Hello! Amazing game! Me and my friend had so much fun while playing this game. Just a quick question, how do i use the shield? i've used it a few times as an accident, but i never knew how to activate it on purpose
This was simply made as a moderately extensive guide for the game from my personal experiences in this game for anyone who wants to improve (and is too lazy to figure out the best combos in gameplay, I don’t blame ya lol). The main roster will each have an entry as a different reply to the main post, and feel free to comment on anything to improve the list with your personal experience. This guide assumes you are playing with hazards off, as it causes too many external factors to consider.
IMPORTANT: this guide was made during version 0.3.0, and may be outdated in the future.
Space Attack: Dragonfish’s space attack is a fireball that does 5 damage, a moderately fast projectile that does little shield damage. The fireball is best used to apply pressure at a distance. This attack has 2 variants, a standard fireball of moderate speed, and a yellow fireball that moves slower, and can be used by inputting Crouch, Forward (facing enemy) + Attack to use. This attack for the most part won’t work great in combo’s because of its dangerous endlag being amplified at melee range.
Dash Attack: Dragonfish’s dash attack is a slide attack that is great for closing distance and deals 6 damage. This attack does low shield damage, makes a good combo starter, with the most consistent combo being Dash, Crouch, Up if you hit it at a close range, though generally dragonfish can gain more out of other attacks. The dash attack, while situational, is a welcome addition to the dragonfish’s kit and can make itself useful from time to time.
Crouch Attack: Dragonfish’s crouch attack is a fast headbutt that deals 6 damage. The crouch attack is the single most important attack in the dragonfish’s kit, being a good juggle tool and dealing high shield damage. The crouch attack has 2 variants, with the standard attack inching you forward during the animation, and an alternate variant that keeps you in place. The standard crouch attack is exceptionally useful for combos, as once you hit an enemy with it, you can walk forward while they are in the air, to either use an up attack or to extend the combo with another crouch attack. It is highly recommended to learn how to properly utilize this attack, as you can gain massive benefit from mastering it.
Up Attack: Dragonfish’s up attack is an upward bite that deals 14 damage. The up attack is a combo finisher, but will often whiff on shield as dragonfish does a jump that raises the hitbox during the attack. This attack has 2 variants, a standard version that deals 14 damage, and an alternate version that does 26 dmg, and can be used by inputting Down, Down, Up + Attack. The Up attack is best used either to attack an enemy jumping at you, or as a followup to a crouch attack, and can be followed up once more by quickly using a dash attack into the opponent before they land. The Up attack is a valuable attack, making for excellent damage that can quickly overwhelm your opponent.
Air Attack: Dragonfish’s air is a downwards bite that does 12 damage. The air attack is a combo starter, that does heavy damage on shield, but can leave you vulnerable to hit if you don’t directly deal damage, if you hit the air attack, you can quickly start juggling with crouch attacks, with the most consistent combo (in my experience) being Air, Crouch, Crouch, Up, and a dash depending on distance, dealing anywhere between 38 and 56 damage depending on if you use the variant Up attack and/or are in range to dash. The air attack is a welcome addition to the kit and can make for fast and strong combos.
Super Attack: Dragonfish’s super attack is a barrage of 11 fireballs, dealing a total of 65 damage if all connect. The super attack plays a simple role, in being a devastating force of damage that can be chained in the middle of a combo in order to defeat your opponents swiftly and efficiently, but due to it being a standard fireball fired many times they can be destroyed by attacks, or the dragonfish can potentially be interrupted and waste their super attack, so use this wisely.
Tips and Tricks: Dragonfish, despite what its projectile implies, gets the most out of being right in the face of your opponent, with high damage combos that can devastate an opponent if they don’t react properly, and it's highly recommended to act in ways your opponent wouldn’t expect, such as mixing up between dash and air attacks when at medium distance. Dragonfish has one of the faster movespeeds in the game, so take advantage of this and try to force your opponent into one of the invisible walls to try to infinite them (infinites can be performed by most characters against a wall, normally either by spamming either the crouch or up attacks while inching forward between attacks.
while the normal fireball has a lot of endlag, the yellow version does not. because of this, if you keep dashing after using it, you can use your yellow fireball as a moving shield that destroys incoming projectiles and starts combos. it has a lot more startup though, so don't get too predictable.
Dash attack is invincible to all moving projectiles (so things such as dragonfish fireball, but not totem monster's bursted bubble) for a short while. If the opponent is using projectiles up close you can easily close the gap.
you can actually cancel your crouching attack into a yellow fireball attack (both variants of crouch attack can be cancelled, but the non-moving one won't combo). Simply do crouch attack without holding forward, then quickly do the yellow fireball input and press attack. This won't do that much extra damage but it will carry the opponent to the corner al lot quicker and it gives you more reaction time to plan your next move. with this technique you can do things like: air attack > crouch attack > yellow fireball > crouch attack > super. or if the opponent is cornered crouch attack > yellow fireball > crouch attack > yellow fireball > loop this until you get pushed too far, then end the combo with an up attack or super.
up attack beats out opponent's air attacks if you don't time it too late.
if you use up attack while dashing, you will keep some momentum. really important if you want to finish a combo with it.
You already sort of mentioned it, but crouch attack > super attack is an easy combo that makes dragonfish's crouch attack even more terrifying.
Space Attack: Shella Snail’s space attack is a projectile heart that deals 4 damage. The heart projectile is fast, but has moderate endlag and minimal shield damage. This attack has 2 variants, The standard variant is fast, but the alternate version is much faster, and can be used by inputting Backward (hold until you see hearts emit from your character), Forward + Attack. This attack is exceptionally useful to pressure your opponent into gaining distance or dealing chip damage after combos, as it is far too risky to use in close range for its low reward.
Dash Attack: Shella Snail’s dash attack is a moving shell spin that deals a total of 12 damage. The dash attack does moderate shield damage, and takes a bit to start up, but makes a good combo finisher and can gain ground. It also works well as a threat to your opponent simply by dashing, as the attack animation is identical to the standard dash until the spikes that actually deal damage appear.
Crouch Attack: Shella Snail’s crouch attack is a low jab that deals 9 damage. The crouch attack does low shield damage, and has a long windup, but decently long range, the total animation length of the crouch attack is long enough for your opponent to block, but you can easily mix up into another attack such as a dash or air attack to catch them off guard. The most consistent combo I've found when starting with a Crouch attack is Crouch, Dash, Space for a modest 25 dmg.
Up Attack: Shella Snail’s up attack is a high stab that deals 4 damage. The up attack deals low shield damage, but makes an excellent combo extender, as it has a very short startup, and can easily be followed up by a dash attack. The Up attack has 2 variants, a standard version that does 4 damage and knocks the opponent into the air, but the variant does 16 damage and stuns your opponent briefly, that can be used by inputting Down (hold for a second), Up + Attack. The alternate attack is incredibly effective to punish your opponents while they attack your shield, and can occasionally be used to attack people high in the air. My personal most consistent combo with the up attack is Air, Up, Dash, Space, which deals a total of 27 damage.
Air attack: Shella Snail’s air attack is a downward poke that deals 12 damage. The Air attack does moderate shield damage, and primarily makes for a combo starter/extender, which can easily follow up into most other attacks, with very low endlag. I have personally found it possible to make an extensive untrue combo by using Air, Crouch, then jumping forward to gain distance and attempt to repeat the loop, being able to end it with a dash attack for potentially massive damage.
Super Attack: Shella Snail’s Super attack is a triple lightning strike in front of your character, dealing 20 damage for each strike (note that you can only hit one of the strikes as the hitboxes are coded to only let you hit one). The Super attack has the unique attribute of stunning the opponent for a very long time, giving you plenty of time to prepare any attack you wish to use, with the variant up attack being the most consistently useful, as its preparation time is entirely invalidated letting you use any combo desired.
Tips and Tricks: Shella snail is the character with the single slowest walkspeed (other than happy but that is a unique circumstance) and thus will be caught in a corner frequently, especially if you use the variant heart projectile. Shella snail benefits from dashing more than any other character, and I've found it can be taken a step further, if you dash and then jump you will retain the momentum gained while airborne and able to use Air attacks. To take it one step further you are able to jump in the opposite direction you dashed in and retain the increased speed, to cause massive mix ups and make the snail monster one of the most agile in the game. This is a technique I will call “Dash-Jumping”
Shella Snail has 180 HP - the most out of any monster
You can charge your charged heart & charged up attack at the same time & while doing other attacks. Because of this she can charge a heart while using a noncharged heart and make a barrage of projectiles with different timings and speeds on the screen. There is actually so much you can do with this, such as combo a crouch attack > charged heart > a lot of other moves, or you can jump forwards, then hold back while jumping so you can charge you move in the air while moving forwards. in my opinion charged heart is shella's best move. Sometimes it is important to move a bit forwards too however, because shella snail can easily get cornered and she is really bad in the corner.
