GGST/Movement

From Dustloop Wiki

Ground Movement

Walking

Hold 6 or 4 while standing

Walking is the most basic movement option in your arsenal. Walking is a slow low commital way to move and presents the least risk. Walking can freely and immediately cancel into any action - including blocking, making it useful when baiting and whiff punishing moves or in spacing attacks during combos and pressure while minimizing risk.

Walking towards the opponent also slowly builds Tension.

Running

6 6 or 6 + Dash while grounded
Running moves your character forward faster and more effectively compared to walking. Keep holding forward to keep running indefinitely.

When ending a run, there is a skidding animation that gives any action done out of it forward momentum. While you can still block in this state, players can choose to stop immediately by spending some meter to immediately cancel a run into Faultless Defense, halting all forward momentum. This technique is known as FD Brake.

Running towards the opponent also builds Tension much faster than walking towards them.

Forward Dash

Not all characters can run -  Leo,  Giovanna and  Johnny can only dash a fixed distance forward,  I-No becomes airborne and continues to gain height the longer the dash is held until eventually stopping, and  Nagoriyuki and  Potemkin have no forward dash at all.

Backdash

4 4 or 4 + Dash while grounded
Backdash to quickly move away from the opponent.

Backdashes have invincibility on start-up, which can help you evade opponent's attacks. Be careful when using it, as the invincibility does not last long for most characters and is best used when there is a specific attack you intend to avoid. The exact duration of backdashes and invincibility varies between character and will be listed in the each character's frame data.

Air Movement

Most characters only have 1 air option: you can either double jump or air dash, but cannot do both. There are exceptions, however:

  •  Nagoriyuki has no air option whatsoever.
  •  Potemkin can only double jump; he cannot air dash.
  •  Goldlewis can only air dash; he cannot double jump.
  •  Bedman? has no conventional double jump or air dash, but dashing while airborne enters a stance that can cancel into an 8-way air dash.
  •  Zato-1 doesn't have a double jump or an air dash. Instead when Zato dashes in the air he will enter flightGGST Zato-1 Flight.pngGuardStartupRecoveryAdvantage-.
  •  Millia and  Chipp have two air options:  Millia can air dash twice or air dash after a double jump;  Chipp can triple jump or jump after an air dash.

Jumping

7/8/9 while grounded to jump in that direction
Jumping is the primary air movement of all characters and has lots of potential options afterwards.

All characters except for  Nagoriyuki,  Goldlewis,  Zato-1 and  Bedman? can double jump by inputting another jump while airborne, although  Bedman? and  Zato-1 are exceptions as  Bedman? has an 8-way air dash that can dash upward in place of a double jump and  Zato-1 can make use of flightGGST Zato-1 Flight.pngGuardStartupRecoveryAdvantage- to move upwards.

By canceling a run into a jump, horizontal momentum will carry over into the jump giving players additional jump trajectories to move around the opponent's attacks. Some normals can be jump canceled on hit or block.

High Jump (Super Jump)

Quickly 5 1/2/3 before jumping from the ground
High jumps are used to travel a much greater vertical distance than regular jumps.

High jumping is like a regular jump, but travels higher and faster. After a high jump, characters can air dash, but not double jump.

Air Dashing

Quickly 6 6/4 4 or 6/4 + Dash while airborne
Air dashes are a fast way to move horizontally while airborne.
  • Forward air dash will propel the character forward after a short delay.
  • Backward air dash is instaneous, but with a shorter travel distance.

All characters except for  Potemkin,  Nagoriyuki,  Zato-1 and  Bedman? can air dash by inputting a dash while airborne. Inputting a dash while airborne as  Zato-1 and  Bedman? instead works differently.  Zato-1 will enter flightGGST Zato-1 Flight.pngGuardStartupRecoveryAdvantage-, while  Bedman? enters a stance that can cancel into an 8-way air dash.

After air dashing, characters can not cancel into other actions immediately - they must wait a brief moment before being able to attack or block. The amount of time varies by character and exact values can be found in each character's frame data.

Instant Air Dash

Instant Air Dash (9 5 6) is a technique to quickly air dash after jumping and is useful for quickly air dashing over projectiles and covering ground quickly from the air.

See Instant Air Dash for more info.

Prejump

Jumps and high jumps are not instantaneous - before going airborne, characters enter a state called prejump, where they can not block, but are invincible to throws. If hit during prejump, characters enter standing hitstun.

