Skullgirls/FAQ

Beginner

I want to learn Skullgirls, where do I start?

Start by playing through the tutorial if you haven't already. It's excellent for getting you up to speed with the game, for people with or without previous fighting game experience.

After the tutorial, check out these topics. Learning these will get you a solid grasp on the game. This list is very extensive and many of these items will take time, but all of them are worth learning!

• Pick a character or two you want to learn
• Familiarize yourself with your character's important moves and come up with a gameplan you want to accomplish
• Learn how to mix people up with your character with overheads, throws, or crossups
• Learn your character's reversals
• Learn a simple combo for your characters
• Learn how to punish unsafe moves such as supers like Cerebella's Diamond Dynamo
• Find games with other newbies to apply these concepts by assigning yourself the Beginner role in the Skullgirls Discord
• Remember that fighting games are difficult, and that even the very best players started out as a beginner too
• Ask questions!

I'm stuck on the tutorial!

If you are stuck on a certain part, here is a link to a video walkthrough.

Do I need to finish the tutorial?

Some of the later tutorial lessons ask you to perform combos which some new players may not be ready to execute in order to demonstrate some concept (such as lesson 4-7). If these lessons become more about struggling to perform the combo than understanding the concept, it may save you some frustration if you just come back to them later, or not at all if you feel you understand the concept.

What do LP, LK, MP, etc mean?

The default button mapping for Playstation and Xbox controllers

Main article: Skullgirls/Controls.

There are 6 attack buttons in Skullgirls: 3 punches and 3 kicks, each with a light, medium, and heavy variant making 6 total. They are notated using LP, MP, HP, LK, MK, and HK. The game and community uses this notation because it is universal across all controllers and button configs. Not to mention this button layout originated in Street Fighter which predates modern console controller layouts. Use the picture on the right to learn what each attack button is mapped to by default on Playstation and Xbox controllers. You can also modify the buttons to your liking.

  LP = Light Punch  / Jab
  MP = Medium Punch / Strong
  HP = Heavy Punch  / Fierce
  LK = Light Kick   / Short
  MK = Medium Kick  / Forward
  HK = Heavy Kick   / Round House

What do the numbers mean in combo / move notation?

Main article: Skullgirls/Controls.

There are two notation systems that the Skullgirls community typically uses interchangeably: Capcom notation (c for crouching, s for standing, f for forward, etc) and numpad notation (using numbers 1-9 to indicate direction, so 2 indicates crouching and 5 indicates standing). Refer to the image for an explanation. This wiki will use both, typically using Capcom notation for basic normals, then using numpad notation for when a certain direction needs to be specified.

•

=

7 8 9 4 5 6 1 2 3

=

up-back up up-forward back neutral forward down-back down down-forward

What is Double?

Double is a character who fights by turning into other characters during her attacks. Her moves borrow animations from other characters, but their properties are usually different and their uses are recontextualized by belonging to a different character. Her luger, flying butt, and slide special moves are new special moves their original characters don't have. Double appears as a blob figure when she's not attacking, and takes the form of a nun during her intro and win poses.

What is the difference between Filia and Fukua?

Filia and Fukua are two different characters who share many of the same animations. The way they play and the properties of their moves are completely different. Filia has an air dash and can travel across the air by turning into a ball. Fukua has a double jump and attacks with fireballs and clones of herself. To further visually differentiate herself, Fukua also has floating orbs surrounding her at all times, as well as her own unique color palettes. If all else fails, the character portraits will spell out which character is which.

What's the difference between one, two, and three characters?

See this section of the team building page

As a new player, what team size should I play?

There's no right answer. Some people find it easier to start with solos to familiarize themselves with the game, then move on to playing a team, or just continue to play solo. If you feel overwhelmed by learning multiple characters, it’s OK to start with solos. If you feel confident and want to start playing with a team’s benefits right away, you can start with a team, too. Solos, duos, and trios are all seen at high level play, so the choice of which to stick with is up to you.

General

How come it seems like the opponent can keep on hitting me until I die?

