Movement
On the ground, every character is able to walk in both directions. Characters are also able to dash by either double-tapping the desired direction (66 or 44), or pressing the desired direction alongside all three punch buttons (6PPP or 4PPP). Dashing can be cancelled by almost any action, including any attack, jumping, crouching or even a dash of the opposite direction.
Characters are also able to jump by tapping any upward direction, as well as super jump by pressing any downward direction before jumping. Normal jumps and superjumps have a number of different properties which are worth noting.
Normal Jumps:
- Travel less overall vertical and horizontal distance compared to superjumps
- Only allow for one aerial action before landing
- Cannot be used to cancel attacks
- Impart more restrictive combo properties to attacks, ie normal jump attacks cannot trigger Flying Screen, and normal jump Special Moves cannot cancel into Hyper Combos.
By comparison, Super Jumps:
- Travel a greater overall vertical and horizontal distance than normal jumps, and also allow for further horizontal control via aerial drift (performed by holding 4 or 6 during a superjump)
- Allow for an unlimited number of aerial actions before landing, including repeatable special moves like fireballs for stalling
- Can be used to cancel certain attacks
- Often allow for much greater combo possibilities
Team Systems
In X-Men vs Street Fighter, players select teams of twocharacters to take into a match with them. A game ends when both of a player's characters has been defeated, or when time runs out. If a game runs to time, the player with the largest overall remaining life total will win.
Recoverable Life
When a character takes damage, a portion of that damage will be left as recoverable life (referred to as "red life"). This red life will be recovered passively whenever the character is not in play.
Crossover Attack
It is possible to perform a Crossover Attack (also called a "raw tag" or "hard tag") while on the ground by pressing HP+HK. Raw tag will cause the point character to briefly pose while gaining invincibility before jumping out, while the selected character jumps into the fight with one of their jumping normals, at which point they will also perform a short taunt after landing. These raw tag attacks will always track to wherever the opponent's point character was at the time the tag was input. They are treated as special moves for move cancelling purposes, so they can be cancelled into from normal attacks.
Raw tags see some situational use defensively. The invincibility on startup and knockdown on hit allows raw tag to be used as a reversal option, though this can be very risky due to raw tags being very punishable on block and whiff thanks to the pose/taunt the incoming character performs.
Offensive Systems
Throws
Throws are performed by pressing 4/6HP (and/or 4/6HK, depending on the character) while close to the opponent. Throws universally impact on frame 1, and often allow for guaranteed combos, making them extremely powerful both offensively and defensively. Most characters are also able to throw the opponent in the air, which sees a lot of use in aerial combo sequences as a reset.
Throws can be broken or softened (referred to in-game as a "Tech Hit") by inputting a throw as or while the player character is being thrown. This will either free the character entirely, or reduce the throw's damage and often prevent it from knocking down and return the character to a normal jump state.
The Magic Series
Every character in X-Men vs Street Fighter is capable of chaining normal attacks together in a sequence known as the "Magic Series". Magic series chains follow a basic order of allowing chains from any weaker normal to a higher-strength normal, as well as chaining from punch to kick normals of the same strength:
{{ LP > LK > MP > MK > HP > HK }}
While this is the basic framework for how normal chains function, this is not universal. Rather, every character will have access to one of three different types of Magic Series chain:
- Hunter Chain: Allows a full six-normal chain (LP > LK > MP > MK > HP > HK)
- Marvel Chain: Allows chaining only from weak normals to strong normals (L > M > H)
- 2-Hit Chain: Allows light normals to chain only to medium or heavy normals, but not in sequence (L > M or L > H).
The order of Hunter Chains and Marvel Chains are not strict, in the sense that while they allow for full chain sequences, any step in the chain sequence can be skipped, so long as the basic order of the chain is followed.
Air Combos
Air Combos (known in Japanese as "Aerial Raves") are the most common way for characters in X-Men vs Street Fighter to structure their combos, alongside use of the Magic Series. Air Combos largely revolve around the use of superjumps - as noted in the Movement section, superjumps often allow for chains and cancels that would not be possible from a normal jump. Almost every character in the game has access to at least one move which will launch the opponent into the air - on hit, holding an upward direction will cancel the launcher into a superjump, allowing the use of an air combo.
Flying Screen
Attacks that are flagged as air combo "enders", such as most heavy normals when in the Super Jump state, as well as some Hyper Combos, will trigger a state known as "Flying Screen," so called because it causes the defending character to "fly" back down to the ground at high speeds. Attacks that trigger Flying Screen are notable primarily due the fact that Flying Screen knockdowns disable the defender's ability to tech roll, which can create highly advantageous situations for the aggressor, including guaranteed okizeme and even niche combo extensions.
