GGXRD-R2/Universal Strategy

This page covers advanced topics which require competitive expertise to confirm.

Content here can be considered incomplete until expertise is given.

Preface

As you may probably infer, this page consists of explanations and breakdowns of common strategies and solutions to situations that occur very often in Guilty Gear Xrd. This is intended to provide general insight on the metagame of Xrd, to players at novice and intermediate levels.

How to make Mix-Ups?

How to escape pressure?

How to deal with DPs?

How to get Okizemes?

What are Option Selects? How do they affect my gameplay?

General Resource Management

Tension

Burst

Combo Notes

Proper Hit-Confirming

Reversal

Reversals are the act of doing an action immediately after waking up or leaving blockstun.

A common example is Sol doing a reversal Volcanic ViperGuardMidStartup5Recovery29+8 after landingAdvantage-41 after getting knocked down. When performed correctly, the word "REVERSAL" will appear on the side of the screen, but this doesn't appear for all reversal actions.

3F Window: Normal, Throw, Special, Forward Dash (only if second 6 input is held), Overdrive, Blitz Shield, Instant Kill, Gold Burst (after unburstable knockdowns)

2F Window: Backdash (only if second 4 is held)

1F Window: Gold Burst (after burstable knockdowns, or from blockstun)

Note that the game doesn't buffer directions instead it just reads what direction you're holding on the first actionable frame.

Throw Option Select

Because of Guilty Gear's button priority (Throw and > > > > ), it's possible to make some of your throw attempts safer by inputting multiple buttons. For example, if Sol does 6K+H, and if the opponent is close enough, he will throw them. If the opponent is too far or is airborne, he'll do 5K instead, which is a much faster and safer than 6H. This technique works for air throws as well.

Jump Install

Under normal circumstances, players can not double jump after becoming airborne via special moves (such as

Chipp 's ) or after high jumping.

Jump Install (JI) is a technique that bypasses this limitation, enabling all air options after these circumstances. The basic way to Jump Install is:

Perform an attack that is jump cancelable.
Press up, then press another attack before becoming airborne, continue combo.
Later in the combo, become airborne via high jumping or via a special move like Chipp's or Tsuyoshishiki Ten'iGuardStartupRecoveryTotal 20Advantage-.
You now have access to all air options.

Landing Jump Install

Landing Jump Install is a technique where you automatically Jump Install after landing from a jump under specific conditions:

Normal jump without double jumping/air dashing.
Upon landing, do not enter neutral state - immediately attack.
High jump via a jump cancel or a perform a special attack that leaves you airborne.
You can now air dash and double jump.

The first step can be generalized as "landing from a jump with all air options", such as after air teching.

Jump Installing without a Buffer

It is possible to Jump Install without a buffer, but the timing is much stricter.

This is much easier to do with slower attacks, like Sol's 2HGuardMidStartup8Recovery26Advantage-13, but any jump cancelable attack can be Jump Installed on its own.

Perform an attack that is jump cancelable.
During the startup but before the attack connects, press Up.
When the attack connects, perform a high jump during the jump cancelable frames.
You can now air dash and double jump.

While the uses are fairly limited, the applications to Jump Installing without the need of a buffer do exist, for example if you anti-air the opponent but they're too high for you to cancel into another attack to buffer the Jump Install normally.

Auto Install

Some attacks automatically Jump Install themselves. No special input needed, just jump/air dash after the attack.

Examples include Ky's Greed SeverGuardHigh/AirStartup19Recovery5+11 LandingAdvantage-10 (YRC) and I-No's Chemical LoveGuardAllStartup11Recovery13+8 After LandingAdvantage+3 (YRC).

Note: You CANNOT High Jump Install from neutral. Hitting or similar while standing at neutral will NOT let you double jump after a high jump. You must cancel a normal for High Jump Install to work.

