The Manual of Style (MoS or MOS) is the style manual for all Dustloop articles. This primary page is supported by further Writing Character Pages and Writing System Explanations. If any contradiction arises, this page has precedence. Failing to follow this document is considered a violation of the user Policy. In the majority of situations no action will be taken against a user who fails to follow this guide because the Bureaucrat Team recognizes that mistakes happen, and not every user is confident and comfortable with editing wikis. With that made clear, the team does still reserve the right to remove user's edit access if that user makes egregious and intentional violations of this page.
Where Do I Start?
Once your account has been created and you've waited 24 hours, you can start editing most pages on Dustloop. This includes all character pages, where most of the work is done. If you have information that is new and/or useful, feel free to add it.
Certain pages (primarily main game pages and templates) cannot be changed by new users. These pages are very important, are not changed often, and in the case of templates affect many pages. If you notice an error on one of these pages, you can contact a moderator in the Dustloop Discord and they can help.
How do I Edit a Page?
On any page where you have permissions, you have several options. If you want to edit a section of a page, like a specific move, each section will have an "Edit" button that you can click on. If you want to edit the entire page, there is an "Edit" button in the top-right corner of the page.
If you are unsure how to make an edit, there are a couple of options for troubleshooting.
If you cannot find the text you want to edit, use Ctrl+F to find it. If you don't know how to add a feature, find a page that uses the feature, edit that page, and look at the code that it uses. This can help you understand how to use it on the original page. You can also use your User page (e.g. User:MyName) to test features. If you have further questions, join the Dustloop Discord and ask your question there. There is a large community of people who can help.
What If I'm Unsure About An Edit?
First, as long as you are not acting maliciously or deleting important information, don't be afraid to make edits. However, if you do want second opinions, you can ask in the Dustloop Discord, as well as game- or character-specific Discords, or trusted players.
What Happened to My Edit?
On the top-right of every page, right next to the "Edit" button, there is a "View History" button. This lets you see each change that has been made to a page, and compare version, which helps you see when changes were made. Many users also leave comments, which may help you understand why the changes were made. If you would like to discuss these changes with either the original editor or other people who work on the site, join the Dustloop Discord.
General Writing Style
Dustloop aims at being an impartial, community driven source of information and education. In order to achieve that, articles need to be written in a manner conducive to maintaining trust, professionalism, and respect. Dustloop would also like to recognize that a significant audience of the site does not speak English as their first language, and so the administration of the site asks that sentences are kept relatively simple when possible.
As a general rule of thumb:
- Avoid excessively emotive language when possible. (eg: "insanely oppressive offense and abysmally awful defense")
- Try to be impartial and objective.
- Avoid using swears whenever possible.
- Never use slurs under any circumstances.
To add to that point, Dustloop needs to be written agnostic to the skill of the reader. Do not assume a certain level of reader competence; Write such that even a beginner could understand it. An easy way to achieve this is to stick to the descriptive nature of what the character can do as opposed to what the player can do. Instead of "you can block while in the air", write "X Character can block while in the air".
Casual language and inside jokes are acceptable so long as they are kept in moderation and do not detract from the information on the page.
English, Please!
Dustloop is an English website. Until the day comes that we have the resources, staff, and volunteers to set up an infrastructure for multiple languages, that will continue to be the case. Therefore, the wiki should remain in English.
Furthermore, the English localization always take priority. If the English and Japanese text for a game on this wiki differ, the official English Localization take priority.
If there's a borrow word that is not normally a part of the English language, such as "okizeme", then it should be used with a tooltip the first time that it appears on the page in order to explain it to the reader. Terms like this which are commonly used on the wiki are included in the {{Keyword}} template. Otherwise, use the {{Tt}} template. For example:
This character has a big emphasis on {{Keyword|okizeme}}. They have a good matchup against {{Tt|George Bush|Some guy from America}}.
