Melty Blood/Advanced Mechanics

Damage Modifier

The damage modifier system works much like Act Cadenza. Each character has a set life total of 11400, but take different amounts of damage at different points of their life bars. Another thing to note is that there is a Stance Modifier that changes the Damage modifier depending on if the character is in Stand, Crouch, or Jump state.

These are the values for the Stance Modifier

• Jump: x0.88
• Stand: x1.00
• Crouch: x1.08

These values modify the Damage Modifier during combos, as well. For example, if you combo them on the ground, then knock them in the air, they will get the Jump Stance modifier when they are in the air. Damage Modifier values are consistent across all moon styles for every character except Mech-Hisui, Nero, and Neco-Mech. For the Maids (Hisui & Kohaku) team characters, they each have their own Damage Modifiers.

If damage ends up becoming a decimal, it will always round down.

For in-depth data on character health and damage modifiers, either see the "Health Values" section below, or the "Health and Damage" section of the MBAACC frame data spreadsheet.

Hit Count Scaling

The damage of each hit in any combo is, in addition to the other scaling methods, scaled by the number of hits in a combo. Each hit in a combo further reduces the amount of damage done by subtracting 1/32nd of the original damage of that hit, so the first hit in a combo does 32/32 times its normal damage, the next hit 31/32, and so on. This continues until the combo hits a minimum at which point the damage cannot be reduced any further by hit count alone. For each quartile of health that the enemy is missing, the combo is treated as being 1 hit longer for the purpose of calculating the damage of each hit.

Correction Value

When starting a combo, one factor to keep in mind is Correction Value (also referred to as proration). This value, among other factors, determines how much damage any individual hit in a combo will deal. Formally, the correction value is a value in the interval between 0% and 100% that can only ever decrease or remain the same as a result of a hit. Most hits have a modifier that acts as an upper clamp on the correction value, setting the correction value to the fixed modifier if the fixed modifier is lower (i.e. closer to 0), or leaving it alone otherwise. Some hits have a scaling multiplier that always decreases the current correction value by some factor (less than one). Cancelling any special move into an EX move or Arc Drive super adds a 65% scaling multiplier. An OTG relaunch (distinct from a normal OTG hit) also concurs with a 65% scaling multiplier. All of these updates to the correction value occur after the hit's damage is calculated; as a consequence, the damage that an individual hit is not affected by how it changes the correction value.

The Reverse Penalty is a value closely related to the correction value. It inhabits the interval between 0% and 55%. Unlike the correction value, the reverse penalty is not tied to a specific combo, and exists throughout the game and changes in response to the actions that a character takes. By default the reverse penalty is 0%. It can increase as a result of specific actions being taken, such as performing a reverse beat (adds 22.5% reverse penalty), cancelling shield or EX-shield into something other than another shield (40% for actions that can only be done out of EX-shield, 30% for actions that can be done out of either), or even performing multiple jabs in quick succession (adds 0.8% reverse penalty). After taking an action that raises the reverse penalty, it remains at that value for a duration proportional to the amount by which it was raised, then decreases linearly towards 0 again. The significance of the reverse penalty is its role in determining correction value: if the correction value is greater than the reverse penalty minus one, it is set to that value. Notably, unlike the ways mentioned before, it updates the correction value before the hit's damage is calculated.

Reduce

You can Reduce by pressing A, B, C or D in a 5 frame window as you get hit, this reduces incoming damage by 30%.

• The window for damage reducing is 3 frames from before you get hit to 1 frame after being hit, with 9 to 4 frames before being hit counting as failed reduce.

Critical Hit

There is also a mechanic in Melty Blood called Critical Hit. It happens randomly on any hit and will multiply the damage dealt by 1.15x.

Damage Scaling Chart

(ROUND DOWN ON EACH STEP ONLY)

int Damage = BaseDmg - BaseDmg/32 * (Hits - 1 + QrtLifeLost);
Damage = Damage * Def;
Damage = Damage * Stance;
Damage = Damage * PrevProration;

BaseDmg  = With "Attack display" on in training mode, check "Damage" number inside brackets
Hits = Combo hit count
QtrLifeLost   = Add 1 for each 25% of life lost (maximum of 3)
PrevProration = Correction value BEFORE the move hit (100% for 1st hit in combo)
Def  =  Defence multiplier for current life bar quarter (check game files for it)
Stance=Air/OTG: 0.88
      Stand  : 1.00
      Crouch : 1.08

Example:

• CRoa Arc Drive (7000 base damage) vs VSion with 70% health left. 14 hit combo.
  
• - 0.88 stance because Roa AD always hits in midair stance.
  
