Rivals of Aether/System

Editor's Note: It's probably a good idea to break these down into separate pages in some way. Maybe by Basic Actions, Movement, Offense, and Defense? Pending further reorganizing.

Basic Movement Actions

Walk

Performed by gently pressing left or right on the Left Stick while grounded or by pressing the appropriate movement buttons with/without the appropriate modifiers (see Controls for details). The character slowly walks left or right across the ground. This is a slow, rarely used form of basic grounded movement used mainly for small positional adjustments or as a movement mix-up.

Dash

Performed by quickly pressing left or right on the Left Stick while grounded or by pressing the appropriate movement buttons with/without the appropriate modifiers (see Controls for details). This is the most commonly used type of basic grounded movement; the character quickly runs left or right across the ground.

- AKA: Run

Crouch

Performed by pressing and holding down on the Control Stick while grounded (requires a gentle press on platforms to avoid performing a Platform Drop) [keyboard description goes here]. The character will crouch down to the ground, making their hitbox shorter in the process. This can be useful for avoiding some attacks and allows for Crouch Canceling.

Platform Drop

Performed by tapping down on the Control Stick while on a platform. The character will drop down through the platform and immediately become airborne and fully actionable, allowing them to more quickly and flexibly move around the stage.

Jump

Performed by pressing the Jump button or by tapping up on the Control Stick (if Tap Jump is enabled in the player's control scheme options) while grounded. The character will jump into the air, typically whilst maintaining a portion of their grounded momentum.

When pressing Jump are a few frames during which the character stays on the ground before they actually jump. This is known as jump squat and lasts for a universal length of 5 frames for every character.

There are two main types of grounded jumps:

Full Hop

The first type is known as a full hop and is performed by pressing the jump button and keeping the button held during jump squat. This results in the character doing a full jump to their maximum jump height.

Short Hop

The second type is known as a short hop and is performed by quickly tapping the jump button, making sure to release the button before the end of jump squat. This allows the character to perform a much shorter jump.

Double Jump

Performed by pressing the Jump button or by tapping up on the Control Stick (if Tap Jump is enabled in the player's control scheme options) while airborne. The character will perform a mid-air jump, allowing them to gain more height or adjust their position. Every character has at least one double jump that can be used per airtime. Double jumps are not replenished until the character lands on the ground or is KO'd and respawns.

Unlike grounded jumps which can be performed as either full hops or short hops, double jumps only have one fixed height. For characters with multiple double jumps, this height might differ between double jumps, typically by decaying in height with each successive jumps.

- Mollo and Wrastor are the only characters with more than one double jump - posessing 2 and 4, respectively.

- Elliana is the only character lacking a double jump. Pressing Jump while airborne will instead activate her Flight if she is in her mech.

- AKA: Midair Jump, Air Jump

Fast Fall

Performed by tapping the Left Stick down while falling. The character instantly begins to fall at a high speed. This is used to quickly return to the ground (for example: after jumping, running off a platform, etc.) and is a key part of quick movement in Rivals of Aether. Note that fast falling cannot be performed while in hitstun.

Basic Offense Actions

Jab

A jab or jab combo is the most basic attack a character can perform: a generally weak, short-range, and quick attack. Press the attack button without any direction on the ground to perform a jab, and repeat to finish the combo. While all characters can perform a jab, Clairen and Elliana are the only characters that do not have multiple jabs to perform.

Tilt

A tilt is a ground attack that depends on the direction used. Each character has 3 directional tilts: side/forward tilt ("f-tilt"), upwards ("u-tilt"), and downwards ("d-tilt"). These can be performed by pressing in the direction corresponding to the tilt (up, down, left/right) in combination with the attack button and can be done while walking.

