Final Ultima

So there's another aspect of the new 6HS that hadn't been noticed until just recently, but I'm afraid to say that it no longer has a stun modifier, unlike the old 6HS. It deals base stun damage now. While this change shouldn't affect us massively, it does mean that stun sequences such as "CH Fafnir into a full combo, then a second combo into stun" have been somewhat nerfed, and it means that we no longer have a meterless stun combo against Chipp or Dizzy.

Here's a change that wasn't specified in any of the change logs. (DI) 5K - Attack start-up time has been increased from 3F to 4F. Also, it may be worth noting that as 6HS has been replaced, so in turn has (DI) 6HS, and rather than simply copying all the frame data over from the old (DI) 6HS, the new one appears to be considerably buffed. It starts up in only 10 frames (enough to combo off a (DI) 5P) and is +4 on block (6HS into 2K is a true blockstring).

While nothing has been confirmed (as the change lists typically don't specify when changes only apply to the regular version), it's unlikely. Like basically every other special in Dragon Install, (DI) Aerial Bandit Revolver had more benefits than its standard counterpart to begin with (its higher attack level and reduced landing recovery allows you to land and extend the combo before the opponent recovers), and it would lose those benefits if its properties matched. I doubt that TEAM RED would go out of their way to make one of Sol's lesser used specials in Dragon Install even less useful, especially when some of the existing changes have made other specials in Dragon Install more stable. Besides, it's not as if Dragon Install Sol is in desperate need of a knockdown that corner carries or anything. (DI) Kudakero has fantastic corner carry as is, and even (DI) Tataki Otoshi knocks the opponent away in a way that regular Tataki Otoshi doesn't.

Aside from causing standard hitstun on ground hit rather than knockdown, the new 6HS is functionally identical to the old one. It's still a mid, it still knocks down on air hit, still ground bounces on CH. There are some other changes such as a shorter total duration (recovery) and presumably a slightly different hitbox and hurtbox, but that's it really.

The old values are just there for comparison, "3to5f" means "changed from 3F to 5F". As for ground hit 6HS, it's been confirmed to have standard hitstun. Sol has basically stayed the same since Location Test #2.

Kedako's rundown of Sol's frame data changes. It's worth pointing out that according to these changes, 5K(1) is now active for one frame rather than two, so the second hit comes out faster, relatively speaking. This means that 5K(2)'s utility as an anti-air hasn't been weakened to the extent that many of us feared. Also, because of the significantly reduced total duration of the new 6HS, it must have better recovery than the old one. Whether or not this affects the cancel window for meaty Gun Flame remains to be seen.

That's all we know for now.

...and there it is.

Location Test #2 Changes SOL BADGUY 5K - Attack start-up time is slower. 6HS - Changed to a new move. Gun Flame (Feint) - Receives the effects of dash momentum. (DI) Gun Flame - Receives the effects of dash momentum. Aerial Bandit Revolver - Changed to a 2-hit move. Attack level has been increased, knockback direction has been changed. Bukkirabou ni Nageru - Does not come out if input contains any upward direction during command completion. (DI) Grand Viper - During the rush forward, the hit effect of the flame pillar portion always blows the opponent towards Sol. Most of the listed changes are repeats from the previous location test. The new changes are for 6HS and Aerial Bandit Revolver. There's not a whole lot to say about the new 6HS until we get some idea how it works, but I wouldn't be surprised if it functions similarly to the old 6HS. There'd be no real reason for them to change 6HS in the previous location test if they were just going to replace it completely anyway. The Aerial Bandit Revolver change could be interesting, but we don't yet know how the knockback has been altered exactly, so it could mean anything. We'll just have to wait for the location test proper.

New move incoming. Next location test starts February 11, so we should get some more details then.