• VSion Multipliers: 0002.p/data/v_sion_1_c.txt -> Guard = 1.0, 0.95, 0.9, 0.9
  

floor( floor( floor( BaseDmg - BaseDmg/32*(Hits-1+QrtLifeLost) ) * Def) * Stance) * PrevProration

floor( floor( floor(7000 - 7000/32 * (14-1+1) ) * 0.95) * 0.88) * 0.5
floor( floor( floor(7000 - 218.75 * 14) * 0.95) * 0.88) * 0.5
floor( floor( 3937 * 0.95) * 0.88) * 0.5
floor(3740 * 0.88) * 0.5 = 1645 damage

Launch and Untech Hitcount Decay

To prevent infinite combos, MBAACC has a system where higher combo hitcounts cause moves to have less vertical launching strength and shorter untech times. Every single hit in a combo will prorate vertical launch strength by 0.8% of the initial strength¹. Every 6 hits in a combo², starting on the 11th hit, will remove 1 frame of untech time -- never prorating to less than 3 frames of untech time. One thing to note, is untech refers to air teching, which you cannot do on the ground, so while this counter does increases during strings against grounded opponents, the effect of the proration is not felt until the combo moves to the air.

Confusingly, the combo counter displayed in-game is not the same as the one the game uses for this proration. For example, various multi-hitting moves will run up the on-screen counter, but only count as a single hit for the proration counter. Half moon 5A6AAs and a few other random moves are hard coded to reduce 1 frame of untech time independent of the proration counter. Some moves can count as 0 hits, while others can count for 2 or 3. But ultimately, there is no hard rule for knowing how a move is counted just by looking at it. Though, one rule that is solid is that hits which can OTG relaunch do not ever add to the proration counter, nor are they affected by launch or hitstun scaling.

¹ - This only affects initial vertical velocity and also does not affect bounces. This means that things like C-Roa 22C, both the initial hit and the bounce of Satsuki j.[C], and the bounce after Nero j.C are all entirely unaffected by vertical launch scaling.

² - Between hits 65-71 and 126-132 (of the internal proration counter) it takes 7 hits to remove 1 frame of untech time. This presumably carries on every 61 hits.

Health Values

Character Name	Damage Modifier (Health %)				Net Health	Grade
	100%	75%	50%	25%
Akiha	0.920	0.823	0.768	0.725	14202	S++
Nero (C)	0.900	0.842	0.815	0.725	13979	S+
Arcueid	0.900	0.871	0.796	0.725	13950	S+
Nero (H/F)	0.900	0.852	0.815	0.725	13939	S+
Kouma	0.920	0.871	0.796	0.725	13881	S
White Len	1.000	0.871	0.750	0.725	13853	S
Satsuki	1.000	0.871	0.843	0.725	13433	A
Riesbyfe	1.020	0.871	0.843	0.725	13378	A-
Hisui	0.850	0.920	0.862	0.815	13253	B+
Tohno	0.920	0.871	0.862	0.860	12990	B-
Kohaku	0.900	0.871	0.937	0.815	12977	B-
Roa	0.950	0.920	0.843	0.815	12975	B-
Sion	0.950	0.920	0.843	0.815	12975	B-
Ciel	0.900	0.871	0.843	0.906	12965	B-
Seifuku	0.900	0.871	0.843	0.906	12965	B-
Miyako	1.000	0.920	0.843	0.815	12825	C+
V.Sion	1.000	0.920	0.843	0.815	12825	C+
Hisui (Maids)	0.879	0.952	0.892	0.843	12811	C+
Mech-Hisui (F)	0.850	0.842	0.937	0.951	12776	C
Mech-Hisui (C)	0.870	0.871	0.937	0.906	12735	C
Warachia	1.100	1.017	0.843	0.725	12705	C
Aoko	1.000	0.968	0.843	0.815	12671	C
Red Arcueid	0.950	0.968	0.890	0.815	12643	C-
Neco-Mech (C)	0.870	0.920	0.937	0.906	12561	D
Kohaku (Maids)	0.931	0.901	0.970	0.843	12543	D
Neco-Arc	1.400	0.678	1.031	0.815	12500	D
Nanaya	1.000	0.968	0.890	0.815	12493	D
Koha-Mech	0.900	0.920	0.937	0.906	12451	D
Powered Ciel	0.950	0.920	0.890	0.906	12445	D
Mech-Hisui (H)	1.200	0.968	0.843	0.770	12401	D
Neco-Mech (H)	1.200	1.017	0.843	0.770	12259	E
Len	1.100	0.968	0.890	0.815	12234	E
Ryougi	1.050	0.988	0.918	0.860	12017	F
Hime	1.000	0.968	0.937	0.906	11981	F
Neco-Mech (F)	0.950	0.968	1.031	0.996	11569	G
NAC	1.600	0.678	1.312	0.996	11018	H
V.Akiha	1.150	1.114	1.031	0.906	10946	H-

