Pokkén Basics Chapter 2: Ultimate Pokkén Glossary [Input Notation and Terminology]

Pokkén Basics is sponsored by streamtechreviews.com.

Now that you know the controls and mechanics, there are only two things stopping us from getting into strategy building! We need to cover input notation and terminology. After finishing this chapter, you'll be able to understand everything I say in future videos clearly, and you won't be lost when you're reading forum posts or listening to other players or commentators talk about the game. Don’t get too caught up in remembering everything at first. Skip to chapter 3 when you’re ready to start learning strategy!

Input Notation

Let's start with input notation because it will make it easier to understand all the other definitions. Pokkén players use numpad notation where the numbers in this image correspond to different directions. Just look at the number pad on your keyboard for reference. So for Shadow Mewtwo, 4A would be Miracle Eye or back A. 6A would be Zen Headbutt, 8A would by Psystrike, and 2A would be Teleport. 1A and 3A would be to teleport with down back and down-forward respectively. In field phase the notation is more straightforward. It's just forward back and side, so fY would be forward Y, and n is neutral. Closed brackets mean to hold a button down and open brackets means to release a button after holding it. w! means wallsplat and j means jump. Startup or impact of the move is i. So i11 means a move starts up in 11 frames. Here is a Blaziken combo video that shows examples of what input notation looks like for combos. 

With that out of the way let's move onto terminology or the jargon of Pokkén and fighting games in general. I'll mostly be going in alphabetical order but some of the definitions require me to explain other terms so I'll skip around just a bit.

Ultimate Pokkén Glossary

Air tech or Air drift

The act of holding a direction while your character is knocked into the air to land in a different spot. Getting knocked into the air in a state where you can air tech itself is called an air reset. Air teching is especially useful after a phase shift to create distance when opponents try to run under you. Of note is that the CPU in training mode generally does either no tech or air techs backwards. 

Armor

The property of being able to absorb an attack without taking hit stun. Hit stun is when your character reels from an attack and cannot move. There are three types of armor in Pokkén. Blue armor, Red armor, and Burst mode's light armor. 

Blue Armor

Light Armor

Red Armor

Blue armor comes from counter attacks, command counters, and certain Burst Attacks such as Suicune and Chandelure. Command counters again are character specific counter attacks done with inputs other than X+A. Blue armor doesn't have a specific limit to the amount of hits it can absorb, but they only have so many frames that they can absorb attacks. Different moves can absorb attacks for a longer duration. In general, command counters seem to have a lower threshold than normal counter attacks, but they are also more likely to flat out beat moves with a lot of hits anyway. Blue armor can be thrown and counter pierced. Throwing blue armor usually grants a critical hit but not when you grab a Support's blue armor. 

Red armor is similar to blue armor, in that it also absorbs attacks, but there are a few differences. One major difference is that the character still takes damage when absorbing attacks, unlike blue armor. Red armor can only absorb 9 hits before it wears off. Also you can NOT throw red armor, it counts as an attack for the purpose of the attack triangle. Red armor can be counter pierced, but it doesn't show a distinct animation when doing so. Lastly, red armor is not immune from phase shift points, so you can still be shifted out of duel phase when your PSP gets maxed out. Red armor isn't very common, but moves like Chandelure's Overheat, Mewtwo and Shadow Mewtwo Psystrike, and Garchomp's Burst Attack have Red Armor. Certain stances also have red or blue armor properties.

Light armor occurs in burst mode, and lets you take 9 hits from "light" attacks before wearing off. Light armor still takes damage and throws work against it like normal. And similar to red armor, you can still take PSP from light attacks. What counts as a light attack is frankly extremely arbitrary it's not just all Y moves. So I've linked a list showing all the moves that ignore Burst's light armor. Light armor is nullified by opponents who are also in Burst mode. In addition the attack up stat, such as from Eevee, circumvents light armor. Critical hits also bypass light armor. A unique move, Shadow Mewtwo’s 6Y projectile, now also affects opponents as if they have light armor.

