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EXTREME EVOLUTION DISCORD and BASEMENT ROAD SHOW
P R E S E N T S
Player’s Guide & Pilot’s Manual
V1.0
Written by and for the NA / EU Gundam EXVS Community
Extreme Evolution Discord: https://discord.gg/tjaGuA3
Basement Road Show Discord: https://discord.gg/QbPwGjK
- T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S -
Basic Buttons / Functions / Controls / Concepts
SECTION TWO: ADVANCED BEGINNER
Here’s Where The Game Truly Begins
Melee Deviations / Cancel Routes
Mobile Armor Mode / Transformation
Bar color and defensive effect
Advanced Shooting and Movement
5 Shoot-To-Hit Moments (Hiro, courtesy of Cherudim)
2. Shooting During Vernier Actions / Attacks
4. Shooting Enemies Recklessly Moving Forward / In a Linear Fashion
5. Shooting at the Apex of a Jump (aka “the second landing”)
Red-to-Green Tracking (aka “edgelock”)
Beam Saber / Swords / Melee Weapons
Remote Beam Weapons (Funnels / Bits / Etc.)
Enhancement Modes and Form Changes
Team Composition / Formation Tactics
SECTION FOUR: ADVANCED INTERMEDIATE
Fine Tuning For Maximum Effectiveness
Advanced Movement Options & Tools
Target Switch During Melee Strings
Reload Fastfall Cancels (Relokyan)
Boost Penalty For Retreating Along 1 / 2 / 3, & How to Avoid It
Melee Attacks In Green Lock Range
Suit-specific Strategy / The Importance of Self-Study
Japanese MBON Wiki / English Translation (Google Translate)
GundamEXVS_SEA (Southeast Asia)
Basement Road Show #GundamPilots
Expert Level = Actively Contributing and Teaching
Help Craft and Evolve EXVS Game Theory
There Is No Guide For This Part
Community Participation is the Surest Path
SECTION SIX: GLOSSARY (Under Construction)
Dedication
This guide is dedicated to the memory of Richard “Pat” Patterson
who handed me my first joystick
gave me the soul of a competitor
taught me the value of self-improvement
and was one of the very first set of outside eyes on this project
watch us fly, Pops
1958 - 2020
Foreword
I’ve come to understand four things about Gundam EXVS over the six years in which I’ve played it:
- The game is incredibly easy to play, at least on a basic mechanical level.
- The game itself teaches you very little about how to play it, other than basic buttons.
- In most fighting games, the input complexity wall and the tactical application wall is practically interlinked. In order to do well in something like Marvel, you have to physically learn all kinds of combo execution techniques and timings, and usually, the more complex those strings are, the more agency you can exert, and thus the more you can control the flow of the match.
Gundam EXVS is not like that. The input complexity wall is very low, high-level input complexity isn’t much tougher. However, the application ceiling is functionally infinite. - The reason people can play this game for years and still get washed by series veterans is pretty simple: there’s so much going on under the hood that you probably don’t know what you don’t know, meaning that if you’re unaware that these micro-mechanics exist, it’s very difficult - if not near-impossible - to figure out how they’re supposed to be used, especially on your own.
I saw the upcoming release of Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme Versus Maxi Boost ON (MBON from here on out), and thought to myself, “this game deserves to succeed and become a staple of the Western FGC.” I knew there would be a lot of new and returning players that would push through the frustration like I did, but there's also players that will give up out of frustration because the game doesn’t explain how to bend its rules very well.
What could be done to stop this from happening?
The answer to that question is the guide you’re reading right now: built by multiple members of the Gundam EXVS community, with some extremely experienced hands contributing the equivalent of literal decades worth of knowledge. Our goal is to teach you the game’s core concepts in successive stages. Each new section acts as a logical extension of the prior section, with the aim of helping players of any skill level grow, and, to eventually strengthen their ability to solve any situational problem a match can and will present to a player.
Combine this with the right mindset - one in which losses are not a reflection of your potential as a player but are merely lessons to be learned from, where winning only validates the work you already put into your own self-improvement as a player - and it can take you much further and much faster than it would trying to figure it all out on your own.
You will still need to actively practice these concepts and implement them into your playstyle. As you do that, you’ll notice a distinct improvement in your play and a greater sense of understanding as you continue through this guide. It will grant you the freedom to express yourself in-game to a degree that no other fighting game I’ve played has really ever managed to achieve.
Welcome to the most fun game on Planet Earth. I hope you fall in love just as hard as I have.
- Everyday Legend
Credit Where It’s Due
This guide wouldn’t exist in this form without the help of some serious heavy lifting and contributions from some of the best, most knowledgeable players in the Western Gundam EXVS scene, and a whole lot of other information compiled and archived by many other veterans. Here’s who put this guide together, and a short list of other content creators to check / thank.
Co-Writers
Grant “Everyday Legend” Patterson
Extreme Evolution Discord Moderator, Final Boss @ Basement Road Show
Curriculum Map Creator, Writer, Editor, Graphic Designer, Video Editor / Producer, General Project Management
Taylor "AceVootaloPilot" Ralph
Writer, Fact-Checker, Video Producer, Trainer, Streamer
zgmftestament
Writer, Fact-Checker
Hiro - Discord: Hiro#7248 / Twitch
Writer, Fact-Checker, Knowledgebase God
Special Thanks
Acidace / Cosmic / Ridler / C-Drive (that amazingly sexy EXEV logo is his doing)
Content Creators
Minato - YouTube / Twitch / Twitter
GM Custom - YouTube / Twitch / Twitter
K8u / Nen - YouTube
LukewarmHoliday - YouTube / Twitch / Twitter
Brett - YouTube / Twitch / Twitter
Game Studio CUBE Koenji - YouTube
Sites
JP MBON Wiki / Google Translate (English) Link - Ed. Note: Treat this resource like The Word Of God
Early Bird Special Thanks
This guide went through a metric ton of research, rewriting, revisions, scaffolding, structuring and development. When it was nearly time to release it upon the world, we asked for volunteers to give us feedback on the guide at the 85~90% complete stage. These are the names of the wonderful people that helped make this guide the best thing it could be at launch.
dwix85
FLAVORTOWN CEO
Powa
Niwona
Netmonmatt
Tekka
darkmonk
Furutsu
Flippanaut
Bulletprccf
AstonishingAce
scholarlygamer
cbizzle2590
Broomhandle45
Vexanon
Gordunk
I Be Smart
How To Use This Guide
This guide will be broken up into five main sections, starting at the brand-new, first-time player concerned with basic execution and ending at the well-versed expert player concerned with advanced mechanical application and mid-match game theory. These sections have been layered in such a way that each set of skills and concepts should logically layer onto the ones taught in previous sections.
Please consider this rough guideline when asking yourself “Where should I begin?”:
-Guide Stages-
Beginner ( Execution Wall / Low Context ) - - - - - ( Application Wall / High Context ) Expert
New Player: so you want to play Gundam (◼◻◻◻◻)
Advanced Beginner: so you want to play online (◻◼◻◻◻)
Intermediate: so you want to get good (◻◻◼◻◻)
Advanced Intermediate: so you want to get better than good (◻◻◻◼◻)
Expert: so why aren’t you helping us right now (◻◻◻◻◼)
Note: All BLUE headers of sections with .gif format example images are links to 1080p, 60fps MP4 format versions of those images!
SECTION ONE: NEW PLAYER
so you want to play Gundam
The Most Basic of Basics
In this section, we’re going to start you off with the most basic rundown of the game’s mechanics and core concepts. Nothing too wild or wacky, just the purest “what you need to know to begin playing MBON” information you can get. As you progress through the guide’s levels, you will need to have a firm grip on the information detailed in these earlier sections, so make sure you learn the information here and practice it to the point where it becomes automatic.
So first, let’s start with a look at the controls.
Controls
Arcade Stick Controls
DualShock 4 Gamepad Controls
Be aware that all controls and inputs in this guide will not be referred to by their PlayStation button designations. You will only see “ A / B / C / D “ or “ Shot / Melee / Boost / Change Target / etc. “
Furthermore, be aware that all directional inputs will be denoted using numpad notation, as illustrated in the prior infographics. A slightly more detailed explanation follows:
Numpad Notation
- 7 8 9
4 5 6
1 2 3
- 5 is neutral
- 8 is up, 2 is down
- 4/6 are left/right, aka Side Inputs
Basic Buttons / Functions / Controls / Concepts
Movement
- Accomplished by moving the stick in the desired direction.
- Despite it being the simplest way to move, you will rarely - if ever - walk anywhere in this game.
Blocking / Guard
- Move the stick 2~8, or Down, then quickly move Up. Can be held, but this costs boost meter.
- Can be used in overheat (more on that later).
- Sides and back are exposed. Exceptions exist, but are suit-specific.
Shot (A)
- Press A to shoot people. Pretty self-explanatory.
- Hold A until charge completes, then release.
- Commonly abbreviated as csA / csB.
Melee (B)
- Press B to hit people with close-range attacks.
- Can often be modified with directional input.
- Shown, in sequence:
- BB ~ 8BB (two melee hits, stick up, two melee hits)
- >> BBBB (boost dash, four melee hits)
- 4/6BBB (side input, three melee hits)
Ed. Note: Notation is covered in detail in Section Two: Advanced Beginner
- Can be Boost Dash canceled or Stepcanceled to extend combo strings (more on these later). Some suits also have dedicated melee counter tools, often placed on 2B (Down + Melee). Check individual suit command lists for more info.
Boost (C)
- The most important resource in the game. Governs movement, defensive & evasive options.
- Replenished by landing. The more boost you have when you land, the faster it refills, and the the less you have at landing, the larger window you have to get attacked (generally speaking).
- Tap C to hop. Hold C to vertically rise until the meter depletes.
- G Gundam suits jump a fixed height in exchange for a section of meter.
- Double-tap C to dash in the direction you’re currently facing or inputting.
- Double-tap any cardinal direction to dodge incoming fire.
Breaks projectile tracking. - 22 / 44 / 66 / 88 (aka Down, Down / Left, Left / Right, Right / Up, Up)
Overheat
- Full depletion of boost gauge equals inability to use most boost-based techniques. No jump, no dash, no step dodge.
- You can still block, but the timing must be exact. Your shield will remain up while taking fire, but mistiming the block will result in you eating the hit. You will automatically drop the shield and fall straight down, should nothing be blocked.
- Long recharge time on landing. Your likelihood of getting shot / hit is very high.
- Some weapons / tools / suit-specific movement options may be used in Overheat.
- 25 seconds in Overheat state = Overheat Stun penalty.
- Unable to take any action until full boost recovery.
Change Target (D)
- Arguably the most important button in the entire game.
- Your movement around the field revolves around / is relative to your current target.
- You can change targets at any time, even to keep an eye on an enemy’s actions while you’re mid-melee string on their partner (more on this later).
Button Combinations
- A + B
- A + C
- B + C
- NOTE: Directional variants can exist.
Check individual suit command lists for more info.
Burst
- Super meter. Dealing damage, taking damage and blocking damage fills the gauge.
Activated by inputting A + B + C
- Can be activated at 50%, but not while being hit (unless using Extend).
Fighting
- Buffs:
- Boost Recovery : ◼◼◼
Boost Efficiency : ◼◻◻
Melee Damage + : ◼◼◻
Range Damage + : ◻◻◻
Reload Speed + : ◼◻◻
Lock-on Range + : ◻◻◻
Defense + : ◼◻◻
Mobility + : ◼◼◼ - Special Effects:
First hit of most melee attacks can break an opponent’s guard, causing a pop-back stun. Can directly cancel ranged attacks into melee attacks. Can directly cancel melee attacks into melee-based supers. Melee attack tracking is greatly enhanced.
Shooting
- Buffs:
- Boost Recovery : ◼◻◻
Boost Efficiency : ◼◼◻
Melee Damage + : ◻◻◻
Range Damage + : ◼◼◻
Reload Speed + : ◼◼◼
Lock-on Range + : ◼◼◻
Defense + : ◼◻◻
Mobility + : ◼◻◻ - Special Effects:
Can freely cancel ranged attacks into any other ranged attack or projectile, enabling a continuous curtain of fire. Can freely stepcancel ranged attacks. Can cancel any ranged attacks into any burst-based super attack, whether melee, ranged or status-based.
Ed. Note: Stepcanceling is covered in Section Two: Advanced Beginner
Extend
- Buffs:
- Boost Recovery : ◼◼◻
Boost Efficiency : ◼◼◻
Melee Damage + : ◻◻◻
Range Damage + : ◻◻◻
Reload Speed + : ◼◻◻
Lock-on Range + : ◼◻◻
Defense + : ◼◼◻
Mobility + : ◼◼◻ - Special Effects:
Can be used at 50% or higher to escape damage. Enables the ability to boost step diagonally. Significant defense buff of 30%.
Burst Attack / EX Super Moves
- A + B + C while Burst is active.
- Some suits have special EX moves on 2A + B + C.
- They will usually be buff / status based, but not always.
Cost
- Cost is a measure of how much weight a suit places on a team.
- A team’s cost pool is 6000 points. When that pool is exhausted, that team loses the match.
Cost Classes
1500
- Legend: 1500s are generally fragile, utilize more gimmicks, and have less overall boost reserves. It’s easy to be tempted to carry less per-death mathematical burden to your team, but despite that, you should know that these suits are geared more towards experienced players that can mitigate weaknesses with superior technique.
- Ace: 1500s mostly have unique toolkits that enable them to play matches quite differently than the rest of the cast. They offer a diversity of playstyles despite occupying only 26 slots in the roster. Acguy and GunEZ will use a plethora of assists to befuddle and overwhelm your target, Ez8 and Hildolfr use hard-hitting long range attacks, Gouf Custom and Efreet will use powerful close-range tools to disrupt the frontline, and other 1.5k suits have unique toolkits to leverage their very low stats. Because of their low stats, these MS are generally not recommended for those just learning how to play. If your heart is set on playing a particular 1.5k class suit at this stage, I recommend that you reach out to a more experienced player, or can find a reliable guide / demonstration on how to play it effectively. Take notes as you start trying to learn it.
