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Fundamentals of Injustice

Slips

Feared by dragons. Desired by virgins.
I know a lot of people are having trouble transitioning from the good ole dash blocking of MK9 to the dedicated dashing thats in Injustice, so I thought I'd give a quick rundown on how movement works in the game. I'll eventually go over other fundamental aspects of the game such as zoning footsies, anti-air, poking, punishment, counter poking ect. but since movement seems to be the biggest concern I'll go over that first.

MOVEMENT

Dashing: Dashing is pretty much used in Injustice to close the gap. You can't use a dash to fake your opponent out like your coming in or not like MK9. You can't use a dash and cancel it with a low poke at a certain point to regulate a specific space in front of you like MK9. Its mainly used to gain ground in between projectiles when getting zoned and getting in your opponent's grill who is looking to anti-air you instead and put pressure on them.

Because jump-ins are pretty strong and take a lot of concentration to beat, it opens up you dashing in and putting pressure on your opponent. I know in MK9 it was scary to dash in because you could run into a d3 or a d4 and put yourself in trouble, but these types of moves aren't as safe on whiff in Injustice. So if you dash in and ran into a sweep or long ranged normal, chances are you the next time you should just jump in and blow them up for throwing out a panic move. Depending on the move, that may be a forward jump or a neutral jump. That, or simply walk just outside of the range of if it and punish the whiff.

Walking: Walking is used for precise positioning to get you within footsie range safely. Like any fighting game, staying just outside your opponent's best move is where you want to be. Offensively, you typically want your dash to end just to where the tip of your sweep connects so they have to respect it and crouch which will stabilize their movement which then allows you to play footsies. So use walking to get this spacing down with your dashes. Spacing to where the tip of your sweep connects also makes it safer because of distance, (most sweeps are punishable) and also because their d+1 will be out of range. There are always exceptions of course. (Lex) This is kind of more getting into the footsie realm though which I will cover with more in depth later.

Jumping: Because jumping actually moves you faster than walking and in some cases dashing, (depending on the character's dash) jumping is valuable in your movement as well. If you feel you're in a bad spot jumping back or forward to change the positioning is a sound bet. The drawback of course is you can't block in the air and if your opponent reads that you could eat a lot of damage. If you jump and do not attack (which leaves you open to air to air combos that do not scale like MK9) there are very few landing frames and you'll typically be ok if you make it back on the ground. If you jump and whiff an attack in the air, there are frames you are stuck on the ground and cannot block which your opponent can capitalize on as well. So if your opponent loves to jump around and throw out garbage when they are under pressure, its best to chill out, let them whiff their jump attack, and blow them up when they land.

Ducking: In case anyone hasn't noticed, holding down will block for you. I know back is to block now but holding down to block after a dash or a jump is a safe way to weed your way through zoning and hold your ground without holding back which causes you to walk backwards giving up some of the ground you just made. Down/back works as well, but in time I think people will prefer to use down.

I think I will cover anti-air next. I'm sure people are getting sick of Lex's jumping 3 and and Batman's jumping 2. :p


Delriach
one thing I'd like to add about dashing. Dashing backwards is a great tool for many characters. There are invulnerability frames during a backdash and, if timed correctly, you will be able to avoid various attacks (even unblockable interactables!).​

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(Edit by RiBBz22: Added information from supplemental post)
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ANTI-AIR

A lot of things in Injustice can be related to properies in sf4. Movement, jumping, backdash, comboing off duck jabs, focus attacks, throws, ect. One thing that is not like sf4 is anti-air. Since there are no dragon punches or ex flash kicks or ex spinning bird kick or whatever, you have to rely on other means in Injustice. This will entirely depend on each character with their normals. It also depends on spacing. Lex's u+3 is pretty decent anti-air, but only when your opponent jumps directly on top of him just above his head. Batman's b+2 is also decent anti-air, but again it won't work too well at certain angles. Wonder Woman's d2 is one of the more reliable of the three demo characters, but is slow so you have to be concentrating and looking for a jump which opens you up for people dashing in. And can lose to some of the better jump attacks like Lex's jumping 3 at the right angle.

