The King of Fighters MIRA/System

From SuperCombo Wiki

Basic Systems

Movement

4 and 6 to walk backward and forward respectively. Double tapping 6 will dash forward, and holding the second input will run. Forward dash and run can be immediately cancelled by any action, including crouching and blocking. Double tapping 4 will backdash. Backdash in this game carries no invulnerability, and is only used for creating space.

KOF MIRA also uses the KOF series’ staple set of jumping mechanics, featuring full jumps and hops.

  • Hops are short jumps performed by lightly tapping any upward direction, while full jumps are performed by pressing the upward direction for slightly longer.
  • Super jumps and hyper hops can be performed by pressing any downward direction before jumping, but can only be performed forward and backward.

Defensive Mechanics

Blocking and the Guard Meter

Attacks in KOF MIRA hit at one of three hit levels, in a manner closer to a 2D fighting game than a 3D fighting game.

  • High attacks (or overheads) must be blocked standing. All jumping normals except j.CD hit high.
  • Mid attacks can be blocked standing or crouching. The majority of attacks hit at this level.
  • Low attacks must be blocked crouching.

Beneath the life meter is the blue Guard Meter. This meter will be depleted primarily by blocking (other ways to deplete the guard meter will be discussed later). It will slowly regenerate over time whenever you are not blocking, attacking or taking damage. When the guard meter is completely emptied, blocking an attack will cause a Guard Crush, breaking your guard and potentially allowing for a free hit. After guard crush has been inflicted, your guard meter will turn red as it gradually begins to refill. While the guard meter is refilling, any attack you block will inflict guard crush again.

Sidestep

As mentioned in the controls section, pressing AB or 2AB will result in a sidestep. Sidesteps are completely invincible to strikes on their startup, but are punishable during their ending frames, and are throwable for their entire duration. Holding down AB after performing a sidestep will transition into a sidewalk. Sidewalk does not carry any invulnerability, but its movement makes it useful for evading longer attack strings. You cannot perform any actions during sidewalk, but you are able to act immediately after letting go of AB.

Every character is capable of performing three unique normal attacks out of sidestep, all of which can be cancelled into special moves. AB~C leaves the opponent standing, AB~D launches the opponent for a juggle combo and AB~2D is a low that knocks the opponent down on hit.

Throw Breaks

To break a throw, press C or D as you are thrown. Which button you must press for your throw break depends on the throw your opponent is performing. P throws are broken with C, while K throws are broken with D.

  • Throw Break Option Select
While C+D is not a valid throw break input, it is possible to essentially break P and K throws at the same time by inputting a C-to-D slide input (C~D, like a plink). Additionally, if you input this very quickly after performing a crouching light attack (1A/B~C~D), you can option select both throw breaks into the attack (in other words, this is a crouch tech OS).

Wakeup Mechanics

After being knocked down, most attacks will allow you to perform an Emergency Roll (or Ukemi) by pressing AB just as you hit the ground. This will always result in a backwards roll, but this roll is completely invincible and unpunishable. However, the fact that it only moves backwards means that it will push you towards the wall.

If you are knocked down by an attack that does not allow for an ukemi, or you choose not to perform an ukemi after being knocked down, you have several wakeup options at your disposal.

  • Pressing A will cause you to get up in place, while B and C will cause you to roll into the foreground or background respectively. These wakeup options cannot be punished in any way.
  • Choosing to not use a wakeup option will leave your character laying on the ground indefinitely, and they can be hit on the ground in this state.

Sabaki

Sabaki (or just Parry) is a universal defensive option performed by pressing 6BC (for high and mid attacks) or 2BC (for mid and low attacks). Upon successfully parrying an attack, you will put your opponent into a special stun animation. During this stun animation, your opponent cannot block, but can perform a sabaki of their own or either of their Guard Cancel options (this will be discussed in the Power Gauge section).

Sabaki can parry any attack that is not a throw or a projectile. Getting thrown during a sabaki attempt will make the throw unbreakable. Additionally, sabaki has a sizeable whiff animation, which can leave bad sabaki attempts open to punishment. There are also several attacks that can "anti-sabaki"

Combo Mechanics

Stylish Arts and Special Cancels

Alongside their regular normal attacks, every character will also have a number of Stylish Arts as part of their command list. Stylish Arts are attack strings reminiscent of those found in other 3D fighting games. Every character has access to multiple Stylish Arts that can be cancelled into special moves at several points, making them the basis of most combos in KOF MIRA.

Juggles

KOF MIRA has a slightly more open-ended juggle system compared to 2D KOF games. Essentially, as long as your opponent is in the air, they are able to be hit. Hitting the opponent with most normal attacks will cause an air reset, but most special attacks will leave the opponent in a juggle state, allowing you to follow up if you recover in time. It is worth noting that the first few frames of an air reset can still be hit by attacks, so juggles involving a normal into a fast special move will work.

