Guard
Guarding, commonly known as Blocking, is the fundamental form of defense in fighting games.
Most special and supers moves also inflict a small percentage of their damage through guard. This is known as chip damage.
When a player guards, they are put into a state known as blockstun during which their ability to act is mostly taken away. Reject Guard, Cross Burst, and can still be used during blockstun.
- Unblockable Attacks
Some attacks cannot be guarded against. These generally fall into two categories: throws and unblockables. Throws are proximity based attacks which cannot be guarded against. Unblockables are special strikes which hit opponents even if they guard. Unblockables, such as Hakumen's Yukikaze, must be avoided in some way other than guarding.
- High+Low Unblockables
There is also another class of unblockable attacks that exist by hitting a grounded opponent with high+low attacks at the same time. Because they can not block both high+low at once, they are guaranteed to get hit. There is no icon to show when this unblockable happens, though there is an exclamation mark showing that they blocked "incorrectly".
Grounded Guard
Hold 4 or 1
- Basic ground guarding is the most common defensive option. Also known as blocking.
There are 2 types of ground guard: standing guard and crouching guard. Standing guard will block high and mid attacks, crouching guard will block mid and low attacks.
If you guard incorrectly you will get hit. A yellow "!" will appear over your character if you incorrectly guard a low, and a red "!" for incorrectly blocking a high. Remember, you cannot block against throws, and some attacks are unblockable.
Airborne Guard
Hold Any Backwards Direction
There is no high-low blocking in the air, making it a common place for defenders to go to avoid blocking ground-based high/low/throw mixup. That's not to say that being airborne is a fail-safe defensive posture; getting airborne is a risk since jumps have a bit of vulnerable startup and you need to deal with air unblockable attacks, crossups, and air throws. There is also 2 frames more blockstun when blocking in the air.
Landing while in air blockstun will replace any remaining air blockstun with ground blockstun!
- For example, after air blocking an attack that inflicts 20F air blockstun, you land after 15F. That means after landing, you will be in ground blockstun for 5F.
Air Unblockable Attacks
Reversal Actions are air unblockable. A cyan colored exclamation mark will appear when hit by an air unblockable attack.
Cross-up Protection
Blocking can be difficult since the opponent can do tricks to swap sides. However, there is slight leniency to give players time to switch blocking direction: the first 4 frames as the opponent swap sides (not necessarily in blockstun), then they will still block attacks from the opposite direction even if they are still holding forward! All other rules for blocking still apply, such as needing to correctly block high/low.
Guard Bonus
When a character blocks for over 6 seconds with almost no gaps in between (with any gaps in blockstun being 30 frames or less), they will gain Skill Gauge at double the normal rate and the HUD will display a "Guard Bonus" message. You do not have to be guarding during the gaps, as long as you continue to successfully guard each subsequent attack.
Reject Guard
While blocking 4A+D with 1 Skill Stock
Reject Guard pushes the opponent away. When strategically used, it can bring a quick end to the opponent's offensive pressure.
After Reject Guarding an attack, blockstun will be normalized to 16 frames, though blockstop of the attack is unaffected. The Skill Gauge will be in cooldown for 300F. So using it comes at a heavy cost, especially when low on resources.
Reject Guard is primarily used for two things:
- Avoid mixup by pushing the opponent away and be out of range of the mixup
- Punish opponent's predictable blockstrings by Reject Guarding right before the opponent does an attack with lots of recovery, giving you time to run up and punish the attack's recovery.
While Reject Guard is very strong, it has it's own risks:
- Reject Guard will only push away the striking character
- (ie: the opponent's partner will be pushed back while their point character is unaffected)
- Persona Attacks, such as Yu 5B, as well as Orie's attacks that use Thanatos, will push the user away while the Persona stays where it is, allowing them to continue attacking.
- Will not push away an opponent who does a normal throw
- Places defender Throw Reject Miss state for 29F frames after Reject Guard and defender can be normal thrown for 29F (despite being in blockstun) or until they guard another attack.
Grounded Movement
Walking/Running
[4] or [6] while on the ground
Walking/Running is the most basic form of movement by holding forward or back while on the ground.
Most character will run when holding forward, but the slower characters will walk instead.
Characters will continue to walk/run so long as directional input is held. 1 and 3 are not valid inputs. Each character has a unique walk/run speed for both forwards and backwards.
If the player releases the run input and does not cancel the run into another action, they will perform a run skid animation that can be canceled into anything, including guard.
Dash
66 while on the ground
Some characters have special alternatives to walking/running. A list of these special cases can be found below.
| Character | Run Type |
|---|---|
 Hakumen,  Jubei,  Akihiko,  Waldstein |
Step Dash |
 Azrael |
Teleport Step Dash |
 Izayoi,  Aegis |
Hover Dash |
 Blitztank |
Dashing Attack |
 Nine |
4-Way Teleport Step Dash |
 Tager |
Cannot Run or Dash |
Backdash
44 while on the ground
Backdashes are movement options which provide a quick burst of backwards movement with some invulnerability. Most characters have full invulnerability, while Nine's is only invulnerable to Projectiles respectively in exchange for other properties.
Each character's backdash has its own frame data and physics. The invulnerability for backdashes begins on the first frame of their animation. This means that backdashes can be used to avoid attacks with good timing.
Backdashes travel a fixed distance at a set speed, are not cancelable—except for 
Seth and Nine—and are completely vulnerable for some period in the latter portion of their animation. For these reasons, they are not always preferable to backwards walking.
Aerial Movement
Jumping
Any Upward Direction while on the ground
Jumping is the most basic way to put one's player character into the air.
