Duels of Fortune/Offense

Combo Properties

Chain System

The chain system of Duels of Fortune has no particular name and operates on relatively simple rules. Normals can chain into a heavier normal, there's no self chains or cancelling into a normal of the same strength, normals can chain into a lighter normal once per string/combo as a Reverse Beat, and all normals can cancel into specials/supers. Command normals count as the same strength as their button. For example, canceling Clyde's 4H into 5L will be a reverse beat, and canceling Sylvan's 5L into 4M will be a regular chain. Notably, there's no cancel windows in Duels of Fortune; anything can be chained into any of its possible cancels at any point during its duration, allowing for extremely delayed staggers and throws. It also means that delaying or immediately doing cancels in combos can heavily effect routing. Reverse Beat is refreshed by a Blast Burst.

Hitstun Scaling

Hitstun scaling is relatively simple in Duels of Fortune. The first 8 moves of a combo will deal their full hitstun. This includes multi-hits, which only count as 1 move generally speaking. This doesn't change regardless of what the starter was. Once you reach 9 moves or more in a combo, the hitstun scaling starts to rapidly increase until it's no longer possible to extend any longer. There's a few tricks to making the most of this, most notably saving your reverse beat for the end of a combo to quickly do a long string of uninterrupted hits into an ender such as a super. Also, most supers don't count towards the overall scaling, and combo extension supers partially reset it. The biggest case of this is Blast Burst, which resets hitstun scaling by a huge amount, allowing for massive extensions. Otherwise though, it's best to start doing an ender at 9 or 10 moves.

Hitstun Stacking

Duels of Fortune's hitstun system has a pecularity that isn't immediately apparent. Each move in the game deals a set amount of hitstun. In addition, there's a maximum amount of hitstun that an opponent can be in. Where DoF diverges is that repeated attacks will add their hitstun together until it reaches the max amount. For example, if Clyde does 5L by itself, it won't deal enough hitstun to link into itself. However, if you 5M > 5L, then you'll have enough hitstun to link into 5L.

Damage Scaling

Damage scaling is also fairly simple. Damage scaling correlates to what the starter was and starts at the second hit of the combo; the first hit always does 100% of its damage. The general rule is L starters give 80%, M starters give 90%, H starters give 100%, S starters give 90%, and SP starters give 100%. There are notable exceptions to this, like Baron's 2[H] giving 80%, but this is usually reserved for common starters. Damage scaling goes down by 10% each hit until it reaches 10%. However, specials have a minimum damage scaling of 30%, and supers 60%. Similarly to hitstun scaling, multi-hits count for 1 move of damage scaling. Likewise, Blast Burst massively resets damage scaling, although combo supers don't.

OTGs

OTGs are critical to DoF's combo structure on a fundamental level. Unlike other fighting games, hitting an opponent with an OTG launches an opponent up which you can then cancel into other moves to continue a combo. Most characters' 2L OTGs but many have more damaging options as well. There's no limit on OTGs, so you can continue extending combos until you hit either too much hitstun scaling or the Loop Prevention System.

Loop Prevention System

The Loop Prevention System does what it says on the tin; it prevents you from looping the same sequences of moves within one combo. This system was added in 0.6.0 to prevent repetitive and often high-damaging loops and to increase combo variety. The system is simple on a surface level. If you repeat a sequence of moves 3 times in one combo, a "Loop Escape" is triggered and the opponent automatically techs out and your last move is uncancelable, often giving the opponent the advantage. Using Blast Burst refreshes the Loop Prevention System.
To go deeper, every time you land an attack in a combo, the IDs of both the attack you landed and the previous attack you landed in that combo will be stored together as a single "sequence." For example, if you perform the string 5L > 5M > 5H, the system will store three sequences: [0,5L], [5L,5M], and [5M,5H]. The "0" just means that no attack was landed before the 5L, as it was the first in the combo. The system keeps track of the number of times each sequence has been used in the current combo, and if the number of any single sequence ever reaches 3, a loop escape will occur. Landing a Blast Burst resets the list of sequences, effectively acting as a fresh combo in the eyes of the system.

Jump Cancels

Duels of Fortune features a number of jump cancelable attacks. Most of these are air invuln launchers but many aren't. Regardless, a few rules apply to them. You can only jump cancel moves on hit. There are, as of writing, no jump cancelable on block attacks. Second, once a jump cancelable move has hit once in the combo already, the move used can't be jump canceled anymore. Most characters have more than one jump cancelable move to somewhat circumvent this. Finally, most jump cancelable moves have the launcher property, meaning they will launch lower and deal less hitstun on repeat hits. Once again this can be cirumvented by using a different move. Jump cancels are very important to most characters' combo structure so knowing when to use them is critical. Jump cancels are refreshed from a Blast Burst.

