anyquestions321
[09] Warrior
Any tips against people who just mash? I still beat them *most of the time*, but I feel like I take too much damage against a player who has no idea what she/he is doing and is just hitting buttons.
Basic Q&A Thread
- Thread starter IdleMind
- Start date
anyquestions321
[09] Warrior
Thanks! It's sometimes hard to predict what they will do next because they have no idea what they're doing, but I guess I can always abuse Natsu's A+B punish and her bombs after that knockdown
meangreentoker
[08] Mercenary
What's up ya'll, me and my buddy just won 2 Soul Cal tourneys in Denver (CutthroatCon and Holiday Bash) but the guy running it won't post our results, I was just wondering how I could get my events on 8wayrun, thank you.
Mage
I'll make you submit!
It would be better if the organiser posted the results, because all of the participants and their placings need to be recorded, including; Time, Venue, Timezone, Address, etc.
So I suggest you persuade him to put it on.
So I suggest you persuade him to put it on.
With natsu, I feel you need to be either in their face mixing them up or out of their range so you can mix-up your approach. 66B_K or AB can be good, but don't forget wind rolls, 1A, PO66 and POPORTS.
Probably get better advice on the natsu forums as well.
Dublbarrel
[08] Mercenary
Umm, oh geez. So, I'm VERY new to fighting games, haven't played much of anything since SC2 and back then I was just a masher. Watching recent EVO vids got me interested enough to buy Soul Cal 5, with intent of learning the game to a point where I feel like I know what I'm doing and having fun with it. I just don't know where to start, how does one learn fighting games in general. I can read on here for days about specific combos, etc, but what is a good way to learn basics? I am looking for an answer that isn't just 'Practice' I like playing, but without getting an idea of how to practice basic mechanics in general, I can only learn so much. Also, trying to play much against others online results in me getting my ass kicked A LOT, which also doesn't teach me a lot because I have no idea HOW my opponents beat me, just that they wipe the floor with my face!
Apologies in advance for the mini text wall
Apologies in advance for the mini text wall
- Moderator
- #328
WindupSkeleton
[14] Master
First of all, welcome to 8WR.
Second, as far as learning the basics go, just playing the game should teach you enough. I know it's not really the advice you were looking for, but the best way to learn the beginning things is to just mess about and play. Depending on what you'd define as basics, the way I did it was to read up on things I should be able to do (Spacing, JG, etc) and then have a go at doing them.
I suppose a good way of learning is to arrange fights with the less skilled players here, and move up from there? You can ask as you go and that way you're only really learning about the things specific to you, as opposed to being told things you might've already figured out.
Second, as far as learning the basics go, just playing the game should teach you enough. I know it's not really the advice you were looking for, but the best way to learn the beginning things is to just mess about and play. Depending on what you'd define as basics, the way I did it was to read up on things I should be able to do (Spacing, JG, etc) and then have a go at doing them.
I suppose a good way of learning is to arrange fights with the less skilled players here, and move up from there? You can ask as you go and that way you're only really learning about the things specific to you, as opposed to being told things you might've already figured out.
Wandrian
I don't know.
Here's my tl;dr version of the basics you'll want to learn...
The long version?
Spiders Calibur Primer
Drakes articles on all the basics
Much longer and much more in-depth :P
1: Start with an easy character, just one of them. Patroklos is great for running up and pressuring people, Mitsurugi is the master of the 50/50 gamble, Pyrrha is safe & fast with good punishment, Aeon is mediocre at everything but superb at spacing and the undisputed king of ring outs in this game. Any of them would be great starter characters, other characters with similar Ease of Use stats require greater compensation for their flaws(like Nightmare being the most punishable character or Leixia dealing dangerously low damage).
