Melty Blood/MBTL/FAQ

How different is Type Lumina from Actress Again Current Code?

• Visuals:
  • The screen resolution has been changed from 4:3 to 16:9.
  • Full redesign and redraw of every character with massive resolution improvements.
  • Added palette customization options, however there are only 29 default palettes as opposed to 36.
• Characters
  • Full, Half, and Crescent moon forms have been removed.
  • Numerous characters have been cut from the roster.
  • Every character's dash has been replaced with a standardized run-dash.
  • Saber, Vlov Arkhangel, and Noel are newcomers in the base game.
• System Mechanics
  • Rapid beat, aka "autocombos" have been added. Performed by doing the same input multiple times in a string where the move has no designated follow-up.
    • 3C is the launcher, it stabilizes the opponent's positioning.
  • Guard gauge has been removed. Replaced by the Moon Gauge.
    • The Moon gauge is used to preform Moon Specials, and Shield.
  • Magic Circuit goes up to 3 bars, 4 in Awakening.
  • Circuit Charge is available to everyone (2A+B).
  • Circuit Spark (burst) has been removed.
  • Forced Release has been added. Burst, but it is that's only available with 1+ meter, while blocking or in neutral but not while being hit.
  • Max Heat has been removed. Characters can sit at full meter. (Last Arc requires 4 bars or Blood Heat)
  • Initiative Heat has been removed.
  • "Reduce", has been removed.
  • Awakening: If you are 1 round away from losing the game your Magic Circuit's maximum will increase to 4 bars. If you lost the previous game, additionally gain 1 bar of meter.

Are the autocombos any good? Should I turn off Rapid Beat?

Rapid Beat is useful, and should be kept on. Rapid Beat moves are used in several characters' optimal combos for damage and meter gain. It also gives easier conversions off awkward hits while stabilizing combos that would drop without it. However, it does harshly decrease the damage of the following hits in a combo, so if you can, it's typically better to save the autocombo moves until the end.

Outside of combos, they are also useful in pressure due to often being large, forward advancing moves. Some characters even have vacuums, crossups, or other properties on their autocombos that enable important setups. Since turning off Rapid Beat removes these options, you should keep it on!

However, if you're often doing autocombos without intending to, you can set Rapid Beat to A+B on the character select screen. This lets you use Rapid Beat without every accidental double tap or misinput triggering it.

Which character should I start with?

The real answer is to "Play who you like!", you should ideally go into training mode as each character and test out the movesets until you see something that interests you, but if you're reading this you're probably looking for something more specific to get you started.

• Who's a good beginner character?

• Monte Cristo (A true jack of all trades.)
• Noel (Balanced pressure character.)
• Saber (Defensive footsies character with rekkas.)
• Shiki Tohno (Rushdown who excels in the midrange.)
• Vlov Arkhangel (Dominates neutral from anywhere on the screen.)

Some of the above characters may have difficult optimals, or have a lot to learn if you intend to master them. But on the whole, these characters have a low upfront execution requirement and are easy to understand/learn.

Neco-Arc is not recommended for beginners, but if she seems fun, then go for it!

• Tier List?

The game's meta is constantly evolving, with strong setups for each character being discovered all the time. Simply put, there is no reason to worry about tiers, the game's systems are balanced enough that every character in the game, including Neco-Arc, can win.

• Who should I play if I-

-Want a shoto, or at least, a "Melty Shoto"? A.K.A. "fundamental" character with various-occasion tools.

• Ciel, Mash Kyrielight, Michael Roa Valdamjong, Monte Cristo, Noel, Shiki Tohno.

-Want to aggressively mix people up?

• Akiha Tohno, Aoko Aozaki, Hisui, Hisui & Kohaku.

-Want to stick to my opponent like glue and stay there with ambiguous blockstrings?

• Arcueid Brunestud, Ciel, Michael Roa Valdamjong, Miyako Arima, Neco-Arc, Noel, Shiki Tohno, Ushiwakamaru, Saber.

-Want to suffocate my opponent with powerful screen control?

