============================================================================== = :::::::::::::::: BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger System Guide ::::::::::::::::: = ============================================================================== ----------------------------- The Wheel of Fate is Turning! ----------------------------- This guide is about the game system of BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger. Some of the data might be difficult for beginners in the first glance, but it is really not difficult to understand once you start playing the game. Since you are already reading this guide, I recommend you to take your time and read all the system information thoroughly because there are many tidbits in BlazBlue that do not exist in other games, especially the Guilty Gear series. Hopefully this guide will solve all your questions regard to BlazBlue's system, and lead your gameplay to a higher level. If you have any question, correction and suggestion to make the guide better, you are more than welcome. You can either: 1) PM me at tianyuan2k4 in BlazBlue.co.nr 2) E-mail to Yuan Tian tianyuan2k4@gmail.com On a serious note, this guide is for BlazBlue community, and may not be sold, distributed, printed or published for profit. intact and receive no monetary compensation for it. All text, strategies, and other non-official information contained in this guide regarding BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger and/or any of the BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger characters is Copyright 2009 Yuan Tian. Reproduction in whole or part without the express written permission of Yuan Tian is prohibited. ============================================================================== = :::::::::::::::::::::::::::: TABLE OF CONTENTS ::::::::::::::::::::::::::: = ============================================================================== 1. Notation ++++++++++++++++++++ 2. Gauges ++++++++++++++++++++ - Health Bar - Guard Libra - Heat Gauge - Barrier Gauge 3. Movement ++++++++++++++++++++ - Walking - Dash - Dash Cancel - Back Step - Jump - High Jump - Jump Cancel - Air Dash - Instant Air Dash 4. Attack System ++++++++++++++++++++ - Revolver Action - Rapid Cancel - Distortion Drive - Astral Heat - Attack Level - Counter Hit - Attribute - Advance Input - Throw - Throw Escape - Normal Attack Cancel - Jump Install - Clash - Combo Damage Calculation 5. Defense System ++++++++++++++++++++ - Basic Guard - Instant Guard - Barrier - Instant Barrier - Guard Stun Trick - Barrier Burst - Hit Stun / Untechable Timing - Air Recovery - Fall Recovery - Counter Assault - Attack Effects - Negative Penalty - Danger Condition 6. Credits and Links ++++++++++++++++++++ ============================================================================== = :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: NOTATION :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: = ============================================================================== - Command - A - Weak Attack B - Middle Attack C - Heavy Attack D - Drive Button f - forward d/f - tap down+forward b - back d/b - tap down+back u - up u/f - tap up+forward d - down u/b - tap up+back QCF - quarter circle forward (d,d/f,f) QCB - quarter circle back (d,d/b,b) HCF - half circle forward (b,d/b,d,d/f,f) HCB - half circle back (f,d/f,d,d/b,b) DP - dragon punch (f,d,d/f) RDP - reverse dragon punch (b,d,d/f) - Notation - + - do moves on either side of + together ~ - immediately followed by... / - use either button - - N/A F - Frame - The smallest unit of graphics display. In this game, a frame is displayed for 1/60 of one second, so frames are used as units of time for move executions and recovery. ============================================================================== = ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: GAUGES :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: = ============================================================================== - Health Bar - Yellow life bar on the top of the screen indicates characters’ stamina. When that runs out the character lose the round. A portion of all inflicted damage is shown as a red segment of the life bar. Characters total health point and its ratio varies. Health point ratio is important because it has effect on Heat Gauge that regenerates when the character is below 20% health bar. For example, Ragna's health total is 10000. When he has 20% health left, he has 3000 point instead of 2000. Therefore characters have a greater health point ratio in the latter portion have a better chance to make a comeback. However, the game is decided on percentage of the remaining health bar instead of the total health point when time is up. That is the drawback of having a dense stamina towards the latter portion. Here is the data: Character | Total HP | Health Point Ratio Ragna | 10000 | 7000(80%):3000(20%) Jin | 11500 | 5750(50%):5750(50%) Noel | 11000 | 5500(50%):5500(50%) Tager | 13000 | 9100(80%):3900(20%) Taokaka | 10500 | 5250(50%):5250(50%) Rachel | 11000 | 5500(50%):5500(50%) Arakune | 10500 | 7350(80%):3150(20%) Bang | 11500 | 7475(75%):4025(25%) - Guard Libra - Below the timer is Guard Libra (10000 points total). When guarding or forcing your opponent to guard, this gauge will shift. Once it is about 20% left to one side, that character turns blue when blocking. Note that within Guard Libra does not recover for 300 frames after blocking a move, getting hit or a knockdown. Then it recovers 7 points per frame until the character blocks or getting hit again. When it fills up completely to one side, the guarding player will undergo a Barrier Crush and will be stunned temporarily. Each character has a different rate of Guard Libra reduction. (Higher rate = better defense, vice versa) Character | Guard Libra Rate Ragna | 100% Jin | 120% Noel | 100% Tager | 150% Taokaka | 80% Rachel | 110% Arakune | 90% Bang | 100% Litchi | 110% Carl | 80% Hakumen | 140% V - 13 | 100% - Heat Gauge - Used to perform Distortion Drive, Rapid Cancel, etc. The Heat Gauge is all the way at the bottom of the screen. Whenever characters attack, the amount of Heat Gauge they are receiving is based on the formula: [Attack Damage x 1.05 x Heat Gauge Rate] / 100 Characters receive small amount of Heat Gauge when they block, and a fixed 3% whenever they Instant Block successfully. And the When character's health bar below 20%, Heat Gauge start to increase automatically. Hakumen has a unique Heat Gauge. Other than it increases as he attacks, receives damage, or blocks, the heat gauge increase automatically regardless the health bar condition (twice the speed below 20% health bar). Once the gauge is full, it stores as a stock. Hakumen can hold 8 stocks in total. List of Heat Gauge required moves: * Distortion Drive (50%) * Rapid Cancel (50%) * Counter Assault (50%) * Astral Heat (100%, plus other condition) * Some of Jin's special moves (25%) * All Hakumen's speical moves (Varies) After using any of the aboves moves, your heat gauge will increase at 25% of it's normal speed for 200 frames afterward. Here is the Heat Gauge Rate table: Character | Heat Gauge Rate Ragna | 70% Jin | 75% Noel | 75% Tager | 70% Taokaka | 70% Rachel | 80% Arakune | 80% Bang | 70% Litchi | 70% Carl | 80% Hakumen | 30% V - 13 | 70% - Barrier Gauge - 10000 points total, a gauge that decreases when you use Barrier to defend. It regenerates 7 points per 10 frames if you stop using Barrier for 120 frames. When it reaches zero, that character enter Danger condition for 600 frames. During this time barrier gauge regenerate back to 5000 points then you can use Barrier again. Learn more about this gauge's usage in Barrier and Barrier Burst. ============================================================================== = :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: MOVEMENT :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: = ============================================================================== - Walking - By holding left or right direction, your character moves backward or forward. Walking is the most basic of all movement options. It is also the least effective. Walking can be useful to move short distances in the place of a dash or run. The following chart shows the distance /speed (unit measure by dot) the character travel, larger the number faster your character travels. Character | Walk Forward | Walk Backward Ragna | 6200 | 4800 Jin | 5900 | 4800 Noel | 6600 | 5000 Tager | 6000 | 5500 Taokaka | 6000 | 5000 Rachel | 4000 | 3800 Arakune | 7200 | 4200 Bang | 8000 | 5000 Litchi | 5300 | 4100 Carl | 7700 | 5000 Hakumen | 6400 | 4100 V - 13 | 5500 | 5000 - Dash - By tapping forward twice, other than Tager, characters can dash forward, though Arakune, Carl, and Hakumen have unique ones. Nontheless this lets your character running forward quickly. The following chart shows the distance/speed (unit measure by dot) the character travel. And acceleration gives the addition distance per frame the character gets after the initial dash speed. Character | Initial Dash Speed | Dash Acceleration | Max Dash Speed Ragna | 18000 | 440 | 28000 Jin | 16000 | 440 | 28000 Noel | 18000 | 440 | 28000 Tager | ----- | --- | ----- Taokaka | 20000 | 440 | 28000 Rachel | 14000 | 300 | 28000 Arakune | ----- | --- | ----- Bang | 21000 | 200 | 38000 Litchi | 14000 | 440 | 28000 Carl | 30000 | --- | ----- Hakumen | 28000 | --- | ----- V - 13 | 22000 | 320 | 30000 Step Type Property: Character | Duration | Notes Arakune | 48F | 7~36 invincible, can go through opponents Carl | 21F | 16~ normal move, special move and throw cancel possible Hakumen | 16F | 3~11 airborne, 6~11 air special move cancel possible. - Dash Cancel - Abbreviation "dc", after specific attacks, such as Ragna's Foward + C, or Jin's standing D hit or on block, input forward twice quickly to perform dash cancel. Beware you cannot cancel this