Guard
Guarding, commonly known as Blocking, is the fundamental form of defense in fighting games.
Most special and supers moves also inflict a small percentage of their damage through guard. This is known as chip damage.
When a player guards, they are put into a state known as blockstun during which their ability to act is mostly taken away. Guard Cancel, Vanish Guard Cancel, and Sparking Blast can still be used during blockstun.
Guarding an attack also pushes the defender back. This phenomenon is called pushback. The amount of pushback varies by attack, though generally the higher the Attack Level, the more pushback. Some attacks even pull in the defender instead of pushing them back (known as vaccum)! When the defender guard a strike in the corner, pushback is applied to the attacker instead, making sure that the net pushback both characters experience is the same regardless of corner. This corner effect does not apply to projectiles, but does apply to strikes done by Z Assists.
Grounded Guard
Hold 4 or 1 While Grounded
- Basic ground guarding is the most common defensive option. Also known as blocking.
There are 2 types of ground guard: standing guard and crouching guard. Standing guard will block high and mid attacks, crouching guard will block mid and low attacks.
Remember, you cannot block against throws.
Airborne Guard
Hold Any Backwards Direction While Airborne
There is no high-low blocking in the air, making it a common place for defenders to go to avoid blocking ground-based high/low/throw mixup. That's not to say that being airborne is a fail-safe defensive posture; getting airborne is a risk since blocking is disabled during prejump. Plus you need to deal with air throws and crossups. There is also 2 frames more blockstun when blocking in the air.
Landing while in air blockstun will replace any remaining air blockstun with ground blockstun plus 4!
- Ex: After air blocking an attack in the air that inflicts 20F air blockstun, you land after 15F. That means after landing, you will be in ground blockstun for 9F.
Cross-up Protection
When a character is in blockstun, they will be able to block attacks coming from behind them by holding either backward and forward directions, or even by not inputting any direction at all. Crossup protection doesn't allow "illegal" blocks: defenders still must block high/low correctly.
Projectiles and assist-type attacks has an extra layer of protection. If a side switch happens while these attacks are active, they can also be blocked with backward and forward directions, but not while running.
While it is impossible to have left-right mixups using assists with long blockstun, if there's even an 1F gap in the blockstring, the character will turn to face the opponent and you will not be protected from crossups.
A rule of thumb is to always block with respect to the opponent's point character.
WIP: Airborne and grounded crossups are treated differently...
Rising Overhead Protection
Most overhead air normals when done with upward momentum will whiff against characters that are blocking low, even if their hitbox and hurtbox are overlapping!
Air normals that push the character upward are also affected by this. There are special cases that aren't air normal, also have this restriction on them.
This results in a few inconsistencies in Sparking state:
- At certain angles, canceling a blocked Super Dash into j.L can sometimes stuff reversal 2H, while other times will whiff and be punished. This is because blocked Super Dash at these angles will push the character slightly upward, triggering this protection
- Using Vanish (No Attack) immediately into an overhead can also whiff against crouching opponents due to the same reason that the character is pushed upward
Z Reflect
4S while Grounded
Z Reflect is a defensive tool that starts reflecting on frame 1 against all strikes and projectiles beside Sparking Blast. This is a very strong defensive option as it works on meaties, safejumps, and frametraps while creating space between you and the opponent.
Successfully reflecting any attack will make the defender invulnerable to throws and allow the defender to cancel into any attack. Reflecting a strike will also push the attacker half-screen away. These 2 properties can be used in tandem to open up new punish opportunities -- reflect a strike and let the opponent's attack whiff due to the pushback, then cancel Z Reflect into an attack to punish!
The frame advantage against any attack on Reflect is most often better than on block, but not strictly better all of the time. And depending on the situation, pushing the opponent away might not be desirable. Thus, it is important to learn when and when not to use Reflect.
Notes about Reflect:
- Must be inputted with 4S (not 7S or 1S). While mashing Reflect will disarm any frametrap in a blockstring, defenders have to be standing in order to use it, leaving them vulnerable to any true string low attacks.
- When attacks are Reflected, attacks will be treated as though they were blocked. Although some attacks will also have unique behaviors only for when they're Reflected.
- Learning which attack to use after a successful Reflect, and when you should attack at all is also important, as certain blockstrings can continue pressure even after they're Reflected and will Counter Hit you.
- Videl does not have Z Reflect, but rather, a unique command dodge.
- Z Reflect Guard Cancel
Z Reflect while Guarding Ki Blast
When in blockstun from a Ki Blast, defenders can cancel into Z Reflect. This is a weaker version of Guard Cancel, but is useful for preventing the attacker from easily starting offense from a stray Ki Blast.
Grounded Movement
Walking
[4] or [6] while on the ground
Walking is the most basic form of movement by holding 
or 
.
Characters will continue to walk so long as their player holds down the directional input. 1 and 3 are not valid walk inputs. Each character has a unique walk speed for both forwards and backwards.
One of the main advantages to walking is that it provides fine grain control over one's positioning. By contrast, jumps lock the player into a fixed arc, and runs maintain momentum for a time after the player releases their input.
Because walks can be canceled immediately, they allow the user to block freely after forwards movement, which running on its own does not allow. Another advantage is that walks are usually silent. Without an associated audio cue, walks can be hard to react to.
Running
6[6] while on the ground or 6H+S while on the ground
Running is conceptually similar to walking, but faster and with some negative trade-offs.
Although running requires two consecutive 6 inputs, the player can shift their forwards input into a 3 input so long as they maintain a constant forwards input. The player character will continue to run so long as a valid run input is held (up to 82F). If the player releases the run input and does not cancel the run into another action, they will perform a run skid animation that can be canceled into all actions except run, backdash, or neutral crouch.