2000
- Legend: These suits tend to be versatile, all-rounder units, or strong specialist suits. There are very solid beginner to intermediate-level picks in this cost class.
- Ace: 2000s also have a wide range of playstyles available, but are generally focused on supporting their partner by applying pressure to make the opponent spend boost. The specific toolkit and traits of a 2k will determine whether your MS makes pushes more often or spends their uptime zoning and dealing damage at range. As an example, Exia’s toolkit encourages him to play at a close-to-mid range so that he can easily make pushes or fall back to protection as the situation changes. Alternatively, Gunner Zaku Warrior favors staying at mid-to-long range so it can deal damage with a powerful main weapon. Taking the time to experiment with new 2k suits and getting a feel for their kits, as well as asking for advice or looking for demonstrations of successful gameplay will help you to know how different suits play in this tier.
2500
- Legend: You’re going to find strong tools, health and boost reserves here. Some might say that the absolute best beginner picks live in this cost class, but all skill levels can make great use of these suits.
- Ace: 2500s generally have higher stats and can leverage their HP and mobility to influence the pace of a match. Suits like GP03 will use long-range tools and some close-range disruption to punish landings, apply pressure from a distance from a distance, and zone opponents. Meanwhile, Crossbone X1 can fight mid-to-close range and use aggressive positioning to force opponents to expend boost or risk eating an anchor whip, melee combo, or both. As with other costs, take time to watch replays or get tips on how to play any 2500 cost MS you’re looking to play.
3000
- Legend: Generally speaking, this cost class is the home of high firepower, large boost reserves, great tools and high suit health. However, such potential for battlefield supremacy carries significant cost risk, especially if you’re the second one shot down in a match.
- Ace: 3000s will usually have stats that outweigh the other cost classes. This tier of suits will usually be able to move about the map without expending as much boost and, as such, can position themselves more aggressively. They also tend to have similarly overwhelming toolkits. Xi and Penelope can saturate the air with beams and missiles to stifle opponent movements. Zabanya and Wing Zero (Endless Waltz version) have kits that enable them to zone opponents, effectively making them untouchable when played well. Turn A Gundam and Burning (God) Gundam threaten their opponents by having powerful mid-to-close range kits, and are capable of dealing substantial amounts of damage to careless opponents.
- Cost is a major factor of team composition, but you don’t need to worry about that now. Upcoming sections will cover this and more in much greater detail.
- Cost is most easily described as a classification system of which suits generally have higher health, more useful / more powerful tools and more boost to use.
- Exceptions definitely exist, some 3000s have much lower health, some 1500s have really strong tools and do a ton of damage.
HUD
1: Suit Health
- This is the amount of health your suit currently has. Run out, you explode.
2: Partner Health
- This is the amount of health your partner currently has. Run out, they explode.
3: Team Health
- Your suit cost (1500, 2000, 2500, 3000) is deducted from this 6000-point bar whenever you’re shot down and respawn. Run out, and the match is over.
Cost Over (HIGHLY IMPORTANT)
- If your suit cost exceeds the remaining team health amount, you respawn in a state called “Cost Over,” in which your suit health is rounded to an equivalent of the remaining amount.
- i.e. 1500 points remaining to respawn a 3000 suit =
3000 suit respawns at 50% health - Ergo, if 500 points remain to respawn a 3000 suit =
3000 suit respawns at 16.7% health
4: EX Meter
- This bar builds as you deal and take damage, and powers your Burst state.
- You can also use blocking to farm meter to a limited degree, the first attack blocked will earn you 2.5% meter charge. Subsequent attacks during the same guarding action earn no meter charge, but each new instance of blocking will gain another 2.5% meter charge from the first attack blocked in the string.
5: Boost Meter
- This bar displays the remaining amount of Boost you have to perform actions.
6: Radar
- This displays the relative positions of all players in the match.
7: Time
- This is the remaining time in the match.
8: Enemy Name / Health
- This is the name of the suit, and the bar relays the relative amount of health it has remaining.
- When playing online, you will also see the name of the player using it.
9: Enemy Lock / Lock Types
- This color / type will govern or inform a lot of the context behind the application of any offensive actions and whether or not their chance to hit is successful.
- Green Lock
- Fire will not track the enemy. Shots travel along the line in which they were fired. Some long-distance shots (big beams in particular, hereafter referred to as gerobi) can hit their target, but the target must be standing still, or your aim game is that on-point.
- Your suit’s movement will not anchor itself to / revolve around a target.
- Red Lock
- Fire will actively track the enemy, meaning that projectiles will curve their approach in flight toward whoever is in red lock. Some projectiles track better than others.
- An additional indicator will show up inside the reticle when you are in melee range.
- Your suit’s movement will be anchored to / revolve around this target.
- Yellow Lock
- The enemy suit is unable to be hit. This is the knockdown state.
- Exceptions to “unable to be hit” exist, but are somewhat specific.
- Double Lock
- An additional indicator will show up on the outer ring of the reticle, indicating that both you and your partner have locked onto the same target.
- Ace: Also called “Shared Target.” If you and your opponent are targeting the same opponent, an additional (and smaller) reticle will appear on the top-right corner of the primary reticle. This can help you non-verbally coordinate positioning and offensive pushes with your partner.
10: Ammo Count
- This is a list of your suit’s available weapons and the amount of ammo / charge they have remaining. If a weapon has no ammo and can be used indefinitely, it may not even show up here, as there is no need to count ammo for a weapon with an unlimited amount of it.
What do I do now?
Well, now that you’ve had an introduction to basic controls, maneuvers and concepts, it’s time to take this knowledge...and play some single-player Branch Battle / Arcade Mode or some Free Battle mode for a little bit. Really take the time to get these controls into muscle memory. If you’re used to fighting games, it won’t take you long at all, and if you’re not used to fighting games, don’t worry - you should immediately feel it in your hands that this game is nowhere near as complicated or mechanically demanding as a standard fighter.
With that said, the fundamental concepts present in a traditional fighting game are just as present here - ranged attacks, close attacks, cancels, combos, meter management, space control, active frames, recovery frames, etc. - but the input complexity required to achieve desired results is much lower, and thus player-based expression may feel more easily achieved.
Our recommendation is to start your journey by playing with the RX-78-2 Gundam - the venerated original - as it represents a suit that embodies the fundamentals of the game, the “Ryu” of MBON, as it were. It’s not overpowered in any sense, but it also has no glaring weaknesses, either. It is the perfect suit with which to learn the game’s basic functions and feel. With that said, there are many good suit choices for beginners, but instead of giving you a small list of options, there’s a better way:
K1 has compiled a fantastic Google Sheet organizing the entire MBON roster by how suitable they are for a particular skill level, sorted by cost class. We recommend checking this out. It’s great.
Once you’ve spent enough time playing the game to where you are comfortable with performing the actions outlined in this section at will and on demand, you’ll be ready to move on to the next section of this guide...and take your first steps into playing against other human beings.
- zgmftestament: As you go through Arcade Mode, your primary focus should be to use those early stages to practice boost dashing. This is a foundational action that will be used for every
aspect of EXVS, from defense and offense, to positioning and maintaining team formation, and everything else in between. You should have a goal to be able to boost dash at will, to anywhere you need to be, whenever you need to get there.
Never, ever simply walk somewhere, boost dash over there instead. Every time.
It's important to devote time to practicing boost dashing technique in particular, because very few other games will have "direction and pressing a button twice" as a standard movement requirement. You need to give your hands the requisite muscle memory to perform this action without thinking. It's shockingly common to see beginners do a double jump during matches when they intend to boost dash, and it's because they're not used to the timing of this specific command. Incidentally, if this is what’s happening to you, you're probably hitting the second button press a little too slow / too late. Two quick, consecutive taps gets you in motion.
SECTION TWO: ADVANCED BEGINNER
so you want to play online
Here’s Where The Game Truly Begins
Now that you have a general understanding of controls, basic maneuvers and commands, you know what you’re looking at on-screen, and you’re comfortable enough with the controls to do the basics without even thinking, it’s time to hand you the next set of skills you’re going to need, especially if you’re going to play online against other human beings. And honestly, this should be your goal!
As this guide progresses, you’ll notice a shift in focus from very rote “press X to do Y” directions to something more akin to “here’s what you do, and here’s when you should do that thing, and here’s why you should do that thing at that time.” The rationale behind this is simple; the deeper you dive into understanding the finer details of this game, the more that context becomes necessary. This guide is primarily written with the aim of demystifying the details and techniques the game doesn’t really teach you, so this is where you start learning the things that lead to you gaining an edge in battle, and we’re going to start that process by introducing you to Notation, then Boost Canceling.
Some of these terms in the notation breakdown will be new to you, but don’t worry; they’re coming.
EXVS Notation
- Shot: A
- Melee: B
- Boost: C
- Change Target: D (rarely used in notation)
- Charge Shot A: csA
- Charge Shot B: csB
- Sub: AB
- Special Shot: AC
- Special Melee: BC
- Burst / EX Attack: ABC
- Mobile Armor Mode / Transformation: MA
- Step / Step Cancel: >
- Boost Dash / Boost Cancel: >>
- Natural Cancel (i.e. Shot-to-Sub): →
- Route Cancel: ~
So, in order to say, “with RX-78, neutral melee twice, shift stick up and melee once, immediately cancel that hit into special melee, then fire your charged shot on main,” you would read:
Or maybe you wish to say, “with RX-78, throw javelin, immediately boost cancel into firing main and natural cancel into sub,” in which case, it would read as:
This is how this guide will communicate these concepts to you in the future. This section will do you the favor of explaining the concept or technique before giving you the notation version of it, but in later sections of the guide (as well as most other materials concerning the EXVS series), you will be expected to be able to read this notation style, so study it and become comfortable with it.
Legend: You may be asking yourself, “what’s the difference between ~ and →, because it seems like they’re talking about the same thing,” and you’re not entirely wrong to think that. However, there is a specific, crucial difference between these two cancel types in this game’s notation:
- ~ denotes a cancel that requires a directional input to modify the next action
- → denotes a cancel where the next action cancels the recovery of the prior action
This is why → is termed as a “natural cancel,” because that action will naturally cancel the recovery animation of the previous attack or action into the active animation of the desired immediate action, with no need for directional modifiers or boost-based tools. Hope this helps to clarify things!
Boost Canceling
- Simply put, Boost Canceling is the act of Boost Dashing (BD) in order to cancel the remaining animation of any move, provided you have the boost meter to make it happen.
- Press CC to Boost (Dash) Cancel. Neutral (5) launches you in the direction you’re facing. Any other directional input will result in a dash in the desired direction.
- In EXVS Notation: >>
- Shot, Boost Cancel, Shot, Boost Cancel, Shot
- In EXVS Notation: A >> A >> A
- This is an absolutely crucial technique designed to do one of two things:
- Land three consecutive hits, scoring a yellow lock knockdown.
- This is preferably done when punishing landings.
- Pressure an opponent into burning their boost reserves to evade fire.
- Press CC during any melee attack string to cancel it.
- In EXVS Notation: BB >>
- Be aware that while this does stop your string and allow you to restart again, thus lengthening your combo string, this technique leaves you vulnerable to being cut, meaning attacked / shot / hit during your string, stopping it cold. Boost canceling melee hits does not break incoming projectile tracking.
Move / Natural Canceling
- Shot, then Sub-Weapon
- In EXVS Notation: A → AB
- The sub shot will fire immediately after your main shot. Almost all sub-weapons are a natural cancel from your suit’s main shot, although this can and will vary from suit to suit. It’s always a good idea to check and see what your suit’s cancel routes are.
Melee Deviations / Cancel Routes
- Move the lever in another direction during a melee string.
- In EXVS Notation: BB ~ 8BB
- Shifting your directional input at specific intervals during a melee string can yield very different results. With RX-78, BBB (5BBB can also be used, but no number indicated generally assumes neutral stick position) is a three hit string. However, you can get more damage and some followup opportunities from 5BB ~ 8BB, a four-hit string.
- Experiment with directional input during your suit’s melee strings, and you can find cancel routes that open up all sorts of possibilities. You can find a lot of specific information in online knowledgebase materials, but that’s discussed later on.
Stepcanceling / Rainbow Step
- During any melee attack, double-tap any cardinal direction, up / down / left / right.
- In EXVS Notation: B >
- This technique is much like boost canceling melee attacks, except it is much faster in speed than a boost dash cancel in exchange for slightly higher boost meter consumption than a regular sidestep. Stepcanceling melee attacks creates a rainbow trail effect, hence the nickname “rainbow step.” It also has the bonus effect of breaking incoming projectile tracking.
Mobile Armor Mode / Transformation
- Hold C / Boost and quickly double-tap a direction.
- In EXVS Notation: MA
- Some suits have the ability to transform into an alternate mode (flight, etc) that grants them greater mobility and higher boost meter efficiency, but can also be somewhat difficult to control and can create vulnerabilities. This transformation may also be achievable through cancel routes or special commands, and this can normally be used in combos for that suit.
- Some suits have situational transformation ability, and this involves specific conditions.
Advanced HUD
- Melee Reticle
- Ace: When your MS enters melee range, your primary reticle will change and gain a more detailed pattern inside. This new reticle indicates that melee strikes should now be able to reach your target. This marker, in conjunction with learning the range of your melee kit, can help you know when a melee push can or can’t be secured.
- Lock-on Notification
- When the enemy has decided to lock on to your MS, a yellow indicator will appear on the sides of your screen, use this to find out from which direction the enemy is locking on to you. If both targets are locking onto you from the same direction only 1 notification will appear.
- Incoming Fire Notification
- When you’re taking incoming fire, you’ll get a visual indicator - a red box - at the top, the bottom, or to either side of the screen, about ⅓ of the way from the screen border. This will indicate what direction you’re being attacked from.
- Radar Positioning
- Ace: The radar gives live feedback on where each opponent and your partner is at a given moment. The radar can be used to coordinate team positioning with your partner or to gain a general sense of awareness on how all players are currently positioned.