Most characters have a prejump duration of 4 frames, while  Potemkin,  Nagoriyuki,  Goldlewis and  Bedman? have a prejump of 5 frames.  Nagoriyuki's high jump has a significantly longer prejump duration than his regular jump, at 10 frames.

It is actually possible to cancel prejump into specials and Overdrives, though most characters do not often use this. This property exists so that attacks that involve an Up input, such as  Leo's EisensturmGGST Leo Whitefang Eisen Sturm.pngGuardAllStartup9Recovery33Advantage-28) can be used without doing tricks to hide the jump input (such as whiffing moves beforehand).

Landing Recovery

Some airborne moves have a set amount of landing recovery like  Ky's Aerial Stun EdgeGGST Ky Kiske j236X.pngGuardAllStartup21RecoveryUntil Landing+10Advantage-.

This is straightforward; upon landing the character will enter a completely vulnerable landing animation.

What's unique is that even for moves that don't have a specified landing recovery - like most air normals, or just jumping, there is still a unique landing recovery that disables certain actions for limited amounts of time.

  • After landing from an empty jump:
1~6F cannot do any movement options except backdash
7F onwards all actions possible
  • After performing an action in the air (double jumping, air dashing, any air attack without specified landing recovery):
1~3F after landing is normal recovery (cannot do any action such as blocking, attacking, moving etc...)
4F onwards all actions possible
1~9F after landing is normal recovery (cannot do any action such as blocking, attacking, moving etc...)
10F onwards all actions possible
1~10F after landing is normal recovery (cannot do any action such as blocking, attacking, moving etc...)
11F onwards all actions possible
1~19F in blockstun
20F onwards all actions possible
1~5F in blockstun
6F onwards all actions possible

Landing after a successful Deflect Shield does not alter the landing recovery from the blockstun of the move that was deflected, but landing after a whiffed Deflect Shield is treated as performing an action in the air, overwriting any previous landing recovery.

Another quirk about landing in this game is that characters regain their grounded collision box and are considered grounded the frame before landing, meaning that they can be thrown by a ground throw the frame before landing and getting hit the frame before landing will result in grounded hitstun. If a character is in a state where they can freely act in the air but will enter a punishable recovery state upon landing, blocking an attack on this frame will result in grounded blockstun, effectively bypassing the landing recovery.

Ground and Air Recovery

Knockdown Recovery

Getting knocked down by most attacks causes a soft knockdown, where the character will instantly roll backwards and quickly recover. A soft knockdown lasts for 30 frames and is fully invincible.

Certain attacks cause a hard knockdown, where the character will lie on the ground briefly before getting up in a fully invincible state. As the character lies on the ground, they are considered in an Off The Ground state and if hit will be knocked backwards into a soft knockdown. Thus most players tend to use this time to set up okizeme rather than continuing the combo. A hard knockdown lasts for 55 frames.

Stagger Recovery

Press any button when this bar empties to recover faster

When hit by attacks that cause stagger, players can press any attack button to recover more quickly. There are three different timings for a successful stagger recovery, the faster the timing, the shorter the stagger duration before you're able to block. The button icon will glow blue for slow timings, red to orange for normal timings, and gold for fast timings. There is no penalty to attempting multiple times, and the timing is not very strict, so players usually press a few buttons around when the bar empties and can escape ASAP.

Wall Recovery

You can tech off the wall after a certain amount of time.

A character in Wall Stick state will automatically recover after 59 frames if not hit by an attack that causes Wall Break. This recovery is fully invincible for a brief moment, while allowing the player to perform an attack during this invincibility.

When stuck to the wall, hold a direction to choose what direction to recover:
7/4/1 recovers straight upwards a significant distance
8/5/2 recovers in place
9/6/3 recovers straight forwards a significant distance

If a character gets stuck to the wall while grounded, without being hit by any launching attacks, they will be unable to recover from the Wall Stick and will instead slump to the ground before standing back up with invincibility similar to a standard hard knockdown. Being hit during this slump will cause a Wall Break. Unlike Wall Recovery, any action you do after will not have any invincibility.

During Wall Recovery, the recovering character is invincible during frames 1~24.

  • The recovering character has no collision (able to pass through the other player) during frames 1~9.
  • The recovering character may perform any attack starting from frame 10, giving a maximum 15 frames of invincibility for the duration of the move.

