Fighting Game Guide

Jumps are used for closing the distance, mixups, avoiding attacks, poking in the air, and starting pressure. Jumping attacks are overhead attacks which means they have to be blocked with stand block. For many characters, jumping attacks are their only overhead attacks. If your opponent crouch blocks, they will get hit by the jump in and potentially take a very damaging combo.

I need to make something clear because this can be confusing. There are high attacks, mid attacks, and low attacks. Low attacks have to be crouch blocked and hit stand block. High and mid attacks have different definitions depending on the game you're playing. In most 2D games, high attacks have to be stand blocked and hit crouch block. Mid attacks are attacks that can be blocked from both stand block and crouch block.

In other (mostly 3D) games, high attacks are attacks that can be ducked under from crouching. Mid attacks have to be stand blocked and hit crouch block.

For the general guide, high attacks refer to overhead attacks.

There are two main types of jumping attacks: air pokes and jump ins. Air pokes are single hit pokes and jump ins are advantageous on hit and block. They are performed from different ranges. Mauru performs the air poke from two scoots back and the jump in from one scoot back.

Air pokes are like slower pokes with movement. Do you want to move backwards while still being able to attack? Jump backwards and do an air poke.

Jump ins are jumping attacks that hit close to the opponent and close to the ground. After the attack hits, the character lands with enough time to hit the opponent again for a combo. Jump in combos are among the highest damaging combos possible. One successful jump in can instantly change the momentum of the round.

Jump ins are great for starting mixups because they leave the attacker very close to the defender and at a large frame advantage even on block. I will explain this in more detail later but all it means is the player with frame advantage gets to move before the other player. It's their turn.

The defender can't move until they're recovered from blocking or getting hit by the attack. The attacker starts recovering after they've landed on the ground. When Mauru's jump in connects higher on Arina's body, he can move a little bit before she can. When Mauru's jump in connects lower on her body he can move much sooner than she can. He can even jump into the air again while she's still stuck blocking the previous attack.

You shouldn't always try to hit jump ins as low on the body as possible. It's true the closer to the ground the jump in hits the sooner you can move before your opponent but that also means the opponent has more time to hit you out of the air. And at some point you have so much frame advantage that any more would not give you more options.

The jump in itself is a mixup tool. The jumping attack hits high and has to be stand blocked. The player can also empty jump, land, then perform a low attack. Or they can empty jump, land, then perform a throw. It's a three way mixup.

Don't just randomly jump at your opponent because they may be ready to hit you out of the air. Try to jump when your opponent is focusing their attention on the ground space.

I like to set up my jumps with low pokes. I walk into the range of my low poke and hit my opponent with it a couple of times. Eventually my opponent starts crouch blocking when I walk into that range. Next time I walk into that range I'll jump in to beat my opponent's crouch block.

Another use for jump ins is going over and punishing attacks with a lot of recovery. Especially slow long-range attacks.

Instant Overhead

Jumping is a mixup tool but it is slow enough that players can react to it. Most players crouch block to block low attacks and mid attacks, then switch to stand block after seeing a jump. There is a jumping attack that is unreactable and it's called an instant overhead. Instant overhead is a jumping attack that hits ascending instead of descending.

Most characters are not capable of using the instant overhead. An instant overhead has to hit crouching characters otherwise it's not a true mixup. Few jumping attacks have the downward angle to hit ascending.

Instant overheads are unsafe on block and on hit! The defender fully recovers while the attacker is still in the air and vulnerable.

The best time to instant overhead is to dizzy or kill your opponent because then your opponent can't punish you.

Cross-up

A cross-up is a jumping attack that hits behind the opponent. Because blocking is performed by holding the back direction, a cross-up has to be blocked by holding the forward direction. This creates a left/right mixup. At this range it's difficult to tell if Brian will end up in front of or behind his opponent.

Cross-ups exist because some attacks have a hitbox behind them. You can see the red box extends behind the axis in the center of Brian's body.

Air dash

Air dashes are dashes in the air that travel horizontally. Instead of a vertical jump arc, it moves the character horizontally in a (mostly) straight line. Air dashes have startup and recovery which means you have to wait for the startup frames of the air dash to finish before you can attack out of it. Air dashes don't guarantee combos on hit or frame advantage on block because they can have a lot of recovery frames.

Air dasher is a sub-genre of fighting games where characters have various movement options in the air. Some of these air movement options include air dashes and double jumps.

Outside of combos, you should try to perform air dashes as low to the ground as possible. This ensures the air dash comes out earlier and recovers sooner. Air dash is performed by pressing the forward direction twice. A shortcut for instant air dash is up-forward forward. The up-forward input puts the character in the air and counts as a forward input, which means you only have to press forward one more time to air dash.

Jump Cancel

In some games, normal attacks can have their recovery frames canceled into a jump. On hit, this allows more combo opportunities. On block, this allows the attacker to continue their pressure. Jump cancel pressure is almost never real pressure but it can catch your opponent by surprise if they're not expecting it.

Jump canceling can also refer to canceling the pre-jump frames of a jump into an attack. This website refers to this as pre-jump canceling to make things less confusing.

Double Jump

Air dasher games let characters jump again after their initial jump. This is a double jump and has many uses. Double jump lets you attack from different angles and change your air trajectory. Changing air trajectory makes it more difficult for your opponent to hit you out of the air.

Here is how to condition your opponent by changing your air trajectory.
The attacker performs a jump in to gain advantage. The defender hits the attacker's jump with an anti-air attack.

The attacker changes their air trajectory with a double jump to make the defender's anti-air attack whiff.

Once the defender starts hesitating on anti-air attacks, the attacker performs a regular jump in to gain advantage.

The defender has options too. They can use an anti-air attack that is not as vulnerable if it whiffs.

The defender can also position themself in a better spot to anti-air both options. This usually means taking a risk and moving forward before or while anti-airing.

Attacks can change air trajectory as well. These attacks are often called divekicks. Yes even if the attack itself is not a kick or dives it's still called a divekick.

If your character has a cross-up and a divekick, they have a deadly cross-up (or not) mixup. They can jump behind their opponent for a cross-up or they can fake it with a divekick and hit in front.

Jumping attacks are written as j.X by players. For example j.MP is another way of writing jumping MP (medium punch).