Location Test #1 Changes SOL BADGUY 5K - Attack start-up time is slower. 6HS - Ground normal hit effect changed to standard hitstun. Bukkirabou ni Nageru - Does not come out if input contains any upward direction during command completion. Gun Flame (Feint) - Receives the effects of dash momentum. (DI) Gun Flame - Receives the effects of dash momentum. (DI) Grand Viper - During the rush forward, the hit effect of the flame pillar portion always blows the opponent towards Sol. I don't think I need to say what we're probably all already thinking regarding that 5K change. Everything else seem decent enough though. 6HS's change applies to a situation we wouldn't have seen a whole lot before. It's a nerf in meterless situations insofar as we don't get the knockdown off CH 2S anymore (and if it's standard hitstun, it'll be horribly minus on hit), but it does give us some small perks in regards to possible Roman Cancel conversions, either off CH 2S or for edge case long range hits. (DI) Gun Flame gaining dash momentum is pretty great as far as optimal Dragon Install combos are concerned, the corner carry should be even better than before. The (DI) Grand Viper change may as well be considered a bugfix, really. Tweets from Dogura (@maneater_dgr), translated by greatfernman (@GREATFERNMAN): Tweet from Kazunoko (@kazunoko0215): Location Test #2 Changes SOL BADGUY 5K - Attack start-up time is slower. 6HS - Changed to a new move. Gun Flame (Feint) - Receives the effects of dash momentum. (DI) Gun Flame - Receives the effects of dash momentum. Aerial Bandit Revolver - Changed to a 2-hit move. Attack level has been increased, knockback direction has been changed. Bukkirabou ni Nageru - Does not come out if input contains any upward direction during command completion. (DI) Grand Viper - During the rush forward, the hit effect of the flame pillar portion always blows the opponent towards Sol. Most of the listed changes are repeats from the previous location test. The new changes are for 6HS and Aerial Bandit Revolver. There's not a whole lot to say about the new 6HS until we get some idea how it works, but I wouldn't be surprised if it functions similarly to the old 6HS. There'd be no real reason for them to change 6HS in the previous location test if they were just going to replace it completely anyway. The Aerial Bandit Revolver change could be interesting, but we don't yet know how the knockback has been altered exactly, so it could mean anything. We'll just have to wait for the location test proper. Tweet from Hiago (@HiagoXYZ). Tweet from majinobama (@2dJazz). Tweet from Maruhan (@reinashiobu), translated by Bears (@AMurderOfBears). Tweet from Shinogi (@s_n_g_iex), translated by Bears (@AMurderOfBears). Location Test #3 Changes Same as Location Test #2. Tweet from Hiago (@HiagoXYZ). Final Changes 5K - Attack start-up time has been increased from 3F to 5F. First hit is now active for 1 frame. (DI) 5K - Attack start-up time has been increased from 3F to 4F. 6HS - Changed to a new move. See details below. Gun Flame (Feint) - Receives the effects of dash momentum. (DI) Gun Flame - Receives the effects of dash momentum. Aerial Bandit Revolver - Changed to a 2-hit move. Attack level has been increased, knockback direction has been changed. Bukkirabou ni Nageru - Does not come out if input contains any upward direction during command completion. (DI) Grand Viper - During the rush forward, the hit effect of the flame pillar portion always blows the opponent towards Sol. (Note: While previously unconfirmed, the camera change during Bukkirabou no Nageru present in Location Test #1 is not present in the final version.) Tweets from Kedako (@kedako_faital), translated by greatfernman (@GREATFERNMAN): Additional notes about 6HS: Stun modifier has been removed. (DI) 6HS has start-up 10 and is +4 on regular block. Additional notes about Aerial Bandit Revolver: Opponent can tech after second hit if hit at around "high jump into double jump" height or higher.

Good catch. That line about cancelling a projectile rejection into another Blitz Shield was put in there in response to one of the GGXrdR location tests, where it was reported that they'd reduced the invulnerability on a successful rejection but let you cancel it into an additional Blitz Shield for free, but that change didn't make it into the full release, I guess. I should point out that you don't get Tension back for rejecting a projectile in SIGN either. That was a Ver.1.10 change.

