VF5:FS Defensive Technique Compendium

Preface

I want to compile a list of ALL the defensive techniques present in VF5:FS, how to do them, when to use them, why to use them and how to beat them.

Why? Because I, being a new player, don't understand all that much about most of them, and I feel it will benefit the whole community, new and experienced players alike, to have a concise yet detailed collection of information regarding these techniques.

I know this information is out there, however it may take some digging around to find and may be found in a hard to understand format. I intend to gather it all and present it clearly and accessibly in this definitive compilation of information.

To those of you who are looking to practice some of these techniques, here is a thread full of drills contributed by our brilliant members to help you practice these techniques and incorporate them in your play.

I will be continually updating this list with information I research and what you guys provide in this thread. Please do take the time to look through my list and make me aware of any errors, additions and changes that could benefit this guide.

Thank you all very much in advance!

Notes

• The terms "strikes" and "attacks" are used interchangeably here
• The terms "whiffed evade" and "failed evade" are used interchangeably here
  
• For any unfamiliar terms you see, look them up in the glossary
• Any sequence of inputs in the execution of anything are separated by a comma (,). For example the ETE technique is executed like so: OR , any throw direction.
• Taka cannot fuzzy at -5, meaning his Nitaku situation starts at -5 unlike everyone else starting at -6.
• You need to understand VF fundamentals, namely the triangle system and Nitaku, to make sense of some of this information. Search the new starter forum, the wiki , and the glossary for information. Though some of the information is dated, here is a thread full of links to guides for beginners and intermediates.
• Here Is (rather long) video going though VF from the raw foundations. I very much recommend this one to all beginners and also any intermediates who want to plug any holes in their VF fundamental knowledge.

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Techniques
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• Guard throw escape/Lazy throw escape/ Yutori defense/ GTE

Execution - (hold briefly first) any throw direction

Explanation - Use to defend against both attacks and throws. *You should ALWAYS be using this technique instead of just holding

Example situation(s) -

1. You are blocking expecting an attack but the opponent throws, luckily you are holding instead of just and are able to break their throw.
2. You are at -6 or higher and cannot fuzzy guard.
3. You whiff an attack

Anti strategies - Throw your opponent in another direction you think they are GTEing, guard break, hit throw, catch throw, low attack (if standing)

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• Evade throw escape/ ETE

Execution - OR , any throw direction

Explanation - Use this to evade any linear or some half circular attacks while defending against a throw. Use this over GTE to gain some potential extra advantage and to potentially punish an opponent depending on what and if you successfully evade. This may cause a throw whiff animation at the end of the evade.

If you fail to evade anything, you are do not cancel the whiff animation with this technique leaving you vulnerable to any attack during the whiff animation as you cannot block.

Example situation(s) -

1. You got your wake up rising mid kick blocked and are at -6. Rather than GTEing, you ETE.
2. You whiff an attack, though you'd be lucky if you manage to pull this off offline against a good whiff punish.

Anti strategies - Throw your opponent in another direction you think they are throw escaping, correct half circular attacks, full circular attacks, delayed guard breaks, catch throw, delayed low attacks

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• Evade throw escape guard/ ETEG

Execution - OR , any throw direction, release and hold during recovery

Explanation - Similar to an ETE, this prevents a throw-miss animation occurring at the end of the evade, and allows you to defend against any followup attacks. The Idea is to press together, then release and hold at the end of the evade.

If you fail to evade anything, you are do not cancel the whiff animation with this technique leaving you vulnerable to any attack during the whiff animation as you cannot block. This is the same problem with ETE.

Example situation(s) -

1. You evade at a large disadvantage to avoid a potential linear attack, escape a potential throw and guard against a delayed attack and circular highs and lows.
2. You whiff an attack, though you'd be lucky if you manage to evade a good whiff punish offline.

Anti strategies - Throw your opponent in another direction you think they are throw escaping, delayed guard breaks, catch throw, delayed low attacks, any attack that hits you during a fail evade, circular attacks

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• Reversal throw escape (RTE)

Execution - Reversal, Any throw direction

Explanation - Heard about this one here it allows you to use a reversal to reverse a specific attack (duh) while defending against a throw. You should do this whenever you try a reversal, in case they throw you instead

Example situation(s) -

1. Using Akira, anticipate a jab so input high punch reversal, then immediately input and hold a throw escape just in case they throw instead.
2. Brad's mid kick sabaki, add another layer of defense with this technique to avoid potential throws.
3. Kage's (JU) sabaki, add another layer of defense with this technique to avoid potential throws.