Wakeup Timings

Each character has their own animations for being knocked down and getting up. There's three types of knockdown animations and two types of wakeup animations, and they each have their own duration:

Launchers, groundbounces, and a few character-specific actions have the opponent land head-first before collapsing onto their front, then go into their prone wakeup animation.
Sweeps trip the opponent have them land on their front, then go into their prone wakeup animation.
All other knockdowns have the opponent land on their back, then go into their supine wakeup animation.
(Exception: Hime's head-first animation falls onto her back and sweeps use her back animation; her two wakeup animations are identical.)

The following is a table of knockdown and wakeup times per type and character.
For knockdowns, the total duration of the knockdown and wakeup time together is listed first, which in most cases is the number most worth paying attention to. In parenthesis is the knockdown time alone, which defines how long you can strike the opponent OTG, as long as they are not in an uncomboable state as a result of being hit by certain moves or using up your bounce/OTG limit in your combo.
The wakeup time alone is also listed separately, which may be useful for characters who have time to react to that animation beginning in order to time their okizeme.

Character Name	Knockdown Type			Wakeup Type
	Head-first	Front	Back	Prone	Supine
Akiha	60 (34)	55 (29)	49 (27)	26	22
Seifuku	56 (34)	51 (29)	49 (27)	22	22
V.Akiha	56 (34)	51 (29)	49 (27)	22	22
Aoko	61 (34)	56 (29)	53 (26)	27	27
Arcueid	56 (34)	51 (29)	49 (27)	22	22
Red Arcueid	55 (34)	50 (29)	52 (27)	21	25
Hime	57 (35)	49 (27)	49 (27)	22	22
Ciel	56 (34)	51 (29)	49 (27)	22	22
Powered Ciel	57 (35)	51 (29)	51 (27)	22	24
Hisui	56 (34)	51 (29)	49 (27)	22	22
Mech-Hisui	56 (34)	51 (29)	49 (27)	22	22
Kohaku	56 (34)	54 (32)	49 (27)	22	22
Kouma	60 (36)	53 (29)	56 (31)	24	25
Miyako	54 (32)	51 (29)	49 (27)	22	22
Len	57 (35)	51 (29)	53 (27)	22	26
White Len	63 (41)	48 (26)	50 (24)	22	26
Neco-Arc	56 (34)	51 (29)	49 (27)	22	22
NAC	56 (34)	51 (29)	49 (27)	22	22
Nero	59 (34)	54 (29)	53 (27)	25	26
Riesbyfe	61 (37)	48 (24)	57 (30)	24	27
Roa	58 (36)	51 (29)	49 (27)	22	22
Satsuki	65 (41)	53 (29)	50 (27)	24	23
Tohno	59 (37)	51 (29)	50 (27)	22	23
Nanaya	56 (34)	51 (29)	50 (27)	22	23
Ryougi	57 (33)	53 (29)	49 (27)	24	22
Sion	56 (34)	51 (29)	49 (27)	22	22
V.Sion	56 (34)	51 (29)	49 (27)	22	22
Warachia	56 (34)	51 (29)	50 (27)	22	23

Backdash Frame Data

Character Name	IFrames	Duration	Distance	Airborne punish
Tohno (F)	13	22	1.415	No
V.Akiha	15	24	1.046	Yes
NAC (C+F)	16	21	0.915	No
Neco-Arc (C+H)	16	21	0.915	No
Nanaya	12	19	0.980	No
Seifuku	16	26	1.092	Yes
Mech-Hisui (F)	16	28	1.380	No
Akiha	16	26	1.030	Yes
Warachia	16	24	1.033	No
Tohno (C+H)	12	22	1.122	No
Roa	16	27	1.187	No
Mech-Hisui (C+H)	16	28	1.213	No
Nero (C+F) (fwd.)	53	56	1.373	No
Hisui	16	28	1.000	Yes
Miyako	15	28	1.218	No
Aoko	16	25	0.805	Yes
Riesbyfe	16	23	0.805	No
Satsuki	16	29	1.168	No
Powered Ciel	16	29	0.977	Yes
Sion	16	25	0.750	Yes
Hime	16	32	1.142	Yes
Kouma	16	29	1.089	No
V.Sion (C)	16	26	0.768	Yes
Nero (F) (back)	51	60	1.373	No
Ryougi	16	29	0.912	Yes
Ciel	16	29	1.057	No
Neco-Mech	16	28	0.995	No
Len	16	31	1.181	No
White Len (H)	16	31	1.181	No
Red Arcueid	16	29	0.892	Yes
Arcueid	16	25	0.686	Yes
Kohaku	16	27	0.757	Yes
White Len (C+F)	24	29	0.686	No
V.Sion (H+F)	16	25	0.672	No
Nero (C+H)	16	29	0.817	No
Neco-Arc (F)	16	30	0.775	No
NAC (H)	16	30	0.737	No

