BBCF/Damage

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Health

Health bars are more "dense" the lower the remaining health

Health varies by character, see each character's page for their values or see the System Data for a table to compare across all characters.

The health bar in BBCF is slightly misleading; it's denser near the end to give the effect that a player is barely surviving a "fatal" blow, and thus more dramatic. A good rule of thumb is to look at the section of the health bar gets thicker; that's where the health bar gets denser.

Damage Scaling

As more attacks are added to a combo, each attack progressively does less damage due to damage scaling (also known as damage proration).

To determine how much damage the second hit onwards (the first hit always deals 100% damage with Guard Break as an exception) in a combo will deal, there is a formula:

Damage = (Base Damage of the attack) × (Character Combo Rate) × (P1 of the first hit) × (P2 of all the preceding hits in a combo) × (Bonus proration)

Keep in mind that the first hit of a combo still applies its P2 to the second hit onwards. P2 also stacks multiplicatively. For example, for the third hit of a combo, P2 = (P2 of first hit × P2 of second hit).


Proration Type Description Applies To
P1 Applied only by the first attack of a combo. For multi-hit attacks, the second hit onwards will have P1 scaling applied. Next hit onwards
P2 Applied by every attack of a combo.

Some multi-hit attacks will apply P2 only once, regardless of how many hits connect, while some apply P2 for each hit. These will be noted in the frame data with multiple P2 values.

Next hit onwards
Bonus An extra proration value, separate from P1 and P2, generally greater than 100%. Only some moves apply bonus proration.

Only one bonus proration value can be applied at a time in a combo; using multiple moves or the same move multiple times with bonus proration in a combo does not cause it to stack.

Next attack onwards
Combo Rate Applied 2nd hit onward. Everyone has 60% combo rate. 2nd hit onwards

Examples


For a simple first case, let's take an example of Hakumen's combo: 5C > ODc > j.214C(Tsubaki) > 5C. The table below lists the damage and proration of each move.

Move Damage P1 P2
5C 1100 100 92
j.214C 2500 90 92

So we would proceed to calculate the damage as follows:

Move Raw damage P1 of the first move P2 of the current move Accumulated P2 Combo Rate Final damage Total Damage
5C 1100 100 92 Not applied Not applied 1100 1100
j.214C 2500 100 92 92 60 2500×1×0.92×0.60 = 1380 2480
5C 1100 100 92 92×92 60 1100×1×0.92×0.92×0.60 = 558 (rounded down) 3038

Finally, we provide an example of bonus proration, for example, Hazama's 6A > 236236B.

Move Damage P1 P2 Note
6A 700 80 89 110% bonus proration
236236B 1950 50 94

So we would proceed to calculate the damage as follows:

Move Raw damage P1 of the first move P2 of the current move Accumulated P2 Combo Rate Final damage Total Damage Note
6A 700 80 89 Not applied Not applied 700 700 Bonus 110%
236236B 1950 80 94 89 60 1950×0.6×0.8×0.89×1.1 = 916 (rounded down) 1616

1The game does not multiply all the value together at once (the final number should be 161 if calculated at once); rather, they will rounded down the numbers at some point and continuing multiplying the remaining. How that works is still unknown.

Exceptions

Certain other mechanics can affect how much damage an attack or combo deals.

Minimum Damage

Distortion Drives will do a percentage of their base damage (generally 20%) at minimum regardless of damage scaling. This means that using supers at the end of combos is a good way to tack on some significant extra damage.

Standard throws have a minimum damage of 100%. This is also true for almost any throw that can be escaped. Comboable throws (which do not allow the opponent to break them) will scale as normal.

Minimum damage is calculated after all normal combo scaling effects written above, but before bonus damage.

Guard Break

If the combo "starts" from a Guard Break (meaning you start the combo after the opponent's guard is crushed), the combo starts with 80% proration. It's easiest to think of the Guard Break as the first hit of a combo with 0 damage, P1 80%, and P2 100%. Combo into an attack with high P2 if possible!

