State of Play: Defense
Defense is the most unique of the three states of play in fighting games because it is not dictated by you, but rather what your opponent (OP) is doing; It is more reactive than proactive. Building a defense in any fighting game entails having a counter, mitigation, or escape strategy for every offensive onslaught you are subjected to, at any range and or position on the screen be it mid-air, on knockdown, in neutral, or whatever unique state that manifests in your game of choice.
Defense is a state of play where you are at a disadvantage and or are actively trying to mitigate a potentially disadvantageous situation.
Common Defensive Situations
Your defensive stance is dependent on the prevailing situation. For instance, when you have been knocked down you defend more aggressively compared to when you are in Neutral. The following are some of the most common situations you will find yourself in;
Defense on Knockdown
Getting knocked down largely regarded as the most disadvantageous position you can be in a Fighting Game. You have limited defensive options which are known to your opponent making them high risk, while your opponent has a multitude of options to choose from. Regardless of the defensive option you take, your OP still has the advantage because they don’t really have to take any risk and they can take action first.
Defense On Hit
When you have been hit it’s no longer your turn, and you need to wait and see what your opponent does next and try to avoid it or attempt to “steal” your turn back. You could jump, back dash, counter poke, block or execute any other game-specific mechanics (Mortal kombat 11 has breakaway for airborne opponents).
Defense On Block
While you are blocking correctly you have to watch out for throws and mix-ups as you wait for an opportunity to take your turn or “steal” your turn back.
Defense In Neutral
Neither party is at an advantage so you are in control of your situation. In neutral you defend by minding the max ranges of your opponents' attacks and staying at a range where you can react in time to defend, mitigate or counter any of the opponent’s attacks or movements.
Fundamentals of Defense
Defensive Fundamentals are at the core of a solid defense across all fighting games, some key defensive fundamentals include; knowing how to deal with throws; positional awareness, spacing, the use of movement like Back-dashing, Side-stepping (in 3D games), Jumping, ducking, or generally playing footsies to evade offense.
Using deliberate movement to evade attacks is a core part of defensive fundamentals.
Jumping can be used to evade your opponent's offense making it whiff completely or cause you “drop out” of the opponent's combo if they hit you. This happens when the opponent expects to hit you while you’re grounded but hits you airborne significantly reducing the opponent's damage output.
Using sidestepping and side-walking to evade attacks
Using back dashes to evade attacks.
Crouching/ ducking to evade high attacks.
The use of Anti-airs to defend your air space.
Poking out of undesirable situations; Pokes are a very important defensive tool in escaping pressure from your opponent. They are mostly used in close range.
The effective use of Wake-up options when knocked down can be the difference between life and death.
Defensive Tools, Tactics, and Strategies
Hit Confirms
Hit Confirms can be used during offense in a defensive manner based on the outcome of an attack such that if the attack successfully hits the opponent you proceed with your Offence, but if it fails, you “confirm the failure” and discontinue your offense then transition to a defensive state where you are at less disadvantage or exposure to being punished. Where possible always hit confirm your attacks.
Fuzzy Guarding
Fuzzy Guarding is a tactic often used when defending against 50-50 mix-ups. Without the use of fuzzy guarding you would otherwise be forced to guess how to block correctly. When Fuzzy guarding you quickly switch between two opposing guard (block) positions so as to defend against the two different attack options that would otherwise have broken your defense. For instance in Mortal Kombat 11,
Jax has a 50-50 string with his F2,1+3 (ends with 18 frame Overhead) and F2,4(15 frame low) you simply fuzzy guard it by first blocking Low (to cover the Low Option which will hit earlier) then quickly blocking high to (cover the overhead option which will hit 3 frames later).
In a situation where the timing of the 50-50 is very tight like Kabal’s Low Hook (hits low) which starts in 15 frames is used in “B1xxBF2" to mix-up his “B1,2” string (hits Overhead) which starts-up in 16 frames, it is practically impossible for a human to fuzzy fast enough, in this situation, you rather rely on the distinct visual (or sound) cues of the Overheads’ animation to preemptively switch to ‘stand block’ from crouching position and block the attack before it hits. In situations where both attack options come out at the exact same time/frame (true 50-50s), they cannot be fuzzy guarded rather you have to guess or make a read.
Guard/Block Sequencing
Guard/Block Sequencing is a technique where you summarise your block positions(stand or crouch block) in such a way that you cover all of a particular characters mix-up options regardless of the string or special used. For instance, if the OP character has two strings with hit levels “Mid, Overhead, Mid, Mid” and “Low, Mid, Overhead” rather than switch your block positions between blocking the two strings, you simply alway Low-block the first attack then Stand-block all subsequent attacks to cover all mix-up options in both strings. This technique is not foolproof especially when the opponent staggers attacks but is likely to work against most of a character’s signature moves/strings.
Reverse 50-50
Reverse 50-50 is a tactic you use to force a 50-50 back on the aggressor. When the attacking opponent has a 50-50, you intentionally block/guard one way to seemingly cover “Option A” forcing the opponent to make the choice between what looks like a bad option (as it’s already blocked by defender) and a seemingly good option which is apparently open(not blocked correctly by defender), “Option B”, which you might switch to (and block correctly at the last second) after the aggressor has already committed to it. For instance, you intentionally block low as Subzero approaches you in MK11 and block high once he attacks knowing fully well he will now opt for the overhead starter which is punishable.
