VF4FT Frames Guide

What's a Frame?(top)

Frames are used as a measure of game time. Just as we use seconds as the basic measurement of real time, frames are used to measure the passing of time within the game. The relationship between game time and real time is that for every 1 second, 60 frames progress during the game. So if you see something that requires 30 frames, then in real terms it's a half of a second.

However, the fact that VF runs at 60 frames per second (fps) is of little importance in the context of this guide. Why? Well, when analysing frame data you don't care how much real time something will require to pass. You only care how fast or slow it is in comparison to something else. VF could run at 100fps or 1fps in real terms, and it wouldn't change a thing. A punch that executes in 12 frames will always beat an elbow that requires 14 frames in an even situation, regardless of how long it takes in real time.

So, in general terms, frames are used to measure how long it takes for something to occur within the game. The less frames it takes, then the faster it is. Applying this you will find that frames can be, and are, used to measure various properties of an attack.

The Mechanics of an Attack(top)

An attack transitions through three phases from it's beginning to end. Each of these phases are measured in (you guessed it) frames. The following diagram illustrates the phases that comprise the mechanics of the attack.

Execution(top)

When you press P, a punch is initiated and it takes some time for the arm to fully extend and hit. This time it takes from the start until the first frame hit detection is commonly known as the Execution. The chart above represents a 12 frame punch. But, you might notice there are only 11 (blue) frames of execution? So why isn't this an 11 frame punch? The answer is because hit detection doesn't begin until the 12th frame. It's a subtle, but important detail, especially when you're analysing the frame data from a number of attacks in series or parallel.

Hit(top)

When the punch has fully extended, hit detection usually lasts for a small amount of frames, typically 1 or 2. This is commonly known as the Hit or Active phase, during which time the opponent can be either hit by, guard, or even reverse the attack.

Recovery(top)

When the hit phase ends, the punching arm begins to retract until the entire attack has ceased and the player is free to move again. This final phase is commonly known as the Recovery.

Duration(top)

The length of the entire move, from start to finish, is known as the Duration.

The Effects of an Attack(top)

Before moving onto frame analysis, and the practical application of frame data in your game, it is necessary to understand the effects of an attack. The effects of an attack are important in that they result in known or specific situations. Using the effect of one attack to lead into another is what is commonly referred to as a setup, and if you've played other fighting or strategy games, then this concept will be familiar to you.

The effect of an attack really depends on how it makes contact with your opponent, and what your opponent was doing at the time. In general terms, you can either hit, miss or have your attack guarded.

The guard effect(top)

When you guard an attack, there will be a short period of time where they are in the guarding animation (or phase). This is commonly known as Guard Stun, during which you cannot move. The amount of time you spend in guard stun is dependent on the properties of the attack you're guarding. Here is an example of how guard stun comes into play:



In the above diagram, 1P executes an attack which is guarded by 2P. The Guard Stun is represented by the red bar. As you can see, 2P recovers from the guard earlier than 1P recovers from the attack. What this means is that 2P now has the advantage and can move a couple of frames sooner than 1P.

This is a very common situation in VF. Generally, when your attack is guarded you end up being disadvantaged.

It is important to note that you enter Guard Stun the instant your guard makes contact with any hit frame of the attack. This has some implications which will be discussed later on in the advanced analysis section.

The hit effect(top)

There are many different types of hit effects in VF. The include knock down hits, staggers, crumples, forced-crouching, and some that even spin you around. This is not to be confused with hit types of which there is the normal hit and varieties of counter hit.

The only hit effect we're interested in is of the non-knockdown variety, where the opponent goes through a short phase of hit animation and remains standing. This phase is commonly known as Hit Stun during which the opponent cannot move. The amount of time spent in hit stun is a factor of the attack's properties as well as the type of hit (normal, counter, etc). Below is an example of how hit stun comes into play:



In the above diagram, 1P executes an attack which hits 2P. The Hit Stun is represented by the red bar. As shown, 1P recovers from the attack earlier than 2P recovers from hit stun.

Again, this is a common situation in VF. Generally, when your attack hits you end up with the advantage.

Basic Analysis(top)

Having looked at the mechanics of an attack and the effect it generally has on an opponent, you're now ready to start some basic analysis.

