Melty Blood/Glossary

Standard Terms and Abbreviations

Another Arc-Drive (AAD)

41236C in BLOOD HEAT will activate another, usually stronger, version of the Arc-Drive. Using it will deplete all your remaining Magic Circuit.

Arc-Drive (AD)

41236C in HEAT or MAX will activate a character's special move. Using it in HEAT will deplete all your remaining Magic Circuit, in MAX it will leave you with 100% Magic Circuit

Blockstring

Strings (usually airtight) of attacks that get blocked.

Bunker

Inputting 214D with any moon characters. When used during guarding/blocking, your character will attempt to clash the oncoming opponent's attack and follow up with a unique bunker attack. For half moon characters, this attack has a lot of invincibility frames, knocksdown without dealing damage, and costs 100% meter. For other moon characters, this attack deals damage and costs 50% meter.

When done outside blocking, the characters does a quick EX shield and then follows up with the damaging version of the bunker (even if you are using half moon style). This does not cost any meter. Has a clash frame on startup.

Cross-Up

Going above the opponent and hit their back while facing away from them in the air. Because of the cross-up protection Melty has, when this happens the opponent can block both ways without worrying about getting hit.

Dodge and Air-Dodge

2E or 2A+B causes the character to shine and become invincible for a short time. However, this does have some recovery, so it is not possible to dodge every attack. A dodge weakens the guard bar, so relying on this too much as your method of defense is not advised.

Some characters' ground dodges are actually rolls that moves your character toward a direction. This can be used to go behind the opponent.

Air dodges have uses outside that of just avoiding the opponent's attack. They can be used to realign your character to face the opponent in air during combos or for cross ups.

Guard Bar

The short blue bar you see below the life bar. This will deplete whenever you guard (holding 4 or 1) your opponent's attacks, unless you EX guard, in which case your guard bar actually replenishes a bit. If this bar is completely depleted, you become guard crushed.

After the first time you do an air dodge or whiff a shield, this bar would turn reddish gray. The second time, it turns completely red. Redder your guard bar, more vulnerable it is to opponents' attacks. An attack that dealt certain blue guard bar damage would deal several times more to a red guard bar. Thankfully, the guard bar gradually returns to its original blue status over time.

Guard Break

This refers to when a player uses an air unblockable to break the other player that is guarding in air (and probably feed him/her a free combo). This usually happens when the other player tries to guard something that would give huge frame advantage to his/her opponent.

Many use this term and Guard Crush interchangeably, but Guard Crush can mean something completely different for some.

Guard Crush

As you run out of guard bar, you notice that your guard becomes pink in color, a sign that you are about to be crushed. When guard crushed, you become immobile and helpless, opening yourself to eat a free combo. The guard bar rapidly returns to full after the guard crush.

Many use this term and Guard Break interchangeably, but Guard Break can mean something completely different for some.

HEAT, MAX and BLOOD HEAT

HEAT is the status you enter when pressing 5ABC or 5E with at least 100% Magic Circuit. While in HEAT, you will slowly regenerate life onto your red life bar for its duration. You can also use Arc-Drives in HEAT mode. Similarly, in MAX you can also use Arc-Drives as well as Circuit Sparks but you won't get the regenerative effects of HEAT. Lastly, BLOOD HEAT is entered when pressing 5ABC or 5E when in MAX. You will regenerate life faster and will be able to use Another Arc-Drives or Last-Arcs.

Note that there are differences regarding HEAT among the 3 moon styles. Please read the Melty Blood/Moons page for more info.

See also: Circuit Meter

Last-Arc (LA)

Successfully EX-Shielding an opponents attack while either crouching, standing or in mid-air (this depends on the character performing the Last-Arc) will activate a special attack that usually pauses the opponent's movements and counter attacks them for great damage.

Magic Circuit

Also called Circuit Meter or just Meter. Read the Circuit Meter page for more info.

Meaty

Using an attack as an opponent is getting up so they are forced to block. However characters can use reversals/shields to beat this.

Mix-Up

Technique used to make your opponent guess between two or more different actions that require totally different reactions, such a mix-up between low and overhead attacks that can't be reacted to.

Moon Styles

There are 3 different moon styles in regular gameplay: Crescent Moon, Half Moon and Full Moon. These are abbreviated with C, H and F respectively. These abbreviations are also used when referring to a character in a specific mode, e.g. C-Nanaya, H-Ryougi, F-Kohaku etc.

Please read the Melty Blood/Moons page for more info on the differences among the moon styles.

Okizeme

Set-play done on the opponent's wakeup.

