BBCF/Damage

From Dustloop Wiki

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, also known as damage proration.

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So we would proceed to calculate the damage as follows:

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

The following example explains how P2 (once) works. Let's take an example of Rachel's combo: 5B > 3C(3). The table below lists the damage and proration of each move.

Move Damage P1 P2
5B 600 100 85
3C 400×3 100 79(once)

So we would proceed to calculate the damage as follows:

Move Raw damage P1 of the first move P2 of the current move Accumulated P2 Combo Rate Final damage Total Damage
5B 600 100 85 Not applied Not applied 600 600
3C(1) 400 100 79(once) 85 60 400×1×0.85×0.6 = 204 804
3C(2) 400 100 79(once) 85×79 (once) = 61 60 400×1×0.85×0.79×0.6 "=" 160 (rounded down)1 964
3C(3) 400 100 79(once) 85×79 (once) = 61 60 400×1×0.85×0.79×0.6 "=" 160 (rounded down)1 1124

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

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

So we would proceed to calculate the damage as follows:

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

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

Exceptions

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

Minimum Damage

Most Distortion Drives in BlazBlue will always do certain percentage of their base damage (often 20%, but can vary) at minimum regardless of damage scaling. This means that using supers at the end of combos is a good way to tack on some significant extra damage.

Standard throws always do 100% of their original damage regardless of how much damage scaling has occurred beforehand (assuming the opponent does not break your throw). This is also true for most command throws, however comboable throws (which do not allow the opponent to break them) will not have 100% minimum damage and will scale as normal.

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

Guard Break

If the combo "starts" from a Guard Break (meaning you start the combo after the opponent's guard is crushed), the combo damage will have an overall 80% proration starting from the first hit. However, the combo will also ignore any P1 proration, meaning that you are better off to start a combo with high P2 value.

Guard Break and DANGER (see below) does not stack additively but is multiplied together (meaning a combo starts from guard crush with DANGER applied will have an overall 96% proration with P1 ignored).

Same Move Proration

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

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

However, SMP only affects damage and not Hitstun Decay, unlike in previous version. Some combos will intentionally trigger SMP to sacrifice damage in exchange of a better position or gain other resources. For example Izayoi often triggers SMP to gain 4 stocks in her combos.

Bonus Damage

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

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

Counter Hit

Netting a counter hit increases the damage of that one attack by 10%. Normal throws (aka Throw Counters), does not benefit from this bonus. Comboable throws, however, does receive this bonus damage, such as Naoto's Phantom Pain.

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

Active Flow

Being in Active Flow increases damage of all your attacks by 10%.

Danger State

Danger State occurs when the Barrier Gauge is emptied, including when Negative Penalty is incurred. While a character is in Danger State, they will take 20% more damage.

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

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

Other Damage

Chip Damage

Special and Super attacks in BlazBlue (and most other fighting games) do small amounts of damage even if they are blocked.

Most Special and Super attacks do 5% of their base damage on block. This chip damage can be prevented by using Barrier Block. Additionally, there are certain moves that are defined to do more or less chip damage like Amane's drills (see move notes for details). Ragna's drive (Soul Eater) does chip damage which is ALSO absorbed by Ragna and converted into health. Soul Eater can be prevented with Barrier Block.

Poison and Life Drain

BBPoison.png

Poison and Life Drain (or similar effects) steadily decrease the opponent's life while active, but can never kill the opponents by themselves; the most they can do is decrease the opponent's life to 1 health. They are not considered attack/combo damage, so they are unaffected by damage scaling and not tracked by the combo counter.

Combo System

Hitstun Decay

As a combo goes on, the amount of hitstun each attack deals is reduced as it reaches certain time thresholds. Hitstun/Untechable decay is determined by the amount of time that has passed in the combo as well as what starter is used. (Note that time freezes like superflash frames do not contribute to this time, but hitstop does)


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

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

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


Increasing Hitstun

Crouching Opponent
Hitting a crouching opponent give an additional 2 frames of hitstun. This means that there are combos that only work on crouching characters. For example, Jin can combo 5C > 6C on crouching characters but not on standing characters. Some moves force standing characters to crouch and this is used in some combos to make some combos work. Extended crouching hitstun only applies while the opponent is still grounded. Virtually all normal moves performed from a crouch are also considered crouching, but very little else is.
Fatal Counter
Fatal Counters adds 3 frames of hitstun/untechable time to all subsequent attacks in that combo. This allows for combos that would otherwise not work. For example, Jin can combo 5B >2C only duringa Fatal combo. every character has at least one move that causes a Fatal Counter instead  of a normal Counter Hit. A very small number of moves can force Fatal Counter even on a normal hit (Including during combos!).
Fatal Counter does not stack with itself, so doing two Fatals in one combo still only adds 3 frames instead of 6, but it can stack with crouching hitstun for a total of +5 frames.

Fixed Hitstun

Some moves inflict fixed hitstun regardless of the combo length. Usually Distortion Drives, Exceed Accels, Astral Heats and throws have this property, but there are other moves, specific to each character. Usually this property simply stops certain moves behaving strangely (Players teching mid-throw, for example) but it does also mean using these moves at the end of combos is viable where other moves would fail.

Invalid Combos and Resets

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

Because characters can delay an ukemi, this leads to the possibility of combos that work only if the opponent did not ukemi. 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 for damage scaling, hitstun reduction, etc.

There are some situations on defense where you intentionally delay an ukemi to avoid a mixup or a reset. For example, some players avoid performing an air ukemi against Tager's Atomic Collider grab because if you air ukemi, then he will reset you into a new combo that will likely do more damage than his Atomic Collider ender. Often this is a low risk tactic since a few extra hits at the end of an already long combo are unlikely to actually add much more damage due to the amount of damage scaling that will have stacked up. However, beware that remaining knocked down for too long without teching will allow your opponent to reset you into a fresh combo.

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

If you cause a "purple" throw for any reason then the combo counter will reflect an invalid combo, even if that throw was a throw counter and unable to be rejected.

Navigation

Click [★] for character's full frame data

Essentials
HUDControlsFAQ
The Basics
Movement/CancelingOffenseDefenseGaugesUniversal Strategy
Detailed & Advanced Information
Damage/ComboAttack AttributesFrame Data & System DataMisc
Archived Information
Patch NotesTier Lists