One important thing to remember about only using projectiles is that you don't gain any pepper meter, so if you're trying to keep away your opponent at midrange, make sure to mix it up with a crouch attack every once in a while as well.
if you use up attack while dashing, you will keep some momentum. The slidy-ness of that momentum will carry over to the pushback your get if you hit an opponent, so if you're juggling an opponent in the corner with up attack, the best thing to do is to not dash in-between, as you will get sent flying away on your last hit. YEET
Despite being 3 hits, super attack can only hit 1 time, once you hit the first one, the opponent is invincible to the second one for a short while. You can hit a blocking (or parrying) opponent multiple times though.
Basic Attack: The Totem Monster’s Basic attack is a tentacle slap that does 12 damage. This attack does moderate shield damage, and has an incredible amount of range, at the cost of speed and combo potential. This attack, aswell as most of the totem monsters kit works best if you use it with spacing rather than attempting combos.
Dash Attack: The Totem Monster has no dash attack, however its dash has the unique property of being a “teleport” that briefly makes your hitbox, allowing you to dodge attacks with ease.
Crouch Attack: The Totem Monster’s crouch attack is a multihit tentacle spin that does a total of 12 damage. This attack does moderate shield damage, and is mainly used to keep your opponent a far distance away as the totem monster is at a significant advantage when at a distance from your opponent
Up Attack: The Totem Monster’s up attack is an arcing projectile that deals 8 damage. This attack is one of the many spacing tools, most effective at keeping opponents from approaching in the air, but still works well at blocking off the ground. These projectiles are effectively useless at close range, as they will fly directly above your enemies head, If you hit one of your own projectiles with a melee attack, it will create a poisonous zone that constantly does chip damage to anyone in the area, which is a great area denial tool, though is hard to use if your opponent is trying to approach you.
Air Attack: The Totem Monster’s air attack is an angled tentacle strike that does 8 damage. This attack does moderate shield damage, and is an incredible zoning/approaching tool, which can be used to get surprisingly close to your enemy. The Totem Monster has a double jump, which means you can cancel out an air attack by double jumping, and if you do this right after you hit one you can effectively ‘combo’ your enemy by using it twice, aswell as potentially following it up with a grounded attack, such as the crouch or basic attack.
Special Attack: The Totem Monster has a special attack, a ground pound that does a total of 21 damage. You can use the Special Attack by inputting a downward attack while in the air, and does very high shield damage, making up of a 2 part multihit, with the first hit being a downward slam that does 1 damage and spikes the opponent into the ground, and the second hit being a small shockwave that launches the opponent far away and does 20 damage. This attack, while not often useful due to the spacing nature of the Totem Monster, makes a great “get off me” tool when you're pinned in a corner.
Super Attack: The Totem Monsters Super attack is a black hole that holds your opponent in stun for an extended period of time. This attack effectively allows you to get about 3 free attacks on your opponent, and while blockable, it basically forces your opponent into blocking as releasing it before the black hole disappears will just make them get stuck once again. This attack has a limited range and won’t pull your opponent in if you use it at point blank range, so keep at a bit of a distance to properly utilize it.
Tips and Tricks: The Totem Monster relies much less on combos than the rest of the cast, and is much more effective when fighting at a range your opponent cannot effectively fight back at, spacing is key if you wish to master the character.
Neutral attack, both variants of crouching attack and air attack destroy moving projectiles.
if you hold forwards while doing crouch attack, you will do a 6-hit version of the attack. Aside ffrom doing more damage, this move is worse in almost every way, longer endlag, it is less safe if the opponent blocks, it has less combo potential. But totem monster really struggles with presssuring an opponent up-close, so this attack might help you mix up your pressure every once in a while.
you can also use up attack as a combo starter (when its going down). up attack > (you have plenty of time to do anything) > jump > air attack > anything you would normally do after air attack such as doublejump cancel or neutral attack.
If you land with air attack before the hitbox comes out, you get no landing lag.
Super attack breaks projectiles, so if your opponent uses a projectile at a distance, use this move to instantly grab them and take no damage.
Down air attack (totem stomp) can break shields really easily, this is a very good tactic if the opponent is blocking your super attack.
Tips for fighting against totem monster: totem monster's attacks are really unsafe if you block them, so instead of rushing at it from a distance, try slowly approaching it while blocking every so often. once you're pretty close, totem monster's only safe way of hitting you is his crouch attack, however, this attack is extremely vulnerable to jumping attacks.
Crouch attack: Happy and Mad have a unique gimmick in which their crouch attack will change them between 2 different movesets and stats, and as such this character will be formatted differently from the others. Happy and Mad’s crouch attack is a short spin that deals 3 damage. This attack takes the role of a combo extender/mixup tool as the changing of character mid combo can account for countless combos, of which I highly recommend trying to find yourselves, as there is no one best combo and there is plenty of ways to make interesting combos, even if just by button mashing.
Tips and Tricks: Happy and Mad are both unique characters that have differences outside of just movesets, such as while happy is generally better to use while at range, mad has a faster movement speed and thus can get both in and out of melee range better, which can be amplified by Dash-Jumping (which is explained in the tips and tricks for Shella Snail). Another potentially dirty trick you could use against other players is use the Emote of happy and mad (you can emote with the ‘N’ key), as the first half of the taunt is entirely identical to the crouch attack animation, and thus may briefly deceive your opponent into believing you changed character (note: this works best with the second skin, as it doesnt change the color of happy and mad when changing character)
Happy:
Basic Attack: Happies basic attack is a chargeable horn swipe, with 3 levels of charge, doing 3, 5,or 12 damage depending on charge. The uncharged version is a quick swipe of the horn that can be used to extend or start combos. The partially charged version is a swipe that moves Happy forward a bit, serving as a combo starter or extender like the uncharged variant. The fully charged version is a projectile that is unique as it both moves farther than other projectiles, aswell as won’t break from taking damage unlike every other projectile in game, and makes an incredible pressure tool that basically forces your opponent to get within close range.
Dash Attack: Happies dash attack is a forward thrust that deals 6 damage. This attack has low damage on shield, but covers a lot of ground but has a large amount of endlag, and mainly serves as a ‘get off me’ tool that can combo with itself. Happy is a character that wants to get in and change to mad for the main combos, and this is an attack that works best to allow safer use of the projectiles.
Up attack: Happies up attack is a stabbing leap that deals 16 damage. This attack does high damage on shield, and causes Happy to jump in an arcing motion, knocking your opponent into the air, making it an all purpose attack that can do a bit of everything. This attack not only makes a great approaching tool, and can combo into itself or another attack in the toolset.
Air Attack: Happies air attack is a downwards slash that deals 10 damage. This attack serves the role of a combo starter, easily opening a combo of your choice. While this attack makes a fine opening it works best as a mixup from the up attack, as it generally performs worse in gameplay comparatively.
Super Attack: Happies super attack is a massive lazer that deals 26 damage. This attack will insanely high damage on shield aswell as 19 damage against the blocking opponent, with any previous damage being enough to cause a shield break. the “kamehamehorse” as Weenter himself calls it, is an incredibly powerful attack that can be incredibly lethal due to having infinite range, and can knockback your opponent into oblivion. This while being the safer of the 2 super attacks is the one I find being weaker, but certainly can be used to great effect when timed correctly.
Mad:
Basic Attack: Mads basic attack is a chargeable headbash, with 3 levels of charge, doing 2, 7, and 20 damage. The uncharged version is a small spammable attack that can be used to extend combos, but otherwise is pretty useless, as it has very little damage on shield. The partially charged headbut is a stronger attack that hits moderate damage on shield, and does small knockback, and can be used for juggling enemies, aswell as extending combos. The fully charged version is a stronger version of the partial version, doing impressive damage and launching your opponent away, working best as a combo finisher.
Dash Attack: Mads dash attack is a flaming roll multihit that deals a total of 14 damage. This attack deals moderate damage on shield, This attack is a multipurpose combo starter/extender that can help quickly build up damage and combo into itself.