Wall Hits

Many attacks will hit the opponent into the wall when they are close to it. If your opponent is standing, this will induce Wall Stagger, but will cause Wall Bound if they are airborne. Wall stagger adds 5 points of damage to your attack and enables some new combos, while wall bound allows you to extend some juggle combos, but will not add any extra damage.

OTG Attacks

If you hit the opponent with a move that inflicts a hard knockdown, or your opponent chooses not to use any of their wakeup options after being knocked down, they can be hit while they are on the ground by any attack with a low enough hitbox. Of note is that attacks that cause a launch state on hit (such as Ryo’s 623P) will still cause this state as an OTG, which can lead to some terrifying conversions from grounded this, especially at the wall.

Crouch Hits and Back Hits

When any attack hits a crouching opponent, the opponent will suffer 2 extra frames of hitstun, allowing for easier combo conversions or, in some cases, combos that may not otherwise be possible. This also similarly applies to hitting an opponent’s back, which will cause them to suffer 4 extra frames of hitstun.

Combo Limits

KOF MIRA has some mechanics in place to limit overly long or drawn out combos that could occur due to its more free-form combo mechanics. In general, the game will force all combos to end after 10 moves have been used. Bear in mind that many Stylish Arts, as well as multi-part special moves, will all have each of their parts counted as separate moves. Some moves, such as supers, will also count as two moves used towards this counter. The game will also force combos to end after 5 moves have been used in an OTG combo, or after wall bounce has occurred three times in a combo. If a combo is forced to end due to these limitations, the opponent will be forced to get up in place and unable to tech roll. They will, however, still have the option to perform an emergency roll.

Damage Scaling

Alongside its more concrete combo limits, KOF MIRA also applies a damage scaling formula to help hold back damage. The damage scaling formula is quite simple, scaling back combo damage on a per-move basis.

No. of moves in combo Damage (as percentage)
1 100%
2 85%
3 70%
4 55%
5 (and onward) 40%

Additionally, a counter hit will apply a 15% damage bonus to that hit, as well as all resulting hits of a combo, making them highly rewarding. Attacks to the head will also deal 1.5x the amount of damage the attack normally does, which makes OTG attacks to the head more deadly.

Power Gauge

The Power Gauge is KOF MIRA’s super meter, used for a variety of offensive and defensive purposes.

Power is built by the following actions:

  • Performing any non-projectile special attack
  • Landing attacks on the opponent (on hit or block)
  • Being hit by the opponent’s attacks

The player to land the first hit of a round also gains First Attack bonus, which grants them one full bar of the power gauge. The power gauge holds a maximum of three stocks initially, with each player gaining another usable stock for each character they lose (up to five stocks maximum).

Desperation Moves

Desperation Moves are classic KOF supers. Each character has several Desperation Moves, all of which will be either level 1, level 2 or level 3. Each of the DMs cost a number of power gauge stocks equal to their level. DMs are treated as special moves for cancelling purposes.

Super Cancels

Special moves in KOF MIRA can be cancelled into DMs at the cost of one power gauge stock on top of the cost of the DM. For example, cancelling a special move into a level 2 super would cost three bars -- two for the super, and one for the super cancel. Additionally, the use of a super cancel will always force a super to deal 60% of its full damage, regardless of when in the combo it is used. This generally means that super cancels are more beneficial to use later in a combo.

Guard Cancels

Both evasive rolls and blowback attacks can be used as defensive options at the cost of one stock of the power gauge. They can be used during blockstun as a Guard Cancel. Both GC Roll and GC Blowback only provide strike invulnerability. GC Blowback, on top of the power gauge stock, also costs a portion of your guard meter. Interestingly, both guard cancel options can be used after a successful sabaki from the opponent. While the GC Roll works the same, GC Blowback has full invulnerability at the expense of being itself susceptible to sabaki attempts.


Esoterics

Guard Meter Specifics

Guard meters in KOF MIRA are not all created equal -- each character has their own maximum guard meter value, as well as their own guard meter regeneration rate.

Guard Meter Values
170 pts Maxima, Duke
160pts Ralf, Clark, Seth, Wild Wolf, Richard, Mr Karate II, Jivatma
150pts Everyone else
140pts Kula, Athena, Mai, Lily, B.Jenet, Yuri, Hanzo, Fio, Ninon, Nagase, Hyena, Xiao Lon
Guard Meter Regeneration Rates
Fast Ralf, Clark, Seth, Duke, Jivatma
Average Everyone else
Slow Kula, Leona, Athena, Mai, Lily, B.Jenet, Lily, Hanzo, Fio, Ninon, Lien, Nagase, Chae Lim

Blockstun Changes

When blocking a blowback or a similar single-part attack, blockstun will be increased by 2 frames if the attack was blocked crouching.

You may switch between standing and crouching at any time while blocking, up until the final 5 frames of blockstun. Additionally, the final four frames of blockstun can be cancelled into a sabaki attempt (high sabaki for stand guard, low sabaki for crouch guard). However, if you attempt to perform a sabaki in this way when the opponent performs some strings or cancels, you will be hit before the sabaki can happen.