OTG

A state where you can still be hit while On The Ground. Usually used to refer to OTG strings.

Sandoori/Sandori

Term used to denote the side switch air dash motion to bypass the cross-up protection. After crossing up it's usually inputted as 6954 or 4756 (Both notations are relative to the side you were in before crossing). It's also wrongly used to denote 3-way mixups.

Shield and EX-Shield

D in air and ground. When shielding, you completely nullify one hit of your opponent's attack. EX shield is a shield done right before the attack connects. Holding the shield does drain your meter rapidly, so don't hold it unless you can definitely benefit from a successful shield. When the first hit of some attacks with multiple hits is shielded, you will automatically shield all subsequent shields (this feature is referred to as auto-shielding).

Some attacks must be shielded standing or crouching. This is mostly similar to guarding, but be aware that there are low attacks that can be shielded high and vice versa. Some attacks (mostly grabs) are unshieldable.

Shielding one hit successfully will give you 5% meter. The attacker receives no meter if the attack is shielded. He/she also completes the attack animation (but of course with no effect on you). Thus, hitting the unfortunate opponent after a shield (usually with a shield counter 236D) usually but not always results in a fat counter hit and you feeding the opponent a happy combo meal.

Teching

After your opponent finishes a combo (but not with an untechable ender) or just drops one, you have an option of teching to recover faster. Unfortunately, this also means that you are opening yourself up for more of opponent's attacks (tech punishing). Thus, unless you are sure that your tech would be safe, do not tech too often when playing Melty Blood. Be wary of characters that can set up almost unescapable tech trap situations. Teching can be done in the air (button plus some direction), just before touching the ground (tap a direction) or after an OTG string (also tap a direction).

Tick Throw

A throw done just after getting a fast hit blocked, usually 5a/2a. The throw is delayed because of the 7f throw protection window after blockstun.

Tiger knee (TK)

When you input a move you may only have in the air such as j.236 while on the ground with 2369X/2367X/2368X. It will buffer the input of the move while on the ground and will activate as soon as you input jump (7/8/9), making the move come out as soon as possible close to the ground. Changes usage for some moves and may even change recovery. More examples include: 2149X/2148X/2147X, 4219X/4218X/4217X, etc

Which-way

Ambiguous mixup involving a combination of left right and high low mixups.

Notations

Numpad Notations

---

In order to represent directional inputs, you use the numbers from a numpad corresponding to the directions ingame.

7			8			9
4			5			6
1			2			3

Commands are always denoted assuming that you're on the left facing right. Keep in mind that the numpad is mirrored when you face from right to left.

Motions

		Forward		Backward
Quarter circle		236		214
Dragon punch		623		421
Half circle		41236		63214

See also: Melty Blood/Controls

Standard Notations

---

When writing down combos, these are standard notations that help making them easier to read and understand.

Single commands are separated by a space (e.g. 5B 2B 2C 5C 623B).

JC

Jump Cancel

j.B, j.C, or j.BC

Jump+B button, Jump+C button; j.BC is just another way of saying "Jump B, Jump C". If you see a number before it (i.e. j.6B j.2C), that simply means jump forward+B or jump down+C

dj.

Double Jump; an example of the most common air combo ender is j.B j.C > dj.B dj.C > air throw; the > notates the next part of the combo where a drastic change in the combo takes place, a.k.a. "If you don't do this, you will drop that shit"

sj.

Super Jump; Ground: 28 (vertical) or 29(forward). Sometimes doing a super jump will help you when you need to stay a little higher for some combos. Or move around in general.

sdj. Super double jump. Used in the air with your second jump. Input is 29 in the air.

ad

Air Dash; Some combo extenders need you to airdash + button, for more damage.

IAD or iad

Instant Air Dash; 6856, 6956, 6756 or 8/9/7 > 6A+B.

IBAD or ibad

Instant Back Air Dash; 4854, 4754, 4954 or 8/7/9 > 4A+B.

[B] [C]

Charged normals, a.k.a. "Blowback Edge" or "BE"; you hold the button, and the character will have a white light glow at the point of the normal right before they do the attack.

{B} {C}

Half-charged normals; works on almost every move that can be fully charged. This is to delay certain attacks by holding the button long enough so a delay occurs but short enough so that it doesn't become fully charged.

IH

Initiative Heat; it's like a Roman Cancel in GG. You can only do this in Full Moon when you're at Max meter. Press A+B+C during an attack and the character will cancel the current attack animation and return to a neutral state -- can also be done in the air. Doing this will instantly convert all red life into yellow life (Heal you) and it will put you in "Heat" mode