DBFZ/Damage

From Dustloop Wiki

Health

Every character has 10,000 health.

Recoverable Health

The blue part will slowly recover if they tag out and rest

When characters take damage, a percentage of that damage can be healed if they are able to tag out (colloquially called blue health). Tagging back in or getting forced back in removes any recoverable health the character has, so players will need to decide if tagging in a character is worth the potential health lost.

The amount of recoverable health depends on the context:

Context % Recoverable
All damage dealt to Z Assists 100%
Combos that start with reversal-type attacks Attacks with invulnerability, guardpoint, or armored from frame 1.
Doesn't apply to attacks that have frame 1 invulnerability only against head attribute, guardpoint against Ki Blast, or frame 1 invulnerable attacks that are follow-up specials.
100%
Damage dealt by other types of attacks 40%
Damage dealt during Limit-Breaking Power 30%
Damage dealt during Sparking! 20%
Damage dealt during both Limit-Breaking Power and Sparking! 10%
Damage dealt by Powered-Up Special Moves 0%

Characters tagged out and not on cooldown regain health at the rate of 3.17 health/frame (190.2/s). During Sparking! the point character regains health at a variable rate determined by the amount of recoverable health.

Damage Scaling

As you combo the opponent, you will notice that each attack does less damage than they would individually. This is due to damage scaling, otherwise known as damage proration. Each attack has an Initial Proration value and how many "steps" it proceeds down the scaling table.

Step Count Proration
Step Count 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17+
Next Hit 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 70% 70% 70% 75% 75% 75% 80% 80% 80% 85%

The first hit of the combo will always do 100% damage, and unless stated otherwise, all attacks have a minimum damage of 10%. To determine how much damage the second hit onwards in a combo will deal, there is a formula:

If (Base Damage) × (Initial Proration - Step Count Proration) × (Damage Boost) > (Minimum Damage)

     Current Damage = (Base Damage) × (Initial Proration - Step Count Proration) × (Damage Boost) × (Damage Reduction)

else

     Current Damage = (Minimum Damage) × (Damage Reduction)

For example, most 5Ms have Initial Proration value of 100% and increments scaling by 1 step (100%+1), this means that the next attack will do 90% of its base damage. Similarly, most 5Ls' Initial Proration value is 90% and increments scaling by 1 step (90%+1), so the next attack will do 80% damage.

Here's how the scaling table looks like for all Initial Prorations from 100% to 50%:

Step Count 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17+
100% 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 30% 30% 30% 25% 25% 25% 20% 20% 20% 15%
90% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 20% 20% 20% 15% 15% 15% 10% 10% 10% 10%
80% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10%
70% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10%
60% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10%
50% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10%

Notice that at 100% Initial Proration, the table benefits the most from damage scaling and damage also never goes below 15%. Thus moves with 100%+1 or even 100%+0 proration are the best combo starters.

Here's an example to get the hang of combo scaling: Start with  Android 16's M Dynamite DriverDBFZ Android16 DynamiteDriver.pngGuardThrowStartup26Recovery28Advantage-, cancel into M Flying PowerbombDBFZ Android16 FlyingPowerbomb.pngGuardThrowStartup15Recovery+3LAdvantage-, then Vanish and finally Super Dash.

Order Move Base Damage Proration
1 Smash 236M 1800 80%+0
2 Non-Smash 214M 700 80%+2
3 Vanish 850 100%+5
4 Super Dash 300 90%+1
  • The first hit of the combo always does 100% damage: 1800, and it'll set the Initial Proration of the combo to 80%
  • Since the first attack is +0, the second attack stays at 80% damage: 700 × 0.8 = 560
  • The third attack goes 2 steps down to 60%: 850 × 0.6 = 510
  • The fourth attack goes 5 steps down to 10%: 300 × 0.1 = 30. After this point, all attacks will do 10% damage, unless they have unique Minimum Damage
  • Thus the total damage of this sequence up till the fourth attack is: 1800 + 560 + 510 + 30 = 2900

Multi-Hit Attacks

Depending on the move, each part of the attack can apply scaling individually or together as one hit. For example,  Goku (Super Saiyan)'s KamehamehaDBFZ SSGoku Kamehameha.pngGuardAllStartup18Recovery21 [17]Advantage-16 [-10] has 5 hits with each doing 262 damage and a proration value of 90%+1. If all 5 hits connect, it will do 262 + 262 × 0.8 × 4 damage, and the next attack will also do 80% damage.

