Dan-Ku-Ga/Mechanics

Game mechanics

This section covers basic mechanics that apply to all characters. For more obscure stuff including bugs and oversights, check Dan-Ku-Ga/Esoterics.

Cancels

Generally, close and crouching normals are special cancelable, as well as air normals if you have an air special. There are no chains besides lights self-chaining similarly to SF2, everything else is a link.

Throws

Think SF2, where you throw with 6/4 + MP/HP/MK/HK up close. There is no throw teching or softening. There are 20 frames of throw protection after being hit, blocking and on wakeup. Many characters have air throws and command grabs, which are possible to combo into.

Note that when hit in the air, you won't have throw protection until you touch the ground. However, if you attack before landing, you won't get the throw protection once you land, either.

Juggles

Dan-Ku-Ga is one of the earliest fighting games to have a juggle system. Juggles start with special moves, listed on each character's page. Notable examples include Gekkou j.214K and Lihua 412P. The limit for juggle hits is 7, at which point any hit that normally juggles will knock down. If you hit someone in the air with a move that doesn't juggle or knock down, they get reset, remaining vulnerable but able to act. Getting hit by a second resetting move will instead knock down. This doesn't only happen with normals, but even specials like Kazuya fireball into fireball, often forcing you to divekick to avoid it.

Double Jump

One unique thing to this game is that you can jump-cancel air normals on hit or block. You can delay your jump cancel, or hold up to do it the instant your normal hits or is blocked. Gekkou can double jump without attacking, but he only gets a total of one air jump. This, combined with a universal divekick input of j.2KKK, leads to lots of interesting mixups. You can also combo with 2 jumping attacks if you jump cancel, which will knock down. Some characters need to be close for this to work, though.

Backdash

Inputting 44 causes you to quickly hop backwards. In Dan-Ku-Ga, backdashes have generous invincibility and distance. Aerial special moves like Barts's Rolling Smash can be executed out of the aerial portion of a backdash. Gekkou has a unique teleport backdash which does not go airborne, therefore he can't do this (thank god).

Landing Frames

When landing from most air states (jump, air normal, divekick), you can block, crouch/crouching normal, or perform a special on the 2nd frame. Your jump will start on the 3rd frame, and your walk, standing normal, or throw will start on the 5th frame. This means you can sweep someone on landing and they can't avoid it - the game lacks trip guard.

Negative Edge

Dan-Ku-Ga has some specific rules when it comes to negative edge. Special moves can't be performed with button release except:

• if the motion ends in up, i.e. [2]8K, 2369P... this can make some reversals easier.
• during combos i.e. Lihua performing 2HP xx 2146P can accidentally get 214HP if you release HP: 2[HP] 14 ]HP[ 6P.

Stun/Dizzy

As you’d expect from an early-to-mid-90s fighting game, take too many hits too quickly and you’ll be left open for a few seconds. Stun decrements by 1/frame and pauses during hitstop, so multi-hit moves deal slightly less stun than the total of their hits. What’s notable in this game is that there’s an active anti-redizzy mechanic. Your stun value is set to -90 from the first hit post-dizzy, and you won't take any stun until it reaches 0, increasing by 1/frame (pausing during hitstop).

Counter Hits

Counter hits exist in Dan-Ku-Ga. As long as you hit someone during an attack, you will deal 20% extra damage to the hit (rounded down). This stacks with Crush damage, noted below.
Counter hit even applies to command grabs.

CRUSH

If you’re getting beat up, your character’s CRUSH meter will fill up. When it’s full, your next special move that hits (not blocked) will deal 50% more damage (rounded down) and the screen will flash with lightning as the stage is torn up. It makes more damaging moves like command grabs terrifying.

Each hit fills up Crush by the following amount of spaces (full is 20 bars):

Light: 1 bar

Medium: 2 bars

Heavy: 3 bars - includes all divekicks

Throw: 6 bars, 1 bar every 2 hits for holds

Special: 4 bars - command throws besides Gonzales super all fill 6 bars

Walls

Most stages in the game (not Boggy, Azteca, or Gonzales) have walls on both sides of the starting area. These walls break when you land 3 hits against them, with some rules. Any juggle or knockdown hit will count, even from moves that would normally reset. For example, Barts j.46K j.HP will break the wall, while Kazuya 236P into 236P reset will count as 2 hits. This widens the stage up considerably, and should be considered in combos.

Desperation

Like SNK games, Desperation Moves are available as many times as you want at low health. Once you see your life bar flashing, always keep that option in mind. Most DMs are very useful, as they do higher damage than specials and many are fast enough to combo into.

Guard Cancel

You can perform a special move a few frames before blockstun would normally end. For grounded normals, this window is 3f for lights, 6f for mediums, and 7f for heavies. Frame data listed on this wiki will consider non-special move actions, so remember to subtract 3/6/7f from any on block data when considering this. May or may not be a bug.

Character Stats

Defense Values

(Lower value = Higher defense)

Gonzales, General	3840
Marco	3904
J. Mccoy	3968
Kazuya, Barts, Wulong, Liza, Boggy, Azteca	4032
Lihua	4064
Gekkou	4096

Stun Gauges

Gonzales	576
Wulong, Azteca	544
Lihua	528
Kazuya, Barts, J. Mccoy, Boggy	512
Gekkou	496
Liza, Marco	480

Walk Speed

Character	Walk_Frw	Walk_Bck
Gekkou	3.875000	2.906250
Liza	3.625000	2.718750
Wulong	3.312500	2.484375
Lihua	3.125000	2.343750
Kazuya	3.000000	2.250000
Barts	3.000000	2.250000
Boggy	2.750000	2.062500
J. Mccoy	2.687500	2.015625
Azteca	2.125000	1.593750
Gonzales	1.937500	1.453125
Marco	1.625000	1.218750
General	4.187500	3.140625