A beginner's guide to BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger

Vyze

This is gonna be hella wordy, but it may be worth helping people out who are a bit confused at how different this game is to SF4! I wrote most of this in a rush while at work so if anything doesn't make sense or is just plain wrong, let me know and I'll amend it. I can add more pictures, but the posts are long enough as they are!

A beginner's guide to...


'sup everyone. With BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger coming out in Europe so soon, I thought I'd write up a little guide to help new players get started. A lot of this stuff is covered in the manual or tutorial DVD (assuming it's the same DVD as the US one!), but hopefully someone will be able to make use of this in casual sessions before they get a chance to buy the game.


A little about the game...
BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger (BBCT, or just BB) is a new(-ish) fighting game from Arc System Works, the developer behind the Guilty Gear series, as well as other fighting games such as Hokuto no Ken and Battle Fantasia. It very much follows on in the style of Guilty Gear ("anime fighter", "airdash fighter" "chain combo fighter", whatever you wanna call it), with double-jumps, air dashes, and a bajillion different game mechanics. Don't worry about that, though - just take the mechanics one step at a time and they'll feel as natural as shouting at cyclists on the road.

Arc System Works have said in interviews that they felt that Guilty Gear had become a little too complex and that new players would have a hard time starting out. This is why they made BB to be easy for new players to jump in and get a rough idea of what they're doing. Don't mistake this for a lack of depth, though! As much as I hate to use the tired old phrase, BB is easy to learn but hard to master.


Notation...
I'll be using the standard Japanese fighting game notation in this guide. If your keyboard has a numpad on that, you can use that for reference. Imagine the keypad is your joystick/d-pad. 5 is in the center, so it's the neutral position, 8 is up, 4 is left (back), etc. All combos are assuming you are on the left, facing right.
Joystick:
789
456
123

In the arcade, you can pick between 2 different button layouts, A and B. Most players feel more comfortable with layout B, but pick whichever is right for you.
Layout A:
BCD
A

Layout B
ABC
D

A, B, C are your weak, medium, strong attacks respectively. D is your character's specific gimmick, or "Drive". Each character has something that makes them unique and that is normally controlled by your D button. I'll cover each of these in the character descriptions.

There are also other symbols you'll see in combos (e.g. j., dj., RC, etc.), these are covered below. Some of them (e.g. Rapid Cancel will be described in more detail in the Mechanics section)

Examples:
5A = neutral standing A
2B = crouching B
6B = towards B
3C = down-towards C, this is how you sweep and is a separate move from 2C
236D = quarter-circle-forward D
j.B = jumping B
dj.2C = double-jumping down C
iad = instant-airdash
RC = Rapid Cancel


Terminology...
There is a lot of terminology that may or may not know about, depending on what your previous experience of fighting games is. Here I'll cover the ones that aren't specific to BB (those are covered in the Mechanics section). I won't be using all of these in the guide, but they're handy to know just in case you hear someone talking about it. I tried to keep them more or less in order of importance, so the more complex stuff is at the bottom and as a beginner you likely don't need to worry about any of it. A lot of the first section is stuff most people already know exists, even if they don't necessarily know the term for it.

Overhead = an attack which must be blocked while standing
Mixup = performing a range of high and low attacks to make it hard to guess whether to block high or low
Crossup = a move (generally from the air) which makes it hard to tell whether you will hit them from the back or the front, so the opponent must guess whether to block to the left or the right
Counter = hitting your opponent while they were performing an attack. Counter hits often act differently to regular hits, for example it may do more damage, or cause your opponent to stay vulnerable for longer
Anti-air = just as it sounds, an attack performed from the ground to hit someone who is coming in from the air
Blockstring = a series of attacks which force your opponent to keep blocking throughout, not giving them a chance to counterattack
Mashing = hitting buttons or the stick repeatedly with no real gameplan, don't do this
Scrub = usually someone who does the above. "Scrub" is a phrase for people who don't know how to play the game and have no interest in learning, but generally still brag about being great. You don't want to be no scrub, a scrub is a guy who gets no love from me, riding on the passenger side of his best friend's ride trying to holler at me
Beast = to beat someone convincingly (e.g. "you totally beasted me!")
Matchup = how well one character performs against another, e.g. Tager has a bad matchup against Carl
Turtling = being extremely defensive and spending most of the match blockinG
Whiff = when an attack misses the opponent altogether, it's described as having whiffed