dash with Barrier or normal attacks immediately. Therefore use this with caution espeically when opponents block the dash cancelable attack that your character is typically in frame disadvantage here. - Back Step - Tap backward quickly to hop back, most characters' back step have invincibility. Can be helpful to dodge attacks to gain initiative under pressure. Character | Duration | Invin. | Distance | Notes Ragna | 20 | 5 | 270000 | 2~15 airborne Jin | 22 | 5 | 360000 | 3~16 airborne Noel | 18 | 5 | 318000 | 2~25 airborne Tager | 23 | 19 | 184000 | 1~22 airborne Taokaka | 18 | 7 | 252000 | 1~11 airborne Rachel | 23 | 7 | 345000 | 1~22 airborne Arakune | 48 | 38 | 360000 | 7~36 goes through opponents Bang | 36 | 9 | 480000 | 13~28 airborne Litchi | 21 | 5 | 225000 | 1~13 airborne, perform followup | | | | by input up+backward at 17F Litchi | 16 + 43 | 24 | 447000 | 5~33 airborne, (followup)| | | | 25~33 air attack or air dash cancel Carl | 20 | 7 | 380000 | 1~19 airborne Hakumen | 27 | 0 | 270000 | 5~15 airborne, 8~15 air speical | | | | move cancel V - 13 | 24 | 6 | 371416 | - Jump - Jumping can be performed by input up,up+forward, or up+backward. Other than Tager, You can double jump by input any of those upward directions again. The triple jump works the same way for Taokaka. Characters may be able to continue with their double / triple jump and air dash after performing certain attacks. The following chart shows the start up (how many frames before considered airborne) and duration (unite measure by frame), and speed (unit measured by dot) and gravity effect (lower the number heavier they are) of the character jumping. Character | Striaght Jump | Forward Jump | Backward Jump | Airborne Duration Ragna | 4 | 4 | 4 | 39 Jin | 5 | 5 | 5 | 39 Noel | 4 | 4 | 4 | 39 Tager | 6 | 6 | 6 | 37 Taokaka | 4 | 4 | 4 | 30 Rachel | 4 | 4 | 4 | 42 Arakune | 3 | 4 | 3 | 50 Bang | 4 | 4 | 4 | 40 Litchi | 3 | 3 | 3 | 43 Carl | 4 | 4 | 4 | 42 Hakumen | 4 | 4 | 4 | 42 V - 13 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 42 The following chart shows the jumping speed (unit measured by dot) and gravity effect (lower the number heavier they are) of the character jumping. Character | Striaght Jump | Forward Jump | Backward Jump | Gravity Ragna | 31000 | 7875 | 7875 | 1650 Jin | 31000 | 7875 | 7875 | 1650 Noel | 31000 | 7875 | 7875 | 1650 Tager | 26000 | 6000 | 5600 | 1250 Taokaka | 38000 | 7875 | 7875 | 2400 Rachel | 25000 | 10000 | 8000 | 1000 Arakune | 30000 | 9000 | 8000 | 1150 Bang | 34000 | 10000 | 7875 | 1750 Litchi | 31000 | 7875 | 7875 | 1500 Carl | 29000 | 7875 | 7875 | 1450 Hakumen | 29000 | 7875 | 7875 | 1450 Ragna | 30000 | 7605 | 7000 | 1500 - High Jump - Simply tap any downward direction, then quickly tap an upward direction. The character jumps higher than the regular one. Note that characters can double jump / air dash after high jumping. Here is the speed (unit measured by dot) and duration (unit measure by frame) data of high jump: Character | Striaght Jump | Forward Jump | Backward Jump | Duration Ragna | 38000 | 12600 | 12600 | 48 Jin | 38000 | 12600 | 12600 | 48 Noel | 38000 | 12600 | 12600 | 48 Tager | 38000 | 8500 | 7500 | 53 Taokaka | 48000 | 12600 | 12600 | 39 Rachel | 32000 | 13000 | 11000 | 56 Arakune | 32000 | 12600 | 12600 | 53 Bang | 40000 | 12500 | 12600 | 49 Litchi | 42000 | 17500 | 6500 | 58 Carl | 36000 | 12600 | 12600 | 51 Hakumen | 36000 | 12600 | 12600 | 51 V - 13 | 37000 | 11000 | 9000 | 51 - Jump Cancel - Abbreviation "jc", cancel certain attacks, in the air if the character can double jump, or on the ground to jumping by input any upward direction. This is useful to for combos or further pressure strings. You may choose to High Jump Cancel (Abbreviation "hjc") on the ground, which is important to perform many combos in this game. You can check which move is jump cancelable by reading move data in the character section of BlazBlue.co.nr - Air Dash - Other than Tager, every character can perform air dash in this game by tapping back or forward twice to air dash backward or forward respectively. Taokaka, Arakune and Bang has double air dash in this game that they can perform air dash twice in the air. Air dashes are quite different from the ones on the ground. After the start up frames of the air dash/backdash, characters can cancel into any air move. If an air dash is used, after a jump or high jump, the character will not be able to double jump (except Taokaka, who has triple jumps). If a double jump is used, then your character will be unable to air dash (except Taokaka, Arakune and Bang, who has double air dash). Here is the speed (unit measured by dot) and active frame data of air dash (AD) and back air dash (BAD): Character | AD Speed | AD Active F | BAD Speed | BAD Active F Ragna | 31000 | 20 | 24000 | 16 Noel | 31000 | 20 | 24000 | 16 Jin | 31000 | 20 | 24000 | 16 Tager | ----- | -- | ----- | -- Taokaka | 31000 | 20 | 24000 | 16 Rachel | 31000 | 20 | 24000 | 16 Arakune | 14500 | 45 | 11000 | 45 Bang | 30000 | 23 | 24000 | 23 Litchi | 33000 | 30 | 21000 | 30 Carl | 31000 | 16 | 24000 | 16 Hakumen | 31000 | 23 | 24000 | 23 V - 13 | 30000 | 12 | 29000 | 12 - Instant Air Dash - Abbreviation "IAD", air dash as soon as the character jumps up. There are two common ways to do this: 1) Input up+forward, then forward quickly. When you input up+forward, the game reads the command as two directional input UP plus FORWARD. Therefore you just need one more forward input to complete the IAD command. 