Melty Blood/MBTL/Offense

Combo Properties

Beat Edge

Beat Edge is the game's name for the cancel system found in MBTL. It's the reason you are able to cancel from A to B to C on hit or block without waiting for the previous move to fully recover. Some players may refer to these as "Gatlings." The Beat Edge system can go in any direction, which enables what's known as a Reverse Beat.

Reverse Beat

Reverse Beats are one of the main features of Melty Blood. The game's normal to normal cancel routes allow for buttons to be pressed in any order as long as they have not been used before in a string. This means strings that are not possible in other games such as A > C > B and C > B > A are possible. The most common usage of Reverse Beat is to space your character so that Reverse Beating from a C normal to an A normal will whiff, giving much better frame advantage than letting the C normal recover on its own.

Rapid Beat

Rapid Beat is a new addition to Type Lumina. Pressing any button twice (and 2X~2X for most crouching normals) will begin your character's Rapid Beat string. Pressing any button a third time will result in a Launcher, easily starting an air combo. Rapid Beat 1 normals will vary between characters, but Rapid Beat 2 normals are almost always the respective character's 3C. A normals can be chained into themselves three times before transitioning into a Rapid Beat, and standing A normals require holding back to stop the transition. Rapid Beat normals come with the disadvantage of not being able to Reverse Beat, and will commonly come out if you attempt to Reverse Beat into a normal you've already used in a string. Make sure to pay attention to what normals you've used and this won't become an issue.

Players can select their Rapid Beat input method on the character select screen while selecting their character color, with 4 different options:

1. On, working as described above.
2. On, but with Rapid Beat 1 performed by pressing A+B on the ground and any A/B/C press performing Rapid Beat 2 afterwards, and off in the air. Allows 5C~4C moves to be input as 5C~5C.
3. Off, preventing the usage of Rapid Beat 1 entirely. Also allows 5C~4C moves to be input as 5C~5C.
4. Off, but only in the air.

Fatal Counter

Fatal Counters are stronger counterhits, granting additional frame advantage and increasing the damage of the resulting combo. There are two ways to get a Fatal Counter.

The first is to counterhit someone who is airborne, which will always result in a Fatal Counter (Unless done with 3C or similarly launching moves). Air Fatal Counters are completely untechable until the character hits the floor, allowing for easy combo pickups.

The second way to get a Fatal Counter is to hit someone during shield's active frames with something that beats shield. There are Nuances to this,

• Throwing/command throwing a shield will always result in a Fatal Counter.
• Hitting a low shield with an overhead or a charged mid such as Ciel's 5[C] or Akiha's 5[B] will result in a Fatal Counter.

• Hitting a low shield with a charged unblockable such as Arcueid's 5[C] or Shiki's 5[C] will result in a Fatal Counter, but will not result in any more damage than a normal hit, though Kouma's comboable automatic followup on 5[C] can capitalize on it.

• Hitting a high shield with any low hit results in a fatal counter.

Launcher Limit/Jump Cancel Limit

You can only use one Launcher per combo, and trying to use more than one will result in standard hitstun with no cutscene, autojump, or additional untech time. This applies even if you attempt to use different launches, for example starting a combo with Arcueid's 3C or Shield Counter and ending with 4BC won't result in a second launch, in these situations you should use an EX or Jump Cancel into an airthrow to secure your knockdown.

In MBTL, grounded Jump Cancels are a resource. Everyone gets one grounded Jump Cancel, regardless of whether it was used on a normal, a jump cancelable special, or a grounded Moon Skill. If you try to Jump Cancel another normal or special after the first, it won't work. In these situations you should use an EX or Launcher into an airthrow to secure your knockdown. These restrictions to Jump Cancels to not apply to moves in the air, such as Moon Skills that leave you airborne or jump cancellable air normals.