Hitstun / Blockstun = the time during which your opponent is unable to act after being hit or blocking a move. Moves with a large amount of hit or blockstun are very good
Buffering = beginning the input of a move whilst you are performing another action or unable to act, for example inputing a complex motion (e.g. for a super move) whilst in blockstun to perform the attack as soon as you are free
Poke = a fast move with good horizontal range that you can use to "poke" at your opponent from a relatively safe distance
Chip damage = the tiny amount of damage you take whenever you block a move
Super/special-cancel = if a move is super or special cancellable, it means that the recovery at the end of performing a normal move can be bypass by performing a super or special move after the normal move hits
Frame = fighting games tend to run at 60 frames per second (fps), and so the length of time moves take to perform or to recover are measured in frames. Moves that let you recover before your opponent does are said to have "frame advantage"
Jump-cancel / Dash-cancel = moves that let you bypass all recovery after they hit the opponent by either jumping or dashing respectively
Prorate / Damage scaling = many moves will, when used in a combo, reduce the amount of damage of the rest of the attacks in that combo, some moves damage scale, or "prorate", worse than others and are said to prorate badly
Dragon punch (DP) = originally Ryu/Ken's move from Street Fighter, a move is now often described as a DP if it has invincibility on startup and so can be used on your wakeup to punish an overly aggressive opponent. DP may also refer to the traditional DP input (623)
Guard crush = in some games, blocking too many attacks will cause you to be guard crushed, which leaves you completely vulnerable to attack for a short period of time

Auto-guard = moves with "auto-guard" will automatically block opponent's attacks for free while you are attacking
Tiger knee = a way of performing many aerial special moves extremely low to the ground. If the input for an air special is 236D, you can input 2369D from the ground and, if the move permits, you will jump and then immediately perform the special move. This is named after the original input for Sagat's Tiger Knee in the Street Fighter games
Air-unblockable = a move which cannot be blocked (in the normal manner) if you are airborne
Okizeme = methods of attacking your opponent as they are getting up after being knocked down
Ukemi = methods of getting up after a knockdown, many games let you press a button to allow you to get up immediately after a knockdown, this is often called a "tech". BB style games also allow you to "air-tech", which is to recover whilst you were hit in the air. Ukemi is sometimes referred to as your "wakeup game"
Abare = the ability to turn a random weak hit into a damaging combo
Option select = inputting one motion where multiple outcomes can occur. For example, inputing a throw while also inputing a special move means that if you are grabbed at the exact same time as your move would have started, you will break the throw instead


Mechanics...
Jumping: Jumping is as normal in any fighter, except every character can superjump/highjump by quickly tapping down before you jump. Every character except can also jump once again whilst in in the air. Taokaka can even triple-jump!
Dashing: Double-tap towards the opponent and hold the direction to run towards them. You won't stop until you let go or perform an action. Whenever you stop dashing without performing an action, you will slide for a moment and are vulnerable during that time. Double-tap away from the opponent to backdash, where most characters will be invincible for some of the backdash. You can also dash whilst in the air. Tager only has backdash out of all of these options.
Clash: If two characters attack at just the right time in just the right position, the hits will clash. Neither character will take damage and you can attack right away.
Throw: Press B+C to throw your opponent. Your opponent can also break out of the throw (except in some conditions) by pressing B+C. Unlike in most other fighting games, you can throw someone during hitstun/blockstun, but they've got a much longer time to notice and break your throw!
Rolling: Whenever you are knocked down, you will remain on the ground and can be attacked. Press A, B or C to get up off the ground instantly. If you hold left or right when you press the button, you will roll in that direction before getting up.
Rapid cancel: You can press A+B+C during your moves whenever they hit or are blocked to immediately cancel all the recovery from it, this will cost half of the super meter. Basically, think of an FADC but much more instant.
Guard Libra: This is the meter just below the timer. This acts as the guard-crush system for BBCT. As you block attacks, the Libra will full up on one side, block too many and you are guard-crushed and are totally open to attack for a short time. You can shift the Libra back the other way by forcing the opponent to block attacks.
Barrier: Holding A+B while blocking will bring up a green barrier which pushes your opponent further away than usual as you block their attacks. You will also stop the Guard Libra from shifting by doing this.
Instant Block: If you block the split second before you are hit, you will flash white showing that you instant-blocked the move. You will gain some super meter for this and recover faster than usual.
Counter Assault: While blocked, hit 6A+B to Counter Assault. This will perform an attack that knocks the opponent away if they are hit by it. It costs half of your super meter, but can be very useful at escaping pressure.
Barrier Burst: Press A+B+C+D to Burst. You can only do this once per round, but it will knock the opponent far away from you, even if they're in the middle of hitting you! However, for the rest of the round you'll take extra damage, so be careful when you use it.

