Vampire Savior/Glossary

Advancing Guard — While in blockstun, Advancing Guard allows the defending character to negate blockstun while simultaneously pushing the attacking character away. In recent times this is mostly used by the Japanese community, and while it's the technical term, the English speaking community prefers either "Push Block" or "Tech Hit".

Abbreviation: AG

Synonyms: Push Block; Tech Hit

See Also: 1-hit Tech

Absolute Guard — A type of blocking mechanism where once you block a solid string of hits, releasing block will not make you stop blocking until there is a gap in between hits.

Synonyms: Absolute Block

Block Stop — When an attack is blocked, there is a brief pause designed into the game to give the contact a bit more oomph. The problem with this, and why Block Stop is so notable, is it briefly delays the defending players ability to switch from between high and low guard. There are several ways, which are very situational, to have someone block a high attack and hit them with an unblockable low attack while they're stuck in Block Stop.

See Also: Block Stun; Fuzzy Guard

Block Stun — The duration a defending player is unable to perform an action after blocking an attack.

See Also: Hit Stun; Block Stop

Bread and Butter — This denotes a staple combo for a character which is considered essential due to its effectiveness, ease of execution, and versatility. It is very common to see this term used in its abbreviated form.

Abbreviation: BNB

Chicken Blocking — Jumping with the focus on blocking rather than attacking. In Vampire Savior Chicken Blocking's primary purpose is to block an air to air attack and then immediately reply with your own air attack; this works due to the extremely small amount of block stun received when air blocking.

See Also: Guard Break

Chip Damage — The small amount of damage received when blocking Special Moves, EX Moves and certain normals. In Vampire Savior, all chip damage becomes recoverable damage, however it's still possible to lose a round after taking too much chip damage.

Synonyms: Kezuri Sugoi

See Also: Recoverable Health; Cheap

Command Super — EX Moves that require a sequence of buttons and directions to activate, such as Demitri's Midnight Pleasure: LP > MP > Forward > MK > MK.

Abbreviation: cmd super

See Also: Demon; DI; LI; Bite

Further Reading: Command Supers

Command Throw — A throw activated with a special move input. These are not throw techable. Every character has a command throw in Vampire Savior.

Abbreviation: cmd throw

Damage Scaling — As the amount of hits in a combo grow, each consecutive hit does less and less damage. Also, if one player has a great life lead over the other even single hit attacks will do less damage than they otherwise would.

Synonyms: Proration

Demon — Originally a shorthand for Akuma's Raging Demon, a Command Super, from the Street Fighter series. In Vampire Savior it is sometimes used in two different ways. First is as a synonym for Command Supers inputs, and may be called Demon Input in such a situation. The other is to refer to a few specific Command Supers including: Morrigan's Darkness Illusion and Lilith's Luminous Illusion which share the same input as Raging Demon, and Demitri's Midnight Pleasure which functions similarly.

See Also: Command Super; DI; LI; Bite

DI — Common written and spoken shorthand for Morrigan's "Darkness Illusion" EX Move.

See Also: Command Super; LI; EX Move

DP — Abbreviation for "Dragon Punch", Ryu's invincible anti-air uppercut attack from the Street Fighter series. This has become so pervasive it is written and spoken shorthand for almost any invincible anti-air attack. In Vampire Savior, it is commonly used for Demitri's Demon Cradle, Morrigan's Shadow Blade and Lilith's Shining Blade.

Synonyms: SRK, 623

ES Move — "Enhanced Special Move". The powered up version of a special move that costs one bar of meter. Referred to as EX Moves in the Street Fighter series.

Synonyms: ESPECIAL (Vampire Hunter variant)

EX Move — "Extra Special Move". Unique moves that are not associated with any special moves. Cost between one to three bars of meter. These may be somewhat analogous to Super Moves from other series, however EX Moves do not have a "super flash".

Synonyms: EXSPECIAL (Vampire Hunter variant)

• footsies: A term to refer to how two players will vie for territorial control by using moves to limit the space and options the enemy has.

• frame advantage: The amount of time you have after a move in which you can move but your opponent cannot (because they are stuck in blockstun or hitstun).

• frame disadvantage: The amount of time you have after a move in which you cannot move but your opponent can (because you are still recovering from the move but they leave hitstun/blockstun before you do).

• frame trap: A tactic in which you use a move that seems to be punishable but is actually advantageous on block, baiting the opponent into being punished when they attempt to retaliate. Example: Lilith's c.HK canceled on block into her LI cmd super.