Combo Scaling

MBTL uses a per-hit per-move Proration scaling system for both Damage and Untech (a state of being unable to tech; effectively Hitstun). This means that every hit of every move will cause a combo to scale if they land, with very few exceptions to this rule. Thus, every move and its hits have not only a Base Damage, but a Damage Proration value and an Untech Proration value. There are a wide variety of rules, quirks, and exceptions to this system that you might see throughout the cast. This section should hopefully give some insight as to how combos actually function behind the scenes.

What is Proration?

Merriam-Webster will tell you proration is "to divide, distribute, or assess proportionally." In the context of MBTL, proration scales your combo according to how already scaled the combo was and what move you're landing. Landing a move causes a certain amount of scaling (from 100%). Landing a second move will cause a certain amount of scaling of the already scaled proration from the first move. A third move will prorate the cumulative scaling of the first two moves, and so on and so forth (ignoring any rules or mechanics that affect proration). Every proration calculation is also floored or rounded down, meaning that anything between X.99999% and X.00000% will end up as X% flat (this is also the case for damage). Both proration values have a minimum of 1%, and Untech Proration is capped at 100% (in some cases, Damage Proration can slightly exceed 100%).

An example:

• Move A has 200 Base Damage with 50% Damage proration.
• Move B has 100 Base Damage with 80% Damage proration.
• Landing Move A into Move B will finalize at 250 Total Damage and 40% proration.
• Landing Move B into Move A will finalize at 260 Total Damage and the same 40% proration.

Landing either move by itself will behave as you'd expect; it does 100% of the base damage and prorates some amount of 100% (which is just the proration value itself). In the first string, Move A does the normal 200 damage and prorates. Move B only has 50% Damage Proration to work with, so it only adds 50% of its full Base Damage. The reason the second string did more damage is because Move B preserved more Damage Proration, while still dealing enough Base Damage to keep up. Because Move A had 80% to work with, it added 160 on top of the 100 from Move B and totaled higher.

This is obviously a crude example and will not exemplify every string you could put together, but it puts the main idea of the proration system into perspective. In practice, there are many things that affect damage and proration beyond landing a specific string of moves.

Universal Proration Modifiers

These modifiers are "universal" because they are dependent on universal game mechanics or apply to specific types of moves available on a variety of characters. The list goes as such:

(Increases and decreases are multiplicative, not additive)

• Moon Drive Activation: Increases Damage Proration by 10%, capping at 75%, and Untech Proration by 50%. Effective immediately on use.
• Wallbounce: Increases Damage Proration by 10%, but decreases Untech Proration by 10%. Effective on wall contact.
• Counter: Increases Untech Proration to some arbitrary value. The exact amount depends on the move but most non-A normals will keep untech at 100% and most special moves will have untech at 90%. Only applies for the first hit.
• Fatal Counter: Increases Untech Proration by same arbitrary value, but also increases Damage Proration by 10%. Similarly applies for the first hit.
  • Landing a FC on a move with very high Damage Proration can cause the cumulative proration to end up higher than 100% (most j.As, for example).
• Second Move Proration and Projectile Starter Penalty: Explained in next heading.
• Invulnerable Starter Penalty: Hard sets Damage Proration to 40% before the next action. This includes Second Move and MD but not Fatal Counter. Also affects EX minimum damage.
• Airdash Starter Penalty: Decreases Untech Proration by 40%. Applies to any air normal performed directly after an airdash on hit.

Second Move and Projectile Starter

These two are grouped together because not only do they cause the same amount of scaling, but correlate together with how they affect combos.

Second Move Proration is, as you would expect, a mechanic that prorates the second move of a combo. From the moment you input a second move, the game will prorate your Damage by 85% (or decrease multiplicatively by 15%) regardless of the move before the move itself actually connected. Additional inputs on normals or specials are also considered separate moves, meaning that any Move > Additional Input will trigger Second Move Proration and other similar cases. This is also applied regardless if the second move actually lands on the opponent. Moon Drive Activation will not trigger Second Move, but the next move after MDa will. In very specific cases, this could actually lead to increasing the damage of a combo by whiffing a fast move to trigger Second Move, activating MD to regain some Damage proration, and continuing forward without the Second Move penalty. There are two cases where Second Move Proration does not occur as expected.