Players can jump while on the ground, or while in the air. When a character jumps, they are locked into a fixed arc which is determined by the direction of the jump input combined with any momentum they have at the time of the jump. Each character has their own jump physics. These determine the speed, height, and duration of their jumps. Before the character becomes airborne, there is a short Prejump Animation with some limitations, explained in its respective section. After a player jumps, they take on the airborne property, which affects what moves they can use, as well as how they receive incoming hit effects. During the first airborne frame, characters can only guard and not attack. This is only a factor when calculating the fastest input for Instant Air Specials.
Most characters can jump two times before returning to the ground under normal circumstances.
High Jump
Any Downward Direction > Any Upward Direction while on the ground
High Jumping (aka super jump) travels higher vertically than standard jumping.
It can be done by going from neutral 
, then tapping any downward direction (
), then tapping any upward direction (
). Pressing will change which direction you high jump, just like normal jumping. During a High Jump, characters will automatically turn to face the opponent if you jump over them.
It is always best to mix up the two types of jumps to keep your opponent on their toes depending on the situation.
Prejump
Jumps and High Jumps are not instantaneous - before going airborne, characters will enter a standing state called prejump, where they can not block, but are invincible to throws.
Characters have different amount of prejump frames, but the rule of thumb is that the heavier/slower the character is, the longer the prejump. Most characters have 4 frames of prejump, but the slower characters have 6 frames of prejump. Exact values can be found in each character's frame data page.
It is actually possible to cancel prejump into Specials and Supers, though for most characters is not used very often. The reason for this is that attacks that involve an Up input, such as Tager's Genesic Emerald Tager Driver (720B+C) can be used without going through hoops to hide the jump input (such as whiffing moves beforehand). It also allows players to be slightly sloppy with their inputs and still get specials (ex 2369A instead of 236A).
Air Dash
j.44 or j.66 or j.4/5/6A+B
Air Dashes are the near universal burst movement option while airborne. Most characters can air dash one time before returning to the ground. Other characters cannot air dash at all. For a breakdown of these rules, see the air options explanation. When a character air dashes, they travel at a speed specific to them for a time period specific to them. Each character's air dash has their own startup time. The player character is not actionable for a period of time after the air dash begins.
To air dash as soon as possible from a grounded state, players use a technique known as Instant Air Dash.
Air Options
Air Options conceptually represent the amount of times a character can jump or dash while in the air without returning to the ground. Most characters have 1 air option; exceptions are listed below. Characters can only regain air options by touching the ground.
| Character | Air Options |
|---|---|
| Nine |
4-Way Teleport Step Dash |
| Tager, Blitztank |
Cannot air dash or double jump |
Landing Recovery
Landing from the air has recovery. This recovery comes in 2 kinds: Standard Landing Recovery and Special Landing Recovery.
Another quirk about landing is that the frame before actually landing is considered grounded. Meaning during this frame, getting hit will result in ground hitstun and ground throws can hit.
- Standard Landing Recovery
Whenever the player lands from being in the air, they experience landing recovery.
- During the first 5 frames of landing the following actions are disabled: forward/backward walk, all jumps, and backdash
- All other actions are available immediately on landing - notably attacking, guarding, run, and forward dash
Attacks can be buffered before landing thanks to Advanced Input. Performing an allowed action will enable all actions, so it is possible to land, run for 1F, then jump (easier said than done, of course)!
- Special Landing Recovery
Some airborne moves, such as Jin's air Hishouken
GuardAllStartup20RecoveryTotal: 44+11LAdvantage-, will apply unactionable landing recovery which overrides the standard landing recovery. This recovery does not have a unique animation, and the length of time the character is unactionable depends on the move used.
Some moves that apply this special landing recovery may have their animation end and be able to recover while still airborne, or simply cancelled into another action. The special landing recovery will still apply when the character lands, unless they are hit or they override it with another move that also applies special landing recovery or has its own unique landing animation.
A landing animation is different from special landing recovery since it is still considered part of the same move. This means the landing animation could still retain things like cancel options or counter-hit recovery from an earlier part of the move.
Ground Recovery
Ground Recovery
Direction when knocked to the ground
When a character is knocked to the ground, they will automatically flash white and flip off the ground. Ground Recovery is slow, and it gives the opponent time to set up a mixup or meaty. To evade the opponent, hold forward/neutral/backward directions to recover in that direction.
- Ground Recovery takes 32 frames and is fully invincible
Disabling Ground Recovery
Certain attacks like Hakumen's 5A
GuardAllStartup14Recovery20Advantage-3 on air hit inflict a hard knockdown, which prevents Ground Recovery and force the opponent into a knockdown state for a set amount of time (varies by move). Hard Knockdowns are often used to extend combos or set up unique okizeme situations.
As a general rule, attacks that slam down the opponent inflict Hard Knockdown. In training mode, attacks with the Hard Knockdown property turn the Ukemi Window red.
Crumple Recovery
A/B/C During Crumple State
Some attacks place the opponent in a crumple state such as Hakumen's Ground Throw. The crumple state is vulnerable to attacks and after a period of time the defender will fall to the ground if they do not recover. The amount of time before Crumple Recovery is available depends on the attack and whether it was counter hit. Crumple recovery takes 8 frames.
If you are attacked during the recovery, you will automatically block the attack high/low as appropriate. However, if you are thrown during frames 6~8 of recovery, you will be considered out of hitstun (for the purpose of differentiating between green and purple throws). If you are thrown by a command throw during frames 6~8, it will be inescapable, so watch out!
Air Recovery
Direction + A/B/C After Leaving Untechable State
Air Recovery (also known as Air Ukemi) is useful for getting out of the opponent's combo and regain control of your character as soon as possible. Hold Left/Right/Neutral to recover in that direction.
Usually, defenders want to recover immediately when possible, but attackers can take advantage of this behavior by setting up a mixup that defenders will be forced to block when they recover. A common counter to this tactic is to delay recovering in order to throw off the opponent's mixup timing, but this carries some risk; the attacker can simply hit the defender before they recover and continue the combo!
