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Beginner Questions Thread

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It's formatted as
[Startup/Frame Advantage]
You'll notice if you whiff moves it will show you a negative number, which is equal to your recovery
On moves that hit them or they block it will show you which one of you recovers faster (you if positive, them if negative) and by how many frames
 
Also the following is an explanation of the frame data bar on the top of the screen from Mike:

top red = active (top purple = throw)
middle line is vulnerable/invin/throwinvin/hitinvin
3rd line is red if you can't supercancel
bottom purple is when you can pass through the opponent
 
It's formatted as
[Startup/Frame Advantage]
You'll notice if you whiff moves it will show you a negative number, which is equal to your recovery
On moves that hit them or they block it will show you which one of you recovers faster (you if positive, them if negative) and by how many frames
Also the following is an explanation of the frame data bar on the top of the screen from Mike:

top red = active (top purple = throw)
middle line is vulnerable/invin/throwinvin/hitinvin
3rd line is red if you can't supercancel
bottom purple is when you can pass through the opponent
Thanks I appreciate the explanations :D :D :D
 
What colors represent which invulnerabilities on the second line? Obviously green is completely vulnerable and unable to block. White's completely invincible while blue is hit invincible?
 
Can someone please explain the concept of Dramatic Tension? I read some posts about it, but I still do not understand. I'd appreciate it if someone can take the time out and use small words to explain (not joking here)
 
Dramatic Tension is a Super Meter that just builds up as you attack or get attacked by ur opponent, and its essentially the same as super meter from some other fighting games like Street Fighter, Darkstalkers, Marvel vs Capcom, etc. With Super Meter, you can do exclusive special moves (called Blockbusters) that only work if you have at least one bar of Dramatic Tension, and usually deal heavy damage to end or extend your combos. If you have no meter, you can't use Blockbusters (or Supers as some people call them).

Some moves require more amounts of Dramatic Tension than others and every time you use a Blockbuster, your meter will deplete by one bar. Even if you miss your attack or if its blocked, the meter is still wasted so use Blockbusters with strategy and caution.
 
Dramatic Tension is a Super Meter that just builds up as you attack or get attacked by ur opponent, and its essentially the same as super meter from some other fighting games like Street Fighter, Darkstalkers, Marvel vs Capcom, etc. With Super Meter, you can do exclusive special moves (called Blockbusters) that only work if you have at least one bar of Dramatic Tension, and usually deal heavy damage to end or extend your combos. If you have no meter, you can't use Blockbusters (or Supers as some people call them).

Some moves require more amounts of Dramatic Tension than others and every time you use a Blockbuster, your meter will deplete by one bar. Even if you miss your attack or if its blocked, the meter is still wasted so use Blockbusters with strategy and caution.

I was talking about the Undizzy bar. lol I mixed up the name of the two. Sorry for the confusion.
 
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This may sound kinda silly, but I can't really get my eyes to follow anything that happens. Everything happens fast, there's tons going on, just can't keep up mentally, I guess. Any suggestions for how to narrow down what's important and what's not?
 
This may sound kinda silly, but I can't really get my eyes to follow anything that happens. Everything happens fast, there's tons going on, just can't keep up mentally, I guess. Any suggestions for how to narrow down what's important and what's not?

It's sort of a practice thing. I'd recommend choosing a 'bland' stage to practice on like Empty Lab or the training stage. That way there's less junk in the background to steal attention. If you stick to those for a while, you'll get used to paying attention to only the characters and the meter.


I've got my own question too. What's a good way to practice teching throws? Is there any way to do it on my own, or do I just need to get a buddy and tell him to throw reset me a bunch?
 
This may sound kinda silly, but I can't really get my eyes to follow anything that happens. Everything happens fast, there's tons going on, just can't keep up mentally, I guess. Any suggestions for how to narrow down what's important and what's not?
That'll come by itself once you become more familiar with the game. If you want to speed it up a bit, you can go into training mode with every char and do all their normals and specials until you're sure you can recognize them instantly based on their animation, after that you'll understand better what the opponent is pressing when and where.

I've got my own question too. What's a good way to practice teching throws? Is there any way to do it on my own, or do I just need to get a buddy and tell him to throw reset me a bunch?
Since you can't react to throws, it's more of a reading thing - "I expect him to throw here, so I will tech".
The other half of it is recognizing the spots where the opponent can go for throws at all - plain match practice and seeing when the opponent does throws, then remembering the setups.

As with any of such things, you can do multiple records of the same string and playback random, but yeah - as it's not reactable, I dunno whether that'll actually help in any way.
 
Okay, i have a question about mix ups. whever i go from a full or partial block string i have tried to mix it up with an aerial attack, but it always feels like forever before i can jump into a j.HK Do any of Filia's attacks cancel into a jump if you don't land a hit? If not then how do you do mix ups without giving your opponent a chance to hit back?