The first is, strangely enough, Kouma 5[C]. For unknown reason(s), Kouma 5[C] automatically triggers Second Move on successful hit between the two hits, despite only being one input. The second is if the combo started with a projectile.

Meet Projectile Starter Penalty. Unlike Second Move, where it waits for the second move of the combo to scale, Projectile Starter immediately applies the 85% to the combo on hit. Also, unlike Second Move allowing any number of hits before the second move is actually inputted, Projectile Starter applies directly on the first hit and does nothing for the rest of the projectile hits (if there are any). The reason it correlates with Second Move is that both cannot exist in the same combo. If Projectile Starter was implemented, the next move will not get prorated according to Second Move.

Where is Same Move Proration?

To be blunt, no one knows how SMP actually works in detail. It definitely decreases both Damage and Untech proration by a significant enough amount to discourage repeating moves, but the exact amount it decreases by seems to be widely different in each scenario. As a reminder, here are some quirks about SMP:

• Charged or BE variants of move count towards SMP (e.g 5C and 5[C]).
  • ...most of the time. There exists some projectiles where this will not trigger SMP like Ciel's 214A/214[A], but does not apply to all projectiles.
• Followups of rekkas are all separate instances of different moves. This means that a 236A~X and a 236B~X are separate and will not trigger SMP, even if they are technically the same.
  • On a similar note, charged variants of rekkas will only SMP the first hit of the rekka. For example, landing 236[B] into 236B~X~X will only SMP for the 236B input and neither of the two followups.
• Whiffed moves will still SMP if the same move lands later on.

Weird Outliers and Additional Notes

Below are some tidbits that didn't fit within the above subjects, but still exist.

• EX Minimum Damage: Every EX move (including Arc Drives and Last Arcs) has a hard coded Minimum Damage that causes them to deal a set percent of the original base damage even if the proration would calculate below that number. For example, Kouma's 214C does 2300 base damage, but has a minimum damage of 575; exactly 1/4 of the base damage.
• EX Penalty: There are actually two forms of EX Penalty that apply in different ways and affect different values
  • Meter: Other than not gaining any meter on EX moves, they also decrease your overall meter gain by a certain amount. See here.
  • Damage: If you're using multiple EX moves within a combo, the damage done by the second EX will be less than expected, even cutting into minimum damage. This does not apply, however, if the combo started with an EX move.
• Multi-hit Specials: Specials with multiple hits will typically have their first hit have ~10% less Untech Proration than the rest of the hits. This is on a case by case basis, but this is the majority of moves.
• Fatal Projectiles: When calculating the effects of Fatal Counter and Projectile Starter simultaneously, Fatal Counter takes precedence. This matters due to how the game always rounds down per calculation.
• Rapid Beat: Most multi-hit Rapid Beats will only apply proration for the first hit, while the rest don't scale at all.

Below is a list of recorded instances of any rule or mechanic being bent or broken.

• As aforementioned, Kouma 5[C] triggers Second Move within itself, ignoring if any second move was going to be pressed.
• Roa 4BC behaves very differently. If all 3 hits are landed, it only applies Projectile Starter on the third hit. If less hits are landed, it doesn't apply Projectile Starter at all and opts to instead do Second Move upon the next input. Fatal Counter still functions as expected on any hits.
• Roa 214C scales differently than you'd expect. For the first two hits (sometimes just the first, if too many initial needles are whiffed), it functions just as expected; applying Projectile Starter if applicable and then a normal 94% Damage. However, the rest of the move will have "variable damage and proration" for each individual needle hit that depends on what the current proration is at.

List of ranges for Roa 214C

Current Proration	Needle Proration
100%-70%	86%
69%-59%	88%
58%-55%	87%
54%-51%	88%
50%-43%	86%
42%-36%	84%
35%-26%	88%
25%-13%	84%
12%	80%
11-8%	74%
7%-6%	60%
5%-0%	50%

Damage has yet to be figured out, but theoretically follows a similar pattern. It's generally a little bit lower than the expected value.