During Wall Slump, the slumping character is vulnerable during frames 1~27. Hitting them during this window will Wall Break if the attack can Wall Stick.

  • If the attack cannot Wall Stick, it applies its usual properties instead. For standard hitstun, the slumping character is considered crouching.
  • The slumping character is invincible during frames 28~42. This behaves standard to other knockdowns.

Cancels

Canceling is skipping some or all of the recovery of one move by starting another move. This usually requires that the first move makes contact with the opponent, and that the first move can be canceled into the second. Cancels are commonly used to make combos and blockstrings.

There are many types of cancels, we wil go over them here.

Gatling Combination

Normal moves can be canceled into other normal moves, including command normals. This is known as a gatling.

There can be character-specific variations, but the general rule is:

On the ground
  • 5P and 2P gatling into themselves, each other, and command normals
  • 5K and 2K gatling into D normals, and command normals
  • Close S gatlings into S normals, H normals, D normals, and command normals
  • Far S and 2S gatling into H normals
In the air
  • Jumping P gatlings into itself
  • Jumping K gatlings into jumping D
  • Jumping S gatlings into jumping H and jumping D
  • Jumping H gatlings into jumping D

It takes some getting used to, but it should feel natural after some practice. Gatlings do not need to be done immediately, players often delay their gatlings to act as a frame trap - baiting overeager opponents to retaliate then hitting them out of the start-up of their attacks. Note that while most normals can gatling even during recovery frames, 5K, 2K and jumping K can only gatling during active frames.

Special Cancel

Most normal moves can be canceled into special moves, Overdrives or Wild Assault.  Nagoriyuki can also cancel his specials in the same way, although it will raise his Blood Gauge.

Note that while most normals can be special canceled even during recovery frames, 5K, 2K and jumping K can only be special canceled during active frames.

Normals can also be kara canceled into special moves, Overdrives, Wild Assault, Faultless Defense, Deflect Shield or Psych Burst during their first 3 frames of start-up. Taunts are considered a special move.

Jump Cancel

Some normal moves can be canceled into a jump or high jump on hit or block.

On the ground, all characters' 5K and close S can be jump canceled.  Nagoriyuki's close SGGST Nagoriyuki cS.pngGuardAllStartup7Recovery10Advantage+3 is an exception to this rule.
In the air, if you have an air jump remaining, all air normals except for jumping P can be jump canceled.
 Jack-O' can jump cancel her jumping DGGST Jack-O jD.pngGuardAllStartup21RecoveryTotal 44Advantage- when the projectile connects.

Dash Cancel

Some normal moves can be canceled into a dash or air dash on hit or block.

On the ground, all characters' 5K and close S can be dash canceled. This dash has a fixed duration, varying by character (see character's frame data for more info). All grounded dash cancels can be kara canceled into special moves, Overdrives or Wild Assault during their first 3 frames.
In the air, if you have an air dash remaining, all air normals except for jumping P can be air dash canceled.
 Potemkin and  Nagoriyuki cannot dash cancel, as they do not have a traditional forward dash or air dash.
 Ramlethal can dash cancel the first two hits of ErarlumoGGST Ramlethal Valentine Erarlumo 1.pngGuardAllStartup16Recovery12Advantage-5.
 Jack-O' can air dash cancel her jumping DGGST Jack-O jD.pngGuardAllStartup21RecoveryTotal 44Advantage- when the projectile connects.

Clash

GGST Clash.png

A clash happens when you and your opponent's attacks hit each other in a way that both attacks are nullified. During a clash, both characters gain 10% Tension and are frozen in their current animation for 17 frames, after which their animations resume, however they additionally can cancel into forward dash, any attack, or Faultless Defense, but not backdash, jumps, or normal block. Thus when clashes happen either the players may struggle to react to it because it is unexpected, or they understand how the attacks interact well enough to intentionally cause a clash to cancel out the opponent's attack, then retaliate with their own. When two projectiles clash, players are not frozen, and when two attacks clash, any active projectiles are not frozen.

There are two ways clashes happen:

  • Disjointed hitboxes hit each other (see here for a more detailed visual example).
  • Two of the following normals hit each other even if the hitboxes are not disjointed: 5P, 2P, jumping P or jumping K.  Axl's 5PGGST Axl Low 5P.pngGuardAllStartup7Recovery19Advantage-11 [-3], 2PGGST Axl Low 2P.pngGuardLowStartup10Recovery14Advantage-6, and jumping PGGST Axl Low j.P.pngGuardHighStartup9Recovery23Advantage- are exceptions to this rule.


