P4U2R/Damage

From Dustloop Wiki

Health

Health turns yellow when in Awakening.

Each character has varying amounts of health. See each character's page for exact values or view the System Data for a table to compare between the cast.

There are two types of health in this game: Regular Health, and Recoverable Health (blue health).

If a Normal Type character's health is reduced to approximately 35%, the character enters Awakening. Shadow Type characters do not have access to Awakening.

Recoverable Health

The Blue portion will recover over time if you don't get hit.

Recoverable Health (also known as Blue Health) is health that is temporarily lost and will regenerate over time, provided the character does not get hit. Attacks that do zero damage (such as Bursts and throw breaks) will not remove Blue Health.

There are a variety of ways to transform regular health into blue health:

  • Blocking special and super attacks, which deal a fixed percentage of base damage as Blue Health when blocked.
  • Perform a Furious Action.
  • Perform a Super Cancel, which transforms a fixed percentage of regular health into Blue Health.

Super Cancels and Furious Actions are still usable at low life, since they do not cost a fixed health value; instead, they transform a percentage of a character's health into Blue Health. When a character is at low health, these actions essentially become "free," since they will be left at 1 health regardless. Players should take note of this fact and prepare to see Furious Actions when the opponent is near death.

Characters cannot die from having only Blue Health. Unlike in most other games, blocking special and super attacks will never kill. However, Blue Health is not counted when determining winner by time out: only the green section counts! An opponent may not be able to kill a player by forcing them to incur Blue Health, but they can place them in blockstrings that cause significant Blue Health on block in order to guarantee a win during a time-out situation.

There is approximately 5 second startup before Blue Health starts to recover. The startup is reset if you receive more blue damage or if you block anything. However, this delay is not affected by jumping or any offensive actions.

Damage Scaling

As more attacks are added to a combo, each attack progressively does less damage due to damage scaling (also known as damage proration).

To determine how much damage the second hit onwards (the first hit always deals 100% damage) in a combo will deal, there is a formula:

Damage = (Base Damage of the attack) × (Character Combo Rate) × (Protation Tally)

Combo Rate

For every move in a combo after the first, a character-specific modifier is applied to scale down the damage more than it otherwise would be. Combo Rate varies between 0.60 (Shadow Labrys) and 0.70 (Akihiko). In the case of Shadow Labrys, every move after the first does 0.6 times its normal damage, in addition to scaling from proration.

Proration Tally

Each attack has three values, P1, P2, and SMP, meaning Proration 1, Proration 2, and Same Move Proration. These modify the damage of every move used after them in a combo. During a combo, a Proration Tally (PT) is kept. After a move hits, its proration is added to PT as such:

  • If it was the first move in the combo, add P1 and P2; otherwise, only add P2.
  • Add SMP as well if the move had previously been used in the combo.

For every 100 PT, damage is reduced by 4%, up to 1200. Starting at 1300, damage is reduced by 2% per 100 PT. Intermediate numbers are not counted; there is no difference between 400 PT and 450 PT, for instance, but adding another 50 would make it 500, which would add to scaling.

  • Example 1: Say you use a move with 200/100/50 as the starter and the second attack in a combo. So for the third attack, you have (200 + 100) + (100 + 50) = 450 PT. Counting only the hundreds, damage is reduced by 4 × 4% = 16%.

This value is subtracted from 100%, and the resulting number is multiplied by base damage and, for all moves beyond the first in a combo, Combo Rate.

100% - this value can also be called Effective Proration; EP for short. EP is bound by 0% and 100%, meaning you'll never do negative damage or do more damage than normal. Some attacks do have negative proration; for instance, a One More! Burst has a P2 of -200, but if your PT is below 0, your EP will still only be 100%.

The damage formula, in total: Base Damage × Combo Rate (or 1 for first move) × Effective Proration

  • Example 2: You've done some combination of moves so that PT is 1550 and want to see how this affects the next move you do. Divided by 100 = 15. Multiply the first 12 by 4% = 48%, leaving 3; 3 × 2% = 6%. EP = 100% - 48% - 6% = 46%.

If the next move you want to do has 800 base damage and your character has a 60% combo rate, your attack will do 800 × 60% × 46% = 220 damage.

You can check the proration values of each characters' moves on their /Frame_Data pages.

Minimum Damage

All supers deal a minimum amount of damage in a combo regardless of damage scaling, making them great as combo finishers since they will ignore some of the damage scaling and deal damage that otherwise would not be possible. Most supers deal 30% of their base damage as minimum damage, but there are exceptions.