On Dustloop Wiki, we denote the scaling for Kamehameha as 90%+1 (Once), or 90%+1×5 (Once) to be more precise.

Damage Boosts

There are 6 sources of damage boost in the game: Sparking!, Limit-Breaking Power,  Android 21 (Lab Coat)'s Photon PulseDBFZ Lab Coat Android 21 236HS.pngGuardThrowStartup21Recovery17Advantage-,  Broly (DBS)'s Gigantic RoarDBFZ DBSBroly GiganticRoar2.pngGuardAllStartup10+3Recovery31Advantage-25,  Frieza's Golden FriezaDBFZ Frieza GoldenFrieza.pngGuardStartup34+0RecoveryAdvantage-,  Gohan (Adult)'s Potential UnleashDBFZ AdultGohan PotentialUnleashed.pngGuardAllStartup9+3Recovery44Advantage-29. These buffs stack as follow:

Damage Modifiers
Character Boost Normal With Sparking! or
Limit-Breaking Power
With Both
None 100% 120% 130%
Photon Pulse 121% 145.2% 157.3%
Gigantic Roar 115% 135% 145%
Golden Frieza 120% 130% 140%
Adult Gohan Lv.2 102% 122% 132%
Adult Gohan Lv.3 104% 124% 134%
Adult Gohan Lv.4 106% 126% 136%
Adult Gohan Lv.5 108% 128% 138%
Adult Gohan Lv.6 110% 130% 140%

Only applies to Android 21 (Lab Coat)'s Special Moves and damage she deals as an Assist.

Damage Reduction

There are 2 sources of damage reduction in the game: Super Scaling and  Android 21 (Lab Coat)'s Photon PulseDBFZ Lab Coat Android 21 236HS.pngGuardThrowStartup21Recovery17Advantage-. These debuffs stack multiplicatively:

Damage Modifiers
Normal Super Scale Photon Pulse Both
100% 40% 79% 31.6%

Without any damage debuffs, all attacks with damage higher than 0 cannot drop below 1 damage. With debuffs, attacks can be scaled to 0 damage.

Super Scaling

Landing a hit with a Super or Meteor Attack will mark the combo with Super Scaling. Once the current point character returns to neutral state, the rest of the combo will suffer a 40% damage multiplier.

Certain Super/Meteor Attacks do not have this property, allowing you to freely combo afterward with normal damage output. One caveat is that if Super Scaling has already been marked before these attacks, follow-ups will still suffer reduced damage once the point character has fully recovered. Example:  Vegeta (Super Saiyan) hits with Big Bang AttackDBFZ SSVegeta BigBangAttack.pngGuardAllStartup9+4RecoveryTotal 69Advantage-27 (has Super Scaling), then Ultimate Z Change into  Nappa's Break CannonDBFZ Nappa BreakCannon.pngGuardAllStartup12RecoveryAdvantage-24 (when held, does not have Super Scaling), after Nappa returns to neutral state, the rest of the combo will do 40% damage.

Full list of Supers/Meteors without Super Scaling property is as follows:

  •  Broly's H+S Gigantic MeteorDBFZ Broly GiganticMeteor-2.pngGuardAllStartup9+15RecoveryTotal 68Advantage-
  •  Broly (DBS)'s second part of Meteor ShowerDBFZ DBSBroly MeteorShower2.pngGuardAllStartup9+2RecoveryTotal 94+25LAdvantage-50
  •  Frieza's Sorbet's Ray GunDBFZ Frieza SorbetsRayGun.pngGuardAllStartup8+0RecoveryAdvantage-
  •  Goku (GT)'s Super Ultra Spirit BombDBFZ GTGoku SuperUltraSpiritBomb.pngGuardAllStartup12+1RecoveryAdvantage-
  •  Gotenks' H+S Super Ghost Kamikaze AttackDBFZ gotenks superghostkamikazeattack-2.pngGuardAllStartupRecovery57 TotalAdvantage+20 (per Ghost)
  •  Kefla's Gigantic RayDBFZ Kefla GiganticRay2.pngGuardAllStartup11+12RecoveryTotal 58Advantage+50 ~ +52
  •  Krillin's second part of Scattering Energy WaveDBFZ Krillin ScatteringEnergyWave-2.pngGuardAllStartup9+3RecoveryAdvantage+35
  •  Nappa's Break Cannon (Hold)DBFZ Nappa BreakCannon.pngGuardAllStartup12RecoveryAdvantage-24
  •  Piccolo's Hellzone GrenadeDBFZ Piccolo HellzoneGrenade.pngGuardAllStartup9+15RecoveryTotal 41Advantage+62 ~ +71
  • Smash! version of  Vegeta (SSGSS)'s Niagara Pummel (Hold)DBFZ SSBVegeta NiagaraPummel.pngGuardAllStartup8+7RecoveryAdvantage-14
  • Smash! version of  Videl's Rainbow StormDBFZ Videl 236LM 2.pngGuardAllStartup7+4RecoveryAdvantage-20. However, Non-Smash! version will Super Scale the combo immediately after the last active frame, rather than when she returns to neutral state.
  •  Yamcha's Spirit BallDBFZ Yamcha SpiritBall-2.pngGuardAllStartup9+4RecoveryAdvantage-23 itself has Super Scaling property. However after landing Spirit Ball, if Yamcha stays as the point character and no attacks in the combo has dealt Super Scaled damage, then his Meteor Attack: Ultimate Wolf Fang FistDBFZ Yamcha UltimateWolfFangFist-2.pngGuardAllStartup9+3RecoveryAdvantage-15 will be unaffected by Super Scaling. This allows him to link Spirit Ball directly into Ultimate Wolf Fang Fist and get full damage, even though Yamcha has entered neutral state and can even perform other actions between the two attacks.
  •  Zamasu (Fused)'s Blades of JudgmentDBFZ Zamasu BladesOfJudgement.pngGuardAllStartup9+41RecoveryTotal 42Advantage~+110