Dash Cancels

Dash cancels are similar to jump cancels albeit much rarer. They allow one to forward or backdash cancel an attack, exclusively on hit, with one exception of a dash cancelable during startup attack. However, they aren't restricted to being used once per combo and can be used as many times as the move hits. However, moves that are dash cancelable are typically given the launcher property, making them often suboptimal to use a second time except towards the end of a combo.

Wall Bounces

Like many other fighting games, DoF features wall bounces. Specific moves will wall bounce on hit. After the first wall bounce, regardless if it's a different move, subsequent wall bounces will bounce back opponents significantly less distance. Wall bounce is refreshed by Blast Burst.

Ground Bounce

Ground bounces are functionally identical to wall bounces except they bounce opponents off the ground. Notably, an opponent needs to be in airborne hitstun to be ground bounced, and hitting them with a move that ground bounces while they're in grounded hitstun will not count as the ground bounce being used. Technically the same applies to wall bounces but the vast majority of wall bouncing moves launch the opponent, causing the wall bounce to occur even if they were grounded. Ground bounce is refreshed by Blast Burst.

Attack Properties

Launcher

Launcher in DoF terminology means something quite definitive unlike most games where it's simply used to refer to jump cancelable moves. A launcher in DoF is a move that is specifically flagged so that when used more than once in a combo, the height it launches and the amount of hitstun it deals is reduced each time it hits. On three or more uses it starts to count as more than one move in a combo, meaning you'll get less than the usual 8 moves of total hitstun. As result, such moves must be used in moderation even if they're important to a character's combo structure.

Disjoint

By default, hitboxes in DoF also count as hurtboxes and thus can be whiff punished or traded with. However, some moves have the disjoint flag, meaning their hitboxes will always beat non-disjointed ones. Outside of these interactions, attacks winning are decided by which attack does more damage, and if they do the same, a clash is initiated.

Projectile

Projectile moves are disjointed hitboxes that move across the screen. Currently they function similar to projectiles in Mortal Kombat where they don't interact with each other, even super projectiles. Most projectiles are used for zoning but some moves with the flag are more for offense or pressure. Projectile invuln moves will ignore all projectiles.

Invincibility

There are multiple kinds of invincibility in DoF. The first and most basic is Full Invuln. It functions exactly as it sounds, providing full invincibility against any and all attacks. All reversals and most supers have full invincibility.
The second most common kind is Anti-Air Invuln. This gives full invincibility to any aerial attacks or attacks that put a character in an aerial state, such as Shoto's 4S and Johnson's 4S. These are primarily put on jump cancelable launchers that double as anti-airs, and makes anti-air normals much more effective than they otherwise would be.They're also important for interrupting specific pressure tools on some characters.
The final type of invincibility and the rarest is Projectile Invuln. Only a few moves like Baron's 4S and Johnson's 4S have this flag, and they are completely immune to all projectiles. This means they're usually effective as anti-zoning tools.

Armor

Armor is similar to invincibility but varies a bit. Armor is placed on a variety of attacks like Rattlebone's 4S and Baron's 2S. Armor absorbs one hit from the opponent and places them in an extra-long hitstop, typically during or right before a move's active frames. Armor is very powerful in DoF thanks to this long hitstop allowing the armored move to typically punish the opponent for whatever they were trying to do, but there's several ways to break armor. The first is to land a second hit before the attack portion comes out, although this is quite difficult to do unless a multi-hit was used. The second is to hit an armored move with a low. Lows will instantly break armor and net a full punish. Supers and burst will also immediately break armor, meaning one can theoretically super or blast burst an armored move on reaction. Armor can also be broken by hitting it with an unblockable attack, including throws, although this is typically more difficult. The final way to beat, rather than break, armor is to use another armored move against it. This will typically result in the player who used an armor move second winning. In spite of all these potential ways to break it though, armor is quite useful and powerful for reversing situations, and many armored moves are very rewarding to land. Notably, Baron's Tough Armor from 2SP works very differently, which is described more in detail on the move's description.

Hard Knockdown

Designated moves that rather than doing the usual soft knockdown, inflict a hard knockdown (HKD) where the opponent can only neutral getup. These are not distributed evenly across the cast, and some characters have to work hard to access an HKD such as ERROR. There are additional rules on hard knockdowns too. You can hit with a move that inflicts an HKD then continue to combo after it if the hitstun scaling is low enough, then use it again later in the combo to get the HKD. More notably, if you end a combo with an HKD, there's an internal HKD timer that starts counting down. If you start another combo before its over, even if you end in an HKD move, it will not provide one, so it's better to prioritize damage over oki.