You can also use a mb (meter burn) b3 or f3 as anti-air as well much like sf4 focus attack. Since b3's and f3's are pretty slow, unless you do them very early and hit them during their landing frames, your opponent typically is able to block in time if they see you charge it up. (Again, very sf4ish) Plus, sometimes you don't have meter to spend. :p

The most reliable anti-air in the game is pre-emtpive air to air attack. Unlike sf4, you can juggle your opponent after an air to air exchange. If you know for sure someone is going to jump, jump with them hit them air to air with a jumping 1 or jump 2 and you can follow-up with a full combo. In MK9 a air to air jump punch caused massive scaling, but this is not the case in this game. For example: Batman can do air to air jump 2, (land) b2 xx db+1 mb, b3, j3, b2,3 for roughly 40%.

While pre-emptive air to air is the most reward for anti-airing your opponent, its also the riskiest. If you throw out a jump attack and they did not jump, you will land in front of them giving them free damage.

ZONING

In MK9, for the most part, you can dash block your way to footsie range if you're careful enough. (Save for Freddy, Kenshi, Kabal) But in Injustice, zoning demands a little more attention. Mainly because you can't block during dash. Unfortunetly, every character's zoning works a little differently and there is no universal way of dealing with each character's zoning. Batman's zoning obviously works different than Lex's. Everyone's dash and jump are different as well. Lex's dash goes further than Batman's. Wonder Woman can use her air dash to get around zoning. Lex's jump is more floaty than Batman's ect. So a lot of zoning and your options to get around it will depend on your character and familiarizing yourself with the matchup. So be prepared for games where you get blown up trying to get in. Some matchups will be a learning experience.

The general principl is after you block a projectile, you are free to ge
t a dash or jump in between the next one, but not always the case. Mainly depending on if you are full screen or not. For example: If you are playing against Batman and he throws batarangs at you and you block them, you would think you would be able to dash in without worry. But since Batman recovered a long time ago (batarangs travel pretty slow, like a jab fireball in sf) he actually has time to shoot you with a straight grapple if you try. So full screen, you have to be a little more careful.

Unlike sf4, few projectiles in the game have pushback. (like MK9) So you can always hold your ground that you made up. The max distance characters can be apart from one another seems larger in Injustice than MK9, so you have to cover a little more ground from full screen than what we are all used to.
Bottom line is to just be patient. Like any fighting game, zoning will be the first thing people try to expoit on people. Try some things and don't get mad if it dosn't work, try something different. Lex may be one of the best zoners in the game, so he should be good practice for everyone.


CLASH SYSTEM

Seems to be a lot of wonder around the Clash system so I will go over this. Personally, I think this is one of the coolest and most ingenius ideas NRS has come up with.
Clash is your combo breaker from MK9. It can only be activated once and only during your 2nd life bar. If you get hit and are getting combo'ed, you can activate Clash by holding forward and the meter burn. Since it was you that was getting wrecked, your lifebar is the one that is being wagered. If you wager more bars of meter than your opponent, you will get life back. If your opponent wages more bars of meter than you, you will lose life. If you both bet the same amount, its a wash. So when you clash is extremely imporant to mind your meter vs. your opponent's.

The math is as follows.
Win by 1 bar of meter - 15%
Win by 2 bars of meter - 25%
Win by 3 bars of meter - 30%
Win by 4 bars of meter - 33%

Its important not to clash too early or you may possible lose out on life gained if you win a clash. (Additional life gained won't overspill into your first bar of life that was lost) Its also important not to clash too late cause your opponent will pupose drop combos and do throws or single hit moves to prevent you from clashing and getting life back. (Gaining 25% - 30% life is a big deal)

If your character has meter burn moves that are very valuable for getting in on your opponent, or really good for extending combos fand getting massive damage, you may want to save a bar of meter. If the match is close and you can need all the life you can get to sustain a life-lead, you may want to wager it all. The strategy behind the Clash system is pretty elaborate. Play with it and devise your own strategies.