Up Attack: Mads up attack is a downwards slam that does 18 damage. This attack does very high damage on shield, with only 2 being able to break a shield entirely. This attack makes an extremely efficient shieldbreaker, but is somewhat difficult to properly utilize outside of that niche due to long windup, but can also work as a way to attack aerial targets.
Air Attack: Mads air attack is a downward dive that deals 12 damage. This attack deals low damage on shield, but is a fast attack that works as one of Mad’s many combo extenders. This aerial attack is an excellent way to apply pressure on your opponent, as Mad has many attacks such as this that move him forward.
Super Attack: Mads super attack is an extended charge that deals a total of 66 damage. This attack has high shield damage, but it's possible to entirely bypass the shield by briefly turning around during one of the attacks (this is a bug that will likely be patched in the next update now that I have mentioned it here). This attack is risky and difficult to use to its best effect, as it functionally does more damage the closer it is used, though the charge leaves the player entirely vulnerable.
Happy and Mad have 120 HP. The lowest in the game.
Happy and Mad's stats vary wildly from eachother. Happy has the highest jump in the game (ignoring totem monster's double jump) and the slowest walk speed, while mad has the lowest jump in the game and the fastest walk speed.
If you can see that your opponent will block happy or mad's fully charged neutral attack or super, you can press down and the animation will cancel. You will not do the attack and keep your super meter.
If you hold forwards or backwards during crouch attack you will move slightly in the direction. not really too useful, but nice for microspacing or repositioning.
Happy up attack is completely invincible at the start, so it's a great way to escape if the opponent is pressuring your shield. it can be punished hard so watch out.
in general Happy's moves are very unsafe if the opponent blocks, so don't use her too much at a close range. especially dash attack.
Mad uncharged neutral attack is the fastest attack in the game (frame 2) (ignoring the fact that lily and orbit's Orbit charge is instant, but it will take a while to hit the opponent) if you let go of the charge instantly. this means that it can punish almost every attack that is even slightly unsafe against shield (if you're up close). This includes even dragonfish crouch attack. it can also combo into the amazing combo attack medium charged neutral attack, which can be followed up by all sorts of things, such as dash attack. So yes, this is actually a very good attack. It is not safe if the opponent blocks it, but it can still be hard to react to, so don't worry too much throwing out this attack.
Mad up attack gains him a great amount of pepper meter, even if he misses, so if the opponent is keeping you at a distance, try to use this attack safely a couple of times.
Mad is completely invincible during his super attack until the last hit.
Side note: the super turn around shield ignore glitch (this should really have a better name) is a result of a different mechanic. Normally when a character jumps over the opponent while they are blocking, they can hit hit the opponent from behind. This glitch is the unfortunate result of the fact that mad can turn around while his opponent is still facing him during the super attack, and the fact that the attack hits behind mad. But yes, this will be patched out later. In the previous version there was actually a really niche infinite combo with totem monster. if the opponent jumps over totem monster, but totem monster keeps blocking and then uses crouch attack, the opponent will get hit regardles of if they are blocking, because TM is not facing the opponent's side and crouch, TM can spam this over and over again, becuase the opponent doesn't have enough time to counterattack and blocking doesn't work. in the current version, moves that hit on both sides will still ignore block if the opponent is behind you, but often they won't combo afterwards. except for Mad super of course.
Gimmick: Lily and Orbit are a “puppet and puppeteer” character (similar to rosalina and luma from smash bros), and as such have a unique gimmick, allowing you to attack with orbit at any time by holding the attack button for about a second (which can be indicated by white dots emitting from Orbit). Orbit can launch itself towards an enemy and deal 8 damage aswell as small knockback or low shield damage. Orbit is the single best combo extender in the game, being able to be charged during the animations of other attacks for zero downsides other than the time it takes for Orbit to return to Lilie’s shoulder to be used again.
Basic Attack: Lillie’s basic attack is a gemstone kick that deals 16 damage. This attack has high shield damage, aswell as a unique multihit mechanic. The first hit does zero damage, and has large startup, but if it hits a target it stuns them and triggers the second hit, which is a 16 damage crystal explosion that has large knockback. This attack both works as a raw attack or a combo finisher, and gives distance from you and your target, however Lily and Orbit is the character at the worst position when at long range, so it's advised to get close as soon as possible.
Dash Attack: Lilie’s dash attack is a long jump that deals zero damage. This attack entirely bypasses shield, and functions uniquely from every other attack in the game, causing you to leap over your opponent to get to the other side of the arena. This “attack” doesn’t serve a traditional role, and is exclusively used to switch sides of the arena and potentially canceling your opponent's attack. In complete honesty I have found zero use for this attack in serious combat, as it doesn’t actually deal any damage, nor does it work as a combo starter, my best guess for how to use this is as a way to charge orbit, and knock them back but considering its high risk for low reward you will find more success with other attacks.
Crouch Attack: Lillie’s crouch attack is a low kick that deals 4 damage. This attack deals low damage on shield, but is a very good combo extender, shield tool as it has both low startup and endlag. This attack is excellent as a multipurpose tool, as its low commitment means you can use it with relatively low risk. I find that the crouch attack specifically tends to work as a stalling tool until Orbit is ready to be used again, comboing into an up attack to increase your combo.
Up Attack: Lillie’s up attack is an electric pulse multihit that deals a total of 12 damage. This attack deals moderate shield damage, and will electrocute your enemy long enough to combo into the next of its 3 part multihit. This attack is an excellent combo extender, and combos perfectly with Orbit, as the long duration of the move is enough for Orbit to fully charge and allow you to extend your combo with crouch attacks.
Air Attack: Lillie’s air attack is a knee jab or dropkick that deals 5 or 8 damage. This attack has 2 very different variants, with the knee jab being the basic version, and the dropkick being inputted by holding left or right while attacking in the air, the knee jab is a fast shorter range attack that knocks the enemy upward and the dropkick is slower with longer range and not knocking enemies back. While working differently both attacks serve well as combo starters, with both working well, the knee jab tends to combo into itself better while the dropkick can combo into an up attack.
Special Attack: Lillie’s special attack is a forward launching punch that deals 20 damage. This attack deals high shield damage and is generally a great attack to use as a combo finisher. While being one of the best attacks in the game it is difficult to properly utilize due to its Input, Forward, Down, Down + Forward + Attack to use, and as such is not incredibly helpful in combat unless you have mastered the rest of the moveset and are willing to go a step beyond your prowess.
Super Attack: Lillie’s super attack is a group of 4 orbiting stars that does 4 damage per hit. This attack is unique to the rest, as it is a passive group of hitboxes that will swirl around your player, greatly increasing the damage of any potential combos you do while they are active. This attack is a contender for the strongest in the game, as it allows you to deal massive damage in tandem with your learned combos.
Tips and Tricks: Lily and Orbit is a very versatile character, but struggles at a distance due to having the worst long distance coverage in the game, so it's highly recommended to stay at close range to deter your opponent from risking longer ranged attacks. It is incredibly important to utilize Orbit in combat, as if played correctly it effectively makes your opponent need to account for a second opponent that acts separately to yourself.
I assume your referring to the "faded fist" or special attack, which is done by pressing forward, then you let go of forward and hold down, then press forward while holding down and attack all within a short time period. hope this helps!
Lily & Orbit can have a lot of trouble pressuring a blocking opponent because their moves all have 1 of the following attributes: Low shield damage, a lot of endlag on block or low range. Whenever their super attack is activated, they can essentially trap the opponent into blocking because the stars will hit them if they don't block. This is why an unblockable attack such as dash attack can also be really useful. I agree it has almost no niches though.
The hitbox part of the fading fist destroys projectiles.
If you release Orbit's charge right as you're about to jump, you can do a jumping attack at the opponent that is completely safe against anti-air attacks. If they attack, Orbit will hit them, then your air attack will hit them, so you get a combo. If they block, nothing bad will happen to you either, of course.
I Appreciate you going over my "unofficial guide" and adding what I missed, I will say a good bit of the things you say is stuff I knew but forgot to write down, such as the happy and mad crouch movement or the totem monster snuffing projectiles with attacks (Id say about 30% stuff I knew 70% stuff I didnt) I guess now that you gave all these additions on the guide its technically a "official guide". I will say the ammount of stuff I missed tends to correlate with which characters I play most, with L&O and Dragonfish being my most played, and shella snail being my least lol. Anyways thanks for giving an in depth correction of what I missed, and good luck with the future of the game.