2) Input forward > up+backward > forward, same principle of the above, this is for players who is not comfortable with the above method. ============================================================================== = :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ATTACK SYSTEM ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: = ============================================================================== - Revolver Action - Revolver Action is a combo system that allows you to chain a series of normal attacks together. It involves you cancelling the animation of a normal move into another normal so that the hits come out in rapid succession. The order you can chain moves together goes in the following: Weak Attack -> Medium Attack -> Heavy Attack While you are doing revolver action, you can link any kind of move: standing, crouching, or directional moves that require you to hold a particular direction on the controller. You do not have to start with the weak attack that you may start with medium or heavy attack. However, you cannot ever go backwards in the sequence in general. Revolver Action route is different depending on the characters. - Rapid Cancel - Rapid Cancel is inherited from Guilty Gear's Roman Cancel. Rapid Cancel uses 50% of the Heat Gauge. By pressing A + B + C during an attack to cancel its motion, Rapid Cancel has two main uses: further combo (usually more damage) and pressure strings (continue attacking). Most moves can be Rapid Cancelled. - Distortion Drive - Aka super move. Cosumes 50% Heat Gauge. One important use of Distortion Drive, besides its high damage (usually more than 3000pt damage), is that opponents cannot use Barrier Burst during this move. Therefore, use this move to catch opponents with a low stamina to win you a round. - Astral Heat - The ultimate move that uses 100% Heat Gauge that wins the match when it hit, you can use this move when opponent's health bar is below 20% in the last round of a match. Only Ragna, Rachel and V - 13 have Astral Heat in the arcade version. - Attack Level - Each attack has a Level (LV) rating. Depending on the rating, the attack will inflict a different amount of hit / guard stun (recovery) / knockback effect which relates to how long the opponent will be incapable of moving after the hit / guard stun has been inflicted. Use the chart below to determine how much hit or guard stun an attack will inflict. The level (LV) rating for each attack can be found in the character section. Note that getting hit from crouching state takes extra 2F to recover. You can check each character's Attack Level data in the character section of BlazBlue.co.nr Attack Level Data: | LV0 | LV1 | LV2 | LV3 | LV4 | LV5 Hitstop | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 CH Hitstop | +0 | +0 | +2 | +3 | +7 | +10 Standing Hit | 10 | 12 | 14 | 17 | 19 | 21 Crouching Hit | 12 | 14 | 16 | 19 | 21 | 23 Counter Hit | +4 | +4 | +4 | +5 | +5 | +6 Standing Guard | 9 | 11 | 13 | 16 | 18 | 20 Air Guard | 11 | 13 | 15 | 18 | 20 | 22 Barrier on Ground | 10 | 12 | 14 | 17 | 19 | 21 Barrier in Air | 12 | 14 | 16 | 19 | 21 | 23 Instant Guard on Ground | 4 | 6 | 8 | 11 | 13 | 15 Instant Guard in Air | 1 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 10 | 12 Instant Barrier on Ground | 5 | 7 | 9 | 10 | 13 | 16 Instant Barrier in Air | 2 | 4 | 6 | 9 | 11 | 13 - Counter Hit - Beating any striking attack during with your own during that attack's couter hit vulnerable frames, which usually is the moves' start up and active frames, will result in Counter Hit. In general, moves that hit on CH are harder to tech and recover. Thus it creates more possibilities for combos and setups. - Attribute - A new element in 2D fighting game. Attacks now have different classes: Head, Body and Foot. This creates more possiblities of interactions of different moves. For example, some characters' foward + A has head attribute invincibility, which is guaranteed to beat most jump attacks that only have head attribute, but it can easily lose to standing jabs that have both head and body attribute. Another example would be Jin foward + B, which has foot attribute invincibility. Since crouching jabs generally have foot attribute only, those attack always lose to Jin's forward + B. Then Carl's 236 + B has head and body attribute invincibility. Thus he can travel through most standing attacks with ease. Furthermore, there is the difference between attack and projectile