User:Shtkn/sandbox4

Health

Each characters has 420 HP, but that does not tell the whole story. Two other stats affect how much damage each character takes - Defense Modifer and Guts.

Defense Modifer

Guilty Gear has character specific defense modifiers. The chart below shows each characters defense modifier.

Chipp's defense modifier is the largest and Potemkin's defense modifier is the smallest. This means that an attack that inflicts 100 damage on Sol (×1.00) would inflict 130 on Chipp (×1.30) and only 93 on Potemkin (×0.93), assuming Guts is not a factor.

Defense Modifier Table
Defense Modifer	Character(s)
×1.30	Chipp
×1.21	Millia
×1.12	Baiken
×1.10	Raven
×1.09	Zato
×1.06	Axl, I-No, May, Ramlethal, Dizzy, Jam
×1.04	Sin
×1.03	Answer, Elphelt, Jack-O', Ky, Venom
×1.00	Faust, Johnny, Leo, Sol
×0.98	Bedman
×0.96	Haehyun, Slayer
×0.93	Potemkin

Guts

Guts acts as a type of damage scaling that gets more intense the lower a character's life. For example, an attack that would do 100 damage to Sol at full life would only do 40 damage when he is at 10% life.

This means that the Life Gauge is misleading; a Life Gauge that visually looks like it's 50% full actually has much more than 50% life left.

Each character has a Guts rating - the higher the Guts rating, the less damage a character will receive at lower life values.

Guts Rating
Guts Rating	<50% Life	<40% Life	<30% Life	<20% Life	<10% Life	Character
0	90%	76%	60%	50%	40%	Answer, Bedman, Elphelt, Faust, Zato
1	87%	72%	58%	48%	40%	Axl, I-No, Ramlethal, Sin, Slayer, Sol, Venom, Dizzy
2	84%	68%	56%	46%	38%	Ky, Haehyun, Jack-O'
3	81%	66%	54%	44%	38%	Johnny, Leo, May, Millia, Potemkin, Jam
4	78%	64%	50%	42%	38%	Baiken, Chipp
5	75%	60%	48%	40%	36%	Raven

The implications of the Guts system also leads to interesting damage optimization choices when the opponent is low on life.

Attacks do a minimum of 1 damage per hit, so attacks and combos that do lots of small hits can end up doing more damage than standard combos in low life scenarios.
- This is why you may see players do OTG combos with multiple P normals when the opponent is close to death instead of going for okizeme... they're sacrificing knockdown for damage and hoping to kill them.
- Chipp players often combo into Ryuu Yanagi
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  for the same reason.
Single hit, big damage attacks can effectively do "more" damage when the opponent is near the life threshold of gaining another defensive boost.
- Example: Doing a single big hit when an opponent is at 41% life so that they have less life with the <30% life defense bonus.
- This concept is similar to doing big damage combos when the opponent is near Awakening status in the Persona Arena series.
Chip Damage, Poison and Instant Kill Mode's life drain effect are unaffected by Guts, meaning they effectively do more damage when life is low.
Life gain effects ( Faust's Donut and Chocolate
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) are also unaffected by Guts.

Effective Health (EHP)

Effective HP = 420 × (0.5 + 0.1(1/(Guts <50%) + 1/(Guts <40%) + 1/(Guts <30%) + 1/(Guts <20%) + 1/(Guts <10%)) / Defense Modifier

Character	Guts	Defense Modifier	EHP:w/o Guts	EHP	%Median:w/o Guts	%Median	STD DEV
Chipp	4	1.3	323	480	79%	84%	-2.5
Millia	3	1.21	347	504	85%	88%	-1.8
Zato	0	1.09	385	524	94%	92%	-1.3
Axl	1	1.06	396	549	97%	96%	-0.6
Dizzy	1	1.06	396	549	97%	96%	-0.6
I-No	1	1.06	396	549	97%	96%	-0.6
Ramlethal	1	1.06	396	549	97%	96%	-0.6
Answer	0	1.03	408	554	100%	97%	-0.4
Elphelt	0	1.03	408	554	100%	97%	-0.4
Baiken	4	1.12	375	557	92%	98%	-0.3
Sin	1	1.04	404	559	99%	98%	-0.3
Venom	1	1.03	408	565	100%	99%	-0.1
Faust	0	1	420	571	103%	100%	0.1
Jam	3	1.06	396	575	97%	101%	0.2
May	3	1.06	396	575	97%	101%	0.2
Jack-O'	2	1.03	408	581	100%	102%	0.3
Ky	2	1.03	408	581	100%	102%	0.3
Sol	1	1	420	582	103%	102%	0.3
Bedman	0	0.98	429	583	105%	102%	0.4
Raven	5	1.1	382	587	94%	103%	0.5
Slayer	1	0.96	438	606	107%	106%	1.0
Johnny	3	1	420	609	103%	107%	1.1
Leo	3	1	420	609	103%	107%	1.1
Haehyun	2	0.96	438	624	107%	109%	1.5
Potemkin	3	0.93	452	655	111%	115%	2.4

	EHP:w/o Guts	EHP
Mean	402.70	569.10
Median	407.77	570.93
STD DEV	27.38	36.11

REV 2 EHP Chart by Tarkus

EHP Formula by u/dhamster

Valid vs. Invalid Combos

A valid 3 hit combo (right) and an invalid 3 hit combo (left)

Because players can choose to delay their air recovery, this leads to combos that only worked because the opponent did not recover - often to avoid resets. These are called invalid combos (or Black Beat combos). The combo counter will turn dark and the invalid hit will appear in small numbers below the word BEAT.