- Aerial Ukemi takes 15 frames and is fully invincible.
Normal Attacks
There are two primary normal attack buttons in BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle, A and B. A attacks are primarily weak but fast, while B attacks are stronger but slower. Everyone's 2C is a sweep that will knock opponents down on hit.
Normal attacks can usually cancel into one another, generally following the order A > B > C. However, this is not a steadfast rule. Consult the Revolver Action section of each character's frame data for exact details.
Under Night In-Birth characters are capable of canceling almost any normal into any other normal once per string as an homage to their game series mechanic Passing Link, commonly referred to as Reverse Beat in reference to its predecessor, Melty Blood.
Smart Combo
5AAA... or 5BBB...
Each character has autocombos that are started by 5A or 5B and repeating the input to continue the autocombo. Most characters also have an autocombo on j.A, and some even have it on j.B and 4A! Check each character's page to see what autocombos they have.
Most autocombos have unique attacks that can not be accessed any other way.
Cross Raid
A After last hit of 5A Smart Combo With Partner Available
Cross Raid switches characters, deals 500 damage, then deals another 1000 damage that also grants the powered up state. Cross Raid can only be used if your partner character is available, and uses up all of your Cross Gauge (though it can be used even when the gauge is empty).
The 1500 damage is unaffected by damage scaling, so it's a great way to end a combo with a big chunk of damage to KO an oponent!
Clash Assault
5C
A Clash Assault is a universal overhead with a special unburstable followup combo that knocks the opponent away fullscreen on ground hit. The entire sequence does a good amount of damage on its own and is one of the few options available to all characters to break an opponent's guard so it can be useful.
During the followup combo, input A or B for bonus damage and Skill Gauge gain. The HUD will show "Crash!" at the top of the screen to show when to input the followup. "Good!", "Excellent!!", and "Marvelous!!" which increases the damage done with Clash Assault.
If your partner is available (ie they are available for a Partner Skill) then they will join in the Clash Assault and deal extra damage!
The "Excellent!!" and "Marvelous!!" versions also give a fixed amount of Skill Gauge. It gives around 90% of one Skill Gauge at base, before accounting for other factors.
- Extra Assault
C during Clash Assault follow-up combo with 1 Skill Stock and Partner Available
Extra Assault does much more damage, but is only available when your partner is available. The timing for this is much easier than the other followups, and you'll enter the powered up state afterwards too!
| Participants | Initial Hit | Follow-Up Sequence | Good | Excellent | Marvelous | Extra Assault |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Solo | 800 | 640, 640 | 960 (3040 total) | 1200 (3280 total) | 1440 (3520 total) | - |
| Pair | 800 | 640,320, 640, 320 | 960+800 (4480total) | 1200+900 (4720 total) | 1440+800 (4960 total) | 1920+1920 (6560 total) |
Throws
Throws are proximity based attacks which the defender cannot guard against, but can not hit partner characters.
In order to throw a defender, a few conditions must be met:
- The attacker and defender must be in a similar grounded or airborne state.
- To throw a grounded defender, the attacker must also be grounded.
- To throw an airborne defender, the attacker must also be airborne.
- The defender must not be in hitstun or blockstun (or 6F after either), nor have throw invulnerability.
- The defender must be within the throw's range (see below).
If all of the conditions are met, then the attacker can hit the defender with a throw.
- Throw Range
- Throws uses collision boxes for an additional range check. See this page for more details on the concept.
- Some attacks move the character collision box forward temporarily, which can extend the range they can be grabbed from. Having a larger collision box works both ways, Susanno can be grabbed from a larger distance, but he can grab just as far right back.
Normal Throws
B+C Within close proximity of the opponent on the ground
Throws are a key part of offense to stop opponents who simply block and refuse to do anything else! B+C will perform a forward throw and 4B+C will perform a back throw. If far away from the opponent, then the attacker will run forward a bit before executing a throw. Hazama and Waldstein will dash forward instead, while Hakumen, Iron Tager, Azrael, Nine, and Blitztank will walk forward instead.
Normal throws also play a part in overcoming Reject Guard - normal throws are immune to the pushback effect, and Reject Guard leaves the defender in a unique throwable blockstun while also unable to escape throws.
Special Move Throws
Some Skills have the throw property. Tager's Gigantic Tager Driver
GuardThrowStartup6Recovery33Advantage- and Kanji's This'll Hurt!
GuardThrowStartup7Recovery31Advantage- are two examples of such throws.
Skills like this fall into two categories:
- Command Throws
These cannot be Throw Escaped and have other unique properties, such as higher damage, more start-up, and additional hit effects.
- Combo Throws
Combo Throws are attacks that generally behave like throws, but can be comboed into. Tager's Atomic Collider
GuardAir UnblockableStartup16Recovery19Advantage- and Waldstein's Aerial Verderben
GuardThrowStartup7RecoveryUntil L + 10LAdvantage- are examples of such moves.
- Hit Grabs
Technically not throws but are often mistaken for them, these are blockable strikes that go into a throw animation on hit, such as Hakumen's 214C
GuardAllStartup30Recovery9Advantage+7 and Merkava's 214A
GuardAllStartup15Recovery26-31/54*Advantage-8 ~ -13. These attacks can hit Partner characters, but will not trigger the throw animation.
Priority of Strike vs Throw vs Command Throw
When two strikes hit each other, either a clash or trade occurs, but what happens when throws are added to the mix?
- Throw vs Strike or Any Throw vs Command Throw: The character with Priority will lose.
- Normal Throw vs. Normal Throw: The character with Priority will be thrown and immediately break the throw.
Throw Escape
Input Throw While Being Thrown
A green exclamation mark will appear when a character can escape a throw. The input window is 14 frames.
