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General Beginner Q&A Thread!

NaimS said:
How do I apply pressure? For example, I has knock-downed (or not) opponent in the corner. So what should I do next?
That is a really broad question with a really broad answer that depends on your character.
For your example, you can spend this time doing whatever you want, be it setting up projectiles, calling an assist, doing an overhead or jumping so you can try to cross up your opponent. Basically, just do your best to get a hit. Try to mix them up using overheads/lows and assists. Get them in blockstrings and try to keep them from doing anything.
 
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NaimS said:
How do I apply pressure? For example, I has knock-downed (or not) opponent in the corner. So what should I do next?
Completely depends on the opponent and your play style.

...

Basic pressure would be simply hitting them high or low when they wake up.
Of course if you always do that, you are going to just get hit with a reversal.

Sometimes smarter pressure would be spacing yourself in a position to go for mix up and to also prevent them from getting out of the corner or slipping away risk free.
If they pop a reversal on their wake up, you can block.
But you're also in a position to move in for mix up and pressure them if they are patient and don't do anything risky on their wake up.

Other layers of pressure would be sending in assists to put the opponent in blockstun, as a sacrificial 'test the water' type move to see what they will do on their wake up.
If they do anything but block or reversal the assist should frame trap them and you'll get a combo.
If they use a reversal to try and beat the assist, the point character is free to block/avoid the reversal and punish.
If they block, they can't act and the point gets to keep their pressure.
[Rolling with this example...]

... And if 100% of the time you send your assist in first and take no risks as the point character, the opponent will start to always be patient and block on their wake up.

If you always pressure High/Low/Throw after the assist is finished attacking, your opponent will start to reversal after the assist is done attacking rather than just as they wake up, scoring them a happy birthday.

If you start to bait their reversals after the assist is finished attacking, the opponent will begin to have more freedom after leaving blockstun from the assist, and may even just dash into your face and apply pressure with jabs or throw you since they are reading your fear.

Thus, after passing all these layers, perhaps throwing them on their wake up before the assist hits would be a good move to keep pressure, as they're now waiting for the assist to finish attacking them before they make their move.
Layers and mind games are important during pressure and defence.
You have to pay attention to what's happening to make sure that your opponent doesn't know what you're going to do before you yourself do.

I guess that's how I'd explain keeping pressure:
Making good offensive reads to stick close to your opponent and bait them into doing the wrong things to open them up.
 
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Since we're discussing pressure, how do you guys practice block pressure? At the moment I kind of just do whatever comes to mind in matches (so usually just short blockstring into hornet bomber as Val for example). Is there a better way to come up with block pressure and ways to practice it?
Thanks.
 
go into the lab, set the ai to pushblock a lot and see where you can be pushed so that your pressure ends. Alternatively, if you also want to test if your strings are reversal and PBGC safe, set the computer to do your string and try to pushblock to end it or reversal through it.
 
What does building a lot of meter for your opponent vs not building a lot of meter for them vs building a lot of meter for yourself look like in terms of the amount meter built?
 
Kyugetsuki said:
What does building a lot of meter for your opponent vs not building a lot of meter for them vs building a lot of meter for yourself look like in terms of the amount meter built?
I'm not sure I understand the question it you can donate 3/4th's of a bar of meter to your opponent by doing adding tons of hits when combos are fully scaled.

If you were looking for something else you might have to ask the question differently.
 
Skarmand said:
If you were looking for something else you might have to ask the question differently.
I'm kind of looking for an answer like

Building a lot of meter for your opponent = you gain 1/5 of a bar while the opponent gets 1 full bar

Building a lot of meter for yourself relative to your opponent = you end up with .5 more bar than the opponent.

I'm genuinely curious though I'm not sure if it will really matter. I think I'm looking for a kind of standard/average.
 
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Kyugetsuki said:
I'm kind of looking for an answer like

Building a lot of meter for your opponent = you gain 1/5 of a bar while the opponent gets 1 full bar

Building a lot of meter for yourself relative to your opponent = you end up with .5 more bar than the opponent.

