Glossary

Amekyan - The jp term for cancelling the recovery of a vernier move into a forced-on angle move, putting you back into natural fall state. Used primarily to fall safely from dangerous situations such as turn-around shots.

Fuwafuwa - adding a small jump at the end of a motion, boost-efficiently avoiding many attacks

BR - beam rifle (A).

MG - machine gun (A)

Main - main shot (A)

BZ - Bazooka (generally A+B)

Sub - A+B

Muzzle Correction - refers to a move’s ability to track its target during startup

Guidance - refers to an attack’s ability to track its target while traveling

Awakening / Activation / Extreme Burst - ABC

Cooldown - Not to be confused with reload time, this refers to the time between a move having 0 ammo and when it begins to start reloading. Not all moves have this.

Universal System Changes

• Boost Dashing

• Overall boost dashes cover less distance than before, however boost dash speed on average improved

• There’s a more severe penalty for Boost Dashing backwards - it now consumes more boost than normal

• Boost Hops slightly less effective - directional influence momentum is a lot smaller - in particular its visually noticeable on Mobile Fighter suit’s dash jumps

• If you are holding a direction while boost dashing and input jump, it no longer eats your jump input and gives you a held BD. It now gives you a small jump, which consumes very little boost.

• Shields

• Green Effect

• When you successfully shield, you cannot reinput a shield to get an immediate second shield

• You no longer gain meter for blocking friendly fire

• You’re now pushed back slightly when you block, rather than maintaining the same position

• Mobile Armor Mode

• Side stepping during a boost dash no longer gives you the homing MA movement.

• You can now obtain the old homing motion with a forward sidestep while in MA, which also goes for a fixed time, rather than flying forever at the target

• Generally less risky to be in due to nerfed overall guidance

• Attack Property Changes

• Added a light stun - does not knock you down after you wear off, instead puts you back at neutral

• Added heavy stun - same as the old stun

• Added a side-spinning down state - untechable like a normal down but falls slower

• Added a popup down state (dust cloud effect) - untechable, pops them up in the air and falls slower than normal, making it easier to get to them

• Added techable popup state - looks like the normal untechable vertical spiraling state, but can be teched midway through

• Maps got larger

• Overall difference between long range and close range redlocks shortened, and when combined with the increased map size, overall makes chasing down targets harder

• Ranged Attacks

• Ranged Guidance, Travel Speed, and Muzzle Correction are all weaker - overall ranged attacks are weaker

• In particular, all Main weapons including BRs got muzzle correction nerfs

• All main shot attack guidance got a nerf - it’s generally a lot harder to aim for someone’s boost hop landing

• Overall on-angle range is improved, it’s a lot harder to accidentally get off angle when you’re right on the edge

• Fast travelling Charge Shots etc are still as strong as ever, but overall travel speed has been lowered

• Funnel type attacks are generally stronger

• Machine Gun and Gerobi moves were generally not changed

• Overall the game is actually more ranged based compared to the previous game due to map size increase and differences in bursts.

• It’s better to think of these changes as “there are way less weapons that can just randomly hit you while you boost hop”

• Extreme Burst

• There are now two versions of Extreme Burst you can choose from when you select your suit - Assault (A) and Blast (B) (See below for complete explanation)

• You gain less meter when you die, much more the case for higher costs. For 3000 suits, you get ~15% as opposed to 40% for dying. It’s very noticeable for 2500’s as well. 2000 and 1000 suits gain about the same as before.

• In other words, there’s less of a difference in meter gain between costs.

• You gain more meter if you have less max health, and vice versa (This difference is extremely minute, though)

• You gain less boost when you activate extreme burst

• Full Bursts give you more boost back, making them more viable

• Offense and Defense scaling numbers from being in awakening is now per-suit

• Also suits that had different scaling numbers in different modes now have the same in both.

• Damage - overall proration is slightly less severe, and guts ratings (dealing and taking different damage rates based on current health) is more noticeable - about the same level as NEXT

• Overall momentum preservation got improved greatly. The viability of fuwasteps and fuwafuwa is much higher than in the last game. This is also combined with the fact that overall guidance is lower.