Strong Attack

A strong attack (Smash attack) is a powerful, chargeable attack that depends on the direction used. Each character has 3 directional strong attacks: side/forward strong ("f-strong/smash"), upwards ("u-strong"), and downwards ("d-strong"). These can be performed by pressing in the direction corresponding to the strong (up, down, left/right)) in combination with the strong attack button and can be done while moving. Wrastor is unique in the fact that he does not have grounded strong attacks but instead can perform them mid-air.

Special Attack

Special moves are unique signature attacks that vary based on direction. They have different functions for each and every character, ranging from projectiles to movement. There are 4 special moves per character that depend on the direction used: neutral special (no direction, also called "neutral B" or "n-special"), side special (left/right), upwards, and downwards. Generally, up special is a recovery move for all characters.

Aerials

Aerials are a set of 5 midair attacks that vary based on direction. Each character has 5 directional aerial attacks: neutral ("n-air"), forward ("f-air"), backward ("b-air"), upward ("u-air), and downward ("d-air").

Taunt

Taunts are unique animations for each character (and even some alternate skins) that are performed with the Taunt button. The user will perform a brief flourish, typically doing no damage and having no hitboxes. Some characters or certain skins have taunts that do minor damage and/or minor knockback (such as Kragg), but these typically aren't practical to use as proper attacks. Notably, Shovel Knight accesses his Shop mechanic through Taunts.

Basic Defense Actions

Parry

Unlike most other platform fighters - and fighting games in general, Rivals of Aether does not have traditional platform fighter shields or blocking. In place of this, every character has access to a Parry performed by pressing the Dodge button while grounded. The character will stand in place and enter a defensive stance, gaining a thick dark outline.

When a hitbox connects with your character when their outline is darkened, the attack will be blocked as indicated by a flash and accompanying sound effect. A player who successfully parries will take no damage or knockback from the triggering hitbox (or any other hitboxes that make up the move, such as in the case of multihit attacks), they will gain a period of invincibility, and the player who was parried will be put into a vulnerable period of parry stun after their attack completes. This allows the parrying player to easily respond with a strong punish, such as a combo starter or a kill move.

The length of parry stun is determined by X, Y, and Z. For airborne attacks, the parry stun will begin will last until the attacker lands plus some time after landing determined by X, Y, and Z.

Projectiles can be parried as well. Most projectiles will be reflected to their sender, whether in a straight mirrored line from their initial trajectory or with slight homing. Some projectiles such as Etalus's Side Special or Sylvanos's Petal Wave will cause the user to be put into parry stun if they are parried, with the projectile being destroyed in the process. A projectile that is reflected from a parry can be parried again, where it will reflect once more. However, this will not grant the parry user any period of invulnerability.

Some attacks will not cause parry stun upon a successful parry. Such attacks are generally referred to as being "safe on parry." Universally, this includes every character's Jabs with the exception of the final hit of a Jab sequence. A handful of other moves such as Clairen's Grab also have this property. Using a Jab to safely poke against a parry is commonly referrred to as a "jab check." These attacks will still grant the parry user invincibility like any other attack. If a option which is safe on parry is canceled into an option that is itself not safe on parry, the attacker will be put into parry stun after the completion of that attack. For example, if a player uses a Jab, gets parried, then cancels that Jab into a Forward Tilt, they will enter parry stun after the Forward Tilt completes.

Many attacks that can be used from a distance will cause the victim to be put into Extended Parry Stun. For these attacks, the length of the parry stun scales based on the distance between the parry user and the parry victim when the attack is parried.

The type of parry behavior that an attack is subject to will be indicated in the "Show Stats For Nerds" section of each character's move descriptions.

Parries have universal frame data across the cast, becoming active after 3 frames, being active for 8 frames, and with ??? frames of recovery. In addition, there is a cooldown of ??? frames after parrying before a Parry can be performed again.

Roll

Performed by pressing the Dodge button while grounded and holding left or right on the Control Stick. The user will perform a quick horizontal dodge either left or right with a period of invulnerability, allowing them to evade attacks while repositioning.