If you are unable to escape stagger fast enough, then the combo counter will also indicate a Black Beat.

Combo Button Timing Visual Guide
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Chip Damage

When special attacks and Overdrives are blocked, they deal a percent of their base damage as chip damage to the opponent.

For most specials and Overdrives, it's a small fraction of the base damage of the attack, but there are some moves such as Axl's

, Elphelt's

and Venom's

that deal enhanced chip damage.

Chip damage ignores Guts scaling making them much more potent when the opponent is low on life. However, any chip damage that would KO a defender with 2 or more HP will reduce their HP to 1 instead. That means chip damage can only kill someone if they are exactly at 1 HP. This also means that specials and Overdrives that do multiple hits are much more effective at low life scenarios since they can bring a defender to 1 HP and immediately deal the final point of chip damage.

Damage Scaling

There are 3 standard factors when assigning damage: Defense Modifier, Guts Rating, and R.I.S.C. Level. When combined, they determine how much damage your character will take at every point in the Life Gauge. It's important to learn how strong/weak/effective your attacks will be at different points of the battle.

R.I.S.C. Level

When Empty: R.I.S.C. damage scaling starts to take effect. Initial Proration and Forced Proration are still applied.

When Partially Filled: R.I.S.C. damage scaling does not come into effect until the gauge is empty. The R.I.S.C. Level will slowly empty at a constant rate while the character is in a neutral state. R.I.S.C. depletion rate depends on the character: a full R.I.S.C. bar takes either 15, 13, or 10.5 seconds to fully deplete, with 13 being the standard. Initial Proration and Forced Proration are still applied.

When Over Half Full (Flashing): R.I.S.C. damage scaling does not come into effect and all hits will be considered Counter Hits - even throws and mid-combo attacks! The R.I.S.C. Level will slowly empty while the character is in a neutral state. Initial Proration and Forced Proration are still applied.

Initial Proration and Forced Proration

Initial Proration and Forced Proration are another part of Guilty Gear's engine to reduce the damage of certain combos for the sake of game balance.

Initial Proration is factored in only if your first attack of a combo is done with a prorated move. For example, Sol's

and

both have 80% initial prorate. Though these are good moves to tap out while doing pressure, if you do land a hit off them, the combo that follows will do less damage as a result. Initial Proration is generally applied to quick attacks that are common as pressure or mixup (particularly lows), as a way to balance their speed and keep damage reasonable in situations where the opponent's R.I.S.C. Level is likely elevated.

Forced Proration is a more harsh version of initial proration: it prorates subsequent attacks in a combo no matter what! For example, if May sets up a combo that lets her hop aboard a charging dolphin, the combo is immediately prorated 70%, reducing the damage of any attacks thereafter. Forced Proration is generally applied to strong attacks that you might not usually land in a combo, as a way to prevent them from being too strong in those situations where they're available.

Minimum Damage

Overdrives in Guilty Gear have minimum damage, though the effect is much less perceptible than in BlazBlue and Persona 4 Arena. Most Overdrives deal 20% of their base damage at a minimum, but this value is affected by Guts and OTG state.

Base Damage × Character Defense Modifier × Guts Rating × Minimum Damage% = Minimum Damage
If OTG hit, then multiply by 30%

For example, an Overdrive with 100 base damage will do at least 20 damage to

Sol (x1.00 defense modifier, no guts) when he is at over 50% life.

However if Sol has less than 10% life remaining, that same attack would only do 8 damage since Guts reduces damage to 40%.

All attacks that have base damage over 0 will at minimum do 1 damage no matter how much damage scaling and Guts affect it. Thus combos with lots of small hits are more effective in low life scenarios since they are less affected by damage scaling.

As for Burst Overdrives, the minimum damage varies on a case-by-case basis:

Burst Overdrive Minimum Damage
Percentage	Character
70%	Haehyun
60%	Leo, May, Slayer
50%	Bedman, Elphelt ※1, Faust, I-No, Jack-O', Johnny, Potemkin, Ramlethal, Sol, Zato
40%	Axl, Baiken, Jam, Ky, Millia, Raven ※2, Sin
30%	Chipp, Dizzy
20%	Answer, Venom

※1: Only deals higher than the base percentage on the cinematic hit. The initial hit and subsequent non-cinematic hits all deal the standard 20%.
※2: Only deals higher than the base percentage on the final hit.