• Starting a combo with any 3C will start at 70% Damage proration, despite 3C itself having 87% Damage proration.
• Vlov Rapid Beat is irregular. It prorates both hits individually, instead of just the first hit. It also acts as a Projectile, meaning it applies Projectile Starter. But, it does so on the second hit, similar to how Roa applies on the third hit of his 4BC.
• Vlov's Fire 236B specifically seems to possibly be the only move in that game that can bypass Same Move Proration. When done in the corner in quick succession, the move will not scale horrendously and actually leads to some of Vlov's highest damaging combos.

Attack Properties

This section covers properties that are the most relevant to the metagame, for a full list of move properties, check the glossary.

Launcher

Launcher attacks are very unique in terms of what they provide your character. You can easily tell if an attack is a launcher because the camera will zoom in on your character with an accompanying cut-in. Launchers are technically hitgrabs, as the cinematic puts the opponent in the same place every time. If you have not used a launcher in your combo before, you will get the cinematic as well as an automatic jump cancel. If you have used a Launcher in your combo, the move will not re-center your opponent or play the cinematic. Every character has at least three Launchers: 3C, Rapid Beat 2 (which is usually the same move as 3C), and Shield Counter A. Some characters like Shiki and Saber also have supers that Launch, but the same rules still apply.

Blowback Edge

Attacks with the Blowback Edge property can hold the attack button they're mapped to in order to change their properties. Most commonly, this means the move is slower but gains increased damage and hitstun. Some attacks also change how they have to be guarded, as Shiki's fully charged 5[C] becomes unblockable and has to be Shielded high. Using these early in a combo can open up the combo routes your character can do. Using these later in combos is a lot harder, as the longer startup means it's more likely the combo will drop.

Invincibility

Attacks with Invincibility (often shortened to Invul for Invulnerability) either have reduced hurtboxes in specific areas or no hurtboxes at all. Typically, if an attack is notated as a reversal, then that attack has invincibility from the first frame of the move. Moves that low crush typically have no hurtbox around the foot area of the character, allowing them to go over most low attacks. Moves that low profile have frames that do the opposite and have reduced hurtboxes around the head and chest.

Armor

Armored moves behave similarly to clashes but the armored character will still take damage and hitstun from any move that connects while they are armored. Examples of armor can be found in Kouma's command grabs or Miyako's charged rush punches. Note that if the damage you take while armored exceeds your remaining life total, you will still be KO'd.

Armor can be broken if hit by these types of moves:

• EX moves
• Throws
• Shield counters
• Shiki's unblockable moves like 5[C]

Chip Damage

Every Special Move in the game will deal a small amount of Chip Damage if blocked. This damage is unavoidable unless the attack is shielded, but then your character isn't blocking anymore. Chip Damage cannot KO a character under any circumstance. Normals typically do not deal Chip Damage, however there are exceptions.

Clash

Clash is a mechanic in which, rather than hitting or being blocked, a move instead gets cancelled out by another move. When a clash occurs, the screen freezes momentarily with a huge visual and sound effect, allowing players to recognize the situation. Upon being neutralized during a clash, moves can be cancelled similarly to when they're hit or blocked, with the notable exception that all normal attacks become jump cancellable. Knowing what to cancel into after a clash in order to come out on top can give savvy players a major advantage. Heat, Arc Drives, and Last Arc cannot clash.

Clash lasts for a total of 25 frames. However, 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.

There are slight differences between various types of clash situations:

Normal Clash Frames — Clashes during startup frames of a charged normal move.

- Clashes only with normals or specials, not Moon Skills or EX moves

- Invincible moves are exempt

In Type Lumina, most charged normals (e.g. 5[C], j.[C]) have what are called 'clash frames'; that is, frames of startup during which most attacker's moves will simply clash, letting you avoid being Counter Hit. Functionally, this serves a similar purpose to armour: protecting you during the startup of slow attacks. Notably, invulnerable moves (including Shield Counters), EX moves, and Moon Skills will never clash with normal clash frames; if your opponent tries to clash through them, they'll just get hit instead.