- After a successful Throw Escape, the attacker is pushed back about half a screen length and the defender remains stationary.
- Throw Escape animation is fully invincible and lasts 29F for both attacker and defender.
- The Throw Escape itself counts as an attack that deals zero damage to the player originally attempting the throw
- Therefore projectiles, status effects etc. that end if the attacker gets hit will also end if their opponent throw rejects them.
Throw Counter
Throw Counters happens when thrown while in counter hit state. For example, getting thrown during the recovery of a Reversal Action will not let attempt a Throw Escape. A big red X and the HUD will show "Throw Counter".
Unlike normal Counter Hits, Throw Counters do not gain the bonus 10% damage.
Throw Reject Miss
If you input a Throw Escape before getting thrown, then Throw Escape will be locked out! The game will show big red X over the exclamation mark, and the HUD will show "Throw Reject Miss".
- If the throw animation does not appear (such as attempting a throw escape while in blockstun or airborne), you will escape throws from 1~3F, and be in Throw Reject Miss state from 4~29F.
- After a Reject Guard from 1~29F.
- Inputting B+C again while still in Throw Reject Miss state will just reset the TRM state back to 29F.
In addition, pushing B+C at the same time in other situations (e.g. air recovery using B+C; etc.) will also place the character into the Throw Reject Miss state.
Throw Reject Miss exists to stop players from rapidly mashing throw inputs to preemptively escape throws, as well as to prevent some powerful throw escape Option Selects. Tricking the opponent into attempting a Throw Escape early, then actually throwing them is a common offensive technique in high-level play.
Duo Change
D when standing/crouching
Quickly change to your partner character, allowing your previously active character to recover on the sidelines and gradually recover any lost red health. Duo Change has some recovery for the incoming character, so using it haphazardly while close to your opponent will lead to your incoming character getting punished.
- Duo Change animation is 33 frames total
- The change occurs on 4F
- The next 4 frames are invincible (frames 4-7).
- All other frame are vulnerable
Down Entrance
When a point character is KOed, the remaining character will come in doing a fully invincible version of their Cross Burst attack. These attacks vary from character to character, but they all deal 1000 damage, can not KO the opponent, and are +0 on block.
After KOing one opponent, it's best to treat it as an okizeme situation; use the time before the opponent appears to set up some mixup!
Delayed Down Entrance
Hold A, B, or C after first character is KOed
As a slight defense against Down Entrance okizeme, players can delay their entrance by up to 60 frames after their first character is KOed.
Cancels
There are many types of cancels. A cancel is the act of interrupting the current action and starting a different one.
While most cancels are available on hit/block, some are available on whiff, some are only available on hit, and a rare few are even only available on block!
- Revolver Action
- Normal attacks can cancel into other normal attacks. Each character has different rules as to which normals can cancel into what other actions (some attacks can't be canceled at all!). The general flow is that attacks cancel from A > B > C.
- Each character's Revolver Action Table shows cancel options avaialbe to them and can be found in the character's Frame Data subpage.
- Special Cancel
- Most normal attacks can cancel into skills, Extra Skills, and Distortion Skills. This is generally used to create combos and blockstrings, but can have other applications as well.
- Jump Cancel
- Some normal attacks can cancel into jump and super jump. This is used in combos as well as pressure. Some attacks can only be jump canceled on hit.
- Dash Cancel
- Some attacks can can cancel into a forward run that goes a preset distance, such as Linne's 5BBB.
- Clash
- See Clash for more details
Reversal Action
A+D
Reversal Action is an invulnerable attack like a Street Fighter-style Shoryuken or a counter like Hakumen from BlazBlue. This varies from character to character, but they are all mostly used for the same purpose: to stop the opponent's offensive momentum. Reversal Actions have a red silhouette graphical effect.
- Notable Properties of Reversal Actions
- Ground Reversal Actions are air unblockable
- Any combo starting with a Reversal Action will deal all red health
- Disables Cross Burst for opponent on hit
- Cross Burst is disabled when hit during Reversal Action recovery
- Active Partner Skills can NOT be used during Reversal Action
Reversal Action and Reject Guard are performed with the same buttons, so when blocking, players may accidentally get Reject Guard when they want Reversal Action. However there is a way to not accidentally get Reject Guard: do not hold back when pressing A+D. This carries its own risk since if you don't press A+D fast enough, you will get hit by the opponent's attack since you won't be blocking.
- Partner Skills and Reversal Actions
Doing a Partner Skill and Reversal Action at the same time will remove the Reversal Action's invulnerability. To be more accurate, doing a Reversal Action within 18F after a Partner Skill will remove all the invulnerability/Guard Point from the Reversal Action. This penalty does not apply during Cross Combo or for Active Partner Skills.
Partner Skills
Direction + P With Partner Available (Air OK)
Each partner has 3 different Partner Skills that can be used by holding back/neutral/forward when pressing P (diagonal inputs work as well). Consult each character's Overview page to learn what Partner Skills they have and decide how best to use them. After Partners perform their Partner Skill, they will remain on the screen for a bit of time, essentially locking out their usage briefly. However, during this period players can still activate Cross Combo.
Active Partner Skills
Partner Skill While Point Character is Attacking With 50% Cross Gauge
Performing a Partner Skill while your point character is already in the middle of an attack results in an Active Partner Skill - a Partner Skill that costs 50% of the Cross Gauge and can only be used once per combo. Be sure to use Active Partner Skills at strategic times such as to extend combos or to make unsafe attacks safe.
Active Partner Skills can not be used during certain attacks, such as during a successful throw animation or Distortion Skills. Players can hold P during these times to get a Partner Sill as soon as possible after these actions.
Active Change
D during Partner Skill (Air OK)
During Active Change your partner will strike a pose, after which they become the point character. The new point character will also get a red/blue aura, except during Cross Combo. Active Change is used to make some very powerful mixups.
