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 10% 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. Holding Shield slowly drains the gauge over time.
6. 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 30% Moon Icons to use. You can still use a Moon Skill if you only have 10-20% Moon Icons, but this will empty your Moon Gauge. Compared to standard special moves, they have increased strength, simpler commands, are generally quick to start up, have massive meter gain, and in the case of Moon Skill DPs, can be jump cancelled even on whiff. In return, moon skills cause your character to flash blue making it easier to shield on reaction, and you can't reshield if the opponent shields your Moon Skill. This means shielding a moon skill up close is a guaranteed punish which plays a big role in the offense/defense metagame of Moon Skills.

• Every character has at least 3 Moon Skills, but the number can vary wildly. As a general rule, a character will have a corresponding moon skill for each one of their special moves.
• Examples of Moon Skill inputs are 6B+C, 4B+C, 2B+C, and 3B+C.
• Some Moon Skills can only be done in the air.
• 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.
• Moon Skills become enhanced during Moon Drive. See the section below for more details.
• Moon Skills beat clash frames from charged normals, e.g. Arcueid 5[B] or Saber j.[C]. They still clash with other Moon Skills during Moon Drive though.

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. MD Lasts roughly 33 seconds if activated at 100%, which we call a "Full MD", otherwise it lasts around 10 seconds, which we call a "Half MD". It doesn't matter if you activate MD at 90% or 50%, you'll get the 10 second MD.

Moon Drive Activation

On activation, Moon Drive will restore your airdash and cause the game to pause, giving you time to react to what is happening. It has 3 frames of startup, 2 frames of recovery, and is invulnerable to strikes for the entire duration. This means it can be used to pause the game and assess the situation, or combo off of normally non-comboable hits.

• MD can be activated whenever you're normally actionable or when using a special move (even on whiff). The exceptions to this are when whiffing a Moon Skill, whiffing an EX Special, or using an invincible special.
• If done from neutral/from a whiffed Special, the activation has 3 frames of invulnerable startup and 2 frames of invulnerable recovery. If done from a hit/guarded move however, the recovery is shortened by 1 and the opponent suffers an additional 2 frames of hit/blockstun.
• Moon Drive activation is vulnerable to throws, including when you use it immediately on wakeup, so your opponent can call you out with a grab.

Activating MD also removes a little bit of damage and hitstun scaling. By how much and to what extent is still being researched, but generally when maximizing MD combo damage, try to use MD after the 2nd hit in a combo (The separate hits of Multi-hits are counted individually).

Moon Drive Buffs

Universally, characters get the following buffs:

• Your character is granted passive Magic Circuit gain at a rate of about 4.34% per second, giving ~143% for Full MD and ~47% for half MD.
• You gain a second airdash. The only restriction is that you can't airdash twice in the same direction without performing another action inbetween.
• You gain a third jump. The triple jump can be used after using both airdashes, but it will consume an airdash if you have one remaining.
• Moon Skills remove 15% of the gauge in Full MD, and 30% of the gauge in Half MD, and have a reduced start up by 1 frame.
• Moon Skills gain clash frames. Clashing with a Moon Skill uses 30% of the Moon Gauge, regardless of whether it's Full MD or a Half MD. This is only taken once per Moon Skill, so multi-clashes don't cost any more than singular ones. Clash occurs for a maximum of 11 startup frames, so slow moonskills can still be vulnerable.
• Cinematic launcher moves (e.g. 3C) gain more hitstun, occasionally allowing slightly better combos.

Moon Drive Counter

When an opponent activates Moon Drive, it is possible to perform your own Moon Drive in response as long as you're not blocking or being hit. You and your opponent can then act at the same time (The situation is +0). Counter Moon Drive will also allow you to cancel moves that normally can't be MD cancelled (such as invincible specials or EXs on whiff/block). This is useful if your opponent tries to Moon Drive and block in response to your reversal option, but don't use it in situations where you're actionable, because the opponent is -2 post-MD normally, and since countering is +0, it kills your frame advantage.

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 when you 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% Circuit (0.5%/frame for 21 frames + 0.75% for 1 frame), 22 frames worth of charge towards your next Moon Icon, and drains 86 HP. After this time, Circuit 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.