Also, as Filia, i've been told that j.HP is your go to neutral attack, but it doesn't cancel your air dash, so how does this work? Do you need to Air dash > j.LP > j.HP? or what?
 
For Filia you can't cancel into jump if any of your attacks are blocked, you have to let them finish before you can move. As for why the opponent wouldn't hit back, let's make a quick scenario.

You make the opponent block two standing jabs. You confirm that they blocked and decide to go for a mixup. Keep in mind you can still move a bit before they can in this scenario so if you and the opponent both hit a light attack yours will come out first. A crouching light kick would catch them if they tried to attack after blocking. An airdash j.LK->j.HK would hit overhead and would catch them if they tried to block a crouching light kick. A run-up grab would beat blocking. Point being, you have a lot of options.

And j.HP is a good attack in the neutral game due to its large hitbox. Neutral game is when both players are trying to feel each other out and get in close range to get hits. I assume what they meant by "doesn't cancel your air dash" is that you'll retain forward momentum if you cancel your airdash into j.HP, you'll keep moving forward. This is true of almost every aerial normal.
 
And j.HP is a good attack in the neutral game due to its large hitbox. Neutral game is when both players are trying to feel each other out and get in close range to get hits. I assume what they meant by "doesn't cancel your air dash" is that you'll retain forward momentum if you cancel your airdash into j.HP, you'll keep moving forward. This is true of almost every aerial normal.

I don't mean to say my game is bugged but if i hit Fwd Jump -> P + P -> j.HP, the j.HP doesn't go through, i have to wait for the complete air dash to finish before j.HP, j.HK works fine though, or am i doing something wrong?
 
I don't mean to say my game is bugged but if i hit Fwd Jump -> P + P -> j.HP, the j.HP doesn't go through, i have to wait for the complete air dash to finish before j.HP, j.HK works fine though, or am i doing something wrong?
Are you using a macro to dash? If you are, and the macro includes HP (so either LP+HP or MP+HP), you need to let go of the macro button in order to use HP.
 
I really, really need advice.

First off - how do you learn blocking? I know comboes and I want to go online with them but whenever I do go online I completely blank out about blocking and I end up becoming the Training mode dummy. It's really disheartining to want to play when you just mess up once and almost get perfected. Blocking is basically one of my main Skullgirls problems, I know Pushblocking and all of that. I just forget about it because my main gameplay style is just rush forward and attack and I completely forget about blocking.

Secondly - do you have any advice for characters like Filia/Big Band? That's kind of my team and I'm not sure how to run it, and either way I lose with it so again, so that's kind of annoying.
 
best way to learn blocking is get a buddy to play with you in training mode and beat your face in. If you want to truly dedicate yourself, you can do what I did when I decided to learn street fighter really well: play matches and never attack. Your only goal is to survive till time out. It's boring as hell, but learning to do nothing but block, pushblock, and tech throws is really good.
 
In Skullgirls you really need to learn the ins and outs of pushblock.

Pushblock actually aids you in not being mixed up, I'm sure there are guides people can point you to, otherwise I'll do a writeup later haha.

But basically pushblock can actually be used to avoid high/low mixups, even crossups. It is not just used for getting opponents away from you and pushblock guard cancelling.
 
I tried practicing the get in a battle and block thing but 1. my instinct telling me to just rush forward and don't hold back (literally) made me lose and 2. I was up against Peacock/Cerebella which was really bad to go up against. I don't really know any super-duper fighting game terms as Skullgirls is basically my beginner's game.
 
Who would be a good partner for Painwheel? I'd love to build a team with her but I need to know who works well with her. I want to say Big Band but I throw that music playing fuck into every team I play. he's my only good character
 
Who would be a good partner for Painwheel? I'd love to build a team with her but I need to know who works well with her. I want to say Big Band but I throw that music playing fuck into every team I play. he's my only good character
Big Band works, Beat Extend and Brass Knuckles can both be useful assists for Painwheel.
 
Who would be a good partner for Painwheel? I'd love to build a team with her but I need to know who works well with her. I want to say Big Band but I throw that music playing fuck into every team I play. he's my only good character

Anyone that isn't Val, Squigly, or Peacock imo.
 
Big Band works, Beat Extend and Brass Knuckles can both be useful assists for Painwheel.

What's a good assist for Painwheel, though? I'll run BE L, but I don't know what I should run for Painwheel to back up Big Band. I'm thinking Grab, but I'm not sure.
 
What's a good assist for Painwheel, though? I'll run BE L, but I don't know what I should run for Painwheel to back up Big Band. I'm thinking Grab, but I'm not sure.
If I was running that team I would use c.MP for Painwheel. It makes it easier to convert off Big Band's instant overhead j.MK.
 