attribute. Head, body and foot are considered to be attack attribute by default. While projectiles definitely has the projectile attribute, some other attacks, such as Jin's standing D or Noel's crouching C, have this property as well. These type of attacks lose to moves that has invincibility against projectiles attribute. Note that Barrier Burst has the projectile attribute as well. - Advance Input - In this game, if you hold a button, the game repeats its input for 5 frames. Using this system properly, you can easily connect some combos that require timing such as Ragna's down + D -> standing C by pressing C button for a little bit longer after the crouching D to connect. Another common use is to hold down the button after blocking or during wake up so the moves can execute immediately afterward. - Throw - Press B + C to perform a normal throw close to an opponent on ground or in the air. Ground throw has two versions: neutral throw (B + C or forward + B + C) or back throw (back B + C). It's unblockable and possible to cancel a throw for further combos. Throw has a whiff animation if opponent is too far. You can break a throw by pressing B + C in the beginning of the throw animation when the exclaimation mark appears. Learn more about that in Throw Escape section. In addition, You can use throw in combos or during block stun. Note that throw itself is not affected by damage scaling. Therefore, you may use it at the end of a combo for higher damage sometimes. In addition, when throw and attack meet at the same, throw always beats attack. Normal Throw Comparison: NT = Neutral Throw, BT = Back Throw, AT = Air Throw, EXE = Execution = Startup Character | NT Range | NT EXE | BT Range | BT EXE | AT Range | AT EXE Ragna | 80000 | 7 | 80000 | 7 | 90000 | 7 Jin | 90000 | 7 | 90000 | 7 | 90000 | 7 Noel | 70000 | 7 | 70000 | 7 | 80000 | 4 Tager | 210000 | 6 | 210000 | 7 | 160000 | 6 Taokaka | 140000 | 7 | 140000 | 7 | 100000 | 7 Rachel | 70000 | 7 | 70000 | 7 | 80000 | 7 Arakune | 120000 | 7 | 120000 | 7 | 120000 | 7 Bang | 120000 | 7 | 120000 | 8 | 120000 | 7 Litchi | 80000 | 7 | 80000 | 8 | 160000 | 7 Carl | 80000 | 7 | 80000 | 7 | 90000 | 7 Hakumen | 120000 | 7 | 120000 | 7 | 90000 | 7 V - 13 | 80000 | 7 | 80000 | 7 | 160000 | 7 Command Throw: Character | Throw Command | Throw Range | Startup Tager | 360 + A | 275000 | 11 Tager | 360 + B | 210000 | 8 Tager | 720 + C | 320000 | 5 + 0 Arakune |Counter Assault| 160000 | 4 Bang | DP + B | 100000 | 13 Bang | Air DP + C | 120000 | 7 V - 13 | d,d,d + B | 40000 | 13 + 0 - Throw Escape - By quickly entering B + C after your opponent begins a throw, you can escape the throw and avoid taking damage. There are plenty of information about this technique. First of all there are two throw escape timing. The regular one is a green exclamation mark appears in the beginning of a throw. You have to input B + C as soon as possible that the window of throw escape has only 13 frames. The second one is a throw during a combo or guard stun. You see two giant purple exclamation marks and the window for this throw escape is extended to 27 frames. Furthermore, there are situations you cannot throw escape. One is Counter Throw that the throw catches an attack as a counter hit. There will be a red cross and "Throw Counter" popping up indicate the throw cannot be escaped. The other one is Throw Eject Miss. When you input B + C command, your character cannot throw escape for a short period of time. If your character being thrown during this period, it is not throw escapable then the red cross and "Throw Eject Miss" will appear on the screen. Note that whenever you input B + C, your character will automatically throw escape for the next 11F if your opponent tries. This leads to following technique: 1) Barrier Throw Escape: By pressing back + A + B + C altogether, your character will Barrier guard the attack and throw escape if opponent tries. It's useful when your character is under pressure strings, but if your opponent delay the throw attempt it will be unescapable. So only use it if you are sure your opponent is going to attack or throw immediately. 2) Attack Throw Escape: Really useful technique for many characters. Basically you input B + C immediately after an attack so your character cannot be thrown even its execution or following attack is not quick enough. For example, when Ragna or Noel use forward + B to break opponent's defense, there is a good chance the opponent might attempt a throw counter before the attack comes out. If you input forward + B ~ B + C, Ragna/Noel will throw escape if opponent tries. Another example would be Taokaka's standing C > forward + C string. Your opponent may sneak a throw before Taokaka's forward + C comes out. If you buffer B + C right after standing C, Taokaka will be immune from throw attempts. The last example is Hakumen's counter attacks. By input B + C + D, Hakumen will either counter an attack or throw escape. In reality most opponents are going to wait for the counter and throw escape period pass then counter throw. That leads to... 3) Recovery Throw Escape: Using Hakumen's counter as an example, opponents try to throw Hakumen recovering from his counter move. If you input B + C after the counter instead of pressing B + C + D altogether, though the timing is strict, Hakumen can throw escape if opponents try counter throw. Moves with long recovery such as Ragna's DP + C or Taokaka's QCBQCB+C can apply to this technique as well. Although you have to guess your opponent going to throw you early or late of your recovery since the throw escape's effective period only lasts 11F, it's much better than eat a guaranteed counter throw everytime you whiff the attack. 