Runs will sometimes maintain momentum when canceled into another action, and other times can have their momentum negated. This varies on a case-by-base basis.
Backdash
44 while on the ground
Backdashes are movement options which provide a quick burst of backwards movement with lots of invulnerability to throws.
Backdashes travel a fixed distance at a set speed, are not cancelable, and are completely vulnerable for some period in the latter portion of their animation. For these reasons, they are not always preferable to backwards walking.
Aerial Movement
Jumping
Any Upward Direction while on the ground
Jumping is the most basic way to put one's player character into the air.
Players can jump while on the ground, or while in the air. When a character jumps, they are locked into a fixed arc which is determined by the direction of the jump input combined with any momentum they have at the time of the jump. Most characters have the same jump physics, with only a few outliers. These determine the speed, height, and duration of their jumps. Before the character becomes airborne, there is a short Prejump Animation with some limitations, explained in its respective section. After a player jumps, they take on the airborne property, which affects what moves they can use, as well as how they receive incoming hit effects. During the first airborne frame, characters can only guard and not attack. This is only a factor when calculating the fastest input for Instant Air Specials.
Characters can jump two times before returning to the ground under normal circumstances.
High Jump
Any Downward Direction > Any Upward Direction while on the ground or Hold S > Any Upward Direction while on the ground
High Jumping (aka super jump) travels higher vertically than standard jumping.
It can be done by going from neutral 
, then tapping any downward direction (
), then tapping any upward direction (
). Pressing will change which direction you high jump, just like normal jumping.
You will automatically turn to face your opponent during a High Jump. You also maintain partial control over your horizontal movement during a High Jump; Hold or to influence your direction as you fall. You can continue this influence after attacks or double jumps, but not during them.
See the Frame Data/System Data page for specific values fall speed values.
Short High Jump
High Jump > Hold Downward Direction
Short High Jump (aka Super Hop) travels the height of a normal jump with the acceleration and character direction correction properties of a High Jump. Note you must hold the downward input until after the crest of the jump or it will revert to a normal High Jump fall speed. Players can double jump after a Short High Jump, but they must re-input a downward direction after double jumping or their air momentum will revert to normal.
Prejump
Jumps and High Jumps are not instantaneous - before going airborne, characters will enter a standing state called prejump for 4F. During prejump they can not guard, but are invincible to throws.
It is actually possible to cancel prejump into Specials and Supers, though for most characters is not used very often. The reason for this is that players can be slightly sloppy with their inputs and still get specials (ex 2369S instead of 236S).
Air Dash
j.44 or j.66 or j.6H+S
Air Dashes are the near universal burst movement option while airborne. The character is not actionable for the first 6F of an air dash. Air backdash is also throw invulnerable for 1~15F.
To air dash as soon as possible from a grounded state, players use a technique known as Instant Air Dash.
Air Options
Air Options conceptually represent the amount of times a character can jump or dash while in the air without returning to the ground. All characters have 1 air option and can regain their air option by touching the ground, Air Recovering, or air guarding.
Landing Recovery
Landing from the air has recovery. This recovery comes in 2 kinds: Standard Landing Recovery and Special Landing Recovery.
Another quirk about landing is that the frame before actually landing is considered grounded. Meaning during this frame, getting hit will result in ground hitstun and ground throws can hit.
- Standard Landing Recovery
- Whenever the player lands from being in the air, they experience landing recovery.
- During the first 3 frames of landing the following actions are disabled: forward/backward walk, all jumps, and backdash
- All other actions are available immediately on 1F after landing - notably attacking, guarding, and run
- Runs and attacks can be buffered before landing thanks to Advanced Input. Performing an allowed action will enable all actions, so it is possible to land, run for 1F, then jump (easier said than done, of course)!
- Special Landing Recovery
- Some airborne moves, such as Goku's Air Kamehameha
GuardAllStartup18Recovery30Advantage-, will apply unactionable landing recovery which overrides the standard landing recovery. This recovery does not have a unique animation, and the duration of the recovery depends on the move used. - Some moves that apply this special landing recovery may have their animation end and be able to recover while still airborne, or simply cancelled into another action. The special landing recovery will still apply when the character lands, unless they are hit or they override it with another move that also applies special landing recovery or has its own unique landing animation.
- A landing animation is different from special landing recovery since it is still considered part of the same move. This means the landing animation could still retain things like cancel options or counter-hit recovery from an earlier part of the move.
- Mid-attack landing recovery
- Some aerial attacks only receive landing recovery if the character lands before it finishes recovery. This type of landing recovery overrides Special Landing Recovery, and is cancelable into Supers and Meteors.
- If these attacks finished recovery on the frame right before landing, the character will not experience any landing recovery, including Standard Landing Recovery.
Ground Recovery
Direction when knocked to the ground
Ground Recovery (also known as Ground Ukemi) is available immediately on falling to the ground. There are 4 main options:
- Hold Forward or Backward to flash white and flip off the ground. Forward has the character recover in-place and Backwards has the character move backwards. Both take 21 frames and are fully invincible.
- Hold Up to flip off the ground and recover in the air. This can be useful to avoid the attacker's okizeme by being airborne instead of grounded like usual. This version takes 21 frames and is fully invincible.
- Hold Down when falling to the ground to lay on the ground for 34 frames
- Afterwards, input Up/Back/Forward to recover in that direction
- Input Down to continue laying on the ground for 4~31F. Input any other direction during this time to perform a 15 frame get-up animation.
- Will automatically perform get-up after 31F.
- This can be used to throw off the opponent's okizeme timing.