Video: Understanding Resets vs Combos

The opponent cannot hit you once and kill you in this game under normal circumstances. You most likely got hit by a reset, which means to drop the combo intentionally (therefore giving you a chance to defend) and perform a mixup. Resets are extremely important for maintaining momentum in Skullgirls and is unlike most other fighting games in that sense. Resets are supposed to be quick and hard to see, doubly so if you are a new player. A way to tell for sure if one happened is if the combo counter got reset back to zero. Usually a reset is done with some kind of overhead attack, a throw, or a crossup. Be sure to watch this video for a more in depth explanation.

Where can I find combos and resets?

Check the character pages on this wiki for combo and reset sub-pages.

Where can I find people to play with?

Quick match, lobbies, and arranging matches on the Skullgirls discord or PSN discord.

Who are the best and worst characters?

At the time of writing, there's no community wide consensus on tiers. However, we are confident that the gap between tiers is very small. Every character is seen at high level competition.

Newbies worried about picking a good / bad character should instead worry about constructing a good team. Since there is custom assist, and characters have multiple supers to DHC to, it's not hard to craft a workable team using most combinations of characters, especially at a low or mid level of skill. Check out the team building page for more on this.

What's the best team size?

At the time of writing, there's no community wide consensus on the best team size. Trios, duos, and solos are all seen at high level competition.

Are solos viable?

Yes. Solos typically appear in major top 8s, and there are several strong players who play solo. While not having access to some of the game's main mechanics, such as assists, hinder them, once they get an opening they do an absurd amount of damage.

Which characters are the easiest / hardest?

With regards to execution, all of the characters are roughly similar. There are no characters that demand 1 or 2 frame timings to play effectively, or characters that are designed to be difficult to execute with. Combo difficulty will vary from person to person, but for fighting game standards, most BnB routes are reasonable to pull off with a little practice. If you want squeeze out every bit of damage possible, then consistent execution may get harder, but you only need to proceed down that road as much as you'd like.

How do I save and view replays?

See here. Replays are only available on the PC version.

How do I use frame advance?

See here. Frame advance is only available on the PC version.

What are the tournament rules for Skullgirls?

• PS4 is the platform used for tournaments (note for tournament organizers: the PS4 version comes with all the DLC)
• 3/5 games for every match
• Default settings for time limit and number of rounds (99 seconds, 1 round for teams, 3 rounds for solos)
• Loser may change teams on character select
• Winner may change their team order as allowed by the loading screen shortcuts.
• Any variation of the Robo-Fortune magnet timer scam is banned.
• Either player may request random stage to be chosen instead of picking a specific stage.
• Either player may change the voices to English.

Things to note:

• Tournament mode is highly recommended for convenience, but it doesn't affect the gameplay so it's not a requirement.
• Be sure to disconnect all unused Bluetooth devices before playing, since it can cause extra input delay. (PS4 home button → press up → Settings → Devices → Bluetooth Devices → for each one, select it with X, then press Options and select 'Forget Device')
• There is no required resolution, as 720p and 1080p doesn't affect input delay significantly.
  • https://twitter.com/noodalls/status/961933608922460160
  • https://twitter.com/WydD/status/1053002939143467010

How many frames of delay should I use online?

Start by setting it to 0 and only increase it on really bad connections where the rollback jumps are noticeable. The in game estimates are a bit generous, some use 'one frame for every 100ms' as a rule of thumb.

How do I get the correct damage numbers?

Main article: Skullgirls/Combo_Mechanics#Team_Size

Play any of the following ratios to get proper 1.0 damage scaling in training mode for recording and comparing combo damage

• Play as trio vs duo
• Play as trio vs solo
• Play as duo vs duo
• Play as solo vs solo

My air throw combo damage in training mode seems higher than it should be

There's a training mode bug where if an air throw connects the first possible frame, the damage display will carry over from the previous combo (the exact cause needs verification). Be sure the air throw is properly resetting the damage display by delaying the air throw more.

How do I properly record reversal air actions in training mode?

See here

How can I get the best possible performance on PC?

• Set 2D backgrounds on
• Use the -disablelighting launch option
• Play at a lower resolution
• Be sure your monitor's refresh rate matches the in-game settings

How do I easily invite someone to my lobby on PC if I'm not friends with them on Steam?

You can create a link which will direct Steam to join your lobby when you click on it. Create a lobby, then use shift+tab to bring up the Steam overlay. Click on your Steam avatar in the bottom right corner to open up your profile. Right click on the green 'Join Game' button and 'Copy Link Address'. Then share that link with who you want to play with.