Power-up supers such as Yosuke's Sukukaja and Chie's Power Charge do not receive the benefits of minimum damage.

Minimum damage is still affected by Awakening. If an attack would normally do 1000 minimum damage, it will only do 625 minimum damage when the opponent is in Awakening.

Bonus Damage

Counter hits increase damage of that attack by 10% and supers by 20%. Fatal Counter increases it to 20% and 30% respectively.

Negative Penalty increases damage taken by 50%.

Awakening

Being in Awakening reduces damage taken to 62.5%.

This even applies to minimum damage! An attack that does 1000 minimum damage will only deal 625 minimum damage when a character is in Awakening.

Base Damage Reduced for Shadows

All Shadow Type characters have a 10% reduction on the base damage of their attacks. Meaning if an attack for a Normal character would do 100 damage, then the shadow version's attack would do only 90 damage.

All damage values listed in the wiki are for Normal Type characters.

Other Damage

Chip Damage

In P4U2 (and most other fighting games), Skills and all variations thereof deal small amounts of damage even if they are blocked. This damage is all blue health so it can be recovered over time.

Most Skills and up deal 15% of their base damage on block as Recoverable Health.

Poison Damage

Poison damage is another source of damage and is not counted in the combo counter.

Combo System

Hitstun Decay

How much stun is left? Look at the small blue bar under the damage

Similar to damage scaling, the amount of hitstun and untechable time each attack deals will scale down with damage scaling. This is meant to act as a means to prevent infinite combos, but also to require that players develop a deeper understanding of their character's combo theory due to the fact that combos that worked earlier may not any longer due to hitstun decay.

Hitstun and untechable time scaling is based on damage proration. As proration passes certain thresholds, hitstun and untechable time go down by a specific amount of frames. For untechable time, it works like this:


Proration Tally Effective Proration Hitstun Untechable Time
1200 52% -0F -2F
1600 44% -2F -3F
1800 40% -3F -4F
1900 38% -4F -5F
2000 36% -5F -6F
2100 34% -6F -7F
2200 32% -7F -8F
2300 30% -9F -10F
2400 28% -11F -12F
2500 26% -13F -14F
2600 24% -15F -16F
2700 22% -17F -18F
2800 20% -19F -20F
2900 18% -21F -22F
3000 16% -23F -24F
3100 14% -25F -26F
3200 12% -27F -28F
3300 10% -29F -30F
3400 8% -9999F -9999F


Moves cannot have their untechable time reduced below 1F. At any point if a move should have 0F untechable time, it is untechable for 1 frame. Throws and some rare other moves also have fixed hitstun/untechable time that isn't reduced in this way.

Also note: hitstop is not reduced by hitstun decay, so there may be other ways to perform combos even after you reach the maximum reduction (for example, using the hitstop from projectiles, utilizing hit effects such as wallbounce to extend untechable time, etc.).

Increasing Hitstun

Crouching Opponent
Hitting a crouching opponent give an additional 2 frames of hitstun. This means that there are combos that only work on crouching characters, commonly called crouch confirms. Yu can combo 5C > 2C on crouching characters but not on standing characters.
Fatal Counter
Fatal Counters adds 2 frames of hitstun/untechable time to all subsequent attacks in that combo. This allows for combos that would otherwise not work.
For example, Yosuke can not usually combo after Mirage Slash, but with a Fatal Counter beforehand, he can combo from Mirage Slash into a 2A!

