Hitting someone who is jumping at you while you are on the ground.
Because you cannot use a Focus move while in the air in most circumstances, a smart opponent will swat you out of the air if you jump at them too predictably.
Each weapon usually has a few moves that hit at an upward angle, perfect for intercepting those pesky jumpers; perhaps the most powerful such move is the Uppercut.
People who jump at you too much are giving you free damage, so you'd better learn to take it.
Also referred as "1-2-3" combos.
When a game lets you perform several simple button presses (often even the same button), and it automatically generates a combo composed of multiple different moves.
Acting without thinking, usually in a predictable way that gets you killed.
Usually you use it to describe to a beginner situations where they constantly do the same thing by force of habit.
The skilled opponent will quickly pick up on it and bait the response every time, and the beginner will need to work on recognizing when they go auto-pilot and actively try to stop it. It takes a while, though, especially when you are pretty new and don't know how to play creatively yet.
A period of time where a the game will accept the input for an attack or movement.
Then, if you input a move any time during that window, it will wait and apply it on the first possible frame after the window passes.
A good example is an uppercut after staggering an opponent. Normally inputting an uppercut on exactly the first frame to guarantee a hit is pretty hard, so modern games give you a buffer for several frames before you actually can actually act. If you input your uppercut at any point during this buffer, it will apply it as an uppercut automatically, making the timing much easier.
There are buffers all over the place in NARAKA: BLADEPOINT, including for inputs during combos, just so that players can feel more confident the moves they execute will come out.
Removing the recovery of a move, usually so that you can transition immediately into another move.
A strategy (usually a combo) that will work only if you are playing a certain character.
A word used to describe an especially strong move, tactic, or strategy.
Damage dealt to a character while they are blocking, either with a Focus move that reduces received damage, or with a weapon stance such as the Greatsword or Nunchucks.
Usually means when two attacks hitboxes overlap on the same frame.
Also referred as "true combo".
A sequence of hits that are unavoidable once the first hit lands.
A hit will "combo" from a previous hit if you are still in hit stun from the other attack when the new one lands.
You can break these combos only by using an ability that can be used while under attack.
Can sometimes be referred as a Frame Trap Combo.
A sequence of hits that are usually unavoidable once the first hit lands, but can be broken through certain abilities.
Some abilities that are not usable under attack can break through semi-true combos because these combos only work due to the fact that a dodge does not grant I-Frames on the first frame.
Winning a fight after you've spent most of it losing.
Behaving a certain way over a decently long period of time, so that you can act unpredictably at a crucial moment later.
You can condition your opponent to, for example, always expect a certain style of pressure or a pattern of how you chain attacks, and train them to think they have it figured out.
Then when the match is on the line, you surprise them by switching it up and catching them in the old habit.
Conditioning is related to baiting, but in a "long con" kind of way.
Turning an unlikely hit or a scramble into a combo through great situational awareness.
Sometimes you might hit your opponent with a random move that you weren't expecting to hit, but if you're really on the ball, you can invent some on-the-fly way to get more damage out of it.
The inability to use a move for a set amount of time after you've used it.
Intentionally picking a character or weapon that has a better matchup against your opponent's character or weapon than the one you'd normally use.
Consists of holding down the Crouch button fully, and then tapping it.
This is the fastest way (without having to spend stamina) to keep hitting in a standing position without performing a follow-up move.
A status effect where you slowly lose health (armor is ignored), even if your opponent isn't attacking you.
Commonly abbreviated as DOT, and pronounced as one syllable.
Refers to the act of starting a sprint.
The ability to slightly extend how long you stay on the ground after you've been knocked down.
An input mistake that ends a combo before it was supposed to finish.
Whether you mistimed an attack, input the wrong special move by accident, or just froze up and forgot what you were supposed to do, you blew it.
Some drops aren't so serious — you might end up just losing a small bit of damage, but the match continues normally otherwise. But some drops can be pretty catastrophic and leave you wide open for punishment. Try to avoid those if you can.
Holding Focus attack and then, rather than releasing the buttons and attacking, inputting a dash to cancel the attack and dash instead.
A unit used to measure time. Most of the time, this unit is based off 60 frames per second, which means one frame is 1/60th of a second, or about 16 milliseconds, and you can't break this unit down any further. A frame is the core unit used in frame data, which measures the properties of moves, such as how long they take to execute, or which character gets to act first if a move hits.
Some players, especially beginners, get intimidated when the word "frame" comes up, as if it's some arcane magic. If this is you, instead try to think of a frame as a relative unit. Let's say move A starts up in 3 frames and move B starts up in 4 frames. You might think why do we care about a 16 millisecond difference? There's no way to visually tell the difference between these... and you'd be absolutely right! Don't think of it that way. Instead, think that move B is "1 frame slower" than move A, so in situations where both fighters get to attack at the same time, move A is going to hit first. Imagine it as a way to compare two moves, rather than something you're supposed to notice visually, and you'll find yourself making sense of it more quickly.