Defensive Systems
Blocking
Attacks in X-Men vs Street Fighter are blocked by holding a directional input away from your opponent - 1, 4 and 7 are all valid inputs. Hold 4 to block all mid and high attacks; hold 1 to block all mid and low attacks. Most attacks can be blocked while airborne, which allows for chicken-blocking - holding 7 to jump and begin blocking airborne as soon as possible.
Guard Breaks
In X-Men vs Street Fighter, it is only possible to perform one aerial action per aerial period during a normal jump. After this aerial action has been expended, the player character cannot perform any more aerial actions until landing, and will only regain their aerial actions upon jumping again. Blocking counts as an aerial action in this instance, so when in a normal jumping state, if the player enters and then exits blockstun, they will not be able to do anything else on the way down, including blocking a follow-up attack before touching the ground. This can be used to set up highly practical Guard Break situations that allow for guaranteed offense or even combos, and is particularly powerful when used against an incoming character, since the incoming character is put into the Normal Jump state.
Advancing Guard
Advancing Guard (referred to colloquially as "pushblocking") is a universal defensive system that can be used by pressing both punch buttons while in blockstun. It is possible to pushblock attacks both on the ground and in the air.
A successful pushblock will trigger a unique sound and special effect around the front of your character, and will push the opponent a set distance away from you. Pushblocking will only create distance when blocking attacks from the opponent's point character; pushblocking an assist attack will not result in any extra pushback. Notably, the "pushing" effect of pushblock only affects the player whose attack was blocked, meaning that if the player pushblocks an attack from an opponent who is in the corner, the pushblock will (somewhat counter-intuitively) negate the pushback of any attack. Performing a pushblock in the air will hold the player character in the air for a period of time, allowing it to be used to delay the player's landing from an airborne situation.
Pushblocking does not result in ordinary blockstun - triggering a pushblock effectively puts the player character into what is best thought of as a set pushblocking animation. This pushblocking animation lasts for 23 frames, and has a number of unique properties:
- Attacks will continue to be blocked throughout the animation, but attacks will not inflict standard blockstun for its duration
- The pushblock animation is capable of applying high and low guard status at the same time
- At the end of the pushblock animation, characters will become actionable if they do not re-enter their blocking animation
These properties lead to two very important defensive techniques: Pushblock All-Guard and Pushblock Guard Cancel.
Pushblock All-Guard
Pushblock All-Guard refers to the ability for the pushblocking animation to effectively block high and low at the same time. This allows for much safer defensive play than would otherwise be possible on the ground, effectively creating 23-frame windows where the defender does not have to choose to block high or low. To perform a Pushblock All-Guard, hold 2 while performing a standing pushblock or 4 while performing a crouching pushblock - changing the character's blocking stance during the pushblock animation will cause the character to take on the high and low blocking stances at the same time, making it a key tool for defending against the layered high-low mixup situations that many of the game's best characters are capable of enforcing.
Pushblock Guard Cancel
Pushblock Guard Cancel refers to a technique which takes advantage of the fact that pushblocking returns the character to a neutral action state at the end of the pushblock animation, so long as the character does not re-enter their blocking animation. It is commonly used against otherwise completely guaranteed blockstrings, such as those used by Sentinel and Spiral, allowing players to effectively "override" the standard blockstun of key attacks, creating gaps that allow the defender to escape. To perform a Pushblock Guard Cancel, simply pushblock and then perform any action that does not involve inputting a backward direction (as this will trigger the character's pre-block animation, and probably blockstun as a result). This frequently requires very specific pushblock timing so as to not get hit when attempting to escape, but it is a powerful defensive tool that is often vital for navigating common matchups.
Tech Roll
Most knockdowns in X-Men vs Street Fighter are able to be escaped by performing a Tech Roll or "safe roll". To perform a tech roll, input 412K as the character hits the ground. This will cause them to roll a long distance forward along the ground, granting them full invincibility and often moving them out of the way of guaranteed offense. As noted in the section on Air Combos, attacks that trigger Flying Screen disable the defender's ability to tech roll. Tech Rolls exist as a defensive counter to Off The Ground hits (OTGs), and in most cases, OTG opportunities simply can be avoided by tech rolling.
However, one important thing to note about Tech Rolls is that, even without Flying Screen, some attack sequences are truly unrollable. These are called Juggles, and are Not to be confused with traditional 'OTGs'.