4) Wakeup Throw Escape: Opponents may try to throw you as you gets up. You can easily buffer B + C as your character getting up to foil your opponents' attempt. - Normal Attack Cancel - In theory, any normal attacks can cancel to other speical or throw within 2F in this game. A common way to apply this is to cancel a normal attack that moves forward to increase the throw range. For example, Taokaka and Litchi's standing B moves themselves forward a bit. By holding the B button then quickly input C. They are going to move toward then throw. - Jump Install - Cancelling any ground normal moves that is jump cancelable to ground special moves by adding any up direction in the end of command input. In general most normal moves on ground can be cancelled to special moves that makes this technique really limited. So far Bang benefit from this the most. Bang can now cancel forward + D with DP + B by input f,d,d/f,f,u/f. Input it properly the ground verion will come out. - Clash - Though it does not happen often, when both players attack at the same time and the moves line up with each other they'll clash. There's a purple spark animation and both attacks will be negated. You can cancel to normal or special moves during this period but not jumping or dashing. If the clashed move has mulitiple hits, the latter attacks will come out. - Combo Damage Calculation - There are many damage scaling measures in this game, but it's not hard to understand. Just following the formula below you can calculate all the combo damages in this game and understand how the scaling works. The Combo Damage Formula: Attack's damage x initial proration x proration scaler x character combo rate x other conditional proration Character Combo Rate Character | Combo Rate Ragna | 100% Jin | 100% Noel | 100% Tager | 85% Taokaka | 115% Rachel | 100% Arakune | 105% Bang | 90% Litchi | 80% Carl | 100% Hakumen | 80% V - 13 | 90% Other Conditional Proration: Condition | Proration Hitting opponent during guard crush | 80% Hitting opponent from fall recovery | 80% Hit count 21 ~ 30 | 96% Hit count 31 ~ 59 | 98% Hit counter > 60 | 99% ============================================================================== = ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: DEFENSE SYSTEM ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: = ============================================================================== - Basic Guard - Basic Guard is the common way to defend the attacks. Pull back to stand block, back+downward to crouch block and any backward directions to block in the air. In addition, you have to know the guard levels to defend correctly. If the attack is an overhead, you have stand guard. If it is a low attack, you need to crouch guard. Then there are attacks you cannot use basic guard in the air and attacks you can block anyway you want. The last one is the unblockable that you simply cannot block the move at all. Usually it's either a throw that you can throw escape, or a slow attack you have time to dodge before it connects. - Instant Guard - Instant Guard is a bit harder to do than the basic one, and more rewarding to return. By holding back to defend an attack within 8 frames, your character flashes white to indicate you instant block successfully. The differences between Instant Guard and Basic Guard are: 1) Recover from guard stun 10F quicker in the air, and 5F quicker on the ground 2) The hit back effect of the attack is halved 3) Able to guard the air unblockable 4) Fixed 3% increase in Heat Gauge everytime you Instant Guard - Barrier - Barrier is an useful defense mechanism. By pressing any back direction plus A and B, your character forms a protective shield as they block. While using Barrier drains the Barrier Gauge, it has a lot of benefits as well. Barrier is a reliable way to defend the air unblockable moves. Unlike Instant Guard, Barrier has a greater pushback effect and negate both chip damage and Guard Libra reduction. There is a drawback that your character recover from guard stun is one frame longer than Basic Guard. And the amount of Barrier Gauge reduction is 35% of guard crash value of the attack you are defending. Note that you still have to guard different level of attacks accordingly such as stand guard an