Tough Love Arena/System

Health

Every character has 1000 health at the beginning of a round. When your health is depleted to 0, you lose the round.

• At the beginning of each round, each character is refreshed to 1000 health.
• You lose health when you are hit by an attack, you are thrown, you armor through an attack, or when you block certain moves which deal chip damage.
• Chip damage can kill you, but armoring through an attack cannot (will leave you with 1 health).

Movement

Movement in Tough Love Arena is fairly simple: characters can walk forwards and backwards, and they can use their Jump Attack with forward + Special to jump.

• Walk speed varies by character archetype, with Carbs (Noodle and Rice) being the slowest, and Spices (Onion and Garlic) being the fastest.
• It is not possible to jump without attacking, nor is it possible to jump straight up or backwards.
• Certain characters have additional movement options, such as Garlic's Dash.

Blocking

Characters in Tough Love Arena will automatically block if you are standing still or walking away from your opponent. You stop blocking, and can be hit, if you move towards your opponent or perform an attack.

LOVE Meter

Whenever you hit your opponent or their guard, block attacks, or get hit, you will gain LOVE meter, indicated by the pink bar underneath your health bar.

• You start each round with 0 LOVE meter. LOVE meter does not carry over between rounds.
• The maximum LOVE meter you can hold is 2000. The bar is segmented in the middle to indicate the halfway point of 1000 LOVE.
• There are two ways to spend LOVE meter: Rapid Cancel and Burst. Rapid Cancel costs 1000 LOVE (one bar), and Burst costs 2000 LOVE (two bars).
• Exact details for LOVE meter gain amounts can be found in the in-game Frame Data chart, under Extras.

Rapid Cancel

By pressing forward + Special after certain attacks hit or are blocked and spending 1000 LOVE meter, you can Rapid Cancel that attack, allowing you to immediately act without going through the normal recovery of the attack.

• Not all attacks can be Rapid Cancelled, and some moves can only be Rapid Cancelled on hit, not on block.
• Rapid Cancel can make normally punishable attacks advantageous on block, or allow you to combo after hitting a move that normally would not lead into a combo.
• If you use Rapid Cancel in a combo, you will not gain any more LOVE meter for the duration of the combo. This is indicated by the combo counter turning purple.

Burst

While you are being comboed, you can press back + Special and spend all 2000 LOVE meter to perform a Burst. This is the only way to escape a true combo, although it is not guaranteed to succeed.

• Using Burst will immediately cancel your hitstun into a wide-range strike that hits all around you and blows the opponent fullscreen if it hits them.
• Burst can be initiated any time you are in hitstun (after getting hit or being launched). It cannot be used while blocking or from neutral.
• Armored attacks will not absorb the hit from Burst and will still cause the attacker to be knocked back.
• Burst has 20 frames of startup and can be blocked if the attacker is not currently performing an attack.
• If your Burst is blocked or misses, you will fall helplessly to the ground, during which time the opponent can freely hit you.

Combo System

The combo system in Tough Love Arena is based primarily on Cancels and Launches, although links also exist.

• For every hit in a combo that the opponent could not escape (sometimes known as a true combo), the combo counter under the opponent's health bar will increase by 1.
• The only way to escape a true combo is with Burst.

Cancels

Certain attacks can be cancelled into other attacks on block or on hit. For example, Meats' (Beef and Pork) Light Attack (Gutpunch) can be cancelled into their Heavy Attack (Heavy Punch) by simply pressing the Heavy button after Gutpunch connects. Many (but not all) cancelled attacks will combo the opponent on hit, meaning that if they were hit by the first attack, the opponent will not be able to escape the second hit.

Launch

Certain attacks will Launch the opponent on hit, instead of leaving them grounded and in hitstun. These moves are called Launchers, and each Launcher has a Launch count, indicating how many times you can juggle the opponent in the air before the combo is forced to end. As a drawback to their combo potential, Launchers are usually punishable if blocked.