Disabling Ground Recovery
Certain hit effects disable Ground Recovery by inflicting either Hard Knockdown or Sliding Knockdown. They are often used to extend combos or set up unique okizeme situations.
Air Recovery
Direction + L/M/H After Leaving Untechable State
Air Recovery (also known as Air Ukemi) is useful for getting out of the opponent's combo, regain control of your character, and restores air options as soon as possible!
Usually, defenders want to recover immediately when possible, but attackers can take advantage of this behavior by setting up a mixup that defenders will be forced to block when they recover. A common counter to this tactic is to delay recovering in order to throw off the opponent's mixup timing, but this carries some risk; the attacker can simply hit the defender before they recover and continue the combo!
- 20f total animation, fully invulnerable
- Throw invulnerable 8f after teching
Incoming after Forced Switch
Hold 4 After Forced Switch
Defenders who enter after a Forced Switch are susceptible to incoming mixups since they are airborne and have Guard Cancel Change locked out. The defender can delay their entrance by up to 30F by holding .
Normal Attacks
There are four primary normal attack buttons, L, M, H, and S.
While every character has different normals with different ranges, damage, speed, etc, many have similar properties to help players have a base set of tools to work with when picking up new characters.
- Overhead 6M
- 6M is an overhead for all characters, but does not normally lead to any combo. To combo off 6M, players need to either meaty or use it in conjunction with assists or with Sparking!
- Sweep 2M
- 2M is a low hitting attack that knocks down. The floaty nature of the knockdown makes it easy to combo into an air hit 5M, 5H or 2H.
- Wall Bounce 5H and 5LLLLLLL
- Almost everyone has a wall bounce in 5H and 5LLLLLLL. A Smash! hit 5H can be followed up with Super Dash to extend the combo. A Dynamic! hit 5LLLLLLL can be followed up with Z Change.
- Anti-Air 2H
- Everyone has an anti-air attack in 2H. This attack has invulnerability to airborne strikes. A Smash! hit 2H can be followed up with Super Dash to extend the combo.
- Air Knockdown j.H
- Most characters' j.H will knock the opponent to the ground, giving you time to position yourself to attack the opponent as they recover with okizeme. A Smash! hit j.H that knockdowns will also cause a ground slide.
- Air Combo Extender j.2H
- Most characters' j.2H will launch the opponent into the air. A Smash! hit j.2H can be followed up with Super Dash to extend the combo. And most non-Smash! hit j.2H can still continue the combo with double jump.
Z Combo
Normal attacks can cancel into other normal attacks. The standard progression is L > M > H > S for both standing, crouching and airborne normals, and you can freely cancel between standing and crouching normals with some exceptions.
General rules include:
- 5L and 2L can be performed a combined total of twice per Z Combo
- 6M cannot be canceled into any other normals
- 2H cannot cancel into S normals
- Grounded S normals can cancel into grounded H normals
- j.L can be performed twice per Z Combo
- j.M can reverse beat back into j.L once per Z Combo
There are some exceptions to the above throughout the cast, but these are still good general rules to take into account when starting out. See each character's Z Combo Table for specifics.
Super Combo
LLL... or MMM...
Dragon Ball FighterZ has an autocombo system called Super Combo. Players can prevent the autocombo by holding when pressing the attack button. In the case of the L Super Combo, performing 5L > 4L will result in 5L > 5L on the ground and j.L > j.L in the air.
- Ground L Super Combo
- 5L > 5L > 5L consists of 5L followed by two unique normals (5LL and 5LLL) that function like a medium and heavy normal, respectively.
- 5LL and 5LLL come out even on whiff, and will auto-correct on sides switch.
- Pressing 5L again after 5LLL on hit will perform an automatic Super Dash.
- Air L Super Combo
- j.L > j.L > j.L on air-to-air† hit will result in a basic j.L > j.M > j.H air combo. The second attack (j.LL) has a few different properties compared to manual j.M:
- Pushes the attacker up and towards the defender, auto-correct on sides switch and overriding attacker's current momentum.
- This "boost" gets stronger the further they are from the defender
- This special property is often used to reposition attackers in situations where a manual j.L > j.M wouldn't connect, and is often used in more advanced combos as well. For example, by delaying button presses (j.L > delay j.LL) and letting the opponent float a bit higher than you, you can get a bigger boost than if you've just done j.L > immediate j.LL, allowing for new follow-ups
- Doesn't come out after 2 j.Ls in a row
- Can't reverse beat back to j.L
- Characters with full access to reverse beat can do j.L > j.H > j.L > j.LL, or even j.L > j.LL > j.4L. But they can never do j.L > j.4L > j.LL
- † Hitting the opponent with j.L on the frame before they land on the ground (outside of a combo), j.LL won't receive the momentum boost, but keep other properties.
- Full L Super Combo
- Successfully landing the last hit of the grounded L Super Combo, in a combo that hasn't used U Smash!, continue into the automatic Super Dash (5LLLL) and then cancel into the air L Super Combo, the final j.L (5LLLLLLL) will cause Dynamic! property on hit instead of the usual Smash! property of j.H, granting you a Dragon Ball and causing a different knockdown. More information on this is described in the Dragon Balls section.
- M Super Combo
- 5M has its own Super Combo by repeatedly pressing 5M, resulting in the following sequences:
- 5M > 2M (on block)
- 5M > 2M > Special Move > Super Attack (on hit)
Specials performed through 5MMM sometimes have different properties than their manual counterpart. This usually takes the form of a wall bounce that if performed in the corner will push them out of it.
There are some minor exceptions to the standard M Super Combo sequence. Like Piccolo's M Super Combo performing an additional 6S after 2M on hit, or Hit's M Super Combo does 5H instead of 2M, as his 5M does not combo into his 2M.