Same Move Proration

In addition to normal damage scaling, certain moves, special attacks and supers have a quality called Same Move Proration: using the same attack twice or more in the same combo will reduce the base damage of it by 70%. Other attacks afterwards are not affected by this penalty and will scale as usual.

It is important to note that Minimum Damage is also affected by SMP; this means that using the same Distortion Drive twice in a combo is a bad idea!

SMP only affects damage and not Hitstun Decay. Some combos will intentionally trigger SMP to sacrifice damage in exchange of a better position or gain other resources. Or sometimes a combo route can be damage optimal even with SMP due to there being no alternatives. For example Izayoi often triggers SMP to gain more stocks in her combos.

Bonus Damage

The damage counter will turn red when you're doing extra damage

Additional bonus damage can be added in a number of ways.

Counter Hit

Counter Hitting the opponent increases the damage of that one attack by 10%. Normal throws and purple command throws do not benefit from this bonus when they hit as a Throw Counter (which instead just makes the throw untechable). Comboable throws, however, do receive this bonus damage, such as Naoto's Phantom Pain.

Multi-hit attacks will apply the bonus damage to all hits of that attack.

Active Flow
Active Flow increases damage of attacks by 10%.
Danger State
Dange State increases damage taken by 20%.

Damage bonuses can stack, but do so additively rather than multiplicatively. For example, hitting an opponent who is in Danger State while you are in Active Flow will cause your attacks to deal 130% of their normal damage, not 132%.

Attacks that have minimum damage have their minimum damage applied before bonus damage is added. For example, an attack that normally deals 500 minimum damage will deal a minimum of 550 damage during Active Flow.

Other Damage

Chip Damage

Special and Super attacks in BlazBlue (and most other fighting games) do small amounts of damage even if they are blocked. Most Special and Super attacks do 5% of their base damage as chip damage. This chip damage can be prevented by using Barrier. Additionally, certain attacks have different chip damage percentages like Amane's drills (see his Frame Data for details). Ragna's drive (Soul Eater) does chip damage which is ALSO absorbed by Ragna and converted into health. Soul Eater can be prevented with Barrier Block.

Poison and Life Drain
Left: Poison from Bang's Nail
Right: Life Drain from Rachel's bats

Poison and other Life Drain effects steadily decrease the character's life while active, but can never kill the character by themselves; the most they can do is decrease their life to 1 health. This effect is not considered attack/combo damage, so it is unaffected by damage scaling and not tracked by the combo counter.

Combo System

Hitstun Decay

As a combo goes on, the amount of hitstun each attack deals is reduced as it reaches certain time thresholds. Hitstun/Untechable decay is determined by the amount of time that has passed in the combo as well as what starter is used.


Hitstun/Untechable Decay vs. Time
Combo Duration 120F~ 300F~ 480F~ 660F~
Decay -2F -5F -10F Reduced to 1F
Starter Rating

The above table alone does not tell the whole story: each attack has a rating that determines how much "time" is instantly consumed when used as the first hit of a combo. The rating for each attack is listed in each character's Frame Data.

Starter's Effect on Combo Duration
Starter Long Normal Short Very Short
Time Consumed 0F 60F 120F 240F


Increasing Hitstun

Crouching Opponent
Crouching characters suffer additional 2 frames of hitstun, allowing observant players to go for crouching specific combos. This extra hitstun only applies while the opponent is still crouching. Virtually all normal moves performed from a crouch are also considered crouching, but very little else is.
Example: Jin can combo 5CBBCF Jin Kisaragi 5C.pngGuardMidStartup10Recovery19Advantage-6 > 6CBBCF Jin Kisaragi 6C.pngGuardMidStartup19Recovery31Advantage-13 on crouching characters but not on standing characters, as 5C deals 17 frames of hitstun for standing opponents while 6C has 19 frames of startup.
Some moves force standing characters to crouch including many grounded overheads such as Naoto's 6ABBCF Naoto Kurogane 6A.pngGuardHighStartup24Recovery24Advantage-10, this can enable combos just like hitting a crouching opponent in neutral.
Fatal Counter
Fatal Counters adds 3 frames of hitstun/untechable time to all subsequent attacks in that combo. This allows for combos that would otherwise not work.
Example: Jin can combo 5BBBCF Jin Kisaragi 5B.pngGuardMidStartup8Recovery16Advantage-3 > 2CBBCF Jin Kisaragi 2C.pngGuardMidStartup17Recovery31Advantage-17 only during a Fatal combo, as 5B deals 14 frames of hitstun while the startup of 2C is 17.
Every character has at least one move that causes a Fatal Counter instead of a normal Counter Hit. A very small number of moves can force Fatal Counter even on a normal hit (even mid-combo!).
Fatal Counter does not stack with itself, so doing two Fatals in one combo still only adds 3 frames instead of 6, but it can stack with crouching hitstun for a total of +5 frames.