• Every time you hit a Launched opponent, the Launch count decreases by 1 and they will be juggled with less height.
• Once the Launch count reaches 0, the opponent will enter an "exhausted" state in midair and it will be impossible to hit them with any more attacks.
• An "exhausted" opponent who touches the ground will enter a Hard Knockdown state, which they will recover from after 40 frames.
• If a launched opponent touches the ground when their Launch count is not 0, they will be standing and able to act immediately upon touching the ground.
• Most Launchers will not re-apply their Launch count when hitting an already-launched opponent, the exception being Carbs' (Noodle and Rice) Whip Pounce. However, any move with Launch 0 will override the current launch count and force the combo to end, even when used on a Launched opponent.
• Any move without a Launch value that hits a character out of the air will launch them with Launch 2. The exception is if the character is falling after using Burst, in which case it will launch them with Launch 4.

For example, Meats' Uppercut (Heavy > Heavy) launches the opponent with Launch 4. This means that the opponent can be juggled in the air 4 times before the combo is forced to end. If the Meat is in the corner when they hit this attack, they can juggle the opponent with Heavy Punch, Heavy Punch, Heavy Punch > Palm, which adds up to four hits and will force the opponent into a Hard Knockdown state when they land.

Damage Scaling

The more times you hit the opponent in a combo, the less damage they will take from subsequent attacks.

• The first 2 attacks will deal 100% damage.
• Every subsequent attack will deal 10% less damage: the 3rd hit deals 90% damage, the 4th hit deals 80% damage, and so on.
• The minimum damage an attack can deal in a combo is 20% damage.

Frame Advantage

For a good overview on what frame advantage means, and how to interpret numbers such as "+5" and "-7" that you will see in the properties of characters' attacks, check out this video by Core-A Gaming.

If you are already familiar with frame advantage, note that this game uses True Startup as its convention, rather than including the first active frame of a move in its startup.

• This means that a move with 5f startup is active on frame 6, and can punish a move that is -6 but cannot punish a move that is -5.
• Similarly, a move that is +5 on hit will not link into a move that has 5f startup, so Light Attack cannot link into itself on hit.
• Since the fastest moves in the game, Light Attacks, all have 5f startup, this means that any move that is -5 or better is unpunishable, and any move that is -6 or worse is punishable.

Throw

Every character can initiate a Throw by pressing forward + Heavy while very close to the opponent. If your opponent is not attacking when the Throw becomes active, they will be thrown.

• If successful, Throw will pick up the opponent and throw them behind you at about half-screen distance, dealing 200 damage and granting you 500 LOVE meter.
• Throws will always throw your opponent behind you, giving up the corner if you threw a cornered opponent.
• All attacks without armor are invulnerable to throws during their startup and active frames.
• Throws have 5 frames of startup, and cannot be initiated while the opponent is in hitstun, blockstun, or knocked down. If the opponent is in any of these states when you input Throw, you will instead perform your Heavy attack.

Throws are good for opening up a blocking opponent, although Throws will lose to an attacking defender. Any attack that is advantageous (plus) on block allows the attacker to set up a strike vs. throw mix-up. If the defender attacks after blocking this attack, the attacker's attack will hit them first; if the defender chooses to block instead, or use a move with Armor or Parry properties, they can be thrown.

Armor

Certain moves, such as Noodle's Frenzy (back + Special) and Pork's Chop (back + Special), have Armor during their startup.

• During Armor frames, you will absorb any attacks that connect with you. These attacks deal half damage and do not interrupt the Armored attack.
• You cannot die while Armoring an attack -- if an attack would kill you, it instead leaves you at 1 health.
• Some moves have Armor vs. Air, which has the same effect as Armor, but only against airborne moves (Jump Attack, Onion's Hopkick, and Garlic's Sneak).
• If an attack has Armor, including Armor vs. Air, it is vulnerable to Throw, unlike unarmored attacks.

Parry

Beef's and Onion's reversals (back + Special) are both Parries.

• Parries are active immediately and will activate if any attack connects with their active frames, with different effects on success depending on the character.
• After their active frames, parries have a recovery period during which they are vulnerable.
• Parries will not activate against Projectiles (Beef's Lemon) or Jump Attacks. However, they will activate against other airborne attacks such as Onion's Hopkick and Garlic's Sneak.
• Parries can be thrown at any point during the move.