Anti strategies - Hit the opponent with an irreversible attack, use a throw with the direction different to what you think the opponent is inputting an escape for, catch throw

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• Fuzzy guard/ FG

Execution - (Hold very briefly)

Explanation - Used for defending vs both a throw and mid attack. Use this technique during periods of disadvantage -1 to -3 where an opponent may mix-up a throw and mid attack.

However, taka can only FG at -2, NOT -3.

Example situation(s) -

1. You block your opponent's you are at -2, your opponent may use a mid or throw.
2. You whiff an attack.

Anti strategies - Immediate low throw, delayed throw, slow low attacks, delayed high guard break, mid guard break, catch throw

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• Crouch dash fuzzy guard/ CDFG

Execution - , (Hold very briefly)

Explanation - Used for defending vs both a high throw and mid attack. Use this technique at -4 and -5 where an opponent may mix-up a throw and mid attack. You can use this at -4 because puts you in a crouch state 2 frames faster than .

However Taka cannot CDFG at -5, only at -4.

Example situation(s) -

1. Your is blocked, you are at -5 and your opponent may use a mid or throw.
2. You whiff an attack

Anti strategies - Immediate low throw, delayed throw, slow low attacks, delayed high guard break, mid guard break, catch throw
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• Side fuzzy guard and throw escape

A HUGE thank you to good ol' @Myke for taking the time to put together this brilliant video!


Also check this post for some more information regarding side fuzzy, and this post for in depth information regarding the side turned situation

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• Evade crouch dash cancel/ ECD/ ECDC

Execution - OR , ,

Explanation - Simultaneously successfully evade and cancel a failed evade making it safe(r). Use whenever you evade (especially when evading at disadvantage) incase you fail to evade anything. Use to dodge a linear attack and duck under a potential high circular.

Assuming you have inputted your ECD perfectly, you would have completed the technique in 17 frames. Here is a diagram to explain what is happening on each frame after you evade (assuming you failed to evade anything).

12345 67890 12345 67890
eeeee eeeee ccccc cgggg

So you are evading (represented by e) for the first 10 frames. Because it takes 10 frames to cancel a whiffed evade with anything, you begin to crouch dash (represented by c) on the 11th frame. It takes 6 frames to cancel your crouch dash with a (represented by g) so you begin to crouch guard on the 17th frame.

Example situation(s) -

1. You get your CH launcher blocked and are -8. You ECD to evade a linear attack or defend against a slow high full circular.
2. You whiff an attack, though you'd be lucky if you manage to evade a good whiff punish offline.
3. To beat a delayed throw

Anti strategies - During the first 10 frames, your opponent is in a whiffed evade animation and are vulnerable to any sort of attack or high throw. On the 11th frame they are crouching so will duck under any high throws or attacks (eg high circulars), but get hit with any lows (because you are not guarding yet), mids or low throws. On the 17th frame they are now crouch guarding and are vulnerable only to mids and low throws.

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• Evade dash cancel/ EDC

Execution - OR , , OR

Explanation - Simultaneously successfully evade and cancel a failed evade making it safe(r). Use whenever you evade (especially when evading at disadvantage) incase you fail to evade anything. Use to dodge a straight hit and duck under (with ) or block (with ) a potential high circular.


Assuming you have inputted your EDC perfectly, you would have completed the technique in 14 frames. Here is a diagram to explain what is happening on each frame after you evade (assuming you failed to evade anything).

12345 67890 12345 67890
eeeee eeeee dddgg ggggg

So you are evading (represented by e) for the first 10 frames. Because it takes 10 frames to cancel a whiffed evade with anything, you begin to dash (represented by d) on the 11th frame. It takes 3 frames to cancel your crouch dash with a (represented by g) so you begin to crouch guard on the 14th frame.

This technique is very similar an ECD. The difference lies in that with an ECD, you can crouch and avoid throws and highs faster than if you (see EDC section). Basically, use this to beat delayed high throws.