This character has a big emphasis on okizeme From Japanese "起き攻め". Attacking an opponent about to wake up after they were knocked down, usually with meaty attacks or mix-ups.. They have a good matchup against George BushSome guy from America.
Why Using Non-English Text In Headers Causes Problems
Links to sections are generated based on the entire contents of the section header. Adding additional text to a section header that you plan to link to will have effects ranging from making the author add extra words when writing their link, or need to find and copy paste illegible hyperlinks that aren't easily remembered.
For example, using Anji's "Shin: Ichishiki" (Officially named 針: 壱式 in Japanese), you get the following link:
Header: ==針: 壱式== Results in: https://www.dustloop.com/wiki/index.php?title=GGST/Anji_Mito#.E9.87.9D:_.E5.A3.B1.E5.BC.8F
If you instead use the English translation, the link will look like:
Header: ==Shin: Ichishiki== Results in: https://www.dustloop.com/wiki/index.php?title=GGST/Anji_Mito#Shin:_Ichishiki
Using non-English Characters in Section Header
Using non-English characters in a section header results in a generated section link with some wacky codes to represent the non-English characters. These are unreasonable for an author to remember, so they will have to find them and copy-paste them when writing a link in an article. Click the "Tell Me More" button for an in depth explanation and breakdown.
On Strive Anji's page the header Kou / 紅 generates the following link GGST/Anji_Mito#Kou_.2F_.E7.B4.85
Another problem with using non-English characters in your link is that a direct copy-paste of the section header does not generate a valid link to the section.
Although the section header is Kou / 紅, the following mediawiki link, GGST/Anji_Mito/Kou / 紅, is not valid for two reasons.
- the link has a
/character, which is not valid. It makes the link think you are pointing to a sub page - the non-English characters are non recognized, and instead their code needs to be used instead.
Using Special Characters in Section headers
Special characters sometimes behave similarly to non-English characters and generate wacky links when used in section headers. A famous example of this one is Jack-O'.
The base page name for Jack-O' in GGST is GGST/Jack-O. If it were GGST/Jack-O', the page's URL would be GGST/Jack-O%27, which causes problems for other pages and templates that use it. So, the apostrophe is omitted.
Tone
The primary goal is to transfer information to the reader - it's best to think of yourself as a technical writer rather than a story teller. If information can be conveyed while being entertaining then all the better, but do not sacrifice informational value simply to be entertaining. Please try to keep this wiki primarily a place for information rather than to write jokes and story synopses. One suggestion is to mix the two; incorporate useful information into the entertainment and not simply joke around.
The main offender of this tenet is adding joke captions for images; occasional joking is fine, but giving every image a joke is overkill. Try adding a little useful info, trivia, or even no caption at all.
Style
- Avoid passive voice
- Avoid emotive language
- Avoid complex sentence structure.
- Sentences should ideally be approachable for readers of most levels of fluency. If you can say something in a simple way; do it.
Length
Readers don't have a long attention span so get to the point - this isn't a school book report and you're not trying to hit a word count. Having said that, it's a difficult balancing act between being thorough enough to fully explain something, but brief enough that readers don't get bored.
Look over what you've written and try to remove filler words or find a clearer way to phrase a sentance.
Other common pitfalls include:
- Adding too many examples to the point that it is a full list rather than a few examples that illustrate the general rule
- Going into details that would be considered trivia rather than help the player learn how or why an attack works the way it does
Color Coding and highlighting
If you've used the site for some time you will have noticed text with colors such as this: c.S > 6K, using the {{clr}} template. For more information on how to use this on wiki pages, see Template:Clr/doc. This is a technique authors use on the site to make numpad notation more accessible to beginner players by relating the colors of the inputs with the colors used for button prompts in game. However, color coding can pose problems for users with color-deficient vision. Please be conservative and do not add color coding outside of recommended use cases in this list.