While the general case of disadvantage and advantage applies to attacks guarded or hit, respectively, it's not always the case. As such, for the remainder of this guide I'll refer to cases of disadvantage and advantage since either can apply to any hit effect.

On the charts featured from now on, the advantages and disadvantages shown are with respect to 1P.

Disadvantage(top)

In any scenario where your opponent can move before you, then you're at a disadvantage.

What's important, and where the analysis kicks in, is how much you are disadvantaged. Let's examine the case where a low punch is guarded:



Here you can see that 1P is at 4 frames disadvantage. Disadvantage is commonly noted as a negative number, so in this case, 1P is at -4.

So what does the -4 mean in practical terms? Consider the following scenario:



You see that 1P initiated a low punch which was guarded by 2P, and resulted in 1P being at -4. As soon as both players are able to move they each try to initiate the same 12 frame attack. Since 1P was disadvantaged, 2P's hit frames will appear first and hit 1P -- in fact, it'll result in a nice counter hit since 1P was still executing an attack.

Since 2P has four frames to spare, the counter attack could have actually been a slower one, up to 16 frames! Generally in VF, the greater the risk, the greater the reward, and as such, slower attacks are usually more rewarding than faster ones. So let's see what would happen if 2P used a 16 frame attack instead:



Here you notice that both 1P and 2P's hit frames become active at the same time. What happens now is that the attack with the greater damage wins. Since 2P used a slower attack, chances are it will do more damage (due to risk/reward ratio) and so in most cases 2P will win this exchange. Here, 2P maximised the use of 1P's disadvantage.

Successfully attacking from a disadvantage(top)

It's worth noting at this point that the winner of an 'exchange', such as the ones illustrated above, isn't purely determined by who has the advantage. One must also consider the dynamics of the attack. The simplest case is a high attack versus a low attack. A low attack will always beat a high attack, no matter what the disadvantage is (provided the high attack wasn't guaranteed). Actually, there are many attacks which will succeed from disadvantage, such as sabaki, or attacks with built-in evasive properties, but in the interests of not complicating this guide any further I won't be discussing them beyond this mentioning.

Guaranteed counter attacks(top)

When the disadvantage is larger than or equal to the execution of a certain attack, then that attack becomes guaranteed.



The above is the effect of Akira's Double Palm being guarded. On guard, Akira is at -15, which means any attack that executes in 15 frames or less, is guaranteed to hit. Above, you see 2P counter attacking with a 15 frame attack, which hits 1P on the very last frame of recovery. And remember, you're vulnerable during recovery and unable to guard.

Although not mention so far, throws can also be guaranteed provided the thrower is within range. However, just because a throw is guaranteed to connect it's not necessarily successful since the opponent may escape it.

Advantage(top)

Advantage and disadvantage work hand-in-hand and are the complement of each other. Disadvantage for one player equates to advantage for the other, and vice versa.

As seen in the disadvantage cases, the amount of the advantage determines what you can or can't do next. Let's look at the case where a typical low punch hits the opponent.



After a normal hit low punch, the attacker is at +3 advantage. Considering that most opponent's fastest attack is 12 frames, this means that you can use an attack up to 12+3 = 15 frames to beat them.

Let's see what happens when the 2P tries to respond with a low punch (12 frame attack):



As you can see, 1P can use a slower attack (15 frames) to beat 2P's faster low punch (12 frames) because of the +3 advantage.

Throwing when advantaged(top)

When an opponent has their move guarded and is at say, -10 frames, you have a guaranteed throw in this situation since a throw executes in 8 frames. However, the converse isn't true. That is, if your attack hits and produces an advantage of say, +10 frames, you cannot throw the opponent.

The reason for this is due to the property of the Hit Stun effect. During hit stun, an opponent cannot be thrown. Instead, you should be looking to apply a followup attack, and with such a huge advantage you have the potential for great reward.

Alternatively, if you delay a little such that your throw doesn't become active until after they've come out of hit stun, then you may have a good chance of success since the opponent may be guarding in fear of a big attack.

Having said that, there do exist attacks in the game that produce a special hit stun effect that is throwable, but these are the exception to the rule, and won't be discussed any further in this guide.

In general, you just need to know that the opponent's Recovery, when large enough, is throwable, whereas Hit Stun isn't.