overhead or crouch guard a low attack. Plus Barrier is not effective vs unblockable. - Instant Barrier - Instant Barrier is the combination of Instant Guard and Barrier. By using Barrier to defend an attack within 8 frames, your character gets even more benefits: 1) Recover from guard stun 9F quicker in the air, and 4F quicker on the ground 2) The hit back effect of the attack is greater 3) Able guard the air unblockable 4) Fixed 3% increase in Heat Gauge everytime you use Instant Barrier 5) Immune from Guard Libra reduction 6) No chip damage - Guard Stun Trick - Like many other 2D fighting games, when a character defend a move, that character remain in standing or crouching position for some time due to the guard stun. Since standing guard has a higher hit box, this leads to using climbing jump attack as an overhead on a standing opponent who is still in guard stun. If the oppoent try to crouch guard from standing guard position, the climbing attack will hit the opponent. For example, Arakune attack with 6A, which is an overhead. To block it opponent is going to stand guard. Arakune can then do climbing jump B as an overhead, which doesn't work on a crouching opponent under normal circumstance. Thus after stand blocking Arakune's 6A, he can do jump B (overhead) and crouching A (low) mix up. You can apply this technique with many characters and it is useful to break opponent's defense. - Barrier Burst - Barrier Burst, activate by pressing A + B + C + D when Barrier Gauge is available, can be used to stop opponents' combos and pressure strings, or to guard crush opponent. If this is done, you will have no barrier gauge and in Danger Condition until that round ends. In addition, you CANNOT KILL your opponent when you attack your opponent during the guard break caused by Barrier Burst. The availablity of Barrier Burst is indicated in the red symbol below the Health Bar and next to the Barrier Gauge: There are conditions that you cannot do Barrier Burst: 1) When Distortion Drive freezes the screen, you cannot do burst passing that point. 2) During a throw or Distortion Drive. Note that you can burst when opponent does combo after those moves 3) After a throw or Distortion Drive, until you can Air Recovery, Fall Recovery or downed you cannot burst 4) You are attacking, including attack recovery Further more there are three kinds of burst, it depends on how much Barrier Gauge remaining when you do burst. Gold Burst (GB): 100% Green Burst (gB): 50% ~ 99% Blue Burst (BB): 1% ~ 49% Their property is list below: |Regular Condition| While Guarding | Getting Hit Types of Burst | BB | gB | GB | BB | gB | GB | BB | gB | GB Start up | 32F | 32F | 32F | 32F | 20F | 8F | 32F | 20F | 8F Duration | 64F | 64F | 64F | 64F | 52F | 64F | 52F | 40F | 40F Active | 6F | 6F | 6F | 6F | 6F | 6F | 6F | 6F | 6F Static Difference | +4 | +4 | +5 | -8F | -8F | -8F |-16F |-16F |-16F Untechable |300F |300F |300F |300F |300F |300F | 20F | 20F | 20F Tech on hit | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes Guard Crush Value | 0% | 50% |200% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% - Hit Stun / Untechable Timing - The amount of time of hit stun and air untechable during a combo decreases with each hit of the combo. Moves with high proration point in character move data decrease the hit stun and air untechable timing notably that makes the following move difficult or impossible to connect. In addition, every frame in hit stun increases 100 proration point. Hit Stun reduction on ground: (Proration Point of the attack in a combo - 25000) / 3600 (F) Untechable Timing reduction in air: (Proration Point of the attack in a combo - 16000) / 3600 (F) - Air Recovery - To perform an air recovery, press any button other than D button while in the air after being hit. You may choose to direct the recovery either forward, backward or neutral by adding the direction input. After air recovery, your character has 15F invinciblity. However, you can only use Barrier during this period. Afterward you may attack, or even double jump / air dash if your character haven't use them before the recovery. - Fall Recovery - There are four types of fall recovery when your character hitting the ground: Attack INV = Invincible vs attack duration Throw INV = Invincible vs throw duration Vunlerable = Duration of defenseless to any attack Air ATR = Air Attribute, duration of airborne Ground ATR = Ground Attribute, duration of on ground Type | Techroll Forward | Techroll Backward | Quick Rise | Quick Recovery Command | Forward + A/B/C | Back + A/B/C | Down+A/B/C | Up + A/B/C Duration | 39 | 39 | 19 | 32 Attack INV| 1 ~ 3 | 1 ~ 10 | None | 32 Throw INV | 1 ~ 17 | 11 ~ 17 | 1 ~ 19 | 0 Vunlerable| 4 ~ 17 | 1 ~ 17 | 1 ~ 13 | 32 Air ATR | 1 ~ 17 | 1 ~ 17 | 1 ~ 13 | 32 Ground ATR| 18 ~ 39 | 18 ~ 39 | 14 ~ 19 | 0 Techroll foward is obviously a risky way to recover with only 3 frames protection from attacks, but if you happen to use it get pass your opponent, you