Hit Effects

Ground Hit
When a character is hit standing or crouching they suffer hitstun. When ground hitstun finishes, you will be returned to your previous state (i.e. standing or crouching). Ground hitstun is divided into standing and crouching hitstun: standing hitstun is easier to hit for attacks with high hitboxes (note: the animation differs slightly depending on whether you get in the upper or lower half of your hitbox); crouching hitstun has a shorter hitbox, but lasts 2 frames longer than standing hitstun.
Furthermore, some attacks have unique properties that force an opponent into a specific type of hitstun. For example, Yu's 214A forces the opponent into crouching hitstun on ground hit.
Air Hit (Untechable State)
Naturally enough, air hit is a hit state when hit while airborne. The main difference from ground hits is that recovery is not automatic - characters need to recover, or "tech" out, after the attack's untechable window passes. If you don't tech out, the opponent will be able to combo you and create an "invalid combo".
Falling to the ground without recovering will end the air hit and characters can ground recover.
Forcing air state and ground state
Many attacks force the airborne state in some way or another, meaning they behave the same regardless of whether they hit someone grounded or airborne.
The frame data will write "Launch" to denote moves that forces air state.
Rarely some attacks will do the opposite and force an airborne opponent into standing state. These usually are used by attacks that go into a throw-like animation on hit.
Knockback force and direction
Most grounded hits push the opponent away slightly, and most air hits push the opponent away and upwards slightly. However various moves add other types of forces instead.
In a general sense, any move can be programmed to give more, less, or even negative knockback effects (where they're hit towards you instead of away, or downwards instead of upwards).
These can change based on if the hit was grounded, airborne or counterhit, with the latter usually exaggerating knockback effects. For example, Tager's j.B move behaves in the normal way for all grounded hits and normal air hits, but air counterhits launch his opponent downwards with considerable speed and ground bounces.
Bounce Effects
There are various types of bounce effects: floorbounce, wallbounce, and cornerbounce.
  • Floorbounce is a hitstate where characters get hit into the ground and then bounce, floating up into the air. The height bounced varies by move and can also vary based on starting height.
  • Wallbounce occurs after you're blown back into and then rebound off of the edge of the visible part of the battlefield. Full wallbounce rebounds the player back out to approximately the same place they started when they were hit.
  • Wallbound is similar to wallbounce, with the exception that instead of bouncing all of the way back out, they drop in place after hitting the wall, usually meaning followups are only possible if you were already in the corner.
  • Wallstick, similar to wallbound, with the exception that the character is stuck to the wall for a short while before falling down, allowing more time for followups.
  • Cornerbounce is when the character is blown back into and then rebound off of the corner of the field.
In all cases, bouncing in this way resets the untechable time for that move.
Crumple
Crumple is a hitstate where the character struggles to keep standing and eventually falls to the ground. This animation takes 86F and is not affected by hitstun decay.
Hitting them during this animation will put them in air state.
Spin
Spin is a hitstate where the character spins in place, and is unique in that they are throwable. For some characters, comboing into a Spin then using a command throw is optimal for damage!
The duration of the Spin animation is equal to the standing hitstun of the attack.
Spin time decays with hitstun decay.
Ground Slide
Slide is a hitstate where the character is slammed into the ground and then slides along it.
Each attack that inflicts slide will slide for a specific duration, then a 9F skdding-to-a-stop animation. Characters can Recover after the skid animation if the attack did not inflict Hard Knockdown.
The Slide value in the frame data includes the 9F skid.
Hard Knockdown
A knockdown that disables Ground Recovery. Hard Knockdowns can be combined with standard air hits, Crumples, Slides, and more.
A Hard Knockdown from the air also includes a untechable mini-ground bounce (usually 13F). Slides have their own unique transition animations.
Hard Knockdown duration decays with untechable time.
Freeze

Moves that can freeze have two additional values: Freeze Count and Freeze Duration

  • Freeze Count is the limit of when an attack can trigger the freeze effect in a combo. Most freeze moves have Freeze Count 1, so they can only be the first Freeze in a combo, else they just do regular hitstun. Certain attacks have higher Freeze Counts, for example Mitsuru's Tenarafoo ([4]6C/D) have very high Freeze Counts effectively ignoring the Freeze Count limit.
  • Freeze Duration Determines how long the opponent will be frozen in place after being hit by a move that freezes. Freeze Duration is not affected by hitstun decay or bonus hitstun from a Fatal Counter starter; in other words, Freeze Duration is always the same.
Additional Freeze Details
  • If an attack hits the attacker while the defender is frozen, the defender will recover from the freeze immediately.
  • Freeze immediately ends if the defender is hit by a non-freezing attack.

Valid vs. Invalid Combo

a valid vs. an invalid combo. The number next to the 'no symbol' shows which hit was invalid.

Because characters can delay their air recovery, this leads to the possibility of combos that work only if the opponent did not recover. This means that some combos are not "true" combos; the game's HUD differentiates between the two classes of combos by showing the hit counter as red for a valid combo and blue for an invalid combo. The invalid combo HUD also show which hit was invalid.

Invalid combos still behave the same as normal combos for the purposes of damage scaling, hitstun reduction, etc.

Sometimes player on defense will intentionally delay air recovery (or wait until landing to Ground Recover) to avoid a mixup or a reset.

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