on the same frame, the game will use this priority list to determine what move comes out. Moves that are higher on this list take precedence over moves below:
- Chains/Cancels take precedence over any other input
- Throw (LP+LK) takes precedence over everything, unless input after a chainable light attack
- V-Trigger (HP+HK) takes precedence over V-Skill
- V-Skill (MP+MK) takes precedence over Critical Arts / Special Moves
- Critical Arts take precedence over specials
- Special Moves take precedence over any normals
- Command Normals take precedence over regular normals (f+HP > st.HP; b+MK > st.MK)
- Heavier attacks take precedence over lighter attacks (HP > MP > LP)
- Kicks take precedence over punches
A few examples, using Ken:
- MP+LP: MP comes out because MP is a higher strength than LP
- cr.LK > cr.LP+LK: chained cr.LK comes out because chains are higher priority than Throw; additionally, cr.LK takes priority over cr.LP
- b+MK+HK: b+MK (Overhead) comes out because Command Normals are higher priority than regular normals (despite MK being a lower strength than HK)
- QCB, f+HK: qcb+HK (HK Tatsu) comes out because Special Moves are higher priority than Command Normals
- QCB+MP+MK: MP+MK (V-Skill) comes out because V-Skill is higher priority than Special Moves
- QCF, QCF+LP+LK+MP+MK+HP+HK: Throw comes because it has the highest priority (except Chains)