Ps: I pledge the "the super turn around shield ignore glitch" should be renamed the "U-turn Driveby glitch"
not everyone, but most characters have alternate versions of their moves that can be used with special inputs. Im actually making a full "unofficial guide" for this game with all the attacks in the game and how they work in combat. If you wish to know more secret moves feel free to look at older comments, as weenter does mention all of them and how to use them
Hey weenter, could you add a move list for the characters in training mode? I understand the game is simple but some attacks like lily & orbits phantom fist are a bit confuzzling. Im mainly asking because i saw happy & mad shoot out this rainbow projectile in sudden death that lost me the match and i was a bit pissed because i cant find out how to do so.
You can do the rainbow ring projectile by fully charging your neutral attack as happy btw. So stand still, then start holding the attack button, then release. If your pepper meter is full this will become the big laser beam (also known as Kamehamehorse)
I hope this message finds you well. I recently played your game "ragdolf" on itch.io and really enjoyed it. I am interested in commissioning a custom game and would like to know if this is something you would be able to do. Could you please let me know your availability and pricing for such a project?
Also if you can share me your email to more private messages
funny enough i was actually in the process of writing a move list aswell as the basic role of each attack for each character, aswell as basic combo guides, but i guess you beat me too it lol
You can totally still write it. I'm in the middle of graduation so the next update is gonna take a while, and I'm also curious which moves and combos the players figured out by themselves.
I know I just commented a few days ago but this update felt really great! The new intro caught me off guard and got me really hyped up. the few small changes such as the random monster ? sprite during the "clash sprite" (Idk what to call it lol) was a subtle surprise and gave a bit more tension for what I would either fight or play as. I will say Im not a big fan of changing the jump and dash keys from F and C to V and H respectively (at least for player 1) but im sure ill get used to it in time and actually play with both hands lol. As far as skins go i really love em, gives the feel of much more variety in combat despite no actual changes, and I highly encourage making more if time is available. Training mode is a welcome inclusion, though I admittedly have learned most of the game during previous updates so it hasn't helped me much. Final thing I noticed was that the "clear crystal" variant kick on lily and orbit either doesn't work at all or has gotten a much stricter window to input (considering the other attacks such as the dragonfish yellow fireball still work I assume it was removed, though either intentionally or by coding error I don't know)
In short I really liked this update, despite it not being any major "new character" esc update I really enjoyed myself. Ill make sure to add an edit for any other changes i find.
Thank you so much! The yellow crystal kick from Lily and Orbit has indeed been removed. I felt like it was a strictly worse version of the normal variant. Would you be interested if I added it back in again? Lily and Orbit do have 1 new motion move, the fading fist. You can do it with a dragonpunch motion (forward, down, downforward).
I uploaded the update pretty late at night, but I will soon write all the patch notes in the devlog.
Also, to answer your previous comment (I waited a bit because I knew the update was close to release), but player 2 can attack with Period ( . ) now. It's not really my way to play since I like having my attack button on the right side of my movement keys, but this will let player who don't have a keypad have an easier time.
Giving it a bit of testing I definitely really like the fading fist, its a much needed movement tool for lily and orbit considering i've noticed they tend to struggle approaching (then again I forget dash attacks exist half the time cus I play totem most lol). As far as the yellow crystal kick is concerned I did actually find it useful, specifically for mixing up on shield, as the opponent might drop it or use the crouch attack after they would expect the standard crystal to hit, but get caught by the delayed window of the variant (bots especially fell for this). so while not exactly a great move I did find use in the moveset.
Thank you for the response, and ill make sure to give feedback on any future updates the game has to offer to give you a better audience perspective :)
Edit: I found a funky bug (I suppose) where if you are in training and manage to get your opponents hp to zero (I found it easiest to either spam the lily up attack while using orbit when available or the totem monster crouch attack, both while using the wall to keep the other player close) Every hit done at zero hp will do the "finishing hit slowmo" effect that normally happens, which leads to comical results when using multihits, this probably won't realistically effect gameplay but its worth mentioning.
I'm gonna comment on this one so I won't add unnecessary bloat comments to your guide, but your guide was really extensive! I can see that you put in a lot of research and that you have a lot of knowledge on this type of game already, wether it's traditional fighting games or platform fighters. For example, you correctly understand that the small attack are often way more important than the big attacks, for example with dragonfish's crouch attack. and you also figured out an advanced movement tech in Dashjumping
I'm going to add some comments under there to make the list even more complete, cause a lot of these things you had no way of knowing. If you want me to delete them so you can update your own list, let me know. it might be a better read that way.
There's also a really important mechanic that I don't think you mentioned anywhere, but you can parry attacks by releasing the crouch button (there's a half second cooldown after a failed attempt, but if you parry something, you can more quickly counterattack and you get some pepper meter). this is a good counter to most projectiles and you should always keep it in mind if you're using projectiles from far away.
Have you considered adding online multiplayer? Love playing this game with my friends and wish I could play this when we weren't right next to each other!
I have tried that but it's very difficult to make sadly... I don't think I will add online multiplayer anytime soon, but maybe I will one day if I have the skills for it.
This game is really fun! there is clearly a lot of passion here and im loving it, even if i don't got any friends willing to play with the admittedly kinda goofy p2 controls (on pc). I'm excited to see what is next to come as all the characters are really fun to play as. Totem monster is my favorite :)
well, I have never really made an entire game for someone, but I do make pixelart animation comissions, which of course the price depends on how many animations you want. i can also help with some of the building blocks in godot, or make a game that is a bit simpler than this. it all depends on a lot of things, like what you want to make, or what parts you will design/make yourself.
We can talk a bit further about this on discord if you have it. my tag is "weentermg"
otherwise, you can also mail me at weentertheperson@gmail.com
This game is super cool! Dragonfish is my favorite! The animations on all the characters is stylish, appealing, and clear, and this perfectly scratches my itch for a simpler take on old fighting games! It maybe one or more moves could be added and the complexity would still be manageable for newcomers, but as it is, this game is great!
AMAZING! there seems to be a bug with totem monster though. I've played the game a bit with a friend and sometimes when we are both blocking and he tries to do his down attack nothing happens.
edit: I think it's a keyboard issue with the enter button not registering if too many other keys are pressed- is there another attack button for player 2?
hmm. no there is currently no other attack button. I will add some more ways to attack! btw, are you playing on a mechanical keyboard or a laptop (or maybe even something else?)? that would be useful information for fixing these kinds of things. you can also play the offline version with controllers btw.
oh I'm currently playing on the browser version with a laptop- this seems to happen on chromebook too. unfortunately I don't have controllers tho. custom keybinds might be nice but i'm not sure how difficult that would be to add
forgot to add that I think it's specifically keys like enter, ctrl, alt that won't register if too many other keys are pressed but I've played other fighting games on keyboard and it seems like all of the letter/symbol keys would work :)
ok thanks! I will add an option for p2 to play with . and , . not really how I usually design controls, since I often would rather have the playyer use the left hand for movement, but I think this is an ok way to fix it. custom controls might be a little annoying to make, but maybe later. thanks for the help and comments btw.
It's one of her secret moves, so tbat means it need s a special motion to be inputted.
in this case, hold left or right, away from your opponent for about one second. Then quickly press forward + attack. You can see if you hold away long enough if hearts start appearing around shella snail.
You can also hold (left or right) away while crouching or attacking. This ensures that you stand your ground while charging. This also means that you will lose your heart charge once you start walking forward again.
I'm planning on simplifying this a bit in the next update. It may be a bit confusing at first, but I think you'll get the hang of it.
Dragonfish can press down, then left/right towards the opponent to do a yellow fireball. it's a lot slower on startup, but after shooting the fireball dragonfish can move almost immediately again. This means that you can run behind it using the fireball as a sort of moving shield, or you can use it to start a combo.
Shella Snail obviously has her heart shooting attack.
Shella Snail can do a similar thing by holding down for about a second, then quickly pressing up + attack. The can shoot a lightningbolt upwards to shock opponents.
Totem monster's moves aren't really secret, as they are pretty easy to do, but he can hold down + attack while in the air to do a totem stomp. He can also double jump.
Happy and Mad don't really have secret moves. Since they are a 2 in one character they already have the most attacks out of every monster.
Lily and Orbit can press down, then left/right away from their opponent to do a yellow crystal kick (the crystal clear kick). It makes the crystal from her normal crystal kick spawn later so you can combo off it better, but honestly, it's not that good of a move in my opinion. I might remove and replace it later.