- Super Dash shortcut
5H and 2H on Smash! hit can automatically cancel into Super Dash by pressing H again. Characters with unique launchers like 5S or j.LLL can also be canceled into Super Dash on Smash! hit by pressing S or L again, respectively.
Unlike the automatic Super Dash from 5LLL that's crucial for Dynamic! property, these shortcuts only serve to make combo inputs easier.
Throws
Throws are proximity based attacks which the opponent cannot guard against, but can not hit assist characters. In order to throw an opponent, a few conditions must be met:
- The players must be in a similar grounded or airborne state.
- To throw a grounded opponent, the attacker must also be grounded.
- To throw an airborne opponent, the attacker must also be airborne.
- The defender must not have throw invulnerability.
- The defender must be within the throw's range (see below).
If all of the conditions are met, then the attacker can hit the opponent with a throw.
The horizontal range of throws is measured from the edge of the attacker's collision box. The vertical range is measured from the origin of the attacker's collision box, which is at the bottom-center of the box.
- Throw Range
- Throws uses collision boxes for an additional range check. See this page for more details on the concept.
- Comboing Into Throws
- Characters can be thrown while in hitstun -- ground throws can even combo airborne characters this way!
Dragon Rush
L+M Within close proximity of an opponent (Air OK)
Dragon Rush is a throw that all characters have access to, and can be canceled from:
- 5L on block or hit
- Super Dash on hit (and on block during Sparking!)
Once inputted, the character will halt all momentum and charge about half screen forward. Air Dragon Rush has slight vertical tracking, but cannot fall to the ground until after active frames.
- As a combo starter
- On hit, sends the opponent high up and automatically performs a followup Super Dash, even if Super Dash has already been used
- Has a height limit it can take you and your opponent to, and will lower you two to this limit if it's landed anywhere above
- Cannot K.O.
- Mid-combo
- When the opponent is in untechable time, ground Dragon Rush has increased forward momentum and throw range, air Dragon Rush has increased throw range
- On hit, ground Dragon Rush knocks the defender away into a soft knockdown, air Dragon Rush causes a sliding knockdown
- Last hit can be canceled into Vanish, Sparking Blast, Specials, Supers, Meteors. In Sparking!, it's also jump and forward airdash cancelable
Forced Switch
Successful Dragon Rush > A1/A2
Forced Switch (aka Snapback) will force the defender's point character out and bring their teammate in. This is a very powerful tool to force a character to enter the ring and stop them from regaining health. Opponents who enter this way are also susceptible to incoming mixups since they are airborne and have Guard Cancel Change locked out, though the timing of this jump in can be delayed.
If the opponent has no teammates left, Forced Switch will instead float the opponent up with significant untechable time, enabling new follow-up combos.
Command Throws
Some special moves have the throw property. 
Android 16's Dynamite Driver
GuardThrowStartup10Recovery+3LAdvantage- and 
Cell's Psycho Crash
GuardThrowStartup30Recovery25Advantage- are two examples of such throws.
While command throws can be comboed into, a command throw (and all of its versions) they used once per combo. For example, Android 16 can combo M Dynamite Driver into M Flying Powerbomb, but can’t do M Dynamite Driver into L Dynamite Driver. A few throws ignore this restriction like throws that are part of autocombos.
Throw Invulnerability
Characters cannot always be thrown. Below is a list of situations when a character cannot be thrown:
- During prejump
- During 1~15F of both backdash and air backdash
- During blockstun plus 8F after
- After hitstun ends for 8F
- After Ground or Air Recovery for 8F
- When they have Throw Attribute invulnerability
Priority of Strike vs Throw vs Command Throw
When two strikes hit each other, either a clash or trade occurs, but what happens when throws are added to the mix?
- Throw vs Strike or Any Throw vs Command Throw: The character with Priority will lose.
- Dragon Rush vs. Dragon Rush: The character with Priority will be thrown and immediately break the throw.
Dragon Rush Escape
Any Button While Being Dragon Rushed
Players can escape (aka throw break or throw tech) the opponent's Dragon Rush by pressing any attack button between 4 frames before the hit until 4 frames after the hit to break the rush (total 9F: 4F before + the frame it hits + 4F after). Dragon Rush' green flash cue appears on frame 7, thus at point blank, the last frame you can break a Dragon Rush is frame 17 from the flash.
If two Dragon Rushes meet each other, both are automatically broken. This increases the break window as you can input L+M way earlier than the 9F window of other buttons.
On Dragon Rush break, both players break away from each other, recover full screen away, and restore all air options.
Super Dash
H+S (Air OK)
Super Dash is a multi-purpose tool that can be used to quickly approach the opponent and extend combos.
Super Dash, Z Change, and the automatic Super Dash at the end of a Dragon Rush all have the same properties (except Z Change is also cancelable from specials) and the same damage:
- Cannot K.O.
- Deflects Ki Blasts like most characters' 5S, as well as some Specials like Piccolo's Homing Energy Blast and Beerus's Cataclysmic Orbs.
- Cancelable from normals on block or hit, as well as mid-combo Dragon Rush, Smash! Vanish, and Ki Charge
- Cancelable into attacks and airdashes on hit
- During Sparking!, pushback is reduced and becomes attack cancelable (beside Vanish) on block
Note: Master Roshi does not have a Super Dash, but has two unique movement options.
- Approach Tool
- Has very good tracking and will chase the defender down until it connects, though it does have a deadzone and will deactivate after a while.