Comms
Usage
- Ace: Comms are customizable, pre-set phrases that can be used to communicate your intentions to your partner during the match and to convey pre- and post-game messages. The communication button can be pressed along with 2 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 8 inputs in order to select the desired message. PLEASE NOTE that the 5 input for comms cannot be changed; refer to the Etiquette section below for details. The default comm layout contains the most general messages, but more specific messages are available for mid-game and post-game communication. Take time to review the layout of your comm options to understand what your default options are, or update them to suit your personal style or to help your partner better understand your actions.
Etiquette
- Ace: The history of the Extreme VS series in the West goes back to when only the Japanese and Asian releases of the games were the only versions available to play, and as a result, some of the in-game comms etiquette is centered around Japanese customs for communication. Because of this, it was standard practice to neutral comm “よろしくお願いします” (yoroshiku onegaishimasu) pre-match to encourage your team to do their best. Mid-match, you would use neutral comm to convey how much life you have left through color-coded messages. The closer to red your message was, the more damage your suit had taken. Post-game, it was typical to say “ありがとうございました” (arigatou gozaimashite) to thank your partner for the match.
In the localized English translation of MBON, these phrases are now changed to “Let’s Do This!” and “Thank you.” If you happen to play with someone used to the Japanese custom, you may receive a “Thank you.” comm after a decisive loss. Be careful: do not immediately assume that this is bad manners or an attempt at being passive-aggressive, as it is very possible that your partner is simply thanking you for the chance to play. Since MBON is now globally available, other language differences may now apply as well, so always be thoughtful in your online communication with others.
Cutting
- Legend: The act of cutting is when you stop someone from attacking by hitting them, usually with a ranged attack. If you’re stopping an enemy from doing melee damage to your teammate by firing at them, you’re cutting their combo short and allowing your teammate to either turn the tables, or gain safe distance.
Damage Scaling
- Legend: Every time you hit an opponent with an attack, you tack on two things: one, damage value, and two, down value. Down value constantly accumulates, and once you hit a specific value threshold, you trigger a yellow-lock downed state in your target. Damage scaling states that the more hits there are in a string, the less damage each hit delivered in succession will do.
This means that longer combos will often do less damage for the amount of work you do and - in most cases - the amount of boost you’re likely to burn. The game ensures that you are completely free to run face-first into the wall of diminishing returns whenever you like, even if you look cool doing it. However, this is not ideal.
- Say your bread-and-butter tactic is to start a basic four hit melee string with a natural cancel finisher and walk away doing 230dmg+ with a yellow-lock knockdown.
Now, you can do three hits of that string, then stepcancel, repeat the three hit string, stepcancel again, then repeat the string again, but you might only end up landing two hits out of four on the final repetition of that string, all due to the accumulation of down value in each attack.
You’ll also notice that string has done maybe 225~250dmg at best, which is a huge step down from your attacks-to-damage ratio in the simpler string. Furthermore, you had three moments during that string in which you were an easy target - the opener, the middle, and the end, and at that point you’re almost assuredly boost-deficient, if not full-on sprinting into Overheat territory.
So, to maximize the efficiency of both damage and down values in your strings, your best bet is to keep them short and strong. It’s often better to easily land four or five attacks in the low-to-mid 200s and be able to safely double-lock the other guy with some boost left in the tank, much more so than to stunt on somebody but not have the boost to afford tactical options after the fact, especially if you haven’t racked up enough damage to have justified making such a choice.
Down Value
- Legend: But what about “helping” your partner?
- Each attack carries a specific amount of down value, and each successive hit increases that value until the game forces a yellow-lock knockdown in which the target is mostly invulnerable and able to wake up at will. Every initial hit and finishing hit adds the most down value and damage scaling, the attacks in between tend to add less.
Let’s say you’re hitting an enemy, and your partner fires a gerobi (big beam) at them during your combo string. That shot is going to be treated as a separate attack, so the damage scaling will increase greatly, and the down value will follow suit. In a situation where you were capable of dealing an easy 230dmg+, you now only dealt 150dmg and their shot only added another 40dmg while kicking them into yellow-lock knockdown...and that’s assuming their shot didn’t hit you.
If they shot the opponent and hit you at the same time, that shot will result in the same scenario while dealing damage to you. While that shot will deal less damage to you than it would an opponent - i.e. their gerobi does 230dmg raw, if you’ve taken no hits and have no accumulated down value, let’s say it’ll hit you for 110dmg - it still damages you, regardless.
If it tripped their down value threshold, that opponent will fall out of that beam early and stop taking damage, and you’ll be left in it, still riding the lightning. Their inability to just let you do your thing will save the enemy from taking your string’s full damage, which then leaves them wide open for being attacked by the remaining enemy while your partner is busy melting their own teammate. This can only end up making your job as a team that much harder, in the long run.
Take that previous scenario, and imagine if it were a game-winning clash between you and the enemy at low health, and you would have won the match by completing your full string, but your partner killed you instead of firing on the other enemy teammate.
Hitting that enemy with that gerobi wasn’t all that helpful, now was it?
In short, it’s almost always a good idea to not fire on an enemy being hit by your teammate. Instead, focus your attention on the other guy and stop them from cutting your teammate’s damage output. Your team’s cost bar math will almost certainly thank you for your discretion.
- What if my teammate is being hit by the opponent?
- Now in that situation, that is the time to fire. The opposite effect happens here: your teammate is likely getting rocked by increasing amounts of close-range damage, so firing that big shot is going to trigger your partner’s down value threshold, and as such, you’ll do a mere fraction of the already-reduced friendly-fire damage as a result.
The enemy, on the other hand, is likely to have no down value currently tacked onto them, so they’ll eat the full force of whatever you threw at them. Bonus points if it’s huge. Everyone loves winning on an insult.
However, if they’re both at low enough health, you’ll still run the risk of killing your teammate. Sometimes a feather is just better suited to the task than a hammer is, and as such, sometimes a single beam rifle shot is a smarter move than a face-eraser csB gerobi. Be aware. Stay aware.
The Math Game (Cost Over)
Legend: So, you’re playing a team with two strong suits, and you know you want to put them away quickly, because a long, protracted battle carries a larger risk of loss. The question becomes, “how do we achieve that?”
The answer is simple; force Cost Over state on the strongest unit. Every single time.
When the match begins, you’ll see all four players, their suit choices, and their costs.
At this moment, your first thought should be “the 3000 suit is likely to have more health, stronger, more damaging tools, and the largest amount of boost reserves, so this suit should be considered the primary threat.” Conventional wisdom would state that removing what is seen as the primary threat should be your first item of business. However, this isn’t the strongest or most sound tactical plan. Quite the opposite, in fact.
If you take out the 3000 cost suit first, that suit has the luxury of respawning at full health, meaning it is a renewed, fully-powered and resurrected threat on the field. This leaves you fighting a full-time bully throughout the duration of the match. If your team were to focus their efforts on taking out the 2500 cost unit first, this leaves 3500 left in the team’s health pool. Destroying the 3000 cost unit under these circumstances leaves the suit with 500 points with which to respawn, meaning it comes back at 1/6 of its total health, approximately 16.7%. This is a profoundly bad place to be, as it creates a situation in which that team’s big guns are now a serious liability to their survival.
If you’ve played a match against a really aggressive Bael, God, Master or Epyon, this scenario is what causes them to think twice before attempting another assault.
In closing, you should always prioritize the death of the lowest-cost enemy suit first. Alternatively, if you are piloting the highest-cost suit for your team, you should prioritize your own death first. If you’re the lowest cost suit, you should hang back and let your high-cost partner take the hit before you step into the aggressor’s role. Then, as you go into lower health, let them take the lead again at full health.
This strategy informs the theoretical basis of playing “front” and “back” roles during a match, and this will be discussed in greater detail in the next section, as it is probably the most massive strategic cornerstone to match play theory in the EXVS franchise.
What do I do now?
Now that you have the requisite skills and concepts to truly reach basic proficiency, you’re ready to jump online and start duking it out with friends, rivals and the rest of the world. However, during your online travels, you might get to the point where you’re feeling like you’re not quite landing the shots you want to, or you’re always a little too slow on recovery, or you’re not able to understand why you’re taking damage and they’re not. We assure you that there is a very good reason for that, and if you want to truly understand the “why” behind that reason, you should read the next sections.
You’ve been handed the basics of playing MBON, enough to ensure that you are mechanically knowledgeable enough to play against your fellow human beings, but from here on out, improving your gameplay becomes about learning and applying multiple micro-optimizations to your actions in real time. The mechanical aspect, the “what do I do” question, is slowly going to become less important (or more accurately, your mechanics-based responses will become automatic by virtue of practice), and the “when do I do” question is about to start taking center stage in a major way.
There will be moments in the next section where you learn something new in terms of mechanical application, but it’s going to use the buttons and functions you’ve already learned in the prior two sections, so there’s no real difficulty spike in the “how do I do it” department. On the contrary, the answer to the “when do I do it” question is about to completely revolutionize your playstyle. In the meantime, go play, have fun, and really get comfortable with everything you’ve learned.
When you’re ready to start seeing just how deep this game gets, hit the next section.
SECTION THREE: INTERMEDIATE
so you want to get good
Every Little Bit Counts
So you’ve picked up the basics, you’ve educated yourself on a few of the finer points of play, you’ve taken your first steps into the online arena...and you’re doing alright, but you see some players are just doing things better than you are. If you’re anything like most newer players are, you’re aware of the fact that they’re doing something different than you, but you might be having trouble figuring out precisely what it is they’re doing differently or discerning how they’re playing differently than you do. This is 100% normal, and this is probably the hardest wall to overcome without external guidance.
Luckily, said external guidance is right here, right now. Welcome to the rest of the guide, in which you learn about how to begin optimizing your playstyle in order to get those extra little bits of performance, the kind of little bits that cumulatively enable substantial differences in outcomes. So, pay close attention and start finding ways to implement everything in this section, because this will genuinely revolutionize your gameplay, especially if you’re unaware of the things listed in this section.
Let’s start with the most important aspect of the game: Boost Management.
Boost Management
Boost Recovery
- Ace: Also called “Landing Recovery” or simply “Landing.” This is a lag phase in which a mobile suit that has consumed boost recovers all of the meter in an instant. Actions can’t be performed while Landing and the duration of this input lockout is determined by the amount of boost remaining when you land.
Bar color and defensive effect
Ace: As you consume boost, the boost gauge will deplete and its color will gradate from blue to red. Each color imposes a different landing duration for your landing. Blue will impose the smallest landing penalty, while overheating will impose the strictest / longest. Your landings will be most vulnerable when landing in a red boost gauge or overheat, so ensure your boost is committed wisely. Regard your boost as a precious resource that must be spent judiciously, and acquaint yourself with how many boost dashes your mobile suit can safely execute before overheating.
Legend: If you want to see the numbers on this, I’ve made a video just for that.
- Ace: Boost Dash Jump (BD Jump) is an effective movement tool and the easiest method of chaining momentum from a previous action. While in a boost dash, which may be sustained by holding either C or a direction, tap C again to jump. The height of the jump can be increased by holding C for longer at the expense of consuming more boost. If successful, your jump will continue in the direction of your boost dash with a similar speed. Using BD jumps in a new suit can help to better acquaint you with how much mobility potential it has.
- Ace: Fuwafuwa (or Fuwa for short) is a Japanese phrase, a memetic reference to “walking on clouds.” This “cloudwalking” is simply adding an extra jump after a BD jump in order to delay landing and possibly fake out your opponent. While descending from a BD Jump, tap C again to do an additional midair jump. You can hold C to add more height to the jump, but be aware that whether you tap or hold C, most of your momentum will now be carried along the vertical y-axis rather than on the xz-plane, where a simple BD jump would remain.
- Ace: Similar to Fuwa, Fuwastep is a simple hop executed directly after a step. This can be applied to the regular step, rainbow step, or blue step. By tapping C shortly after starting a step, you can transfer the momentum of the step to a hop to increase the distance traveled from your step, as well as gain a more smooth landing (note: stepping mid-air and falling will trace the shape of an L, while fuwastepping will have a more parabolic curve).
Because rainbow steps and blue steps are faster, performing a fuwastep with them will give you a little more horizontal momentum. Fuwasteps also break the tracking of any projectile following you at the time of the step, so the benefits are twofold. Try to integrate fuwasteps to keep your BD jumps and landings from becoming predictable, and therefore easily punished. Jump Cancel
- Aqua: Press boost, then immediately step. Seems useless on paper, because you’re just boosting up and stepping, but if used at the correct times / in the correct situations, it can give you the edge in melee engagements. Using this, you’ve preemptively stepped before engaging in a rainbow war (where two opponents try to out-sidestep each other in order to score the first close-range hit), so you will have the advantage by virtue of launching the first strike in said rainbow war.
Stepping in the EXVS series doesn't show any visual effect during your step animation, which can be somewhat disorienting to players coming from Gundam Versus (GVS), as that game had a blue sliding effect on regular steps. So, if you input a jump cancel before engaging in a rainbow war, you can beat the incoming enemy’s melee attempt.
Ed. Note: Upper-left corner shows additional boost meter drain as a result of vernier state.
Click the blue link header for the full framerate version.
- Ace: Vernier is the state in which an action causes a mobile suit to either freeze suddenly or glide to a stop to perform an action and consumes boost. This is commonly seen with some weapons like bazookas, remote beam weapons (Funnels, Bits, INCOM’s, etc.), and some charge shots, to name a few. These weapons cause a vernier state, so that the used weapon can enter an aiming phase called “muzzle correction,” which is described in the section below under “Tracking.”
Vernier can also occur with weapons that do not normally cause vernier, such as a beam rifle if the firing mobile suit is not facing the target. Vernier animations can typically be canceled with a boost dash and different suits may have cancel routes from a vernier-causing move to one without vernier (thus triggering a freefall). Being mindful of your movement also means being mindful of triggering and canceling vernier states, so always experiment with a suit’s toolkit to understand their unique movement options.
Overheat Penalty
- Ace: Some MS can use charge shots and direct cancels to constantly move around the field or air stall, even after entering overheat. Overheat Penalty is a system mechanic that occurs after being in overheat for 25 seconds and it attempts to restrict unlimited movement via cancels. This mechanic will cause a paralyzing visual effect on your MS force you to freefall until landing. During this period and your landing, actions cannot be performed. A notorious example of frequent overheating is the Brave Commander, which has broad access to cancel routes that include effective movement tools for staying mobile during overheat.