Roman Cancels

Press any three attack buttons (except D) simultaneously to perform a Roman Cancel (RC). Costs 50% Tension.

Roman Cancel is a mechanic that allows you to cancel actions that are not normally cancelable at the cost of Tension. The Roman Cancel system in Guilty Gear -Strive- is designed to be multifaceted and comes in various colors. Each color of Roman Cancel releases a shockwave in a circle around your character with different properties and uses.

Roman Cancel Values
Color Tension Startup Recovery On-Block Slowdown Cancel Situation
GGST BlueRC.png
Blue
50%
6(+39)
(effect starts super freeze 20F)
-
-
59F
During super freeze 5~11F
  • Performed while in neutral or during movement.
  • Shockwave slows down the opponent but doesn't actually hit them. Used to catch opponents doing something other than block, then punish them while they are slowed.
  • Has the longest slowdown timer of all the Roman Cancels.
    • Slowdown ends after being hit or blocking.
    • Slowdown does not end on opponent's hit or block. This allows for links that aren't normally possible, like 5K into c.S.
GGST RedRC.png
Red
50%
1(+44)
(effect starts super freeze 25F)
-
+24
39F
During super freeze 7~13F
  • Performed during the hitstop of a strike or right as a throw deals damage.
    • Window is extended during Mid or Large Counter Hits, irrespective of the current action (excluding movement).
  • Shockwave launches the opponent on hit, causes hard knockdown. Used to extend combos for more damage and/or better okizeme.
  • Slowdown ends on hit or block of either player.
    • Hitstop: 0F, Blockstun: 12F
GGST PurpleRC.png
Purple
50%
6(+39)
(effect starts super freeze 20F)
-
-
19F
During super freeze 8~14F
  • Performed during a move outside of the Red Roman Cancel window.
  • Shockwave slows down the opponent but doesn't actually hit them. Used to stay safe when using committal attacks.
  • Certain invincible specials cannot be Purple Roman Canceled unless the opponent is in hitstun or blockstun.
  • Slowdown ends on hit or block of either player.
GGST YellowRC.png
Yellow
50%
14(+28)
(effect starts super freeze 12F)
33
-16
9F
-
  • Performed while in blockstun.
  • Invincible until end of super freeze.
  • Counter Hit state during recovery.
  • Shockwave puts the opponent into Guard Crush state on hit, but deals no damage. Used as a defensive "get off me" tool.
    • Hitstop: 0F, Blockstun: 17F
    • Guard Crush: 43F (including slowdown)
    • Applies 50% forced proration and 15 Combo Decay on hit.
  • Not available when in a Guard Crush state.
  • See Yellow Roman Cancel for more information.

Dash Input Roman Cancel

Sometimes also referred to as "Drift Roman Cancel".

Sike, I wasn't actually there!
  • Available for any Roman Cancel except Yellow Roman Cancels.
  • Input a dash just before Roman Canceling to move in that direction during the Roman Cancel's activation.
    • Can input dashes up, down, left or right to drift in that direction. Diagonal inputs are ignored.
    • Red Roman Cancel shockwaves will launch the opponent differently on hit depending on the dash input chosen.
      • The opponent launches up and away if you don't drift, lower and much farther away if you drift forward, higher and much closer if you drift backwards, much lower and closer if you drift downward, and much higher and closer if you drift upward.
      • Launch duration on a standing opponent: Up (68F) > Back (62F) > Neutral (55F) > Forward (48F) > Down (42F).


Cancel the Roman Cancel

Sometimes also referred to as "Fast Roman Cancel" or "Quick Roman Cancel". It is referred to as "Roman Cancel Cancel" in the game tutorials.