Things you are encouraged to color code:
- Move inputs (eg: c.S, j.236A, etc)
- Tags (eg: BUFF, REWORKED, etc)
Acceptable edge cases for color coding:
- Net Change values for combo tables (eg: -10)
Things you should not color code:
- Move names (eg: Potemkin Buster, Lullaby Fist)
- Text you wish to emphasize
Hot Links on standard text will be made blue in order to indicate to the user that the text is, in fact, a clickable link. Link colors do not fall under the guidelines listed above.
Pronouns and Gendered Language
We recommend an approach adopted from the APA Style. These best practices should not be taken as thoroughly vetted by the community nor representing consensus.
Use "They/Their/Them" When:
- If They/Their/Them are the official pronouns used, or if non-gendered pronouns are used.
- The gender of the subject is irrelevant to the point being discussed
- The gender of the subject is unknown
- There are multiple subjects
Use Official Gender Pronouns When:
- The source material uses gendered pronouns for text that will be copied to the wiki
- The text needs the additional specification of gender to be clear
Because there is a significant amount of content which already exists on the wiki and uses gendered pronouns to refer to characters, we do not recommend changing the existing pronoun usage unless it improves the quality of the article.
Jokes and Captions
| ✔️ | ❌ |
|---|---|
 Win the game...or Dragon Install? |
 When you need thots ran over on command |
 Some say it's still active to this day... |
 "YOU'RE ADOPTED!" |
 Knock knock it's time to block. |
 "KRILLIN LIMIT BREAK!" |
 You think you're safe standing fullscreen like that? |
 Beerus is a Linkin Park fan confirmed |
 Arguably the most important skill for a Venom player |
 "Ramlethal? Do you mind telling me what you're doing in that Snuggie?" "Sir. Going Blankie Mode." |
Dustloop has a long history of having joke captions under the images for moves, and sometimes even in the overviews. Some of these captions are genuinely funny and considered a welcome and fun part of the Dustloop experience.
The current stance of the Bureaucrat Team is that we do not want to do away with joke captions entirely, and would still like to grant them some good will, but joke captions will be treated with greater scrutiny in the future, and less of them will be allowed per-page. There is no hard limit, and will be handled case-by-case. Move captions should be on-topic. Personal discretion applies here, so please operate on the honor system.
Criteria for welcome jokes and captions:
- Jokes that are relevant to the character as they appear in game
- Explanations of what the moves do
- Comedic or lighthearted references to how the move is used
- Comedic references to the primary source material (the game itself, not anime or manga which it is based on)
- References to the metagame
- Anything that attempts to be informative or educational
- Translated attack names (usually in <small /> font, underneath the main caption)
Examples of unwelcome jokes and captions:
- Inside Jokes
- Unrelated References/Quotes from YouTube/Twitter/social media
- References/Quotes to content unrelated to the source material
- Memes that you would expect to find on social media—such as TikTok, Vine, Snapchat, etc.
- Political content or hateful content
This list is not exhaustive, and everything you post is subject to the discretion of your peers and the moderation team.
Arguing over captions is a waste of time and effort.
The purpose of the site is not to be a platform for jokes, but instead to be informative and helpful.
How Do I Write a Character Page?
Remember the Intended Audience
When writing guides, remember the intended audience is beginner and intermediate players - not experts.
- Move explanations should not be very long if possible. Use bullet lists to list interesting properties, and paragraphs for deeper explanations.
- Do not waste words describing what the attack looks like - that is what the image is for.
- An exception is when the move is too visually complex for a small set of images to explain. In these cases, describing what a move looks like is acceptable.
- Do not compare a move against older versions of the move unless there's a really good reason to do so.
- Ex: Explaining that the older version of an attack was an overhead doesn't help the reader learn about THIS version of the game.
How Do I Write an Overview?
Character Overview Pages are the most commonly read articles on the entirety of Dustloop. As such, these articles will be held to the highest standard.