Example situation(s) -

1. You get your wake up mid kick blocked by Goh and you are at -6. Anticipating his full circular high (), you EDC and successfully guard in time to block it.

Anti strategies - During the first 10 frames, your opponent is in a whiffed evade animation and are vulnerable to any sort of attack or high throw. On the 11th frame they are dashing and again are vulnerable to pretty much anything. On the 14th frame they are now either stand guarding () and are vulnerable to guard breaks, throws, lows etc. or crouch guarding () and are vulnerable to mids, low throws etc.

If your opponent decides to , they are vulnerable to throws for an extra 6 frames.

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• Evade throw escape dash cancel/ ETEDC/ETEC

Execution -
If you break forward (): OR , , release still holding , , OR

If you do not break forward: (Any direction): OR , Any other throw direction, release still holding , ,, OR

The executions for ETEDC are different depending on if you break forward or not because to dash cancel a failed evade, you need a dash (), that's 2 inputs. Because you input during your forward throw break, you only need to input once more to dash. If you input some other direction during your throw break (e.g ) then you need to input 2 directions to dash.

Explanation - Combining the benefits of ETE and EDC , this high level level technique if mastered can REALLY give you an edge. Practice this one as well as ETECDC.

Assuming you have inputted your ETEDC perfectly, you would have completed the technique in 14 frames. Here is a diagram to explain what is happening on each frame after you evade (assuming you failed to evade anything).

12345 67890 12345 67890
eeeee eeeee dddgg ggggg

So you are evading (represented by e) for the first 10 frames. During these first 10 frames you should be inputting a throw escape. Because it takes 10 frames to cancel a whiffed evade with anything, you begin to dash (represented by d) on the 11th frame. It takes 3 frames to cancel your crouch dash with a (represented by g) so you begin to crouch guard on the 14th frame.

Very similar (the same) to an EDC, the only difference being you input a throw escape during the 10 frames you have to buffer a dash.


Example situation(s) -

1. You evade at a large disadvantage to avoid a potential linear attack, escape a potential throw and guard against certain attack levels (depends on if you or ).
   
2. You whiff an attack, though you'd be lucky if you manage to evade a good whiff punish offline though.

Anti strategies - See EDC. The only difference is that your opponent can escape a throw direction briefly while with an EDC they are ALWAYS vulnerable to a throw.

As with EDC, if your opponent decides to , they are vulnerable to throws for an extra 6 frames.

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• Evade throw escape crouch dash cancel/ ETECDC/ ETEC

Execution -
OR , , release still holding , ,


Explanation - Combining the benefits of ETE and ECD , this high level level technique if mastered can REALLY give you an edge. Practice this one as well as ETEDC.

Assuming you have inputted your ETECDC perfectly, you would have completed the technique in 17 frames. Here is a diagram to explain what is happening on each frame after you evade (assuming you failed to evade anything).

12345 67890 12345 67890
eeeee eeeee ccccc cgggg

So you are evading (represented by e) for the first 10 frames. During these first 10 frames you should be inputting a throw escape. Because it takes 10 frames to cancel a whiffed evade with anything, you begin to crouch dash (represented by c) on the 11th frame. It takes 6 frames to cancel your crouch dash with a (represented by g) so you begin to crouch guard on the 17th frame.

Very similar (the same) to an ECD, the only difference being you input a throw escape during the 10 frames you have to buffer a crouch dash.


Example situation(s) -

1. You evade at a large disadvantage to avoid a potential linear attack, escape a potential throw and guard against low attacks.
   
2. You whiff an attack, though you'd be lucky if you manage to evade a good whiff punish offline though.

Anti strategies - See ECD. The only difference is that your opponent can defend against a high throw even before they crouch by inputting a throw escape

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• Stagger escape

Execution -

• For stick players: While holding , rotate the stick and mash and as much and as fast as possible.
• For hitbox players: mash those buttons like no tomorrow.. while holding
• For gamepad players: I heard its easiest to mash the and directions to escape. But depending on how you hold your pad mashing buttons will be difficult... do your best but remember to hold !

Explanation - If you get hit in a certain way, you will see a joystick Icon appear briefly. This indicates that you have been staggered. Staggers are like stuns in Dead or alive; your opponent can follow up with a plethora of attacks to start a combo. In VF, you can stagger escape to shorten the stagger and block in time to guard against being launched for a combo.