- Tracking is both a blessing and a curse. On hit, attackers can easily follow-up with a combo. On block, they can call Z Assist to lock the defender down to continue attacking. However, attackers cannot do anything while Super Dash is active, thus the defender can react and counter it with invincible attacks. Furthermore since Super Dash's hurtbox extends in front of its hitbox, a good player will easily be able to react to a predictable Super Dash and counter it with even a jab!
- Combo Extender
- After successfully hitting with a Smash! property attack, attackers can pursue with Super Dash for a follow-up air combo. Super Dash will also combo off certain attacks with large amounts of untechable time, such as Super Saiyan Goku's 2S, Teen Gohan's j.2S and Krillin's j.S.
- Fakeout / Mixup Tool
- During its startup, Super Dash will briefly halt the attacker's momentum and lift their hurtbox. Though subtle, this is easily one of the reason why using Super Dash to approach is strong.
- Attackers can use this brief pause to make the defender's anti-air whiff and turn the situation to their advantage. In the same vein, Super Dash can also low crush sweeps or counter Dragon Rush since it puts the attacker in the air.
- It can be used as a left-right mixup with instant airdash crossup or jump same side Super Dash. With Z Assist, it can also be used for high-low mixup since you're in the air on block with no added landing recovery.
- Super Dash Guard Cancel
Super Dash while Guarding Ki Blast
When in blockstun from a Ki Blast, defenders can cancel into Super Dash. This is a weaker version of Guard Cancel, but is useful for preventing the attacker from easily starting offense from a stray Ki Blast.
Z Assist
A1/A2 (Air OK)
Press A1 or A2 to summon one of your teammates to do an attack. All characters have a choice between 3 different Z Assists that must be selected during team selection: A, B, and C. These Z Assists are different per character, and have a universal cooldown timer across all characters. Assist A and B have a fast cooldown, while Assist C have a much slower cooldown, but is stronger and have a gold circle effect when they are called out.
When calling a Z Assist, there is a small amount of time where they are vulnerable before they start performing a move (1F). This is true even for invincible assist attacks like Teen Gohan's Super Dragon Flight - the attacks has a bit of additional vulnerable startup even though the attack normally is invincible on startup.
Z Assist can be called even while attacking with your point character, making them useful for continuing offense or extending combos.
Z Assist cannot be used when:
- Getting hit
- Blocking, including pre-block animation
- During ground/air recovery
- During Vanish
- During capture states with fully cinematic cameras
- When the Z Assist is on cooldown/lockout
- During a Super Attack - Ultimate Z Change will be performed instead
Z Change
[A1]/[A2] (Air OK) or 6+A1/A2 (Air OK) or 2+A1/A2 (Air OK)
Hold A1/A2 to swap out your point character with the corresponding partner on your team. After a Z Change, teammate usage is briefly locked out, after which the character that was called back will be on cooldown. Z Change cannot be used while in blockstun or while in proximity guard animation.
Z Change is available while in a neutral state or when your normals or specials are blocked/on hit. Players often cancel into Z Change after hitting the opponent with 5H, 2H, j.2H or during a special with a long attacking duration since that allows players to safely change in a new character while extending the combo.
Z Change can alternatively be performed with +A1/A2, but players can change the command to +A1/A2 or turn off these alternate commands in the button settings.
Ki Charge
L+S while on the ground
Ki Charge quickly fill up the Ki Gauge. There is a fairly long minimum duration that Ki Charge is active for, and you are in Counter Hit state the entire time you're charging. The gain rate Ki increases the longer the buttons are held.
Ki Charge isn't affected by Sparking! bonus, but is affected by Ki cooldown.
Cancels
There are many types of cancels. A cancel is the act of interrupting the current action and starting a different one.
While most cancels are available on hit/block, some are available on whiff, some are only available on hit, and a rare few are even only available on block!
- Super Combo
- Each character has a combo that can be done by rapidly pressing the L or M button. More information can be found here.
- Special Cancel
- Most normal attacks can be canceled into special moves. This is generally used to extend or finish combos, but can have other applications as well.
- Super Cancel
- Most normals and specials can be canceled into super attacks. This is generally used to extend or finish combos, but can have other applications as well.
- Jump Cancel
- Some normal attacks can be canceled into a jump or high jump. This is used in combos as well as block strings and mix-up. Most attacks can only be jump canceled on hit.
- Vanish Cancel
- See Vanish for more info.
- Super Dash Cancel
- Similar to Special Cancels and Super Cancels, players many attacks can be canceled into Super Dash. See Super Dash for more info.
- Air Dash Cancel
- During Sparking, aerial normals can be canceled into a forward air dash, enabling new combo and blockstrings.
- Sparking Cancel
- Just like Special Cancels and Super Cancels, players can cancel into a Sparking Blast.
- Z Change
- See Z Change for more details.
- Ultimate Z Change
- See Ultimate Z Change for more details.
- Clash
- See Clash for more details.
Vanish
M+H with 1 Ki Stock (Air OK)
Vanish teleports you behind the opponent and hits them. Vanish can only be performed once each time you are airborne, and can be done again after Air Recovery or air blocking. But unlike air options, simply touching the ground won't regain Vanish, the character has to recover on the ground (return to neutral stance).
Vanish can be canceled from:
- The middle of all movement options (beside standard and added landing recovery)
- Normals on whiff, block, hit, and even during their startups
- Specials on block and hit
Vanish serves many different purposes like a combo extender or an escape tool.
- Combo Extender
- When used mid-combo, the Vanish will inflict a Smash! hit, cause a severe wall bounce, and can also cancel into Super Dash, Sparking Blast, Specials, Supers and Meteors. These all give the attacker plenty of time to land another attack.
- Punish Tool
- When used from a neutral state, the defender will be blown away, allowing the attacker to punish slow attacks, though not for a lot of damage.