I'll probably update this list later once there are more secret moves, but hope this helps!
wow thx dude, nice. You could add like a list of moves in the game. I like the concept of secret moves but for better diversity in gameplay it would be better if everyone knew the moves
Maybe A to jump, B to attack, also, halfway through writing this, i realised there is a input lag on the enter button sometimes, can you maybe patch that for a future update?
I think adding more control customization options would be a good idea in general. I'm working on the next update already and that's not really within scope of the next deadline I set for myself, but I will for sure look into it. As for the input lag, that is very strange and I have not experienced it myself, but you're saying it's with the enter key on the keyboard, so it can't really be a controller issue... I can look into it, but I doubt I can find or fix it. Are you maybe confusing input lag with input buffering? (When pressing buttons quickly after another, you can press attack during the previous animation so you don't have to time every attack frame perfectly in a combo. This system might cause some problems...)
hmm, I was not really planning on adding cooldown to moves, but I can change to attacks in different ways to make them more fair. What exactly is the problem with Dragonfish's crouching attack? For example, is it too hard to react to, too difficult to punish after you block the attack or something else?
Wonderful game. I could tell there was a lot of love poured into this Project. The characters were fantastic to play and the whole game felt well thought out. Great job.
You're in luck, because there are AI opponents! On the character select screen when selecting the controls, press left or right with the opponent's controls to change the player into an EASY Ai, or a HARD Ai.
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When I want to leave the match with holding space it doesn't works. Please fix it! Also great game!!!
The jump button is V my guy.
Made a video
key rebinding is needed
Hello! Amazing game! Me and my friend had so much fun while playing this game.
Just a quick question, how do i use the shield? i've used it a few times as an accident, but i never knew how to activate it on purpose
Thanks for playing! You will automatically block/shield attacks if you're crouching, unless you are attacking while crouching.
The unofficial guide to Monster Battlegrounds!!!
This was simply made as a moderately extensive guide for the game from my personal experiences in this game for anyone who wants to improve (and is too lazy to figure out the best combos in gameplay, I don’t blame ya lol). The main roster will each have an entry as a different reply to the main post, and feel free to comment on anything to improve the list with your personal experience. This guide assumes you are playing with hazards off, as it causes too many external factors to consider.
IMPORTANT: this guide was made during version 0.3.0, and may be outdated in the future.
Dragonfish:
Space Attack: Dragonfish’s space attack is a fireball that does 5 damage, a moderately fast projectile that does little shield damage. The fireball is best used to apply pressure at a distance. This attack has 2 variants, a standard fireball of moderate speed, and a yellow fireball that moves slower, and can be used by inputting Crouch, Forward (facing enemy) + Attack to use. This attack for the most part won’t work great in combo’s because of its dangerous endlag being amplified at melee range.
Dash Attack: Dragonfish’s dash attack is a slide attack that is great for closing distance and deals 6 damage. This attack does low shield damage, makes a good combo starter, with the most consistent combo being Dash, Crouch, Up if you hit it at a close range, though generally dragonfish can gain more out of other attacks. The dash attack, while situational, is a welcome addition to the dragonfish’s kit and can make itself useful from time to time.
Crouch Attack: Dragonfish’s crouch attack is a fast headbutt that deals 6 damage. The crouch attack is the single most important attack in the dragonfish’s kit, being a good juggle tool and dealing high shield damage. The crouch attack has 2 variants, with the standard attack inching you forward during the animation, and an alternate variant that keeps you in place. The standard crouch attack is exceptionally useful for combos, as once you hit an enemy with it, you can walk forward while they are in the air, to either use an up attack or to extend the combo with another crouch attack. It is highly recommended to learn how to properly utilize this attack, as you can gain massive benefit from mastering it.
Up Attack: Dragonfish’s up attack is an upward bite that deals 14 damage. The up attack is a combo finisher, but will often whiff on shield as dragonfish does a jump that raises the hitbox during the attack. This attack has 2 variants, a standard version that deals 14 damage, and an alternate version that does 26 dmg, and can be used by inputting Down, Down, Up + Attack. The Up attack is best used either to attack an enemy jumping at you, or as a followup to a crouch attack, and can be followed up once more by quickly using a dash attack into the opponent before they land. The Up attack is a valuable attack, making for excellent damage that can quickly overwhelm your opponent.
Air Attack: Dragonfish’s air is a downwards bite that does 12 damage. The air attack is a combo starter, that does heavy damage on shield, but can leave you vulnerable to hit if you don’t directly deal damage, if you hit the air attack, you can quickly start juggling with crouch attacks, with the most consistent combo (in my experience) being Air, Crouch, Crouch, Up, and a dash depending on distance, dealing anywhere between 38 and 56 damage depending on if you use the variant Up attack and/or are in range to dash. The air attack is a welcome addition to the kit and can make for fast and strong combos.
Super Attack: Dragonfish’s super attack is a barrage of 11 fireballs, dealing a total of 65 damage if all connect. The super attack plays a simple role, in being a devastating force of damage that can be chained in the middle of a combo in order to defeat your opponents swiftly and efficiently, but due to it being a standard fireball fired many times they can be destroyed by attacks, or the dragonfish can potentially be interrupted and waste their super attack, so use this wisely.
Tips and Tricks: Dragonfish, despite what its projectile implies, gets the most out of being right in the face of your opponent, with high damage combos that can devastate an opponent if they don’t react properly, and it's highly recommended to act in ways your opponent wouldn’t expect, such as mixing up between dash and air attacks when at medium distance. Dragonfish has one of the faster movespeeds in the game, so take advantage of this and try to force your opponent into one of the invisible walls to try to infinite them (infinites can be performed by most characters against a wall, normally either by spamming either the crouch or up attacks while inching forward between attacks.
Some other points:
Dragonfish has 150 HP
while the normal fireball has a lot of endlag, the yellow version does not. because of this, if you keep dashing after using it, you can use your yellow fireball as a moving shield that destroys incoming projectiles and starts combos. it has a lot more startup though, so don't get too predictable.
Dash attack is invincible to all moving projectiles (so things such as dragonfish fireball, but not totem monster's bursted bubble) for a short while. If the opponent is using projectiles up close you can easily close the gap.
you can actually cancel your crouching attack into a yellow fireball attack (both variants of crouch attack can be cancelled, but the non-moving one won't combo). Simply do crouch attack without holding forward, then quickly do the yellow fireball input and press attack. This won't do that much extra damage but it will carry the opponent to the corner al lot quicker and it gives you more reaction time to plan your next move. with this technique you can do things like: air attack > crouch attack > yellow fireball > crouch attack > super. or if the opponent is cornered crouch attack > yellow fireball > crouch attack > yellow fireball > loop this until you get pushed too far, then end the combo with an up attack or super.
up attack beats out opponent's air attacks if you don't time it too late.
if you use up attack while dashing, you will keep some momentum. really important if you want to finish a combo with it.
You already sort of mentioned it, but crouch attack > super attack is an easy combo that makes dragonfish's crouch attack even more terrifying.
Shella Snail:
Space Attack: Shella Snail’s space attack is a projectile heart that deals 4 damage. The heart projectile is fast, but has moderate endlag and minimal shield damage. This attack has 2 variants, The standard variant is fast, but the alternate version is much faster, and can be used by inputting Backward (hold until you see hearts emit from your character), Forward + Attack. This attack is exceptionally useful to pressure your opponent into gaining distance or dealing chip damage after combos, as it is far too risky to use in close range for its low reward.
Dash Attack: Shella Snail’s dash attack is a moving shell spin that deals a total of 12 damage. The dash attack does moderate shield damage, and takes a bit to start up, but makes a good combo finisher and can gain ground. It also works well as a threat to your opponent simply by dashing, as the attack animation is identical to the standard dash until the spikes that actually deal damage appear.
Crouch Attack: Shella Snail’s crouch attack is a low jab that deals 9 damage. The crouch attack does low shield damage, and has a long windup, but decently long range, the total animation length of the crouch attack is long enough for your opponent to block, but you can easily mix up into another attack such as a dash or air attack to catch them off guard. The most consistent combo I've found when starting with a Crouch attack is Crouch, Dash, Space for a modest 25 dmg.