Go straight into the next attack of your choice!
  • Available for any Roman Cancel except Yellow Roman Cancels.
  • Inputting a move during a specific window of the Roman Cancel's super freeze (when the initial effects from a Roman Cancel disappear but before the shockwave occurs) cancels the super freeze directly into the inputted move.
    • All types of Roman Cancel except Yellow Roman Cancels rapidly drain Tension during super freeze at a rate of 2% per frame. By canceling the Roman Cancel, it is possible to retain a portion of the required Tension. Depending on which frame you cancel, the Roman Cancel will spend between 36% and 48% Tension.
    • Input buffer does not apply to this window.
  • Canceled Roman Cancels still apply a reduced amount of slowdown at close range, even without the shockwave.
  • During a Roman Cancel Cancel, you can perform charge inputs without charging, as long as the charge direction is input before the Roman Cancel begins (or before hitstop ends). For example,  May can 46H instead of [4]6H.
  • Preserves momentum from before the Roman Cancel.
  • Can be combined with the dash input version to move slightly in a direction before canceling.
Roman Cancel Slowdown Values
Color Slowdown (No Cancel) Slowdown (Cancel Frame 1) Slowdown (Cancel Frames 2~7)
Blue 59F 33F 31F
Red 39F 23F 21F
Purple 19F 13F 11F

Note: Consult the Roman Cancel Values table above for each color's cancel window.

Input Buffer

Whenever you press an attack button, it will automatically be buffered for an additional 4 frames, for a total input window of 5 frames. This means that difficult links are easier to do by pressing the button right at the very end of your recovery.

Similarly, the same principle can be applied to dashes. If you complete a dash input within 5 frames of recovery, then regardless of any directional inputs after that, you will begin dashing as soon as recovery ends. This can also be done any time while your character can not move, such as during blockstun, on wake-up, etc.

Super Freeze Buffer

Overdrives are easily reactable...

During an opponent's super freeze (such as when the screen darkens during a Roman Cancel or the camera focuses on the attacker during an Overdrive), players can input a special or Overdrive and it will be executed immediately after the super freeze ends. This means that provided you are not in the middle of an attack, it is trivially easy to react to an opponent's Overdrive with an attack of your own.

This buffer is often used to execute an invincible attack (such as an Overdrive) that will avoid the opponent's attack. This is because Overdrives usually have a bit of start-up even after the super freeze. If you can have an invincible attack out before the opponent's attack becomes active, then you can avoid the attack.

Normally, every character can kara cancel the first 3 frames of start-up on their normals into certain other actions, such as Faultless Defense. While Faultless Defense cannot be buffered during super freeze, it can be held, so if you are in those first few frames during a super freeze, then you can cancel your normal into Faultless Defense to save yourself.

Overdrives may list their start-up values as: start-up pre-flash + start-up post-flash or start-up pre-flash + (super freeze duration) + start-up post-flash.

Meaning an attack with start-up 5+(90)+5 has 5 frames of start-up, then 90F super freeze, then hits the opponent after 5 more frames for a total of 10 frames of start-up.

Overdrives With No Start-Up After Super Freeze
... unless they're active immediately after the super freeze!
Some Overdrives are special: they have no additional start-up after the super freeze. This means that super freeze buffer is useless against these Overdrives because the attack will already be active immediately following the super freeze - you can think of the super freeze as just a formality, the Overdrive has already become active.
 I-No's MegalomaniaGGST I-No Megalomania 1.pngGuardGround Throw (All)Startup11+0(41)RecoveryAdvantageN/A (-18) is a prime example of this; you must already have some way to avoid it before the super freeze or else it will be too late. You can identify such attacks in the frame data by looking at their start-up post-flash, which should be 0.


Advanced Techniques

Counter Hit Confirm Option Select

Large Counter Hits allow players to choose between 2 cancel options afterwards - one that comes out on normal hit or block, and one that comes out on Counter Hit.

During a Large Counter Hit, players can input additional commands during the zoom-in and slowdown effect. These new inputs will override whatever the player inputted previously, letting players input commands that will only come out on a Large Counter Hit.

Example
  •  Ky performs 5H > 236S ~ 214K
    • On normal hit or block,  Ky will perform 5HGGST Ky Kiske 5H.pngGuardAllStartup12Recovery21Advantage-8 > Stun EdgeGGST Ky Kiske 236S.pngGuardAllStartup13RecoveryTotal 46Advantage-14
    • On Counter Hit,  Ky will perform 5HGGST Ky Kiske 5H.pngGuardAllStartup12Recovery21Advantage-8 > Foudre ArcGGST Ky Kiske 214K.pngGuardAllStartup24Recovery6Advantage-2~+6 [+5~+12]

This same principle applies to R.I.S.C. Counter Hits.

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