GGA 16 Bit
Also b+3 and f+3 are unclashable. As well as projectiles unless they're part of a combo. Finally, the extra hits of MB moves are unclashable. So like with Flash's Sonic Kick the additional kicks can't be clashed.​


WAKE-UP ATTACKS

Wake-up attack system is identical to MK9. The first 8 frames (8 frames is a rough estimate, not literal so keep that in mind) are invinsible for your special move, after that you are vulnerable. There are a couple things that are different from MK9 to Injustice though.

In MK9, you can do an enhanced special move which increases the amount of frames of invincibility for your wake-up attack. This is not the case in Injustice since most of the 'enhanced' versions of special moves only come out after the special move hits.
Another note is that a lot of character's special moves last longer than 8 frames in Injustice. Not everyone has a Lex Corp Charge (b,f+2) which is 6 frames so the entire duraction of the move will be invincible. So a lot of you will notice your wake-up attacks getting 'stuffed' because you lost invincibility after the 8th frame. If you find your opponent is purposely delaying their attack to hit you out of your special move when your invincibility wears off, there's a couple things you can do.

a) Jump: Since their attack isn't 'meaty', meaning they aren't hitting you on the first available frame you can get hit when your getting up, you will have enough frames to get a jump off. Granted you might still get hit, but you will be airbourne and chances are they won't be able to follow up and you can roll away once you hit the ground.

b) b+3 or f+3 mb armor: b+3 and f+3 when activated with meter will gain armor after the 8th frame. So if your opponent is keeps trying to suff your wake-up with delayed attacks, do a b+3 or f+3 mb as soon as you get up to armor out and get a good punish.

Once your opponent realizes they can no longer do delayed attacks to stuff wake-up attacks, they will start blowing you up with meaty attacks as you get up, which opens up you doing your actual wake-up attacks with invincibility on them again.


colt
couple notes on "wakeups". almost every special move can be done on wakeup. All projectiles and projectile like moves have zero invincibility on wakeup. other moves have variable invulnerability windows but noone has anything over 12 or 14 maybe. Everyone has atleast one "good" wakeup move.​
b3/f3 gain armor on the 8th frame. So you can't use them on reaction to counter a jab with a 40% combo.​

FOOTSIES

Footsies is the most open-ended portion of most fighting games and hardest to explain since there are so many variables. Sometimes you will go on the attack. Sometimes you choose to defend. Sometimes your opponent will decide to hold their ground and fight. Other times they will opt to dash or jump away to avoid confrontation. The variables in the footies game is the most fun and interesting since that is where you learn the most about your opponent. Its where a lot of the yomi and meta-game develop. Its what seperates the player types the most if they are more offensive, defensive, risky or safe.

Before you establish a footsie game, be sure to let your opponent know you can anti-air them and you know how to punish their special moves. Otherwise you'll get scrubbed out. Once the game develops and you and your opponent both respect that you know how to handle the standard tactics of special move abuse and jumping, the footsies game then determines what seperates the men from the boys.

Your best footsie tool is the move you have that punishes your opponent the best from just holding back. This varies per character. For a lot of characters its their furthest reaching low. For others its a command throw. And there are some where they have long reaching moves or strings that give them frame advantage and put your opponent in a bad guessing game on block. Once you establish this move (or moves) and your opponent understands they have to act. The footsie game begins.