I'm genuinely curious though I'm not sure if it will really matter. I think I'm looking for a kind of standard/average.
Meter build is related to how long the combo goes on.
If you do super long combos with tons of hits, you'll give the opponent tons of meter.
If you do short heavy hitting combos and keep constantly resetting before like even five hits, you'll build yourself tons of meter and your opponent will get next to nothing.

Use this for example:
bZlUfOt.png

The top one is the base meter build for Valentine to get to max damage scaling in this particular combo.
The middle one is how much meter she builds the opponent after doing 5LP 2MK[1] 5HP x H Bypass xx Flatline.
The bottom one is how much meter she builds the opponent after doing 5LP 5LP 5LP 2LK 2LK[All] 5MP[All] 5MP[All] 5MK[All] 5HK 5HK 5HK x H Bypass xx Flatline

The bottom chain does only 625 more damage, and gives the opponent about half a bar of extra meter.

So it's sort of hard to generalize meter build and find an average for all characters because it depends on the style of play.
If you want to reset your opponent 3 times in 5 seconds and build them nothing and give yourself a bar then that's a thing.
If you want to always just go for maximum damage and build them a bar every time you touch them then that's a thing also.

This might not answer your question but it might?
 
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Sorry if asked before, but is xbox 360 wired controller is good option for newbie player playing on PC?
 
Grybzt said:
Sorry if asked before, but is xbox 360 wired controller is good option for newbie player playing on PC?
Personally, I feel like Xbox controllers are the worst option for fighting games, but obviously other people prefer them and this is just opinion. Every controller is viable if that is what you are comfortable with. A lot of people will say fightstick is best, and while I think it has a lot of advantages, it isn't the only option, nor is any other controller.

If you feel comfortable with it, go ahead, but I'd recommend a keyboard instead if it's available, since you're on PC.
 
Meow-Professor said:
Personally, I feel like Xbox controllers are the worst option for fighting games, but obviously other people prefer them and this is just opinion. Every controller is viable if that is what you are comfortable with. A lot of people will say fightstick is best, and while I think it has a lot of advantages, it isn't the only option, nor is any other controller.

If you feel comfortable with it, go ahead, but I'd recommend a keyboard instead if it's available, since you're on PC.

Thank you for feedback!
Well since I'm total noob I don't have any preference so I can pick any and will feel the same pretty much :)
I finally chose to pick PS3 controller, since it feels better in hands. So far keyboard felt pretty mushy since my laptop keyboard is not the best. Maybe one day I will upgrade to so called Hitbox or stick, but at the moment it doesn't seem logical since I don't even know for how long I will stick to fighting games (Hoping for long :).

-Grybzt
 
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Noob question: How hard should airdash cancels be? I'm seeing a lot of long, optimal combos posted here that require hard aerials into hard aerials and thus require airdash canceling, but whenever I airdash cancel, the window to execute the move after the airdash seems incredibly small. Is that just how the timing for this game is? Or am I missing something?
 
@The Victator

If you're trying to do a heavy into a heavy, I find it's easiest to do LP + MP as the airdash input and then hit HP immediately after.
Button Air Dash Cancels are much easier than tapping the stick right or left twice for me at least.

There's a minimum amount of frames that an airdash has to go through before you can execute the next move.
If you input any attack during those frames it will come out as soon as it's done; A 'buffer.'

It might seem difficult at first but with a bit of practice you shouldn't be dropping them.

As practice try doing cHP > jHP ADC jHP as Fortune or sHP > jHP ADC jHP as Filia in the corner for a long time until you get the hang of it.
 
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The Victator said:
Noob question: How hard should airdash cancels be? I'm seeing a lot of long, optimal combos posted here that require hard aerials into hard aerials and thus require airdash canceling, but whenever I airdash cancel, the window to execute the move after the airdash seems incredibly small. Is that just how the timing for this game is? Or am I missing something?
Adding to what Skarmand said, setting airdash to a macro (P + P) might help you do them in combos, as you just have to press the macro and then what attack you're airdash canceling into.
 