The idea is to input as many inputs (,,,,,,.. ect.) as possible in a small time frame indicated by the color of the joystick icon.

The joystick Icon first appears green, indicating that you should start struggling NOW!! Then changes to red, indicating that inputs are now being accepted to shorten the stagger you are in. Its important to hold while you mash to ensure you are guarding after struggle window closes so you don't risk whiffing something or getting counter hit.

Example situation(s) -

1. You get hit crouching with certain mid attacks
2. You get hit with your back to a wall by certain moves and it causes a wall stagger. Some low attacks cause wall staggers when you're adjacent to a wall so watch out!
3. you get hit with certain attacks.

Anti strategies - Stagger escape via the method above.

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• Struggling after knock downs

Execution - Stagger escape (While holding , rotate the stick and mash and as much and as fast as possible)

Explanation - After you get knocked down there's an invisible stagger for how fast you can get up. If you struggle (stagger escape) you will be able to get up faster and avoid potential follow ups if you decide not to tech roll after a knock down. Its possible to do this to get up faster after back rolling.

Example situation(s) -

1. If you get hit by Wolf's CH , and just hold 4 and keep pressing G (to back roll) . You'll barely move before getting hit. If you struggle a bit you'll notice that you're halfway rolling before getting hit. Struggle fast enough and your back roll will avoid . (Thanks @Combolammas )

Anti strategies - Hit your knock down attack from the minimum distance to your opponent.

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• Reverse Nitaku

Execution - Attack out of a Nitaku situation (-6 to -9)

Explanation - Arguably an offensive technique (and not much of a technique, more of an educated guess), this allows you (the person in Nitaku at a disadvantage) to blow up the other person's throw attempt. Input your biggest launcher to blow through your opponent's throw for your biggest combo.

This is very risky though. If your opponent attacks, you may take significant damage. Use only when you think the opponant is likely to throw you. *see example below.

Example situation(s) -

1. You have your wake up mid kick blocked and are in NItaku at -6. Anticipating a throw, you use your big launcher to blow past your opponent's throw for big damage. Don't do attempt reverse Nitaku here if your opponent doesn't throw you when you get up.

Anti strategies - Attack

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• cancel

Execution - Press then before the goes into its active frames. *some characters cannot do this e.g Goh

Explanation - Interestingly, the cancel aka "the wiggle" has some brilliant utilities as a defensive technique!

It is used as a universal throw escape to escape all throws regardless of direction as attacks always beat throws even in their start up frame. If you get hit while doing you only get hit on NH and not MC, resulting in you taking less damage on not getting combed if you get hit by a CH launcher.

HERE is a thread with more detailed information.

Example situation(s) -

1. You are at -2 after you blocked your opponent's . You think they are likely to throw but may still attack with a strike (though you're sure its not a launcher) so you to escape any kind of throw (so you dont have to guess what throw direction) and to only take small damage if they attack.

Anti strategies - Attack with a launcher (not too slow though or they will cancel into a before your launcher combes out)

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• Crouch dash fuzzy guard - whiff throw punish option select

Execution - ,, then IMMEDIATELY attack *launcher preferable if your character has a good one for it (the faster, the more likely it will land).

Explanation - Option select definition via google: "A sequence of button presses that function as multiple possible actions simultaneously; depending on the outcome of another event already in progress, option selects will be parsed by the game engine to perform different actions."

The focus of this option select is the . If you fuzzy guard, when you cancel your crouch dash with a (like normal) you input a fast attack immediately after, for example , either of the following may happen:

1. Your opponent throws. Your will come out and punish the throw.
2. Your opponent attacked with a fast move like . You will be able to guard it as you pressed , but your should not come out as the inputs get "lost" during the time you spend in blockstun guarding your opponent's attack.

This technique is very useful VS moral style players and those with slow reactions; the game engine does the work for you!

Here is a thread with a video explaining this technique in depth, made by one of our VFDC members: @Chibiaya

Example situation(s) - see above.

Anti strategies - This only works if the opponent uses fast attacks. If they do a slow one then you are not in blockstun to prevent your own attack and you may get CH'd.

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• Offensive evade cancel/ OEC

Execution - , OR , (If evade whiffs, cancel into either just a dash or another defensive technique like EDC,ECD etc.)