Many readers do not have a long attention span, so get to the point. Be descriptive, detailed, and accurate, but avoid wasting time with flowery language. Overviews need to cover a lot of information in a relatively compact space so it is recommended that editors avoid making excessive use of adjectives fluff phrases.
The overview for a given character should give a reader a basic understanding of what the character can do, what the character's gameplan is, crucial flaws, and key strengths are. The latter two points can be carried by the pros/cons table in the majority of situations, but it is sometimes appropriate to mention things in greater detail within the overview. A reader should walk away from an overview with a baseline understanding of how a character players at a macro scale.
How Should I Write Pros and Cons?
- Each Pro/Con should follow the following format:
- Bold Text: 1-3 sentence explanation. One for simpler pros/cons, two-three for more complex pros/cons.
- For example:
- Slugger:
Sol's close range options, such as 2P, +3 on block 2S, Volcanic Viper, and Wild Throw are scary tools. His frame traps and counter hit conversions are incredibly damaging in skilled hands and can usually score a knockdown to set up another favorable sequence. - Can't Approach:
Potemkin can not dash or airdash, limiting his options to simply walking forward. Hammerfall is not a suitable replacement for either of these, and as such neutral requires strong patience and decision-making.
- Slugger:
Think of the bold text as a TL;DR and the explanation as explaining it, though it should still be brief.
- If there's something that you feel like is absolutely imperative to be mentioned to any newer or inexperienced player about a character (i.e. difficulty barriers, defensive quirks), but does not exactly fit as a legitimate or objective Pro/Con; remember that you have the ~3 paragraphs worth of space in the character's Overview section above the Pros/Cons table to make that known, or the Strategy page to write it out in-depth.
- Lastly, please refrain from using the Pros and Cons section as a battleground for balance. If you're unsure about a change or feel like something is not listed that is relevant to the character, ask around the Discord for our opinions on the subject or consult other experts on the game.
On Writing Pros
- Whereas Cons are more specific, Pros can be very open-ended and generalized. For example, having good defense in a game with generally bad defense is likely worth noting, even if other characters are also strong on defense.
- Always make sure to specify what elements of a Pro make it valid. Saying Space Control for a character and following it up with "Using his good normals,
Ky can control space well" is very vague. Which of Ky's normals are good for space control? Listing specific examples like f.S and j.H are good ways to clear things up. - Don't get overly into minutia such as things like having 1 extra frame of jump startup, or having an overhead that is 2 frames faster than average. Are these really a key strength/weakness of the character?
- Don't try to balance the number of Pros and Cons to be equal, they don't need to be. Developers don't purposefully make characters to be just plain bad (anymore), but also, what players end up discovering and valuing to be "good" in a game may vary greatly from their intent. As a result, some characters will inevitably have more strengths than weaknesses and vice versa. Trying to balance this by creating poorly-justified or outright fake Pros or Cons gives people an incorrect view of the character, which can hurt the learning process of newcomers.
On Writing Cons
- Cons should be very specific to the issue that plagues the character. Always make sure that you specify the exact problem a character has when listing their weakness.
- The absence of a good tool isn't the same thing as having a weakness, especially if the character is built to do something that does not need that tool, but lacking something "essential" would be a weakness.
- Therefore lacking a DP in a game with bad defensive options is a negative, but not having a gap closer is not a defining weakness. A DP can be essential for getting characters away from your or demanding space, but not having a dedicated gap closer just means you need to use universal mechanics to get around, and your character may not even need a gap closer to perform well.
- Make sure the absence of a dedicated tool is not covered somewhere else in the character's kit. In Guilty Gear, not having an invincible AA 6P button is not a weakness if they have other buttons that are reliable anti-airs like Testament 2S or Order-Sol's Gunblaze special move.
- A character without any notable weaknesses is not necessarily a flawless character. It often means that their weaknesses are things that apply to the whole cast, or are not significant enough to be worth noting.
Is High Execution a Con?