Someone who is allowed to attack first after some move hits or is blocked/absorbed, meaning that their next attack will start before its opponent.
Someone who is allowed to attack last after some move hits or is blocked/absorbed, meaning that their next attack will start after its opponent.
A complete list of the inner workings of every move in a game.
Pretty much everything will be measured with frames, a fundamental building block of time.
All frame data calculated are based off 60 FPS recordings.
| Word(s) | Definition |
|---|---|
| Focus state start-up frame | The first frame when Focus state applies. |
| Active start frame | The first frame when the move hitbox becomes active. |
| Active end frame | The last frame of the move hitbox active state. |
| Total active frames | The total amount of frames the move stays hitbox active. |
| Non-cancellable recovery frame | The frame from which the move can be cancelled. The frame number is counted from the active end frame. |
| Full recovery frame | The frame from which the move recovers without attempting any cancelling action. The frame number is counted from the active end frame. |
Two back-to-back attacks that leave a very small gap between them. The gap will be shorter than the defender's fastest attack or Focus attack, which means if they try to attack or attempt to get into Focus, they will get counter hit. Finding effective frame traps requires some basic understanding of frame data; you'll usually be looking for an attack that has very fast recovery compared to the stagger time, which lets you attack before your opponent afterwards, then swinging with a fast attack that "traps" your opponent who foolishly thought they could swing themselves.
Frame traps aren't foolproof, though. You can usually have some options that work and be fine until your opponent gets pushed out of range, although they depend on the situation and which character/weapon you play.
Being super easy to beat. Calling someone free is a pretty big deal, so you better be able to back it up if they challenge you. It's kind of related to getting bodied, but I think being called free feels worse.
Free can also mean using a move as a guaranteed punish.
A plan of attack that requires either the element of surprise or a lack of knowledge from your opponent to work. The term is often meant in a negative way towards a strategy that wouldn't possibly work against well-prepared opponents, or something that can only work in the short term until your opponent understands the trick.
The term can also refer to a player who uses one linear but mostly effective strategy to beat lower skilled opponents, but who loses convincingly, with no backup strategy, when playing against better players who can defend properly.
A playstyle that involves trying for lots of stray, low damage hits on offense, while using good movement options to keep the distance from your opponent the rest of the time. It can be a frustrating playstyle to fight against, especially if your actions are unpredictable.
A predefined area (usually a group of rectangles or circles) used by the game to know where any given attack can come in contact with a character. Hitboxes are invisible to the player when normally playing, although some training modes will let you view them, but most hitboxes try to cover the area where the strike is causing impact, so it "makes sense" to players when and how they get hit.
Hitboxes define a lot about how moves work. For example, the active period of a move is defined as when a hitbox is present (there are no hitboxes during a move's startup or recovery). The size of the hitbox defines the move's range, so if you're getting smoked by a move that feels like it hits everywhere on the screen at once, it's probably because its hitbox is just very large. To determine whether a move connects with an opponent, the game will see if its hitbox intersects with the opponent's hurtbox.
A predefined area (usually a group of rectangles or circles) that tell the game how your character is allowed to get hit by any incoming attack. Specifically, you'll get hit by an attack if that attack's hitbox ever overlaps your hurtbox.
Usually refers to an infinite combo.
A combo that can continue forever in theory, but in practice will end because your opponent's health will run out. Infinite combos are generally seen as a poor design choice, and some mechanics have been put in place to prevent these, such as hit stun deterioration. Most infinite combos involve looping a sequence of moves over and over, and typically require a convoluted setup.
Infinite combos have a long and contentious history; most people consider it cheap and frustrating, but a surprising number of popular games have had their best strategies shaped by unintended infinite combos.
When there's a delay between an input and its related action. Input lag can come from a variety of sources, including limitations of the game engine, your big screen TV processing the image before showing it, or even netcode solutions intentionally delaying inputs to compensate for network problems.
All games suffer from some inherent input delay, but as long as the delay for all factors combined is around 3 to 5 frames, this is considered acceptable performance.
A state where you are impossible to hit, fully impervious to everything. Invincible moves usually just remove all your hurtboxes so no incoming attack or throw can connect with you.
The act of comboing an airborne opponent while you are on the ground. Moves that work well in juggles tend to launch the opponent high into the air and keep them close to the offensive player, so they can be hit again as they fall to the ground.
An input that must be performed on exactly one specific frame in order for it to work.
Hitting an opponent who is on the ground high into the air. You might chase after them into the air to perform an air combo, or you might stay on the ground and juggle them for more damage.
A move that launches the opponent high into the air, usually for more combo opportunities.
