Samurai Shodown VI/Mechanics

Inputs

Input Buffer

• Normals cannot be buffered.
• Tech rolls and command normals have a 2f buffer.
• All Spirit-specific E button actions have a 4f buffer.
• Dash, throw, all Spirit-specific A+B actions, Rage Explosion, and Issen have a 6f buffer.
• Backdash, deflect, Weapon Catch, Specials, WFTs, and Secret Moves have a 9f buffer.
• State of Nothingness has a 6f buffer, but is overridden by V Spirit dodges if input within the latter's buffer window.

Input Priority

Rage Explosion > State Of Nothingness > Secret Moves > Weapon Flipping Techniques > Special Moves > Throw Item > Break Defense > Deflect/Weapon Catch > Command Moves > A > B > C > D > E > Jump > Start

Rera's specials have unusual resolution while riding Shikuru:

• Wolf specials have higher priority than her WFT.
• If she inputs 412 or 623 and then jumps and presses S on the same frame without completing a 236 motion, she will jump without attacking instead of initiating a special.

Combination Inputs

Inputs requiring multiple buttons have varying strictness on input timing:

• WFTs and Secret Moves can have each button input up to 2f apart, or 3f if the input is buffered.
• Throws, all Spirit-specific A+B actions, and State of Nothingness must have both buttons input on the same frame, or up to 3f apart if buffered.
• Rage Explosion and Issen must have all buttons input on the same frame, or up to 3f from first to last input if buffered.

Systems

Rage

Rage is the meter system of Samurai Shodown. When the meter is full your character will gain a damage boost and, unless you are using I Spirit or a custom VIII Spirit which disables it, be able to perform WFTs until either your Rage runs out or you land your WFT. The Rage timer will decrease at a constant rate unless you are in hitstun or are knocked down, where it will momentarily pause until you are able to move again. The exceptions are VI and 0, which do not have a timer but will fully drain upon performing a WFT whether it hits or not. Rage is built by taking damage in most Spirits, but in VI it is built by damaging your opponent. The console-only 0 Spirit allows you to build Rage either way. Your choice of Spirit will modify various gauge and damage values.

The 'Rage retention' in each character section is determined by the amount of damage it will take for a character to Rage, with a higher value denoting greater Rage build. The 'Rage duration' notes how much raw time a character will stay in Rage.

Unarmed State

You are unarmed when you are not holding your weapon. During this state you have access to your unarmed normals, kicks, movement options, Weapon Catch and certain special moves and WFTs, whether they are exclusive to the unarmed state (e.g. Wan-Fu's Spirit Blast Crush) or can simply be performed both armed and unarmed (e.g. Tam Tam's Gaboora Gaboora).

Weapon Clash

If two slash attacks connect simultaneously and they are of the same strength, a Weapon Clash may initiate. This can only occur once a round. Whoever mashes the slash buttons the most will leave their opponent disarmed. There is no visible counter for button presses this time around.

Weapon Gauge

Below your health bar is a separate gauge which manages damage scaling. It will drain as you attack and refill as you refrain from doing so. A full gauge gives a damage bonus, orange is standard damage, while green results in a scaling damage penalty. This is how heavy slashes can deal respectable damage on their own while decent combos still experience damage scaling.

Throws, command grabs, supers, projectiles (including Basara chain normals and Gen-An/Nicotine chain specials), and many non-weapon based specials (Kyoshiro frog, Galford's Poppy specials, many Amakusa specials, etc) are not affected by the weapon gauge. This is a loose rule; some attacks may be affected or unaffected in spite of what one may otherwise expect. Kyoshiro's flame breath for example scales with weapon gauge.

Kicks do not drain weapon gauge on whiff.

Recoil Cancel

Many weapon-based normals will recoil off the opponent's guard. In addition to changing the move's recovery time on block, the attacker may be able to cancel the recoil animation into a special, super, Hyper Slash, or Deflect to frame trap the opponent. Recoil cancels are universally -1 on stand block; see Blocking Frame Advantage for advantage against crouching opponents.

The recoil cancel window universally starts after 13f, resulting in a different input timing for recoil cancels vs special cancels on hit/whiff. Attackers can exploit this difference by inputting two different cancel actions in sequence such that one comes out on hit (and usually whiff) and another on recoil. This is known as a recoil option select/recoil OS. Other attacks may only allow recoil canceling, in which case any buffered action would only come out on recoil cancel.