Rolls are universally invulnerable during frames 4-17, with 12 frames of recovery. However, each character has their own roll speed, meaning the distance travelled during a roll can vary from character to character.

Airdodge

Perfomed by pressing the Dodge button while airborne. The user stops in the air and performs an invulnerable dodge. If a Control Stick input is held during startup, the user will move in that direction (known as a directional airdodge). Airdodges can be performed once per airtime until the user touches ground.

Airdodges are universally invulnerable beginning on frame 3, lasting for either 12 frames or until landing on the ground, and followed by 12 frames of endlag if ended in the air.

However, the speed of airdodges is not universal. Characters move at one of two speeds during their airdodges (measured in pixels per frame):

• 7.50: Clairen, Etalus, Forsburn, Hodan, Kragg, Mollo, Olympia, Orcane, Pomme, Shovel Knight, Wrastor, Zetterburn
• 8.00: Absa, Elliana, Maypul, Ori, Ranno, Sylvanos

If a directional airdodge causes the user to move into a floor, they will slide along that floor for a short time with the momentum of the airdodge. See Wavedashing and Wavelanding for more information about this application of airdodges.

Attack Properties

Hitboxes and Hurtboxes

Each attack is comprised of one or more hitboxes. These can vary in size and shape uniquely for each attack. Conversely, each character has a hurtbox. If an attack's hitbox collides with an opposing character's hurtbox, the opposing character will be hit by the attack. When not performing an attack a character's hurtbox will be in the shape of a rounded rectangle approximately matching the size of their idle sprites. Crouching and being in hitstun will change the shape of this hurtbox slightly, with the exact change depending on the character. When performing an attack, their hurtbox will closely match their sprites as they perform the attack.

Hitboxes and hurtboxes can be viewed in Training Mode with the Show Hitboxes option. Hurtboxes will marked in green and hurtboxes will be marked in red.

• Some attacks such as Etalus's Forward Air or Kragg's Side Special will give the user Super Armor. When a character has Super Armor, their hitboxes will turn blue.
• While in hitstun, a character's hurtbox will be marked in yellow.
• Clairen's Tipper hitboxes will be marked in cyan as an indication of their unique Tipper Stun mechanic.

If an attack's hitbox exists far away from the attacker's hurtboxes, the attack is said to be "disjointed." For example, Clairen's sword does not have a hurtbox, so her sword attacks are very disjointed.

Priority

If a player is hit by multiple hitboxes at the same time, they will be hit by the hitbox with a higher priority value, with any hitboxes of lower priority being ignored. This most often comes into play with attacks which consist of multiple hitboxes. For example, Wrastor's Forward and Up Strongs consist of multiple hitboxes: a large hitbox with a priority value of 1 covering most of the wings and a small sweetspot hitbox with a priority value of 5 which sits at the reticle near the tips of his wings. If a player is hit by both the large and the small hitbox, the small sweetspot has a higher priority value so will take effect instead of the large one.

"Sweetspots" vs "Tippers"

When discussing moves with multiple simultaneous hitboxes with different properties, the stronger hitboxes will typically be referred to as "Sweetspots" or "Tippers." While these terms are similar (and sometimes erroneously used interchangeably), there is a technical difference between the two in relation to the hitboxes' priority.

• Sweetspots refer to stronger hitboxes that have higher priority than their base hit. That is, a character that is hit by an attack's base hit and sweetspot at the same time will be hit by only the sweetspot.
  • Examples of attacks with sweetspots include Wrastor's Forward/Up Strong, Absa's Forward/Back/Down Air, and Kragg's Up Strong.
• Tippers refer to stronger hitboxes that have lower priority than their base hit. That is, a character that is hit by an attack's base hit and tipper at the same time will be hit by only the base hit.
  • Examples of attacks with tippers include most of Clairen's sword attacks, Sylvanos's Forward Air, and Shovel Knight's War Horn.
• In both cases, the weaker base hit is often called a "sourspot". For tippers, terms such as "non-tipper" or "base hit" tend to be used instead.

