Pokkén Basics Chapter 1 Part 2 Synergy and Supports

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Welcome back to Pokkén Basics! Last time we went over the controls and two key mechanics, including phases and the attack triangle. Today we'll finish up with the core mechanics by explaining Synergy Burst and Supports. Charts are from Burnside's #PokkenCharts https://twitter.com/i/moments/827169536940007424.

Table of Contents. Use ctrl+F to navigate to the desired section.

1.6 Synergy Burst
1.7 Supports
1.8 Anti-Support Tactics

1.6 Synergy Burst

There is a meter next to your HP bar called your Synergy Gauge. You gain meter by doing different actions. Some examples are whiffing or connecting with attacks, initiating a phase shift, taking damage, or armoring through attacks. You also gain synergy by picking up Synergy orbs scattered on the ground. Each character needs a different amount of meter to fill their Synergy Gauge. 

Graphic by Burnside. https://twitter.com/BurnsideBH/status/917056297371136001.

Synergy by itself does not do anything, but when your gauge is full, pressing L+R puts you into Synergy Burst, or Burst Mode. When you enter Burst Mode, your character is fully invincible and creates a shockwave which knocks opponents backwards, pierces through armor, and resets your phase shift points to zero. On hit, the shockwave resets the opponent's phase shift points as well, and grants frame advantage (+8). Burst Mode gives you a 10% increase in attack and defense, and gives a slight speed buff. In addition, your character gains light armor. This means your character can absorb up to 9 light attacks before taking hitstun. I will go into detail about the different types of armor in the next chapter.

All characters, besides Chandelure, gain specific changes like extra or better hitboxes and frame data on their attacks. Characters like Gengar and Lucario become drastically different and very difficult to stop. Lastly, Burst Mode recovers some of your grey life. After a few seconds in Burst Mode without taking damage, you slowly gain even more HP back. I'll talk more about different types of armor and grey life in general in the next chapter. 

Pressing L + R while in Burst Mode does your Burst Attack or as I refer to it, your Super. These attacks are very powerful and most gain invincibility or armor very early in the animation such as frame 1 or 5. I'll dedicate a special chapter for helping you contain the different burst modes and show how to shut down every Burst Attack in the game, so look out for that. Each character stays in Burst Mode for a different period of time before the synergy bar depletes and they revert back to their normal form.

Graphic by Burnside. https://twitter.com/BurnsideBH/status/919595053072437.

1.7 Supports

The icon above your Synergy Gauge is your Support Gauge. When it's full, you can call your support. Different supports have different initial charge and recharge times. The charging times listed in-game are inconsistent, but this chart provides accurate values.

Another Burnside Graphic. https://twitter.com/BurnsideBH/status/922128513959911424.

There are three types of supports. Attack, Disrupt, and Enhance. Attack supports are some sort of attack designed to hit opponents. Disrupt assists are generally defensive in nature and some of them can be used as invincible reversals or even used in pressure if you want. Enhance supports give you some sort of boost, like restoring HP, giving a stat buff, giving synergy or other boosts. Most players pick a support that directly plays to their character's strengths or covers up one of their shortcomings. For example, Lucario players often use Farfetch'd to patch up its field phase, and several Blaziken and Shadow Mewtwo players (in the final Wii U patch) often use Cresselia to compensate for the way those characters drain their own HP. Ultimately, just pick whatever Support works for your own play style.

1.8 Anti-Support Tactics

Supports can be quite annoying to deal with on the receiving end, so here are three techniques you can use to shut them down. 

-Most supports are not invincible, nor do they grant armor starting frame 1. There are exceptions like Fennekin and Umbreon, but properly timed meaty attacks and throws will usually beat out supports even before the screen freeze. Many well timed Burst Attacks can go through Fennekin anyway.

-Supports are always called from the right side of a character. This means in field phase, you can often move to your character's own right to avoid many supports and sometimes even punish them. 

-This last tactic goes for any fighting game, but once you get used to the patterns of when people like to use supports you can bait and whiff punish them with good movement like teleports and backdashes.

Finally, Cheer Skills impact your Support and Synergy Gauge drastically, so experiment with them and choose one that fits your own play style. (I'll edit in the exact values or meter that the cheer skills provide once I track that down).

Recap

Okay, you already know about the controls and mechanics from the last video, and now you know about Synergy Burst and Supports. Now when you go out and play and watch matches you'll have a pretty good understanding of what's going on. Next up is terminology and fighting game concepts, so we can finally get into the real good stuff which is strategy building. See you in chapter 2!