Hitstun/Untechable Time and Gravity

The amount of hitstun each attack deals is dictated by its Attack Level, and all the data for hitstun/untechable time is listed here. Attack Levels for each attack are listed in each character's individual frame data. However, some attacks do non-standard amounts of stun. This will be noted in the character's frame data.

Guilty Gear combos have a lot of freedom, but they also include various ways to prevent infinite combos. The designers have various safeguards in place that make longer combos much more difficult to do and prevent loops. This requires players to gain a deeper understanding of the combo system in order to maximize their damage.

Untechable Time & Hitstun Scaling

The untechable time of attacks decreases as the amount of time spent in hitstun increases, including during hitstop. This prevents infinite combos on airborne opponents.

Untechable Time Scaling
Combo Length	Untechable Time Modifier
0 seconds+	100%
3 seconds+	95%
5 seconds+	90%
7 seconds+	80%
10 seconds+	70%
14 seconds+	60%
18 seconds+	10%

In addition, the hitstun of attacks on grounded opponents only decreases past 18 seconds at a fixed 50%*.

The actual numbers for the grounded hitstun decay is Blockstun / 2 + 1 or 2 depending on if the opponent is in standing or crouching hitstun.

Pushback Increase

Similar to untechable time scaling, the amount of pushback increases as time spent in hitstun increases. This is yet another way Guilty Gear attempts to remove loops and infinites from the combo ecosystem.

Gravity

Another interesting feature of the combo system is gravity effects. Characters fall at different speeds in Guilty Gear and are grouped into categories as listed below. The smaller the number, the faster they fall.

Character Weight Table
Weight	Characters
105 (Light)	Baiken, Dizzy, Elphelt, I-No, Jack-O', Jam, May, Millia, Ramlethal
100 (Medium)	Answer, Axl, Chipp, Faust, Ky, Raven, Sin, Slayer, Sol, Venom, Zato
98 (Slightly Heavy)	Johnny, Leo
96 (Heavy)	Bedman
94 (Super Heavy)	Haehyun, Potemkin

Additionally, the more hits a character takes, the lower the character will be launched and the faster they fall. This can prove to be helpful or detrimental to a combo depending on which way you look at it - some combos are only possible when the launcher sends the opponent high into the air, while other combos benefit from a lower launch.

Because gravity increases with the number of hits, this greatly curbs the ability to perform the dreaded infinite combos. Since combos constantly add hits, any relaunches will float the opponent less and less until certain combinations become impossible.

Crouching-Only Combos

Hitting a crouching opponent with an attack with Attack Level 1 or higher increases hitstun by 1 frame compared to standing hit (Level 0 attacks gain no additional stun). This leads to some crouching-only combos such as Sin's

>

.

Roman Cancel Slowdown

When Roman Canceling an attack, the opponent experiences about double the amount of hitstun/untechable time. One frame of stun is used to execute the Roman Cancel, the rest is doubled. For example: Hitting an opponent with 9F hitstun and RCing immediately would inflict 16F slowdown:

(9F - 1F) × 2 = 16F

Hit Effects

Float

Some attacks launch the opponent into the air, even when they are standing or crouching.

Dust Attack is an obvious example, but also many sweeps will actually slightly lift the enemy into the air and thus can be used to start air combos.

Other basic examples include Millia's

and Potemkin's

.

Vacuum

Most attacks push the opponent away on hit and block, but certain attacks will actually pull the opponent closer.

These attacks can be used to greatly aid combos and perform setups. Examples include Ky's

on air hit.

Ground Bounce

A ground bounce will bounce the opponent off the ground and back up into the air, thus having a similar effect as a move that floats.

Wall Bounce

A wall bounce causes the opponent to quickly bounce off the wall and fall toward the ground. Wall bounces can only happen to enemies in the air, however most moves that wall bounce also float, which gives you one less thing to worry about.

Typically with wall bounces, the farther from the corner the enemy was, the earlier they will be able to air recover out of the wall bounce.

Wall Stick

Makes opponents fall straight down afterwards into crouching state.

Wall Stick will cause the opponent to stick in place on the edge of the screen, then slide down afterwards.

Once the opponent reaches the ground, they will be in a crouching state (and still in hitstun), allowing attackers to go for re-stand combos (or resets).

Interestingly, if an opponent is wall stuck very close to the ground, he will be guaranteed to go through the slump animation, which gives additional hitstun and opens up many combo opportunities. Sin's

loops, for instance, abuse this mechanic to its fullest.

Hitting an opponent with a wall stick effect from a full screen away may just throw them REALLY far away and never stick to the wall.

Off The Ground Attack

To Off The Ground (OTG) someone means to strike them when they are laying on the ground after a knockdown.

Unlike other games, once a character is knocked down, OTGing them will inflict a unique state where attacks only do 30% of their normal damage, and will do a slight lauch where can be recovery very quickly. This generally makes OTGs poor tools for adding damage, but good for pushing the opponent towards the corner at the cost of sacrificing okizeme.

When the opponent is very low on life, players can tack on a few extra OTG hits to K.O. the opponent.