Damage

When a player is hit by most attacks, they will take damage. The amount of damage dealt is different between moves. Unlike more traditional fighting games, taking damage has different implications in Rivals of Aether. Rather than a health bar, character vitality is solely based on how much damage they've taken. The more damage you have taken, the harder moves will knock you away. This mechanic is known as knockback. Damage is shown as a percentage both in your character HUD at the bottom of the screen and as a marker directly above your character. This damage can't be healed.

• Things that may not be direct attacks, such as being burned by Zetterburn or attacking while being poisoned by Ranno, will also inflict damage.

Knockback

Most attacks, in addition to doing damage, will inflict some form of knockback.

The formula for calculating how much Knockback (KB) an attack inflicts is as follows:

• KB = BKB + Damage * KB_Scaling * 0.12 * KB_Adjustment

Where the terms are defined as follows:

• BKB: The attack's Base Knockback (BKB) value.
• Damage: The victim's damage % after the attack connects and deals its own damage, entered as an integer (as opposed to a decimal percentage). For example, if a player is at 76% damage after an attack connects, one would enter the value 76 (not 0.76) into this knockback formula.
• KB_Scaling: The attack's Knockback Scaling value.
• KB_Adjustment: The victim's Knockback Adjustment value.

Character Knockback Stats

Each character has a set of attributes that will influence how much knockback they receive from attacks and how that knockback changes over time. The key stats are as follows.

• Knockback Adjustment: This essentially acts as the character's "weight." That is, characters with lower Knockback Adjustment values are referred to as being of heavier weight and will suffer from reduced knockback. Conversely, characters with higher Knockback Adjustment values are referred to as being of lighter weight and will suffer from increased knockback.

• Air Friction:

• Hitstun Gravity:

Table(s) showing each character's key stats can be found in the dropdown below:

Knockback Angle

As the name implies, an attack/hitbox's Knockback Angle (often just shortened to "angle") is the angle of the victim's knockback when they are hit. All angles are listed in degrees ranging from 0 to 360 measured counterclockwise, where 0/360 refers to straight forward. For instance, an attack that sends straight up has a 90-degree angle, straight down will be 270 degrees, etc.

Sakurai Angle (361°)

Some hitboxes have a special angle value of 361 (commonly called the Sakurai angle), which results in them behaving differently against grounded and airborne opponents. A hitbox with the Sakurai Angle will send an opponent at a 40-degree angle if they are grounded and a 45-degree angle if they are airborne.

Angle Flippers

In addition to the degree measurement of a knockback angle, many hitboxes will have an Angle Flipper assigned to it which influences how the knockback is applied. There are 10 different angle flippers in total along with the default angle flipper value of 0 which indicates that the hitbox's knockback angle is applied as normal in all situations.

Angle Flipper Definitions

Angle Flipper	Description	Example
1	Sends away from center of the attacker	Clairen Down Special
2	Sends toward the center of the attacker	Ori+Sein Up Strong (except last hit)
3	Horizontal knockback sends away from the center of the hitbox	Elliana Down Special Explosion
4	Horizontal knockback sends toward the center of the hitbox	Wrastor Down Air (non-spike hit)
5	Horizontal knockback is reversed	Forsburn Back Air
6	Horizontal knockback sends away from the attacker	Absa Up Tilt
7	Horizontal knockback sends toward the attacker	Mollo Forward Special
8	Sends away from the center of the hitbox	Absa Down Special
9	Sends toward the center of the hitbox	Sylvanos Up Tilt (except last hit)
10	Sends in the direction the attacker is moving	Zetterburn Up Special (last hit)

Hitstun

The formula for calculating how many frames of Hitstun an attack inflicts is as follows:

• Hitstun = BKB * 4 * ((KB_Adjustment - 1) * 0.6 + 1) + Damage * 0.12 * KB_Scaling * 4 * 0.65 * KB_Adjustment * Hitstun_Modifier

