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Understanding The Drama Bar (Undizzy)

Dude

I'm so creative I picked Dude as my handle.
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Drama, commonly referred to as "undizzy", is the green bar under your health bar that fills up the longer your combo goes on. It is a mechanic that was added in the "Mildly Different Edition" of SG. Its purpose is to prevent some of the longer combos, especially team combos, that were possible in Vanilla and SDE. You'll know you've run across Undizzy if you've seen green hit sparks late in a combo.

Quick Summary (work in progress. Let me know if you notice a mistake)

  • Undizzy accumulation starts at IPS stage 3
  • Lights add 15, mediums/specials add 20, and heavies add 30
  • Supers and DHCs do not add or activate undizzy. Ever.
  • Undizzy maximum is 240
  • Starting a chain when at or above 240 will activate burstable green sparks
  • Undizzy decays over time when not in hit or block stun, for a max of 90 frames (1.5 seconds) for 240+ undizzy
  • Undizzy immediately returns to zero after a ground tech or burst

Specifics (in depth explanation)

Undizzy is a value that adds up during combos. When a certain limit (240 undizzy) has been reached the comboed character turns green, and is free to burst at any time. The green sparks will only activate at the beginning of chains, so if 350 is reached in the middle of a chain, nothing will happen (until the next chain is started).

Undizzy accumulation does not start until stage 3 of IPS. Once stage 3 is reached light attacks will cause 15 undizzy, mediums/specials 20, and heavies 30, (there might be exceptions to some specials. Not sure.).

Undizzy does not just disappear after a combo. Instead, it decays over time. If you were to have 350 or more accumulated undizzy it would take 90 frames (1.5 seconds) for the undizzy to reach zero. Undizzy decay is bypassed on knockdown recoveries. If a person with undizzy recovers from a knockdown, it will immediately return to zero.

Undizzy decay halts if a character with undizzy is put into blockstun or hitstun. So, for example, let's say you are comboed and reach 200 undizzy, and then the opponent drops their combo and starts a new combo 3 frames later, undizzy decay would halt at about 190, and once stage 3 of the second combo was reached undizzy would start adding onto the already accumulated 190 undizzy. This is a technical way of saying that the second combo would not be as long as the first, because the 240 limit would be reached sooner. In theory this means people will need to either go for earlier resets or let their opponents spend more time at neutral/go for more knockdowns; but we'll see how things evolve.
 
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"But wait, Dude, why have IPS if we already have undizzy?.." Well, I'll tell you.

Undizzy and IPS have two overlapping, but ultimate separate functions. Imagine, for a moment, if we only had undizzy. In this situation I would be able to loop the same thing over and over again until the undizzy limit was reached. This is no fun to watch. So, IPS comes in and makes it so that I can really only do two or three loops before I have to move on to another combo path.

As for why we need undizzy, since we had IPS in the first place, the answer is a bit more debated. (Some people don't like undizzy at all, and find it redundant. Head over to the general gameplay discussion at some point and I'm sure we'll be debating this very thing.) Ignoring the debate for a second, the answer is that while IPS was preventing infinites, it wasn't preventing TODs (really long, or "touch of death" combos). Mike could've made IPS stricter to prevent TODs, but everything he tried in that regard didn't really put a dent in the long combos. He could've tried making it even more strict, but that would've made combo creativity and variability extremely limited.

So, now we have two systems. One to promote creativity and prevent true infinites, the other to cut down on combo length (especially the length of DHC and raw tag combos).
 
Only skimmed it at the moment, but looks like this'll help with the transition from SDE to MDE a lot!
 
Does this mean it would be optimal to end combos with a sweep and go for a tech chase rather than a new combo? I didn't know teching cleared the dizzy counter.
 
Does this mean it would be optimal to end combos with a sweep and go for a tech chase rather than a new combo? I didn't know teching cleared the dizzy counter.