Advanced Analysis(top)

This section takes a different, and slightly more complex, look at frame data applications. The first part discusses the types of advantages that result after a successful evade. The second part shows how you can reduce the disadvantage of certain attacks when they're guarded. The reason these two applications are what I consider advanced is because they're subject to variation depending on one or both player's actions. In other words, there is very little here that is 100% guaranteed all the time. If you're still learning about frames, then don't be discouraged if you can't apply or even understand the following applications. Eventually, when you are comfortable with frames, I'm positive these "advanced" applications will be easy to pick up.... in theory. Applying these in practice, however, is a different story!

After a successful evade(top)

Similarly to guarding, in general, when you successfully evade an attack you will have the advantage. But how much? Well, that all depends on two important details:

• The total duration of the attack you evaded
• How early, or late, you evaded

As you can see, both of those factors are subject to variation, and as such, any advantage you may have after the successful evade will be variable. The only thing that is constant in this situation is the duration of your successful evade: 19 frames in FT, and 17 frames in Evo. For the remainder of this section, I will use the FT evade for the analysis, but you can use the Evo evade, which is 2 frames faster, just the same.

The amount of advantage gained after a successful evade is given by the following formula:

Evade Advantage = attack duration - (frame of evade - 1) - 19

If the answer is positive, the result is an advantage for the evader, and if negative, a disadvantage.

An evade is considered successful when you input the evade command after the attack has started, or later. If you try to evade before the attack starts, you will get an unsuccessful evade and take the hit. An unsuccessful evade lasts for a whopping 27 frames where many big attacks will be guaranteed. A common tactic is to bait your opponent into an unsuccessful evade by delaying your attack, causing them to evade first, but I digress.

Let's look at the effect of evading a fast attack, like a typical standing punch, which executes in 12 frames, has 2 hit frames, and has a duration of 26 frames:



Evade advantage = 26 - (2 - 1) - 19 = +6 frames

The above represents the earliest possible successful evade. You might be wondering why it didn't start until the second frame after the attack? Well, you need one frame for the up or down input, and then another frame to return to neutral. That's a total of 2 frames for the fastest dodge input. So, at best, the evade won't start until the 2nd frame into the attack.

As you can see from the chart above, after the punch is evaded, 1P is left at a -6 disadvantage. Or in other words, 2P's evade has a produced a +6 advantage with which they can force a guessing game.

What happens if the same punch is evaded late?



Evade advantage = 26 - (12 - 1) - 19 = -4 frames

The above represents the absolute latest point in which you can successfully evade an attack, and that is on the very first hit frame. However, since the evade was so late, the attacker 1P still retains a +4 advantage, and the evader 2P is equally disadvantaged!

From the above two cases you can see that when it comes to evading attacks, you want to evade as soon as possible! Especially against quick attacks (i.e. attacks with short duration, around 30 frames or less).

So it can be quite touch-and-go when it comes to evading quick attacks, but what about the longer ones? Well, since the duration is longer then the chances for the evader to get the advantage increase. Let's look at an example of evading Akira's dashing elbow (14 frame exe, 2 frame hit, 38 frame duration):



Evade advantage = 38 - (2 - 1) - 19 = +18 frames

Here, the evader (2P) has a huge 18 frame advantage. This is large enough to guarantee many combo starters for most characters. What happens with a late evade against the same attack?



Evade advantage = 38 - (14 - 1) - 19 = +6 frames

This time, even though the evade is as late as possible, the evader still retains 6 frames advantage. So as you can see, the longer the duration of the attack the more likely the evader will successfully evade and retain the advantage.

Why did I get hit out of my successful evade?(top)

Have you ever successfully evaded an attack, but still got hit by it? As frustrating as that is, there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for it.

Some attacks are so slow that even if you evade them successfully, you may recover from the evade during the attack's hit frames, or even earlier! Again, you only need to look at the frames to see why:



The chart above shows 2P successfully evading Wolf's Short Shoulder attack. You can see that 2P recovers during the active hit frames, which means 1P can still get hit even though the evade was "successful". Now, this doesn't automatically mean that 2P will get hit. If 2P just stands there, then the shoulder attack misses. However, if 2P presses any button input then the attack will track and hit. The only safe input would be the Guard button, and would result in the attack tracking you, but you will guard it.

What usually happens is that when people successfully dodge, they try to counter attack or throw, even more so when they recognise such a big and slow move, like Wolf's Short Shoulder. But what can, and occasionally does, happen is that Wolf's tags them for a counter hit instead!