Fuzzy Guard — This term seems to have a different use in every single fighting game, in Vampire Savior it refers to unblockable high to low attacks when abusing Block Stop.

See Also: Block Stop

Further Reading: Fuzzy Guard

GC — Extremely common abbreviation for "Guard Cancel".

Synonyms: Guard Reversal (Vampire Hunter variant), Block Reversal (JoJo's HD)

Guard Break — Forcing an airborne opponent into a position where they have no choice but to be hit by a grounded normal, which cannot be air blocked. This typically happens after they block an air to air chain, but there are other ways setup a guard break.

Hit Stun — This is the "stun" received when an attack successfully lands on a player, the duration of which no actions can be performed.

See Also: Frame Advantage; Frame Disadvantage

Hunter Chain — This is Vampire Hunter's term for the "Chain Combo" system that Vampire Savior uses. Originally created in Vampire Hunter, this combo system has found its way into many other Fighting games.

IAD — Abbreviation for "Instant Air Dash". A method of air dashing immediately upon leaving the ground.

• juggle: Keeping the enemy in the air with a series of successive hits. Most normal moves do not cause a juggle state but most special moves do.

Kara Cancel — When the startup of a Normal Attack is canceled into a Special or EX Move. Other games have some interesting tricks you can do when abusing this, but in Vampire Savior this is primarily a way to build extra Special Stock meter.

LI — Common written and spoken shorthand for Lilith's "Luminous Illusion" EX Move.

See Also: Command Super; DI; EX Move

• link: When two attacks are combo'd together without chaining or cancelling the previous move. This takes advantage of frame advantage. An example would be Bulleta's c.MP, +c.MP, since the move does not chain into itself, but it can link into itself due to heavy frame advantage.

Meaty — First used in Street Fighter II to describe hitting the opponent as they are recovering from a knockdown so that the last active frames of an attack hit them the moment they vulnerable to strikes, thus giving increased frame advantage. Commonly these days it is more simply to describe the defender recovering into any portion of an attack, with the intent to keep them in place or to beat out wake up attacks.

Negative Edge — The mechanic where releasing a button will activate a special move in addition to simply pressing a button. For example, holding down Light Punch, doing a typical fireball input and releasing Light Punch will result in the fireball coming out. This was originally designed into fighting games to make special moves easier to perform, however it typically comes with a few ways to exploit it in high level play.

Okizeme — A Japanese loan word, commonly shorted to just "oki". The literal translation is "waking attack", as in putting on pressure or a mix-up to an opponent recovering from a knockdown. Not only is this something incredibly important in Vampire Savior, it is also something that is very difficult to do properly, making this a word you'll hear often.

Option Select — Describes a situation where the game itself will select the best option for you. Option Selects can become fairly intricate and execution heavy depending on what the game will allow, however in Vampire Savior they mostly revolve around throws. The most basic example is Demitri's Close 5.HP can either be a throw or an anti-air if the opponent jumps, giving you the result.

Further Reading: Input Priority

Renda Bonus — A mechanic unique to Vampire Savior where if you cancel a light attack into itself, the following hit will have slightly enhanced frame advantage on hit and block. This is a core part of several characters optimal combos. Not all light attacks are cancelable into themselves.

Short Hop — Refers to canceling a "hop" type ground dash to land sooner, allowing for an extremely quick high attack that is easy to combo from. Short hopping around the screen can also be a strong movement option.

Stagger — The act of applying alternating attack timing to a series of hits. This is done to bait out and punish: Advancing Guard attempts, Throw Techs, mashing, and players trying to jump away. Think of it as a more loosely applied frame trap.

See Also: Frame Trap

Tech — A word with perhaps too many uses. Depending on the context of the situation it can be used to describe an Advancing Guard, Throw Tech, or a Knockdown Roll.

Tech-Hit — A bit of a confusing term, as it appears on the screen during both a successful Advancing Guard and Throw Tech. When used in the context of mentioning someone "performing a Tech-Hit" it refers to Advancing Guard.

Synonyms: Advancing Guard

Throw Tech — To counter a throw by doing your own throw input at the moment you are being thrown. The specific type of throw tech in Vampire Savior is known as "Throw Softening", where on successful tech you take less damage and do not suffer a knockdown.

TK — Abbreviation for "Tiger Knee". Used to describe doing a aerial Special Move the moment you leave the ground. Usually performed with an input such as 2369.P, which was how Sagat's Tiger Knee from the Street Fighter II series was originally executed.