Best platform to find matches on currently is PC.
Most of the best players play PC right now.
It can be hard to find matches on the console versions at certain times of the day.

Even with crossplay the console version still has a couple issues and missing features like lobbies.

For all tournaments, we use console (PS4).
 
That's only a problem if you plan on competing in tournaments and I would guess that if you decided to go to a tournaments that people would be happy to let you borrow their arcade sticks for matches.
 
OK, so no problem then as you would only need a PS4 stick if you were going to tournaments. Since you can't go to tournaments, just use your PC stick with SG on PC, where most of the online player base is.
 
I'll be the person to ask it (Didnt go through the thread, but i assume nobody asked this before) But how do block strings -actually- work? I see a lot of Val's end their block string with dead cross. I assume it has to do with the + and - frame thing. But do the the + and - frames change according to where in a block string combo you apply them????

Sorry for the complicated question lmao
 
Sinclair said:
I'll be the person to ask it (Didnt go through the thread, but i assume nobody asked this before) But how do block strings -actually- work? I see a lot of Val's end their block string with dead cross. I assume it has to do with the + and - frame thing. But do the the + and - frames change according to where in a block string combo you apply them????
Uhh.... what exactly do you mean?
Are you asking if the +, - frames of dead cross changes depending on where you put it in a blockstring?
If so, no; it doesn't. A move's frame advantage or disadvantage changes only on hit. I think.
As to how blockstrings work...
Are you asking for technical info or are you asking as to how to do a -safe- blockstring?

If you haven't noticed I can't really understand your question.
If you're asking on how to do safe blockstrings just don't use extended blockstrings: keep it short, maybe learn how to confirm off of 2 hits. Just my opinion~
 
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A move can have different frame advantage based on spacing, e.g a dead cross from point blank will be more unsafe than one thrown from one character width away.

I'd imagine Val's who end their block strings with dead cross do it because they are autopiloting their ground chain and DC can be used to make it safe. The only good reason I can think of for ending a block string in DC is if the opponent push blocks you away as a DC will still reach them and be safer. A DC from point blank is ~ -4 I think but from push block range it is probably +.

If you want to see how -/+ a block string is, go into training mode, tell the AI to block, set attack data to advanced and do your string. Afterwards two numbers will appear, the first will be the startup of the first move of the block string and the second will be how + or - it is on block.
 
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Sinclair said:
I'll be the person to ask it (Didnt go through the thread, but i assume nobody asked this before) But how do block strings -actually- work? I see a lot of Val's end their block string with dead cross. I assume it has to do with the + and - frame thing. But do the the + and - frames change according to where in a block string combo you apply them????

Sorry for the complicated question lmao
To answer your question...

Every move has a +/- value which represents how many more frames the opponent is unable to act AFTER you recover.

If you hit the opponent with a launcher and they block it, let's say you are -10.

This means that the opponent recovers ten frames before you recover from doing the launcher if it's blocked, which means that they have 10 frames to hit you with any button and punish you.

If you cancel something like Valentines launcher, which is unsafe on block, into Dead Cross, Dead Cross is less negative on block than her launcher so it prevents you from being punished.

The second part of your question:
+/- Values change if it's a projectile.
If you throw a projectile right in someone's face, let's say this is a different projectile and its -7, which is punishable by fast jabs.

If you throw the projectile from a bit further away so that the projectile has to travel 5 frames before it hits the opponent, that's 5 frames that you were allowed to recover from the projectile shot before it applies its blockstun.

After it applies it's blockstun you've already done most of the recovery (5 Frames worth) so now it is -2.

So some block strings change +/- values if they use a projectile because it depends on the distance you are at when you throw it.

If there is too big of a gap between a blocked move and a projectile hitting the opponent so that they can recover in between the hit and the projectile hitting them, they can use something invincible like a super to go through the projectile and hit you.

Hope this breakdown helps.
 
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Lex said:
A DC from point blank is ~ -4 I think but from push block range it is probably +.
Actually Dead Cross from point blank, e.g. blocked c.hp, is punishable by jabs. S.hk(x2) > dead cross is almost as minus on block, but the pushback from the block string actually makes it safe.
 