Active Change does not occur until the D button is released, which helps prevent an accidental Cross Combo or Reversal Action when players intend to do a fast Partner Skill > Active Change.
- Active Change takes 30F
- Partner becomes tangible on 18F and can change on 19F
- Active Change immediately cancels attack for the incoming character
- Changes who is point character on 2F
- If the point character is hit on 1F or 2F, the point character will not change, but the powered up state and canceling the other character's attack will still occur.
- If the character is airborne, then they are in recovery until landing as well
- Enters Powered Up State on 10F
- Can not Active Change during the following situations
- If point or partner is getting hit/blocking
- While performing Reversal Action
- If partner is already in the taunt animation of their recovery
Skills
Motion Input + A/B (and sometimes C)
Skills have special properties compared to normal attacks that may vary depending on which attack button was used. Each character has unique skills, check out each character's Overview page to learn more about how to use them.
Extra Skills
Motion Input + C With 1 Skill Stock
Extra Skills are variations of the Skill attached to the same motion, but there are also Extra Skills that are their own unique special move. Damage dealt by an Extra Skill does not convert to recoverable health and have higher minimum damage. These can be very powerful and useful for turning the tides of a match so be sure to consult your character's Overview page to find out what their Extra Skills do and how they can help you in battle.
Distortion Skills
Motion Input + B+C With 2 Skill Stock
Distortion Skills are powerful attacks that typically deals a lot of damage and have Minimum Damage- perfect for ending combos to maximize damage. Most Distortion Skills have invincible frames on startup.
However, there are a few Distortion Skills that can be used for other purposes. For example, Chie's Agneyastra
GuardAllStartup11+(41 Flash)+0RecoveryTotal: 22Advantage- are perfect for limiting an opponent's options so you can close the gap between you and your opponent more easily. Platinum's Miracle Jeanne powers her other attacks up instead of being an attack in itself.
During Resonance Blaze players can cancel Skills and Extra Skills into Distortion Skills.
Distortion Skill Duo
P During Distortion Skill With 2 Skill Stock and Parter Available
Distortion Skill Duo is only available after the opponent gets hit/blocks the initial Distortion and your partner must be in a usable state (ie: not on cooldown from Partner Skills or KOed).
All Distortion Skill Duos have start-up 1+1 and deal 100% minimum damage. Depending on the character, the attack will deal 2000 or 2500 damage.
Enhanced Distortion Skills
During Resonance Blaze and Cross Combo, Distortion Skills will have enhanced animations that deal more/bigger hits. The end result is a significant damage increase. Distortion Skill Duos performed during Cross Combo deal an additional 500 damage.
Astral Heat
222B+C when conditions are met
Astrals are fancy super attack that will instantly defeat the opponent on hit! Astral Heats are only available during Resonance Blaze and are very easy to combo into - any normal Skill can cancel into Astral. Basically combo into just about anything, then cancel into Astral!
Having said that, the requirements to unlock Astral are much harder than they appear:
- K.O. one of the opponent's characters
- Get Level 4 Resonance
- Activate Resonance Blaze (this means losing half your team!)
- Get 9 Skill Stock
- The Skill Stocks can be built up mid-combo
Due to these restrictions, Astrals are typically only used as fancy finishing attacks at the ends of combos as there are often more practical and safe ways to use that meter.
Cross Combo
D+P during Partner Skill with At Least 50% Cross Gauge (Air OK)
Cross Combo allows your partner to remain on the field and use additional Partner Skills. Your Cross Gauge acts as a timer for Cross Combo, but getting hit ends Cross Combo immediately. Cross Combo has startup/recovery of 0+(?? Flash)+0.
During Cross Combo, your partner will do a Partner Skill whenever you press A/B/C/P. Ex: Inputting 5A will also have your partner do 5P; inputting 1B will also have your partner do 4P. Partners are fully invincible so long as they are not attacking.
The above makes coordinated team attacks difficult to execute, but there is a simple way around this. Holding down P keeps your partner from attacking, and releasing P will cause your partner to attack (holding a direction will determine which assist attack is done as usual). Thus you can do a combo with your main character while holding P, then release P to have your partner hit the opponent to extend the combo.
Press D at almost any point to change point character, allowing lots of versatility for creating mix-ups and combos.
Cross Combo also buffs your team in more subtle ways; during Cross Combo hitstun decay is ignored, damage dealt will be unrecoverable (no red health), and Distortion Skill will be the powered up version! Using a Distortion immediately ends Cross Combo, though following up with a Distortion Skill Duo will be the enhanced version as well in that case.
Powered Up State
After an Active Change, Extra Assault, or Cross Raid, your team gains a few passive buffs:
- Skill gain rate increased by 50%
- Red health recovery rate increased by 100%
- Power up lasts for 479F from Active Change (starts as soon as your character gains the silhouette)
- Power up lasts for 519F from Cross Raid (starts at same time as Cross Raid)
- This also means the 1500 damage from Cross Raid also gain Skill bonus (which works out to 32.4% of a Skill stock)
Resonance Blaze
P when One Character Left (Once Per Game) (Air OK)
Resonance Blaze is a comeback mechanic that powers up your last character, pauses the timer, and lasts for 15 seconds※1:.
Resonance Blaze activation is fully invincible. There is a long recovery period after the super freeze, so using it at neutral is risky since the opponent can react to the activation. Activation has startup 3+(?? Flash)+37 on the ground and 3+(?? Flash)+until landing in the air (suspended in the air until 36F).
Holding P buffers Resonance Blaze activation to occur the first possible frame, whether coming out of blockstun, hitstun, or incoming. Buffering activation makes it useful as a way to negate an opponent's mixup.