Vyze

The characters...
BB's characters were pretty much focused on appealing to some kind of anime cliché. Before people start complaining about anime styling in games, just remember that Street Fighter has the lone warrior wandering around the world in a martial arts gi and Tekken has at least 2 asian schoolgirls. (Giggity giggity)

I'll give out some basic combos you can use to start out with each character. These are by no means your most damaging combos, but they'll get you started and give you a feel for the game. Once you're comfortable with them, feel free to experiment with something more damaging! I won't bother giving a full move list for each character, you can check those out in the command list in the game itself!

Here's a little rundown of all the characters and what they play like.


Tough guy with dark past yadda yadda yadda. Ragna is the ideal characer for a someone who is totally new to this style of game. His standard combos aren't too hard to set up and are pretty easy to perform. Your goal when playing with Ragna is essentially to rush in and beat the opponent up, simple as that! No setting traps, no catch attacks, just get close and punch them really hard in the face.

His Drive moves are attacks that, when they connect (either on hit or on block) will restore some of your life bar. Ragna has relatively low health, so landing a combo is a great way to recover from some of those hits you've taken along the way!

Starter combo: 5B 5C 5D (2 hits) 214B 214D


Weirdo brother of Ragna's, a bit psycho. Jin is also a good beginner character but requires a slightly bit more work than Ragna. Much like his brother, Jin is best played aggressively. He does have fireballs (well, ice swords) but they aren't very good and can't be used in the same way as fireballs in the Street Fighter games. Get up close and pressure your opponent into making a mistake. His throw freezes the opponent so you can go into his standard combo off the back if it if you know what to do.

Jin's Drive involves freezing their opponent in order to extend combos. If you land any of Jin's D moves, the opponent gets surrounded by ice and can't move or block. They can get out of this faster by waggling the joystick, but there is a minimum time limit to this so Jin has some perfect combos that will freeze them and then keep going before they get any chance to escape.

Starter combo: 5B 5C 2C 214B


Member of the same army as Jin, surprisingly underdressed for a shy girl. Noel feels at first like a good beginner character, and in some ways she is. However, the jump between beginner and intermediate is a lot more jarring than it is for some other characters. Again, very much a rushdown character. She has high/low moves that can be hard to predict and can combo into her super off almost anything.

Her Drive puts her into "Chain Revolver", a mode where simple button presses will make her perform complex moves with high/low/crossups. The temptation is there to just mash D and spin the stick around (play online and you'll know what I mean!) but it's best to combo into her Drive rather than just throw it out.

Starter combo: 5D 6B 5C 6B 5C 236D


The big hulking brute, he's a robot or something. Tager's the closest you'll get to a grappler in this style of game. He has similar options to Zangief (a 360 grab, 720 super, a move for walking through projectiles, etc.) but relies on combos a lot more than you might expect. Not bad for new players but you need to have patience.

Tager Drive will magnetise your opponent. When magnetised, they will have some static over their sprite and will be drawn in towards you during certain attacks. For example, you can do a super grab from mid screen and, if they're magnetised, they'll be sucked straight into your loving embrace!

Starter combo: Throw 236B 2B 2C 623C


Goth loli vampire "she's actually 10,000 years old so it's totally legal Mr. FBI Man!" character. A rather tricky to learn trap-setting character. She can place lightning rods on the ground that you can activate at will, as well as summoning her frog "George XIII" which will hop towards the enemy and electrocute them if it gets too close. You can play Rachel either as an ultra aggressive character with some very fast overheads, or full-screen keepaway by firing out traps to keep your opponent at bay.

Rachel's Drive controls the wind. This will affect yourself, your opponent, and some of the traps you throw out. Her pumpkin is only active while being blown about, and you can extend combos by blowing yourself back into an opponent that you would have otherwise knocked too far away.