SGLobbyLink is a program written by Mr. Peck which will automatically copy the link to the clipboard for you. There is also a Discord bot version.

How do I beat nightmare Filia?

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Controllers

Do I need an arcade stick to play this game?

No. Anything works as long as you're comfortable with it. The only caveat is if you are a PC player and want to play on a PS4 at events, you will need an input device that works with it. The most common controllers are arcade sticks, gamepads (such as a DualShock 4), and hitboxes.

I'm playing on keyboard, what button config should I use?

First of all, for whichever layout you choose, make sure your keyboard is able to handle ghosting appropriately.

A popular keyboard button config is the hitbox layout. It emulates the layout of a hitbox controller, and allows all your fingers to rest on each of the four directions at once. Another benefit is it allows keyboard players to smoothly transition to playing on a hitbox, which is a good option for a controller when playing on PS4 that is similar to a keyboard. An example of this layout is pictured here.

Be aware that on an actual hitbox controller, holding up and down at the same time will result in an up input, making jumping and flash kick inputs easier.

How do I map player 2 controls on keyboard?

Bring up the button config menu, then the backslash key '\' is default for a button on the player 2 side, which will select 'config all' on P2 side and let you map buttons.

Skullgirls won’t recognize my controller, how do I fix this?

First, try opening Steam Big Picture Mode and setting up a controller configuration there. That will usually get SG to pick up on it afterwards. (Mac/Linux users) If the above doesn’t work, you’ll have to manually define it in gamecontrollerdb.txt. Find this file by right-clicking SG in your Steam library and going to Properties -> Local Files -> Browse Local Files and then use SDL2 Gamepad Tool to create an entry that should be pasted into this file.

DLC and Updates

Will there be more DLC or Skullgirls 2?

There are no plans for a Skullgirls update or sequel.

What is 2nd Encore?

Confusingly, 2nd Encore can refer to a few different things:

• The PS4/Vita rerelease, which bundled all past DLC plus some new singleplayer extras:
  • Full voice acting for all of Story Mode.
  • Challenges: Various fights against the AI with unusual conditions or restrictions. The last few involve a playable Marie!
  • Trials: Four useful sample combos for each character.
  • Survival mode: Beat as many AI teams as you can with limited health.
  • These extras are not available on PS3 or 360.
• The Steam DLC pack which brought the aforementioned extras back to PC. Buying this pack also gets you all previous DLC.
• When the aforementioned items were released, it came along a balance patch which is referred to as '2nd Encore'. Since then, the newest gameplay update is '2nd Encore+', which can be used to refer to the final balance patch of the game.

What’s the 2/4-pack listed on Steam? Does that include the DLC?

Those simply give you 2 or 4 copies of the base game, one for yourself and the rest to share with friends. No DLC is included.

Do I need the DLC? Which ones should I buy?

Nothing is required, but getting the entire cast is highly recommended. If you have the beta in your library, you can try the characters there before you buy them. It’s a little cheaper to get the characters alone than buy the whole 2E pack, so if you don’t care about the bonus content you could skip it. Look out for sales - the complete pack goes for cheap very often.

Platform Differences

What is the difference between different platforms?

The PC version has some extra features, mainly the ability to automatically save and play back replays in game, and frame advance. Much of the Skullgirls online community is on PC as well, since when the game was receiving updates, the PC version got to play the updates while they were in development on a beta version.

The PS4 version is what is played at events, and there is an online community for this version as well.

There is an Xbox 360 version, but it should be avoided as it's not updated to the latest version.

What is the amount of input delay between different platforms?

There is a noticeable additional delay on the PS4 version compared to the PC version. A commonly cited number is 1 frame of delay, but due to the variance in PC hardware and additional variables involved compared to console, treat it as a rough estimate. Below are some tests:

PS4

• https://twitter.com/noodalls/status/961933608922460160
• Note: there is no difference between 720p and 1080p. Additional confirmation: https://twitter.com/WydD/status/1053002939143467010

PC

• https://twitter.com/WydD/status/1054151440212652033
• https://youtu.be/kYCW0Dfixv4?t=8m48s

Is there cross-platform multiplayer?

Windows, Mac, and Linux can all play against each other. PS3, PS4, and Vita can all play against each other. PC cannot play against console.