- Resonance Blaze has the following benefits
- Red health regenerates slowly over time
- Skill Gauge increases rapidly over time
- Maximum Skill Gauge increases to 5 + Resonance Level
- Normals deal chip damage
- Chip damage increases
- Skills and Extra Skills can cancel into Distortion Skills and Astral Heat
- Distortion Skills gain enhanced properties during Resonance Blaze
- Opponent cannot Cross Burst
The rate of of health regneration, amount of chip damage dealt, etc. is determined by Resonance Level.
Once Resonance Blaze is over, the maximum Skill Gauge will return to 5 stocks and the Cross Gauge will disappear for the remainder of the match, though the later is mostly a cosmetic effect.
※1: Actions performed by a character in Resonance Blaze that would freeze the in-game timer outside of Resonance Blaze, such as Distortion Skills, Astral Heats and the follow-up sequence on a successful ground hit Clash Assault, also freeze that character's individual Resonance Blaze timer until said character has fully recovered from the action.
Resonance Level
Using your partner fills the Resonance Gauge, which raises Resonance Level. Players start the match at level 1 and max is level 4. The following table shows the benifits at each level:
| Level | Skill Units Gained Per Frame | Time to Gain 1 Skill | Red Health Gained Per Frame | Bonus Chip Damage (%) | Chip for Normals | Bonus Skill Gauge Gain (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | 11 | 455F | 1.5 | +200% | 10% | +20% |
| Level 2 | 22 | 228F | 3 | +400% | 20% | +50% |
| Level 3 | 33 | 152F | 4.5 | +600% | 30% | +80% |
| Level 4 | 44 | 114F | 6 | +800% | 40% | +110% |
The following table shows the amount each action raises the Resonance Gauge.
| Action | Clash Assault | Clash Assault + Extra Assault | Raw Partner Skill | Active Partner Skill | Cross Raid | Cross Combo | Cross Burst | Distortion Skill Duo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Units Gained | 60 | 100 | 45 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 60 |
- Resonance Gauge is 300 units, each 100 units is 1 level.
- Clash Assault only builds Resonance Level if partner participates during the follow-up sequence
Cross Burst
D+P with 100% Cross Gauge and Partner Available when Blocking or Getting Hit (Air OK)
Use Cross Burst to have your partner do their incoming attack to break the opponent's combo and become the point character. Using it can save a character from a big combo and possibly dying when they're in a bad situation. Be warned that the incoming character is neither fully invulnerable nor safe on block, so try not to Burst at points where the opponent can readily cancel into an attack with head attribute invulnerability or block and punish.
- Cross Burst has startup 0+(21 Flash)+8F, is active for 3F, and is invulnerable from 1~10F
- Startup post super flash assumes opponent stays at approximately the same altitude
- Cross Burst does 1000 damage and cannot KO a character
Disabling Cross Burst
Cross Bursts can be temporarily locked out during the following conditions:
- Getting hit by the final hit of an A Smart Combo (including Cross Raid)
- Getting hit by a Clash Assault
- Getting hit by a Reversal Action
- Getting hit during the recovery of Reversal Action
- Getting hit by a throw or throw-like move (such as Tager's Atomic Collider or Hakumen's Yanagi)
- Getting hit by a Distortion Skill
- Getting hit while your partner is on screen
- Being in hitstun/blockstun while the opponent is in Resonance Blaze
- Other Character-Specific interactions (Example: Yumi's B Aerial Rave)
The Cross Gauge will be crossed out during these situations. Cross Burst will be re-enabled after recovering or when none of the above conditions are true.
Skill Gauge
The Skill Gauge is like a traditional "super meter" in other fighting games. Skill Gauge is used to perform Extra Skills, Distortion Skills, Reject Guards, etc. The Skill Gauge starts at 1 stock at the beginning of a match.
The formula for Skill Gauge Gain depends on the situation:
| Situation | Formula |
|---|---|
| Opponent getting hit | Scaled Damage × 0.72 |
| Getting hit | Scaled Damage × 0.4 |
| Opponent blocking attack | Base Damage × 0.18 |
| Blocking attack | Base Damage × 0.18 (× 0.36 during Guard Bonus) |
- Each Stock is 5,000 units
- Values are truncated after the decimal. Ex: 100.3 becomes 100, 35.8 becomes 35
- Thus a move that generates 100.2 units and a move that generate 100.6 units actually generate the same amount of heat (100 units)
- Distortion Skills do not build any Skill Gauge for the attacker, however, Extra Skills do
- Note: Formula for hitting opponent is suspected to be Scaled Damage × 1.2 × Character Combo Rate
Based on this, we can note some basic facts:
- Skill Gauge gained from hitting the opponent/getting hit is directly proportional to damage. Thus you can approximate the amount of Skill Gauge you and the opponent have gained based on how much damage a combo does, though rounding errors make this inexact.
- As a few quick rules of thumb, dealing 7000 damage will earn 1 stock, while taking 12500 damage will will earn 1 stock
- Exceptions
Some moves ignore the formula and build a specific amount of Skill Gauge, like getting an "Excellent!!" or "Marvelous!!" during Clash Assaults.
- Skill Gauge Increase
During Powered Up State, the amount of Skill gained from attacking is increased by 50% (so no bonus from blocking or getting hit).
Skill Cooldown
After performing an ability that consumes Skill (such as Extra Skills, Distortion Skill, Reject Guards), you will gain 75% less Skill Gauge for a set amount of time. The exception to this is Extra Assault.
| Action | Cooldown Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Extra Skills | 180F |
|
| Extra Assault | 0 | |
| Distortion Skills | 180F |
|
| Reject Guard | 300F |
|
- Cooldown timer starts when Skill is used
- Combos that are started during the cooldown period will suffer reduced Skill gain throughout the entire combo, even if it lasts beyond the cooldown period.