Where the terms are defined as follows:

• BKB: The attack's Base Knockback (BKB) value.
• Damage: The victim's damage % after the attack connects and deals its own damage, entered as an integer (as opposed to a decimal percentage). For example, if a player is at 76% damage after an attack connects, one would enter the value 76 (not 0.76) into this knockback formula.
• KB_Scaling: The attack's Knockback Scaling value.
• KB_Adjustment: The victim's Knockback Adjustment value.
• Hitstun_Modifier: The attack's Hitstun Modifier value.

Each attack has its own Hitstun Modifier value, expressed as a multiplier. Most attacks have a modifier of 1x, but certain moves can have significant multipliers based on their intended function or to compensate for other attributes the move may have. For example, the cape portions of Forsburn's Strong Attacks have very high multipliers (1.5x for Forward Strong, 2x for Up Strong) to help ensure that the cape hit will link into the dagger hit at lower percents.

Kill Screen / "Galaxy Effect"

If the game calculates that an attack will result in a KO via blastzone contact on all DI possibilities, that attack will trigger a screen-wide effect, indicating that the KO was guaranteed.

This calculation does not account for some situations and entities, including the following:

• Whether or not the target could perform a ledge/wall tech for moves that send the target away from said wall. This commonly applies to targets who are moving along the lower wall of a stage up to the ledge when they are hit by an attack that would send them away from the wall, but the target's existing contact with the wall means they can immediately tech off of the wall.
• Partial Drift DI
• Certain player-made entities, such as Kragg's Rocks and Pillars and Ranno's Bubble.

Hitpause

The formula for calculating how many frames of Hitpause an attack has is as follows:

• Hitpause = Base_Hitpause + Damage * Hitpause_Scaling * 0.05

If a move triggers a Galaxy effect, this formula is overrided and the move is locked into a set 20 frames of hitpause.

Movement Techniques

Wavedash

Wavedashing is a fundamental technique in Rivals of Aether. Wavedashing is done by jumping and then immediately airdodging into the ground. This causes you to slide across the floor for a short period. This can be chained multiple times. Wavedashing allows for fast lateral movement while being useful with other options than dashing would typically restrict you from doing, such as doing an approaching attack besides dash attack. Wavedashing is required to gain experience in the game's movement, which the game makes easier with its buffer system

Waveland

Similar to wavedashing, wavelanding is the act of landing on ground, typically the edge of the stage or a platform, by airdodging into it. This is an extremely useful technique for gaining quick access to higher ground that a standalone jump would take much longer to land on. This opens up much more dynamic stage movement

Dashdance

By repeatedly and quickly dashing in opposing directions, you will do a dashdance. By dashing in the opposite direction during your initial dash animation, you will instantly enter an initial dash in the opposite direction. This is often done in neutral to make your next option less predictable

Cactuar Dashing

Cactuar Dashing is a technique originally discovered and named in Melee. It also exists in Rivals, and is much more powerful.

When trying to turn out of a dash long after your initial dash, you will enter a slower turnaround animation. Dashdancing, by itself, skips this turnaround animation, but it is limited to a small area on screen due to it only being possible by cancelling initial dashes. Cactuar dashes solves this problem. By crouching at any point during a dash beyond the initial startup, you will immediately enter a neutral stance. This allows you to dash in the other direction without worrying about the turnaround animation, successfully doing a Cactuar Dash. Cactuar Dashes are often performed by quickly rolling the stick down and towards the opposite direction, or a half-circle back motion. It opens up a much larger threat range, especially when playing a character with threatening burst range, such as Maypul or Ranno.