Trying to trick your opponent into taking the wrong action, usually by making it look like you will do one thing, and then doing another.
A situation where the offensive player has several ways to attack that each require a different defensive action to stop. Most mixups contain several fast options that are extremely difficult, or impossible, to avoid on reaction, and thus the defensive player must make a read to escape taking damage or avoid getting staggered.
Simple mixups that only require choosing between two defensive options are often called 50/50s.
Very powerful mixups can exist which force a defender to choose between four or five different options.
Netcode is a blanket term for network and code.
It refers to the code of a videogame managing the synchronization between clients and servers.
Detailed explanation in Naraka's netcode page.
The stage of a fight where neither player is in Focus or getting hit by anything, and you are trying to figure out the best way to start or continue your gameplan.
Footsies is one important aspect of playing the neutral game, and you'll often hear people talk about "the neutral".
Another common use of "neutral" is any time that your character is not in Focus, being hit, or knocked down (even if you're point blank). If your opponent attacks you with a string, you might say "I return to neutral in the middle of that string". This implies there's a gap, so you have a chance to try evading, focusing or attacking.
Neutral can also mean an attack that is neither plus nor minus when it's absorbed or has clashed, i.e. no frame advantage or disadvantage: both characters will recover at the same time and can attack at the same time, which might lead to further clashes.
Also sometimes referred as "okizeme".
The mind games and mixups that occur around attacking when someone is rising from a knockdown. It is pretty synonymous with the term wakeup, although okizeme tends to refer mostly to the offensive side and which choice of attack they will use, while wakeup refers more to the total situation. But in practice, the terms are often interchanged without much problem.
Okizeme is a Japanese word (pronounced oh-kee-zeh-meh) and it's often shortened to "oki".
A situation where performing the same inputs can lead to several different outcomes depending on how the characters interact.
Good option selects tend to reduce the burden on a player to perfectly predict (or react) to everything happening in the game.
Also sometimes referred as "counter".
A state in the game that allows the player to disarm the player and do a free combo against Focus attacks.
An attack that's thrown out to occupy the space in front of you and remind your opponent not to try and come closer.
The act of repeatedly attacking your opponent from close range.
Attacking someone when they are unable to counter-act, usually after a bad action, making the damage guaranteed.
A sub-class of a guess where your decision is not wholly random, but instead informed by some knowledge about the game or your opponent's tendencies. In reality, though, they are pretty closely linked.
The period of time that occurs after your attack has finished hitting, but before you gain back control of your character for more actions. It's one of the three stages of an attack, along with startup and active, and is measured in frames. Recovery is the final stage of an attack, the part where your character is finishing the follow-through and usually left wide open if you whiffed.
A setup that involves doing multiple individual uppercut combos chained together, making it a single combo.
These kind of setups usually involve Restands.
Intentionally stopping your combo before its natural conclusion, and trying to hit your opponent with a surprise mixup while they are confused or overwhelmed.
A specific character sub state for knocked down players which prevent the character to roll when standing up, usually caused by getting hit after being knocked down.
The character will be forced to stand up regularly, preventing the gain of I-Frames from the rolling animation.
A knockdown attack that also includes the Restand property.
Also sometimes referred as "hit stun".
The period of time when your character cannot perform any action after getting hit by an attack.
Instead, you have to wait for your character to stop reeling from the hit and recover before you can take new actions.
If the offensive player manages to land another hit before their opponent leaves hit stun a combo is formed.
Also sometimes referred as "hit stun deterioration".
A game mechanic where the character who is being hit in a combo will suffer increasingly less staggering as the combo gets longer.
Commonly abbreviated to "TOD".
A move or combo that is guaranteed to kill you if it hits (assuming no combo drop), even if you started with full health.
These were decently common in older games, but in most modern games, you'll be hard-pressed to find a ton of true TODs that can be used in fights against actual human opponents (although some team games will have a few kicking around).
Note that while all infinite combos are TODs, not all TODs will be infinites.
Sometimes a TOD will have a theoretical end, but will just do enough raw damage to kill first.
An offensive sequence that starts with a very difficult mixup to defend against, which then causes a knockdown (usually) if it works and loops back into the same mixup over and over again.
The act of rising from the ground after you've been knocked down.
An attack that does not hit. You swung and you missed entirely. Good players will often punish you for this, but it's not always bad — sometimes, whiffing fast attacks can be good for faking people out or controlling space.
A particular kind of punish that will hit an opponent after they have whiffed an attack, and are left recovering in the open. Some whiff punishes are possible on reaction, if the attack has lots of recovery or you have a strong read on when your opponent will try to attack.
The act of using long-range attacks to try and prevent your opponent from coming closer. Generally, your goal is to frustrate your opponent into doing something stupid to close the gap.