Fighting Game Guide

Marvel vs. Capcom (MvC) are 2D tag team fighters with chaotic offensive from anywhere on the screen, deadly mixups, and lots of wavedashing. Hitboxes on attacks are huge, chip damage is plentiful, and combos can be very long. Special attacks and assists are very useful and you may find yourself using them almost as much as normal attacks in neutral.

We have Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite, and Marvel vs. Capcom 2.

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (UMvC3) is a 2D 3-on-3 tag team fighter with X-Men, X-Factor, and X-23.

Helpful Resources

Notation

Attack Notation

Directional Notation

High attacks are overhead attacks that must be stand blocked. Mid attacks are attacks that can be blocked with both stand block and crouch block.

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 uses Modern frame data notation. If an attack has 7 frames of startup, it hits on the 7th frame.

Call assists by pressing P1 for the first partner and P2 for the second partner. Every character has three different assists to select from at the character select screen. Utilizing assists to control the neutral game is a staple of the Marvel vs. Capcom series. You'll often see the screen littered with assists and projectiles.

Hold P1 or P2 to tag that character in. Raw tag is easily punished as it has noticeable startup and recovery. It is an overhead and unsafe on block. The incoming character forfeits recoverable health tagging in this way.

Assists in UMvC3 are invincible only after they've landed on the ground. Punish lazy assist calls by hitting the assist while they're still in the air. If you manage to successfully hit an assist, you have four seconds to hurt them before they become invincible and leave the screen.

Dash can be performed by pressing any two attack buttons at the same time. Many players bind this macro to a single button. Dash can be canceled into attacking, jumping, or crouching. Because crouching doesn't have recovery, canceling a dash into crouching immediately ends the dash and returns the character to neutral. Wavedashing is performed by dashing, canceling it with a crouch, and dashing again.

Dashing can't be canceled into stand block without stopping momentum but you can cancel dash into a jump to air block.

There is air blocking and it blocks both grounded and air attacks. You can air block during the pre-jump frames. The main drawback of air blocking is that you take increased chip damage and chip damage in this series is a very prevalent. Also air blocking won't help you deal with left/right mixups, air throws, or unblockables which are all common.

Press any down direction then any up direction to high jump. You stay in the air for quite awhile and can steer your descent. During a high jump you cannot call any assists, your character does not turn around, and you're limited to three special attacks in the air. During a high jump you might not be able to see what is going on underneath you. Your opponent can use this to their advantage by calling their assist and littering the screen with projectiles.

Throws are proximity throws performed with forward H/back H and are teched with the same input. Throws in UMvC3 have 1 frame of startup and the tech window is 7 frames.

Air throws also exist and some characters are able to get full combos off of one. Teching an air throw treats the character as if they had just jumped which means all air options are available to them.

After a knockdown, hold back or forward to quick recover roll. The roll is invincible and assists can be called during it. Not holding a direction will have the character wakeup in place which is faster than rolling.

After getting hit out of the air, hold forward, back, or neutral to air recover.

Team Aerial Combo (TAC) is a new mechanic exclusive to UMvC3. After launching your opponent with down-forward S and following them into the air, press S and a direction to do an Aerial Exchange. This tags out the active character and tags in the next character on the team. If the next character is not available, the character after them tags in instead. TAC doesn't advance hitstun deterioration until the attacker lands on the ground. Don't worry I explain what that means on the next page.

Back/forward S wall bounces your opponent and removes a Level of Hyper Meter from them.
Down S ground bounces your opponent and gives you a Level of Hyper Meter.
Up S launches your opponent high into the air. It doesn't take or add meter but it doesn't use up a combo extender.

Team Aerial Counter beats Aerial Exchange. Counter an Aerial Exchange by holding the corresponding direction and pressing S as it happens. If successful, there is no tag and Hyper Meter Levels do not change.

Because of Team Aerial Combo, choosing teammates for DHC or team combos is less important because any character can use TAC to baton pass a combo to their teammate without worrying about the opponent falling out. For this reason try to pick teammates that compliment each other in neutral.

You can TAC to extend a combo then DHC to tag back a character that was previously part of the combo.

Level 3 Hyper Combo inflicts permanent damage instead of recoverable damage and is great for killing characters.

Variable Counter is called Crossover Counter in this game. Press forward P1/P2 in blockstun to perform it. It costs 1 Level of Hyper Meter.

Love it or hate it, X-Factor is a huge part of UMvC3. Once per game press L+M+H+S to enter X-Factor. This gives the character a speed boost, damage boost, and regenerates recoverable health. The initial activation can be used like a Roman Cancel. X-Factor can be used during blockstun to recover sooner.

Level 1 X-Factor is when all your characters are alive, Level 2 is when one of them is dead, and Level 3 is when two of your characters are dead. The higher the Level of your X-Factor, the longer it lasts and the greater the effects. X-Factor is a very potent comeback tool when you only have one character left.