Moonwalk

Moonwalking is performed by dashing and then rolling the stick downwards and slightly back, this causes the character to dash forwards, but move backwards. This opens up more unpredictable options on the ground

Ledgeboost / Platboost

Normally when jumping out of a dash, The game immediately starts capping the character's horizontal speed at the max air speed. For every character in the game except Elliana, Ori and Shovel Knight, air speed is slower than ground speed, which can limit aerial options. While initial dashing, you can descend from a platform, or dash off the side of a platform or the stage, to keep your grounded speed in the air for a period of time. This is called Platboosting and Ledgeboosting, respectively. Characters gain a much more threatening presence in the air and gain more combo routes. This is especially for characters such as Clairen, Orcane and Sylvanos, who are quick on the ground but slow in the air

• Ranno is the only character in the game that cannot platboost or ledgeboost to nearly the same extent as other characters. This is hard coded into the game as a balancing decision. He has the second fastest dash in the game but has the slowest maximum air speed. This limitation can be somewhat bypassed by using neutral special immediately after dash-dropping or dashing off a ledge then cancelling it with dodge. This is part of a much more versatile Ranno-specifc mechanic called needleboosting

Offensive Mechanics

Hitfalling

In Rivals of Aether, you can input down when your attack connects with an opponent to fall faster. This is an essential part of combos as it allows you to hit the ground sooner, or cancel the extra hitboxes of multihit moves to take advantage of their higher hitstun. It is generally advised that if you hit an aerial you should hitfall it.

Whiff Lag

- AKA: Hit Cancelling

Tilt Cancels

When you land a jab attack, typically the first hit of jab, you can cancel into a tilt. Usually whichever jab(s) are before your final jab can be tilt canceled.

General Combo Theory

As is common with many other platform fighters, combo structure tends to be very loose and freeform. Most moves cannot cancel into one another, so most combos consist of linking attacks in succession after the previous one completes.

Defensive mechanics such as DI, Drift DI, and Shift DI give players a significant degree of agency while they're in hitstun to attempt to escape or put themselves in a safer situation. The vast majority of combos are not guaranteed, instead requiring the attacker to account for both players' positions, the victim's current damage percentage, their DI, and other factors. Extended combos in Rivals of Aether are formed by linking together multiple sequences of attacks together. That said, characters can move and attack quickly enough to adequately follow up on many attacks in many situations, allowing for creative combo routing and other forms of player expression in advantage.

Because of the very loose nature of the combo game, character pages will not have a dedicated combo page full of dozens of sequences consisting of several hits each like you might find for most other games on this Wiki. Each character's Strategy page will discuss a handful of reliable bread-and-butter sequences that can be applied to many common game states and are essential to that character's general combo routing. In addition, other details regarding certain general combo flowcharts and strategies for specific game states will be detailed when appropriate.

Defensive Mechanics

Directional Influence (DI)

Directional Influence, or DI, is the method of inputting a direction in order to make your character move when knocked back. You can DI up, left, right, or down. Usually you want to DI at an adjacent angle to the angle the move will send you at. At high percent, holding towards your opponent will keep you closer and let you survive longer; while at lower percent holding away lets you escape combos. The rule of thumb is in for survivability, out for escape.

Drift DI

Along with DI, there is also Drift DI; DI that lets you drift once out of hitstun. Think of it like your second DI: you can hold in to survive an attack as your DI then hold out to Drift DI out and escape a followup.

Crouch Cancel

Crouch cancel (or CC) is a technique in which if the player crouches when getting hit with an attack/projectile it negates majority of the knockback the player takes.

▶Difficulty ◆◇◇◇◇

▶Usefulness ◆◆◇◇◇

Advanced Techniques

The mechanics, techniques, and information in this section is generally considered to be more niche, more under-the-hood, and less important for a beginner/intermediate player to master or fully understand. They will be presented here for reference and documentation, but are not considered to be core essentials for competitive play.

Aerial Attack Momentum

[To be added: Whatever it is that causes you to go further upward when rising with certain aerials (for example - any of Zetters aerials other than NAir will let Zetter land on the Blazing plat, otherwise he cannot out of a fullhop)]