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Thanks @Skarmand thats exactly what i tried to understand. I'm sorry for the confusion :]
 
So I'm trying to do a vortex with solo Fillia and it doesn't seem to work (as in it get infinity broken despite resetting) and I'm not sure WHY - thus making it hard for me to solve the problem lol. I'm doing this combo:
cr.lk, st.mk, st.hp
j.hp, adc, j.lk, j.hk
cr.lk, st.mk, st.hp
j.mk, adc, j.lp, j.lk [sets up the reset]

And then I repeat that combo for the low starter or I add IAD j.lk, j.hk for the overhead. But when I get closer to the end of the combo after a correctly guessed reset the opponent can infinite break me.

Can anybody explain this to me? It's not an infinite if they can guess correctly so why can they do that?

Thanks, Scott.
 
@Scott The Scot

I think you are getting an Undizzy breaker instead of an Infinite Breaker.
Undizzy bursts and green, and IPS bursts are red.

ss+(2016-03-26+at+03.09.28).jpg


The green bar below the health bar builds up every time you get hit past the first ground string of a combo. (More or less).
If that bar fills up, and your opponent does another string, you are allowed to burst out of a combo.
It slowly drains when it's full and drains faster when it's closer to empty.
It doesn't drain if you're getting hit or blocking.

If you do a very long combo, which fills their Undizzy bar up to full and then reset the opponent and hit them, their bar is already full.
This means your follow up combo after the reset will have to be be extremely short (2 chains) or else they are allowed to burst.

If you are setting up for a reset, and you want the follow up combo to be long, try doing a shorter combo first that sets up for a reset.
That will let you get a longer combo after you mix them up.

There is also a tutorial in the game for Undizzy that you should complete.
 
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Skarmand said:
@Scott The Scot

I think you are getting an Undizzy breaker instead of an Infinite Breaker.
Undizzy bursts and green, and IPS bursts are red.

View attachment 13069

The green bar below the health bar builds up every time you get hit past the first ground string of a combo. (More or less).
If that bar fills up, and your opponent does another string, you are allowed to burst out of a combo.
It slowly drains when it's full and drains faster when it's closer to empty.
It doesn't drain if you're getting hit or blocking.

If you do a very long combo, which fills their Undizzy bar up to full and then reset the opponent and hit them, their bar is already full.
This means your follow up combo after the reset will have to be be extremely short (2 chains) or else they are allowed to burst.

If you are setting up for a reset, and you want the follow up combo to be long, try doing a shorter combo first that sets up for a reset.
That will let you get a longer combo after you mix them up.

There is also a tutorial in the game for Undizzy that you should complete.
That's awesome to know, thank you. I'll recomplete the tutorials, it has been a while and I'm only just trying the game again. Alright so I had to ommit a lot of damage from my combo but I think I can actually get a vortex and have the undizzy bar reset to 0 which is super cool!

Thanks for the help :)
 
@Scott The Scot

Sure thing, another cool set up is:

cLK sMK sHP
JHK ADC JLP JMP [Restand]
sLP sHP
JHK ADC Backwards x Airthrow.

This slams the opponent to the ground on a move that sets off IPS (JHK)
Then you Air Dash cancel into Air Throw backwards to avoid the burst.

If they burst, that's a burst bait and you get to punish it.
If they don't burst, they hit the floor and if they try and tech left or right, they also get burst very late and it's still a burst bait.
So they are forced to not burst, which forces them to wake up standing slowly (hard knock down!)

So it's called a burst bait hard knockdown, and it gives Filia tons of time to set up:

IAD Air Throw Whiff (Fakeout) cLK
IAD jLK (High)
cLK (Low)
IAD jHK (Cross up)

It also doesn't build too much Undizzy so you can get a pretty decent follow up after.
 
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Skarmand said:
@Scott The Scot

Sure thing, another cool set up is:

cLK sMK sHP
JHK ADC JLP JMP [Restand]
sLP sHP
JHK ADC Backwards x Airthrow.