• Aoko Aozaki, Dead Apostle Noel, Mario Gallo Bestino, Michael Roa Valdamjong, Powered Ciel, Red Arcueid, Vlov Arkhangel.

-Want to put the fear of god into my opponent with colossal damage?

• Akiha Tohno, Arcueid Brunestud, Ciel, Kouma Kishima, Michael Roa Valdamjong, Monte Cristo, Powered Ciel, Saber.

-Want powerful Okizeme off of any hit?

• Akiha Tohno, Aoko Aozaki, Dead Apostle Noel, Hisui, Hisui & Kohaku, Kohaku, Kouma Kishima, Mario Gallo Bestino.

-Want to try something unorthodox?

• Hisui & Kohaku, Mario Gallo Bestino, Neco-Arc.

How does online ranking work?

MBTL's online ranked system has two components:

• "RP" is a point system that determines your global position on the "Ranking" board.
• A letter-based "rank" appears next to your username on the player card, from F4 to EX1.

In general the first system behaves as you expect: After an initial threshold where you always gain points you start gaining or losing points based on the outcome of ranked matches. You can use the Ranking mode to sort by highest RP score globally or per-character and see your position on the board relative to everyone else.

The second system is not as clear since it doesn't actually relate to your position on the ranking board. You can easily notice this by seeing the disparity of ranks across the top players on the RP ranking board. While it is unclear precisely how letter ranks work (The popular theory being 10-game win/loss streaks), there are 4 additional ranks to each letter rank which indicate how close you are to ranking up e.g. an S4 has only recently ranked up from A+1, and an S1 is about to rank up to an S+4, etc. This system only applies to ranked matches and player matches that are set to be a "Serious Match."

The PC version has netplay issues apparently?

On Day 1, most players had their game crash when trying to match with other players in a Ranked Match. The game also would softlock or freeze when leaving the Player Match screen. You could get around these issues by setting your Steam download server to somewhere in Japan. The following day, French Bread released a patch that fixed these issues.

Do not skip intros in online play. It can result in large desyncs and 1-sided rollback that the game struggles to fix for the next ~10 seconds. Yes, they did fix the intro-skip in the Aozaki Aoko/Dead Apostle Noel patch in January. Then proceeded to break it again when they released Mario and Powered Ciel in April. Apart from that, the game's netcode is fine.

How do I deal with...

MBTL has a variety of system mechanics that require non-intuitive answers.

Here's a list of initial counterplay to particular mechanics, though this section is not exhaustive and many of these options themselves have their own counterplay. You'll want to dig into the tutorial and other documentation for more information, but these should work well enough to start with.

Wakeup/Reversal Moon Drive Activation

See Moon Drive Activation for more details.

Moon Drive Activation is strike invulnerable, but has a 5 frame total duration with 2 recovery frames. This allows for certain counterplay:

• If your character is not in the middle of another action and your opponent activates Moon Drive, they are -2 and it is still your turn.
• If you safejump your opponent and they activate Moon Drive, they are -1 or -2, and it is your turn with all options available.
• If you time a 2A or 5A so that the second frame hits on wakeup, you can whiff cancel into another 2A or 5A to beat throws, non-invincible attacks, and jumps.

Other counterplay:

• You can counter with your own immediate Moon Drive activation, which can be done with most moves even if they are not typically Moon Drive Activation cancelable on whiff. This leaves you +0 with your opponent.
• If you're doing a move that is whiff cancelable into Moon Drive such as a special move, you can do a slightly delayed Moon Drive activation after your opponent's ends, which lets you see the action that they are taking and counter appropriately, though this loses to throw.
• Because Moon Drive activation is not throw invulnerable and gives up the typical wakeup throw invulnerability, you can meaty throw. This is risky for most characters, but this is a good option for characters that can do both a meaty throw and projectile at the same time and keep their turn, such as Kohaku, Akiha, and Mario. If a throw and a projectile hits at the same time, the throw takes precedence.

Shield

See Shield for more details.

Shield is an important defensive mechanic in MBTL due to its ease of use and potential to give a full combo to the defender on success.

As the attacker, spending Moon Icons and activating your own BC shield counter to escape is the most reliable way to avoid being punished, but there is counterplay to each aspect of the mechanic.

