Frame Advantage
Frame advantage is the concept of who is free to act first after an interaction.
This is most commonly brought up after blocking an attack; who can act first - the attacker or defender? Frame Advantage has the answer! A negative value means the defender can act first, and a positive value means the attacker can act first. The value shows exactly how many frames one character can move before the other.
- Ex: Frame Advantage -5 means the defender is free to move 5 frames before the attacker.
- Ex: Frame Advantage +2 means the attacker can move 2 frames before the defender.
Each character's Full Frame Data page shows both the Frame Advantage when an attack is blocked. Air attacks don't have Frame Advantage listed since that value is heavily influenced by when the attacker lands after an attack.
Frame advantage assumes that the attack connects as soon as possible against a standing/crouching opponent, and that the attacker does not cancel the attack into anything else.
For more information on using frame data see here.
Running Momentum
Performing actions while running will carry some momentum from the run into followup actions. This is a potent way to give attacks more range and make jumps move further, especially because this can used a frame immediately after starting a run. The run can even be buffered and immediately cancel into a followup action to gain running momentum without even running for a single frame!
- Attack
- Characters will slide forward during the first few frames, giving the attack more range for free.
- The amount the character slides forward depends on the attacks, for example ground Dragon Rush does not slide forward at all.
- Jump
- Jump trajectories are affected by running momentum. A
jump will actually move forward slightly, and a forward jump will go further than normal. This is effectively a new set of jump trajectories that can be used to approach the opponent.
Input Buffer
Advanced Input
Hold an attack button to repeat the button input every frame for up to 4 frames. This will make difficult links are easier to do -- hold the button a little early and that 1F link usually becomes a 4F link!
Inputting a run within 4F of returning to neutral (such as during an attack's recovery, during blockstun, on wakeup, etc.) will also have the same effect; regardless of any directional inputs after that, your character will begin running as soon as recovery ends! The same principle can be applied to backdash and airdashes.
Advanced Input makes timing things as fast as possible easier, and is even better when buffering both an attack and a run. The attack will activate as soon as possible while sliding forward! This technique is useful for linking together combos as well as punishing things after blocking. In fact, some combos rely on Advanced Input to work.
Super Flash Buffer
Some attacks briefly pause the game to make the startup of the attack more dramatic. This is known as Super Flash or Super Freeze.
When the opponent does an attack with super flash, commands inputted during super flash will be executed immediately after super flash ends.
Players often use this to execute an invincible attack (such as Vanish or super) to counter the opponent's super. This is because supers usually have a bit of startup even AFTER the super flash, which allows the defender to input an attack of their own risk-free!
Attacks with super flash list their startup values as:
startup pre-flash + (super flash duration) + startup post-flash
Ex: an attack with startup 5+(90 Flash)+5 has 5 frames of startup, then 90F super flash, then hits the opponent after 5 more frames for a total of 10 frames of startup.
- Supers With No Startup After Super Flash
Some attacks are special: they have no additional startup after the super flash. Super Flash Buffer is useless against these attacks - you can think of the superflash as just a formality, the attack has already become active!
Sparking Blast is a prime example of this; you must already be guarding BEFORE the super flash or else it will be too late. You can identify such attacks in the frame data by looking at their startup post-flash, which should be 0.