With a new game comes new information. This time I'm going to go through some basic info regarding some of the new mechanics. I'm excluding Blitz Shield Charge Attack for now because all the basic information is already on the wiki, and even though I seem to recall Kedako tweeting damage values and frame data for it a few months ago, I can't find it right now and I can't remember any of it off-hand. First of all, Burst Overdrives. Outside of basic requirements, all Burst Overdrives have the following things in common: 1) They only apply to a character's cinematic Overdrive. 2) They have full invulnerability on start-up. 3) They deal 25% extra base damage. 4) On hit, a third of your BURST Gauge is refilled. The invulnerability is something that I've yet to test thoroughly, but in the new mechanics walkthrough video that 4Gamer put up on the day of GGXrdR's arcade release, the Burst Overdrives section demonstrated Slayer using Dead on Time on wake-up and losing to a meaty Stun Edge Charge Attack, then using Burst Dead on Time to win cleanly. At the time I wasn't completely sure if it was universal or not, but since playing the demo, I've been able to ascertain that normally strike invulnerable Overdrives become completely unthrowable during start-up as Burst Overdrives. Another big change with Burst Overdrives is their minimum damage. In GGXrd, all Overdrives deal 20% minimum damage (ignoring proration, but still applying defense modifiers, Guts and OTG state when applicable). Burst Overdrives however, do not have a universal standard. Rather, their minimum damage is decided on a case-by-case basis. Here are my findings (I decided to list them by character rather than the name of the Overdrive, just for simplicity's sake): 70%: Haehyun 60%: May, Slayer, Leo 50%: Sol, Zato, Potemkin, Faust, I-No, Bedman, Ramlethal, Elphelt*, Johnny, Jack-O' 40%: Ky, Millia, Axl, Sin, Jam, Raven**, Baiken 30%: Chipp, Dizzy 20%: Venom, Answer *Only deals higher than the base percentage on the cinematic hit. The initial hit and subsequent non-cinematic hits all deal the standard 20%. **Only deals higher than the base percentage on the final hit. If you're wondering what that means in any practical sense, here are the minimum damage values for each Burst Overdrive, performed on a character with a x1.00 defense modifier (Sol) before Guts is applied. 130: Faust (purple) 120: Dizzy* 118: Ramlethal, Jam 106: Potemkin 105: May, Faust (green), Slayer 104: Axl** 102: Venom, Bedman 101: Chipp 97: Leo 96: Millia 93: Sol, I-No 92: Elphelt (cinematic), Johnny 90: Ky, Zato 87: Haehyun 80: Faust (black) 72: Sin 71: Baiken 70: Jack-O' 65: Answer 25: Elphelt (non-cinematic) Raven's Burst Getreuer deals 52 minimum damage (2 hits) with no Excitement Gauge, then increases in increments of 5 (1 for each additional hit) until dealing 102 minimum damage (52 hits) at max Excitement Gauge. *The number of hits depend on screen position throughout. Each hit deals 12 damage minimum. **One of the hits is prone to whiffing. In that instance, the minimum damage is 90. Do note that in spite of these numbers, the fewer hits an Overdrive has, the more value it'll have as a Burst Overdrive when you're not just using it to finish a round, as there's a much lower risk of crossing any particular Guts threshold until all the damage is already dealt. Burst Great Yamada Attack and Burst Dead on Time deal a base damage of 175 and a minimum damage of 105 to Sol, and because they only hit once, that value will be unaltered from 420 life all the way down to 211. There's also rounding to consider, as Overdrives with more hits will typically be affected by rounding down sooner due to their lower base damage across each hit. Of course, the fact that Burst Overdrives obviously expend your Burst to perform means that most players will probably only use them to guarantee a match win anyway. In that case, Burst Overdrives that deal many hits become quite useful for overcoming heavy Guts, as the number of damage dealing hits act as a hard minimum. However, at the point where such a factor is worth considering, there is often little reason to opt for a Burst Overdrive over its regular counterpart. As a side note, while testing for minimum damage, I also noticed that the frame data for Potemkin's Heavenly Potemkin Buster is erroneous. It deals 170 base damage, not 140. Granted, the initial damageless hit does have a RLv of -6, so you won't see all 170 without increasing the opponent's R.I.S.C. Level, but even with a neutral R.I.S.C. Level, the second hit deals 153 damage raw. Someone might want to look into changing that. That's not all for Burst Overdrives though. Specific Burst Overdrives also seem to gain additional benefits. As demonstrated in 4Gamer's new mechanics walkthrough, Chipp's Burst Zansei Rouga starts up faster than the regular version, allowing it to combo off his 5HS. Some rudimentary testing for punishes has lead me to the conclusion that Burst Zansei Rouga has a start-up of 18+0, 3 frames faster than normal. Also mentioned in the video but not demonstrated, Venom's Burst Dark Angel deals considerably more chip damage than its regular counterpart... 3 times more, as far as I can tell. The only other buff that I found during testing was that Faust's Burst Shigekiteki Zetsumei Ken always replaces the angel with the black reaper if the angel is selected. If anyone else finds anything, please don't hesitate to post it in the thread. Next, let's talk about the new Homing Dash, or rather, what the new Homing Dash has done to Dust Attack as a whole. In SIGN, the way the opponent reacted upon performing a Homing Dash was the same as if you hadn't inputted any homing action at all. It was landing a Dust Attack and not doing a Homing Jump that enabled continuous wall stick in the corner, not the Homing Dash itself. Some characters benefited from this, such as Sol, who could backdash out of a corner Dust Attack instead of dash and be able to land a delay 6HS into Bandit Bringer on the entire cast. In REVELATOR, this is no longer the case. Dust Attack no longer causes continuous wall stick in the corner if Homing Dash is not inputted. With that out of the way, let's talk about Homing Dash proper. Upon inputting a Homing Dash, the opponent is blown back and your character chases after them with a short, cinematic dash with insane dash momentum (seriously, do any airborne action during the dash, you'll go flying). If the opponent hits the corner before you regain control, they'll wall stick, otherwise they'll start to tumble and an additional 70% forced proration will be applied. Much like Roman Cancel slowdown, this forced proration applies on top of existing proration. During the duration of either the tumble or the wall stick (both of which are slightly longer than the duration of the dash, by the way), you can freely cancel between normals in the same vein as Homing Jump, and landing normals will reapply tumble or wall stick until the duration is over. Out of the corner, once the tumble period has passed, landing normals will instead force the opponent into an untechable plummet. The knockdown is nice, but it makes follow-up combos very awkward. Between that and the additional 70% forced proration when the opponent starts tumbling, I get the distinct impression that the developers really didn't want you doing Homing Dashes mid-screen. If an opponent reaches the corner while continuous tumble is still in effect, however, the next normal will instead cause continuous wall stick (continuing on from the same timer), and the additional 70% forced proration will subsequently no longer apply. In the corner, continuous wall stick functions basically the same as it did before, but as payment for being able to freely cancel between normals, the bonus 5 base damage that applied to normals during Dust Attack's continuous wall stick in SIGN no longer applies in REVELATOR. Edit: Oh, I just remembered that Dramatic Finales are a thing in this game. There isn't all that much to say about Dramatic Finales other than that their activation isn't random at all. It will always occur if two characters take a swing at each other at close range (slightly closer than starting position) when both attacks are close to becoming active (but not necessarily equally close), both characters' hurtboxes are within range of each other's hitboxes the frame before either attack becomes active, and the attacks in question are strong enough to kill each other. That being said, there is something specific regarding how the hitboxes have to interact that I don't fully understand yet. Some moves require basically a guaranteed trade situation to be able to trigger a Dramatic Finale. It seems like the faster a move is, the shorter a gap between it and the opposing move becoming active is required to trigger a Dramatic Finale. Some moves seem to never trigger it for reasons that I'm fairly sure pertain to either their speed or their hitbox. Now contrary to what you might expect, Dramatic Finales aren't always finales. There are still scenarios where both characters will whiff each other, even after Dramatic Finale activation range was reduced in Ver.1.02. A close range, simultaneous Fafnir input from two Sols is one such example. Both Sols remain within range of each other's hitboxes on the frame Dramatic Finale triggers, but on the first active frame, they both lean in far enough that they whiff each other. Similarly, it is also possible to trigger a clash off a Dramatic Finale, just have both characters stick out a limb at close-ish range. Double edit: I just triggered Danger Time off a Dramatic Finale, and wow, Overdrive Finish backgrounds look messed up with Danger Time active. All the shadows in the stage are layered over the Overdrive Finish. The field of view is completely different too.