Throws

Throws in DoF at a glance work similar to older fighting games but differ in key ways. Throw is done by hitting 6H when close to the opponent, although close to the opponent is relative here as you simply need to be in the character's throw range for 6H to become throw. This might sound like splitting hairs, but some throws, particularly Annie's, reach so far that you can throw them from quite a distance. In addition, throws have startup which actually varies between characters, although most are around 10 frames. Throws generally give a full combo with 90% scaling, making them quite good starters, although some characters can't get a combo off them outside of specific situations. In addition, throws can be canceled into from normals, meaning any normal on block can become a tick throw as long as it's not a heavy normal. There's no throw protection either, so you have to keep your eyes open. Throws can be comboed into too as long as the opponent is in grounded hitstun, which is even optimal for a few chars. Naturally though, since throws have quite a bit of startup on them, there's a few ways to deal with them. You can throw tech by hitting the H button with 20F of being thrown. This sounds quite big but there's no slowdown and since you can be thrown off just about anything into a full combo, it balances out. The other main option to escape is to jump. The recovery on throws is quite high so this usually gives a punish. Even with these flaws though, throws are quite the potent offensive tool.

Guard Breaks

Guard breaks in DoF refers to opening up an opponent with a mixup they blocked incorrectly, rather than the act of actually breaking the opponent's guard via a guard meter or other means. You can tell when something guard broke upon seeing and hearing glass shard sfx after hitting an oppponent. Guard breaks can only happen specifically when the opponent tries to block and gets hit. This means throws can't count as guard breaks. Typically you'll see them in high/low mixups. While it is possible to cause a guard break with a crossup, this is quite difficult to do versus back to block at least, as they need to already be in blockstun then get hit by a crossup. Guard breaks don't seem to do much at a glance, but they do 2 important things. First, they increase the hitstun of whatever hit to the maximum possible hitstun, allowing for combos when otherwise not possible. For example, Blackheart can't normally combo off his overhead 5S on raw hit, but on guard break, it can link into normals. Second, guard breaks increase the amount of meter gained by a move by 75% or so. This is massive and means you can build a huge amount of meter especially if it was a highly damaging move that guard broke.

Chip Damage

Chip damage isn't a major factor in DoF but you still need to watch for it. All specials and some command normals do chip damage. Normally chip is 1/5 (20%) of the attack's normal damage, but certain attacks, especially multi-hit supers, do 1/8 (12.5%). Chip damage can't cause a KO, but you can't just block it forever.

Super Gauge

The main meter of DoF doesn't have a particular name at the moment. The super meter has 4 pips of 25 meter each filling to a total of 100 meter. Meter builds quite fast, with most characters being able to build around 25 meter from a bnb. There's a couple ways to spend meter, but this page will concern itself with its offensive uses.

Gaining Meter Offensively

The quickest way to gain meter is to land attacks, particularly through doing long combos. The more damage you do, the more meter you build, providing an advantage to characters like Baron who do incredibly high damage. Usually you can build around 25 meter per combo, but when you add in combo extension supers or blast burst, some characters can build well over 50, allowing them to start from 0 meter and use a super by the end. Keeping track of how much meter your character can gain in a combo is almost as important as the damage itself.

Spending Meter Offensively

While there's two ways to spend meter, the only way to use it offensively is on supers. Every character has two supers, a 5SP and a 2SP, both of which cost 50 meter although a few supers can be boosted to cost 100 meter. 5SPs, with a couple exceptions, are damage supers mainly for ending combos, although some have unique rinkles. 2SPs are all utility supers, although what this entails varies wildly on the character. Using 5SPs to end combos and make sure they kill is very common. However, 2SPs often tend to be more useful overall and some are near game breaking. 2SPs like ERROR's, Annie's, and Baron's force the oppponent to completely change how they play and often make them hold hard to interact with offense. Most notably, Shiverskull's 2SP, More Swords!! is one of the best moves in the game and practically guarantees a neutral win once he gets it out. These still require proper management though, as using a 2SP may cost you later if you don't have the meter to end a combo with a 5SP and fail to kill, and even with their strengths, 2SPs aren't as guaranteed to reward the player as a 5SP at the end of a combo.

Blast Burst

Blast Burst is DoF's version of an offensive burst. Blast burst is done simply by canceling any attack, whether it's a normal, special, super, or even taunt (the exception here being reversals) into burst. The result is a blast burst. Blast bursts use slightly less burst than a break burst, and launches the opposing player straight up in a launch state. From here on, a few things happen. First, the launch from a blast burst is an HKD, but this is rarely used with a few exceptions like ERROR who can use it to set up checkmates. Second, the opponent is locked out of bursting for the rest of the combo.The most important thing though is that damage and hitstun scaling as well as all one time use effects like launchers and wall bounces are reset, allowing for extended combos that often result in very high damage and meter gain. Blast burst is an important tool to use well, as it allows one to negate burst and get a full combo. Almost as importantly though, it can be used on reaction to beat armor or guard cancel reversals and punish the opponent with a full, unburstable combo. Deciding when or even if you should blast burst is very important, so choose wisely as its benefits are just as good as break burst.