High execution should only be a weakness if the character loses something significant from execution mistakes. Think through these examples:
| “ | What does the character lose by dropping a hard combo, and how integral is that to playing properly? | „ |
Example A) Sol
Sol drops a Sidewinder. The opponent techs out at the top of the screen. Does he die for it? No. Does he have to play neutral again? Yes Is Sol's neutral good? Compared to the majority of the cast, No So is solid execution a big deal? It's not the worst thing, but it forces him to go back to instances where he's inherently at a disadvantage. It's still important to consider. '''However, it should not be listed as a con.'''
Example B) Johnny
Johnny drops a Killer Joker FRC, or an Enkasu, or a Tk Ensenga. Does he die for it? Possibly Does he have to play neutral again? You betcha Is Johnny's neutral good? It can be, but he eats shit for a single whiff/getting low profile'd Is all of this important to playing the character? It's pretty important, yes. Probably comparable, if not worse than Sol. ''Thus, this can be added as a footnote''' by adding the <code>|footnote=</code> argument with an explanation.
Example C) Chipp
Chipp flubs a j.2K FDC/Instant Air Alpha/basic IAD string Does he die for it? Very much so Does he have to play neutral again? Can't play neutral if you're dead Is Chipp's neutral good? Unless you're on point, you're gonna have to jump around and if you get touched, you're dead. His buttons are fantastic but most of them don't lead to a proper knockdown or any solid damage. Is this vital to playing Chipp? Absolutely. A single drop spells death, meaning you either commit hard to the actual damage and make certain you have it, or you commit to small hits left and right, and you'd better not mess those up either. '''Thus, this can be listed as a con.'''
Bad Moves VS Situational Moves
Red Hail on Venom's page. The move carries many flaws, costs meter, and is hard to use in the first place. Yet, there are niche ways to use it.
A good description for a BAD move.
A good description for a BAD move.
Punisher Drive on SSB Gogeta's page. The move is described as limited and reactable with low reward, but useful in neutral and in TOD combos.
A good description of a SITUATIONAL move.
A good description of a SITUATIONAL move.
Sometimes characters have moves that are questionably helpful. In some cases, the community can come to the conclusion that the move is more risk than it's worth, and advise players to avoid using said move in most circumstances. In others, it's helpful in enough scenarios where the move is simply referred to as "situational." Despite this, it's rather common for writers to list many moves with considerable downsides as simply being situational, which is ill-advised due to its vague narrative, dishonesty, confusion to new players and potentially contradicting competitive expertise.
Ask yourself the following questions if you can't decide what a move should be described as:
- Does the move only become helpful in few, select situations?
- Does the move have reactable startup, punishable recovery, avoidable hitboxes, or otherwise high risk characteristics?
- Does the move give low reward for landing it?
- Does the move have a cost such as meter, cooldowns, health, or a character-specific resource?
- Does the move replace other moves? Is it possible to revert the replacement in the middle of the match?
- Does the move have an easy obvious counter, reducing the attack to a knowledge check?
There are also three simpler questions, but these are prone to more debate so handle these with care or use them as tiebreakers.
- Will top level players, character discords, or the community at large advise against using the move?
- Does the character have an objectively better choice for the same situation?
- Does the move invariably put you in a worse situation regardless of success?
If you find that too many of these can be checked off, you are likely staring at a bad move, not a situational one. It's important to differentiate the two, as you don't want readers to believe that a move is better or worse than it really is, but also don't want readers to believe that a helpful move limited to certain scenarios is bad simply because it's not all-purpose. Likewise, just because a move is reactable or has limited range does not make it bad on its own, unless these flaws are so pronounced it will never realistically be feasible to use the move.
Please exercise caution when describing certain moves as "bad" in a hyperbolic sense, unless it truly is deserving of such harsh criticism.
What Else Should I Know?
- The first time a special move is mentioned on an overview page, it should be written as its full name, alongside its input, and with a hyperlink to the move section or a Mini Move Card.
