System and controls

Basic Controls

Gundam EXVSMBON is played with three primary buttons along with the supplementary target switch and communication buttons.

(If you are playing on an arcade stick, be sure to configure your buttons to the Joystick setting in the in-game options)

These buttons are commonly referred to by their arcade layout: A (Shoot), B (Melee) and C (Jump)

In addition to each primary button action, each suit has a unique movelist based on button combinations, which are referred to as AB (Sub), BC (Special Melee), and AC (Special Shot).

HUD overview

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Basic actions

Shoot

Pressing A will fire your main weapon, often referred to as just main (Note: the typical main shot is a beam rifle shot (BR), but there are some unique suits with main shots that differ from the standard, such as machine gun ammo).

Ranged attacks typically track towards the target in mid-air, which is known as guidance. Attacks will only guide if you are close enough to the target, indicated by your center reticle. A red lock indicates you will have guidance, while green indicates you're too far away. Attacks that do not have guidance simply travel in a straight line, making them unlikely to connect. Avoid firing in green lock, and think of your red lock range as your effective range for most projectiles. Note that you will also be in green lock if your verticle angle to the opponent is too high or too low.

Melee

Pressing B will perform a melee attack. You can hold up, down, or side directions to get unique melee attacks. Melee attacks usually have additional followups if you press B additional times. While projectile attacks can often be avoided with movement, melee attacks pursue the target with great tracking, making them a powerful close ranged option.

Charged Shot (CSa / CSb)

Some suits will have a charge bar in their ammo HUD indicating they have a charged attack. Charged attacks require holding either A or B (depending in the suit), and releasing them to perform a unique attack. If you are playing on a controller rather than arcade stick, we encourage rebinding your button layout to something that allows you to comfortably hold buttons if your suit frequently uses charged shots (typically rebinding to shoulder buttons).

Unique Attacks

AB, AC, and BC are unique to the suit, and are the main aspect that separates each suit in the large roster. Be sure to check out the in-game move list for more details on each suit.

Boost Dash

Pressing C twice will perform a boost dash in the direction you point to. You can use a boost dash to cancel your current action, and you can do new attacks after boost dashing, meaning you can use boost dash to link attacks together. The most basic combo in the game is three beam rifle shots connected by boost dashes. For details on how to utilize boost dashing properly, check the Movement section.

Sidestep

Inputting a direction twice will perform a sidestep. Stepping allows you to cut guidance while moving slightly in one direction. For more details on stepping, check the Movement section.

Switch Target

Switching targets changes your perspective, but does not change where your suit is looking or acting - you can freely switch targets in the middle of actions. Switching targets often is encouraged to better access the situation - many suits have attacks that capitalize on players who aren't paying attention to them!

Shield

Shield is performed by inputting down, then up, in quick succession. A basic shield input will raise your shield for a short amount of time, then force you to drop your shield. Continuing to hold the up direction will keep your shield raised, but consumes additional boost. Shielding allows you to block incoming attacks in front of you - attacks fired from the side or behind you will ignore the shield.

The recommended way to defend in Gundam is to utilize Movement. While shielding can defend you from attacks temporarily, it does not put you in an advantageous situation, and is often punished when unsuccessful. Good use of shield comes with experience, and It is best to think of shield as a last resort when dodging is not an option.

Cost system

The goal in Gundam is to defeat the enemy team by bringing their Team Cost gauge to zero. Each team starts with 6000 points. Each mobile suit falls into one of four cost brackets: 3000, 2500, 2000, and 1500. When a player's mobile suit is taken down, it respawns and takes it's cost value from the team pool. Higher cost suits have better performance but take more from the team pool.

Overcost

When shot down, if the remaining team cost after death is less than your suit's cost, you will respawn with only a portion of your max HP. This value is equal to the ratio of remaining team cost to your cost. If you are playing a 3000 suit and your 2000 cost partner has died once, your team cost is 4000 out of 6000. If you are shot down, putting the team cost at 1000, you will respawn with 33% HP (1000 / 3000).

The cost of a suit often shapes how it’s played. Higher cost suits, with more health and mobility, generally play a leading role (front) on a team, while lower cost suits play supporting roles (back). Let's go over each cost bracket in detail:

3000

As highest cost in the game, 3000 suits typically play the front position on the team, and prefer to be paired with a 2500 or 2000 suit. New players should not be discouraged from picking this cost - as 3000 suits are expected to take damage to some degree, and being the active player creates many learning opportunities.

2500

Typically paired as support with a 3000 partner, or as double front with a 1500. This is a great cost bracket for learning the game due to its good performance and flexibility.

2000

A support-focused role that typically pairs with a 3000 front. Compared to supporting as a 2500, the 2000 cost suits are more health efficient, but less impactful overall, meaning they typically must work well with their partner to be effective.

1500

Despite being the cheapest cost, rather than having overall low performance, the 1500 suits typically have huge trade-offs, making them powerful in many ways while having extreme drawbacks. This cost is full of unorthodox suits that often require dedication to use effectively, making them a cost catered towards experienced players.

Of the four cost brackets, this is the only cost bracket generally not recommended for new players.

If you can't decide on what suit to play, feel free to check the Recommended Suits section for some suggestions.

Boost System

Moving around is required to chain attacks together and dodge projectiles, and all basic movement (except walking) requires you spend boost, a resource visible on the bottom of your HUD. Once you leave the ground, boost does not refill until you land - you will need to constantly land and refill boost throughout the game.

Landing on the ground incurs landing recovery, which increases the more boost you spent, forcing you to stand still for a small period without being able to defend. In addition, if you deplete your entire boost gauge, you will incur an Overheat Penalty, which adds even more landing recovery (10 frames).

Landing is one of the most fundamental vulnerable periods, and a core aspect to Gundam is punishing players who are landing while keeping your own landings safe/unpredictable.

More on managing your boost can be found in the Movement section.

Burst System

Extreme Burst is a power-up mode you can enter a limited amount of times throughout the game, activated by pressing all three primary buttons at the same time (ABC). In addition, you can perform a burst super by pressing ABC while in burst. To activate Burst, you must be in a state where you can control your suit i.e. not stunned, knocked down, etc, and you must have at least 50% of your EX Gauge filled, seen on the lower area of the HUD. Having 100% meter will also allow you to Burst while being combo'd or knocked down.

When selecting your suit, you must also choose a Burst type - Fighting, Shooting, and Extend Burst, each of which have unique benefits.

For details on Burst types and usage, see Burst Details.

Vernier

Most attacks have recovery animations which stall your suit in mid-air and drain boost. This is referred to as causing vernier, due to thrusters that visually activate. You will generally want to cancel vernier by boost dashing out of recovery.

Cancel routes

Each suit can cancel certain attacks into other attacks, commonly referred to as straight cancelling. Use these cancels as ways to get more attacks out before needing to boost dash cancel. Commonly your main shot can be cancelled into most other attacks. Experiment with your suit in training mode or find references to find all your suit's cancel routes.

angle of fire

Your main shot is unique in that it will not cause vernier - if you fire while moving, you will continue to move as if you hadn't fired. However, this ability to ignore vernier only applies if your mobile suit is facing the target within a certain angle - if you fire outside of this angle, your suit will re-face the target before firing, which will cause vernier. This is referred to as an out-of-angle shot. Check the Movement section for techniques used to avoid firing out of angle.

Now that you know the general rules and how to perform basic actions, learning how to use Movement to connect the dots.

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