Damage scaling remains largely undocumented in Xrd, but for the most part, it works the same as it did in the XX series. The Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Break Encyclopedia provided a graph for damage scaling relative to Guard Balance, which I happen to have on-hand. While I can't provide a screenshot of the graph itself, the figures themselves were posted on various Japanese sites back during the #Reload era, and those figures eventually made their way over to Dustloop's old Web Encyclopedia, namely the Damage Scaling page, which was then copied over to our current wiki. Perhaps because it was new to Accent Core, these figures fail to include the improvements to Overdrive damage scaling over normals and specials as scaling approaches maximum, so I've added those in myself. Guard Balance and Damage Scaling Guard Balance Normal and Special Damage Scaling Overdrive Damage Scaling +128~0 100% -16 78% (79%?) 69% (70%?) -32 59% (60%?) 50% (51%?) -48 44% 38% -64 31% (32%?) -80 18% (19%?) -96 12％ 15％ -112 6％ 12％ -128 3％ 9％ Most of these figures are rounded down, I suspect. From testing I've done previously, I believe maximum damage scaling is 1/32, so a little higher than 3%. The percentages in parentheses are differing results that I got while testing. To find these percentages, I used a move with 100 base damage on a character with a x1.00 defense modifier. It's worth noting that I got 32 damage with Kliff's 6HS (100 base damage) at -64 Guard Balance despite an Overdrive with the same base damage dealing 31 at the same Guard Balance value, so scaling isn't exactly the same at that point, contrary to the table. I tried using moves with higher base damage (as well as using the Extra Menu to increase base damage) in the hopes of getting more accurate results, but I ended up getting differing outliers when calculating the percentages, which I suspect may be due to rounding complications. Edit: Fortunately, JAKE is a god and has a far more detailed set of figures (complete with his own representation of the graph) on his website. He seems to have tested it the same way I did, albeit considerably more thoroughly. Now, all that being said, there are some differences to damage scaling in Xrd. Overdrives scale to no less than 20% of their base damage now. Proration also no longer affects Overdrive damage once scaling reaches 20%, although defense modifiers, Guts and OTG state are all still taken into account. I should also point out that damage dealt during low positive into negative R.I.S.C. Level in Xrd is calculated slightly differently from damage dealt during low positive into negative Guard Balance in the XX series, as your c.S > 2D example does "55, 56, 56, 56, 57, 57, 58" rather than "55, 55, 56, 57, 57, 58" despite all individual values being the same. R.I.S.C. Level also seems to have some slight nuances that Guard Balance does not, such as moves with RLv 0 still visibly reducing R.I.S.C. Level at positive values, which does not occur with Guard Balance. That being said, hopefully this should still be a useful reference.

We have a separate thread for XrdR videos. Please post these there in the future.