Other Damage

Chip Damage

When blocking specials and supers a very small percentage of the attack's base damage will be dealt in the form of recoverable health. This is colloquially known as chip damage (i.e. chipping away an the opponent's health). Some attacks do a significant amount of chip damage, like Krillin's Destructo Disc.

Normals and regular Ki blasts do not perform chip damage.

A character will not die from chip damage.

Combo System

The combo system in Dragon Ball FighterZ is very freeform, however there are a few rules that limit things.

Moves that cause the camera to briefly change angles and zoom in are considered to have the Smash! property, which puts the opponent in an extended hitstun state compared to normal. These often cause a special hit property, such as launching, wall bouncing or sliding the opponent, although this is not always the case.

Attacks that can trigger Smash! property do not trigger these effects at all times, as certain circumstances can prevent the camera change and the effect from taking place. Typically, each combo can only have one Smash!, with the following exceptions:

  • The third hit of the L Super Combo (5LLL) will always Smash!
  • A Smash! that ground slides will still do so following any other type of Smash! and vice versa
    • This is not the case of Dynamic!, which prohibits any further Smash! except Vanish and the guaranteed Smash! on 5LLL
  • Vanish can be used for an additional wall bounce, however any further Vanishes will not wall bounce
  • j.H will ground slide only if used after an attack with launching Smash! property (most 5LLLs, 2H, most j.2Hs, raw Dragon Rush and more) within the same combo
    • Android 16 and Gogeta (SSGSS)'s j.H wall bounces on Smash!
    • Broly's j.H captures into launch on Smash!
    • Piccolo, Yamcha, Android 21, Vegito and Goku (GT)'s j.H cause blowback and have no Smash! property
    • Super Baby 2's j.H uniquely sends upwards with no Smash! property

Hitstun Decay

As a combo goes on, the amount of hitstun each attack deals is reduced as it reaches certain time thresholds. Hitstun decay (for a grounded opponent) and untechable decay (for an airborne opponent) are determined by the amount of time that has passed in the combo.

Certain moves ignore this decay, such as most throws and Super/Meteor Attacks.


Hitstun Decay vs. Time
Combo Duration 150F~ 270F~ 390F~ 510F~
Hitstun Decay -5F -10F -15F Reduced to 0F
Untechable Time Decay vs. Time
Combo Duration 420F~ 540F~ 660F~ 780F~
Untechable Time Decay -5F -10F -15F Reduced to 0F


Cinematic Attacks

A lot of moves will change their properties depending if they whiff, are blocked, or hit. These changes can only be triggered by the your point character, upon hitting the opponent's point character, and must either start or be done inside a combo:

Enabling or disabling specific followups
Ex: All j.L on air-to-air hit will enable j.LL. Majin Buu's Dive Bomb will only trigger its ground splash part of the move if the dive part whiffs.
Automatic followups
Automatically perform extra attacks, these attacks are still cancelable.
Ex: Cell's Perfect Attack, if the opponent is hit by the second hit, he will do a third hit.
Cinematic sequences
Either automatically do extra attacks, or completely change the effect of the move does the instance it lands.
During a cinematic, both players become invulnerable to all other attacks, and the animation cannot be canceled until after it's finished.
Ex: Frieza's 5LLL, on a cinematic hit will do 1000 damage companioned by an explosion attack, but upon hitting Z Assist it will only do 400 damage and merely knock them away.