Some attacks with a recoil animation on block do not allow recoil canceling. In these cases, any special cancel possible on hit or whiff is also prevented by the recoil animation.

Guts

Opponents below 40% health take less damage, to a minimum of 80% normal damage below 10% HP.

Back Hit

If you hit an opponent who is facing the wrong way, your attack will gain extra frame advantage depending on its strength:

• Level 1: +6f
• Level 2: +8f
• Level 3: +10~11f

Counter Hit

If you hit the opponent during certain parts of their attacks, you will score a counter hit. This does not increase your attack's damage but rather its hitstun, opening up combos which otherwise aren't possible with its regular frame advantage.

Knockdown

Some moves do not leave the opponent standing on hit and will lead to a knockdown state. There are two primary types of knockdown:

• Soft knockdowns allow the opponent to initiate a tech roll with E as they land, triggering either a short roll (5E) vulnerable to strikes near the end of its animation, or a long roll (4E) that travels further and is fully strike invulnerable but takes longer to recover and is throw punishable. Most such hits cause soft knockdown.
• Hard knockdowns do not allow the opponent to tech roll. This offers consistent advantage on wakeup and sometimes the option for a guaranteed pursuit. WFTs inflict hard knockdown, as do some specials and Secret Moves.

Moves that trip leave the opponent face down, while those that launch have them land face up. This does not determine knockdown type, but it does slightly alter time from landing to wakeup on no tech or hard knockdown.

Movement

Jump Cancel

Also known as "combo jump". Upon landing from a jump, you are able to immediately cancel the landing into another jump. This applies even if an air normal was used, while most air specials have set landing recovery which cannot be cancelled. The jump cannot be buffered.

Offense and Defense

Neutral Frame

Invulnerable recovery states have one vulnerable frame immediately before the defender becomes actionable. The defender must (if possible) block any opposing attacks on this frame. Defender is considered standing on this frame.

Throw Protection

The defender has 1f throw protection on block (attacker can throw from +1 or less), 2f on hit (attacker can throw from +0), and 2f on wakeup including the neutral frame.

• OTG hits remove throw protection on wakeup. Any throw that lands on the neutral frame is thus inescapable, as opponents cannot jump or throw to tech on that frame. Normal throws require a frame perfect delay to connect on this timing after pursuit, but some command throws are timed to this frame if buffered after a pursuit or other OTG attack. Infinites arising from this property are banned, but non-repeating sequences involving OTG hits are permitted.

Tech Chasing

Tech rolls are punishable during recovery. Short rolls are fully immune to throws but vulnerable to strikes at the end of their animation. Long rolls work the opposite way, while traveling further and taking longer to recover. Some characters can punish all techs after certain knockdowns (often throws), especially in the corner. Others have tools which cover either option, such as Jubei's 236C, which catches short rolls and meaties the recovery of a long roll for free chip damage. Some characters are limited in their ability to tech chase due to their lack of mobility or ill-suited attacks, such as Gaira, whose combos and specials generally give him hard knockdowns to compensate.

The wakeup system is fundamental to how pressure works in Samurai Shodown VI. Because there are no forward rolls on wakeup as in previous games, setplay-heavy characters become stronger as a result (especially in the corner) and the threat of pursuit damage is frequently present. Rolls will allow the defending player to escape or even punish these options, but they themselves are vulnerable if the opponent does not commit and is able to read/react to the type of roll the defending player goes for. Knockdowns can be seen as a mixup for both players:

• Not rolling can be punished by pursuits but will guarantee a chance to block a mixup/setup and provides a window of throw invulnerability.
• Short rolling can punish pursuits and many setups but leaves the defender vulnerable to the highest damage punishes.
• Long rolling can escape pursuits and many setups and create more space between players but is vulnerable to throws (which are less threatening than strike punishes but will reset the situation with another soft knockdown).

In short, rolling can beat oki, tech chasing can punish rolling, not rolling will weaken the threat of an opponent looking to tech chase, and oki will force a player who doesn’t roll into a bad situation.

Proximity Guard

Attacks within a certain range (about the distance where the camera begins to pan out or less) trigger a pre-block animation for the duration of the attack if the other character holds back or down-back. This prevents the defender from walking further back, which can either keep them in range of an attack or potentially keep them closer for a whiff punish if spaced outside the attack's range.