Starter combo: 6A 5B j.B j.C dj.B dj.C dj.236A


Catgirl with a creepy smile. Taokaka is ultra fast and buzzes around the screen like a mosquito. The hardest part about trying to fight against Tao is just catching her in the first place! Use your speed to your advantage and hit your opponent before they can even work out where you are. Her 2A is very fast and can lead into some big combos. Not a bad character for beginners, she'll be great practise for your combo execution once you move on to more advanced techniques.

Taokaka's Drive propels her across the screen in a huge diving attack. These can be cancelled by pressing A, B or C during the dive (even after they've already hit the opponent). Pressing A will stop Tao dead, pressing B will make her rush to the other side of the opponent if you're close, and C will stop her and make her jump up in the air a little.

Starter combo: 2A 2A 5B 5C 236AAAAAA


Chinese doctor with bountiful bazongas. Litchi can be a very complicated character and so I'd be hesitant to recommend her to new players. However, if you put the time in and get good with her it really pays off. She can keep your opponent under a lot of pressure using her staff and can combo from one edge of the stage to the corner, keeping them locked in the corner with no escape.

Her Drive controls her staff, which can be placed on the ground or fired to the opponent while you are holding it, and can launch remote attacks with it while you're not. With this, nowhere on the screen is safe from your attacks!

Starter combo: 5B 5C 2C 623D (need to be holding the rod for this combo)


Blob monster with a circle for a face. Arakune's goal is to curse you, your family, your friends and everyone you have ever loved. He does this with bees. Arakune is very floaty in the air, but has several teleports making it quite easy to run away from the opponent with him. Beginner friendly to an extent, but you need a firm grasp of the game to make the jump to pro.

Arakune's Drive is a curse which, when it hits the opponent, will let you summon a bug every time you let go of a button. For example, if you press and hold B, you will do your normal attack, but whenever you let go, a little projectile will fire across the screen. His most complex combos may involve a little bit of finger-gymnastics but the payoff is huge.

Starter combo: 6C 5C 2C


Burning justice not-very-stealthy ninja. Bang is all about the rushdown. If you can't see the whites of their eyes, you're doing it wrong. He has a triple jump and a limited supply of shurikens that he can launch at you for different effects. A good character to start with if you don't want to think too hard about defence.

His Drive are auto-guard moves that, if they hit, will light up a symbol near your super bar. When all 4 of this are lit up, you can perform one of Bang's supers (usually just called Bang Install) which will put him into a super powered mode for the rest of the round (and change the background music on the console version!). In this mode you can zip around the screen to no end, but you can't block.

Starter combo: 5B 2B 2C 6D


A little boy and his robot sister - goddamnit Japan. Carl has low health and you have to keep track of both him and his robot at all times, so beginners beware! Carl's most effective combos involve either sandwiching the opponent between him and Nirvana (the robot), or putting them into an infinite loop with Nirvana's clap attack. You need nimble fingers and good awareness of where everything is on screen if you want to win with Carl.

Carl's Drive controls Nirvana. Holding D and a direction will move the robot left or right, and letting go of D while holding a direction will make her perform an attack. You can use Nirvana as a shield to get in close, but be careful as if she takes too many hits she'll be out of commission for quite a long time.

Starter combo: 2A 5B 6C 623C


Masked samurai that the creator drew while he was still in high-school. Hakumen may be slow, but he hits hard. You can do some pretty severe damage without even needing to combo, just land the odd C attack here and there your opponent will be hurting bad. Hakumen has a unique super bar, building up little stars instead of regular super meter. All of his specials cost at least one star to use, but your super meter builds up on its own - although it builds up faster if you're attacking. He's not a bad character for inexperienced players as you can get by without worrying about complex combos, but you may have a hard time getting those hits in as other characters will generally be faster with their pokes.

His Drive is a catch move. Hakumen will pose for a moment and a shield will appear in front of them. If your opponent attacks you while the shield is active, you will catch them and perform a counter attack. If you're good at reading your opponent, this can be a great way to get out of a bad situation.

Starter combo: Throw 236A 6C

(pronounced "Nu")
Lycra-clad robot girl with split personality. Nu is amazing at keeping your opponent at bay. She has all the tools you need to make your the enemy doesn't get close. That's not to discount her melee game, though, as she has some very fast short-range attacks that can easily be combo'd from for huge damage. So long as you resist the urge to just mash on D, Nu can be a very strong character for new players.