Shield Frame Data

Startup	All shields have 0f startup, they are instant. Held shield for 5 or more frames drains meter.
Crescent Moon	EX Shield = Ground Tap Shield = 4 frames. Air Tap Shield = 6 Frames. Can cancel into any attack, when successful. Normal Shield = Hold for 5 or more frames. Cannot cancel into normals, but can cancel into any other attack, when successful.
	Held shield drains 0.2 meter per frame for 60 frames (12 spent).
Half Moon	Normal Shield = Ground Tap Shield = 6 frames. Air Tap Shield = 8 Frames. Cannot hold. Causes Auto-Shield Counter on a successful shield of a "physical" attack. Projectiles do not trigger the Auto-Shield Counter, but it can be manually inputted (236D).
Full Moon	Cannot EX Shield = Ground Tap Shield = 4 frames. Air Tap Shield = 6 Frames. Only counts for Last Arc. Normal Shield = Tap or Hold. Can only cancel into Shield Counter (236D), specials or supers, when successful.
	Held shield drains 1.0 meter per frame for 25 frames (25 spent).
Recovery	All shields recover in 19 frames.

Buffered Moves

Like many games, Melty Blood allows you to input most actions slightly before you would be able to use them and have them come out on the first possible frame if you keep holding the button down. However, not all moves can be buffered for the same amount of time.

Buffer Time	Action
0	Non-Command Normals
1	Standing Shield
	Air Shield
2	2E Dodge/Airdodge
	4E/6E Throw/Airthrow
3	Specials / EXs / Arc Drives
	Command Normals
	Crouching Shield
	Shield Bunker
	A+B Dash/Backdash/Airdash*/Dodge/Air Dodge
	4/6 A+D Throw
	Heat Activate / Meter Charge
6	44/66 Dash/Backdash
	22 Fastfall (Nanaya/Hime only)

Airdashes have a minimum height requirement. Below this height, AB will result in an air B normal. Because of how MBAACC handles resolving inputs involving multiple buttons, using AB to instant airdash (both forward and backward) effectively has a 1f buffer (2f window for earliest IAD). Otherwise the buffer window is 3f as stated.

Landing Recovery Rules

• Jumping with no action has no landing recovery
• An air normal as Crescent or Half Moon has 2 frames landing recovery, +1 blockable neutral frame
• Doing an air normal as Full Moon has only 1 blockable neutral frame
• Airdash landing recovery depends on the character and whether its cancelled into another move. If cancelled into a normal, recovery defaults to the normal's recovery.

Combos

Grounded jump cancel

Some moves can be cancelled by a jump. However, if you've already jump-cancelled a ground move, you can't jump-cancel another ground move during the same combo. Double jumps are not counted.

Bounce

During a combo, when the opponent hits the floor, or hits the wall from certain attacks, there will be a white shockwave emanating from the point of impact and they will bounce. After three bounces, they are invincible until they recover from the combo.

Almost all throws, including command grabs, reset the bounce counter. (Exceptions include Len's and White Len's Air Throws.) For example, Satsuki has a lot of bounces in her combos, and uses her grabs to stop the bounce counter from reaching 3.

Universal Option Selects

While not on the same level of dependency as with other French Bread titles like Under Night, there are a bunch of useful option selects that any character is able to use effectively.

5A or Throw (5A6E)

If your character has a 5A that whiffs on crouching opponents, by performing the input above, one of two things will happen:

- If they are standing or trying to jump, another 5A will come out.

- If they are crouching, you will whiff cancel the 5A into a throw.

Pros: Forces your opponent to stand block more, opening themselves to your lows.

Cons: Can often lose if the opponent is preemptively pressing an attack that goes under your 5A

5A that whiffs on crouchers

Character	Move
WArc	All Moons
Akiha	Crescent Moon
VAkiha	Crescent Moon
Hisui	Crescent Moon
Mech-Hisui	Crescent Moon
Kohaku	Crescent Moon
Nanaya	All Moons
Nero	All Moons
Ryougi	Half Moon
Warachia	All Moons

Crouch Tech (1A+D)

One of the most common OS is also found here. Picture this situation.