Low Profiling, Crushing, and Evasive Moves
Low Profiling, Crushing, and Evasive moves are legitimate tactics which are used in defense. There are some special moves and normals that have evasive properties enabling you to avoid and counter certain attacks. Low crushing moves always beat out incoming low attacks, while low profiling moves shrink or lower your characters hurtbox in such a way that your opponents’ attacks whiff. You may use these attacks to steal turns when you are at disadvantage.
Option Selects
Option Selects are an advanced tactic where you input a command or multiple commands then the “game engine” executes the most advantageous option for the situation at hand. For instance In Mortal Kombat 11, on knockdown you are often forced into a strike throw situation where you need to guess whether your opponent will strike or throw you on wake-up, if you don’t have defensive meter it’s a 50-50 guess where you can be throw looped or meatied to death. In this situation, you can Option Select the strike and throw by tapping block at the right moment then immediately tap the corresponding throw break button. That way if it was a strike, you would block (or flawless block) it, and if it was a throw you would break it.
Parry
A Parry (in Mortal Kombat 11) is a special move designed to automatically counter incoming attacks, some can even counter projectiles. These vary in their properties for different games. In Mortal Kombat 11 parries are beaten by low attacks with the exception of low parries.
Defensive Considerations, Parameters, and Properties
- The hit properties of attacks. Does the attack leave the Opponent at advantage (Plus+), Neutral (0), or disadvantage (Negative-) on block or hit? What is the attack recovery on whiff? Does the attack knockdown on hit, lead to hard a knockdown or lead to a combo, etc.
- What is the fastest move in the game? This determines what is considered safe from a defensive perspective. In Mortal Kombat 11 the fastest normals on average are 7 frames fast, so, to be “safe” you must be able to block an incoming attack within 7 frames or less after your attack was blocked by the opponent or whiffed. In Tekken 7, the fastest normals are 10 frames, while in Street Fighter 5 the average “Light Attack” is 4 frames fast!
- The Range/reach of attacks. The fact that an attack is -13 frames on block or has 20 recovery frames on whiff does not necessarily make it unsafe for you to use, especially if used at the right range where it can’t be punished by the Opponent.
- Hit properties and how they are blocked. In Mortal Kombat 11, Mid-attacks can be blocked ducking, while Overheads must be blocked standing. Whereas, In Tekken 7 Mids must be blocked standing. Additionally, in Tekken, there are Homing attacks that hit sidestepping opponents.
- The Hit Priority of attacks; In Street fighter, Heavy attacks beat Mediums, While Mediums, in turn, beat Light attacks. That means that if these two attacks trade, the attack with higher priority wins.
Defense Without Matchup Experience
In most fighting games there are upwards of 20 characters making it quite difficult to know the ins and out of every character. As a result, you will go into some matches without any matchup experience. It will benefit you to approach the games in the following manner;
- Offense is the best defense. If you attack aggressively enough then you won’t have to deal with much of your opponents' offense as most of their effort will be focused on defense.
- Note the spacing of your opponent to gain insight into their character's optimal range (do they mostly stay close, mid, far, or full screen). Move into their least effective and or your own most effective range.
- Take note of how you are blocking each of your opponent's attacks (high or low)in order to learn how to guard against this “new” character on the fly.
- Take note of when the opponent pauses, pokes or blocks between attack sequences in order to identify when they are unsafe or when you can poke out of pressure.
- Identify signature moves/strings that the opponent uses repeatedly then focus on devising counter strategies to deal with them. Also, note and become familiar with their start-up animations so that you can react quickly and act accordingly.
- Note the attack ranges of the opponent as this will help you with spacing out their attacks and countering.
- Note the properties of attacks with regards to whether they knockdown, keep you standing, frame trap, etc.
- Note the damage potential of the character and their different attack options.
Defense with Matchup Experience
When you have prior knowledge about an opponents character your first line of defense would be to disrupt and counter the characters default offensive game plan;
- Always be on the lookout for the animation of the opponent's signature moves so you can react quickly and counter them.
- Respect advantage strings and wait for your turn in disadvantage situations.
- Avoid situations and ranges where the opponents’ character is superior.
- Exploit your opponent's character's known weaknesses.
- Always use the character (OP) specific optimal block sequence to avoid being mixed up.
Basic Defensive Game Plan against Sonya (MK11)
Sonya is a rush down character as such she excels at close range and she has a 50-50 mix-up;
Prevent Sonya from getting into close range with pokes (D1, D3, and D4) and disrupt offense with your fastest pokes since her fastest attacks start with highs.
Sonya has good zoning ability and great air control with her Anti-air special so jumping at her is ill-advised;
Hover just between Mid and Far ranges to establish the threat of jump-ins and discourage her use of projectiles.
When in doubt, block high when she gets in since her low option in the 50-50 does significantly less damage than the overhead(which is punishable on block);
Otherwise, attempt to fuzzy guard the string using the overhead animation as a visual cue.
In addition to the hard and fast rules of established defensive fundamentals, factors such as habit, defensive and offensive resources, psychology (conditioning), time left in the match, and risk-reward should be considered when making decisions every time you find yourself in the defensive State of Play.
When in Offence (or at advantage) hit confirm, when in Neutral, be positionally aware (think spacing) and when in defense (at disadvantage), think ONLY defense! Happy Turtling!
