Pokkén Basics Chapter 9 Basic Offense

Now that we have a very thorough understanding of how to approach neutral in both field phase and duel phase, let's talk about how to damage an opponent once you get in range to attack them. Remember that there are two ways to win a round in Pokkén. Either deplete the opponent's HP to zero, OR have a higher percentage of HP remaining when the timer reaches 0. This chapter will focus on the former, but if you're looking for defensive strategies, and don't mind timing an opponent out, check out Chapter 10. Let's go over the ways to deal damage, the basic mixup in Pokkén, and exploiting blocking opponents.

You can deal damage in 3 ways:
-Making contact with an attack when your opponent isn't blocking.
-Grabbing an opponent which bypasses blocking
-Chip damage, which is having your opponent block certain attacks that still do a little damage

Now there is kind of a fourth way, but we're gonna get to that at the end. 

None of these ways are inherently better than the others. And if you're predictable, opponents can take advantage of whichever method you choose to try to damage them. If you want to damage your opponent, your offense should be based around your opponent's defense. Meaning, during neutral you'll want to pick up on when your opponent likes to block and when they like to use counter attacks, since those are the two main ways they'll avoid your normal attacks. Once you recognize these patterns, that's when you can go for a throw, since grabs beat blocking and they critical hit blue armor. If you want to hit red armor, well I've already made a video going over all the ways to deal with red armor so check that out if you haven't.

Basic mixup

Your basic mixup in Pokkén or the guessing situation that you force your opponent into, is usually going to be grab or don't grab. In fact that's really the only mixup. There's no cross ups, no overheads, and few unblockables. When your opponent is knocked down, they'll have to guess if you go for a grab or not. If they try to break it preemptively (since you can't react to them), then they'll get a critical hit if you go for it. But if you didn't, and went for an attack, counter, or something else instead, the opponent is vulnerable to get hit because they're at frame disadvantage. Actually let's talk about that. In order for your offense to truly be consistent and effective, you'll have to work to stay at frame advantage or at least stay in a range where being at frame disadvantage doesn't end your offense. If you're trying to fish too hard for damage in neutral, or trying to retaliate with normal attacks when you're at frame disadvantage, your opponents own attacks will be active before yours and you're a lot more likely to just get hit than to do any damage. Instead, while in neutral, your job as the offensive player is to get into throw range to make opponents act preemptively and whiff buttons or jump so you can punish them. That's why walking and pushing opponents to the wall is useful: it gives them nowhere to run from your grabs, so it makes them panic and throw out moves under pressure. 

Exploiting blocking opponents

Now we know that grabs beat blocking opponents, but if you've played any matches at all, you'll know grabs are a huge risk and can lose you half of your HP or more if your opponent crushes your grab. Fortunately, there are two other ways to deal with shields.

-Chip damage and
-Shield Breaks

Most attacks that aren't light attacks do a small amount of damage when your opponent blocks them. This doesn't really amount to much usually, but every bit of chip damage can put you in the life lead and as long as you have that life lead when the timer runs out, you win. Chip damage is most noticeable for zoners or projectile heavy characters. Darkrai for example can base its entire game plan around never actually getting close up and into mixup range, and just racking up chip damage with projectiles and long reaching attacks. 

Shield breaking is that 4th way I talked about in how to land damage. Breaking a shield in field phase, just leads to a phase shift with frame advantage on the opponent's block. But in duel phase, shield breaking gives you frame advantage as if your opponent got hit, so you can still combo afterwards. Some characters are really good at breaking shields like Blaziken, and Braixen while supports like Dragonite can help you get the opponent's shield into breaking range. I don't know all the shield damage values off the top of my head but if I can get a hold of a list, I'll go ahead and link it. But just like PSP, as long as you can remember which combinations of attacks break shields on different characters, you'll be alright. 

And that's it for basic offense in Pokkén. We went over the different ways to land damage, the basic mixup in the game, and how to exploit blocking opponents. See you next chapter for basic defense!