Scuba Guides source note. This lesson is based on the older Scuba Guides and the supplied source archive. It is an independent community clarity rewrite, not an official GunZ publication; mechanics are not verified for the current Steam/remaster client.
Lesson content
Maintaining your combo while your opponent does their best to escape it is utilizing multiple things at once. Here’s several tips to pay close attention to in order to maintain a steady offense.
Patterns
We all know the Triangle patterns, COD patterns, Back and forths. You want to create multiple variations at the start of several patterns you can seamlessly move to and from, that attack multiple areas on your opponent. Don’t focus on just the front and back, aim for the left and right as well. Your goal is to be able to hit any part of the opponent at any time and be able to transition from any move to another at will and comfortably.
Flinches and Blocks
As stated in the One Step theory, A flinch will cause your opponent to move 1 step in the direction you hit them in. This can and will cause your Combos focus point to change. Knowing when you will or won’t hit a block will help you immensely when keeping on the pressure. If you know they’re going to get flinched, you need to plan for the extra distance.
Momentum Control
Switching between Full Drifts to No drifts will also help you immensely for controlling the distance and keeping your target in your strike zone. If you know or see that they’re a bit further, delay your slash a bit and use your momentum to carry you into the opponent before attacking.
Ground Combos
If you know you’ll be right on top of the opponent, you might want to consider throwing in some ground combat. Whether this is just to maintain proper distance and not let yourself get carried too far away or sneaking in a couple elbows, or even just to help reset the timer on their massive charge.
Only use a ground combo when you know you’ll be damn near kissing your opponent on your screen when you land. Too much further away and by the time you do your next move, you’ll be too far away due to latency to continue carrying on your attacks.
Air Combos
Air Combos are more ideal for quickly changing your attack directions and maintaining a more mid range for your attacks during a combo. Remember that you want to be constantly changing your angles and phases as described above.
Flinch Locking
Flinch locking is the holy grail of a combo. By attacking at just the right consistent speed, you can actually prevent your opponent from doing anything at all because they’re in a constant state of flinching. They can’t slash, they can’t block, they can’t jump, and they can’t dash. It takes practically frame perfect slash timings to make this happen. The attacks are neither fast nor slow, but a steady tempo. If you’re too fast, you’ll land your slash during their flinch animation, which will cause damage but not another flinch. Too slow, and they’ll be able to get out if it in one way or another.
To figure out the right tempo, watch yourself get flinched multiple times in a row and try figuring out the timing from when you get flinched to the exact moment you can do something again. You want to be doing your combo at exactly that speed.