- However during Sparking!, you can hold the buttons to teleport behind the opponent without attacking, then follow-up with your own combo and punish them big time!
- Escape Tool
- As it can be canceled into at any point during a Normal attack and has invincibility, Vanish can be used to keep yourself safe from punish if you whiff a normal with long recovery like 2H. You can also cancel unsafe Specials into Vanish on block, though both of these options are very susceptible to Reflect or anti-airs, as almost all attacks will leave a gap when canceled into Vanish.
- Vanish also allows you to escape certain blockstrings or mixups the opponent attempts to perform, and even turn the table on them! The downsides are that there needs to be a gap in the opponent's blockstring big enough to execute a Vanish, you can get counter hit out of trying to escape, and even if you managed to Vanish out, the opponent can spend a Ki stock of their own to counter-Vanish.
- During Sparking!, hold Vanish negates most of the downsides in escaping with Vanish. Vanishing to escape whiff punish will allow you to airdash out of anti-air attempts, and against counter-Vanish, you're able to block or even jab them out of the attack!
- Lockdown Tool
- By canceling moves with high enough blockstun into Vanish to causes a true blockstring, you can force an advantageous situation! Usually this is done with strong projectiles like Super Saiyan Goku's Kamehameha.
Guard Cancel
6+A1/A2 while in Ground Blockstun with 1 Ki Stock
Guard Cancel will swap out your point character with another on your team (corresponding to A1/A2) at the cost of 1 Ki Stock. On hit, the opponent is knocked away about half screen, resetting the game back to neutral. On block, you cannot act and are fully punishable. As with a Z Change, you are locked out of using the character you tagged out for a short period of time. If you are down to one character, you will cancel into an attack that teleports behind the opponent instead, similar to a Vanish, only much slower and with some forward movement after the teleport.
Combos started with a Guard Cancel cannot KO.
- † Despite being frame 1 fully invulnerable move, deals regular amount of recoverable health instead of 100% recoverable health.
Vanish Guard Cancel
6M+H while in Blockstun with 2 Ki Stock (Air OK)
Vanish Guard Cancel allows for escapes from stronger pressure at a higher cost.
Special Move
Motion Input + L/M/H/S
Each character has a variety of special moves done by performing 
+ a button or 
+ a button
These moves usually have unique properties like traveling fullscreen, invincibility, or deals lots of damage.
Powered-Up Special Move
Motion Input + H with 1/2 Ki Stock
When a special move has L/M/H variants, the H version costs 1/2 Ki Stock and is typically a better version of the special. They usually allow for extended combos or offer other unique utility. For example, the H version of Vegeta's Super Dash Kick launches the opponent high into the air, allowing for follow-ups afterwards. The H version of Tien's Volleyball Fist is a command throw, unlike the L and M versions, which are strikes.
Super Attack
Motion Input + L+M/H+S with 1 Ki Stock
Super Attacks are flashy attacks that cost 1 Ki Gauge and usually do lots of damage or have unique properties.
- Higher minimum damage than other attacks
- Can be canceled into from normal moves and special moves
- Can cancel into other teammate's Super Attacks via Ultimate Z Change
Meteor Attack
Motion Input + L+M/H+S with 3 Ki Stocks
Some Super Attacks require 3 Ki Gauges (For this reason, they are often referred to as Level 3s) and are typically very powerful attacks. All characters have at least one of these.
- Most have startup invincibility
- Can be canceled into from normal moves and special moves
- Can not Ultimate Z Change into other Super Attacks
Ultimate Z Change
A1/A2 During Super Attack with 1 Ki Stock or 4+A1/A2 During Super Attack with 3 Ki Stocks
Press A1/A2 in the middle of your own Super Attack to cancel into the corresponding teammate's Super Attack. Similarly, you can also input +A1/A2 to cancel into the corresponding teammate's Meteor Attack.
Typically a character's preset Super Attacks is their +L+M Super Attack and their +L+M Meteor Attack. Exceptions will be listed in specific character pages as they are discovered.
- Ultimate Z Change Without a Super
41236+A1/A2 After Attack Connects with 1 Ki Stock or 63214+A1/A2 After Attack Connects with 3 Ki Stocks
It is also possible to cancel into your teammate's Super Attack without performing one of your own! Cancel a successful hit into 
+A1/A2 or 
+A1/A2 to bring a teammate in to perform their preset Super Attack and Meteor Attack, respectively.
Thus Ultimate Z Change is used for two purposes: either to tack on extra damage in a combo or to safely tag in a character since supers are generally safer than manually tagging out at neutral. With this in mind, you also have to be aware of what supers cancel out and which ones don't when another one is tagged in.
Sparking!
Use Sparking Blast to enter Sparking! state. Sparking! is a very powerful state that grants your team a multitude of power-ups:
- Damage increases by 20%
- Ki gain increases by 100%
- Point character's blue health will regenerate fully in 240F (4 Seconds), regardless of how much there is. Healing will be paused temporarily during hitstop/Super freeze. If the point character receives damage during Sparking, regeneration will be recalculated each hit, ensuring that after receiving the latest bit of damage, blue health will regenerate fully again in the next 4 Seconds
- Damage dealt to the opponent has reduced blue health
- All normals become jump cancelable (or forward air dash cancelable) on hit/block
- 6M can be special canceled on hit/block
- Super Dash has reduced pushback, can cancel into attacks immediately on block, and leaves grounded opponents standing
- Hold buttons during Vanish to not attack after teleporting
- This will allow you to perform your own combo after teleporting instead of relying on the preset follow-up attack
- Assist cooldown will start to recover even while the opponent is in blockstun/hitstun
These buffs greatly increase your offensive and combo potential by allowing you to do more freeform blockstrings and by opening up new combo opportunities.