Normals with clash frames are very strong, but there are ways around them. If your move is neutralized by normal clash frames, you have the opportunity to cancel as if your move had hit the opponent (or jump, if you used a normal attack); however, the opponent is unable to cancel. If you're able to react quickly enough (or perhaps OS) to cancel into an invulnerable move, you'll typically always win. Many players choose to use Moon Drive, as it's easier to perform on reaction. Otherwise, you can usually jump, either to Shield or to dodge the attack. Visual explanation here and here.

Moon Skill (Special) Clash Frames — Clashes during startup frames of a Moon Skill during Moon Drive, or a charged special move.

- Clashes with normals, specials, and Moon Skills. EX moves are more complicated

- Invincible moves are not exempt

- Moon System specific mechanics

One of the several powerups granted to a player during Moon Drive is that, whenever they use a Moon Skill, the startup gains clash frames, allowing them to be used to bulldoze through opponent's moves. Note that this lasts for a maximum of 11 frames, so slower Moon Skills do have a period of vulnerability. Unlike normal clash frames, special clash frames are able to clash through Moon Skills, invincible moves (including Shield Counters), and EX moves. However, note that EX moves beat Moon Skill clash if the EX move was performed after the Moon Skill started, making EX reversals a reliable answer to opponent's Moon Skills.

When neutralized by special clash, the attacker's options are the same as on normal clash, i.e. any action performable on hit (and jump, for normals). There are two significant differences in the case of Moon Skill clash, however. Firstly, Moon Skills cannot be cancelled on shield and are fully punishable; this makes jump cancel shield a significantly more appealing option, although only when given enough time for jump startup. Secondly, given that the opponent is already in Moon Drive, they cannot counter if you use your own Moon Drive, giving you a reliable and easy punish, albeit at a cost.

When Moon Skill clash occurs, a significant portion of the remaining Moon Gauge is spent, and a moderate amount of blue health is restored. In the case where this consumes the last of the Moon Gauge (ending Moon Drive), then the clash armour will end, and any subsequent hits will result in a counter hit instead of a clash.

In addition to Moon Skills, there are a select few chargeable special moves which also have clash frames, notably Mash 236[B] and Saber 214[X]; these function similarly, being able to clash with EX moves and Moon Skills, but don't obey any of the Moon-Skill specific mechanics outlined above.

Hitbox Clash — Clashes when the hitboxes of both players' attacks collide. Both players can cancel.

- Normals and specials can only clash with other normals and specials, Moon Skills and EX moves can only clash with other Moon Skills and EX moves

- Projectiles and invincible moves are exempt

- Special moves can't be jump cancelled

Hitbox clashes occur when two opposing hitboxes overlap. Unlike how it works in most fighting games, this will even occur if your hitbox connects with the opponent's hurtbox - as long as it is touching another hitbox, the attack will clash. This type of clash can be cancelled as if your attack got blocked, although all normals can still always be jump cancelled. Very importantly, unlike clash frame-type clashes, both players have the opportunity to cancel after a hitbox clash, so there's rarely any one option that can guaranteed win.

Additionally:

• Moon Skills and EX moves can only Hitbox Clash with other Moon Skills and EX moves.
• Projectiles and invulnerable moves (including Shield Counters) are unable to Hitbox Clash

[1]

See also:

• MBTL Clash System Breakdown by AlexTheMaestro/Melancholy

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Cancel Rules

Cancelling obeys the following hierarchy:

• Anything that can be normal cancelled can also be special cancelled.
• Anything that can be special cancelled can also be EX cancelled.
• Anything that can be EX cancelled can also be Moon Drive/Arc Drive cancelled.

In practice, this leads to several 'tiers' of cancelability: standard normals can be cancelled into anything, most command normals can be cancelled into anything except normals, (non-EX) specials can be cancelled into anything except normals and specials, and EX moves can only be cancelled into Moon Drive or Arc Drive.