Explanation - Not to be confused with offensive moves, this technique allows you to evade abare as you normally can't evade moves from advantage. You dash at advantage to lose that said advantage and then do an evade.

Example situation(s) -

So what do you do with your advantage? This technique is perfect (though remember not to become too predictable with this either!)

You can bait out abare strikes to evade, or reversals and sabakis to punish..

Here is a thread discussing the function and uses of this technique in depth.

Anti strategies - Hit them with ANYTHING other than a guardbreak during the dash. When they evade, don't attack to make them whiff the punish, then whiffed evade or throw them or use circular moves.

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• Offensive moves/ OM

Execution - OR ,

Explanation - Unlike a defensive move, these have NO evasive properties. What they do is move your character around the ring in respect to your opponent. Not really a defensive technique but I decided I might as well include a section on this anyway just because of some of the utilities OMs actually have.

Example situation(s) -

• As your opponent tech rolls after an knockdown, OM to maintain similar ring positioning.
• If your opponent freezes up behind their guard, OM and buffer an attack to hit them from the side and go into your side turned set ups.
• Used in some combos.

Anti strategies - Use anything other than a guard break.

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"Defensive techniques will not save you. it's a common mistake when people are trying to learn VF. Better off just learning to deal with Nitaku raw because at the end of the day, the guess is all that matters." - Marlystotle

 

(Reserved)

 

Example situation(s) - Your is blocked, you are at -4 and your opponent may use a mid or throw.


At -4 you need to CD fuzzy

 

A testament to my N00bness.

Am I correct in saying puts you in a crouch state 1 frame faster than , or is it 2 frames faster?

 

it is 2 frames faster. You can use normal fuzzy at -1 -2 and -3.
When you are -4 and -5 you should use CD fuzzy. The explanation is in the wiki so i'm not gonna write down why is that.
Also fuzzy isn't the definitive defence, it just avoids high throws and mids. It doesn't work vs low throws, delayed throws.
When you are -6 to -8 you are in a nitaku situation where you should attack to avoid throws or defend to avoid attacks.
At specific situazion you may use the ECD to dodge a straight hit and also duck under an high slow circular. However i don't remember the conditions to use this tecnique.

 

I am aware of THIS post, but I'm still confused about side fuzzy. Could somebody please break it down for me in terms of what it does and how to do it?

 

As the evade in here is not cancelled, it is also susceptible to circulars or any delayed hits during the failed evade (before they can guard.

For execution, you need (a dash). If you are escaping then you get the first out of the escape but if you are escaping then you need to input after. Crouching is optional. Can guard sweeps and duck high circulars but will get tagged by any delayed mids then.

Cancelling evade with is different from cancelling with . Canceling with a dash allows guarding earlier than canceling with a crouch dash.

I see I've been tagged here. I can't understand why I don't get alerts when people do that...

I don't actually know if the "stagger" happens everytime. After somethrows for example it doesn't matter if you mash or not. You can get up asap anyway. Maybe the "stagger" is there but it's set as so short that it's gone immediately.

If you get knocked down and decide not to tech then struggling for a bit does allow you to get up faster so yes, it is viable in a match.
Another situation is the example with Wolf I used in the other thread. Get hit by CH , and just hold 4 and keep pressing G. You'll barely move before getting hit. If you struggle a bit you'll notice that you're halfway rolling before getting hit. Struggle fast enough and your backroll will avoid .

VF5 Vanilla IIRC Pai's required a struggle or Pai could dash in and do a light down attack for extra damage. I use a vanilla example here because I just couldn't remember any throw that requires you to do this in FS. I know there are some but I just can't name one from the top of my head.

 

So why would you cancel with a when doing an ECD? I know its in the name, but isn't the purpose of ECD to make your evade safer by canceling it (if it whiffs) into a block?

So if: (Failed evade), then hold to stand guard or to crouch guard allows you to block faster than doing: (Failed evade), , wouldn't it be better to cancel a failed evade with a rather than a ?

 

This is not true. You can't avoid OTG combos without teching. Nor a down attack either unless they are very slow to execute one.
It can allow you to punish a big whiff with a rising attack in case they just whiff something slow on top of you expecting you to tech.

I'd just list the Wolf thing in the examples as I can't remember another good example right now.