• Many 2000 cost suits got slight HP buffs (+20HP usually)

• When you get shot down, there’s a small part of the screen of what your ally is doing

• Overall stage brightness is higher,

• More recovery on landing at 50%+ boost.

• Extreme gauge system overhaul

• Horizontal momentum increased

• Two types of Stuns: Light stuns and heavy stuns. Heavy stuns knock down after the stun wears away, such as Pressure. Light stuns cause the opponent to recovery immediately afterwards, rather than ground crumple.

• Suits that did not have Extreme Attacks now have one, and many suits now have multiple versions (different inputs)

New Extreme Burst Mechanics In-Depth

How the FB Changes Affect Competitive Game Balance

To sum things up, this game is much less momentum and offensive based than the last game. Rather, this game has a higher emphasis on basic neutral game control and spacing (Which is a good thing IMO!). Lots of things contribute to this, but the most noticeable one is the changes to Extreme meter.

As stated above, A lot of meter gain has gone down, particularly on 3000 and 2500 suits, to the point where you are generally only getting two half bursts as a 3K, rather than three. In addition, the overall effects of the burst have been drastically nerfed by splitting them into Assault and Burst, as well as lower boost recovery. What this means is that not only are bursts less common, they’re less likely to lead to a guaranteed landing punish. EXVS vanilla was much about killing people with your three half bursts, and pressing your advantage with them. While bursts are still amazing in this game, their overall influence on the outcome of a match is drastically lower.

As a result of both a) the meter gain nerfs and b) less of a priority on offensive momentum, the 2500 class overall has become less dominant at high level. In particular, the 3000 / 2500 comp is now considered weaker than 3000 / 2000. In the previous version the 2500’s overall explosive power, as well as their high reward off of their half burst, meant the 3000/2500 comp could general terrifying amounts of offense that could overwhelm opponents. It traded off health instability (due to the severe overcost) in exchange for better performance. Due to the meter gain nerfs, it is now MUCH more difficult to get two half bursts as the 2500 back suit, making it’s second life much less relevant than before, and overall making the composition high risk high reward rather than the previous game where the risk didn't matter that much.. On top of that, overall 2000 suit stability has increased due to most suits getting good mobility and HP buffs. One could say the difference between 2500 and 2000 has shortened.

Another big reason why this game is less about offensive momentum is the fact that overall, defensive options are much stronger in practically every aspect. System wise, the increased viability of fuwasteps and fuwafuwas allow for safer defensive play as well as more fluid defensive options. Guidance overall has also been nerfed somewhat, making it generally slightly harder to hit people. On top of that, the overall map size has increased, making it easier to keep away opponents, and making it much harder to get cornered. There were also two big suit-specific changes that follow a common pattern, both of which decrease the viability of rush down offense. One is the overwhelming addition of amekyans to many many suits (see the top for a definition on amekyan). Amekyans are much much more common than in the previous game, and you can expect them to be made full use of defensively. The second change was the common nerf to many strong, but non-replenishable assists, such as RX-78’s Guntank, which now can be used more maximum times, but are much less viable as one-time rushdown enablers. It’s very clear that the primary goal in developing and patching FB was to bring the game back to an emphasis on neutral game.

As a result, the game is much more focused on ranged play, rather than melee, compared to the previous version. It’s extremely obvious if you just look at the tier list - the top 2 suits are orthodox ranged suits, as compared to the last game’s Full Cloth and Quanta (yes, Quanta is still good, but that’s besides the point). The addition of fuwastep viability, map size, amekyans, etc make it much more difficult to go for melee. In addition, melee suits often benefited the most from extreme bursts as ways of enabling them to close in on targets. Now, this doesn't mean that melee suits themselves are that much worse - there are still many melee suits that are strong and many got corresponding buffs to continue to make them viable (Turn A, God). It’s more apt to say this game is less melee-centric.