- Starting a second cooldown will override the cooldown time with the second cooldown's value
- EX: Reject Guard > Distortion Skill will only have the Distortion Skill's cooldown
Rampage Time
When the timer is down to 80, both players start gaining Skill automatically! This gain is still affected by Skill Cooldown.
Cross Gauge
The Cross Gauge is used for various actions that involve your partner. It will naturally fill over time at a rate of ???.
| Action | Cross Gauge Used |
|---|---|
| Partner Skill | 0% |
| Active Partner Skill | 50% |
| Cross Combo | All Remaining (min 50% required) |
| Cross Raid | All Remaining (can be used even at 0%) |
| Cross Burst | 100% |
Cross Gauge Cooldown
After using your Partner, the Cross Gauge will stop filling for a while. As a rule of thumb, the more "intense" the action, the longer the cooldown.
| Action | Partner Skill Available | Cooldown Until Cross Gauge Begins Recovering |
|---|---|---|
| Duo Change | Available on 24F of Duo Change. Duo Change is 33F total. | when Partner Skill is available |
| Partner Skill | 110F after taunt animation begins | when Partner Skill is available |
| Distortion Duo | 106F after taunt animation begins | when Partner Skill is available |
| Active Partner Skill | 110F after taunt animation begins | 30F after Partner Skill available |
| Active Change | 110F after taunt animation begins | Cooldown equal to whatever type of Partner Skill was used for Active Switch |
| Cross Combo | 110F after taunt animation begins | 150F after Partner Skill available |
| Cross Burst | 132F after super flash ends (takes longer when done in the air) | 300F after Partner Skill available. Point character must also return to neutral state after Cross Burst. |
- If you do any of the above actions during the Cooldown of another action, cooldown is not reset - it will use whichever cooldown value is bigger.
- For example, if you do a Cross Burst (300F cooldown), then wait 50F and use a Partner Skill (0F cooldown), then the cooldown after the Partner Skill is 250F.
Attack Level
Most attacks in the game deal standardized amounts of hitstun, blockstun, etc. based on their Attack Level. Note that some moves override these default values, which will be noted in the frame data. In addition to these exceptions, some attacks knock the enemy into the air, wallbounce, crumple, etc.
| Lvl 0 | Lvl 1 | Lvl 2 | Lvl 3 | Lvl 4 | Lvl 5 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hitstop | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
| Hitstop (Counter Hit) | +0 | +0 | +1 | +2 | +5 | +8 |
| Hitstun (Standing) | 10 | 12 | 14 | 17 | 19 | 21 |
| Hitstun (Ground Counter Hit) | +4 | +4 | +4 | +5 | +5 | +6 |
| Crumple Duration | 20 | 22 | 24 | 27 | 29 | 31 |
| Crumple Fall | 53 | 55 | 57 | 60 | 62 | 64 |
| Crumple Fall (Counter Hit) | 67 | 70 | 73 | 78 | 81 | 84 |
| Untechable (Air Hit) | 12 | 12 | 14 | 17 | 19 | 21 |
| Untechable (Air Counter Hit) | +11 | +11 | +12 | +14 | +15 | +16 |
| Blockstun (Ground) | 9 | 11 | 13 | 16 | 18 | 20 |
| Damage | 1000 | 1000 | 1500 | 1700 | 2000 | |
| P1 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 |
| P2 | 70 | 75 | 80 | 85 | 90 |
- Blockstun (Air) = Ground Blockstun + 2
- Crumple Duration (Counter Hit) = Crumple Duration × 2
- Crumple Fall (Counter Hit) = (Crumple Fall - 24) × 1.5 + 24
- The above formula is the non-fall part of Crumple Fall × 1.5. The Fall animation is 24F.
- Additional hitstop on Counter Hit only applies to the person being hit
- Air hitstun is the same as ground hitstun by default.
Counter Hit
A counter hit (CH) occurs when hitting the opponent when they are in Counter Hit state. The opponent will flash red, the HUD will show "Counter" and the announcer will say "Counter". On Counter Hit, the attack does 10% more damage and the opponent suffers more hitstun, air untechable time, and hitstop giving more time to hit confirm, as well as allowing CH specific combos. Additionally some attacks gain new properties on a counter hit like Wallbounce or Hard Knockdown.
All attacks are in CH state during an attack's startup and active time. Most attacks are not in counter hit state during recovery, but there are exceptions:
- Normal throws
- Most command throws
- Clash Assault
- Reversal Actions
- Distortion Skills
- Astral Heats
- Moves with invulnerable or guard point startups.
- Some other moves, noted in frame data.
Throwing an opponent who is in counterhit state will be a Throw Counter, and they will be unable to break the throw. Throw Counters do not gain any additional histun, damage or other special properties.
Partner Skills can not Counter Hit the opponent.
Counter Hit Carry
Most multi-hit attacks have a property where if the first hit is a counter hit, then the remaining hits are also counter hit. This is known as Counter Hit Carry. Thanks to this property, hit confirming multi-hit attacks is easier and opens up additional combo opprotunities as well. Moves with Counter Hit Carry also grants the bonus damage that CH normally confers.
- Ex: When Nu gets a CH with j.A, the opponent will be unable to recover for a long time even if the j.A did multiple hits. This allows Nu to land and run up to the opponent for a combo after a CH j.A.
However, note that the additional hitstop the opponent incurs on counter hit does not carry over to the followup hits with Counter Hit Carry. This means that even with Counter Hit Carry, some combos are still only possible on the first hit of an attack.
- Ex: Celica's Counter Hit 2A > 2B. 2A > 2B combos if done on the first hit of 2A, but not the second. This is due to the fact that the additional hitstop is effectivel more "hitstun" to combo into the 2B.
Counter Hit Carry only applies to moves that multi-hit regardless of hitting, blocking or missing. Moves that have automatic followups that activate only when the first part hits (like throws, Exceed Accels and various other special moves) do not carry counter damage or hitstun.