Lows: For a lot of the cast, your longest reaching low is what sets ups everything. It may be a special move or unique normal attack string that launches. Or it may be as something as simple as your sweep that sets up a nasty mix-up when you knock them down. Once you establish this low, your opponent will eventually begin to respect it and will start to duck. Once you have them ducking, they are stabalized and they are not moving. This now allows you to dash in and do something different. You can dash throw or dash into an overhead to mix it up. Some characters have slower dashes or some players have good reactions and will poke you when they see you dash in their face or just when you get too close in general. There are a few things you can do about this.

a) Dash and poke: Dash and go straight into a d1 may be quick enough to catch your opponent hitting a button once they realized you didn't do your low and you dashed instead. If you are able to do a d1 xx special, you might get really good damage or really good wake-ups depending on what your d1 can cancel into. Learning to cancel a d1 into a special move is big not only in the footsie game, but for punishing and counter-poking as well.

b) Dash and block: If your opponent sees you dash and hits d1, sweep or maybe even a fast special move as a panic attempt to keep you out, you always have the option to block. After you block their attack, whether its a d1, sweep or specal, you'll then have the advantage and your opponent will then be forced to guess. Dash and then blocking will also let you to see if your opponent jumps and allow you to punish them trying to get away as well.

c) Walk: If your character doesn't have a quick recovering dash or your opponent just has a good feel of when your dashing in and hits you out of it, you can always close the gap by walking in. By walking in you can pressure your opponent by hovering just outside their d1 or sweep range and punish them on whiff. If they see you walking in, they may stop ducking and hold back opening up you to do your low again. If they respect that as well, you can then walk up and do a throw or overhead or whatever your character's main tool is to open up someone playing defense. Walking also lets you to see if your opponent jumps and allows you to punish them for trying to get away as well.

Command throws: Command throws cover a lot more basis than lows since they are unblockable. These force your opponent to either mash something out before the command throw hits or force them to jump. If they mash something out and you get hit out of your command grab you may want to wait to let them whiff allowing you to punish the whiff. Or, you can do a fast mid attack that will beat out their panic presses to force them to block so you can command grab again. If they jump, you can meet them air to air for a combo. A fast mid attack may hit them on the way up as well.

Long range frame advantage attacks: There are a few characters that have decent range moves that give them advantage on block. These are also good footsie tools as it forces your opponent into a guessing game if they block it. Same rules apply to these moves if you get hit out of them or your opponent jumps away as the command grab.
 

Attachments

Zyphox

What is going on guys, Ya Boi Zyphox here.
Slips
i was going to do this in video format with commentary when the actual game comes out, since changes are likely to occur, who knows maybe we get shorter dashes like 3rd strike ( i wish) and kof and stuff like that.
 

Seapeople

This one's for you
This helps a ton.
I've sort of started thinking of forward dashes like Cyrax's AAt or Reptile's dash. Blocked projectile? Free dash in. It's hard to get used to but I'm slowly getting there.
 

Pig Of The Hut

Day 0 Phenomenal Dr. Fate and Darkseid player
Jumping: If you jump and do not attack (which leaves you open to air to air combos that do not scale like MK9) there are very few landing frames and you'll typically be ok if you make it back on the ground. If you jump and whiff an attack in the air, there are frames you are stuck on the ground and cannot block which your opponent can capitalize on as well. So if your opponent loves to jump around and throw out garbage when they are under pressure, its best to chill out, let them whiff their jump attack, and blow them up.
This is huge

Thanks
 

KingHippo

Alternative-Fact Checker
Watching a lot of the streams that were on today I was actually a little perturbed by the lack of sweeps being thrown out (Well, except Diana players lol). Now that sweeps are back to how they work in most games (Fairly quick, granting untechable knockdowns) these will be critical, since no one wants to be on the receiving end of some dumbass Batman or Lex oki, and as Slips said, this opens up the footsie game in a multitude of ways.

Appreciate the writeup!
 

Pig Of The Hut

Day 0 Phenomenal Dr. Fate and Darkseid player
Watching a lot of the streams that were on today I was actually a little perturbed by the lack of sweeps being thrown out (Well, except Diana players lol). Now that sweeps are back to how they work in most games (Fairly quick, granting untechable knockdowns) these will be critical, since no one wants to be on the receiving end of some dumbass Batman or Lex oki, and as Slips said, this opens up the footsie game in a multitude of ways.