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What's a good assist for Painwheel, though? I'll run BE L, but I don't know what I should run for Painwheel to back up Big Band. I'm thinking Grab, but I'm not sure.

cMP is a safe bet, sMK is a safe bet.

MP Nail might be worthwhile to safety off light brass and medium brass kinda like it does for Bella's battletoads, but I dunno how worthwhile the light/medium versions are vs. Heavy Brass for BB's neutral.

One of the Pinions might be worthwhile for the command throw if it lets you convert.
 
Is there a way to practice handling corner pressure? It's by far my weakest point, midscreen I'm pretty ok, but I can't figure out how to get out of corner blockstrings unless the other person drops the combo. I've tried pushblocking more, but I keep eating the assists after pushblocking. any advice?

Also, what's the cooldown on assists? I've noticed I can't pull out big band as much as someone could pull out squiggly, although that might just be my imagination....

P.S. this question might need to be moved to BB's tech thread, but is he the only one who's super armor is ignored by low attacks?
 
Is there a way to practice handling corner pressure? It's by far my weakest point, midscreen I'm pretty ok, but I can't figure out how to get out of corner blockstrings unless the other person drops the combo. I've tried pushblocking more, but I keep eating the assists after pushblocking. any advice?

Also, what's the cooldown on assists? I've noticed I can't pull out big band as much as someone could pull out squiggly, although that might just be my imagination....

P.S. this question might need to be moved to BB's tech thread, but is he the only one who's super armor is ignored by low attacks?
Ok the first one is the most complicated, so I'll answer that last.

Assist cooldown is dependent on if the assist is hit. I might have my numbers wrong here, I think it is locked out for either 120 or 180 frames? If you perform a snapback on the assist it is much longer. Now, because Big Band I'm assuming is using HP brass knuckle assist? he will often be tagged but absorb the hit with his armour. This means he ends up locked out pretty often.

Super armour is only beaten by sweeps and similar attacks, not all lows.

Back to the first, there is really no easy answer.

The best answer is to use all of pushblocks properties, BUT that is difficult and still requires doing the right thing at the right time. When you perform a pushblock you are stuck blocking in the direction you used it in for the duration of the animation. So if you pushblock standing, hold down back and you cannot be hit high or low for the whole pushblock, also for the beginning of pushblock you automatically block both left and right but that is irrelevant in the corner.

Here's the tricky part, at the end of the pushblock animation, you return to a neutral state. This means, if you don't hold back on the stick, you can perform an attack (or be hit because you aren't blocking). This is your chance to use a reversal move out of the situation.

Another thing you can do is perform an alpha counter (forward + tag while blocking). Be aware that this is very seeable and in most situations your opponent can react with a super to punish the alpha counter.

Other than all that, it is really just recognising your opportunities and using the tools you have available to get out. Being at disadvantage in the corner is a terrible situation. It is pretty much a check situation in Skullgirls against many teams. It is on YOU to get out of that place as the game is really in your opponents favour.
 
I have a team of Peacock and Fortune, yet I can't think of a good 3rd character. Any suggestions with an assist?
 
If it's a 3rd character you're wantin', Cerebella with a H Lock n' Load assist always got me by.
 
Don't alpha counters get extra invincible frames?

Even if they do, you can super on reaction to the alpha counter "freeze" every time.

I have a team of Peacock and Fortune, yet I can't think of a good 3rd character. Any suggestions with an assist?

The best third there I would think is Cerebella with Cerecopter assist.

Big Band with HP knuckle would work.

Double with any version of butt could work if you ran it correctly.
 
Thing is, if you get extra invincible frames, you should be able to counter super. Yeah, it costs an extra meter, so it's not ideal, but there are worse things to do to get out of pressure
 
Just got the game recently and have gone through most of story & all tutorials. No online so far.
Cool how developers interact here, and the fact that this game even exists: an indie 2D FG made outside of Japan.
I've played fighting games for decades, but have never been good at long combos. I do my best with characters that can get by without them. I'm guessing Band & Bella might be good picks?
Also, what are the invincible assists? A Google search turned up: parasoul's pillar, double's buttslam move, Filia's uppercut.
Thanks!
 
I depends on how good you want to get, you'll have to eventually learn combos no matter who you play. But if you don't care too much you can just run Peacock/Big Band and do well without combos till you start playing intermediate players.

Pick a move that has invincibility frame,s use it as an assist = invincible assist (Double's hornet bomber, Filia's updo, Parasoul's napalm pillar, Fortune's fiber uppercut, Cerebella's devil horns, (please don't use this as an assist) Big band's beat extend, etc. etc.) All assists have a few frames of vulnerability when they enter the screen though.

Remember though, just because it's an invincible assist it doesn't mean it's a good choice.
 
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