Low Shield

Low shield will activate successfully against all low and crouching attacks, and command normals/special attacks that can be guarded both high and low.

• Low shield will fail against 5B and 5C, causing chip damage, loss of Moon Icons, and causes the defender to remain blocking.
• Low shield is fatal countered by overheads and any 5[B] and 5[C] even if those moves could be normally blocked while crouching.
• Shield in general gives up throw invulnerability on wakeup and after blocking, so it can be meaty thrown.
• Shield can only be held as long as the defender has Moon Icons, which means that you can get a guaranteed punish against a whiffed shield if the defender is low on resources.
• Shield is riskier due to having more recovery if the defender has less Moon Icons.

Shield Counter A/C

After a successful shield activation, the defender can press A or C to perform a launcher shield counter. This counter is relatively slow and unsafe on block.

• If you safejump your opponent and they attempt to shield and A counter, you will recover and block before A/C counter can hit you. If you block the counter, they are -8 and you can punish with any attack that hits on frame 8 or faster.
• If your air attack is shielded, you can shield back per usual, which would reverse the situation if your opponent attempts an immediate A counter. There is only a small amount of landing recovery in this case even if they do not go for an A counter, so it is difficult to punish.

Shield Counter B

After a successful shield activation, the defender can press B to teleport behind you with a slow overhead attack.

• The speed of the B counter depends on distance - the further away you are, the more time you have to react.
• If you react with jump and air block this counter, you have enough advantage after landing to punish with a grounded starter.
• You can use an air invulnerable move like 3C and punish on reaction.
• If you have high Moon Icons, you can tap shield and be hit by this move for minor damage without being fatal countered.
• B counter is +0 on hit on standing opponents.

Shield Counter BC

After a successful shield activation, the defender can press B+C to spend 50% of their total Moon Icons and do a fast lunge that leads into a full combo.

• As the original attacker, if your defending opponent attempts to BC counter and you re-shield it, you get a guaranteed punish if you do your own BC counter afterwards.
• As the defender, if the attacker activates BC counter, you can situationally jump and do an air attack to attempt to force your opponent to air block.

Clash

See the Clash section for more details.

Clashes in MBTL happen frequently for various reasons, both when moves hit each others' hitboxes but also during preset situations where moves are granted clash frames even before they're active.

Moon Skill clash while in Moon Drive

When Moon Drive is active, all Moon Skills will clash if hit during their startup frames.

The most important detail is that if a Moon Skill is shielded, the attacker cannot shield back, meaning that the defender will typically get a guaranteed punish.

• On reaction to the clash, you can activate Moon Drive and shield for a guaranteed punish.
• The fastest Moon Skills in the game hit on frame 6 while in Moon Drive. If you clash with the first startup frame, such as when doing a meaty on wakeup, characters with 4 frames of jump startup can jump cancel on reaction and shield for a guaranteed punish.
  • Most characters have 4 frames of jump startup, though some have 5 and do not have this option on the fastest Moon Skills.
  • If the Moon Skill has slower startup, you can hit later in the startup frames and still have enough time to jump cancel and shield.
  • Some Moon Skills are low profile, which can cause jump shield to whiff.
  • Against Moon Skill command grabs, you can jump without shielding and punish (though many can be jump canceled during the recovery).
• If you safejump a Moon Skill, you'll recover in time to be able to shield after the clash and get a guaranteed punish.

In addition, Moon Skills also cannot be canceled into other moves or jump on clash.

• On reaction to the clash, you can cancel into an invincible move, though this is more difficult than jump shielding or activating Moon Drive.

3C clashing with air moves

3C is a universal anti-air with invulnerability against air normals, but it will often clash with them instead of winning outright.

• When a 3C attack clashes with an air attack, the aerial opponent remains stuck in the clash for 3 additional frames, giving advantage to the 3C user.
• Whenever you attempt to anti-air with 3C, you can hold up+back and jump cancel and attempt to punish the air move with an air throw depending on the spacing.
• If you are doing the air attack and it clashes with an opponent's 3C, you can also jump cancel.