Dual Souls: The Last Bearer/Glossary
A lot of terminology in Dual Souls is similar to other traditional 2D fighters, but a few of the more used terms will be listed here. We also list some colloquial terminology unique to Dual Souls.
For a lot of terms, you can visit The Fighting Game Glossary by Infil to check their definition, as a lot of them are universally applicable to this style of game.
Move Properties
Active/Active Frames
The portion of a move where it has a Hitbox, after Startup has finished.
See also Hitbox, Startup and End Frames.
Air Crush
Air Crushes are moves that are invulnerable to jumping normal attacks for a few frames. A list of these attacks can be found in the Mechanics section.
Most characters have a least one Air Crush.
Armor
Armored moves can ignore the properties of an attack and continue regardless. Example: Efe's 5K. Most of the time, they ignore the attack's damage, its hitstun and may ignore its high/low properties. Hitstop will still be applied when an attack connects with an armored move.
Most armored moves in Dual Souls are vulnerable to low attacks. Some moves have more than one hit of armor, such as Andre's Chaos Drive.
Guardstun
Typically known as Blockstun in most games.
If a character guards, they are put into Guardstun for a set amount of frames. You are immune to throws while in Guardstun, and will automatically defend any attacks that strike you regardless of crossup. You may switch from a standing to crouching guard during Guardstun.
See also Frame.
Cancelable
This indicates whether the move can be canceled into another move. In Dual Souls, moves are classified in different levels for cancels:
- Level 0: Not cancelable.
- Level 1: Cancelable by Special Moves and above.
- Level 2: Cancelable by Power Moves and above.
When a move has a specific follow-up (such as Jaman's SL > BS), it isn't considered a cancel, as they are mechanically different. Therefore, if a move is only cancelable into a specific follow-up, it's considered to be level 0.
See also Cancel.
Command Throw
They act identically to a throw: they won't work when you are in Guardstun, and cannot be defended against. The difference is they're a special move and require a specific input to be performed (such as Andre's 426SL). Most of the time, they won't work against aerial opponents.
In case they have a Hitbox, but perform a throw on contact, they're considered a Hitgrab.
See also Throw/Grab, Hitgrab.
End Frames
The amount of frames required before a move is finished, following Active Frames. They are usually referred to as Recovery or Recovery Frames, but in Dual Souls this term is already taken by the Recovery mechanic.
See also Active, Startup.
Frame
Each frame corresponds to one part of a character's animation. The game runs at 60 frames per second (FPS), so a 30 frame move would take 30/60th or half of a second. All moves and actions can be described in length of frames.
Frame Advantage
The amount of frames by which a character is able to act before their opponent. If you have Frame Advantage then you can act before opponents, while disadvantage would mean they can act first. Also described as being plus/positive or minus/negative.
If both characters can act at the same time, the move is considered neutral.
Grab
Synonymous with Throw.
Hitbox
The part of a move that will hit opponents. A move is considered to have hit when it touches the opponent's Hurtbox. Both Hitbox and Hurtbox are normally invisible, but can be seen in Training Mode.
See also Hurtbox.
Hitgrab
Acts as an attack, but goes into a throw on contact. These can be defended against, unlike Throws or Command Throws. They typically don't work on aerial opponents. Hit-throw is a synonym, but hitgrab is preferred due to being shorter and not having two "t"s.
See also Throw/Grab, Command Throw.
Hitstop
When you hit the opponent with an attack, the action freezes for a few frames to exaggerate the impact of the hit (and to make it easier to Hit Confirm).
Hurtbox
The area of the screen where a character can be hurt.
See also Hitbox.
Invincible
Some attacks have invulnerable frames, during which you cannot be hit by strikes, projectiles or both. If the move doesn't cost meter and is fully invincible, the character will briefly shine red. Some moves have conditional invincibility (such as only against low or high attacks). These are denominated as Crushes
See also Air Crush, Low Crush.
Low Crush
Low Crushes are moves that are invulnerable to low attacks for a few frames. Every 2PW overhead is a Low Crush.
Normal
A move done with a single button. See Controls for a full list of normals.
Priority
Refers to how strong the Hitbox and Hurtbox interactions of a move are. For instance, fully Invincible moves have the highest priority because they have no Hurtbox.
Normal moves also have a natural Priority system in the order: BS > SL > K. Therefore, if a BS and an SL normal connect on the same frame, the BS normal always wins.
See also Hitbox, Hurtbox.
Special/Special Move
Moves done with a specific series of inputs ending in a button or combination of buttons, such as 236SL, 214SL+BS, 46PW, etc. They are listed in the in-game Movelist.
Startup
The beginning portion of a move before it becomes Active.
See also Active/Active Frames, End Frames.
Throw
Attacks considered as Throws cannot be guarded. Once they connect, they will be invincible during the animation. There are two types of Throws: the standard Throw with PW special Command Throws.