It's definitely more of a viable option now than it ever was before. But even if you're at (or above) 350 you can still reset and undizzy sparks will NEVER activate before stage 5 (afaik). So I don't know if I'd say it's optimal, I think it depends on the situation (how close to death they are, how close to the corner you are, etc...)
 
It's definitely more of a viable option now than it ever was before. But even if you're at (or above) 350 you can still reset and undizzy sparks will NEVER activate before stage 5 (afaik). So I don't know if I'd say it's optimal, I think it depends on the situation (how close to death they are, how close to the corner you are, etc...)
I'm running into this issue most often when I'm in 3v1 (I do hate online for this... I'm pretty sure I'd never play 3v1 in a real set).
 
Thanks a lot, OP! :) I was asking about this stuff in the other thread and did not get anything. This guide however made me understand the mechanism. Great work! I am seeing towards to reading more beginner guides here (written by you?) :)
 
So, basically, an undizzy is a form of comeback mechanic? Kappa

You're forced into the neutral game through a burst or you end the combo early and go for a mixup. I'm really liking the more reset-oriented nature that this game is taking. Seems much more fast-paced, personally. Much more adaptation and creativity being promoted.
 
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also note that DHCs will not activate undizzy either. you can end your combo with your last chain above 350 and DHC into another super for more damage.

also, light hits do 15.
 
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Thanks a lot, OP! :) I was asking about this stuff in the other thread and did not get anything. This guide however made me understand the mechanism. Great work! I am seeing towards to reading more beginner guides here (written by you?) :)

I might do one on IPS. Anything else you'd like to see?
 
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Are there any non-expert combos that ignite the Undizzy sparks and can work for a burst-bait? I'd imagine Bella has a few if each of her j.LPs count as a separate LP, but what about other characters?
 
I might do one on IPS, anything else you'd like to see?
Yes, I would love to have a guide on pushblocking (when to/ when not to) and pushblock guard cancel (did not quite understand that) :)

edit: If you do a guide about IPS, make sure to cover this "bait" thing, everybody is talking about :D
 
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also note that DHCs will not activate undizzy either. you can end your combo with your last chain above 350 and DHC into another super for more damage.

also, light hits do 15.

Thanks, I updated the OP. I'm pretty sure supers don't add undizzy at all, correct?
 
correct, they add 0 undizzy, but im not sure about them not activating it. i can test it out tonight when im off work... (the only place i can see this happening is fila gregor samson > gregor samson > repeat, or maybe squigly opera > opera repeat)
 
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Yeah, that's what I thought. Thanks for the input.
 
correct, they add 0 undizzy, but im not sure about them not activating it. i can test it out tonight when im off work... (the only place i can see this happening is fila gregor samson > gregor samson > repeat, or maybe squigly opera > opera repeat)

Just tested this. Supers never activate undizzy, even if they are used as a chain starter and the 350 limit has been passed.

To test I got the dummy passed 350 in the middle of a chain (with Squigly) then DHCed from battle opera to Samson, and did a second Samson right after the first. No green sparks.

One thing to note, I had set the dummy to never burst, and I had the dummy in IPS sparks at the end (easier this way). I don't think this is an issue, because undizzy sparks override IPS (I made sure of this), but I mention it just in case.
 
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Yes, I would love to have a guide on pushblocking (when to/ when not to) and pushblock guard cancel (did not quite understand that) :)

edit: If you do a guide about IPS, make sure to cover this "bait" thing, everybody is talking about :D

Dunno if you saw it, but Evilben posted a thread on SGs other game systems, which includes both IPS and pushblocking. It's in the beginner section, so check it out if you haven't.
 
Updated with relevant values.

I forget how many frames the decay is now, but, I think it decays slower the more undizzy you have.

Not sure if that's beta-only.
 
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Starting a chain when at or above 240 will activate burstable green sparks

Not always. You can't trigger burst until IPS stage 4. Even 3rd IPS stage that generates undizzy won't trigger burst.

This means that if start a combo you always can do 2 chains (3 if 1st chain was in the air)
 
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