Up Attack: Shella Snail’s up attack is a high stab that deals 4 damage. The up attack deals low shield damage, but makes an excellent combo extender, as it has a very short startup, and can easily be followed up by a dash attack. The Up attack has 2 variants, a standard version that does 4 damage and knocks the opponent into the air, but the variant does 16 damage and stuns your opponent briefly, that can be used by inputting Down (hold for a second), Up + Attack. The alternate attack is incredibly effective to punish your opponents while they attack your shield, and can occasionally be used to attack people high in the air. My personal most consistent combo with the up attack is Air, Up, Dash, Space, which deals a total of 27 damage.
Air attack: Shella Snail’s air attack is a downward poke that deals 12 damage. The Air attack does moderate shield damage, and primarily makes for a combo starter/extender, which can easily follow up into most other attacks, with very low endlag. I have personally found it possible to make an extensive untrue combo by using Air, Crouch, then jumping forward to gain distance and attempt to repeat the loop, being able to end it with a dash attack for potentially massive damage.
Super Attack: Shella Snail’s Super attack is a triple lightning strike in front of your character, dealing 20 damage for each strike (note that you can only hit one of the strikes as the hitboxes are coded to only let you hit one). The Super attack has the unique attribute of stunning the opponent for a very long time, giving you plenty of time to prepare any attack you wish to use, with the variant up attack being the most consistently useful, as its preparation time is entirely invalidated letting you use any combo desired.
Tips and Tricks: Shella snail is the character with the single slowest walkspeed (other than happy but that is a unique circumstance) and thus will be caught in a corner frequently, especially if you use the variant heart projectile. Shella snail benefits from dashing more than any other character, and I've found it can be taken a step further, if you dash and then jump you will retain the momentum gained while airborne and able to use Air attacks. To take it one step further you are able to jump in the opposite direction you dashed in and retain the increased speed, to cause massive mix ups and make the snail monster one of the most agile in the game. This is a technique I will call “Dash-Jumping”
Some other points:
Shella Snail has 180 HP - the most out of any monster
You can charge your charged heart & charged up attack at the same time & while doing other attacks. Because of this she can charge a heart while using a noncharged heart and make a barrage of projectiles with different timings and speeds on the screen. There is actually so much you can do with this, such as combo a crouch attack > charged heart > a lot of other moves, or you can jump forwards, then hold back while jumping so you can charge you move in the air while moving forwards. in my opinion charged heart is shella's best move. Sometimes it is important to move a bit forwards too however, because shella snail can easily get cornered and she is really bad in the corner.
One important thing to remember about only using projectiles is that you don't gain any pepper meter, so if you're trying to keep away your opponent at midrange, make sure to mix it up with a crouch attack every once in a while as well.
if you use up attack while dashing, you will keep some momentum. The slidy-ness of that momentum will carry over to the pushback your get if you hit an opponent, so if you're juggling an opponent in the corner with up attack, the best thing to do is to not dash in-between, as you will get sent flying away on your last hit. YEET
Despite being 3 hits, super attack can only hit 1 time, once you hit the first one, the opponent is invincible to the second one for a short while. You can hit a blocking (or parrying) opponent multiple times though.
Totem Monster:
Basic Attack: The Totem Monster’s Basic attack is a tentacle slap that does 12 damage. This attack does moderate shield damage, and has an incredible amount of range, at the cost of speed and combo potential. This attack, aswell as most of the totem monsters kit works best if you use it with spacing rather than attempting combos.
Dash Attack: The Totem Monster has no dash attack, however its dash has the unique property of being a “teleport” that briefly makes your hitbox, allowing you to dodge attacks with ease.
Crouch Attack: The Totem Monster’s crouch attack is a multihit tentacle spin that does a total of 12 damage. This attack does moderate shield damage, and is mainly used to keep your opponent a far distance away as the totem monster is at a significant advantage when at a distance from your opponent
Up Attack: The Totem Monster’s up attack is an arcing projectile that deals 8 damage. This attack is one of the many spacing tools, most effective at keeping opponents from approaching in the air, but still works well at blocking off the ground. These projectiles are effectively useless at close range, as they will fly directly above your enemies head, If you hit one of your own projectiles with a melee attack, it will create a poisonous zone that constantly does chip damage to anyone in the area, which is a great area denial tool, though is hard to use if your opponent is trying to approach you.
Air Attack: The Totem Monster’s air attack is an angled tentacle strike that does 8 damage. This attack does moderate shield damage, and is an incredible zoning/approaching tool, which can be used to get surprisingly close to your enemy. The Totem Monster has a double jump, which means you can cancel out an air attack by double jumping, and if you do this right after you hit one you can effectively ‘combo’ your enemy by using it twice, aswell as potentially following it up with a grounded attack, such as the crouch or basic attack.
Special Attack: The Totem Monster has a special attack, a ground pound that does a total of 21 damage. You can use the Special Attack by inputting a downward attack while in the air, and does very high shield damage, making up of a 2 part multihit, with the first hit being a downward slam that does 1 damage and spikes the opponent into the ground, and the second hit being a small shockwave that launches the opponent far away and does 20 damage. This attack, while not often useful due to the spacing nature of the Totem Monster, makes a great “get off me” tool when you're pinned in a corner.
Super Attack: The Totem Monsters Super attack is a black hole that holds your opponent in stun for an extended period of time. This attack effectively allows you to get about 3 free attacks on your opponent, and while blockable, it basically forces your opponent into blocking as releasing it before the black hole disappears will just make them get stuck once again. This attack has a limited range and won’t pull your opponent in if you use it at point blank range, so keep at a bit of a distance to properly utilize it.
Tips and Tricks: The Totem Monster relies much less on combos than the rest of the cast, and is much more effective when fighting at a range your opponent cannot effectively fight back at, spacing is key if you wish to master the character.
Some other points:
Totem monster has 130 HP
Neutral attack, both variants of crouching attack and air attack destroy moving projectiles.
if you hold forwards while doing crouch attack, you will do a 6-hit version of the attack. Aside ffrom doing more damage, this move is worse in almost every way, longer endlag, it is less safe if the opponent blocks, it has less combo potential. But totem monster really struggles with presssuring an opponent up-close, so this attack might help you mix up your pressure every once in a while.
you can also use up attack as a combo starter (when its going down). up attack > (you have plenty of time to do anything) > jump > air attack > anything you would normally do after air attack such as doublejump cancel or neutral attack.
If you land with air attack before the hitbox comes out, you get no landing lag.
Super attack breaks projectiles, so if your opponent uses a projectile at a distance, use this move to instantly grab them and take no damage.
Down air attack (totem stomp) can break shields really easily, this is a very good tactic if the opponent is blocking your super attack.
Tips for fighting against totem monster: totem monster's attacks are really unsafe if you block them, so instead of rushing at it from a distance, try slowly approaching it while blocking every so often. once you're pretty close, totem monster's only safe way of hitting you is his crouch attack, however, this attack is extremely vulnerable to jumping attacks.
Happy and Mad:
Crouch attack: Happy and Mad have a unique gimmick in which their crouch attack will change them between 2 different movesets and stats, and as such this character will be formatted differently from the others. Happy and Mad’s crouch attack is a short spin that deals 3 damage. This attack takes the role of a combo extender/mixup tool as the changing of character mid combo can account for countless combos, of which I highly recommend trying to find yourselves, as there is no one best combo and there is plenty of ways to make interesting combos, even if just by button mashing.
Tips and Tricks: Happy and Mad are both unique characters that have differences outside of just movesets, such as while happy is generally better to use while at range, mad has a faster movement speed and thus can get both in and out of melee range better, which can be amplified by Dash-Jumping (which is explained in the tips and tricks for Shella Snail). Another potentially dirty trick you could use against other players is use the Emote of happy and mad (you can emote with the ‘N’ key), as the first half of the taunt is entirely identical to the crouch attack animation, and thus may briefly deceive your opponent into believing you changed character (note: this works best with the second skin, as it doesnt change the color of happy and mad when changing character)
Happy:
Basic Attack: Happies basic attack is a chargeable horn swipe, with 3 levels of charge, doing 3, 5,or 12 damage depending on charge. The uncharged version is a quick swipe of the horn that can be used to extend or start combos. The partially charged version is a swipe that moves Happy forward a bit, serving as a combo starter or extender like the uncharged variant. The fully charged version is a projectile that is unique as it both moves farther than other projectiles, aswell as won’t break from taking damage unlike every other projectile in game, and makes an incredible pressure tool that basically forces your opponent to get within close range.