One thing the armors share in common is that all armors still take hitstop, which is different from hit stun. When an attack makes contact with a character (regardless of hit, block, or armor), the game has a visual sort of slow down to simulate an impact. Hitstop is also called impact freeze. For the purpose of frame data, which I'll get to shortly, it doesn't change anything. Hitstop has two actual effects on the match. First is, it delays the action of whichever characters are in hitstop. So for instance if I'm Shadow Mewtwo and I do a 5Y or jab and the opponent blocks it or gets hit, we both get stuck in impact freeze so everything plays out normally. But if I do pillar (6Y) into Miracle Eye (4A), my attack is making contact with the opponent so they get stuck in hitstop, but I am free to move normally because Shadow Mewtwo is not touching anything. Putting opponents into extra hitstop with projectiles is a good way to make your character safe from armored attacks since you can throw them or block on reaction without committing. 

The second effect of hitstop is it determines how much real world time both players have to react to a move. For example, Blaziken's 6Y by itself is unsafe on block against almost the whole cast (-12). They can usually 2Y or throw it. However, you almost never see it get punished because the amount of hitstop -or impact freeze- is so small by the time the opponent recognizes what happened on the screen and tries to punish, Blaziken has enough time to recover and block or avoid the attack. Armor generally gets stuck in hitstop longer than when you are blocking or getting hit. Even breaking a throw gives you a red armor effect, and it can cause certain combos to drop because of the delay (such as Shadow Mewtwo 6Y, 4A). Different armored moves are more resistant to hitstop than others. For instance, Lucario's Extremespeed doesn't get slowed down by very many attacks, but normal counter attacks do. Certain stances take almost no hitstop at all. Most of it is trial and error, so test your attacks against different armored moves to see how your moves interact with them. 

Blocking/Guarding/Shielding

This just means holding R to defend against an attack. Different characters have different shield strengths. Shadow Mewtwo's shield is very weak compared to Machamps so you can break it with less hits. While you're blocking, it actually slightly extends the range your opponent can throw you so be aware of that.

Block String

A block string is a series of attacks done while the opponent is blocking. While you're blocking an attack, you are in block stun. For instance doing Blaziken's 5YYY into EX Blaze Kicks is a block string. In Pokkén, most sequences of attacks have gaps, or periods where the opponent can stop blocking and interrupt your action. A blockstring with no gaps is called a true block string or you can say the string jails. In Burst mode, versus certain characters, Blaziken's 5YYY into EX Blaze Kicks is a true block string, meaning that after you block the first hit, even if you mash or put down the controller, your character is stuck block stun and cannot move for the entire sequence.

Buffering

Buffering is inputting a move during the action of another move. So for instance if I'm Lucario I can press 2Y. And while it's out, I can press 6A. I'm buffering the 6A, Bone Rush, into the 2Y. If you do it quickly enough, then if the 2Y whiffs, nothing happens, but if it makes contact, the 2Y will cancel into Bone Rush. 

CADC

Counter Attack Dash Cancel. Canceling your Counter Attack into a dash by holding X+A and then pressing R and then a direction while still holding X+A. 

Cancel

A cancel is the act of stopping your move's recovery early and doing a different move. So if I press 5Y with Shadow Mewtwo it does jab then stops. If I press 5YY, it stops the ending animation of his jab to do another one. You can cancel different moves into different attacks like Pokemon moves, or sometimes jumps. Moves that can be canceled into Pokemon moves are known as special cancelable moves.

Clash

Clashing is when two moves connect with each other on the same frame. I will explain frame data shortly. Moves of weaker strength lose and creates and explosive impact freeze animation, while moves of the same strength trade and neither character takes damage. Strength of a move is kind of an arbitrary value so it's trial and error to find out if two moves will clash. I have a video showing examples of clashing.

Combo

A combo happens when you hit the opponent with an attack, and then hit them with another attack before they can block again. An easy way to see if your attack actually combos is to go in training mode and set the CPU to stand still and react with block. Then do two attacks; if it actually combos they won't be able to block the second hit. If the CPU ever blocks in the middle of your attacks, either the attacks don't combo or your timing for the combo was incorrect.

