BBTag/Esoterica

Hitting Two Opponents With the Same Attack

Ragna hitting two opponents with 5A

One attack can hit multiple targets when they are within range.

Normally, when an attack touches the opponent, the remaining active frames can not hit the opponent again. However, if there is a second hittable character, then the remaining active frames can still hit him!

This leads to visually strange situations like Ragna's 5B hitting the opponent's Partner, then a moment later, the opponent jumps into the active frames and gets hit. This is further compounded by the fact that hitstop only applies to the attacker and the target, thus allowing the attack to hit the unaffected character with the active frames plus the hitstop frames!

This even applies to projectiles like Jin's Hishouken, but since the projectile will disappear immediately after hitstop, this effect is much harder to take advantage of.

Misc Notes

With regards to cancels on hit/block, hitting partner characters counts as the opponent blocking an attack
If two opponents are in range of your attack, they are hit on the same frame

Hitstop

When an attack hits an object, both objects freeze in place briefly to give the attack the feeling of more impact. This effect is known as hitstop and can vary in duration, like Hazama's 4A compared to his Jayoku Houtenjin (236BC) . Hitstop helps with combo consistency because you can buffer commands like special cancels during hitstop and it will be executed immediately after hitstop ends.

Hitstop applies to anything that can attack or get hit - including projectiles and assists. We will refer to all of these as "objects" for the sake of brevity.

Objects experiencing hitstop are frozen in place, but other objects are unaffected. For example, when Jin's projectile hits the opponent, Jin does not experience hitstop, only the projectile and the opponent do. From Jin's perspective, the hitstop the opponent experiences can be thought of as additional blockstun/hitstun! If an object also happens to have some other property, such as a guard point or invulnerability, while frozen by hitstop, that property will extended by the duration of the hitstop as well, so it will always end at the same point in the move as it usually would.

Uneven Hitstop

When an attack hits an object, both the attacker and the receiving object usually experience the same amount of hitstop, but this is not always true. Some attacks deal different amounts of hitstop on hit vs block, or normal vs counter hit.

The most common example of this is counter hit - the defender experiences a few extra frames of hitstop compared to the attacker! These extra frames of hitstop can be thought of as extra hitstun since only the defender experiences them.

Armor and Parry Stances

Attacks with armor and parry-type attacks are attacks that guard the opponent's attack before retaliating with their own. When these attacks guard the opponent's attack, they can also change how much hitstop each object experiences! This is why some counter type attacks can beat safe jumps; they force the attacker into more hitstop that the defender, and the defender can attack before the attacker can reach the ground and guard!

Hakumen's Reversal Action is an example of this.

Projectiles

As mentioned above, projectiles are considered separate objects from the character that summoned them, so when they hit other objects, the character doesn't experience hitstop. The projectile itself does experience hitstop - which explains why multihit projectiles don't do their hits one frame after the other, they need to wait for hitstop to end before they can hit the opponent again!

Partner Characters

Hitting partner characters works the same as hitting any character with regards to hitstop.

Miscellaneous Hitstop Notes

Amount of Hitstop: The amount of hitstop an attack deals depends on its attack level, but certain attacks can override these default values.
Getting Hit While in Hitstop: If a character gets hit while experiencing hitstop, then the previous hitstop immediately ends and the new attack's hitstop begins.
Hitting Two Opponents With One Attack: The attacker only experiences hitstop the first time they hit an opponent. Both opponents will experience hitstop each time they get hit.
Projectiles where the Attacker Also Experiences Hitstop: While very rare, some projectiles (like Nu's 5B) don't behave like normal projectiles and also put the attacker into hitstop

Clash Assault Frame Advantage

Usually the frame advantage on hit is around +31F or +32F, and can vary based on input timing - hitting the opponent higher in the air will grant more frame advantage. "Good!!" and Extra Assaults can take advantage of this by inputting the followup as soon as possible to hit the opponent higher in the air and gain a few extra frames (around 6F).

Given this blows the opponent away full-screen, these extra frames usually are negligable.

Character Priority

Character priority determines the result of a number of small interactions, mainly same-frame ones. Unlike various other games where priority is purely based on static things like controller port or character selection, priority in BBTag will change multiple times through the course of a match.

Initial Priority Order

Player 2 Character 2 > Player 1 Character 2 > Player 2 Character 1 > Player 1 Character 1

Character number is assigned at the time of character select, and does not change even if you switch your order during order select. So, the second character you pick in character select is always going to be Character 2. Projectiles are always treated as having lower priority than any player characters.

Changing Priority

An attack connecting (hit or block) with an opposing character will move the attacking character to the top of the priority list. This includes an assist character's attack. Projectiles *do not* give priority to the user, even on hit or block.

Priority-based Game Mechanics

If two characters connect an attack at the same time, the character with higher priority will count as connecting second, for the purposes of P1 and Reject Guard (P1 of the "first" hit is used, character that connects "second" is pushed back from Reject).
- Since the character with higher priority is hitting "second", they will also continue to hold priority afterward.
- For true high/low unblockables, against a training dummy set to block everything and swap guard, the attack that hits "second" will be the one that does not get blocked.
The character at the top of the priority list is capable of performing an Active Switch with Reversal Action without needing to buffer behind hitstop. The input sequence for this is to input D, release D, then input A+D the frame after releasing D. Attempting to perform this when your character does not have priority will only result in an Active Switch.
If a strike and a grab connect on the same frame, the character with the higher priority will lose the "trade", regardless of whether they were using a strike or a grab.
If both characters connected a grab on the same frame, the character with the higher priority will get grabbed.
- If the grab happened within the 14 frame window of a throw escape, then a throw escape will immediately occur. Otherwise, the character getting grabbed will count as being throw countered, and be unable to escape the throw at all.
There also may be a number of character-specific interactions that work or don't work based on priority.
- eg. If Yumi hits both characters with her 214B~A, the Aerial Rave followup will continue to carry the assist character if they had a higher priority than the point character. The assist character will fall out if the point character had higher priority.

Block Carryover

During blockstun the defender will automatically block other attacks regardless of what direction the defender holds until blockstun ends! This lets the defender more easily prepare reversal inputs and more safely input Instant Blocks.

Block carryover ends immediately when blockstun ends, event a one frame gap
Block carryover works even when the opponent switches sides.
Defenders must still block correctly - low attacks must be blocked low, and high attacks must be blocked high
- Hold any downward direction to block low. All other directions will block high.