This slams the opponent to the ground on a move that sets off IPS (JHK)
Then you Air Dash cancel into Air Throw backwards to avoid the burst.

If they burst, that's a burst bait and you get to punish it.
If they don't burst, they hit the floor and if they try and tech left or right, they also get burst very late and it's still a burst bait.
So they are forced to not burst, which forces them to wake up standing slowly (hard knock down!)

So it's called a burst bait hard knockdown, and it gives Filia tons of time to set up:

IAD Air Throw Whiff (Fakeout) cLK
IAD jLK (High)
cLK (Low)
IAD jHK (Cross up)

It also doesn't build too much Undizzy so you can get a pretty decent follow up after.
Oh my lord, I thought MKX had some crazy stuff in it. This is great, thank you very very much. I'll be practicing this stuff a bunch! :)
 
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some info about pbgc? i just found out about it but my little hamster brain doesn't understand much atm <:(
How SHOULD I use PBGC?
 
You should use PBGC to punish people who are over committing to block strings without thinking.
If someone does sLP sLP sMP cHP x Special (That is unpunishable)
That might be a fully safe blockstring.

But if you pushblock that first sLP
You go through 25 frames minimum of the pushblocking animation, and then as soon as those 25 ish frames end, you leave blockstun.

Which means that the previous completely tight blockstring which had no gaps in it at all, now has a gap in it because you finished pushblocking which makes you return to a neutral state (not blocking) after it's finished.
During that tight gap where you recover, and before the next move is about to hit you, you can input your own attack which is usually going to be a reversal.

This lets you do a reversal and punish your opponent for doing a very long blockstring without thinking.
Of course, he can stop his blockstring early in time to block your reversal so he can punish it.

You can also use PBGC to punish certain specials that are normally unpunishable, kill people for certain pressure strings... etc.

A good example is H Drill > Fireball for Fukua.
H Drill is a strike invincible reversal that is unsafe on block, and then Fireball super is safe on block.
So you'll see Fukua's do H Drill > Fireball so that they don't have to guess.

However, if you pushblock the first hit of H Drill, and then she does Fireball super, your 25 frames (minimum) of pushblock will end immediately after the last hit of the fireball hits you, which lets you actually punish her for doing it with a fast jab.

Hopefully that gives you some good examples?

Here's a video on it <LINK>
There's a couple things outdated in that video that are easier now I think, but the premise is the same.

EDIT: Oh another great example is to save yourself from chip KO.
If someone does something like Robo-Fortunes beam super from fullscreen and it's about to chip you out, Cerebella for example can pushblock it then do Diamond Deflector after her pushblock animation ends to stagger Robo from fullscreen.

You can also do something like PBGC tag to get the character out and sacrifice the next one to stop the first one from dying.
 
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Kyugetsuki said:
You can also pbgc jab or grab. PBGC stands for push block guard cancel btw.
You can PBGC into anything you want yeah, but jab and grab are more likely to get hit by the next move if you do it in someone's blockstring compared to PBGC reversal / super.

PBGC jab is great for specific punishes.
 
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Thank u so much for taking your time writing this all! I'll make sure to use this knowledge!
 
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Hi, a few questions!

1. Cerebella has three Tumbling Runs, the LK one having no armor, the MK one having one hit of armor, and the HK having two hits of armor.
Is there ever a time to NOT use the HK version? Don't they all have the same startup time? What's the point of the other two if they're all the same save for the armor?

2. Cerebella's Battle Butt is unsafe on block, and it usually gets punished if you just throw it out. Is there any way to prevent the punish with one of her zero startup supers, like Dynamo and USS?
I guess this goes for every character with a zero startup super.

3. You can set two hotkeys in the options. I have one of mine set to LP + LK for easy throws and specials like Pummel Horse, and the other set to PP for easy dashes and supers that use PP. But I've only played solo. Should I remove one of these to make it easier to call in an assist?

Thanks a ton!
 
shuckle said:
Hi, a few questions!