As you could probably tell, if 2P delayed their evade 2 or more frames, then they would have recovered safely and have a risk-free opportunity to punish Wolf.

Note: I've only discussed this occurrence with single attacks, but the same applies to combo attacks where you have evaded the first attack in the combo. Depending on the attack properties (it's hit level, direction, etc), it's very possible for followup combo attacks to still hit you even though you evaded the first attack. Again, this usually happens when you try to immediately counter, since your button input causes their attack to track you.

Reducing your disadvantage(top)

In this section, you will see how the disadvantage time of your guarded attack can be reduced.
Firstly, a quick review: when your opponent guards your attack, they make contact with the first hit frame and then go into guard stun. The important thing here is that the guard stun is a fixed and constant amount, and is a property of the attack being guarded. So with all things being constant, the disadvantage time will always be the same.

Let's look at Brad's Step Change Knee attack, which is 24 frames exe (only the last 4 frames shown for brevity), 5 frames hit, 54 frames duration:



On Guard, it's -10 frames disadvantage for Brad, which means the opponent has a guaranteed throw, as seen above. But what if there was a way to make the opponent guard on the last frame of the attack? How would that change the situation? Let's see:



Now, by making 2P guard on the last hit frame, the same amount of time will be spent in Guard Stun and when that's over, Brad's disadvantage is now -6 instead of -10! And at -6 frames, nothing is guaranteed to connect!

On the surface, this looks to be a potentially unbalancing technique, but I assure you that it isn't. Firstly, in the flurry of attacks being thrown out in a typical match, it's almost impossible to make the opponent delay their guard. And even if they did, how would you know?

The only practical application this has is during okizeme (pressuring the rising opponent). As your opponent rises from a knockdown or instant recovery, you can try to time it such that the opponent wakes up into the latter hit frames. If they end up guarding your attack, then your disadvantaged will be reduced. But by how much? Again, it's practically impossible to tell since you can't guarantee which hit frame made contact. And again, the uncertainty and difficulty of this application prevents it from being abusive or unbalancing.

Probably the most ideal situation where you can apply this is against an opponent who does in-place recovery from a face down and head toward knockdown. From this position, it is dangerous for them to do side-roll recovery due to the back stagger vulnerability, and if they don't perform any instant recovery, they're vulnerable to a bound combo. So, the safest option is usually to perform in-place recovery, and if you anticipate this, you can time your attack to hit late. Also, when they rise in this position, if your attack is timed correctly, it is impossible for them to evade so they'll either get hit or be forced to guard. And if they guard, it is highly likely that your disadvantage has been reduced.

Essentially, if you make contact on the Nth hit frame, then you will get N - 1 frames advantage added. When Brad made contact on the 5th frame, he received an additional 5 - 1 = +4 frames advantage, and so the Guard disadvantage became -10 + 4 = -6 frames. If this applied to an attack that already gave advantage on guard, then the advantage will just increase.

Although not tested personally, I would guess the same principal could apply to moves on hit and counter hit. The additional advantage boost could potentially lead into some really interesting combos that wouldn't otherwise work!

Just as a side note, for those with a 2D fighting background, you may be familiar with the concept of the meaty attack. Well, this is exactly that. In some street fighter games, certain meaty attacks produced so much advantage that it made certain combos possible that ordinarily wouldn't work.

What Next?(top)

So now that you understand what frames are and how they work, you're ready to begin applying this knowledge to your game. So where do you go from here?

All the frame data you need is available on this site. Just view any character's command list and you'll see columns for Execution which tell you how fast the attack is. You'll also see the Guard, Hit, Counter Hit columns. A number here indicates how much advantage (positive) or disadvantage (negative) results from this attack. This is all you need to get started. A zero indicates an even situation where both players recover at the same time.

Study your character and piece together your own flow charts. After you get a counter hit with a particular move, find out what your best follow-up attacks are if your opponent decides to, say, low punch you back. Stringing together frame-tight offensive attacks like this forces your opponent to take more defensive measures, and when you recognise this, you can then take further advantage of the situation.

VF is a game about initiative, who has it, who doesn't, and what they decide to do about it. Understanding initiative and the options available helps you to make better decisions. And the better decisions you make, the better player you will become.