Sidestep Specifics

Much like guard meters, sidesteps are not made equal, with each character having different sidestep speeds.

Sidestep Total Frames
27F Ralf, Clark, Mignon, Jivatma
30F Everyone else
33F Mai
34F Richard

General Strategy

Sabaki and Counter-Sabaki Tactics

So your opponent is really good with Sabaki and often does the pattern Sabaki > Attack. In this game its essential to learn Counter-Sabaki, or Anti-Sabaki: for most attacks you actually have a higher chance of doing C-Sabaki by crouching and simply hitting their Sabaki unless they use an overhead or a jump-in attack. If your opponent follows Sabaki > Attack, your practical options are:

  • C-Sabaki > Attack
  • C-Sabaki > Blowback (C+D)
  • C-Sabaki > Evade (A+B)
  • C-Sabaki > Overhead
  • C-Sabaki > Walk-in Throw


If you follow C-Sabaki > Sttack and you realize your opponent is also about to C-Sabaki, another good tactic is to bait out the C-Sabaki so the pattern follows like this:

  • Enemy Sabaki > Attack
  • You C-Sabaki > Do nothing
  • Enemy Sabaki > Follow-up

While the enemy is in the whiffed Sabaki animation you can punish him. This is usually a good time to do level 3 supers or even combos that only work on crouch opponents. This is also a great set up for special command grabs or C-Sabaki > Jump-in Attack mixups.

Universal Anti-Sabaki List

Just as it sounds like, this is a list of moves that every character can use to Counter-Sabaki:

  • CD counter
  • Counter roll
  • (after you Sabaki) Roll
  • (after you Sabaki) Throw

The list is much larger than this, but is character specific and as such, you should refer to the character specific pages to learn their Counter-Sabakis.

Alba

-63214D

-623A/C

-214C


Athena

-(in air) 2B

-236236AC

-Psycho Ball/Shoot


Ash

-[4]-6A/C

-

-


Billy

-C throw -> 2C

-2363214A/C

-


Mary

-

-

-


B.Jenet

-Feint(s)[4BD,2BD,6BD]

-214214A/C (against CD counters)

-


Chae Lim

-46B/D

-6B (against croching opponent)

-

Clark

-41236A/C

-

-33


Duke

-214C

-236B/D

-


Fio

-

-

-


Hanzo

-214B(after getting hit)

-646A/B/C/D

-


Hyena

-6B (not too sure about this one)

-236236A/C (can't be parried)

-


Iori

-623D

-6B (against crouching opponents)

-236A/C


Jivatma

-41236A/C

-66C

-214A/C

-66B/D


K'

-236B/D

-236236B/D (against CD counters)

-236A/C

-


Kim

-236A/C (hold/hold further against CD Counter)

-6B (against crouching opponent)

-j.236B/D


Kula

-236A

-214A/C

-63214[x2]C

-6A (against crouching opponent)

-236B/D


Kyo/Kyo-C

-236A/C (Kyo-C only)

-236236A/C (Kyo-C only, hold for time necessary)

-21416A/C

-63214[x2]A/C (Kyo only)

-2141236B/D (Kyo only)


Leona

-(4)-6A/C

-j.2B

-j.214A/C

-j.2363214A


Lein

-

-

-


Lilly

-2363214A/C

-2141236A/C (against CD Counter)

-


Luise

-46282A/C

-21416A/C

-21416B/D

-41236A/C

-63214A/C (against CD Counter)


Mai

-

-

-


Mizoguchi

-

-

-


Maxima

-214A/C (hold)

-41236A/C

-63214A/C

-


Mignon

-

-

-


Nagase

-

-

-


N.Geese

-

-

-


Ninon

-

-

-


Ralf

-

-

-


Rock

-

-

-


Ryo/Mr. Karate

-

-

-


Seth

-

-

-


Terry/Wild Wolf

-

-

-


Yuri

-

-

-


Xiao Lon

-

-

-

Last edited by DropGate

Game Navigation

General
Controls
Notation
HUD
Glossary
System
FAQ
Characters
Alba Meira
Ash Crimson
Athena Asamiya
B. Jenet
Billy
Blue Mary
Chae Lim
Clark Still
Duke
EX Kyo
Fio Germi
Hanzo Hattori
Hyena
Iori
Jivatma
K'
Kim Kap Hwan
Kula Diamond
Kyo
Leona
Lien Neville
Lilly Kane
Luise Meyrink
Mr. Karate
Mai Shiranui
Makoto Mizoguchi
Maxima
Mignon Beart
Nagase
Nightmare Geese
Ninon Beart
Ralf Jones
Richard Meyer
Rock
Ryo
Seth
Soiree Meira
Terry
Wild Wolf
Xiao Lon
Yuri Sakazaki