As a result of this and the previously stated nerf to offensive pressure, you’ll see some surprising balance as a result. The best example is Delta Plus, that though did not concretely gain that many changes, sky rocketed in tiers from an average suit to one of the best 2000’s in the game. And he didn’t even get an amekyan - he already had one. Delta Plus’s main (and possibly only) weakness was his low self defense in the previous game, due to bad turn radius etc. That has been drastically changed by the viability of fuwastep, which helps him maintain an on angle threat while being much safer.

The second reason has to do with his matchups. Suit strength is always connected to actual in-game matchups. In general, it is said that Delta Plus was average in Vanilla because of having bad defense, yes. But more concrete way of stating this is he was average because he couldn’t fight against many offensive top tiers (Quanta, Full Cloth, Destiny, etc). In Guilty Gear +R, Faust became one of the strongest characters despite only getting moderate buffs due in part to the fact that many of his bad matchups got nerfed. The same can be said for Delta Plus - he has a much easier time dealing with suits like Reborns, Wing TV, and Unicorn, that play more of an orthodox neutral game rather than try and run over opponents.

Despite this, please remember not to interpret the current tiers / suit strengths as a way to reflect overall game balance too much - remember that each suit got changed greatly between versions. Don’t assume because  God is suddenly really good its because the melee ranged game is overall stronger in this version - outliers often appear due to suit specific new tools.

A final, and possibly most important and applicable note I’ll mention, is regarding awakening timings. If you’ve watched Full Boost footage before and are familiar with EXVS vanilla, you’ll notice that there’s a huge variety of burst timings and you may find Japanese players bursting at times that make no sense to you (or passing up on burst opportunities). This has to do with the relative buff to Full Burst. In Vanilla, being forced to a full burst (especially as front) generally meant throwing the match. It was a huge disadvantage. In this version, Full Burst is considered the stable, less greedy option, rather than an outright bad option. Because half bursts don’t refill all of your boost gauge, a lot of situations that would be obvious burst timings in Vanilla are now questionable or up in the air.

Consider the following example: You are being chased down and pushed into Overheat, and your opponent is sitting at around half boost. In Vanilla, you have a clear advantage, and you can probably take down your opponent. In Full Boost, you’re resetting the situation closer to neutral, or at your slight advantage, without a guaranteed hit in sight. Bursts now no longer simply give you huge momentum swings that reverse the situation entirely. Now they’re more like assists that help improve whatever current situation you’re in. You can think of this as meaning that it is harder to find situations where half bursts will lead to guaranteed damage. As a result, there are two common patterns for bursting you’ll now see. One is players bursting when they already have a slight or moderate advantage in order to “seal the deal” so to speak. This method of bursting is particularly effecting with Assault because you’re profiting off of the damage modifier heavily. The second is using it as a defensive trump card, something that in the old game was seen as a “bad burst” and is also seen more commonly with Blast bursts, due to gaining the new ability to step cancel your shots, etc.

The optimal half burst in Vanilla EXVS was 1) preventing being hit and 2) hitting the opponent instead. This can be interpreted as a roughly 400 damage swing, overall. In comparison, offensive half bursts get you 200, pushing a neutral situation into your favor, OR prevent 200 damage, by being used defensively to avoid being shot down. The old EXVS burst has literally been cut in half. However the full burst functions like the previous half burst, so it’s now okay to actually value a full burst as two half-bursts. In EXVS vanilla it was more like one full burst equals 1.2 half bursts.

As I briefly mentioned before, going for a full burst is the stable option. There are many reasons why it’s considered stable. One is that you can try and use a half-burst, and if you don’t see an opportunity, shrug and accept the full burst. The second is the fact that you can use Full Bursts as Reversals. Not only as in the ideal situation I mentioned above, bursting at Overheat then hitting the opponent, but by using a Defensive Full Burst (when you get hit), then hitting the opponent who was hitting you. This is referred to as a reversal burst. Obviously this has huge rewards, and existed in Vanilla as well, but since you could accomplish similar things with half-bursts, it wasn’t a major point. Attempted reversal defensive bursts are much more common in FB, and while they’re still very situational, they give extra weight to the merit of the full burst. Lastly, because you gain less burst meter when you die, high cost suits no longer “waste” meter when you die. In Vanilla if you died without activating you were pretty much at full straight up. In Full Boost that’s not the case, so there’s much less danger of wasting your meter by saving up for a full.