Hit Effects

Ground Hit
When a character is hit standing or crouching they suffer hitstun. When ground hitstun finishes, you will be returned to your previous state (i.e. standing or crouching). Ground hitstun is divided into standing and crouching hitstun: standing hitstun is easier to hit for attacks with high hitboxes (note: the animation differs slightly depending on whether you get in the upper or lower half of your hitbox); crouching hitstun has a shorter hitbox, but lasts 2 frames longer than standing hitstun.
Furthermore, some attacks have unique properties that force an opponent into a specific type of hitstun. For example, Noel's 6B forces the opponent into crouching hitstun on ground hit. The first 3 hits of Jin's 22C forces the opponent into standing hitstun on ground hit.
Air Hit (Untechable State)
Naturally enough, air hit is a hit state when hit while airborne. The main difference from ground hits is that recovery is not automatic - characters need to recover, or "tech" out, after the attack's untechable window passes. If you don't tech out, the opponent will be able to combo you and create an "invalid combo".
Falling to the ground without recovering will end the air hit and characters can emergency tech or roll.
Forcing air state and ground state
Many attacks force the airborne state in some way or another, meaning they behave the same regardless of whether they hit someone grounded or airborne.
The frame data will write "Launch" to denote moves that forces air state.
Rarely some attacks will do the opposite and force an airborne opponent into standing state. These usually are used by attacks that go into a throw-like animation on hit.
Knockback force and direction
Most grounded hits push the opponent away slightly, and most air hits push the opponent away and upwards slightly. However various moves add other types of forces instead.
In a general sense, any move can be programmed to give more, less, or even negative knockback effects (where they're hit towards you instead of away, or downwards instead of upwards).
These can change based on if the hit was grounded, airborne or counterhit, with the latter usually exaggerating knockback effects. For example, Tager's j.B move behaves in the normal way for all grounded hits and normal air hits, but air counterhits launch his opponent downwards with considerable speed and ground bounces.
Bounce Effects
There are various types of bounce effects: floorbounce, wallbounce, and cornerbounce.
  • Floorbounce is a hitstate where characters get hit into the ground and then bounce, floating up into the air. The height bounced varies by move and can also vary based on starting height.
  • Wallbounce occurs after you're blown back into and then rebound off of the edge of the visible part of the battlefield. Full wallbounce rebounds the player back out to approximately the same place they started when they were hit.
  • Wallbound is similar to wallbounce, with the exception that instead of bouncing all of the way back out, they drop in place after hitting the wall, usually meaning followups are only possible if you were already in the corner.
  • Wallstick, similar to wallbound, with the exception that the character is stuck to the wall for a short while before falling down, allowing more time for followups.
  • Cornerbounce is when the character is blown back into and then rebound off of the corner of the field.
In all cases, bouncing in this way resets the untechable time for that move.
Crumple
Crumple is a hitstate where the character struggles to keep standing and eventually falls to the ground.
Attacks that can crumple have two additional values: Crumple Duration and Crumple Fall
  • Crumple Duration is the amount of time until they can recover. This value decays with hitstun decay and increases with Fatal Counter, but there are some attacks which have fixed Crumple Duration.
  • Crumple Fall is the amount of time until they fall to the ground and enter Hard Knockdown state with default duration 10F.
Most attacks allow the defender to recover before Crumple Fall, but some attacks have enough Crumple Time to guarantee a Crumple Fall. Counter Hits increase both the Crumple Duration and the Crumple Fall, see the Attack Level table for details.
Spin Fall
Spin Fall is a hitstate where the character spins in place before falling to the ground.
The duration of the Spin animation is equal to the standing hitstun of the attack, and the Fall animation is 16F.
Spin time decays with hitstun decay, but the fall is unaffected.
Ground Slide
Slide is a hitstate where the character is slammed into the ground and then slides along it.
Each attack that inflicts slide state also has a slide duration until knockdown. Characters can Emergency Tech if the untechable time ends mid-slide, but if the character slides for the full duration, they will transition to a Hard Knockdown State.
The maximum slide duration is listed in the Frame Data notes for each attack and the Hard Knockdown transition takes 9F, and if not specified in the Frame Data, the Hard Knockdown lasts for 10F.
Hard Knockdown
A knockdown that disables Emergency Teching and ground rolling. Hard Knockdowns can be combined with standard air hits, Cumples, Slides, and more.
A Hard Knockdown from the air also includes a untechable mini-ground bounce (usually 13F). Crumples, Slides, and Spin Falls have their own unique transition animations.
Hard Knockdowns do not decay with hitstun decay - it is constant.
Freeze
Freeze is a unique hitstate - characters are encased in ice, and are in hitstun for a fixed amount of time (called the Freeze Duration).
After the Freeze Duration, characters automatically recover. If frozen in mid-air and land while frozen, you will then be treated as standing. This allows for air combos that go to freezing, to a standing combo or a high/low mixup.