- Move inputs (such as 6P or 236L) should be color coded with their corresponding button color (EG: green for GBVS medium, pink for GGXRD Light, etc.). This isn't set up for all games, but quite a few of them have this feature. This is done by using the Clr template.
- If a move is more commonly referenced by another name (such as an abbreviation, its numpad input, or an alternate colloquial term), put that alternate way of referring to the move in parenthesis either immediately after the first use of the move name, or incorporate it into the move's description itself, or perhaps both. That makes it so from then on you can use that alternate way of referring to the move for the rest of the overview or other text without worry of confusion.
- If a term is particularly obscure to the point that a beginner cannot comprehend it, add a tooltip explaining the term, or add a link to the glossary (for instance:
{{keyword|F-Shiki}}produces F-Shiki Sometimes known as "Fuzzy Overhead". When you are in blockstun, you can switch high/low blocking, but your blocking animation and hurtbox does not change until you leave blockstun or block another attack. F-Shikis take advantage of this and use overheads that would miss on crouching characters, but not on standing characters.). - If you need to reference another character who is not the character on the current page, make their name a hyperlink to said character's page or use the Character_Label function, such as with Missing Link
Potemkin.
How Do I Write Move Descriptions?
There is no real "defined" format to follow for specific move descriptions on Dustloop. The community at-large can decide how they like to format their information for the games they play, so this section contains tips for making descriptive and accurate move breakdowns.
Follow the Templates
Templates are pre-defined sets of text used to maintain a uniform look throughout pages on the wiki. You can recognize a template when it's enclosed in double {s such as {{MyTemplate}}. To learn more about templates, check out mediawiki's help page.
The move templates lovingly hand-crafted by our site engineers are the baseline for what individual moves should look like on a character page. They contain all the necessary information- move names, inputs, frame data, images and hitboxes, and a description box for writing detailed breakdowns of the particular move. Touching these templates to alter them in any way is a huge misdemeanor in the community, so don't do it.
Most users won't need to worry about them as they will already be in place. But just in case all the pages follow the same pattern:
- When in doubt, look at other character pages, copy, and adapt for your own uses.
- Each move uses css and mediawiki tables to lay out an attack with move name, images, captions, and truncated list of frame data.
- Each character's page refers to their Data page that has all the data for that character, for example Answer's links and frame data are all on GGXRD-R2/Answer/Data.
An example of an idea move template, with filled-out information and a strong description to explain the move, can be found at the bottom of this page.
Move Descriptions
Many newcomers who start playing a fighting game want to know how each of their options functions in a real game. As a result, our move descriptions are some of the most important writing material on the site. We don't want to mislead or misinform the playerbase of these games, and as such, there are a few recommendations to follow when writing them.
- Informational clarity is top priority. The foremost purpose of a move description should be explaining how it functions. While this sounds simple, information can often get lost in repetition of facts, attempts at humor, or poor writing in general. As a guideline, try to explain the purpose of a move within a single sentence before moving onto it in greater detail. This will help you stay on-track with communicating the benefits and drawbacks of each move in a character's movelist.
- Be descriptive. Avoid generic terms like "powerful" or "niche". Describe specifically why a move is powerful, or the situations in which it's useful.
- If a move is good, say it's good. It is important that newcomers get an idea of how each move functions when reading a character page. If a move is amazing, make sure you point out how good it is while explaining exactly why it is so good.
- Understand "Bad" versus "Situational." Try to explain how and where niche moves can be used instead of outright declaring them as useless. For more information on this, consult this section from the Manual of Style.
- Always double-check your information. Try to avoid incorrect information about the move you're writing as much as possible. Talk with community members, gather information from multiple sources, and as always test the move in-game for yourself before making claims about their function.
- Edit your work! Always finish your writing period with a quick double-check of your work before submitting. Consider your writing from the perspective of an newcomer before submittal, so avoid using obscure community jargon. Fighting game terminology, such as DP Dragon Punch A move that has invulnerability during its startup, long recovery, and a rising motion., BnB A staple combo that is simple yet effective. or Fireball A projectile which usually travels slowly across the screen in a horizontal path above the ground. can be explained using the keyword function if necessary.