Advanced Shooting and Movement
5 Shoot-To-Hit Moments (Hiro, courtesy of Cherudim)
1. Punishing Landings
- Ace: The easiest method to score hits on your opponent is to fire shots as they begin to land. Their landing has to be anticipated and the resulting shot correctly timed, as landing in Overheat only carries a delay of just over a second. Watching movement carefully and positioning well will enable you to land hits that you can follow up on.
2. Shooting During Vernier Actions / Attacks
- Ace: In some cases, an opponent may be using a move which causes vernier for a short or even long period of time. For example, if Sazabi chooses to fire a gerobi and waits until the attack is completely finished to BD cancel the vernier state -
Legend: or worse, the vernier state has forced Sazabi into Overheat, which means they can’t stop firing even if they wanted to, lol
- he will be unable to defend himself for the duration. Some vernier windows are much shorter, but if anticipated or spotted just in time, they are opportunities to land an attack or at least force your opponent to cancel their attack.
3. Combos
- Ace: Melee combos typically limit the player’s movement and keep them in roughly the same area, leaving them vulnerable for the combo’s duration. This is especially true if the combo doesn’t involve 1 or 2 rainbow steps that could give them the benefit of cutting the tracking of some weapon, such as a beam rifle.
If your opponent is using a melee combo on your partner, it may be possible for you to interrupt with a ranged weapon. Some combos are more evasive; however, the kinds of resources you commit to interrupting the combo also influences how punishable your opponent is. Exercising good judgement here is key.
4. Shooting Enemies Recklessly Moving Forward / In a Linear Fashion
- Ace: To better understand this, you should first visualize your mobile suit as a single point occupying an empty space in the playing field.
It can move up and down by jumping and falling, which is known as moving along the y-axis.
It can move left and right by dashing in those directions, which is known as moving along the x-axis.
It can also move forward and backwards by dashing in those directions as well, which is known as moving along the z-axis.
These axes form the basis of a three-dimensional xyz-plane of movement. Got that? Here’s where it gets applied:
If your opponent is directly in front of you at the 8 direction, with no obstacles in the way, then firing a beam rifle at them will hit even if they execute a boost step forward or backwards. Despite the step cutting the tracking on the beam rifle shot, your opponent has not changed their x-coordinate alignment by moving left or right, which leaves them vulnerable to any shot that will travel across their z-axis.
Accordingly, if an opponent rushes or retreats in a straight line, they are only moving relative to your z-axis and are vulnerable to attack. Even if your opponent isn’t initially moving towards or away from you, it is possible to realign your positioning to ensure that they are / do.
By aligning your z-axis to that of your opponent, you momentarily remove one of the three dimensions from the game, and this will make it substantially easier to land hits.
You can also coordinate with your partner to “vector lock” your opponent. If you can create a situation in which you fire from your opponent’s 2 position and your partner simultaneously fires from the opponent’s 4 position, you make that opponent’s entire xz-plane dangerous to navigate. Techniques like these can give you a serious edge, as they form the basis of strategic positioning.
5. Shooting at the Apex of a Jump (aka “the second landing”)
- Ace: This builds upon the concept of shooting at an opponent moving in a straight line. When your opponent BD Jumps, they will eventually reach the highest point of the jump. At that point, they stop travelling along the y-axis because their jump transitions to a fall and are momentarily static while gravity begins to pull them down. Although they may be continuing to move across their x-axis, if you reposition yourself to be following straight behind them, you can align your z-axis with their x-axis.
The relativistic effect of this makes it so that your opponent is effectively moving in a straight line. Some weapons have powerful tracking along the y-axis, meaning they can move up and down to catch your opponent better than some others. Depending on what your mobile suit has available, you may have an easy time punishing an opponent with this method.
Projectile Tracking
Effects
- Ace: Tracking is the nature of a weapon and its bullet to be guided towards the intended target. Attacks have a range of tracking strength qualified on a scale of “weak” to “strong.” A weapon’s tracking is also differentiated by the direction it tracks as either horizontal, vertical, or some combination of the two. As an example, if the bullet of a machine gun bends downwards or upwards more easily than it does to the left or right in pursuit of its target, then the machine gun can be said to have strong vertical tracking.
Tracking will remain in effect as long as the intended target does not perform an action to cut tracking, like stepping or activating a buff. Because it will continue to apply until canceled or the bullet is dissipated, the effects of tracking are more noticeable over long distances, where a bullet has more time to pursue its target.
Reticle Color
Ace: The color of the reticle indicates the status of your opponent and whether your shots will track or not.
- Red Lock
A red reticle indicates that your target is able to take damage from any melee or ranged attacks you launch and that your weapons and attacks will track normally.
Redlock Range
The reticle will turn red when your target enters within range of your weapons. This Redlock Range extends outwards from your mobile suit to a maximum distance as a radius. It is quantifiable by the square floor pattern on the “Training Stage.” It should be noted that while redlock range does extend upwards and downwards, there is a limit to how far the angle will reach. For example, if a target is directly above you, at your zenith, they will likely enter a green lock status, despite not being far in distance.
- Yellow Lock
A yellow reticle indicates that your target is either knocked down or recovering from being knocked down. The target can not be damaged while the reticle is yellow and can only be damaged after their wakeup invulnerability expires or until they attack (thus canceling the invulnerable status). While you remain in a red lock range of a target whose reticle is yellow, your attacks will track. If you are in a green lock range, your attacks will not track.
- Green Lock
A green reticle indicates that your opponent is outside of your mobile suit’s weapons range but they are able to take damage from attacks. Some attacks or their animation can exploit tracking, such as using a green-lock to lead a gerobi shot or a movement tool’s animation will carry you to the direction you face or input instead of towards the target.
Muzzle Correction
Ace: Muzzle Correction is the “aiming” phase of a weapon or attack that occurs when a weapon’s target is outside of the barrel’s skew. Weapons like Unicorn’s Beam Magnum have strong muzzle correction and, subsequently, have a noticeable delay between the time of input and the bullet firing. Most weapons undergo a muzzle correction prior to firing. In the case of most beam rifles, muzzle correction occurs without vernier, so long as the intended target is within the reach of the weapon’s firing arc. Other weapons, such as gerobi, bazookas, and whips tend to have a muzzle correction that verniers.
Weapon Skew
Ace: Weapon skew is the degree to which a weapon can be fired without muzzle correction. Most weapons have a narrow skew and require a muzzle correction, but some weapons will fire regardless of the direction the mobile suit or weapon is facing. Examples of these would be some assists, Turn A’s missiles (excluding 5ab), and the first phase of remote beam weapons’ tracking.
Firing Arc
Ace: The firing arc of a weapon is the angle within which a weapon can be fired without triggering a vernier state to enable muzzle correction. If the intended target of a weapon is outside of the weapon’s firing arc, then the mobile suit will reorient itself to enable muzzle correction and fire the weapon.
Camera Change
Legend: Many tools cause a dramatic camera change when using / firing them. This can cause you to lose sight of what’s going on, which can leave you at a distinct tactical disadvantage, as not seeing the battle conditions shift in real time means not being able to react appropriately.
You can fix that in most scenarios by simply inputting 2 / holding down on the stick during the use of these tools. Your camera angle will not change, and you will remain looking ahead while firing. This can make a huge difference in your ability to boost dash cancel a gerobi that someone dodged during charge, etc.
Ace: Some ranged attacks also cause a camera change effect. A typical example is the muzzle correction portion of a gerobi. These camera changes are usually more imperative to cancel because they leave both opponents out of view.
Thankfully, it is easy to do that: simply hold 2 while inputting such an attack and the camera change will not occur. Enjoy the satisfaction of evaporating half of your opponent’s HP from a better viewing angle...provided you land the shot, of course.
Tracking and Cancel Routes
Ace: Tracking begins when an attack input registers and executes. When cancel routes are used to follow up from an initial attack, any recognized cancel-based followup attack will inherit the tracking of the original attack. However, some attacks will cause an event called retracking where the tracking is refreshed. Retracking is most easily seen in a machine gun’s bullet stream reacquiring a target that has stepped during the MG’s firing.
Red-to-Green Tracking (aka “edgelock”)
Ace: Using cancel routes and the nature of tracking in tandem allows a player to attack from the edge of their redlock range (hence “edgelock”) and continue to do so after the target enters greenlock range. The tracking of subsequent attacks committed in greenlock range inherit the tracking of the initial attack’s redlock tracking, allowing some MS with strong ranged kits and cancels to attack from a very safe distance. Conversely, this effect can be negated by a step. If the target steps, any chained attacks using cancel routes that do not retrack, will follow to the location the target stepped at. If there is a retracking event, the attacks will track if the target has re-entered redlock range. If the target remains in greenlock, a retracking event will, as usual, only fire to the coordinate of the target at the time of input and not track.
- Legend: 90% csA, release and tap A to fire main shot, immediately press and hold A again to complete csA, release A to fire csA as the first shot lands.
- Ace: Second Impact is useful for quickly hitting an opponent with a shot, then a csA. It may be buffered indefinitely, so long as you avoid completing the charge. If it completes and you don’t want to release the attack, attempt to use a landing or some other animation which can’t be canceled, and then release the charge. This can also be applied to a csB charge you wish to buffer as well.
Multi-lock
- Legend: Multi-lock can be canceled with any B input, frame-1 firing is possible off of any B input for all suits. Throw an empty B, stepcancel out, and this will disengage multi-lock while keeping you safer than committing to a melee strike at random.
- Ace: If a csB happens to use a multi-lock, the converse holds true. Using A with a multi-locked csB will cancel the multi-lock, as well. As with the above advice of using a landing or other animation that can’t be canceled to reduce a capped charge, you can use the same method to reduce a charge and then reset the lock to a single target.
- Legend: Swivel is performed by rotating the stick while holding C / during a vertical rise. You can also point the stick in 90° intervals, so if you’re facing left (4) and wish to face forward (8), you can just point the stick up while facing a side. Your suit “swivels” around to face the direction in which you indicate, for a small amount of boost meter cost during ascent. This allows you to manually adjust firing angles or directly address an opponent without firing off-angle, as off-angle firing will almost always initiate a vernier state and therefore leave you defensively exposed and actively burning boost.
- Legend: Swerve is performed by rotating the stick during a boost dash, allowing you to alter your approach vectors via curving your movement angle. Going to the nearest 90° angle also works. This is the same principle, only in lateral travel instead of vertical.
- Ace: MS Rotation, simply called “Swerve” or “Swivel” is a technique integrated with Dash and Jump techniques to keep your mobile suit facing your attack target while maintaining evasive movement.
By inputting a new direction during a dash or jump, your mobile suit will rotate towards the new direction. This can be done by circling the stick from the direction you are going to the one you wish to face or by going straight to the new direction. For example, the former may resemble a 236 motion while the latter resembles a 4~8 motion.
Swerve may specifically refer to the turning efficiency of an MS in a dash, and Swivel may refer to the turning efficiency of an MS in a jump, but they are effectively the same phenomenon. The “Swivel” action will usually be more efficient than “Swerves” at making the MS rotate, but this is owed to the nature of momentum in EXVS. These are essentially the same actions, but with slightly different effects and applications, like how a figure skater gains more rotation speed during a spin by pulling their arms and legs closer to their center of mass, or leans to make a tight turn.
Weapon types & usages
Beam Saber / Swords / Melee Weapons
- Ace: Beam sabers are the iconic melee weapon of the Gundam franchise. They are treated as melee attacks, excluding occasions in which they are thrown as projectiles (See Javelins and Saber Tosses below). Melee attacks, beam saber or otherwise can be blocked by barriers that block melee attacks. They usually carry a down value of 2 on their initial hit while subsequent hits typically have a down value of 1 or less. The finishing move of a melee string will sometimes have a down value greater than 1, with some finisher options having a down value of 5 to guarantee that said finisher is the last hit an opponent takes.
Beam Rifle (BR)
- Ace: Beam rifles (BR for short) are the iconic ranged weapon of the Gundam franchise. Their bullets have a beam property and are absorbed by barriers which block beam projectiles. They usually have a brief muzzle correction period, with a few exceptions like Unicorn Gundam. The travel speed of the beam will vary by weapon. BR’s will cause an MS to stagger and will typically apply a down value of around 2, allowing three bullets to land before downing.
Bazooka / Rocket (BZ)
- Ace: Bazookas (BZ for short) fire a physical projectile that will explode upon contact with the first object they contact (so it is possible to intercept them). When the explosive lands, it will deal damage and explode, spawning a hitbox that will also deal damage and vary in size according to the particular weapon (This nature of a BZ will rapidly deplete a barrier). Most bazookas have a notably longer muzzle correction than the typical beam rifle and usually do not track as strongly as a beam rifle. The bullet speed of a bazooka will vary by weapon. BZ’s and their explosions are absorbed (at least in part by) barriers which block physical projectiles. BZ projectiles and their explosions will usually cause the target to be knocked up into the air. BZ projectiles typically have a down value of 2 and their explosions usually have a value of 0.5.
Gerobi (Big Beam)
- Ace: Gerobi are named for the Japanese slang for the attack’s primary visual property, a reference to the appearance of Big Zam “vomiting” beams. Gerobi fire a hitbox with beam properties that travel a long distance, usually the span of the map. It rapidly deals multiple hits of damage that cumulatively build to a larger number. The beam of a gerobi will not track, but they usually have either a lot of muzzle correction, fast travel speed, or both. Gerobi hits are absorbed by barriers which block beams, though they are typically strong enough to deplete a barrier and still deal some damage. Gerobi will usually apply a down value of around 0.25 per hit and hit about 20 times. Gerobi usually apply a knockdown status even if only 1 hit lands on the target, but do not immediately cause a yellow knockdown.
Boomerang
- Ace: Boomerang weapons travel a short distance at a fairly quick speed towards the opponent after a brief muzzle correction (akin to a bazooka’s) but do not exhibit a lot of tracking. They typically stall out after travelling their max distance and hover in place before tracing back to the firing MS. Boomerangs will hit multiple times for as long as an MS is in contact with the boomerang hitbox, and the boomerang will cause a stagger effect. Boomerangs will be blocked by barriers that absorb hits from physical projectiles. Boomerangs typically have a down value of around 0.2.