In addition:

• Grounded A normals and most standard special moves can be cancelled on whiff. For A normals, this only works at the beginning of a string.
• Moon Skills and EX moves cannot be cancelled on whiff, with the exception being jump cancel points.
• Moves with startup invincibility can only ever be cancelled on hit, not on block or whiff.
• Grounded normals cannot be jump cancelled on block. They can be jump cancelled on hit, but only once per combo.
• Air normals can be jump or airdash cancelled on block or hit, provided you have a double jump or airdash available and the air normal is jump cancellable.

Refer to the character wiki pages for the specifics of each move's cancel options.

Throw Interactions

Throw Invulnerability

Characters cannot be thrown during blockstun, nor for 8 frames after blockstun, wakeup, or grounded hitstun. Shielding forfeits throw protection.

Throw vs. Strike

If a Strike and a Throw (Command or not) are to connect on the same frame, the strike will always win, even if the throw reaches the opponent's hurtbox.

Air Throw vs. Strike

Air Throws follow the same rules listed above, but are more likely to be beaten out due to having no startup, being active frame 1. If a strike and an Air Throw are to connect on the same frame, the strike will always win, even if the throw reaches the opponent's hurtbox.

Throw vs. Throw and Air Throw vs. Air Throw

If two throws (Grounded or Airborne) connect on the same frame, whoever doesn't have Sprite Priority will tech.

Throw vs. Command Throw

Command Throws are throw invulnerable from frame 1 up through their active frames, thus if a Regular Throw and Command Throw are to connect on the same frame, the Command Throw will win.

Magic Circuit

Check the Magic Circuit page on the Resources tab.

Offensive Option Selects

If you don't know what an option select is, check the Glossary page for it before reading on.

An equivalent page for Defensive Option Selects can be found here.

See also:

• Demystifying Melty Blood's Option Selects by ScrawtVermillion

Whiff Cancel Option Selects

These are option selects that take advantage of the fact that 2A and 5A can be canceled into other actions even on whiff.

Anti-Heat OS

Input: 2A > 2A+D (or any A normal > D in general, either on its own or with any followup input)

Explanation: 2A > 2A will come out on block, and 2A > Shield will come out if the 2A whiffs (for example due to a Heat Activation). If the first 2A is a frame-perfect meaty and shield is canceled into as soon as possible, it's possible to even shield the fastest DPs. If you use a different follow-up input, for example by doing 2A > 2BD, 2B will come out on block instead. It can be possible to shield both fast and charged heat with a frame perfect 2A > delay 5AD, but the timing is extremely unreliable and it also loses to all faster reversals.

How to beat it: Mix between fast Heat and charged Heat. Vary the timing and situations where you use Heat to keep from being predictable. Backdashing can cause 2A and the follow-up shield to whiff. If the 2A is not perfectly timed, fast DPs can beat it.

Meaty 2A + MD "OS"

Input: 2A > 5B+C > React.

Explanation: While not actually an OS at all, this technique is used to close out games and is more effective when your opponent has already used up their MD. You meaty 2A, pause the game to check whether it was hit/block/whiff, and respond accordingly (e.g. shielding an attempted heat or 2Cing an attempted backdash).

How to beat it: Block the 2A. If you have MD and choose to backdash or wakeup DP, you can Moon Drive Counter during the freeze to cancel your recovery and create a +0 situation.

Hitstop Option Selects

Safe Jump + Anti-Heat OS

Input: 9C~4D

Explanation: Execute a safejump and press and hold D with a small delay. If j.C hits or is blocked, shield does not come out. Shield will come out if the j.C whiffs (I.E. Heat Activation, reversal DP), allowing for a punish.

How to beat it: Wakeup Backdash will make the safejump whiff and allow you to escape. Stand Shield the safejump for shield RPS

External Resources

Ultimate Guide to MBTL Offense | Basics, Offense Styles, Rebeats, Advancement by Phantom

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Situational Proration in Type Lumina by Winty D

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