could cancel the latter part of the motion with special moves to attack from behind. Techroll backward is much more safer than the previous one without surprise potential. Quick rise is quite risky as well but your character gets up really quick! If your opponent try to throw you on wake up it will screw up their timing. Quick Recovery is the opposite of quick rise and the safiest option of all. As long as you are prepared to throw escape your character can stand up safely without a scratch. - Counter Assault - Similar to Alpha Counter, after blocking an opponent's attack, press forward + A + B to attack back. Note that you CANNOT KILL your opponent even you can do combo after Counter Assault. In addition, it is possible to use Counter Assault to reset the Guard Crush stun ONLY if you block 2nd or latter hit of a mulit hit move that causes the guard crush. Character | Startup | Property Ragna | 7F | Attack Jin | 10F | Attack Noel | -- | Teleport Tager | 18F | Attack Taokaka | 8F | Attack Rachel | 15F | Attack Arakune | 4F | Throw Bang | 8F | Attack Litchi | 13F | Attack Hakumen | 1F | Counter V - 13 | 9F | Attack - Attack Effects - Stagger: When your character staggers, simply tap A / B / C to recover. However, your character cannot do anything other than guarding for 8 frames after the recovery. Floor Slide: Opponent will slide across the ground if hit with specific moves and stay on the ground for a long period of time. It sets up the possiblities to do combo if your character is around the corner. Spinning collapse: Opponent will spinning on the ground twice before they collapse. Because the lengthy spinning motion, it gives your character plenty of time to do the follow attack. Wall Bounce: The attack blasts opponent across the screen, then bounce off the wall and falls towards the ground. The bounce curve is different depends on how far way opponent is from the wall. Therefore use proper moves to pursuit. Floor Bounce: The attack causes opponent to bounce off the ground and back up into the air. It's possible to do combo before opponent can use air recovery. Vacuum: Certain moves pull opponent closer when they hit or on block. It is useful for combo and set ups. Freeze: Jin's special effect from his drive attacks. Input back and forward rapidly to reduce the stun. - Negative Penalty - When the player is being too defensive, Negative Penalty will appear. If that player continue to be defensive, red aura will surround the character and takes doubled damage. Unless that character is playing positive for a period of time, Negative Penalty does not go away until the round ends. Note that actions within 300 frames after the round begin does not count towards negative penalty. Actions that count as positive: Moving forward, jump forward, dashing forward, opponents block or get hit by the attack, your character get hit or blocks the attacks. Actions that count as negative: Jump away, back dash, back air dash. The following chart shows the rates of characters to receive Negative Penalty, higher the number longer they can be defensive before getting the penalty. Character | Rate Ragna | 2 Jin | 6 Noel | 4 Tager | 6 Taokaka | 4 Rachel | 6 Arakune | 3 Bang | 1 Carl | 4 Hakumen | 6 V - 13 | 8 - Danger Condition - Once Barrier Gauge is unavailable, due to either total depletion or after Barrier Burst, that character's health bar flashes "DANGER" sign and takes 50% more damge. ============================================================================== = ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: CREDITS & LINKS :::::::::::::::::::::::::::: = ============================================================================== Thanks to: EnterBrain Mook Arcadia Extra Vol.76 - BlazBlue Players Guide http://www.arcadiamagazine.com/cgi-bin/product_view.cgi?id=195 Most system data and information comes from this wonderful guide. It also has character designs and other goodies. Buy one if you must! SPECIAL thanks to ARC SYSTEM WORKS for creating another awesome 2D fighting game! SECRETLY thanks to Ben Cureton aka tragic. If you ever read his Guilty Gear X guide on gamefaqs before, you would notice most of my terminologies and styles come directly from his guide. His work is really influencial even to this day. BlazBlue Community Site: http://blazblue.co.nr All the system information, with extra pictures, is mirrored in BlazBlue.co.nr. And it also has all the character frame data and other resource as well. Feel free to check them out. Again, you have any questions or feedback, please contact me by: 1) PM me at tianyuan2k4 in BlazBlue.co.nr 2) E-mail to Yuan Tian tianyuan2k4@gmail.com At last, I wish everyone having a wonderful time with BlazBlue. :) ============================================================================== = :: BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger System Guide :::::::::::::::: END OF FILE :: = ==============================================================================