Jump Installing counts as a pseudo-jump but you do not actually leave the ground. Besides the desired property of allowing you extra jumps, Jump Install also kills any ground momentum you had. This means that if you started your combo by running, any forward run speed you have left will go away once you Jump Install. Keep this in mind, as it can be important.

Oddly enough, it is also possible to force the enemy to Jump Install. Certain moves when they Counter Hit will cause a floor bounce, but also cause a large amount of stun where they 'stick' to the floor briefly. If you strike the enemy again during this time, they will remain on the ground instead of bouncing. If this happens, they have technically been 'Jump Installed', and can possibly air tech even while standing! There are other variations on the same idea as well that will allow you to 'Jump Install' your enemy. Not that you'd really want to.

Running Momentum

Performing actions while running will carry some momentum from the run into followup actions. This is a potent way to give attacks more range and make jumps move further, especially because this can used a frame immediately after starting a run! Characters with a standard run can use this technique, as can most characters with Step dashes (sorry Potemkin).

Attack: Characters will slide forward during the first few frames, giving the attack more range for free.; The amount a character slides forward depends on the attack - some will not even be slide forward at all!

Faultless Defense: Canceling a run into Faultless Defense will make the character slide forward.

Jump: Jump trajectories are affected by running momentum. A jump input will actually move forward slightly, and a forward jump will go further than normal.; This is effectively a new set of jump trajectories that can be used to approach the opponent.

Step Dash: Step dashes can only be canceled into followup actions during specific timing windows and only into specific options. How much these actions are affected by momentum are also specific to each character. Check each character's Frame Data page for details on each character's step dash.

Bedman does not have Running Momentum: While Bedman has a step dash that he can cancel into jumps, it does not give any running momentum. Wierdo.

OTG Burst

Blue Bursting while knocked down will leave your character in OTG state during recovery. This means that even if an opponent is able to block your Burst, the opponent will not be able to perform a standard combo since you will be in OTG The act of hitting the opponent when they are knocked down. Short for "off the ground" or "on the ground." state and will take less damage and be able to tech out very quickly. At best the opponent will be able to air throw the recovery.

The disadvantage of this glitch is that it requires you to Blue Burst while knocked down, which is usually enough time for the opponent to recover and block the Burst and guarantee that the opponent will retain offensive momentum.

There is a way past this shortcoming: if you Blue Burst while getting ground bounced (for example, from Sol's Bandit Bringer), it behaves just like bursting while knocked down. If you know your opponent's combos and want to burst out of the combo, execute your burst exactly when you ground bounce and you can minimize any punishment from the opponent baiting your burst.

*(Note: Getting your OTG Burst thrown reduces the damage of the throw and disables the hard knockdown, letting you get up immediately. This is not a common occurrence but it does exist.)

YRC Option Select

Provided that you have 25% or more Tension but less than 50% Tension and are actively pressuring the opponent, you can utilize an option select involving Yellow Roman Cancel to automatically bait Dead Angle Attacks and other options from your opponent.

When performing a blockstring, attempt to input a Roman Cancel during every attack. If the opponent initiates a Dead Angle Attack, they leave blockstun, and you automatically perform a YRC. If the opponent does nothing and you attempt a RC, you won't have the Tension necessary to perform a RRC, so nothing will happen, and you can continue the next attack in the string. This technique can also allow you to stop yourself from committing to an attack's recovery and defend when certain opponents attempt invincible reversals on wake-up, react to and easily punish an opponent's backstep, and call out Blitz Shield attempts out of reject state.

Unlike a Dead Angle Attack, a Blue Burst treats the opponent as if they're in stun for the duration, meaning that you won't get a YRC if you attempt this option select against a Blue Burst. Certain moves that cannot be YRC'd when failing to connect, such as Sol's Ground ViperGuardLowx2~6,
Midx3Startup17Recovery37+10 after landingAdvantage-56, also cannot use this option select. That being said, if you have 50% Tension, you can RC at frequent Burst points to call out Bursts, even with attacks that cannot be YRC'd.