Buffering is the technique of preemptively doing a move during the animation of another move. This allows you more time to completely input the motion of another attack.
The Input Buffer refers to the game engine's memory that stores recently entered inputs.
Applications
Combos
When doing combos that involve quickly canceling attack into other attacks, players can buffer the next attack before the current attack finishes.
- Example
- Ragna Template:5 > Template:5 > Carnage Scissors Template:632146
- After inputting Template:5, begin inputting Template:632146 even before Template:5 hits the opponent. Once the move hits the opponent, then press
- While you may not finish inputting the Carnage Scissors motion before Template:5 hits the opponent, you are getting a head start on inputting the motion. There is no reason to wait for Template:5 to finish before starting the motion for Carnage Scissors.
- While most players end up doing this for most attacks, most players are only really cognizant of this for complicated inputs like supers and for cancels that need to be done very quickly.
Hit Confirming
When hit confirming a normal attack into a second attack with a complex motion (like a super), players can buffer the motion for the super before they confirm the hit. Once they confirm the hit, then they just press the button for the super.
- Example
- Ky hit confirming Template:2 > Sacred Edge (Template:236236)
- Ky does Template:2, then immediately does Template:236236. Ky then watches the opponent
- If Template:2 hits the opponent, then Ky react and press to finish the command for Sacred Edge
- If Template:2 misses or is blocked, then Ky reacts doesn't press and can do other actions instead
This allows Ky to more easily hit confirm, since you are hitconfirming into a button instead of a motion+button.
Input Shortcuts
When doing more complicated things like doing a dashing special/super, you can rely on the input buffer to help make the input easier.
- Example
- Jin wants to do a short run Template:66 > Super (Template:632146)
- Jin can input Template:632146Template:6, this will cause Jin to start running. After pressing , Jin will perform the Super.
- The amount of time to press the button is not very long, but allows Jin to run a short distance
Limitations
- Most games only allow you to buffer the next attack and not a series of attacks.
- Ex: Quickly pressing 5A > 5B > 5C before 5A hits the opponent means only 5B will come out afterwards
- Motions will persist between moves
- Ex: If you want to combo Template:236 into Template:236236, it's not necessary to do Template:236 three times. You can do Template:236 followed by another Template:236; when you execute the second Template:236, the game will see the Template:236 from the first Template:236 as part of the same input, thereby ultimately outputting Template:236236 for the second move. This therefore means that you can't do Template:236Template:236 if your character has a Template:236236 move.