SPEND STAMINA LIKE A BUDGET
The bar is out of 100. A jab costs 17, a cross 21, a kick 22, a string ender 30. Mash jab and you're empty on the sixth press; a full four-hit string takes 85 to 92. It refills at 90 a second once you've gone a third of a second without spending, so one beat of walking buys most of it back. Landing hits keeps you going: a hit gives back half its cost and a blocked hit a quarter, so a combo that connects costs about half what it says. A whiff gives back nothing, and the same move landing again right away gives back half as much each time.
Leave enough to finish what you start. If the swing that empties the bar hits, you stay on your feet with almost nothing left; if it whiffs or gets blocked, you faint. Under 35 the bar flashes LOW, and an empty bar faints you for a second and a half, rooted and with no guard. Shaking it off with left and right on a steady beat gets you out in a little under a second at best, which still leaves them time to punish. Blocking only costs a third of the hit and never takes your last point. Getting knocked down fills the bar, so the fighter on the floor is never the tired one.
PUNISH WHAT THEY COMMIT TO
A whiffed or blocked move has recovery, and that's your turn. The jab is your fastest answer. Hit someone during the startup of their move and it's a counter hit: 35% more damage and more stun. Throw at the very same moment and the fists or shins meet instead: a CLASH, nobody is hit and you both bounce back to neutral (a heavy kick or an ender goes straight through a jab, though). A botch is an invitation, and one that spins them round leaves their back to you, where every hit counts as a counter.
Every fighter's page lists how many frames each move is minus on block. Red numbers are your turn.
THE PARRY IS A READ
Tap toward them about a tenth of a second before the hit lands, or down-forward for a low. Nothing gets through and they reel for 16 frames, long enough for a jab or a cross. One tap catches one strike, and each tap locks out the next for a moment, so you can't tap twice.
Save it for the move they always end on. A tap that guesses wrong walks you forward into the hit, and it never stops a throw. Higher up the ladder, the CPU parries too.
STRINGS, NOT CHAINS
Press in rhythm as each hit finishes. Start a string with a jab that lands, and it's a true combo. Nothing loops: hits after the third do less damage and stun less, and once one combo has done 30 damage the rest counts a quarter. Don't chase a long combo. Take the knockdown and make them guess on the way up.
DASH IN, HOP OUT
Tap toward them twice and you cover about a body and a half of floor in a fifth of a second. Press a button on the way: 1 is the Bullet Jab, the fast one, a high; 2 the Comet Cross; 3 the Skid Kick, a low for a standing guard; 4 the Running Boot, a slow mid that knocks down. All four are punished when blocked, so pick the one their guard isn't ready for.
Tap away twice to hop back about 60 pixels: far enough that a jab, a kick or a cross swings at air, close enough to dash back in and punish. You can't guard or attack until you land, so a lunge, a slide or a dash attack catches it, and it goes nowhere with your back to the wall.
UP OUT OF A CROUCH
Duck a high, let go of down, and press as you stand: 1 is a quick mid jab, 2 and 4 launch, 3 is the rising kick. Down and 1, let go, 3 is a string of its own, Rise and Shine: the crouch jab into the rising kick, a true combo when the jab lands. Keep down held on the 3 and it botches.
STOP THE JUMP-INS
Air attacks are overheads, so guard them standing. Better: an uppercut (down and 2, or let go of down and press 2) that meets a jump-in is a counter hit that launches. A jab stuffs a late one, and a standing tap parries one.
ON THE FLOOR, YOU CHOOSE
Knocked down, you lie there until you pick: up stands, away rolls back and keeps your side, toward rolls under someone standing close and comes up on their far side, 1 or 3 is the Wake Kick (mid), 2 or 4 the Wake Sweep (low). The strikes can't be hit until they swing, but they're 17 to 24 frames minus if blocked, so throwing one into a guard gets you punished on the rise.
Standing over someone, you're the one guessing. A standing guard stops the kick and walks you back out of the sweep's reach; a crouching guard stops the sweep and eats the kick.
STOMP, THEN GUARD
Down and 4 over a body on the floor stomps it for 9 (a low kick or low jab that touches it does about half its damage instead). On a hit it pins them long enough for you to raise your guard before their fastest wake-up strike lands, so guard and punish the rise. Keep pressing buttons and the wake-up strike lands on you. Whiff it, on a roll or a strike rising through it, and you're open for about 25 frames. Every knockdown allows one ground hit, so nothing loops on a body that's down.
JUGGLED? COUNT, THEN PRESS
Wait for the hits to stop, count the beat, and press once: you flip upright and land on your feet. Press in the first moment of the window and you come out with a jab. Press too early and you're locked out, and every press while you're locked keeps you locked.
NO PANIC BUTTONS
A press during your own strike botches unless it's the next hit of a string. Wait for the move to finish, or press right at the end of it, and the next one comes out clean. Botching with under 30 stamina faints you on the spot.
MIND THE WALLS
A wall splat sticks you to the wall for a free hit, and a wall bounce relaunches you into a juggle. Spin Heel (2, 1, 4), the Comet Cross out of a dash, and a throw near the wall all splat. Fight in the middle of the floor and put them in the corner.