Moves that can freeze have two additional values: Freeze Count and Freeze Duration

  • Freeze Count is the limit of when an attack can trigger the freeze effect in a combo. Most freeze moves have Freeze Count 1, so they can only be the first Freeze in a combo, else they just do regular hitstun. Certain attacks have higer Freeze Counts, for example Jin's EX Specials (214D, 236D, 623D, etc.) have very high Freeze Counts (10) effectively ignoring the Freeze Count limit.
  • Freeze Duration Determines how long the opponent will be frozen in place after being hit by a move that freezes. Freeze Duration is not affected by hitstun decay or bonus hitstun from a Fatal Counter starter; in other words, Freeze Duration is always the same.
Additional Freeze Details
  • If an attack hits the attacker while the defender is frozen, the defender will recover from the freeze immediately.
  • Freeze immediately ends if the defender is hit by a non-freezing attack.

Fixed Hitstun

Some attacks inflict fixed hitstun regardless of the combo length. Usually Distortion Drives, Exceed Accels, Astral Heats and throws have this property, but there are other attacks, specific to each character. Usually this property exists to simply stops certain moves behaving strangely (such as characters escaping mid-throw) but it does also mean using these moves at the end of combos is viable where other moves would fail. These moves still benefit from increases due to crouching and fatal counter effects, if applicable.

Invalid Combos and Resets

a valid vs. an invalid combo. The small number at the bottom right shows which hit was invalid.

Because characters can delay their recovery, this leads to the possibility of combos that work only if the opponent chose to not recovery. This means that some combos are not "true" combos; the game's HUD differentiates between the two classes of combos by showing the hit counter as red for a valid combo and blue for an invalid combo. The invalid combo HUD also show which hit was invalid.

Invalid combos still behave the same as normal combos for the purposes of damage scaling, hitstun reduction, etc.

Sometimes player on defense will intentionally delay air recovery (or wait until landing to Emergency Tech) to avoid a mixup or a reset. For example, players often avoid air recovery while Tager's Atomic Collider is active because air recovering will let Tager hit the opponent with an unblockable air throw and start a new combo! Delaying air recovery is a low risk tactic since a few extra hits at the end of an already long, heavily scaled combo are unlikely to actually add much more damage. The same is true for Crumple Recovery.

A number of characters have methods of forcibly restanding the opponent in order to start a new, freshly scaled combo. Jin and Nine's freezing attacks and Tager's Gadget Finger are examples of attacks that can force this type of reset.

A "purple" throw will reflect an invalid combo, even if that throw was a throw counter and unable to be rejected.

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