Dash Attack: Happies dash attack is a forward thrust that deals 6 damage. This attack has low damage on shield, but covers a lot of ground but has a large amount of endlag, and mainly serves as a ‘get off me’ tool that can combo with itself. Happy is a character that wants to get in and change to mad for the main combos, and this is an attack that works best to allow safer use of the projectiles.
Up attack: Happies up attack is a stabbing leap that deals 16 damage. This attack does high damage on shield, and causes Happy to jump in an arcing motion, knocking your opponent into the air, making it an all purpose attack that can do a bit of everything. This attack not only makes a great approaching tool, and can combo into itself or another attack in the toolset.
Air Attack: Happies air attack is a downwards slash that deals 10 damage. This attack serves the role of a combo starter, easily opening a combo of your choice. While this attack makes a fine opening it works best as a mixup from the up attack, as it generally performs worse in gameplay comparatively.
Super Attack: Happies super attack is a massive lazer that deals 26 damage. This attack will insanely high damage on shield aswell as 19 damage against the blocking opponent, with any previous damage being enough to cause a shield break. the “kamehamehorse” as Weenter himself calls it, is an incredibly powerful attack that can be incredibly lethal due to having infinite range, and can knockback your opponent into oblivion. This while being the safer of the 2 super attacks is the one I find being weaker, but certainly can be used to great effect when timed correctly.
Mad:
Basic Attack: Mads basic attack is a chargeable headbash, with 3 levels of charge, doing 2, 7, and 20 damage. The uncharged version is a small spammable attack that can be used to extend combos, but otherwise is pretty useless, as it has very little damage on shield. The partially charged headbut is a stronger attack that hits moderate damage on shield, and does small knockback, and can be used for juggling enemies, aswell as extending combos. The fully charged version is a stronger version of the partial version, doing impressive damage and launching your opponent away, working best as a combo finisher.
Dash Attack: Mads dash attack is a flaming roll multihit that deals a total of 14 damage. This attack deals moderate damage on shield, This attack is a multipurpose combo starter/extender that can help quickly build up damage and combo into itself.
Up Attack: Mads up attack is a downwards slam that does 18 damage. This attack does very high damage on shield, with only 2 being able to break a shield entirely. This attack makes an extremely efficient shieldbreaker, but is somewhat difficult to properly utilize outside of that niche due to long windup, but can also work as a way to attack aerial targets.
Air Attack: Mads air attack is a downward dive that deals 12 damage. This attack deals low damage on shield, but is a fast attack that works as one of Mad’s many combo extenders. This aerial attack is an excellent way to apply pressure on your opponent, as Mad has many attacks such as this that move him forward.
Super Attack: Mads super attack is an extended charge that deals a total of 66 damage. This attack has high shield damage, but it's possible to entirely bypass the shield by briefly turning around during one of the attacks (this is a bug that will likely be patched in the next update now that I have mentioned it here). This attack is risky and difficult to use to its best effect, as it functionally does more damage the closer it is used, though the charge leaves the player entirely vulnerable.
Some other points:
Happy and Mad have 120 HP. The lowest in the game.
Happy and Mad's stats vary wildly from eachother. Happy has the highest jump in the game (ignoring totem monster's double jump) and the slowest walk speed, while mad has the lowest jump in the game and the fastest walk speed.
If you can see that your opponent will block happy or mad's fully charged neutral attack or super, you can press down and the animation will cancel. You will not do the attack and keep your super meter.
If you hold forwards or backwards during crouch attack you will move slightly in the direction. not really too useful, but nice for microspacing or repositioning.
Happy up attack is completely invincible at the start, so it's a great way to escape if the opponent is pressuring your shield. it can be punished hard so watch out.
in general Happy's moves are very unsafe if the opponent blocks, so don't use her too much at a close range. especially dash attack.
Mad uncharged neutral attack is the fastest attack in the game (frame 2) (ignoring the fact that lily and orbit's Orbit charge is instant, but it will take a while to hit the opponent) if you let go of the charge instantly. this means that it can punish almost every attack that is even slightly unsafe against shield (if you're up close). This includes even dragonfish crouch attack. it can also combo into the amazing combo attack medium charged neutral attack, which can be followed up by all sorts of things, such as dash attack. So yes, this is actually a very good attack. It is not safe if the opponent blocks it, but it can still be hard to react to, so don't worry too much throwing out this attack.
Mad up attack gains him a great amount of pepper meter, even if he misses, so if the opponent is keeping you at a distance, try to use this attack safely a couple of times.
Mad is completely invincible during his super attack until the last hit.
Side note: the super turn around shield ignore glitch (this should really have a better name) is a result of a different mechanic. Normally when a character jumps over the opponent while they are blocking, they can hit hit the opponent from behind. This glitch is the unfortunate result of the fact that mad can turn around while his opponent is still facing him during the super attack, and the fact that the attack hits behind mad. But yes, this will be patched out later. In the previous version there was actually a really niche infinite combo with totem monster. if the opponent jumps over totem monster, but totem monster keeps blocking and then uses crouch attack, the opponent will get hit regardles of if they are blocking, because TM is not facing the opponent's side and crouch, TM can spam this over and over again, becuase the opponent doesn't have enough time to counterattack and blocking doesn't work. in the current version, moves that hit on both sides will still ignore block if the opponent is behind you, but often they won't combo afterwards. except for Mad super of course.
Lilly and Orbit:
Gimmick: Lily and Orbit are a “puppet and puppeteer” character (similar to rosalina and luma from smash bros), and as such have a unique gimmick, allowing you to attack with orbit at any time by holding the attack button for about a second (which can be indicated by white dots emitting from Orbit). Orbit can launch itself towards an enemy and deal 8 damage aswell as small knockback or low shield damage. Orbit is the single best combo extender in the game, being able to be charged during the animations of other attacks for zero downsides other than the time it takes for Orbit to return to Lilie’s shoulder to be used again.
Basic Attack: Lillie’s basic attack is a gemstone kick that deals 16 damage. This attack has high shield damage, aswell as a unique multihit mechanic. The first hit does zero damage, and has large startup, but if it hits a target it stuns them and triggers the second hit, which is a 16 damage crystal explosion that has large knockback. This attack both works as a raw attack or a combo finisher, and gives distance from you and your target, however Lily and Orbit is the character at the worst position when at long range, so it's advised to get close as soon as possible.
Dash Attack: Lilie’s dash attack is a long jump that deals zero damage. This attack entirely bypasses shield, and functions uniquely from every other attack in the game, causing you to leap over your opponent to get to the other side of the arena. This “attack” doesn’t serve a traditional role, and is exclusively used to switch sides of the arena and potentially canceling your opponent's attack. In complete honesty I have found zero use for this attack in serious combat, as it doesn’t actually deal any damage, nor does it work as a combo starter, my best guess for how to use this is as a way to charge orbit, and knock them back but considering its high risk for low reward you will find more success with other attacks.
Crouch Attack: Lillie’s crouch attack is a low kick that deals 4 damage. This attack deals low damage on shield, but is a very good combo extender, shield tool as it has both low startup and endlag. This attack is excellent as a multipurpose tool, as its low commitment means you can use it with relatively low risk. I find that the crouch attack specifically tends to work as a stalling tool until Orbit is ready to be used again, comboing into an up attack to increase your combo.
Up Attack: Lillie’s up attack is an electric pulse multihit that deals a total of 12 damage. This attack deals moderate shield damage, and will electrocute your enemy long enough to combo into the next of its 3 part multihit. This attack is an excellent combo extender, and combos perfectly with Orbit, as the long duration of the move is enough for Orbit to fully charge and allow you to extend your combo with crouch attacks.
Air Attack: Lillie’s air attack is a knee jab or dropkick that deals 5 or 8 damage. This attack has 2 very different variants, with the knee jab being the basic version, and the dropkick being inputted by holding left or right while attacking in the air, the knee jab is a fast shorter range attack that knocks the enemy upward and the dropkick is slower with longer range and not knocking enemies back. While working differently both attacks serve well as combo starters, with both working well, the knee jab tends to combo into itself better while the dropkick can combo into an up attack.
Special Attack: Lillie’s special attack is a forward launching punch that deals 20 damage. This attack deals high shield damage and is generally a great attack to use as a combo finisher. While being one of the best attacks in the game it is difficult to properly utilize due to its Input, Forward, Down, Down + Forward + Attack to use, and as such is not incredibly helpful in combat unless you have mastered the rest of the moveset and are willing to go a step beyond your prowess.
