DNFD/Defense

This section is still being written. It may be wildly inaccurate or missing significant data.

Please feel free to make edits, but include edit summaries and sources where applicable.

Guard

Ground Guard

Also known as blocking.

Blocking is an necessary action to lower damage taken.

Hold or to Standing Guard and hold or + to Crouching Guard.

Standing Guard blocks Mid and High attacks, but not Lows.
Crouching Guard blocks Mid and Low attacks, but not Highs such as many (but not all) jumping attacks.
Air Guarding and guarding Throw attacks is not possible.

After blocking an attack, characters enter a state called blockstun where they are unable to do anything except continue blocking or Guard Cancel. Normally, blocking attacks results in the defender taking no damage, but MP Skills will deal a portion of their damage as White Damage when blocked.

Guard Crush

Blocking attacks depletes the defending character's Guard Gauge. When the Guard Gauge completely empties, the defending character will be stunned for 60 frames and unable to take any action, including blocking.

Dodge

Also known as Roll

Performed by pressing +. This moves your character forward while avoiding attacks, but is vulnerable to throws. They are not invulnerable immediately on startup making them susceptible to meaty attack Hitting an opponent to cover the moment as they lose invincibility. The most common one is performing an attack early on okizeme to gain frame advantage and bait reversals.s, but after their short startup they are strike and projectile invulnerable for a significant amount of time until their recovery. Using dodges to move through big attacks with slow recoveries can guarantee punishes.

Dodges cannot be performed by holding and pressing , but can be released and pressed again while holding to dodge, or while holding in general (such as forward dashing).

All Characters Except Enchantress

33 Frames Total
- 3-13F Crosses through opponent if close
- 3-20F Strike Invulnerable
- 3-30F Projectile Invulnerable
- 21-33F Recovery

Enchantress

35 Frames Total
- 5-13F Crosses through opponent if close
- 5-22F All Invulnerable
- 23-35F Recovery

Guard Cancel

Performed by pressing ++ while blocking. An invincible attack that launches the opponent away on hit. It costs 100 MP and cannot be performed without having at least 100 MP. The damage it deals is minor and cannot K.O. the opponent. Different characters use different moves for their Guard Cancels so their hitboxes widely vary, but they are universally strike/projectile invulnerable and unsafe when blocked.

Throw Tech

If you input a ground throw at the same time as an opponent within a 4 frame window, then both characters will back off a short distance and recover. The defending character starts their tech animation 1 frame earlier than the attacker, leaving the defender +1 afterwards. If both characters throw on the same frame, the attacker is considered the character who attacked most recently.

Throw techs cannot be performed while recovering from a move, so unsafe attacks are still unsafe.
If the throw connects while the defender is holding the button, the defender cannot tech, even if they release .

Punish

Sometimes "Punish" will appear on the HUD. This means that a character was hit during the recovery of their attack.

Attacks are punishable on block if the defender has enough time to hit the attacker after blocking the attack. Each character's frame data lists the amount of time to punish an attack on block. Of course, just because an attack is fast enough does not also mean it has the range to reach the opponent, so knowledge and practice are still necessary even when a player knows the numbers.

While the concept of punishing exists in all fighting games, the HUD indicator is helpful for learning while mid-match. Did you actually punish the opponent's attack or were they just not blocking?

Reversal

Reversal is a term used to refer to either performing an action on the first possible frame after recovery or actions that would be used in such a context, such as moves with invincibility during startup. The HUD displays the word "Reversal" when performing a move immediately after recovering from blockstun, hitstun, or knockdown. This message is useful to tell when an attack was performed as fast as possible.