Whip
- Ace: Whips are fast weapons with range that are typically qualified as a melee attack, allowing you to rainbow step the whip or for the whip to even be blocked by a counter. Whips will usually apply some kind of down state, though the exact type will vary by MS and directional input options. They are blocked by barriers that absorb melee attacks and typically have a down value of around 2 or 3.
Javelins / Saber Toss
- Ace: Javelins and Saber Tosses may be any kind of weapon that is thrown by the mobile suit. This category is fairly broad so specific property will vary by MS, but these attacks are typically treated as physical projectiles. They will usually have low tracking strength with a slightly longer muzzle correction period. The projectile speed will also vary by MS. Some of these weapons cause a special paralysis stun on hit. Some of these weapon tosses will allow you to rainbow step their muzzle correction. Take time to lab or research the properties of these throwing weapons where applicable.
Hammer
- Ace: Fewer mobile suits use hammers as either melee weapons or ranged weapons, but some such as Kapool, Turn A, and RX78 do. Typically used as a melee weapon, they have the basic properties of melee attacks as written above. Turn A’s hammer is also used as a ranged weapon and is treated as a physical projectile that deals multiple hits, akin to a boomerang. A ranged hammer attack would be blocked by barriers that absorb physical projectiles (though not efficiently, as with boomerangs and BZ’s) and will likely inflict a special down state.
Remote Beam Weapons (Funnels / Bits / Etc.)
- Ace: Remote beam weapons (RBW) have different names (Funnel, Bit, INCOM, DRAGOON, etc.) depending on the series and/or specific weapon, but they typically involve the same concept. An RBW will detach from the firing mobile suit to approach the target then fire a beam or collide with the target. RBW’s may be deployed as all-range weapons or as a “Wall of Light.” RBW’s function correctly in green, yellow, or red lock. RBW’s that fire beams can cause a stagger or stun effect, though some specific RBW’s may need to land multiple beams to cause the stagger depending on the specific weapon, but most require 1 hit. RBW attacks will be absorbed by barriers that absorb beam and physical projectiles.
All-range Attack
- Ace: When an RBW is deployed as an all-range weapon, it chases the target until it reaches that target or until it travels the maximum distance that it is able to travel (travel distance varies by weapon). When the RBW finishes traveling, it undergoes a muzzle correction towards the target and fires a beam or attempts to collide with the target. Whether the RBW fires a beam or attempts to crash, the projectile will not exhibit strong tracking but will usually have a fast travel speed. If a beam is fired, the target will likely suffer a stagger or stun when hit. If the RBW crashes with the target, they may stagger or enter a special knock down state. In the case of beams fired from RBW’s, the down value is usually less than 1.
Wall of Light
- Ace: Some RBW’s may be deployed to hover around the host mobile suit. Mobile suits that can do this may be able to deploy around 6 or 8 (or more) RBW’s to hover nearby. The RBW’s can then be either chain-fired with main weapon or commanded to fire independent of main weapon. When chain-fired, a difficult to dodge “wall” of beams will quickly stagger, if not outright down, an approaching target. The RBW’s will usually mimic or simulate a beam rifles muzzle correction and correct briefly while firing. The specific attributes of a RBW’s deployed as a Wall of Light are typically similar to their attributes while deployed as an All-Range Attack.
Assists / Support
- Ace: Assists and Support attacks are brief “Summons” that attack independently of the summoning mobile suit. When an Assist is called, the calling mobile suit will usually vernier in a kind of summoning animation. Specific attributes and attacks will vary from assist to assist, but they are all vulnerable into being “fooled” by a dummy / decoy tool.
They can also be dodged by a simple step, unless the assist happens to have a re-tracking period in its attack at some point. Some assists can be shot down, but others may also function as a powerful barrier to block such attacks. - Legend: Most homing melee assists can get offensively shaken, but doing so requires a somewhat ballsy maneuver; let’s say your opponent fires a homing melee assist at you from your 8 direction (dead ahead). Now, you can definitely block it, you can also step it to break its tracking, or - and here’s where it gets ballsy - you can boost dash into it, albeit at an oblique oncoming angle relative to it, and in the current hypothetical example, this would be in a 7 or 9 direction.
As you move towards the assist and it closes the distance gap, you’re also angling away from a head-on collision with it, which means that the assist in question will have to continue onwards while lacking the turning radius required to catch you, as your approach angle combined with the lack of distance to cover has given it a much shorter window of tracking time to utilize. This will cause it to overshoot you and whiff while traveling onward through the space you had just previously occupied, which gives you an opportunity to reorient yourself by swerving (remember that?) into a strong firing angle on target.
Be aware that different assists have different properties and capabilities, so while this might work for some assists, others might be able to catch you trying this. This is where knowing your matchups and toolsets matters. Also, this trick is really meant for melee-style assists. For projectile assists, it’s often better to just step, or evade with lateral boost movement. If the projectile tracking or the muzzle correction before firing is strong on that particular assist, sharpening your approach angle can (and most likely will) get you smacked.
Special Movement
- Ace: Special movement tools and attacks are useful tools to navigate the map. They are usually qualified as a melee attack (allowing a rainbow step in such cases), but some ranged attacks may incorporate a special movement as well. Special movements can enable a mobile suit to move around the field more efficiently and leverage their positioning more efficiently than simply boost dashing and may provide some unconventional forms of protection. (Refer to Melee Attacks in Green Lock in Advanced Intermediate below for more details)
Enhancement Modes and Form Changes
- Ace: Enhancement modes are temporary buffs that enhance mobile suit performance, enable access to powered up toolkits, provide a form change, or some combination of these elements. Some mobile suits can also freely change equipment such as V2 or Strike. Both V2 and Strike also demonstrate an Enhancement mode that changes MS form on top of their form-changing toolkits. V2 does so with Assault parts and such, equipping both Assault and Buster parts for the temporary V2AB form. Strike shifts between Aile, Launcher, and Sword packs until the Integrated Weapons Striker Pack (I.W.S.P.) is available to use.
Dummies
- Ace: Dummies are effectively placeable stage hazards that some MS have access to. They cause some kind of stagger, stun, or special down state if an opponent collides with them. The true advantage of dummies is that they draw the attention of assists. If one or several assists are used while a dummy is on the field, the assist(s) will exclusively target the dummy while the dummy is intact on the field. Mobile suits that have dummies can negate the power of assists fairly easily, so adjust your play accordingly.
Barriers
- Ace: Barriers may include RBW’s performing defensive functions, Assists soaking up attacks, I-fields absorbing projectiles, or some other similar form. Specific barriers have different properties but are typically simplified by 2 traits. The first is that they will either block only beam and physical projectiles (e.g. Nu Gundam’s Fin Funnel Barrier) or all projectiles and melee attacks (e.g. Cherudim’s Shield Bits). The second trait is whether they can only protect the host mobile suit (Again, Fin Funnel Barrier) or can be assigned to protect the host’s partner (Again, Shield Bits). As with other weapons, specific properties for a particular barrier are best researched and/or labbed to best understand them.
Anti-Beam Cloak (Mantle)
- Legend: You’ll see some of the Crossbone units use these upper-body coverings that eat a certain amount of damage from beam weapons. After they take that amount of damage, they begin to reload, and the suit in question loses the additional protection. However, they gain a bit more speed and maneuverability as a result of being unencumbered.
Shooting Guard
- Legend: Some suits have special movement-style maneuvers that allow them to shrug off what’s being thrown at them, projectile-wise. Bael and Efreet are two such examples.
Team Composition / Formation Tactics
- Legend: Team composition is incredibly vital to your potential for success. You can absolutely play your favorite suit or the suit you feel like you’re best with, but this may leave significant gaps in your team’s situational capability as a result of toolset deficiencies, or worse, cost issues could make you an easy team to beat against strong players that can more effectively outplay you. As such, I’m going to list some team compositions in terms of cost class, and explain the pros and cons behind them in the hopes that it makes you think in a little more “big picture” way about your suit choices.
- Ace: This section covers the very basics of strategic play in the EXVS series. Different cost compositions provide different degrees of flexibility in team formation and access to varying strengths of toolkits. As such, balancing the MS costs of your team with your ability to execute gameplay tactics will influence the success of strategic play. If your interest is to improve your ability in-game, consider the value of practicing different suits across cost tiers (mainly 2000 through 3000) to be able to adapt to the needs of an anticipated matchup and / or the strengths and weaknesses of your partner, as well as your own.
1500 & 1500
- Legend: You run this comp, and you’re either very good, or you’re very naive. Low cost will most certainly not save you here, in fact, your lower boost stats make you much easier to catch, and your lower health pools make you much easier to kill as a team.
With that said, if both of you have the skillset and synergistics to make this work, you can stunt so hard on your enemies. Plus, you get the absolute luxury of being able to suffer three deaths with a full health return for both players, despite your level of “full health” being equivalent to that of a paper cup. Make sure you dish out far more than you take, and you can pull off miracles. - Ace: This composition can be effective if both players are very skilled with their MS, and the selected MS pair well. Exploiting this lower cost composition is effectively waging a war of attrition, where the 1500/1500 team will leverage their many lives to gain many more EX bursts, and thus more chances to frequently push for large amounts of damage. There is even a slight psychological effect of tiring the opposing team by making them expend the effort to shoot down low cost MS 4 times, controlled by people who should by all rights play far better than AI. Though the strategy involved is much easier said than done, it is completely feasible to win this way.
1500 & 2000
- Legend: This is a hard comp to run, because it tends to result in the 2000 playing a support role while the 1500 acts as the frontline aggressor. Considering the general fragility of the 1500 cost class, this is certainly doable, but requires a lot of galaxy-brain to make it work consistently. You’re usually going to pick a high-tier 1500 to seriously attempt this, and the 1500 player is usually going to need to be really good with it.
- Ace: I personally believe this composition is one of the least adaptable, offering the least amount of flexibility in the match. 2000s generally do not have enough stats or tools to leverage the shortcomings of a 1500. Cost balance is also a bit of a tightrope, as mentioned above. It's perhaps most feasible if the 2000 plans to never die and deals damage from afar, since a 1500s strongest tool is, arguably, having access to many powerful EX bursts. This is difficult to maintain however, since 2000 costs only the next step up from 1500. In general, I recommend playing almost any other cost with a 1500 partner.
1500 & 2500
- Legend: This is actually a pretty strong team, just in terms of numbers and general class toolsets. You usually wind up with suits that are seeking to play in a particular way, or fit a specific niche. Death order is either / or in the first run, but 1500 dying first leaves the 2500 with the burden of dying second at all costs, otherwise the 2500 comes back in seriously bad shape. It’s a funky math team, but one that can get serious results.
- Ace: This is one of the most solid compositions in the game, leveraging a 2500s high health, mobility, and toolkit with a 1500s tendency to spam lives or attempt to kite and deal damage from range. The cost balance also permits the 2500 a flexible death, provided the 1500 doesn't die absurdly early. 2500 is also a broad cost pool and can pair well with most 1500 class suits. This composition is flexible, and is much easier to recommend compared to others.
1500 & 3000
- Legend: Big risk. If the 1500 dies first, you’re guaranteeing your 3000 to respawn in Cost Over, and at 50%, no less. You’ll want your 3000 to be the most in-your-face aggressor possible at the outset of the match in an effort to die first, or resign themselves to playing the most untouchable rear-echelon role imaginable while the 1500 runs high-risk distraction plays for the entire game.
If the 3000 dies first, the 1500 can switch into the frontline attacker role while the 3000 hangs back and allows their (generally) stronger toolset and boost reserves to keep the team alive. It’s very easy to lose with this team comp. Shockingly so. - Ace: In my personal opinion, this composition demands a lot, but is more flexible than 1500 / 2000. Both will require a high degree of skillful and careful play, but allowing a 3000 to perform aggressively without worrying about their partner's respawn allows for a different kind of tactics to emerge.
The composition probably carries its best performance by allowing the 3000 to play aggressively and use a strong burst on their first life. They will then try to fill a "dedicated back" role while the 1500 will try to control the close-range and mid-range engagements and exploit at least 3 powerful bursts, and a 4th with good enough play.
The composition is very difficult and demands a lot of attentive playing from both teammates, but the right synergy will show a 3000 that's practically untouchable while covering their partner and a 1500 that consistently interrupts and controls pushes from the opposing team. This composition also benefits from a very flexible 3000, capable of zoning at practically all ranges while also having some explosive power up front. Some 3000 MS such as Ex-S, Zabanya, Wing Zero Custom (EW Ver.), or Hi-nu are so effective at zoning, evasion, dealing ranged damage, or some combination thereof that they can allow the 1500 to take each life.
However, this strategy is even more fragile, and carries the risk of suffering a bad overcost in the later stages of the match, or just timing out the match entirely. Aligning your team’s toolkits as well as possessing an effective understanding of the battle situation is critical to making this kind of composition work.
2000 & 2000
- Legend: This is essentially the best balanced team composition in the game, but it comes with the caveat of not being overtly powerful or threatening as a result. You can rest easy knowing that you’re going to have two deaths with full health respawns to take advantage of, but you may actually need them, considering the fact that 2000s aren’t as well-equipped as the higher classes, in general terms of toolsets and base class stats.
Still, you have a lot of freedom to play how you want in this comp, as there’s no real mathematical drawback to your team’s death order. - Ace: This is another one of the very strong cost compositions. The cost balancing makes overcost impossible and maximizes your health pool. The opposing team will be required to kill you and your partner 3 times, and this will likely require them to inflict somewhere over 2200 HP of cumulative damage to win.
Considering that 2000s have more boost and tools to leverage than the 1500s do, it's easy to see how a double-2K comp can control the match pace to win. 2000s also have a larger MS pool to pick from, adding to the overall versatility of their cost class. That said, in MBON, most 2000-class suits are overshadowed by more powerful 3000 and 2500 suits, meaning a fair amount of skill is needed to secure wins against higher-tier cost compositions.