As we said earlier, the game is much less momentum based. One final point factoring into the previous weakness of full bursts is the overwhelming momentum that half bursts helped give. If you didn’t half burst, were forced to deal with a lot of mid-game pressure without much help. Because the game is less momentum based, being unable to use a burst until the third quarter of the game no longer is a drastic deficit.

That being said, half bursts are still very good, you will still see them more often than full bursts, most likely. The important point to take from all of this is that burst timings is much more judgemental. In EXVS vanilla there are points where you could say you MUST burst at, 100% of the time, without argument. In Full Boost, there are many more grey areas and it’s up to you as a player to weigh the pros and cons. In Full Boost, you consider ‘will a better opportunity come up or is this the best time to use my burst?’. There’s actual strategy involved. In Vanilla, it was simply “Will I prevent myself from being hit AND hit them? if so do it.” without fail.

This has become more of a paper rather than a short debriefing for EXVS Vanilla players looking to adapt to the new changes, so think of this as my personal forward for all EXVS players about to start their Full Boost journey. Please note that all of this is my own personal opinion, and though I try to base all of my points within concrete game changes, Full Boost is a much more organic game than EXVS Vanilla, and there are many ways to play. Though my goal is to rationalize and explain what the new common strategies and trends are, these trends are still simply decisions being made by players like you, subjective to change. I hope what you take from this is less the actual points I make, and more so the method of thinking used to arrive there. That being said, I hope you are as excited to play Full Boost as I am, and once again feel free to talk to me on Twitter and play with us on stream.

                                                                                                -Brett

New Suit Summaries

3000

Wing Zero TV - all-purpose beginner friendly suit that has very strong basic tools. Zero System acts like MEPE, allowing him to change the tide of battle instantly.

Reborns - strong all-purpose suit with a mode change and tons of cancel routes, as well as lots of ammo, good gerobis, and one of the best amekyans in the game.

Epyon - A pure melee suit - lots of close range tools but no projectile options, making it very weak

2500

Banshee - excellent midrange suit, has a twin boomerang attack, NTD mode, etc.

Extreme Suits: All the extreme suits have some mechanic where they shift to an upgraded phase over time

Extreme Xenon - close range aggressive suit, lots of great close range tools like a sweeping laser whip, stun ball, etc

Extreme Eclipse - long range extreme suit with gerobis, big beams, etc

Extreme Aios - All purpose suit

X-Divider - all-purpose suit with a great MG and some unique projectile tools.

Impulse - mode changing suit similar to Strike, though vastly improved. though lacking in IWSP, all of his modes actually have proper amounts of tools

Crossbone X3 - Kind of like a mini Full Cloth, but doesn’t come with an ABC mantle, has a similar CSb but CSa shoots a nuke

2000

Hambrabi - all-purpose suit focusing on strong capabilities during Mobile Armor mode

Gyan - Melee suit with an auto-guard shield on his front side

Mk II - An all-purpose suit with a nice CSa and a timed backpack equip

Rozen Zulu - specializes in funnels, has a Psycho Jammer that creates a stunning obstacle on the field

Gerbera Tetra - Machine gun type suit (like Blue Destiny), with a decent assist and a one time movement boosting upgrade

Spiegel - G Gundam mobile fighter type suit with a good CSa and tricky movement options

Throne Drei - Assist based ranged suit, has tons of different assists, and a special mode that gives her partner MEPE-ish guidance cutting.