Critical Hit

A critical hit occurs when you win an exchange in the attack triangle. But I'm not going to go in depth here, that's in chapter 1!

Exhaust

Exhaust is the transition from Burst Mode back to your regular form when your Synergy Gauge runs out. Crow_Spaceboy actually wrote an article on SRK that explains it better than I could. Once your meter runs out and you're on the ground and not in the middle of any action, you flash white. During this time, most of your inputs get canceled out except for block. However, you do get a little bit of invincibility. You can use a move that should be punishable or get exhausted while stuck in certain combos and you might phase through the opponent's attack. Usually this just ends up messing up your inputs, but if you're aware that your burst is going to run out, you can hold any direction on the D-Pad and it will give you extra invincibility. Many people do not know this, and even people who do know about it like me, don't really use it to its full potential so a lot of times you'll see people go for grabs when the other player is about to go into exhaust. If you try to break the throw a lot of times your input won't come out and you'll get thrown anyway, which is why people do it. So it is best to hold a direction, then try to break the throw normally.

Frame Data

Frame data will be covered in-depth in chapter 4, but here's the fast version. Pokkén, like most fighting games, runs at 60 frames per second. This means that 60 still images are shown every second to give the illusion of movement on the screen. So one frame is 1/60th of a second. Now every attack has a different amount of startup, active frames and recovery animation. These are all measured in frames and the collection of that information is called frame data.

Here is an example: The startup of an attack, say Shadow Mewtwo's 2Y is 11 frames. That means it takes 11/60 of a second from the time the game accepts your input for the 2Y to become active. Active frames are when a move has a hitbox and can connect with your opponent. Recovery is the time it takes for your character to return to a neutral state after the active frames so you can do something else, like block. As of this writing, there's no public data on the number of active frames or recovery on whiff, so the most important things to know are the startup frames of your attack and the frame data on hit or block. So if my attack is +12 on hit, that means I recover 12 frames before my opponent. In other words, my opponent is still stuck in hitstun for 12/60ths of a second after my character has recovered and can move again. So now I can use any move that is 12 frames or faster to hit my opponent again while they are still recovering. Hitting an opponent while they are already in hitstun leads to a combo. Now if I'm minus -12. Say I do Blaziken's 6Y from my hitstop example. If my opponent blocks this move, that means they recover 12 frames before I do and they can act while my character is still in their recovery animation and can punish me with any move that is 12 frames or faster.

An upcoming chapter will explain how to learn and implement frame data into your game, but for now just remember just know that it's super important to improving your game so check out this amazing frame data sheet created by The Apple BOOM.

Grey Life

Your HP bar starts as one solid color, but as the match progresses, some of the damage you take becomes grey life, or recoverable HP. Some people call it white life, doesn't matter. You can recover some of your health by using a support, winning a field phase, or activating Burst Mode. On the other hand, losing field phase or getting wall blasted takes away recoverable HP for good. Characters that do recoil damage to themselves like Charizard, Blaziken, and Shadow Mewtwo, are always looking for ways to restore that HP back before it gets removed completely.

Height

Attacks have multiple heights. The basic divisions are high, mid, and low. But there are also mid-highs, mid-lows, and special mids. You can see them in order:

High

Low

Mid low

Mid

Mid high

Special Mid

Highs strike near a character's head and most characters can duck them. The characters that cannot duck highs are Blaziken, Garchomp, Mewtwo, Shadow Mewtwo, and Machamp. Lows hit the lower portion of a character. You can jump lows frame 1, meaning if your character just got stood up after being knocked down, if you mash B, you'll jump over a low even if their attack is already out. So highs can be ducked and lows can be jumped over. Mids cannot be ducked or jumped over. There are also mid-lows and mid-highs which are similar to mids but with some shortcomings. Mid lows can be jumped frame 5 and mid-highs lose to moves with upper body invincibility. 8Ys have upper body invincibility usually starting frame 5, but sometimes frame 1 so they are good to anti air opponent's jumping attacks which are generally considered mid-highs.