2000 & 2500
- Legend: These team compositions tend to be focused around a specific gameplan. You’ll see two aggressors trying to make a big forward push or two distance warriors making hailstorms to make the opposing team’s life hellish. With this comp, it’s usually less about shoring up potential team weaknesses and more about cranking strengths to eleven.
Math is a big issue here, though. 2500 dying first leaves the team with 3500, which allows the 2000 to return at 75%. However, the 2000 dying first leaves the team at 4000, which brings the second-death 2500 back at 60% due to having 1500 remaining in the pool. Either way you slice it, you’re having to adapt and deal with being easier to kill...unless you can keep the pressure on to the point where dying isn’t an issue.
- Ace: This team is fairly flexible depending on the specific MS chosen, and with 2500 and 2000 having large MS pools to select from, there's a lot of variety in these compositions. A balanced, typical playstyle of "front" and "back" roles will perhaps benefit this composition the most, though. Death order can be a bit restrictive, but with careful play, this won't matter much. A professional 2500 may be able to shore up the weaknesses of a newbie 2000 player or vice versa, but burst management and toolkit management will often be the deciding factors since neither MS should face major mobility problems.
2000 & 3000
- Legend: This is a strong comp. Some argue that this is one of the safest compositions to run, mathematically speaking. You have utility no matter who dies first, the 3000 is almost always in a frontline role, and even if the 2000 takes the first dive, the 3000 will come back at 33% if it takes the second. If the 3000 dies first, the 2000 comes back at 50%.
You’ll usually see the 2000 playing a support role as a result, either at distance or by employing hit-and-run tactics meant to draw attention away from the 3000 looking to punish a lack of situational awareness. - Ace: Another one of the ideal compositions. 3000 /2000 is perhaps the most classic cost composition, considering the history of the Gundam VS Gundam franchise. Though 2500s have slightly power-crept the 2000 roster, they remain a flexible and diverse cost tier that doesn't present the team with an overcost threat as strongly as a 3000 / 2500 team can.
The 3000 has mobility, HP, and (usually) a comprehensive toolkit to round out most 2000 units. This composition will try to engage carefully and build burst meter safely, while the 3000 fronts and the 2000 covers their landings. In my opinion, the typical match flow also allows both suits to more easily align their burst windows to threaten the opposing team with a two-pronged push. This is a solid cost composition to practice and is easy to recommend for beginners.
2500 & 2500
- Legend: A three-death team. The second death comes back at 40%. Third death ends the match. No matter what happens, this is how it stacks out.
Your second death will need to be protected and play a rear-echelon role on respawn, but this is the only thing you really need to worry about, because you’re dealing with a team that has strong boost, strong tools, strong health and a strong emphasis on complete multirole utility, highly aggressive deck stacking in a specific playstyle approach, or a true yin / yang ethos in terms of toolsets that either really complement each other or can handily cover for one teammate’s suit-based toolset deficiencies.
This is normally a highly adaptable team that can react to changing conditions quickly and decisively. A good team that covers one another and communicates well is very likely to find success with this comp. - Ace: This composition is incredibly flexible. Most 2500s perform very well, and the cost tier has a broad selection. Some 2500s even perform very close to 3000 specifications. They also typically have very flexible toolkits, with some having specialized toolkits for extensive zoning or pushing capabilities.
The flexibility in toolkit access with high performance stats allows this cost composition to adapt to most situations. One major drawback can be a need for a more tightly controlled death order and requiring a partner that can competently zone before going into overcost. The second death will respawn with somewhere around 200 HP or less, and randomly spawning into a bad position can spell doom for your team. This composition is powerful and accessible to intermediate players, but requires attentive play to be most effective.
2500 & 3000
- Legend: This is usually seen as the strongest team composition, provided your team can focus on a little trick called “not dying.” A death of either unit creates a situation in which the remaining suit comes back in a highly disadvantageous position, should they get popped. 3000 dying first leaves the 2500 coming back at 20%, 2500 dying first leaves the 3000 coming back at 16.7%. It’s usually a very quick game from there, no matter how you got there.
Now, the 2500 can die twice and come back with 40% health, but this means that the 3000 must essentially remain untouchable for the duration of the match, which means they’re likely not getting involved in much except long range punishment and distraction plays where they make the other team burn boost to remain unhit.
What’s cool about this comp is that if it’s firing on all cylinders, your team is coming through stomping on fools. You have two suits with big boost pools, generally strong weaponry, generally useful tools and a lot in terms of health. As such, your team can definitely afford to make a couple of silly mistakes here and there, so long as your team is consistently punishing more mistakes than you are making them.
- Ace: This composition is perhaps the most "meta" composition. 2500s and 3000s are accessible to beginners, and this composition has the benefit of having a reasonable skill ceiling. The upside is that optimizing your gameplay in this composition allows you to capitalize on the raw firepower that these high cost units can bring to the match. Both cost tiers can be difficult to kill and have great damage potential.
The only drawback to this composition is that death order is strict, death timing has an impact, and the last life will only spawn with 120 / 130HP max. The composition is otherwise flexible, allowing for a lot of tactical diversity to keep the opposing team on their toes. Strong fundamentals are easily and handsomely rewarded in this composition.
3000 & 3000
- Legend: Four words: G O , G O , T E A M Y O L O !
Seriously, this team composition is risk-reward incarnate, and it’s a bold choice to run this comp. Some might even call it profoundly reckless.
You have one death between the two of you. If the game is a long, protracted battle where you’ve done so much work but paid so much in health, all it takes is for the both of you to make a poorly-timed mistake, and then, your team will lose. In this composition, against even halfway decent players, you’re taking a massive amount of existential risk.
However, as stated earlier, this risk does not come without reward. You are both running suits that are - for the most part - designed to dominate a match. If you can flex that appropriately and, you know, not die...you just might have a team that strikes legitimate fears in your enemies, because you both are ballsy enough to utilize suits that are custom-built to administer large amounts of pain in frighteningly diverse ways. - Ace: This is the meme team (to be honest, so is 1500/1500, but that one takes the most skill out of all compositions). This comp can do serious work, but it takes a high degree of familiarity with fundamentals, a keen mind to employ the best tactics for your strategy, and a lot of trust in your partner.
For example, Sazabi and Hi-Nu can pair to form a powerful and nearly untouchable tag team. Sazabi boasts powerful tools to control the frontline, traverse the map safely, and deal high damage at all ranges. Hi-Nu has powerful funnels, and while using his psychoframe resonance buff, they can swarm the opposing team, plus it has the mobility to stay at the edge of redlock range to spam csA, complete with capable mid- and close-range tools, if needed.
MBON expands the 3000 roster by a fair amount and really diversifies the cost tier, so some interesting double-3K comps are available. However, it should be re-asserted that Legend is correct to hammer home the importance of not dying. Burst optimization is also critical in this comp. Some specific double 3k compositions may incentivize holding for a full burst to gain a late-game advantage, but this also varies by matchup and the specific battle situation. Read the situation carefully, and try to stay ahead of your opponent to gain and keep the advantage when using this composition.
Front Role / Back Role
- Ace: Fronting and backing should be nearly interchangeable in playstyle.
At a given moment, either player should know how to use their toolkit aggressively or defensively. As the situation of a match changes, you may need to reserve resources or provide supporting fire after just finishing a melee push on a target. Think of a back player as just the person who happens to be available to intercept an opponent trying to snipe your landing. You may be able to do the same if the situation is reversed.
A key perspective for knowing when to do one versus the other stems from understanding the tools you have available and how they might complement your partner’s kit. Like with the back player, consider that the front of a team composition is more of a positioning specialist than a melee bot. Being able to control and influence opponent movement will enable a player with a more long-ranged kit to secure damage on a priority target. Conversely, it’s possible for 2 characters to “front” or “back” simultaneously. Depending on the situation, both players can successfully zone and win the match or they can both aggressively push into an enemy team and win.
Being able to recognize who is “front” and who is “back” is simply making a judgment of who presently has the tools and resources to safely make a push versus who presently has the tools to interrupt enemy play from a longer range. In many cases, this question is fluid in nature and is best answered by players that remain situationally aware and conscious of their resources, their partner’s resources, and their opponents’ resources.
What do I do now?
You’ve absorbed a LOT of new information. At this point, your best bet is to play, play, and play some more. Get used to employing some of these things listed in this section. Start looking for them being used by players in matches, see if you can determine how someone avoided being hit, or what you could do in order to minimize your target profile mid-match. Start seeing the mid-match changes, start getting that situational awareness that allows you to know when you should shift to a frontal assault position instead of a rear support one, or vice-versa.
From here, it’s all context. You’ll be learning the little things that take a lot of explanation in order to fully educate you on a subject, and that’s because you’re officially leaving the realm where “what” is of utmost importance, and instead, you’re now entering the realm where “when” and “why” matter so much more. These upcoming concepts are going to introduce more theory, and will begin to teach you how to play the game in a different way, to see different opportunities or dangers in the moment, ones you might never have seen or recognized until learning about the concepts in question.
When you’re ready to take that next step, come on back.
SECTION FOUR: ADVANCED INTERMEDIATE
so you want to get better than good
Fine Tuning For Maximum Effectiveness
Welcome back. By starting this section, you've officially taken your first steps into the world of the ridiculously granular, a place where tiny little details seem to require a metric ton of explanation in order to properly convey what it is you need to know and how to correctly implement it. These techniques introduce possibilities and capabilities that are a clear step above and beyond those covered in the previous sections. Not only will they be how you get the most from your suits in very specific scenarios, they’re going to be immediately applicable as additions to your playstyle.
This section is incredibly context-heavy, so here’s fair warning: you’re going to be much better off starting down this road after not only fully digesting and implementing the techniques illustrated earlier on, but after you’ve played enough matches that you are able to see and recognize these contextual situations in real-time, during the moment-to-moment madness of a heated match.
If you’re at that point, and you’re ready for lots of important words, they’re ready for you:
Advanced Movement Options & Tools
- Legend: Directional Influence is the term used to describe the act of holding a directional input while falling from altitude.
Hypothetical situation time: Let’s say your suit has an MA mode, and you used it to gain some serious altitude for cheap, meter-wise. You disengage the mode pretty high up, use some meter to boost dash and hop to get directional momentum without much expenditure, and you’re now traveling along your chosen vector in a downward arc.
If you let the stick go neutral, the arc will complete as normal. However, if you continue to hold the direction you’ve chosen to boost hop into, you will elongate that traveling arc for the duration of time you hold that direction, and you’ll do so for free, meter-wise.
Additionally, you can hold the opposite direction and truncate that arc, or hold a side input to go slightly off-course in order to avoid linearity. By doing this well before landing or before you execute a pre-landing fuwa hop, you’ll add slight variables to the mathematics of your landing trajectory, which can help negatively influence projectile tracking, etc. It’s not much, but the further up you are, the greater effect this has.
It shouldn’t be seen as an end-all, be-all thing to implement, but if you cumulatively add its effects to other means of not getting hit - prior concepts that you should already be employing by this point of your evolution - it can give you a significant edge.
- Much love to zgmftestament for opening my eyes to this.
Target Switch During Melee Strings
- Legend: If you’re finding yourself getting cut out of melee strings often, switch targets during your combos. You’ll continue doing the string on the target in question, but keep your eyes on the other enemy teammate, which will allow you to see them and their shots coming after you. At that point, stepcancel and break tracking. This will also break the current string as well as your magnetism toward your previous target, which means the next attack you launch is going to be coming after the other teammate.
- Ace: A simple tool to make sure you maintain clear visibility of the battle situation during a melee combo is to change targets in the middle of a melee attack before a special camera effect occurs. The camera will sometimes change angles and lock in place, limiting your field of view for the remainder of the melee animation, if applicable to the attack performed. Changing targets will preclude the camera change and give you an eye on what your other opponent is doing, but you will need to re-target the opponent in your melee if you need to step or boost dash in order to continue the combo. Otherwise, you may unintentionally try to melee an opponent out of range.
Fast Fall & Options
- Hiro: Landings are some of the most vulnerable moments in the metagame of MBON, and the ability to make unpredictable landings by changing your trajectory and landing faster is invaluable. As the game matured from Maxi Boost to the current console version of Maxi Boost ON, the ability to fall faster was given to more suits in the game, to the point where a majority of the suits now have some way of rapidly decreasing their own altitude at will. This has increased the competitive viability of more suits in the cast while also creating a more balanced gameplay environment.
While these movement options are strong, it is paramount to remember that they do not change the recovery upon landing, only the timing at which you make your landing. Therefore, a fast fall landing in an overheated state will still result in overheat landing recovery, which can be exploited by a smart enemy looking to punish your landing on reaction. Furthermore, fast falls do not inherently break the guidance tracking of projectiles, so it’s often a wise idea to execute a step before performing them, in order to add another layer of defense to this movement option.
Let’s examine some of the more common ways to execute a fast fall. Generally speaking, they involve canceling a move with a vernier animation directly into a non vernier move, which first stops directional momentum before forcing the suit into a freefall state. There are other methods as well, but those are decidedly rarer.
Assist Main Cancel (Amekyan)
- Hiro: This is accomplished by using a vernier assist call into a non vernier main, either a BR or MG shot. It is the most common form of fast fall, and quite easy to execute by itself, by first deploying your assist and then firing main (pressing A / Shot) at the earliest possible cancel window.
These fast falls are a powerful tool in that not only do they help keep your landings more unpredictable, they allow you to take otherwise unsafe landings that your enemies cannot react to in time. They also have the added bonus of having said landing being slightly more difficult to punish, due to the enemy having to deal with the assist at the same time they're trying to hit your landings.
These fastfalls are usually limited by the reload time of your assist, as they cannot be used whenever you are out of assist ammo. Most of these fast falls are also limited by the direction you're facing, as you must call the assist while facing the opponent in order to have the fast fall initiated when you fire, although some suit’s assists will automatically force you to face the enemy, which bypasses the need for that.
Melee CS Cancel (Karakyan)
- Hiro: This is accomplished by using a melee attack (or any other vernier animation, actually) and canceling it into a vernierless charge shot, such as Legilis' or Sazabi's csA. This type of fast fall is much more abusable than the previous version, as this technique is only limited by the time it takes to charge your suit’s shot and your ability to execute them.