1. Cerebella has three Tumbling Runs, the LK one having no armor, the MK one having one hit of armor, and the HK having two hits of armor.
Is there ever a time to NOT use the HK version? Don't they all have the same startup time? What's the point of the other two if they're all the same save for the armor?
All versions of tumbling run have 1 hit of armour.
The difference in the versions is how long she runs for.

Heavy is usually the one you want to use, but some input shortcuts for quick battle butt / horse / kancho are easier with various strengths.
shuckle said:
2. Cerebella's Battle Butt is unsafe on block, and it usually gets punished if you just throw it out. Is there any way to prevent the punish with one of her zero startup supers, like Dynamo and USS?
I guess this goes for every character with a zero startup super.
Just want to make sure you understand punishing!
If you get punished, your character will flash red.
This means you got hit out of the recovery or start up or activate frames of an attack where you cannot do anything else.
You can't cancel Battle Butt into any supers during the recovery, which means you can't do anything if you're able to be punished.

So no you can't do that.
To make Battle Butt safe, you call an assist as you do it.
Down, back, run + battlebutt shortcut + lockdown assist like M Sekhmet stabs for example would make it safe on block and maybe even get you a combo on hit.

Also, Cerebella's supers don't have 0 start up.
No supers have 0 start up.

Moves go through a short start up period, and then time pauses, and the 'Super Flash/Freeze' starts.
After the Super Freeze, the opponent is frozen in time now until the first active frame of your attack as a general rule for most supers.
The amount of freeze applied to the opponent varies super to super.
The super locks all input for most supers, including block.

If the opponent runs towards you and Cerebella does Diamond Dynamo, the opponent can't just decide to block after the flash, they get hit.
If the opponent runs towards you and Cerebella starts up Diamond Dynamo which has SIX frames of startup, and they block during those six frames of start up...
Then when the game pauses, their block input is now locked in and they can't input anything until they block that first hit of Dynamo.

The reason these supers freeze your inputs:
Take Light Updo for example, there are lots of times where Filia can throw out a fast DP in neutral as a gamble to try and hit you while you're moving in, or counter hit you when you go to hit her.
If Updo froze time for a long ass time for a special animation like a super did, and you were allowed to block AFTER that, it would hit a lot less because you'd have so much time to react to it and not hit a button, or block.


The pause is to let supers function as a 6F reversal, with cinematic effects while still retaining the 'too fast to react to and block' function of a quick reversal in neutral.
If you could do something after a super flash, then you could super someone's super easily by just being the second person to use it.
(Which happened a lot in earlier versions until this 'hitstop' effect was added)

Also if moves did not freeze time, they would have worse range.
Beowulfs Arm super freezes time until he travels almost half screen.

This lets you get very fast punishes on twitch reactions.
If someone was to whiff a jab in front of you farish away, and it takes 10 frames to recover, and it's on frame 9 for example...
It will recover in one frame more frame, but if you use the Arm super, it will freeze time to stretch that one more frame out forever until it unpauses (hits them) or he travels a certain distance to allow the opponent to move and do things again.
shuckle said:
3. You can set two hotkeys in the options. I have one of mine set to LP + LK for easy throws and specials like Pummel Horse, and the other set to PP for easy dashes and supers that use PP. But I've only played solo. Should I remove one of these to make it easier to call in an assist?
Thanks a ton!
Most players I know use Assist 1 and Assist 2 on those macros.
Throw is very easy to input because it's very close to your fingers resting position usually if you play stick.
PP is also easy because you can pick any of the punches, and it's also close to resting finger position.

If you press LP + MK for an assist call, and you press LP and MK one single frame apart, you'll throw out medium kick attack, and call your assist.
If you were hoping to call your assist as a defensive move, you'll now get counter hit and your assist will die since it will not activate if you are getting hit.

That's not to say that you can't be good enough to just always press assist calls on the same frame every time manually, but even I sometimes mess up same frame inputs (Dash).

There's a hella lot of words there, and some grammar mistakes and spelling issues I'm sure, but I gotta run and hopefully this answers your questions while also teaching you new things.
 
It's been a while since I played, but weren't characters allowed to block post flash if they weren't doing anything(dashing included in that anything)?
 
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