Juggle State & Juggles
If a character is hit off the ground (OTG) out of a knockdown, they will enter the Juggle state, and then perform a Forced Tech Roll if they land during it. The Juggle state moves the defender up and backwards, and critically, they are fully vulnerable to attacks until landing. Since the defender is considered airborne, some attacks can appear to have different properties when hitting characters out of the Juggle state, like Spider-Man's 5HK which launches airborne opponents. This distinction can make the Juggle state extra useful for certain characters' setups or combos, if they have similar quirks to their moves.
There is a one-frame window when a character enters the knockdown state before they can Tech Roll (so if they're hit on this frame, it's unrollable!) where they are actually still vulnerable, so a well timed attack or meaty hitbox can put the character into the Juggle state guaranteed. For example, for Magneto's slide infinite, he Juggles with a 2LK into 2HK, Super Jump Cancels the 2HK and airdashes down to land immediately to Juggle with another 2LK into 2HK. Each 2LK is hitting as a Juggle during that one frame of vulnerability, and Juggles don't count toward the OTG limit.
Off The Ground hits (OTGs)
After the one-frame window of vulnerability upon entering the knockdown state, the character can Tech Roll forwards and get out of the situation. If they don't Tech Roll, they're fully open to be hit Off The Ground (or 'OTGd'). Unlike in Marvel 3, OTG isn't a property moves have. Instead, any hitbox that can be placed low enough to hit someone in knockdown can hit OTG. If you enough time, you can OTG with air lights just as easily as you can OTG with sweeps. There is a built-in OTG limit of one per combo, but a few attacks (as well as Juggles) don't count towards it. Most knockdowns that occur after an OTG have less knockdown time, so the defender will recover sooner than normal.
Forced Tech Rolls
If a character in the Juggle state lands uninterrupted, they will perform a Forced Tech Roll. Forced Rolls are fully invincible like regular Tech Rolls, but the character rolls backwards instead of forwards, meaning you can obtain or keep the corner if they occur.
Stun
Stun (also referred to as "dizzy") is a traditional stun mechanic. Each player character has an internal "stun" meter that begins at its maximum value of 80 points. Taking damage from normal attacks will lower this value, and when the stun value reaches 0, the player will be launched into the air in a "spin out" state, where they will then undergo a short knockdown animation and play their dizzy animation after getting up. This dizzy animation can be made to play out faster by mashing direction and button inputs.
Stun damage is dealt primarily by normal attacks. Stun damage for attacks is semi-random, but stun damage ranges are inversely proportional to the strength of the normal attack - ie light normals deal more stun damage than medium normals, which deal more stun damage than heavy normals. Command launchers, special moves and supers do not deal stun damage. Attacks that hit knocked down opponents, as well as throws will deal stun damage, but cannot trigger spin out. Additionally, attacks used against Super Armor that would reduce a character's stun value to 0 will instead force the stun value to 1.
The stun meter will reset after the player has not been hit by attacks for 60 frames. A character's current stun value will be retained if they are tagged in or out, but the stun value will also reset whenever they are called as an assist.
Hyper Meter
Both players have access to a Hyper Meter (usually simply called "meter") which holds a maximum of five stocks. The Hyper Meter is a critical resource that is spent on some of the game's most powerful options.
Hyper Combo
Commonly referred to as "supers", Hyper Combos are frequently a character's most powerful attacks. They are performed with standard special move motions and either both punches or both kicks (depending on the character and move in question). Most supers can be cancelled into from special moves, and are frequently used as high-damage combo enders or even combo extenders. The vast majority of supers cost one bar of the meter to perform, but a select few have access to exceptionally powerful Level 3 Hyper Combos, which require three stocks of the meter to perform.
Team Hyper Combo
Team Hyper Combo (referred to as "THC") is a super attack that causes both a player's characters to enter the screen, performing their supers simultaneously. It is performed by pressing 236HP+HK, and costs two bars of meter. The super a character performs during a THC is set per-character - these will be noted on character pages.
Variable Counter
Variable Counter (commonly referred to as "Alpha Counter") is a bespoke guard cancel mechanic performed by inputting 412HP+HK while in blockstun, at the cost of one bar of meter. Variable Counters can only be performed while on the ground, and will immediately tag out the point character, bringing in the chosen character to perform a special move. The special move a character performs for their Variable Counter is set per-character - these will be noted on character pages. Notably, since Variable Counters simply result in the chosen character performing their special move after entering play, it is possible to cancel Variable Counters into supers. The utility of this differs depending on the character, but for certain characters it can be an invaluable - if expensive - defensive option.