-Your opponent has finished their blockstring with a Rebeat and are now +1, and they are using their dash to close the gap, their most likely options are one of these two, another 5A/2A to restart pressure, or a throw. Since they are really fast, you can't react to which one they are going to do, so you have to predict, right?

By doing 1A+D as they are next to you, one of two things will happen

-If they do the 2A/5A, it will get shielded.

-If they go for the throw, you'll get the throw tech.

Depending on your moon, you'll want to add different things you do after the 1A+D

-Crescent: 1A+D~A. If you shield, a 2A will come out, if you throw tech, the A input won't result in an attack. -Half: Since your shield is automatic, just do 1A+D.

-Full: 1A+D~236D/Special input of your choice: Same logic with Crescent. Since Full can instead choose to use a special instead of their normal shield counter, you can decide which one to use depending on the situation.

Pros: A lot of the regular pressure in Melty is now easier to dealt with, forces your opponent to restructure their offense, often with more risky alternatives.

Cons: If they do nothing, choose to go with an air dash, or dash and do a 5B/5C to crush your low shield, it will give them a counter hit starter, so the risk of failing to crouch tech is high.

Anti-Shield Counter OS (1A71A)

This is an OS that's specially useful against Half Moon as they cannot change the timing that they shield counter. It goes as follows:

-If they block your first 2A, a second one will come out.

-If they shield it, you will jump cancel the 2A and block their shield counter.

Pros: Makes a lot of your pressure safer, can be used to combat crouch tech or characters with specially deadly shield counter follow-ups.
Cons: Less reliable against Full, and very risky against Crescent, since their shield follow-up will often be a normal, which can hit you while air blocking. Also, if they simply get hit, you'll jump cancel away, ending your pressure most of the time.

Anti-Heat OS (2AA 5B+D)

Whenever the opponent has access to Heat, you can use this OS. It would look like this in practice:

-If they don't Heat, you initiate your blockstring or combo.

-If they Heat, your 2A will cancel into a shield.

Note: Does not lead into a confirm if the character lacks a self-chaining 2A like C-Seifuku

Pros: Allows you to punish Heat while also keeping your advantage

Cons: Can often lose against other reversals

Anti-Bunker OS (5A6EEE)

Specially useful against Half Moon players that have a habit of using Bunker whenever they find themselves in a tough spot. Contrary to the 5A6E OS, your 5A needs to not whiff on crouchers to effective.

Note: Does not work if you are Half Moon yourself or if you can't self-chain your 5A like F-Ries.

-If they block, you keep doing 5As.

-If they shield bunker, you will throw them.

Pros: Still grants you a blockstring while not having to hard call out the bunker.

Cons: Doesn't work in all ranges, and you also don't really force a mix-up aside of bunker or no bunker, but this can be remedied if you deliberately go for other blockstring options.

Plinking

Plinking is an input trick where you press two different buttons on two consecutive frames, in such a way that the game reads them as the same button. The purpose of this technique is to give you two chances to hit a tight link, improving consistency. All of MBAACC's practical plinking methods rely on the E button, and thus are somewhat more limited than plinking methods in other games where it's present.

5C/j.C plink (5C~5E)

This is the most well known plink, since it is commonly used by characters with tight links into j.[C]. The 5E input is interpreted as A+B+C, and since C is already being held, it becomes a 5C input instead of heat activation. Despite the presence of A and B inputs in the macro, this technique cannot be used to plink 5A or 5B, because 5C outprioritizes them. The order between 5C and 5E does not matter for air buttons, but it does for 5C on the ground.

2B/j.B plink (2B~2E)

2E is interpreted as 2A+B, and since dodge is not possible when the B button is held, the 2E becomes a 2B input. This technique can't be used to plink 2A because 2B outprioritizes it. The order between 2B and 2E matters unless you are a Full Moon character.

5A/j.A plink ([D]~4/6A~4/6E)

That notation is really dense, so to be clear about what it means, it says to hold forward or backward and the D button, then press A and E within 1 frame of each other--A and E order does not matter. The Melty input display does not properly show this input, so it may not be easy to tell if it was input correctly. 4/6E is interpreted as throw, and since throw is not possible while the D button is held, it becomes a 4/6A input. This can be used for 6A and j.6A if your character has those. To get 5A and j.A, just hold backwards instead of forwards during the input.

Why doesn't the A+B macro work?

Technically, it does, but you have to release the A and B buttons for it to count as an additional input. This means to get a 5B plink using the A+B macro, you would have to press 5B for a single frame, then release it and press the A+B button the next frame. This is prohibitively difficult, enough so that it's counterproductive to the purpose of plinking.