Her Drive summons projectile blades that are active very quickly and can generally lead into combos, even from nearly full-screen! If you catch your opponent in the air with one of these, you can keep them juggled for a long time and eat up huge chunks of their health.

Starter combo: 5DD 4DD 236D


Tier list...
Here's a more or less generally accepted tier-list for BBCT (the B-tier can vary a little depending on the list). Don't let this put you off playing a character you like just because they're considered "low-tier". Just watch any Mike Z video to see that you can be awesome no matter who you pick!
S-tier
Nu
Rachel
Arakune

A-tier
Jin
Carl

B-tier
Ragna
Noel
Litchi
Taokaka

C-tier
Hakumen
Bang
Tager


Why should I play the game now when the sequel is just around the corner?
To be ahead of the curve, if nothing else. Do all the arcade players of a game suddenly stop if the console port is coming in a few months' time? No - so why should console players not start/keep learning in the run up to the sequel? If you start now, you'll have a firmer grasp of your character and how the game in general plays than someone who waits. You'll have invested in a fantastic game and shown Arc System Works that there is an interest in releasing these games in Europe, so we might get the sequel without a 10-month delay this time around!

It's a really fun game and buying it now means that you'll get to have fun for longer than if you decide to wait.

Yreval

Excellent stuff, but Bang is missing from the tier list.

Vyze

Yreval wrote: »

Excellent stuff, but Bang is missing from the tier list.

Whoops, thanks for reminding me. I've put him in now!

Xinkai

Bzzzt Vyze, Rachel is top, then Nu.

http://www.neoseeker.com/forums/42760/t1419844-tier-list-discussion-v2-rachel-top-****/

And here i am trying to stop the Nu hate & top tier arguments/abuse directed at us as Nu players. :pac:

Vyze

Xinkai wrote: »

Bzzzt Vyze, Rachel is top, then Nu.

http://www.neoseeker.com/forums/42760/t1419844-tier-list-discussion-v2-rachel-top-****/

And here i am trying to stop the Nu hate & top tier arguments/abuse directed at us as Nu players. :pac:

That's the guy's list based on an Arcadia list plus some tournament results from SBO - which is a single elim tournament and isn't always all that representative. I'll go with the Arcadia tier-list he quoted.

Sisko

I don't play this game but fair play for adding this man. Nice one.

Zapp Brannigan

Nice one! Made stuff a little clearer for me!

Vyze

Awesome to hear! If anything still doesn't make sense just let me know and I'll try to clarify it.

Johnick

Only reason Bang is so low is because he's only got 1 good match up, 6 - 4 against Tager, he obviously goes 5 -5 against another Bang and is at a slight disadvantage to the rest of the cast at 4 - 6. He should be above Hakumen as he can go toe to toe with the Top Tiers more favorably, hell he has better match ups with them then some of the B Tiers (Ragna goes 3 - 7 against Arakune).

Zapp Brannigan

Heh, just got an achievement for doing a 20 hit combo on a KO'd opponent! Guy was pissed and wasn't in the lobby when I got back in! Whoops!

Sairus

Just to mention that in the first post under Mechanics > Jumping you leave us in suspense and dont tell us it's Tager with no double jump.

Tin.T

Nice post Vyze ! totally agree with you concerning the tier list and the characters' description.
just one point : this game is funny and cool but it some versus can be really frustrating ! espacially if the other player "play his life" online ... and turtle one side from the other.

Vyze

Oh damn, I dunno why I didn't type Tager's name there, and the edit button has disappeared!

I guess every game can be frustrating if the other player just turtles and does nothing, but I like how ArcSys games actively punish you for doing that with Negative Penality.

And I just noticed I didn't cover Negative Penality in the guide, damn! For the new players: if you run away like a little bitch for too long, you'll enter Negative Penality which means you'll have some red lines over your sprite and will take extra damage unless you play aggressively again.

Orim

An interesting read here

Does a good job of explaining how movement works in games like BB.

D4RK ONION

I read this, decided it sounded awesome and went out and bought it. Tis fun ^_^

Vyze

Orim wrote: »

An interesting read here

Does a good job of explaining how movement works in games like BB.

Quotin' for page 2. This is a really good guide explaining the difference in movement options between SF and newer fighting games like BB. Definitely worth a read!

Speed Boat

Picked this up today for xbox.

This is going to come in handy.