Under Night In-Birth/UNI2/Defense

Guard

Guarding, commonly known as Blocking, is the fundamental form of defense in fighting games.

Most special moves also inflict a small percentage of their damage through guard. This is known as chip damage. When a player guards, they are put into a state known as blockstun during which their ability to act is mostly taken away.

Unblockable Attack

Some attacks cannot be guarded against. These generally fall into two categories: throws and unblockables.

• Throws are proximity based attacks which cannot be guarded against.
• Unblockables are special strikes which hit opponents even if they guard. Unblockables, such as Yuzuriha's Battoujutsu San no Kata: Tachi, must be avoided in some way other than guarding.

Grounded Guard

Hold or when on the ground

There are 2 types of ground guard: standing guard and crouching guard. Standing guard will block high and mid attacks, crouching guard will block mid and low attacks.

If you guard incorrectly you will get hit. Remember, you cannot block against throws. Additionally, some attacks are unblockable.

Airborne Guard

While there is no high-low blocking in the air, many attacks are air unblockable (even with Shield!). As a rule of thumb, projectiles are air blockable, and most strikes are air unblockable.

In the frame data, an attack that is NOT air unblockable will have their Guard values listed as All. Note that this is not the same as Mid, as these attacks are air unblockable.

Rising Attacks

Jump attack that are performed from the rising part of a normal jump will be crouch blockable (becomes a Mid), instead of being a High.

Shield

+ (hold OK)

Shield is Under Night In-Birth's special type of blocking. The shield looks like a lilac disc placed in front of the character, when the shield blocks an attack, shielding can have useful effects depending on how it was inputted.

Both shield types increase push-back and have different properties. However, shielding is risky: if you get damaged or thrown while attempting to shield, you will be GRD broken.

• Shield can be held up to 420F. Shield will be active until is released + 10F. Shield also has a minimum duration which is listed individually below.

Shield has these benefits

• Gains 1 GRD Blocks if succeeded Shielding (0.5 if in Vorpal);
• Decreases opponent's GRD Blocks;
• Increases pushback;
• Negates any chip damage from the blocked attacks;
• Forces the shielded Attacker into uncancellable recovery and suffers from 10 frames of recovery after landing, if they performed an air attack. Certain Ground attacks that goes airborne will also count.

Blue Shield

+ while out of blockstun

Blue shields can be performed whilst grounded or airborne, but not while in hitstun or blocksun. When performed, it looks like a blue bubble that is about the height of half a character. It is important to note that you cannot switch the guard of a Blue Shield until a move hits, so rather than being a risk-free pushback option like in a lot of fighting games, you need to commit to Shielding.

Once an attack has connected, the Blue Shield will be consumed and you can freely cancel the shielding action without extra recovery.

Blue shield duration

• Standing: 24F minimum
• Crouching: 27F minimum
• Air Shielding: 27F minimum
  • 2F recovery after landing if Shield is gone in the air, or 6F if the Shield is active during landing

Blue Shield has these benefits

• Decreases the blockstun (and therefore the frame advantage) of shielded attacks by 3 frames;

Blue Shield has these downsides

• Locks out guard switching for the entire duration until a move connects with the Blue Shield.

Green Shield

+ while in blockstun

Green shield is when you shield a move while already in blockstun. When performed, it looks like green bubble that encompasses your entire character. Unlike Blue Shields, it does not lock you out for switching guard for its duration. It deals more pushback than the Blue Shield, which made it useful when you want to gain more space and GRDs.

Green Shield does come in with more rules compared to Blue Shields: you will stay in a Shielded state for an extra 15 frames after blocking an attack (15f + the usual blockstun). If there is a follow-up attack in that time, the follow-up attack will be automatically blocked by a Blue Shield, but will not receive the GRD bonus. If there are no follow-up attacks from the opponent after a raw Green Shield is performed, you lose some GRD instead while opponent gains 1 GRD block (opponent gets a read on you).

Green Shield has these benefits

• Increases pushback, more than Blue Shields;

Green Shield has these downsides

• Costs you 10 EXS meter (or whatever is left in your gauge if you have less than 10);
• Stays in Green Shield state for an extra 15 frames after blocking an attack. If there is a follow-up attack in that time, the follow-up attack will be automatically blocked by a blue shield.
• If there are no follow-up attacks from the opponent after a raw Green Shield, you lose 1 GRD block + whatever incomplete GRD blocks you have, while opponent gains 1 GRD block.
  • A Green Shield followed by a Blue Shield will not apply this penalty.