Stargazer - all-purpose suit with a timer based mode upgrade (think 00) and a remote mine

Gaia - all purpose suit that can shift into a Dog-like MA mode

Kapool - Two MS’s that play as one, each has a different HP bar, you can tag in / swap out, and the other slowly regains some health

1000

Victory - Throws out its own body parts as weapons, changing its mode

Efreet - a melee suit with a unique EXAM system mechanic

Duel - BR, charge shot, has an assist that follows him like G Bits / Marie

EXVS Vanilla Suit Changes

[note 1: Any suit not listed here had no recorded changes or was not in the previous version. Also even if not mentioned, every suit that didn't have an Extreme Attack now has one. Does not include ALL changes, just the major ones]

[note 2: Overall game speed and guidance have been lowered, and some of these changes may have been reported as a result of global changes rather than suit specific ones, so be aware some of these may be inaccurate]

3000

Unicorn:

Overall:

Assist (AC) - Faster Startup, Ammo count went from 4 to 2, but is now reloadable. Now has heavy stun, improved muzzle correction, and improved guidance. Can now be cancelled into BR as an Ame-kyan.

When doing your awakening super, your NT-D gauge will fill to 100.

Normal Mode:

BD speed and turn (swerve) improved (as of 6/25 patch)

Turn (swivel) speed improved

Red Lock shortened

5B reach improved

CS improved

BR guidance, travel speed, and proration nerfed

Destroy Mode:

Can now cancel the camera change when entering NTD Mode

Entering NTD mode now carries over some momentum

Lasts longer (15→23 sec)

MG staggers in 3 shots instead of 4

MG → Sub, and MG → BC cancels added

Reload time for BC doubled (3→1.5 sec)

BD melee speed and reach improved

Quanta:

Normal:

BR count nerfed (6→5)

Zabanya (AB In Quantum System) can now be done normally with AC

GN Sword Bit (GN Field) (Previously AC, now BC) now has 200 hp instead of 100, does not protect against melee attacks, and can be cancelled at will. Depletes like a normal ammo type rather than a countdown type. Improved startup and preserves momentum slightly (as of 6/26 patch)

Quantum Burst is now CSb, and can be done immediately

During Buster Sword, melee startup and hitbox nerfed, but then rebuffed as of 6/26 patch.

Sword Bits (AB) reload and deploy speed improved (as of 6/26 patch)

2B damage improved (95 / 100)

Quantum System:

Improved BR count (5→6)

Zabanya and Allelujah inputs switched

Can cancel Assist into Main

5B and 6B are normal melees

Melee bits are now 8B

Has 600 HP instead of 640.

Sazabi:

Went from 2.5k to 3K.

CSa now causes him to plummet, allowing him to play similar to how 00 uses his Riser Mode CSa

Gerobi (AC) does more damage

Assist (BC) reloads faster (20→15 sec)

DX:

Swivel speed improved

MA movement improved

Sub became CSa, Sub is now a new reloadable assist with 2 stock.

CSa can be cancelled into melee (tracks during greenlock too)

Improved reach on all melees

5B hitbox nerfed

6b’s 3rd hit has better proration, hard untech for limited time, adjusted blowback so it combos into everything easily

8B is a single hit

2B launches better

Satelite Canon damage spread nerfed.

MA BR proration nerfed

Turn A:

Mobility improved in all aspects (turn, speed accel, etc)

Hammer (Main) damage and startup greatly improved

New Melee added (BC) - 8BC is a shield attack, 2BC is a hop.

new CS8a added (stun shot)

00 Gundam:

BR count increased

AC now has 2 stock, and can now send either Arios or Seravii. Neutral is Seravii (gerobi), directional is Arios (same as vanilla). Can cancel into BR for an ame-kyan

Assist reload lowered to 10 sec

Has a new Extreme Attack performed with Neutral that fires a Gerobi. The old version is with 2 or 8 + ABC.

Raiser:

Mobility improved

Duration 15 sec → 20 sec

Cooldown time 10 sec → 6 sec

2B speed and startup improved

Sub now throws sword boomerang (same as normal mode), old missile sub is now CSb

Gundam Wing (EW)

HP 680 → 650

BR - each hit does slightly more damage, but worse proration and down value, and total hits is now 5 down from 6, so ultimately similar damage (Full hit does 144 up from 141). Reload time 4.5sec → 4sec, slight muzzle correction nerf, can now cancel into Sub / AC / BC.