The trajectory of this type of fast fall is inherited from the momentum of the action being canceled, so moves such as fast traveling melees tend to be much more useful in squeezing a bit of extra lateral movement from these fast falls. While these are quite easy to understand and execute, some suits have specific animations that give them great sliding momentum, tightening the execution window on the fast fall.
Sazabi is particularly infamous for these, with both BC → csA and AB → csA being highly technical versions of its csA cancels.
Backturn Shot Cancel
- Hiro: This is performed by using a Backturn Vernier shot to force a vernier state, then canceling into a vernierless move (usually sub) in order to force a freefall state. Some suits do not have assist tools, but by forcing a backturn shot, they can vernier themselves to force a fastfall when they press their vernierless move.
Examples of these include Banshee Norn's backturn A → AB, Reborns’ Backturn A → AB, and Heavyarms’ B → A. These fast falls are best utilized from a step, as the vernier animation of the backturn shots generally will stop all momentum, exposing a moment of vulnerability before you begin to fall. You can decrease the risk of being shot by stepping beforehand, as the step will cut guidance on anything headed towards you, letting you initiate the fall much more safely.
Active Assist Fast Fall
- Hiro: This is utilized by having an active following assist (Gundam DX BC, Hyaku Shiki BC), then performing a Backturn A → BC (empty assist call). For some reason, this forces your suit into a faster falling animation.
This is actually quite spammable with no cooldown, with the caveat of it only being available while your assist is active. This technique seems to be exclusive to the two aforementioned suits, as other suits with following assists don't seem to be able to utilize it.
Reload Fastfall Cancels (Relokyan)
- Hiro: This is utilized by manually reloading a weapon that has a manual reload function, which stops all vertical momentum and forces the suit into a falling state. This property is usually utilized in a string of B > C ~ A(reload), upon which the suit will start falling after the reload animation.
X1 Full Cloth and Hyperion are the primary users of this technique, and while it can be slightly expensive boost-wise due to the rainbowstep involved, it is still an invaluable tool in their arsenals.
S Burst Shenanigans
- Hiro: Due to S Burst allowing you to cancel all ranged moves into each other, the property of any vernier move being canceled into a non-vernier move will cause your suit to freefall.
This allows almost every suit, including suits that don't naturally have fast fall options, to do so during S Burst. This gives S Burst serious defensive applications by granting more mobility options, compared to simply increasing raw mobility, like F Burst does.
Yellowing-Out Grab Melees
- Hiro: Melees with a grabbing animation such as FAZZ's Armored Grabs, or Quanta's Buster Sword 8B will have the property of putting them into a freefall state should they reach the maximum down value on the enemy on their first hit.
Some melee combos can be specifically crafted to create this situation, making them more difficult to punish along with giving a more desirable okizeme situation afterward. An example of such a combo would be with Quanta, Buster Sword equipped: CC8BBB > 2B > 8B.
- Hiro: The simplest definition of a Brake Cancel would be using some sort of move to cancel the sliding 'brake' animation of a ground-runner suit with a move that offers quicker recovery than the entire sliding animation itself. The ability to shorten the recovery on such landings and restore boost gauge while keeping more momentum than a normal landing is an integral part of ground-runner gameplay.
Technically, every ground-runner suit can perform this via a step to cancel out of an ongoing grounded boost dash. As long as they still have some boost remaining at the end of the step, they will regain maximum boost as soon as the recovery from the step has completed. This is one of the most basic forms of a Brake Cancel, as steps in this game have a quicker recovery than the longer sliding animation.
The most applicable Brake Cancels in game are generally ones that are suit-specific, which tend to be even faster than the stepping brake cancel, or have additional caveats such as being able to be used during a sliding Overheat state, or being able to recover boost even after finishing them while in Overheat. These Brake Cancels, just like the aforementioned fast fall techniques, don’t inherently possess guidance cutting properties, so it’s important to remember to either step beforehand, or be ready to step or block after your boost is restored.
Being able to regain boost gauge with little recovery and mobility loss is a huge advantage that any ground-runner suit should be looking to take advantage of, but always remember that being predictable may lead to your “landings” being punished, especially by advanced players most aware of the moments your suit gets the most out of Brake Cancels.
- Hiro: Ground-runner suits like Ez8, Gouf Custom (and every suit from G Gundam) use a special type of boost dash when they are in a grounded state, running along the ground instead of hovering above it. Whenever the dash is stopped, the run animation then transitions to a sliding animation, which cannot be canceled outside of another boost dash, blocking, or certain suit-specific moves. This sliding animation is quite long and can be vulnerable to on-vector shots fired at them. While this is to be avoided in most instances, there are a few applications of the sliding state that are beneficial.
One benefit of the sliding animation is the fact that it consumes no boost for a fair amount of lateral movement. This can be used to perform extended grounded movements by letting the sliding animation partially play out after a boost dash, gaining some free extra distance for no meter cost. This can also be used as a mixup technique as well, as it can keep an opponent guessing about your 'landing' as a ground runner suit, because the sliding animation is generally seen as a tell that a ground-runner suit is likely in an Overheat state.
The other benefit is the ability to cancel into a block at any time during the slide, allowing ground-runners that are genuinely in Overheat to perform a short block as a last-ditch defense towards any incoming attack. This may occasionally be preferable over performing a Brake Cancel at that particular moment, if an attack would likely land. A successful guard in this situation will give a small amount of boost - enough for one more action - allowing you to either repeat the sliding animation or follow up with a Brake Cancel to defend the landing.
Generally speaking, a grounded slide is not particularly desirable, and many ground-runners will be looking to either bypass the slide by landing normally from an aerial state, or by performing a Brake Cancel.
- Hiro: A Pyonkaku (pyon for short) are special types of melee attacks some suits possess, which involve an upward motion followed by a descending downward attack, and have many practical applications in their usage. Having access to a pyonkaku-style melee option is always an asset to a suit, allowing them a variety of unique options out of them that other suits might not necessarily have.
As an attack itself, most pyons have decent to extremely good priority, due to the combination of the angle of attack (coming down from above) along with them already traveling with an active hitbox after they reach the apex of the jump. Generally speaking, it’s a bad idea to challenge a pyon with a melee attack after it has become active, and pyons generally get decent returns out of them with easy to confirm combos, as they generally cause ground bounce states.
The true value of pyons comes from their applications to the neutral game, namely as an extra mobility option. As melee attacks go, they are generally quite cheap in terms of boost usage when canceled out of early, doing so allows a suit to easily gain vertical height for a much cheaper cost compared to a boost hop.
This is especially obvious for a suit such as Xenon's Form 2, as it's G-Fighter jump only gives about half the height of its 2B while consuming more boost. The ability to quickly take to the air allows a suit more freedom in choosing its attack angles, while also allowing them to drop altitude quickly if they choose to boost or step cancel out of a pyon slightly later. The general belief is that it’s best to boost dash cancel out of them as opposed to stepcanceling, as the vertical momentum of a pyon is more than sufficient to dodge most attacks thrown at it, as most attacks in the game have a harder time tracking a target vertically than they do horizontally.
Pyons are also amazing defensive options, especially on wakeup. Stepping and boost hopping away on wakeup is one of the most reliable options against a melee happy opponent; pyons are able to get to a safe height much more quickly and with more boost efficiency than standard techniques. While it is still possible to punish a predictable pyon wake up, it’s much more difficult to execute compared to hitting someone out of more universal or standard options. There’s also the fact that looking to punish a pyon on wakeup usually means neglecting to cover or actively choosing not to cover other potential options.
Pyonkaku Brake Cancels
- Hiro: Some pyons can even be used as a Brake Cancel to recover boost quickly as well, either by virtue of their innately quick recovery like Heavyarms' 8B, or by rainbow-stepping them the moment they land on the ground, indicated by a little cloud animation when they land.
The latter of these brake cancels does require one to finish the entire sequence with boost remaining, as they will be considered airborne after the rainbowstep should they finish in overheat. Done properly, these landings are very difficult to punish with standard beam rifle shots, giving suits with access to them a definitive edge in the neutral game.
Boost Penalty For Retreating Along 1 / 2 / 3, & How to Avoid It
- Hiro: In MBON, you incur a penalty for retreating boost actions, meaning boost dashes or steps taken towards your back, or in Numpad notation, the 1 / 2 / 3 directions. Not only does this penalty increase the boost consumption of these actions, but the actual speed of them is slightly decreased, to boot. The reason for this penalty is to ensure that one cannot infinitely kite while heading backwards. While this penalty is undesirable, it’s not debilitating to the point that one should always avoid the back-facing boost penalty, but it exists more to de-incentivize boosting backwards as the consistent go-to option.
In order to avoid this situation, you could switch targets to the other enemy teammate, which could reorient your view and therefore bypass the penalty. As long as the enemy's ally is not situated behind them, there should be another direction to move towards that doesn’t lie in the 1 / 2 / 3 angles, which will allow you to move away from the original enemy you need to gain distance from without added cost.
This might feel a bit risky to the inexperienced player, but the game’s systems offer a plethora of information to keep you informed of your current situation, even if you're not looking directly at the person chasing you. Keep an eye on the radar as well as the indicator arrows on the side of your screen, and you can ensure your safety against being blindsided by the target you're attempting to retreat from.
- Hiro: Melee attacks while performed in Green Lock skip the traveling portion of the attack (if applicable) and may take on different traveling properties as well, such as Exia's and Turn X's 6BC. They also travel based on the direction your suit is currently facing, instead of traveling directly towards a target. This can be useful in multiple situations, offensive, defensive, and in neutral as well.
Practical offensive and neutral applications of this technique may be to utilize the travel speed of a melee move, such as using Turn X's 6BC or Acguy's 2B to move to favorable positions more quickly than normal movement could afford. The ability to reposition quickly in this manner allows you to increase the tempo of your play, allowing you to capitalize on opportunities that you may have missed by mere seconds had you decided to simply boost over instead.
Defensively speaking, the ability to rocket away with fast traveling command melee moves is already valuable in and of itself, and Green Locks on an opponent you're targeting can be available if you're above / below them at certain angles. Other applications of this would be performing a pyonkaku in the direction your suit is facing, ideally away from the opponent in a boost efficient retreat as opposed to jumping towards danger. Melee attack motion is not affected by the retreating boost penalty, so this can be used in conjunction with target swapping in order to keep yourself safe.
Utilizing this technique well takes a good amount of map awareness and being able to immediately recognize the position of both opponents, but it’s well worth the effort to implement this into your gameplay, should you wish to improve.
Agaki/Overheat Stalling
- Hiro: While it is desirable to always be at boost advantage versus an opponent, there will be times that you find yourself in Overheat with an enemy ready to punish your landing. Instead of doing nothing and simply taking the landing, you should attempt to struggle and buy time, if only to make attempting to punish it as annoying as possible for your opponent. Blocking and melee attacks are universal options for all suits in Overheat, but some other suits such as Brave Commander have a plethora of options that make them very mobile, even when they are out of boost. These suits generally have a short csA charge time that they can abuse (along with a pyonkaku) that allows them to stay in the air for extended periods of time.
While an experienced, patient player may be able to still catch you in the end, these tactics can successfully buy time. Maybe your partner will be able to move into position where they’re better prepared for a 2v1 situation, you might be able to waste precious seconds off an enemy's burst time, or you might even avoid damage altogether if the enemy was not expecting you to continue moving well into your Overheat state. If you're extremely lucky, they might even get hit by your melee strings as well, which can start turning a losing situation in Overheat into a winning one.
Suit-specific Strategy / The Importance of Self-Study
- Legend: When it comes to including suit-specific stuff, we had a real crisis of conscience. We wanted this guide to be the definitive, complete guide to the game, a living document that would change and evolve and update with new information and be a one-stop resource for all things MBON. Honestly, it may get there, but it won’t be such a sprawling, all-encompassing compendium right here, right now.
What I can say is that there are multiple resources available that you can utilize to find the best usages, strategy and information regarding individual suits:
Wikis / Resources
- There’s no other way to say this: treat this site like the Word of God, as far as MBON is concerned. It is the single most detailed, comprehensive resource on the planet, and it has settled numerous disputes, illuminated a lot of dim corners of understanding and has clarified tons of fuzzy concepts. The Google-powered translation is a little dicey at times, but once you get what it’s telling you and how it translates it from Japanese, it’s easy to figure out what you need to learn.
- GGEZ is a godsend for the English-speaking Gundam EXVS playerbase. This is a team who is highly dedicated and very hard-working, and their mission is to offer a similar level of suit-specific knowledge as the JP Wiki does.
- This is still under construction, but this group has done a lot of hard work in trying to replicate the JP Wiki information in a format best suited to native English-speaking audiences. Check their prior game knowledgebases to get a feel for how much you can expect from this group in the future - they’re great.
Discord Servers
- Most of the pain involved in getting better and improving comes from having to study up on all of these arcane concepts. You should know, you’ve had to read this entire guide to get this far.
However, the one thing that makes this process so much easier is community, and through the multitude of Discord servers for EXVS players, you can always shorten your search for the answers you seek. Here’s a list of some of the best ones. Extreme Evolution
- Honestly, this is a no-brainer; it’s the community responsible for this guide.
Gundam EXVS Australia
EU Gundam EXVS
NGI Events (EU)
GundamEXVS_SEA (Southeast Asia)
r/Gundam & r/Gunpla
UnlimitedBrettWorks
Gundam HQ
Basement Road Show #GundamPilots
- A more casual server with a more generalized focus, but seeing as how this is Legend’s server, and seeing as how he created and runs r/GundamEXVS, it does warrant mention here. You can find MBON games here between the regulars, but also find people that play many other games, or talk about movies, anime, sports, politics, whatever you feel.
What do I do now?
If you’ve implemented and mastered everything thus far, there’s little else to learn that isn’t found within. As such, the next section is less about the game, and more about the experienced player as an individual. If you’re ready to move on, go right ahead. We’ve been waiting for you.
SECTION FIVE: EXPERT
so why aren’t you helping us right now
Expert Level = Actively Contributing and Teaching
YOU SHOULD TEACH
- zgmftestament: I’m going kind of long-form here, but I’m passionate about this step, so please hear me out on this.