Sparking! lasts longer the fewer teammates are left on your team:
- 3 characters: 420F (7 Seconds)
- 2 characters: 840F (14 Seconds)
- 1 character: 1260F (21 Seconds)
Sparking Blast
L+M+H+S With Sparking Icon (Air OK)
Sparking Blast is an invincible attack that serves two purposes depending on when it's used:
- During Neutral or Blocking
- The blast will blow away the opponent, giving you time to reset the pace of the match
- Thus players will often use Sparking Blast after getting knocked down to blow away the opponent and stop the opponent's offense.
- Mid-Combo
- The blast will launch the opponent high into the air, allowing you to easily extend your combo.
- Players often use Sparking Blast this way to extend their combo just enough to kill a specific character either to hinder the opponent's gameplan or to outright win the match.
However you use Sparking Blast, you will enter Sparking! afterwards and have all the benefits listed.
- † Despite being frame 1 fully invulnerable move, deals regular amount of recoverable health instead of 100% recoverable health.
Sparking Blast Icon
The Sparking Blast Icon is located under the health gauge and indicates that you can use a Sparking Blast. While it can only be used once per match, Sparking gives players added bonuses that last longer with each character that dies. You can see the level of Sparking by looking at how vibrant the icon is. The only way to get another is to summon Shenron and choose the wish "Give me the ultimate power!".
Limit-Breaking Power
When a team is down to one character, they will be given a multitude of powerful perks:
- Gains 1 Ki stock
- Damage is increased by 20%
- Deals 10% more unrecoverable health (yellow health)
- Sparking! will not end if you're in the middle of doing a combo
Resurrecting a teammate with Shenron will remove these perks (beside the 1 Ki gauge) until the team's reduced to one character again.
Limit-Breaking Power won't trigger if the team starts out with one character, via Local Battle Mode's "1 vs. 1" or "Any Number" Battle Format or other means.
Ki Gauge
Ki is the primary offensive resource in the game. Players will use Ki to perform Vanish, Guard Cancels, Powered-Up Special Moves, Super Attacks and Meteor Attacks.
Gaining Ki
Ki is increased by advancing toward the opponent, landing attacks, blocking, and getting hit.
Sparking! doubles the amount of Ki gain from both means, but doesn't affect Ki gain from Z Assists.
| Situation | Formula |
|---|---|
| Attacking team on hit | (meter) × 1 |
| Attacking team on counter hit | (meter) × 2 for counter hit only |
| Attacking team on block or hitting against armor, guard point | (meter) × 0.5 |
| Defending team on hit | (damage taken) × 0.015 |
| Defending team on block | (base damage) × 0.005 |
| Defending team on block using armor, guard point | 0 |
| Attacking team on hit for moves that use Ki | 0 |
Ki Cooldown
After using Ki, Ki gain from offensive means is reduced by 90% for:
- A set amount of time afterward, varies between attacks.
- Until the current combo ends, if the attack landed.
This cooldown overwrites Ki gain bonus from Sparking!
Assist Cooldown
After using a Z Assist, that character will not be able to be used again for a set amount of time - that character cannot be used for Z Assist nor Z Change until this cooldown ends. Each assist has a different amount of cooldown time and the cooldown timer only begins once after the opponent leaves hitstun/blockstun. During Sparking!, the cooldown timer will start even when the opponent is in hitstun/blockstun.
This cooldown also applies after manually tagging in a character.
Ultimate Z Change is unaffected by this cooldown and can be used at any time.
Assist Lockout
After manually tagging in or getting forced out via Dragon Rush, your teammates enter a lockout state with a red X over their portrait. They cannot be used for Z Assist nor for Ultimate Z Change until the lockout is over.
Lockout duration depends on how the teammate was tagged out:
- Z Change and Ultimate Z Change: 120F
- Dragon Rush: 360F
Dragon Balls
Players can collect Dragon Balls through various methods. Two of which can be utilized by the entire cast.
The first method is performing combos of specific length:
| Hit count | Dragon Ball |
|---|---|
| 1-9 | None |
| 10-19 | One-Star |
| 20-29 | Two-Star |
| 30-39 | Three-Star |
| 40-49 | Four-Star |
| 50-59 | Five-Star |
| 60-69 | Six-Star |
| 70-79 | Seven-Star |
| 80+ | None |
The second method is by successfully landing an attack with Dynamic! property. This will unlock Dragon Balls in the following order:
- Four-Star → Two-Star → Five-Star → Three-Star → Six-Star → Seven-Star → One-Star.
If a Dragon Ball in this sequence was already claimed through the first method, the next in sequence will be obtained instead.
The Dragon Balls are shared between players, meaning either player can use them to summon Shenron.
Summoning Shenron
Hit Opponent With Dynamic! Property Attack With 7 Dragon Balls and 7 Ki Stocks
The summoner has 5 seconds to choose one of four benefits:
- Restore my health! — Fully heals the current character.
- Bring back my ally! — Revives a fallen teammate with 40% health. If both teammates are dead, the one earliest in initial team order will be revived.
- Give me the ultimate power! — Gives an additional Sparking Icon.
- Make me immortal! — Active character recovers blue health for the rest of the match. Stacks with Sparking!'s health recovery.
Summoning Shenron does not consume the 7 Ki Stocks - you need only possess it. Shenron can only be summoned once per match.