Attack Attributes
Each attack in the game has an attribute. There are three main types of attributes that correspond to each type of attack: strike, projectile and throw. These attributes interact with each other to trigger certain effects like invincibility and guard point.
- Strike
- Strikes are the most common type of attribute and can clash with other strikes (with rare exceptions).
- Strike attributes are broken up into three groups: Head, Body and Foot. Generally, grounded attacks are Body attribute, and attacks look like they hit low to the ground (even if they don't actually need to be guarded low) are Foot attribute. Virtually all air attacks are Head attribute.
- Projectile
- Projectiles are usually attacks that move independent of the attacker and disappear after it uses up all its hits or after a certain amount of time has passed.
- Projectiles cannot clash with strikes or throws.
- Throw
- The Throw attribute is found on all throws, but is not exclusive to them!
- Some attacks, such as Tager's Atomic Collider or Naoto's Phantom Pain, do not behave like normal throws as they can comboed into. These moves typically have other restrictions in place, such as unable to hit crouching or airborne opponents.
- Uncommon Attributes
- Strikes with Throw or Projectile Attribute
- Strikes with Projectile attribute can clash with projectiles, and are always clash level 1.
- Strikes with Throw attribute behave the same as strikes, but can not hit Partner characters. Otherwise, the Throw attribute only comes into play when calculating invincibility/guard point.
Attribute Invincibility
- Some attacks have attribute invincibility, meaning they are invincible to attacks with that attribute.
- For example, Ragna's 6A has Head attribute invincibility, so it functions very well as an anti-air since most jump attacks have the Head attribute.
- Attribute invincibility is only active for a specific time frame, see Frame Data for each move for details.
- This is especially important with regard to anti-air attacks: a jump attack that's already active will Counter Hit an opponent for attempting to anti-air too late.
- Strike + Throw Invincibility
- Interacting with strikes and throws functions under an "all or nothing" system; a character must be invincible to all of the attributes to become invincible.
- For example, Hakumen's Reversal Action (Body + Throw attack) will beat both Tager's 214A (Throw invul) and Noel's 4B (Body+Projectile invul).
- Strike + Projectile Invincibility
- Strikes that also contains Projectile attribute will beat Projectile invincibility. The Projectile attribute basically doesn't matter in these case, so just look at the non-projectile attributes.
- For example, Nine's backdash (Projectile invul) will get hit by Noel's j.A (Head+Projectile attack)
- For example, Ragna's 6A (Head invul) will beat Noel's j.A (Head+Projectile attack)
- Guard Point
- "Guard Point" (also referred to as autoguard, armour or super armour) allows a character to automatically guard against the opponent's attacks while continuing to attack.
- Guard Point may also have other restrictions not related to Attributes, such as only able to guard High/Low attacks or only able to guard a certain amount of damage.
- These details are listed in the character's Frame Data.
- It can be used similar to invincibility albeit with some differences
- An attack that hits autoguard is considered "blocked" and the attacker retains all "cancel on block" options, unlike invincibility.
- Conversely, if a move still has active frames when normal invincibility ends, the move will hit, however for Guard Point, once a move is blocked by it, that hit is consumed even if it would otherwise remain active after the guard ends (each hit of a multihit attack needs to be blocked by a guard point individually, as normal)
- On the whole, invincibility tends to be better.
- Esoteric Guard Point Details
- Unlike normal guard, Guard Point will:
- Prevent any chip damage
- Guardpointing an attack treated the same as blocking it for the purposes of Skill gain for both players.
- Can change the blockstop duration, for one or both characters.
Hurtbox Invincibility
Hurtbox invincibility is when parts of the character's "body" (i.e., their hurtbox) disappears. This type of invincibility is not from attribute invincibility and is purely a matter of hitbox/hurtbox positioning. Certain actions remove or shrink parts of a character's hurtbox, so they cannot be hit by an attack, even if their body appears to occupy that space. An extreme example is Nu's Act Parcer command dash: Nu crouches down while dashing forward but her hurtbox shrinks down below her knees, allowing her to dash through everything but attacks towards the ground. This phenomenon of dodging under an attack by lowering hurtboxes is commonly known as "low profile". This phenomenon is explained in more detail here.
In Blazblue Dustloop pages, Hurtbox Invincibility does not count as invincibility (unlike in Guilty Gear Pages), hence it is not listed in the invul section of the frame data. Nevertheless, notable cases of low profile moves and their interactions may be noted on character pages and move overviews.
Clash
- Strike Clash
- During a clash, that hit is nullified and each character can cancel the attack into any other attack at no cost, but not standard movement options (such as jump, walk, run), nor guard. Almost all strikes can clash, with very few exceptions.
- A clash happens when attacks hit each other in a way that hits each charater's attackbox, but not their hurtbox. See here for a more detailed visual example.
- When clashes happen either the players are unable to react to the clash because it is unexpected, or they understand how the attacks interact well enough to intentionally cause the clash to cancel out the opponent's attack, then retaliate with their own!
- Projectile Clash
- Each projectile has a clash level. When two projectiles of equal level clash, each projectile will lose one hit (i.e. a 3 hit projectile will become a 2 hit projectile, and a 1 hit projectile disappears). Higher level projectiles will reduce one hit of lower level projectiles without losing any hits.
- The frame data will list the clash level alongside its attribute. For example, a projectile with clash level 2 will show P2.
- Strikes with the Projectile attribute are generally able to clash with projectiles and are Clash Level 1.
- Edge Cases
- Some attacks have guard point against projectiles, like Rachel's 5A and Susano'o's 6P.
- This explains why many people mistakenly think Susano'o's 6P can "clash" with projectiles of all clash levels. The 6P technically doesn't clash with other projectiles, it guards the other projectile for one hit and then it disappears itself.