Added a multilock CS

Sub changed from vulcans to an assist. Can cancel Sub → BR for an amekyan

Gerobi reload time 15sec → 20sec, full hit does 226 up from 204

You can now input left or right during BC to add horizontal momentum. BC now has 2 stock in awakening.

BC reload 10 sec → 12 sec

5B (169→174) and 8B (132→177) melee damage improved.

6B reach improved

Nu Gundam

CSa is now a single beam shot, old CS became CSb.

new 2B which stuns and can be cancelled into from BR.

Pyramid can be cancelled at will, Cooldown Time 10 sec → 13 sec

Full Cloth

HP 620→600

Doesn’t get his cloth back in cost over

Neutral Whip consumes more boost, slower, has worse proration

CSb duration, charge time, reload time nerfed

5B during CSB nerfed damage proration

Normal 5B damage improved

CSb during CSb mode damage, startup, reach improved.

Master

720→750 HP

BC now summons Fuun Saiki

Main shot ranged lowered, stuns less.

Neutral whip range improved, startup improved

Side whip damage improved (90→100)

AC babies cling on opponents less time

8B upper body inv property lengthened, reach improved, startup nerfed, proration improved

6B improved reach, proration nerfed

Destiny

HP 680→700

CSb muzzle correction slightly nerfed and direction influence improved

Wings of Light movement speed lowered, down movement makes you rise slightly higher, can now cancel into 2B.

BC (Finger) consumes more boost, worse proration

Boomerang proration improved (6/26 patch)

6B motion is faster (6/26 patch)

Turn X

Turn speed improved

Red lock range improved

CS charge time 2.0→2.5 sec

AC funnel ammo is consumed all at once

5AC cuts guidance

Can do 8B into 2B

6B startup improved

2B startup improved, preserves some momentum

BC muzzle correction improved and on hit blowback adjusted so CS is guaranteed.

Strike Freedom

Red lock range shortened

Can cancel BR into AC and BC

Can cancel Gerobi (AB) into BC

CS damage and startup improved (6/26 patch)

Multi-lock CS damage improved greatly

BD melee reach and speed improved

Neutral AC funnels are fired with AC rather than autofiring from BR.

Hi-v

CS is a single down shot (120 dmg) similar to nu’s

After BC finishes, you retain whatever funnel count you ended with (doesn't go past the normal max)

BD melee adjusted for stability

V2

650→620 HP

Normal Mode max BR count 8 → 7

Assault Mode max BR count 3 → 4, reload time nerfed(2.5sec → 3sec)

Assault Gerobi (Sub) reload time 4sec → 5sec

Assault BC (V wings) reload time 5sec → 6sec

Assault Buster BR damage improved

Assault Buster Sub and CS changed places,

Assault Buster Sub (gerobi) muzzle correction improved and damage nerfed

Assault Buster CS (missiles) formation changed for the better

Assault Buster BC (wings of light) speed and reach improved

2B shield hitbox and startup nerfed

2500

Zeta

Nerfed mobility

Reload animation got faster, improved guidance

AC reload 12 sec → 8 sec

Sub reload time 4 sec → 6 sec

CSa can now be camera cancelled

CSb added

2B has momentum preservation, can cancel to Sub for amekyan

Many melee properties changed and AC followups added

ZZ

HP 620 → 650

Mobility Improved

FA mode - AC startup and size improved, Sub reload time and damage improved

Unarmored mode AC became a new move, CSa is the old AC

2B hit state changed

Qubeley

Mobility improved overall, but lowered while assists are up.

Ammo count 8→9

Sub funnels now revamped entirely - fire automatically, down in 2 shots, more ammo, etc.

AC calls her assist she previously gained when at low HP

Overall melees got improved

Pressure (BC) reload time 15sec→17sec and 5sec CD time added

Gottrlatan

BR count 6 → 10

2BC guidance nerfed

AC got slightly larger