Low Profile/Crush

The act of avoiding a move with another. If you slide under a move you have a “low profile”. So if I use a 2X or 2Y to go under a move that means I low profiled it. You can also think of moves that avoids low moves as the Tekken community equivalent “crush”. A low crush would be using a move like Blaziken's 8X which goes over mid-lows and lows on frame 9. 

Hitbox

The part of an attack that can damage the opponent. 

Hit Confirm

Hit confirming is doing an attack or multiple attacks to give your brain time to register if your move landed successfully or not. So for Blaziken, I would do YY against an opponent and by the time the second Y finishes I will be able to react and go ok this is hitting and go into Sky Uppercut. If it's blocked I can just stop, or cancel into a safer Pokemon move, or jump cancel away. I wouldn't just run up and Sky Uppercut raw because I'll get pushed for that if it's blocked. 

Hurtbox

A hurtbox is the part of a character that can be hit by an opponent's hitbox. So for instance, holding down with Lucario, shifts its hurtbox so it avoids Blaziken's 5Y hitbox. 

Collision Box

Similar to a hurt and hitbox is a collision box. This is the part of a character, generally their center that doesn't let them pass through other characters. Some moves like teleports make your character vanish, remove your hurtbox and pass through opposing hitboxes but sometimes they still cannot pass through an opponent's collision box. 

Homing Cancel

Homing attack is done with X in field. You can break a throw with homing, then press block and the opponent will still be in their throw recovery animation. So you can follow up with whatever attack you want. Homing canceling is safer than breaking throws with other attacks or the regular homing because you don't have to commit to a move. You can also use homing and then block immediately against single hitting attacks like Burst Mode's shockwave. When you do this it's called Perfect Blocking.

Instant Air Dash

The act of air dashing as fast as possible. So for Mewtwo it's doing its air dash very low to the ground. Blaziken and other characters use the same term, but Mewtwo's is the only air dash that I would actually consider instant. 

Just Frame

A property that certain attacks have where if you do the inputs with perfect timing or on the correct frame, then you get a better, usually more powerful version of your attack.

Knockdown

A knockdown, also known as a hard knockdown, is when your character is knocked to the ground obviously, but not when they just tumble. It's specifically when they fall down and they're stuck on the ground for a set period of time. It is important to know what moves cause hard knockdowns because you can do consistent setups after them since the opponent always rises at the same time and in the same spot unlike air resets.

L-Cancel

Landing cancel. Starting up a move as you're landing to reduce the recovery frames of your landing. So if I'm Shadow Mewtwo, and I do jumping Y then right before I press the ground I press A to do Reflect, Shadow Mewtwo will turn blue but Reflect won't come out. I canceled the recovery of landing into reflect which gives me less frame disadvantage when I land.

Link

A link is a combo where your character returns to neutral at some point before you use your next attack. So doing Blaziken's 5Y into Blaze Kicks is a cancel. But doing 5X into Blaze Kicks is a link because Blaziken had to return to neutral before doing so.

Lockout

A lockout is when all of your inputs, except for block are temporarily disabled. Certain homing attacks like Mewtwo, Shadow Mewtwo, and Machamp have this property of locking out all the opponent's inputs so you can safely pressure them without worrying about reversals. In DX they removed this property from these moves, but it's good to know the term anyway. You might hear some people call this a frame trap, but that's not an accurate way to describe a lockout. A frame trap is when you leave an intentional gap in your block string to bait opponents to press a button to escape. But when they fall into your "trap" and they get hit because you still have frame advantage. A lockout is a type of frame trap, but the difference is the opponent literally can't move or press any buttons at all except for block.

Meaty

Meaty is a tough one because the original definition got split into two. Most attacks have multiple active frames. So let's say for instance a move has 5 active frames. (I don't actually know how many active frames any individual attack has). A meaty attack would be using the move so that only the last frame or at least later frames connect with the opponent. So I'd make it so this move connected on its 5th active frame for instance. What this does, depending on the move is grant your attack more frame advantage than it normally would. I'll explain why in my frame data video. In order to actually do this, you usually have to hit the opponent just as they are getting up so the first few active frames whiff and only the end connects with them. This is why the act of hitting an opponent just as they get up (or recover from an air reset) is also called a meaty.