2: Advantage! If you land an attack or block an attack, you're at advantage and the opponent is at disadvantage. Your next action will be faster and their next action will be slower. To avoid extra damage, most of the time you want to be blocking when you find yourself at disadvantage. Missing an attack completely(whiffing) puts a player at a quite a bit of disadvantage and usually means they can't block in time to avoid being hit if their foe capitalizes on it. Some attacks have a lightning effect on them, these break guard and leave the victim vulnerable briefly: in some cases even guaranteeing certain attacks. There are also certain slow, powerful attacks that place their user at advantage any time they hit, but these are few and far between. The thing to remember about advantage/disadvantage is that it goes away almost as soon as it comes: if you don't take advantage of it immediately it's lost and you return to neutral.
3: Spacing and movement. Spacing is, in short trying to maintain an ideal distance from your foe to make it difficult for them to even touch you for longer-ranged characters or ensuring that they can't safely move away for shorter-ranged characters. This is best accomplished by moving a lot and memorizing how far your own attacks reach out to. But movement itself has risks involved: forward movement puts you more in harms way, any other kind of movement has a cooldown on blocking(about a third of a second) and being hit while moving in any direction but forward makes you eat full counterhit damage instead of normal damage. This is something to exploit obviously, make your foe want to move and smack them out of their movement. Which is easier to accomplish when you're spacing well :)
4: Punishment. Punishment is exploiting your foes mistakes for guaranteed damage that can only be missed if you mess up your input. Most punishment comes from stepping to cause whiffs and blocking unsafe attacks. Every attack has a certain degree of 'safety' in how much disadvantage it places the user when it doesn't land how they intended. In some cases this means you can launch them into a juggle combo for a lot of damage, sometimes you'll only be able to get in a basic poke. Regardless, you should try to punish everything you can: it's free damage and your foe is literally defenseless against it unless they somehow don't make any mistakes.
5: Timing, mixups, and mindgames. Changing your timing on things is another great way to get free damage. If you seem to keep getting smacked out of your attacks, try just standing there and blocking until your foe takes the iniative, figuring out how long they like to defend before attacking, and then smacking them out of their attacks! If you keep changing up your timing you can make your foe more cautious and have an easier time forcing a mixup on them! A mixup is pretty much just like it sounds: mixing up your opponent by doing different attacks. All characters have access to the basic low/mid/throw mixup at close range, most characters have many additional mixups either with stances, delayable attacks, or the like. The goal is to make your foe expect one thing and do something completely different so they can't defend themselves. Which is a great mindgame! Mindgames are pretty much *THE* thing in Soulcalibur. You can do something weird to confuse an opponent, like drop a launch combo early to hit them with an unblockable attack as they get up, cancel a cancelable attack, do a non-ring out throw in a situation a ring out throw would work to avoid getting your thrown broken...Get them out of their comfort zone and make them suffer for it.
2: Advantage! If you land an attack or block an attack, you're at advantage and the opponent is at disadvantage. Your next action will be faster and their next action will be slower. To avoid extra damage, most of the time you want to be blocking when you find yourself at disadvantage. Missing an attack completely(whiffing) puts a player at a quite a bit of disadvantage and usually means they can't block in time to avoid being hit if their foe capitalizes on it. Some attacks have a lightning effect on them, these break guard and leave the victim vulnerable briefly: in some cases even guaranteeing certain attacks. There are also certain slow, powerful attacks that place their user at advantage any time they hit, but these are few and far between. The thing to remember about advantage/disadvantage is that it goes away almost as soon as it comes: if you don't take advantage of it immediately it's lost and you return to neutral.
3: Spacing and movement. Spacing is, in short trying to maintain an ideal distance from your foe to make it difficult for them to even touch you for longer-ranged characters or ensuring that they can't safely move away for shorter-ranged characters. This is best accomplished by moving a lot and memorizing how far your own attacks reach out to. But movement itself has risks involved: forward movement puts you more in harms way, any other kind of movement has a cooldown on blocking(about a third of a second) and being hit while moving in any direction but forward makes you eat full counterhit damage instead of normal damage. This is something to exploit obviously, make your foe want to move and smack them out of their movement. Which is easier to accomplish when you're spacing well :)
4: Punishment. Punishment is exploiting your foes mistakes for guaranteed damage that can only be missed if you mess up your input. Most punishment comes from stepping to cause whiffs and blocking unsafe attacks. Every attack has a certain degree of 'safety' in how much disadvantage it places the user when it doesn't land how they intended. In some cases this means you can launch them into a juggle combo for a lot of damage, sometimes you'll only be able to get in a basic poke. Regardless, you should try to punish everything you can: it's free damage and your foe is literally defenseless against it unless they somehow don't make any mistakes.