Using Bullet Points
Bullet points are a form of writing which help communicate lists of information quickly while emphasizing that text on the page. It is, however, possible to poorly use bullet points and thus de-value them in writing.
For this reason, it is recommended that writers follow these guidelines for the use of bullet points as set by Miami University.
- Make sure all items in the list are related to each other
- Keep bullet points short, preferably no more than three lines long
- Emphasize the beginning of each bullet point to make the list skim-friendly
- Begin all items with the same part of speech (active verbs work well) and make sure they are in parallel form
- Make all bullet points approximately the same length
- Use periods at the end of each line only if they are complete sentences
Writing Updated Move Functions
Fighting games in the modern day are consistently updated with new balance patches that can radically change the functions of certain moves. When making writing changes based on balance patches, always include the details of the balance changes without explicitly drawing attention to them.
As an example, Ky's j.D was changed heavily in Guilty Gear: -STRIVE-'s Second Season (ver. 1.18) balance patch. The move gained new uses in Ky's pressure and combo game, making it much more useful than previous versions. However, calling attention to this change only serves to pollute the move description with unnecessary information and invites "move historiography". Contrast these two descriptions against each other.
Notice how better the bottom version reads? Without the fluff of the move's history getting in the way, the reader now knows how best to use this move, and suggestions to accommodate it into their gameplay. The audience reading these pages do not need to know the move's history or how it functioned in the past- they need to know how it functions right now, in the game they're currently playing.
Two final things to note: first, it can be worth discussing changes for moves between versions or games if the change is substantial enough to both the game and legacy. Moves that have had long-standing or vital properties and usage in a series, yet no longer carry them in a newer version such as invincibility or primary combo utility, are absolutely important to understand and are thus worth listing. Consider how impactful these changes are to each character -- if Sol lost his low-profile attributes on Night Raid Vortex in a newer version or a game, how would that affect his gameplan?
File:P4AU Update Move Change Example.png
Yu Narukami's 5D was well-known and popularized as his primary okizeme tool in Persona 4 Arena, but it was changed over the course of Ultimax's development to get rid of this utility, and thus fell far out of favor. However, to this day it's still often incorrectly referenced or attempted by some players, and using it improperly in Ultimax can get the Narukami player killed. Listing the changes in this scenario makes it easy for newcomers to understand how a move may now be far different from outdated community information.
Secondly, we do keep up-to-date patch notes for games that are still being updated, which can often be found on the main page of each respective game. If you see a page that needs updating, please consider taking the time to do so. Certain moves may require full rewrites depending on the scale of the buff or nerf, so if you're unsure of how to change a move, discuss it with members of the community first in our Discord. We love to talk.
How Do I Write Combo Pages?
- The combo section should not list ALL combos for a character. List enough for a person to learn the basics for standard situations (common starters, big punishes, corners, etc.)
- Get familiar with TheoryBoxes. These are the gold standard for modern combo pages.
- As examples, see GGACR Venom, BBCF Tsubaki, and GGST Ky
How Do I Write Strategy Pages?
The strategy section should explain the goals of the character, and how to achieve said goals.
A basic, yet thorough formatting of a strategy page would typically include:
- General / Overarching Strategy, such as how they can be played or the win conditions they must achieve
- Neutral
- Offense
- By extension, Okizeme details would fall under here as well
- Defense
- Tips and Tricks
- This is valuable! Be sure to explain tips and tricks the character uses such as Yosuke's glide technique, Arakune's fast-fall, Slayer's BDC, or Kagura's easy drive attack inputs.
- General or specific counterplay versus this character
- Information on counterplay against your character is important to let a reader know what to look for in an opponent's habits or gameplan that may shut their character down, or for another player to know what to try to contest in the match-up. Fighting games are 2-player and directly interactive; this information is just as valuable as the above about on how to play your side of the game.