Oki

Is any sort of setup or move that you do when the opponent is getting up from a knockdown or air reset. Oki often gets used synonymously with meaty. 

Option Select

An option select is when you do an input a series of inputs where you get a different action depending on the circumstance. A few examples are the most basic buffer option select. So like that Lucario example from before, whiffing 2Y and buffering 6A on whiff, nothing comes out but only on contact, will Bone Rush come out. The option selects in Pokkén that I use personally are based on Poke combos and I'll show an example at the end of this. Option selects vary a lot in terms of usefulness and how much execution is required. I'll make an entire video about this in one of the later chapters because it's a pretty complex topic that not very many people understand, even people who throw the term around a lot.

Poké Combo

A Poké combo is a specific type of cancel where you cancel the same button into itself.

So Y into Y. If you look at your character's move list you'll see a ton of Poké combos. Poké combos seem to be made to allow people to mash out combos easily, but they way the implemented actually makes it super complicated so here's the deal. In duel phase pressing YY does your jab canceled into a followup normal attack. But after the second Y there's a ton of variation. So with Blaziken Y three times does this string of punches into a knee but for Shadow Mewtwo pressing Y three times does the two jabs but the third Y actually activates Psywave which is a Pokémon move. In duel phase, somewhere in each character's Poké combo is going to be a Pokémon move. So with Blaziken, pressing Y four times ends with Blaze Kicks. So basically the game did 3Ys but the fourth Y was your Pokemon move which was actually forward A. In the Shadow Mewtwo example, two Ys is the jabs, the third Y is Psywave and if you keep pressing Y you'll do the Psywave slashes. 

When you get to the Pokémon move part of your Poké combo, you don't have to end it the way the game wants you to by default. The Y just acts as A and whichever direction the game pre assigns. You can hold the 4th Y to give you EX Blaze Kicks instead of the regular version for instance or end the combo in another Pokémon move with a different button. Poké combos work similarly to how chains work in the Budokai games in the sense that even after you've input several buttons, you can overwrite your inputs with other buttons as long as you do it before the character gets to that part of the combo. So if you're mashing YYYY but you decide part way that you want to do Blaze Kicks instead, you can do 6A at any point and it will cancel out the remaining Ys.

Poké combos also apply to moves in other directions. So for Lucario's 2YYY Pokécombo you can change the Pokémon move into whatever you want. In fact, I suggest whenever you get to the Pokémon move part of your Poke combo to stop pressing Y and instead press A and whatever direction you want so you have full control over your Poke combo. This is the only way you can do Blaziken's YYY canceled into EX Heat Wave because doing the fourth Y without holding a direction will always give you Blaze Kicks.

Field phase has a similar mechanic with ranged moves, but instead of Poke combos the game calls it link up with ranged attack. In field phase, doing YY will generally cancel your Y into your forward Y, but you should just manually cancel whenever possible. There are Poke combos you can do from the ground, from the air, all kinds. Bottom line is Poke combos are the game's way of allowing you to easily do combos by canceling the same button into itself.

Safe Jump

A jumping attack timed so that the attacker can block in time to be safe from reversal. A reversal is any attack that you do during your wake up or during a block string on the first frame you can move. 

Throw Crush/Grab Crush

Throws are broken using any normal attack. Breaking a throw is called throw teching or just teching. However, if the throw hits you early in your attack's startup animation, you will stagger and not do any damage in return. Throw crushes are specific moves that always beat throws without staggering. All 8Xs, all homing attacks, and i11 startup moves crush throws.

Wall Blast

When a character gets phase shifted after a wall splat, so the game blasts them off again! This gets rid of grey life and forces distance between the two characters.

Wall Splat

When a character is hit against a wall and get stuck to it. Characters take more damage while they are stuck to a wall and the strongest combos in Pokkén come from wall Splats.

PHEW! Now you know all the terminology necessary to dive into Pokkén fully equipped with knowledge! But where do you start? How do you create a strategy? I'll tell you exactly how to dominate out the gate in Chapter 3: Field Phase Strategy!