At this point, you should consider actively seeking out and assisting new players. One of the biggest favors you can do for this community (and for yourself) is by teaching and spending time with new players. Not only are these actions beneficial to the overall health of the community at large, but more than anything else, they also benefit you. Assisting new players and those below your current skill level in general is not only fulfilling, but it trains you mentally, socially and forces a greater understanding of the fundamentals of this game. The paradox that there is an emphasis on personal gain when it comes to taking care of newer players exists, but there are a myriad of positive reasons for this mindset. To understand the logic and reasoning behind that paradox is the path to becoming a better teacher, as well as a better player.
WHY SHOULD YOU TEACH?
- zgmftestament: Consider this: a newer player asks you about fastfalling, when one should and why one should. We can absolutely point the newer player to a guide or a video, but it’s not guaranteed that the player will understand that information, or even receive all the answers they were seeking. Taking the time to explain it to them allows you to be open to questions, which gives you the ability to elaborate and clarify. Simply explaining how to do a fastfall fails to teach that it can be done to steal landings, or combine it with sidestep to evade a high-speed attack, or to avoid a belligerent aerial melee unit by entering an entirely different vertical location.
The difference between knowing and understanding a concept is tested regularly when answering a newer player's inquiry. Simply doing the action every day isn't enough for mastery, doing something just for the sake of it can blind us to other contexts that can be used to win against tough opponents. Fully understanding a concept and being able to explain the strengths and weaknesses of a single tool not only educates someone else, but it also ensures and verifies that you are educated about it as well.
Accomplished veterans of any discipline possess strong fundamentals that are regularly polished; it is to your benefit to polish yourself both inside the game and outside of it.
On a more visceral and less philosophical level, partnering with a newer player can (and will) be frustrating, and that is exactly why it is a good idea to make time for it alongside regular practice. It helps to see this as the opportunity to polish your own play in the game without expectations or pressure. Playing as a 3000 cost unit with a newer player who selfishly (but mostly unintentionally) takes lives can force us to play a far pickier playstyle where safety would be prioritized above anything else. Evasion skills would be tested heavily, and constant target-switching will be needed to maintain situational awareness at all times.
In serious practice and tournament games, everyone experiences moments where their skill and mental strength is tested by being required to evade and stay alive until their partner can save them, or until the enemies overextend out of exasperation. By being there with them, you make this scenario a safer space for newer players, which helps them learn how to handle that stress.
Finally, an excellent upside to teaching the new and the eager is that you get to network. No one is isolated, everyone has some sort of connection to another person, and forming bonds with others is almost never a waste of time. To network with newbies is to form friendships that can lead to exciting games, hilarious memories and good times all around. Fun and inclusiveness is a great foundation for a community, and it is never a bad idea to polish foundations and fundamentals while doing it.
HOW TO TEACH
- zgmftestament: Before starting this section, prospective teachers should be aware of and understand certain fundamental facts. A wise person once taught me that no one is responsible for my success but myself. This means that you, the teacher, are not responsible for an individual student's growth or success. As much as we can lead a person to resources, ask to play with them or answer their questions, the improvements and gains our students attain are something they worked and fought for on their own.
Unfortunately, they may also decide on their own to stop playing. If it is a factor outside of your control, then there is not much that you can do but appreciate that teaching them has made you stronger in some way. If your teaching method has directly caused someone to quit, then learn from the mistake and join the club of us learners! Teaching is difficult and it's easy to mess up, but nothing stops us all from improving. After all, when one teaches, two learn.
One mistake that a lot of prospective teachers make is to teach too much. Especially when starting out, it is always a good idea to be mindful of your partner's condition and to not overwhelm them with information, advice or suggestions. Skyslam has a video on this, and he is correct. When explaining the game to absolute beginners, let them know the absolute basics. Don't run, boost dash. Melee combos can be done by just mashing B. Switch targets sometimes. HP is at the bottom corner of the screen.
Beyond these bare facts, let them play. Don't stress out over them being a 2000 cost and dying consistently first. Don't rag on them for playing Barbatos and having a single strategy of “going in.” Let them play, and let them watch you play (and kick ass). Someday, they will begin asking questions, and your job is to be there when they do start asking questions. They may never ask, and that's okay. People will learn at their own pace, and the most important thing for a teacher of any skill level to realize is that people will learn MUCH better when they WANT to learn.
The last lesson is a reiteration of what was discussed at the beginning of this section. No one is responsible for your success but yourself.
Newbies/rookies/people of lower skill are not entitled to your time, and it is their own responsibility to achieve what they want from this game and to do what they need in order to meet their goals. The reverse is also true; it is extremely likely that older veterans have paired up with you in random lobbies or Discords and spent their time nurturing you without obligation, whether that was done intentionally or unintentionally. Likewise, it is also absolutely true that where you are in the game right now, you are the one responsible for your successes and achievements. You looked through your replays, watched videos of your units and implemented techniques you struggled to understand.
The interlinked nature of these actions create a map. Veterans have fought their way to the top but wish to go higher still. They teach a new generation things they spent blood, sweat and tears learning so they can feed the hungry and speed up their students' learning, all so that they can clash against each other and achieve even greater heights together.
What that map should reveal to you is that no one is an island unto themselves. We are all interlinked, and everyone else's growth serves to better illuminate the pathway of your own growth. In closing...if you’re legitimately at this level of skill as listed in this guide, find a Discord, because you should be teaching. - Ace: I would like to simply echo zgmftestament’s statements and affirm them to be 100% accurate. I would also like to re-state that though players with many hours of playtime under their belt think of things like a BD jump as something easy to do, it is, in fact, a very unique way of inputting commands and requires developing a new kind of muscle memory. This is true with a lot of inputs in EXVS.
What I mean is that people just picking up the game risk being overwhelmed with information and unsuccessfully implementing it, incorrectly implementing it, or halfway implementing it. Gameplay improvement is broad and covers topics from mechanical executions to strategic theory. Being able to reduce mechanical inputs and movement tools to common patterns allows one to focus more on the strategic elements of a match. It's much easier to think about your movement in terms of BD Jumps and Fuwasteps rather than specific inputs to perform those actions, so allow new players time to pick up this muscle memory.
To further avoid overwhelming people with new information, it's best to allow them to experiment on their own while trickling in new information on a slow drip. When they get comfortable dashing, but have trouble avoiding shots because they move in a straight line, try to teach them about BD Jumps and Fuwasteps. When they wonder why they can't make shots land, try to illustrate to them a vulnerable landing versus a safe landing. The list of examples go on, and the truly dedicated will reach out for some manner of advice. Above all, remember to have patience, and to reflect on what you learn about yourself and the game as you try to impart what you know to others.
Help Craft and Evolve EXVS Game Theory
Information Synthesis
- Ace: Despite EXVS's long history of being played by its base, it remains extremely popular among its core demographic. Developers for the EXVS series have been fairly successful at keeping the game formula fresh with typically reasonable suit balance and game system adjustments across series entries and within arcade lifespans. This causes each new entry to require some degree of revisiting existing game theories.
Considering the continually-expanding MS pool, the game has a large number of unique 2v2 matchups -
Legend: 185 suits x any combination of 4 = 50,404,915 potential combinations
- with each suit bringing something different to the table in some way. After developing your gameplay ability, sharing your unique experiences with what you find as useful or not useful in certain matchups can yield great benefit to community theorycrafting, especially so for less-commonly played suits.
Playing With Intentionality
Looking Ahead
- Aqua: For higher level play you should always have a game plan ahead of time, and not try to play the game with a reactionary mindset. You should prepare to be targeted ahead of time and mentally run one to two seconds ahead of where you presently are in time before they get the chance to target you. If you do this right, you should often be in green lock range when they look at you. Generally speaking, you should have decided ahead of time when to run or when to move up, as well as be able to predict when they are going to trigger a burst. If you’ve done this correctly, your forethought will cause the opponent to waste their burst resources before they can catch up to you, and if you're stalling out their burst by generating effective space ahead of time - even if it’s a second or two - it’s creating a situation where it’s far more likely to result in a win for you.
So let's think about this: you’ve pressured your opponent at distance into activating Extend burst for a flip escape at half meter (and I believe you only get around three solid seconds for half meter charge in this situation), if you’ve already spaced yourself ahead of time or understood your best traveling angle to keep them away from you, you will almost certain to force them to waste 2/3 of their burst duration in pursuit of you. This leaves them with about a second or less to make good on their attempt, which may not even succeed, and can very possibly open them up for greater damage in exchange for taking that risk.
Reading the Room
- Ridler: If you’re at a high level in EXVS, you should understand that this is a game about processing information and controlling the map in an effort to restrict the opponents’ options. Team formation, spacing, and resource management should form the foundation of your gameplay method. The decisions you make should be based on those three things and weighing your options based on the information you gather in real-time.
As a consequence, whoever can process and react to information faster and more appropriately will have the consistent advantage. You need to be aware of as many things happening simultaneously as you can. By this point in your development, movement, pressure, resource management, and all of the other core fundamentals and competencies should be baked into your gameplay.
These skills, combined with peripheral warnings, should give you enough situational information to determine where and when you have the advantage. This should provide you with enough information to guide your forethought, and allow you to avoid putting yourself into bad situations ahead of time.
Automatic Response
- Ace: Fairly self-explanatory, but once you become familiar with the game, you'll think less about the inputs your fingers make and more about how advantageous or not your current situation is. Even some slight changes in positioning will be something you instinctively recognize as attack patterns, like a Xi preparing to push because his Minovsky Craft buff might be available at that moment, for example. Continuing to practice and building strong fundamentals to the point of them being performed naturally will benefit your team's strategic fitness, so keep your nose to the grindstone.
Adaptive Responses
- Ace: Building off of the previous point, having more playtime will reveal to you what strategies may not work. If you were previously a >> 8B - happy Exia player, you may still be one (and surely a good one after enough hours played), but able to recognize the humor of any jokes made about it in the past. Being able to focus your mind on how a match is proceeding is critical to outplaying your opponents. Assessing the inventory of yourself, your teammate, and even your opponents will help you decide on what tactics best enable your strategy, and it's much more easily done when you're not distracted by thinking about your inputs or such. Continuing to practice will benefit both you and your partner in this way, solely by reaching this area of intimate familiarity with the game.
No Wasted Actions
- Ace: Judicious use of limited resources is critical. Bursting when there's no room to push damage at that very moment is a waste of your precious meter. Using a one-time nuke on an enemy in the extreme end of a map won't control the field as well as a better-placed nuke will. Recklessly exhausting a weapon with a long reload time will leave you missing out on potential punishes to snipe and lower your team's DPS.
Successful application of strategy requires you to apply tactical tools appropriately, and weapons / buffs are the foremost among those. Recognizing good timing for activating tools like Wing Zero's Zero System can help make or break a match, so always try to be aware of using limited resources at their best time. At the same time, if you wait too late to use them, you risk being unable to use them effectively, and thus you actively hamper their potential. Try to balance these risks, and you'll end up improving your chances of winning.
There Is No Guide For This Part
- Legend: ...except for the one you make.
- Ace: I kinda disagree with Legend on this point at the surface level of that statement, but he's still right, in a way. The EXVS series in the West relies on arcade ports to update the meta, and due to this, the Japanese and SEA playerbase will typically pioneer the metagame for us. Rather than reinvent the wheel, it's a much more efficient investment of time and energy to take cues from the players who have already proven successful with your particular suit choice.
This game is very popular in these regions and arcade players are typically very dedicated to optimizing their performance, so it's fairly safe to say that watching replays of these players is a good way to understand the core of an MS and how to play it effectively. That said, there may be certain points of execution that you personally are not as well-developed in or may be a late bloomer for. Playing around your personal weaknesses has a certain strength to it, and is really only something you can compensate for by being genuinely reflective upon yourself.
"It's time for you to start looking inward, and ask yourself the real questions! Like why do you use a gerobi at the very start of each match against the same opponent that never falls for it!?" - Uncle Iroh, maybe
Bad jokes aside, it's useful to develop and be reflective of yourself without being hyper-critical. If there is a problem with how you play now, don't dismiss yourself for it (and certainly don't let others dismiss you for it), but consider that you still have some things to learn and think of how you might compensate for them. The best advice to sum up self-improvement will really just reduce to "Practice. Practice. Practice."
So, keep up your hard work to fully experience the strategic wonder that is EXVS. Developing these skills within yourself becomes a chance to share them with the broader community, and this can potentially help someone else who might be experiencing the same or similar problems that you’ve already solved, so your hard work will benefit plenty of others, as well as yourself!
Community Participation is the Surest Path
- Ace: Ever since EXVS was ported to PS3, it has been my longstanding wish that people new to the Gundam Versus Gundam franchise be able to openly talk to and ask questions of anyone willing to pass on this strategic "art." The game is incredibly fun and offers a great sense of pride and accomplishment as the reward for winning a well-played game. It's been my personal hope to find and support ways that help elevate new players in the West to a point where they can challenge others at a higher play level. This forces the people they challenge to learn how to fight unique individuals, and this brings a great degree of richness to the player base as a whole.
Though the community at large has experienced false starts at successfully coalescing in the past, many long-time and newer players have grown a lot in the course of about eight years or so, and already offer a depth of knowledge to share with those just picking up the game. I hope you gain a helpful and good experience with my stream channel as well as well as on any of the Discord servers or other media platforms listed in this document, and especially so at Extreme Evolution.
- Aqua: honesty don't know what to give at this point,
other than jump canceling for engaging in melee
SECTION SIX: GLOSSARY
so what is that thing called again
* * U n d e r C o n s t r u c t i o n * *
SECTION SEVEN: CHANGELOG
so tell me again, what happened
v0.1
Basic scaffolding
v0.5
Research into concepts 80% complete, begin curriculum map
v0.9
Curriculum map complete, used as staging area for full guide v1.0
- Writers given access to modify workgroup copy
- Material imported into final guide when added
v1.0
First major release, 7/29/2020
- Multimedia incomplete
- Glossary incomplete
- Mobile Version (sans gifs) released same day
V2.0
Second major release, 4/16/2021
- Guide overhaul / rewrite completed
- Web app creation completed
- Migration completed
- Web app launched