Command Input(top)
Consider the following command inputs and how to interpret them:
- Graphical Notation
Textual Notation
Description
-
PK
Press and then press
-
6PK
Tap the Joystick forward and press , then press
-
P+K
Press and together
-
46P+G
Tap the Joystick back , then tap forward and press and together
-
41236P+G
Roll the Joystick in a half circle direction from back to forward and press and together. Note that you do not have to return the Joystick to neutral between each direction.
-
6_K
While holding forward , press . Note that this is different from which means to tap the Joystick forward and press .
-
2_6P
While crouching, tap forward and press at the same time.
All commands are shown with respect to Player 1's orientation. Swap the left and right directions for Player 2.
The Input Buffer(top)
Ordinarily, when you're just standing there and free to move, the instant you press a button, something happens on screen. For example, if you press
your character will immediately punch.
But what about times when you're aren't free to move, such as when you're guarding the opponent's attack, or you're recovering from your own attack? What happens to your button presses then? Are they ignored until you're free to move again? This is where the Input Buffer comes in.
During times when you're frozen and unable to move, any buttons you input will get placed into a buffer (or a queue). This is called the input buffer and it lasts for 10 frames.
What this essentially means is that any buttons entered during the last 10 frames of your recovery will get executed the very first frame you're able to move. Let's look at two examples:
Let's say you just guarded an attack which put you into guard stun for a long time. Just before you're about to recover, and are free to move, you press
. Now provided you pressed
within the Input Buffer, then your character will successfully punch the very frame they recover. By using the Input Buffer this way, you're executing your punch attack as early as possible, with no frames wasted. Consider an example where you first waited, visually verifying that you'd recovered before you input
. This ends up wasting valuable frames before your punch even begins to execute.
Now consider the following:
This time, even though the
is entered during recovery, it's before the 10 frame input buffer. Since the input is too early, the punch does not get processed when you recover. Have you ever had one of those moments where you swore you pressed an attack button and nothing came out? Usually mid combo, or after guarding your opponent's attack? Chances are, your input was too early!
With knowledge of the input buffer, you can input your commands ahead of time, especially when you're doing something else, such that as soon as you recover, your input will be processed. This can help you speed up your play, and ensure that your commands are executed as fast as possible. More on this in the following sections.
Guard Buffering(top)
Following on from the Input Buffer, you can use the Guard button to hold your character steady while you buffer commands, then release on the final command to execute it.
An example of this is Akira performing his Super Dashing Elbow (SDE)
. If you're standing idle and proceed to enter this command, chances are you'll see Akira twitch forward as you're entering
. Depending on how fast or slow your input is, you may even see Akira begin to dash forward since the
input is also a forward dash. It is only until you complete the input (...
) that Akira will begin to execute his attack.
As shown above, you'll notice that you're actually wasting time while you input the command. Not only that, but from an idle situation, your twitching/dashing animation may even alert your opponent that something is coming, possibly eliminating the element of surprise. So a 14 frame attack, could potentially take 21 frames (as shown above) or more to actually execute if you count from the time you start to see Akira move.
By using
Guard Buffering you can hold Akira steady and unleash the SDE from a standing start.
To guard buffer Akira's SDE: while holding
, enter the
, then release
and press
. The benefit this has is that you're guarding for most of the input (which may protect you from any quick attacks!) as well as disguising the fact that a move is about to be unleashed! By the time your opponent sees you move, the attack is already in execution.
Recovery Buffering(top)
The same concept holds true for buffering commands while you're recovering from something. Let's say as Akira, you wish to perform the following combo:
>
.
Notice that the Double Palm starts executing in the fastest time possible, which is as soon as the SDE has finished recovering. Also notice that the initial
motion for the double palm is earlier than 10 frames before the SDE recovery ends. This is fine, because there are less than 10 frames between each input of the double palm, and the final
input is within 10 frames of the end of recovery.
If you wait until the SDE finishes recovering before you start to enter the Double Palm, you'll be wasting valuable frames with your input, and risk the Double Palm missing altogether and causing the combo to fail.
Buffer Cancel(top)
You can cancel a string of commands being buffered by entering a
into the sequence. For example, if Pai entered
, she'll get her triple punch combo, followed by her
. This is the fastest way of combining two separate strings/attacks that would otherwise combine into the one combo, in this case, Pai's
.