 

Only 1?

You can ECD under high circulars as long as you have 10f do to that e.g you can ECD under Gohs 20f K+G at -9 but you can't do it at -10.
I can EDC and guard that said K+G from -6 but can't do it at -7.
3 frame difference.

Also, ECD is vulnerable to mids for a few frames after canceling the evade. A 14f mid has a 3 frame window to hit the CD. For 16f mids the window would be 1 frame.
ECD can not be hit by (delayed) highs as the evade cancels into the CD on frame 10.

EDC on the other hands can be hit by any delay attack including highs. On the otherhand the vulnerable window is smaller.

 

In that sense yes, but neither the dash nor the CD are cancelled by G on frame 1 so you aren't blocking the high after 1 frame of dashing.

ECD is vulnerable to mids and lows for 17 frames. As the attack needs to start after the evade has failed and most chars fastest mid or low is 14f the window to hit ECD is effectively 4 frames.

EDC is vulnerable to high, mid and low. Unless I'm mistaken only for 13 frames. Some characters do have 13f highs and 2 characters have 13f mids but for most this means just jabbing; 2 or 3 frame window for that depending on character.

EDIT: for linear attacks that is.

 

@MarlyJay @Combolammas
So let me get this straight step by step (sorry for my incompetence at fully understanding what you two are saying). For ECD:

1. You press to evade. You start the evade, successful or not, the very frame you inputted the . Assume this evade fails. lets call this frame 0
   
2. You then have a 10f window to buffer a input to cd to cancel out of the whiff animation. we're now at frame 10.
3. The cd cancels the whiff on frame 11.
   
4. You are now in a cd and are vulnerable to lows and mids but are ducking highs.
5. You have until frame 17 to input to cancel the cd.
6. On frame 17, we are now crouch guarding and have completed the ECD.

For EDC

1. You press to evade. You start the evade, successful or not, the very frame you inputted the . Assume this evade fails. lets call this frame 0
2. You then have a 10f window to buffer a input to dash cancel out of the whiff animation. we're now at frame 10.
3. the dash cancels the whiff animation at frame 11
4. you are now dashing and are vulnerable to pretty much everything
5. you have until frame 13 to input to cancel the dash. (*though wouldn't it be frame 14 if there is a 3 frame difference between a ECD and EDC like combo said earlier?)
   
6. On frame 13(14?) we are stand guarding and have completed the EDC.

Also just to clarify, If your opponent is not attacking with something the frame you input the evade (frame 0 in my example), the evade whiffs right?

 

ECD
12345 67890 12345 67890
eeeee eeeee ccccc cgggg

EDC
12345 67890 12345 67890
eeeee eeeee dddgg ggggg

Hopefully that's readable. Numbers represent frames. e is evade frame. c is crouching (during CD), d is dashing and g is guarding.

The earlier example compared frames 11 (ECD crouching under high circular) and frame 14 (EDC being able to guard said circular in said situation). 3 frame difference.

If you compare the difference in their ability to guard however you'd compare frames 14 and 18. 4 frame difference.

Truthfully, I might be 1 frame off with ECD guarding as one of the old threads about it claimed it was guarding on frame 17 instead of frame 18 like I have it. I'll try testing it later today to confirm which one it was.
EDIT: I was off there. Checked it right away to clear misinfo. Frame 17 of ECD can guard. 3 frame difference there too.

 

This guide has come together much faster than I had anticipated! The only missing piece seems to be side fuzzy, which I'm still cluesless about. Please, somebody, shed light upon this enigma that is side fuzzy!

 

This is great stuff! Haven't looked closely, but I'll see if I can add something later this week, though it seems rather complete already.

Let's level up everyone, VF revival!

 

I should rename this thread to "Post 4 free likes from strider"

 

It may be worth it to add offencive evade as offensive/defensive technique.
Maybe struggling should be here as well, as this is part of defence and there are some quite elaborate studies about how it works out there. No matter mnmost of us struggles just with "mash as hard as possible" strategy
KG cancel as universal throw escape that makes you eat opponents moves only on NH and not as MC may be mentioned as well, as under some circumstances, this can be quite strong technique.
You may also consider to put here fuzzy guard whiffed throw punish option select; it is quite risky but still strong defensive technique.

If I will remember anything more, I will post again