Proximity guard in Samurai Shodown VI has some additional properties not found elsewhere in the franchise:

• Proximity guard animations have a minimum 10f duration if not interrupted by another action. The defender will still block during this period even if not holding down (from crouching pre-block) or no direction (from standing).
• Switching from down-back to back and then releasing back causes the defender to enter a 10f exit animation from standing pre-block, during which they can block again but cannot re-initiate the above extended proximity guard behavior.
• Crouching pre-block does not have an exit animation. Transitioning from stand to crouch pre-block allows extended proximity guard for the full 10f after switching to crouch, provided the standing pre-block animation did not last at least 10f and thus exhaust extended proximity guard. Switching from crouch, to stand, then back to crouching pre-block will result in pre-block ending immediately upon transitioning to any non-blocking input.
• Extended proximity guard can be reset by transitioning to a non-blocking action (walking, pressing down-forward, stand to crouch, or crouch to stand, along with any jump or button) from pre-block or standing pre-block's exit animation, then pressing back or down-back again.

Airborne Frame Advantage

Attacks from an airborne state inflict an additional +10 frame advantage on hit against crouching opponents. This includes jumping attacks, any overhead attacks that start grounded but hit while airborne such as Andrew 6B and 6D, Gen-An 4D, Yumeji 6B, and even mids such as Iroha 5D and Sogetsu/Suija 5D.

Note that deep hits do not exist in Samurai Shodown VI, so getting this additional advantage simply for hitting opponents while very low to the ground is not possible.

Landing Cancel

A jump-in attack that hits on the last possible frame before landing will land immediately, with the attacker becoming actionable when they would normally still be in hitstop. This gives the attacker more time to follow up, allowing easier confirms as well as confirms that are not otherwise possible. Dashing, special attacks, all Spirit A+B actions, and activating State of Nothingness are not possible until after hitstop would normally end; jumps (and any subsequent attack) and dodges will advance by 1f then pause until hitstop ends.

Blocking

Blocking most attacks standing puts the opponent in blockstun for 12f. Blocking while crouching increases both blockstun duration and pushback. Blockstun increases by 5f except for Nakoruru, Rera while riding Shikuru, and Sankuro, who are stuck for only two frames longer instead.

Hyper Slashes are an exception, with much longer blockstun (47f including the freeze on hit/block) and a difference of ten frames when blocked crouching.

Characters are unable to change block direction during the last frame of blockstun.

Autoguard

Further attacks while the defender is in blockstun are blocked even if not holding backwards. The defender must still hold a downward direction to block lows or not do so against highs, but holding downforward to block repeated lows is valid as is holding forward or no direction against repeated mids.

Heavy Slash Frame Advantage

There are two different animations a character may use when hit by a heavy slash: a forward bend and a backwards bend. Normally, this makes very little difference over the course of a match. However, when put into the backwards bending animation, there are 21 characters who will take a frame longer to recover. These are Haohmaru, Hanzo, Galford, Kyoshiro, Ukyo, Jubei, Charlotte, Genjuro, Shizumaru, Basara, Gaira, Kazuki, Sogetsu, Rasetsumaru, Enja, Suija, Sankuro, Yumeji, Amakusa, and Mizuki. These discrepancies are noted in each characters' frame data tables.

• An easy way to remember all this: Every character who is normally selectable in Samurai Shodown IV and their headswaps is subject to this rule, and every new addition since is exempt. The exceptions either way include the Ainu characters and Tam Tam, who don't have this quirk, and Mizuki who does.
• Heavy back hits have a similar animation difference, but for different characters.

Issen Projectile Damage

If a character's projectile hits while the same character's Issen attack is active, the projectile will do damage based on that attack rather than its usual damage.

Simultaneous Hit

If an attack hits on the same frame as a projectile, they resolve sequentially on that frame with the projectile hitting second.

Example interactions:

• Genjuro card bounce hits a stand blocking opponent on the same frame as a low. The defender takes damage from the low + chip from the card and enters blockstun from the card.
• Issen hits on the same frame as a projectile. The Issen cutscene does not trigger. This may give worse advantage on hit, but V Spirit Amakusa for example can abuse this + projectile damage behavior to give Issen base damage to all but the first two hits of 236B when used point blank. This will kill from full health even at very low meditation levels.