5: Timing, mixups, and mindgames. Changing your timing on things is another great way to get free damage. If you seem to keep getting smacked out of your attacks, try just standing there and blocking until your foe takes the iniative, figuring out how long they like to defend before attacking, and then smacking them out of their attacks! If you keep changing up your timing you can make your foe more cautious and have an easier time forcing a mixup on them! A mixup is pretty much just like it sounds: mixing up your opponent by doing different attacks. All characters have access to the basic low/mid/throw mixup at close range, most characters have many additional mixups either with stances, delayable attacks, or the like. The goal is to make your foe expect one thing and do something completely different so they can't defend themselves. Which is a great mindgame! Mindgames are pretty much *THE* thing in Soulcalibur. You can do something weird to confuse an opponent, like drop a launch combo early to hit them with an unblockable attack as they get up, cancel a cancelable attack, do a non-ring out throw in a situation a ring out throw would work to avoid getting your thrown broken...Get them out of their comfort zone and make them suffer for it.
The long version?
Spiders Calibur Primer
Drakes articles on all the basics
Much longer and much more in-depth :P
meangreentoker
[08] Mercenary
Thank you for the reply, I do have the bracket data and all the other data you listed however, but I'll see if i can't get him to in the near future.
- Moderator
- #331
Marginal
Chikara Sashimi
Might have to bug Greg a bit for that to happen.
lXxxOPxxXl
[08] Mercenary
Hi guys I'm new to the fourms. I play Yoshi and I'm not new to the game but I thought this would be the best place for this question. How do you do RCC 3b? I can't find anything about it in Yoshi's page and I've tried everything I could think of in practice.
lXxxOPxxXl
[08] Mercenary
Thanks alot man! I hope this will be as usefull as I think it is!
Sp1d3r
Demon Beaver
Yup.. oh and don't forget about 4KB from FC. That's a good option too.
voxanimus
[08] Mercenary
i have a few questions about both game mechanics, etc. and 8WR forum policies.
Mechanics questions:
8WR question:
if a forum user has elected to display their online ID (PSN/XBL) next to their name, does that mean they are okay with total randoms adding them? i.e., is it prudent to add people whose IDs you merely stumbled across here? or is some sort of prior interaction warranted?
thx guise
Mechanics questions:
- what does the "i" in front of frame counts/notations mean? does i18 mean something different than 18? is the i different than the exclamation that i sometimes also see preceding notations?
- what is the width of a vertical attack's hitbox? do all verticals have hitboxes of equal width? is a single non-quick sidestep enough to sidestep a vertical?
- does a SCV GI counter all attacks regardless of hit location? i.e., can i counter a low with a manual GI?
8WR question:
if a forum user has elected to display their online ID (PSN/XBL) next to their name, does that mean they are okay with total randoms adding them? i.e., is it prudent to add people whose IDs you merely stumbled across here? or is some sort of prior interaction warranted?
thx guise
Solo
[14] Master
ChaosK
[13] Hero
I think he may refer to stuff like iWR or iaga.
In those cases the i stands for "instant", so like the fastest possible input (often used for Just Frames).
In those cases the i stands for "instant", so like the fastest possible input (often used for Just Frames).
voxanimus
[08] Mercenary
from IFB's Grabs and Ringouts guide:
i also had another question about whether or not manual GIs can counter lows, which i have updated the original to include.
thanks for your help, Solo!
voxanimus
[08] Mercenary
i wasn't even aware the i had multiple meanings! thanks, Chaos :D