Attack Level
Most attacks in the game deal standardized amounts of hitstun, blockstun, etc. based on their Attack Level. Some moves override these standard values, which will be noted in the frame data. In addition to these exceptions, some attacks knock the enemy into the air, wallbounce, crumple, etc.
| Lvl 0 | Lvl 1 | Lvl 2 | Lvl 3 | Lvl 4 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hitstun (Ground Hit) | 14 | 16 | 18 | 20 | 22 |
| Untechable (Air Hit) | 14 | 16 | 18 | 20 | 22 |
| Blockstun (Ground) | 11 | 11 | 15 | 15 | 15 |
| Hitstop | 6 | 8 | 11 | 14 | 16 |
- Air blocking adds 2F of blockstun
- Landing while in blockstun adds an extra 4F of blockstun
Counter Hit
A counter hit (CH) occurs when hitting the opponent when they are in Counter Hit state. The opponent will flash red, the HUD will show "Counter!" and the announcer will say "Counter". On Counter Hit, the attacker will gain 50% more Ki on that attack only, and there is no additional benefit to counter hits compared to normal hits.
All attacks are in CH state during an attack's startup and active time. Most attacks are not in counterhit state during recovery, but there are exceptions:
- All Dragon Rush
- Most command throws
- All Guard Cancels
- All Supers and Meteors
- Moves with invulnerable or guard point startups.
- Some other moves, noted in frame data.
Attack Attributes
Each attack in the game has an attribute. Attributes are broken up into two broad categories: physical and projectile. These attributes interact with each other to trigger certain effects like invulnerability and guard point.
Physical Attribute
- Strike
- Physical attribute in this game are broken up into 2 groups: head and body. As a rule of thumb, standing and crouching attacks are body, while jumping/airborne attacks are head, but that is not always the case. Note that attack attribute is completely independent of how the attack must be blocked.
- When two strike's attackboxes intersect, they may clash, or one might beat the other. This depends on each attack's clash level; equal level attacks will Clash, higher level attacks will beat lower level attacks.
- As a rule of thumb, each attack's clash level equals their Attack Level. Exceptions to this rule will be noted in the frame data.
- Throw and Hit Grab
- Throws are attacks that can not be blocked but have some restrictions such as not being able to hit crouching or airborne opponents, while hit grabs are blockable strikes with a special attack animation that plays out on hit. They both cause the attacker and defender to become temporarily invulnerable to other attacks while the attack animations play out.
- Throws and hit grabs cannot clash, and will always win against strikes on trades. If two throws/hit grabs trade, the character priority will win the exchange.
- Throws can not hit assist characters.
Projectile Attribute
Each projectile has a durability level. When two projectiles of equal durability clash, each projectile will lose one hit (so a 5 hit projectile will become a 4 hit projectile, and a 1 hit projectile will disappear). Higher level projectiles will reduce one hit of lower level projectiles without losing any hits.
Projectiles will have their hitboxes disable for the frame that they clash, even if they have different durability levels.
In DBFZ, projectiles of same durability will often extend their own active frames on clash to ensure that they'll cancel each other out. Such as Goku (Super Saiyan)'s Super Kamehameha (10 hits) will always cancel out with Vegeta (Super Saiyan)'s Big Bang Attack (1 hit).
Projectiles cannot clash with strikes or throws.
The frame data will list the durability level alongside its attribute. For example, a projectile with durability level 2 will show P2.
- Ki Blast
- Ki Blast is an extra property of some projectiles with a few unique traits:
- Certain moves will have guard point specifically against Ki Blasts, notably Super Dash
- Ki Blast's blockstun is cancelable into Reflect or Super Dash, but not their blockstop
- If a Ki Blast connects exactly 1f after the opponent escapes from another blockstun, its blockstun won't be cancelable.
- Assist Characters
- Z Assists and various attacks like Android 18's Support Attack also have their own physical and projectile attributes, however certain moves with guard point will treat these attacks as projectiles, disregarding their actual attributes.
Attribute Invulnerability
Some attacks are invulnerable or automatically guard against certain attributes.
- For example, all 2H have head attribute invulnerability, so it functions very well as an anti-air since most jumping attacks, air specials, etc. are considered head attribute.
Attribute invincibility is only active for a specific time frame, see Frame Data for each move for details.
- This is especially important with regard to anti-air attacks: a jump attack that's already active will Counter Hit an opponent for attempting to anti-air too late.
- Guard Point and Armor
- Guard point (also known as autoguard) allows attacks to automatically guard against other attacks, while armor allows you to take the hit while still carrying through the attack. As a rule of thumb, guard point and armor are weaker than invulnerability because an attack that hits guard point/armor is considered "blocked" and the attacker retains all "cancel on block" options.
- Most of the time, these attacks only have guard point/armor against certain types of attacks. For example, Android 16's 5H only has armor against mid and high strikes, but not lows.
Clash
- Clash
During a clash, that hit is nullified and each character can cancel the attack into any other attack, Z Reflect, and any options available on block. Almost all strikes can clash, with very few exceptions.
There are 2 ways to trigger a clash:
- Disjointed hitboxes hit each other (See here for a more detailed visual example) regardless of Clash Level.
- When two hitboxes of equal Clash Level hit each other even when not disjointed.
When clashes happen either the players are unable to react to the clash because it is unexpected, or they understand how the attacks interact well enough to intentionally cause the clash to cancel out the opponent's attack, then retaliate with their own!
- Crush
When two non-disjointed hitboxes hit each other but are of different Clash Level, the higher level attack will win. The higher level attack gains invincibility to the lower level attack, and the loser gets hit.
- Trades
You might think that thanks to how Clashes and Crushes work, it is impossible for two strikes to trade (aka both characters get hit), but this is not true! Trades are still possible, just fairly rare.
Remember, Clashes only occur when two attack's attackboxes intersect. If two strikes hit each other's hurtboxes without touching attackboxes then they will trade, regardless of Clash Level!