Appreciate the writeup!
Yea man you're dead on
 

Delriach

Sindelly
one thing I'd like to add about dashing. Dashing backwards is a great tool for many characters. There are invulnerability frames during a backdash and, if timed correctly, you will be able to avoid various attacks (even unblockable interactables!). The easiest character to practice this with is Batman because he's awesome sauce. Eventually, you'll be able to back dash blatant jump attacks, interactables, and even some 50/50s right as you wake up from the ground. If someone expects that you'll back dash they can blow it up depending on the character, so it's not exactly something you can just blindly do without consequence. But it's still extremely important to know how to utilize properly.
 

Spinky

Restless Dreamer
one thing I'd like to add about dashing. Dashing backwards is a great tool for many characters. There are invulnerability frames during a backdash and, if timed correctly, you will be able to avoid various attacks (even unblockable interactables!). The easiest character to practice this with is Batman because he's awesome sauce. Eventually, you'll be able to back dash blatant jump attacks, interactables, and even some 50/50s right as you wake up from the ground. If someone expects that you'll back dash they can blow it up depending on the character, so it's not exactly something you can just blindly do without consequence. But it's still extremely important to know how to utilize properly.
Shit, I completely forgot backdashes were invincible. Cool beans.
 

Malec

Noob
thx for that, i got some realy basic questions there.
how do you do a tech roll (is it called that?)?
and how do you start the clash wager?
 

Spinky

Restless Dreamer
thx for that, i got some realy basic questions there.
how do you do a tech roll (is it called that?)?
and how do you start the clash wager?
I always hold away and mash 3 for a tech roll, seems to work. Clash is forward + right trigger.
 

fr stack

Noob's saibot or noob saibot's?
how do u get invincibility on a back dash , do u have to input at a certain frame or somethin ?? or is it automatic everytime ?
 

Jim

Emperor of the Moon
thx for that, i got some realy basic questions there.
how do you do a tech roll (is it called that?)?
Pressing any of the four face buttons as you are hitting the ground. Note: Some hits cause the character to do a few small bounces in that case it is the last time you bounce before you would just lay on the ground. Also not every knock down can be tech rolled.

how do u get invincibility on a back dash , do u have to input at a certain frame or somethin ?? or is it automatic everytime ?
Back dash always has a few frames of invisibility at the start. It is a really small window though so what you need to practice is the timing based on the attack you are dodging.
 

Death

Noob
100% agree with everything slips said. I hate how in mk you can just dash brainlessly with d3 to cover space and be safe. In this game you actually have to walk and KNOW your range.

Zoning will not be strong because you can't back dash and zone. You have to dash back wait then throw projectile and at high levels this could be a big problem for zoning characters. If the zoner back dashes you can dash forward on read to keep up the space and the zoner would still have a slight pause to zone and in that slight pause it will give you time to react/read what the zoner will do. This is huge IMO
 
100% agree with everything slips said. I hate how in mk you can just dash brainlessly with d3 to cover space and be safe. In this game you actually have to walk and KNOW your range.

Zoning will not be strong because you can't back dash and zone. You have to dash back wait then throw projectile and at high levels this could be a big problem for zoning characters. If the zoner back dashes you can dash forward on read to keep up the space and the zoner would still have a slight pause to zone and in that slight pause it will give you time to react/read what the zoner will do. This is huge IMO
Zoning has potential imo, but it definitely wont work the same way as other games do.
 

CrimsonShadow

Administrator and Community Engineer
Administrator
Delriach what are the proper inputs/timing for wake-up roll and wake-up backdash? That's the only thing that's been giving me a bit of trouble in the 1st couple days.
 

Vagrant

Noob
The salt king droppin knowledge bombs on everyone!

You are the man.... Theres some other mechanic stuff I wanted to ask you about at the arcade tonight, are you going?
 

Delriach

Sindelly
how do u get invincibility on a back dash , do u have to input at a certain frame or somethin ?? or is it automatic everytime ?
It will take some trial and error to find the right timing since it is frame specific. Try to time the back dash so that you are just barely not getting attacked. For example, if someone is doing a jumping attack do a back dash right before you get hit by it. Practice the timing around this window and you'll be able to narrow it down.