Melty Blood/MBTL/Resources

Moon Icon

The Moon Icon (more often called the "Moon Gauge") is a new mechanic in Type Lumina; it is a second resource that functions differently from Magic Circuit. Knowing when to spend Moon Gauge, and how to gain it back, are important to Type Lumina's resource management game.

The Moon Gauge has 11 "phases"—it goes from empty (0%) to full (100%) in 10% increments. Characters start battles with a full Moon Gauge, and the amount of Moon Gauge you have carries over between rounds.

Gaining Moon Gauge

1. Hitting your opponent gives you 10% gauge; hitting your opponent with a Fatal Counter gives 20%, instead. (Applies only to the first hit of a combo.)
2. Getting hit by your opponent gives you 10% gauge; suffering a Fatal Counter gives 0% instead. (Applies only to the first hit of a combo.)
3. Hitting your opponent with an EX Special move gives you 10% gauge. (Once per combo.)
4. Successfully Shielding an attack gives 20% gauge after you cancel the shield into a followup, or recover.
5. Moon Charging (2A+B) slowly gains gauge.

Spending Moon Gauge

1. Using Moon Skills costs 30% gauge. If you have 10% or 20% gauge, you can still use a Moon Skill, at the cost of all remaining gauge.
2. Using Shield Counter B+C costs 50% gauge. (Note that, because the reward of 20% gauge for a successful shield is given after the shield followup, you cannot B+C if you land a successful shield at 30% gauge.)
3. Clashing with a Moon Skill during Moon Drive uses 30% of your gauge per clash (assuming you used Moon Drive at 100% gauge).
4. Whiffed Shields cost 10% gauge.
5. When the Moon Gauge is at 50% or more, you can enter Moon Drive, which will consume all of your Moon Gauge to enter a powered up state.

Moon Skills

Moon Skills are powerful special moves that cost 3 Moon Icons to use. They have increased strength, simpler commands, and tend to be safer than normal special moves, among other properties depending on the move. Every character has at least 3 Moon Skills, with most characters having 4 of them. Kohaku and Vlov have only 3 Moon Skills, while Miyako has 6. You can use a Moon Skill if you only have 1 or 2 Moon Icons, though this will empty your Moon Icons.

Examples of Moon Skill inputs are 6B+C, 4B+C, 2B+C, and 3B+C. Some Moon Skills can only be done in midair. Most Moon Skills tend to be combo starters, while some such as Arcueid's 2B+C and Kouma's 3B+C, are DPs that can be jump cancelled on hit or block.

Another thing to note about Moon Skills is that they become enhanced during Moon Drive. See that section for more details.

Moon Drive

Moon Drive can be activated by pressing 5B+C when your Moon Gauge is at 50% or more. This turns your Moon Gauge into a slowly draining timer that cannot be refilled until Moon Drive ends. The length of the timer increases with the amount of Moon Gauge you had upon activating Moon Drive.

On activation, Moon Drive will cause the game to pause, giving you time to react to what is happening or punish gaps in strings; the activation has 3 frames of invulnerable startup and 2 frames of invulnerable recovery. Universally, characters get the following buffs:

• Moon Skills have reduced cost.
  • After using moon drive with a full Moon Gauge, it takes 6 Moon Skills to use the whole timer; after activating Moon Drive with 50% gauge, 3 Moon Skills.
• Moon Skills gain clash frames. They also have significantly better Magic Circuit gain on hit and block.
  • Clashing with a Moon Skill uses 30% gauge per clash (if you used Moon Drive at full gauge).
• Your character is granted passive Magic Circuit gain.
  • If Moon Drive is activated at full Moon Gauge, you gain roughly 1.5 bars over the full duration of the timer; if activated at half gauge, roughly .5 bars.
• You gain an airdash back you can use after airdashing forward, or vice versa. Put another way, you get an additional airdash, but you cannot use the additional airdash to airdash forward twice, or airdash back twice.
• You gain a third jump. The triple jump locks out your airdashes after use, although it can be used after using both airdashes.

Moon Drive can also be used to cancel special moves (except for blocked invincible reversals) even on whiff, providing utility as a combo extension tool, a way to make risky choices safer, or a way to gain additional plus frames on block. Lastly, it works as a universal reversal as its activation is fully invincible.

Moon Drive Counter

When an opponent activates Moon Drive, it is possible to perform your own Moon Drive in response. You and your opponent can then act at the same time.

Moon Charge

2A+B performs a Moon Charge, which restores Moon Icons and Magic Circuit gauge for as long as the buttons are held. However, it slowly converts your character's life to Vital Source until both Moon Icons and Magic Circuit are full. HP drain stops once both meters are filled. If the opponent is in Moon Drive, their Moon Gauge will decrease more quickly during Moon Charge.

Moon Charge has a minimum active time of 23 frames, and increments the Moon Gauge every 45 frames. Minimum charge time generates 11.25% meter, 22 frames worth of charge towards your next Moon Icon, and drains 86 HP. After this time, meter increases by 0.75% and HP decreases by 2 every frame. Partial Moon Icon charges are tracked separately from Moon Gauge, and do not reset when the gauge is filled or emptied by any other means than charging. If your partial Icon charge is at least 50% full (at least 23f worth of charge), the next charge is penalized by up to 15f worth of charge time depending on the exact amount currently stored.