How Do I Make Images?
How Do I Change Frame Data?
The Resource Dump
See a cool combo on Twitter, but don't know where to put it? Notice that a popular YouTuber just dropped an awesome guide for a character, but don't want to transplant all the information onto the overview page? Have your own theories about how a character can perform in a match, but don't want to drop it onto a main page just yet? Consider using the Resource Dump, which can be found on each character page.
This can be a great place to put down miscellaneous information for later or help consolidate a backlog of material for players of all skill levels. Consider uploading any good information you find to this location. Consider visiting | Kanji Tatsumi's Resource Dump for an idea of what can be put onto the page.
Creating Players to Watch Sections
The "Players to Watch" table is a resource guide and suggestion template meant to go on a character's Resources tab. The idea behind the table is that it provides new players with examples of veteran player footage.
However, these tables should have a few restraints.
- The section should be presented as "Players to Watch" not as "Notable Players". Players who are put into this table need to have a large amount of publicly available footage to observe, whether on YouTube or on a replay viewing site like keeponrock.in.
- The section must link to example footage, for example:
EVO 2022 Grand Finals against Slash (MA)
Multiple sources of footage, preferably against different characters, are strongly recommended. - The section should never link to social media for the players, only their footage. This section is not for endorsement.
- The Notes field should provide some basic explanation of why the player's footage is noteworthy for watching.
- You should perhaps note if a player is retired or not, as that could impact their footage relative to older versions of the game or modern metas.
Do not vandalize these tables, and be careful with who you link to. Site wide standards of anti-racism, misogyny, transphobia and more apply to these tables.
Examples of Strong Writing
Below are examples of the current standards for character page entries. These are flexible, so consider it a recommendation and not a hard rule.
5K
| Damage | Guard | Startup | Active | Recovery | On-Block | Invuln |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 [32] | Mid | 7 | 3 | 15 | -8 |
Total: 24
5K is a secretly godlike low crush A move that avoids low attacks. The move might pull your hurtbox up a bit so it avoids attacks that are low to the ground. In games with attack attributes such as Blazblue this is done with Foot attribute invulnerability. and solid ball launcher.
5K is commonly used in order to launch Lighting Balls to lock down the opponent after a 421S knockdown when you are too far to lock them down with a P normal. It also has the least pushback of all of Venom's normals and is jump cancelable which makes it a valid choice for starting pressure if you cannot guarantee that you will be in range for c.S > IAS Instant Air Special
Conceptually includes Tiger KneePerforming a special as soon as possible after becoming airborne. Usually, but not always, involves an input trick.
For Example: 2369S for a j.236S input. j.236S.
Gatling Options: 6P, c.S, f.S, 2S, 2H, 5H, 6H, 5D, 2D
| FRC Window | Proration | Guard Bar+ | Guard Bar- | Level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| N/A | 90% | 3 | 8 | 1 |
5A
The Multipurpose God Jab
A move that is the staple of Bang himself, 5A is a good multipurpose tool capable of anti airing instant airdash approaches, pressuring opponents effectively due to being safe and having a plethora of cancel options as well as being jump cancellable, enabling some rather creative frame traps and being one of Bangs most frequently used combo starters, along with 5B, 2A, and j.A/j.B. It is also his fastest normal.
Despite not gattling into 2A, it is generally one of his best normals to use as you can get a lot of reward from it with very minimal risk, due to the way his routes work, and 5A being a generally useful normal.
- Hits crouching opponents.
Expected features
- Image of the move
- Frame Data and damage
- Description of when the move is useful
- Bullet point list of move properties (which are not already explained in the frame data bar or move description)
- list of gatling options with link to gatling table on frame data page
- Supplemental frame data such as invulnerability and untech time
- hitbox tab
- Different "versions" of moves (as applicable)