Air Shield

+ while in the air

Most aerial strikes cannot be normally blocked, but can be blocked by using Shields. The properties of Blue and Green Shields will function as normal.

Creeping Edge

+

Creeping Edge will Shield incoming Strikes or Projectiles while moving the character forward, increasing the user's GRD. However, characters are still vulnerable to throws, and the Shield duration does not go through the full animation. In fact, getting thrown during CE will GRD Break the user, so there is significant risk to the move.

• Total: ??F
  • 1-??F Strike/Projectile Shield
  • ??-??F can crossup

Throw Reject

To break a throw, press + withing the tech window. The throw break timing windows depend on the context:

• Normal Throw under normal circumstances have a 12 frame throw break window.
• Gold Throw happens when throwing an opponent when they are in blockstun (or hitstun in case of normal throws) (plus ?? frames immediately after either). This is shown by the yellow-gold rings around the defender. Gold throws have a 25 frame throw break window.
  • Command throws that are usually untechable will allow you to tech if you are thrown under the circumstances that will trigger a Gold throw.
  • Some command throws are always treated as Gold throws. The tech window for these throws varies between moves, but is shorter than a normal Gold throw.

A successful Throw Reject will leave the defender +8.

Throw Counter

Throws can not be broken when a character is mid-attack, even during its recovery. The HUD will either show "Counter" if you are thrown in counterhit state, or "Punish" if you are thrown in recovery.

Throw Reject Miss

If you input a Throw Reject too early before getting thrown, then then throw reject will be locked out for 24 frames, even if it was a Gold throw! The game will flash red on your character when this happens, notify you have missed a throw reject.

Whether the throw whiff animation appears or not, you will be able to reject in 1-10F, and enters Throw Reject Miss state in 11-34F, starting from the frame where the throw is inputted.

• Inputting + again while still in throw reject state will just reset the miss state back to ??F.

In addition, pressing and at the same time in any situations (e.g. + + for a backdash-throw option select) will also place the character into the Throw Reject Miss state.

Throw Reject Miss exists to stop players from rapidly mashing throw inputs to preemptively break throws, as well as to prevent some powerful throw reject Option Selects. Tricking the opponent into attempting a Throw Reject early, then actually throwing them is a common offensive technique in high-level play.

Guard Thrust

+ + with 100 EXS

Guard Thrust are one of the few options available to a defender during blockstun. They are invincible attacks that do zero damage, but blow the opponent away, and are useful for escaping an enemy's offensive pressure.

Every character's Guard Thrust is unique, but they have the following properties:

• Invincible startup;
• Immediately depletes all of your GRD;
• Does zero damage;
• Opponent becomes uncomboable upon hit.

Punish

Sometimes you'll see the word "Punish" on the HUD. This means that you punished the opponent's attack.

Attacks are punishable on block if the defender has enough time to hit the attacker after blocking the attack. Each character's frame data lists the amount of time to punish an attack on block; this is known as frame advantage/disadvantage. An attack that is -11 on block means that the defender can use an attack that has startup 11 frames or faster to punish the opponent. Of course just because an attack is fast enough does not mean it can reach the opponent, so knowledge and practice are still necessary, even when a player knows the numbers!

The HUD message is helpful for learning mid-game - did you actually punish the opponent's attack or were they just not blocking? Now you can know for sure.

Reversal

A reversal is the term used to refer to any special move that has invulnerability frames on startup, allowing them to serve as strong anti-airs and "get off me" tools to escape pressure. They are also commonly referred to as DP's or "Dragon Punch" and the two terms can be used interchangeably. Most characters have this input on 623X.

While DPs are very useful tools, they are considered high-risk if not done on reaction. A blocked DP has enough recovery for opponents to land a full combo.

Reversal Timing

Players often want to input an action immediately after guarding or after getting knocked down. UNI has an input leniency window, also known as a input buffer, that makes these types of inputs easier. If you enter your input ?? frames before you return to neutral, then the attack will come out as soon as possible. If you successfully performed the reversal, it will be shown on the HUD.