See also Command Throws.
Offense
Air Reset
Unless the move has a special property that changes this, hitting an airborne character will cause an Air Reset, rendering them invincible until landing and "resetting" the combo to zero.
Certain normals, such as Kanae's j.BS, cause a special kind of air reset that allows special moves to combo afterwards. Check your character's page for info on if they have any!
Counter Hit
If a move hits while the opponent is in the Startup frames of their move, it will cause extra damage, and increase the Combo Scaling to above 100%, leading to more damage overall.
See also Startup, Combo Scaling.
Crossup
An attack that forces the opponent to switch the direction they're are guarding.
Frame Trap
Creating a gap on purpose between your attack, so that opponents that try attacking in these gaps have their moves beaten by yours.
Hard Knockdown
A special type of Knockdown that only a few moves inflict. They typically allow you to combo the opponent, and don't allow them to do a Quick Rise.
See also Knockdown and Quick Rise.
Hit Confirm
Waiting to see the results of a move before committing to the follow-up. This requires reacting to whether or not the move hit the opponent, and is often used with moves that have high Frame Advantage on hit.
See also Frame Advantage.
Launched (Juggle)
A state where the opponent is hit into the air and are vulnerable to being juggled.
Juggles are very modular: some moves force a juggle (such as Brandon's second Power with Buff active), some juggles are only active on specific cancels (such as Kanae's 236BS xx 236PW combo with her second Power), some only juggle a predetermined amount of times, and some can't juggle at all.
If the move can't juggle, it'll typically result in an Air Reset.
Normally, juggles can be done off of any move that launches, as long as you are able to hit the opponent before they hit the ground. However, there are certain moves (such as Rungard's throw and most of Brandon's specials) which cause a special kind of launch known as a knockdown launch. During a knockdown launch, most attacks will not be able to connect; they will simply phase through the opponent as if they weren't there. There are some exceptions to this rule, but it is very character and move specific. knockdown launches are somewhat rare, and are typically reserved for moves that would be too strong if you were able to combo off of them without resources.
Using a Power Recovery after a knockdown launch will re-enable the opponent's normal hurtbox, allowing you to juggle off of it like usual.
See also Air Reset and Hurtbox.
Knockdown
A knockdown causes a character to fall to the ground. They are usually invincible until hitting the ground, unless they're hit by a Juggle while falling.
After a knockdown, you may Quick Rise. Due to this, knockdowns may be referred to as a "Soft Knockdown", in reference to how you can't Quick Rise from Hard Knockdown.
See also Hard Knockdown, Juggle and Quick Rise.
OTG
Short for "Off-The-Ground", refers to hitting an opponent that's knocked down. Every time you are knocked down, you may suffer an OTG if you don't Quick Rise.
See also Knockdown and Quick Rise.
Tick Throw
Hit an opponent and throw them as soon as they recover. Usually employed with fast attacks as a means to breach an opponent's defense.
See also Throw.
Defense
Air-to-Air
When both characters meet in the air. Usually used when referring to moves that will often win these exchanges.
Anti-Air
When the opponent is airborne and you're on the ground. If a move is described as an anti-air, that means it's great for hitting opponents who are jumping at or above you.
Block
Blocks are similar to Parries in other fighting games. They cost meter and essentially ignore an attack, much like armor. After a Block, you usually act before the opponent and may punish their attack.
Not to be confused with Guard, as that's what Block typically means in other games.
Escape
Usually refers to Power Escape, which is a mechanic used to escape from a combo. Similar to the Burst mechanic in the Guilty Gear series.
Quick Rise
After a knockdown, you may hold any button to Quick Rise. You'll flash light blue and be invincible until getting up. This prevents you from receiving an OTG.
See also OTG.
Other
Buffer
Pressing a button before your character is able to act. A buffer will store your input and perform it on the first possible frame.
Normals have a 3 frame buffer. Special Moves may be buffered by holding the last direction and repeating the button needed. Follow-ups to moves (such as Brandon's 214K > SL) may be held as an infinite buffer.
See also Normal, Special Move.
Combo
A series of attacks where, if the first one hits, the rest are guaranteed to also hit. Most of the time, each subsequent move in a combo will deal a reduced percentage of its original Damage value.
Combo Scaling
Refers to the amount of damage reduction a move suffers in a combo. Combos start at 100% damage on a full health character, and this percentage is reduced the longer the combo goes. A Counter Hit increases the scaling beyond 100% for the start of a combo.
An "increase" in scaling means the combo deals less damage, while a "decrease" means it deals more damage, in the same way that -10 is a bigger reduction than -5.
Different moves may apply different amounts of scaling in a combo. This is explained in the Mechanics section.
Hit
When any attack connects with the opponent.