All three of these properties aren't mutually exclusive, going back to Cell's Perfect Attack, the M version on block or hit will automatically do the second hit, if that hit lands he will do the third hit, and finally if that one lands it can be a cinematic one.

Smash!

A change in camera angle indicates Smash has just been used

Cinematic version of attacks typically triggers immediately on hit and have higher damage or stronger properties, with some cinematics having stricter trigger conditions like only triggering on air-to-air, having to be canceled into from another move, etc.

During a combo, the game will keep track of which types of cinematic have been used and either enable or disable other cinematics from triggering. This is colloquially known as the "Smash!" system and is the meat of DBFZ combo structure.

There are two main types of cinematic attacks, usually distinguished by their common effects:

  • Type U: Knocks the opponent up into the air or sideways into a wall bounce.
  • Type D: Sends the opponent down into a sliding knockdown.

On top of different types, each Smash! attack can only be triggered a limited number of times per combo:

  • 1. Only triggers if no Smash! of the same type has been used.
  • 2. Triggers even if the same type has been used, but only once.
  • 3. Always triggers.

While most attacks only have one Smash! property, there are attacks that have more than one Smash! and will use the corresponding one depending on the conditions.

Smash! Subset

While type U and D don't interfere with one another, type U+ and D+ do. After hitting the opponent with a type U+ Smash! that's the first U Smash! of the combo, any following D+ attack will trigger their Smash! so as long as you don't re-enter neutral stance on the ground. Meaning:

  • If you're grounded, you must cancel the U+ Smash! move's recovery frames with another action, such as Super Dash.
  • If you're airborne, you mustn't land. Though using special moves that teleport you back to the ground are still OK, so as long as their recovery frames are canceled into something else.
Smash! Consumption

Using a type U Smash! move will prevent further U1 Smash!, and vice versa with type D Smash!. There are also multi-type Smash!, for example: a Smash! attack type UD1 on hit will prevent further usage of both type U1 and D1, however, it can only be triggered if neither type has been used in the combo.

Despite this, there are attacks that block Smash! usage despite not having a Smash! version. The most common instances of this are attacks that "consume" U1 Smash!, D1 Smash!, and the U2 Smash! of Vanish. This specific consumption of Smash! is denoted by UDV, and is put next to the Smash! type the move actually belongs to.

Hit Effects

Bounce Effects
There are various types of bounce effects: ground bounce, wall bounce, and corner bounce.
  • Ground bounce is a hit state where you get hit to the ground and then rebound off it, floating up into the air. The amount bounced varies by move and can also vary based on starting height.
  • Wall bounce 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.
  • Wall splat is similar to wall bounce, 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.
  • Corner bounce/corner splat is when you're blown back into and then rebound only off of the corner of the field.
While ground bounce, corner bounce and corner splat can affect Z Assists, wall bounce and wall splat cannot, even if they're put against the corner.
In most cases, a move's untechable time indicates the total amount of time the opponent can stay in the air. This means the higher you are from the ground or the further away from the wall/corner, the less time you have for any followup combos, as more of the untechable time is wasted on the opponent traveling to these surfaces and bouncing back.
Knockdowns
There are three types of knockdowns:
  • Soft Knockdown: The opponent is able to perform a ground recovery as soon as they touch the ground. This is the default knockdown state for all attacks, though usually when a move is stated to "cause a soft knockdown", it means it has long enough untechable time to force the opponent back on the ground.
  • Sliding knockdown: After touching the ground, the opponent will suffer a second untechable time where they're only vulnerable to Off The Ground attacks. Afterward, they will be able to perform ground recovery, but cannot combine delayed recovery with any other recovery options like they can with a soft knockdown.
  • Hard knockdown: Completely disables any recovery options after landing and is forced to stand up. This type of knockdown only comes from Meteor Attacks.
Crumple
Crumple is a type of hit state where the character is stunned and slowly falls to the ground. Immediately after being put into crumple, the character is considered standing. After falling forward to the ground, they cannot delay the recovery and are forced to ground recovery immediately.


Invalid Combos and Resets

A valid combo versus an invalid combo. The number turns blue when the combo could have been escaped

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 to avoid a mixup or a reset. For example, players often avoid air recovery while Android 16's Dynamite Driver is active because air recovering will let Android 16 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.

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