Super Attack: Lillie’s super attack is a group of 4 orbiting stars that does 4 damage per hit. This attack is unique to the rest, as it is a passive group of hitboxes that will swirl around your player, greatly increasing the damage of any potential combos you do while they are active. This attack is a contender for the strongest in the game, as it allows you to deal massive damage in tandem with your learned combos.
Tips and Tricks: Lily and Orbit is a very versatile character, but struggles at a distance due to having the worst long distance coverage in the game, so it's highly recommended to stay at close range to deter your opponent from risking longer ranged attacks. It is incredibly important to utilize Orbit in combat, as if played correctly it effectively makes your opponent need to account for a second opponent that acts separately to yourself.
whats the exact input for lily on the keyboard? im having some trouble with it
I assume your referring to the "faded fist" or special attack, which is done by pressing forward, then you let go of forward and hold down, then press forward while holding down and attack all within a short time period. hope this helps!
Some other points:
Lily & orbit have 125 HP (Will be 135 next patch)
Lily & Orbit can have a lot of trouble pressuring a blocking opponent because their moves all have 1 of the following attributes: Low shield damage, a lot of endlag on block or low range. Whenever their super attack is activated, they can essentially trap the opponent into blocking because the stars will hit them if they don't block. This is why an unblockable attack such as dash attack can also be really useful. I agree it has almost no niches though.
The hitbox part of the fading fist destroys projectiles.
If you release Orbit's charge right as you're about to jump, you can do a jumping attack at the opponent that is completely safe against anti-air attacks. If they attack, Orbit will hit them, then your air attack will hit them, so you get a combo. If they block, nothing bad will happen to you either, of course.
wow, this list was very complete
I Appreciate you going over my "unofficial guide" and adding what I missed, I will say a good bit of the things you say is stuff I knew but forgot to write down, such as the happy and mad crouch movement or the totem monster snuffing projectiles with attacks (Id say about 30% stuff I knew 70% stuff I didnt) I guess now that you gave all these additions on the guide its technically a "official guide". I will say the ammount of stuff I missed tends to correlate with which characters I play most, with L&O and Dragonfish being my most played, and shella snail being my least lol. Anyways thanks for giving an in depth correction of what I missed, and good luck with the future of the game.
Ps: I pledge the "the super turn around shield ignore glitch" should be renamed the "U-turn Driveby glitch"
could you make this game available for download on mac? I know this would likely be a big challenge but I really like this game and I'm a mac player
This Game Is REALLY Cool
Thank you!
can some exsplane monster totems atacks to me plz?
sure, heres a very basic summary:
Basic attack: a long tentacle swing that has long range but slow wind up and endlag
Crouch attack: a tentacle spin that does multihit damage with small range for totem monster, but large knockback to keep distance
Up attack: a poison ball that makes an arcing rotation and is good for anti air
Air attack: a downward tentacle swing that stuns the opponent briefly while you are in the air
"Secret" attack: a ground pound that does heavy damage with a small shockwave (can be used by attacking in the air while holding down)
Ultimate attack: a black hole that can force your opponent into hitstun for about 4 seconds, letting you attack however you want.
dose eveyone have a screct attack?
not everyone, but most characters have alternate versions of their moves that can be used with special inputs. Im actually making a full "unofficial guide" for this game with all the attacks in the game and how they work in combat. If you wish to know more secret moves feel free to look at older comments, as weenter does mention all of them and how to use them
this game rocks
not going to lie here but i think dragon fish is the best one if you know how to use it .
Hey weenter, could you add a move list for the characters in training mode? I understand the game is simple but some attacks like lily & orbits phantom fist are a bit confuzzling. Im mainly asking because i saw happy & mad shoot out this rainbow projectile in sudden death that lost me the match and i was a bit pissed because i cant find out how to do so.
Ok, I will add a list!!
You can do the rainbow ring projectile by fully charging your neutral attack as happy btw. So stand still, then start holding the attack button, then release. If your pepper meter is full this will become the big laser beam (also known as Kamehamehorse)
kamehamehorse is amazing lol
thanks weenter!
also will there be any new characters soon? im actually liking this game alot
it might take a while as I'm currently busy with graduation, but the concept and some of the sprites for the next character are already done.
Hi,
I hope this message finds you well. I recently played your game "ragdolf" on itch.io and really enjoyed it. I am interested in commissioning a custom game and would like to know if this is something you would be able to do. Could you please let me know your availability and pricing for such a project?
Also if you can share me your email to more private messages
Thank you!
Yes, I am open to this!
you can mail me at weentertheperson@gmail.com
but i am also available as weentermg on discord. I'm often online there and conversations are a bit easier that way so I'd prefer that.
Check discord friend recuest
funny enough i was actually in the process of writing a move list aswell as the basic role of each attack for each character, aswell as basic combo guides, but i guess you beat me too it lol
You can totally still write it. I'm in the middle of graduation so the next update is gonna take a while, and I'm also curious which moves and combos the players figured out by themselves.
sounds good, ill keep cooking >:)
Weenter, this is soo cool! The music slaps from 0;)1s haha. Everything feels so juicy!!
If you have time, I'd love for you to check out my 60s platformer, Upbound!
Thank you so much!
I will check out your game as well!
unfortunately that will probably not happen anytime soon, partially because I am very inexperienced with programming for online games.
Weenter think about it...
a monster based on your pfp...
or a a electric orb with big fists..
I know I just commented a few days ago but this update felt really great! The new intro caught me off guard and got me really hyped up. the few small changes such as the random monster ? sprite during the "clash sprite" (Idk what to call it lol) was a subtle surprise and gave a bit more tension for what I would either fight or play as. I will say Im not a big fan of changing the jump and dash keys from F and C to V and H respectively (at least for player 1) but im sure ill get used to it in time and actually play with both hands lol. As far as skins go i really love em, gives the feel of much more variety in combat despite no actual changes, and I highly encourage making more if time is available. Training mode is a welcome inclusion, though I admittedly have learned most of the game during previous updates so it hasn't helped me much. Final thing I noticed was that the "clear crystal" variant kick on lily and orbit either doesn't work at all or has gotten a much stricter window to input (considering the other attacks such as the dragonfish yellow fireball still work I assume it was removed, though either intentionally or by coding error I don't know)
In short I really liked this update, despite it not being any major "new character" esc update I really enjoyed myself. Ill make sure to add an edit for any other changes i find.
Thank you so much! The yellow crystal kick from Lily and Orbit has indeed been removed. I felt like it was a strictly worse version of the normal variant. Would you be interested if I added it back in again? Lily and Orbit do have 1 new motion move, the fading fist. You can do it with a dragonpunch motion (forward, down, downforward).
I uploaded the update pretty late at night, but I will soon write all the patch notes in the devlog.
Also, to answer your previous comment (I waited a bit because I knew the update was close to release), but player 2 can attack with Period ( . ) now. It's not really my way to play since I like having my attack button on the right side of my movement keys, but this will let player who don't have a keypad have an easier time.
And yes :) I did indeed make ragdolf too
Giving it a bit of testing I definitely really like the fading fist, its a much needed movement tool for lily and orbit considering i've noticed they tend to struggle approaching (then again I forget dash attacks exist half the time cus I play totem most lol). As far as the yellow crystal kick is concerned I did actually find it useful, specifically for mixing up on shield, as the opponent might drop it or use the crouch attack after they would expect the standard crystal to hit, but get caught by the delayed window of the variant (bots especially fell for this). so while not exactly a great move I did find use in the moveset.
Thank you for the response, and ill make sure to give feedback on any future updates the game has to offer to give you a better audience perspective :)
Edit: I found a funky bug (I suppose) where if you are in training and manage to get your opponents hp to zero (I found it easiest to either spam the lily up attack while using orbit when available or the totem monster crouch attack, both while using the wall to keep the other player close) Every hit done at zero hp will do the "finishing hit slowmo" effect that normally happens, which leads to comical results when using multihits, this probably won't realistically effect gameplay but its worth mentioning.
I'm gonna comment on this one so I won't add unnecessary bloat comments to your guide, but your guide was really extensive! I can see that you put in a lot of research and that you have a lot of knowledge on this type of game already, wether it's traditional fighting games or platform fighters. For example, you correctly understand that the small attack are often way more important than the big attacks, for example with dragonfish's crouch attack. and you also figured out an advanced movement tech in Dashjumping
I'm going to add some comments under there to make the list even more complete, cause a lot of these things you had no way of knowing. If you want me to delete them so you can update your own list, let me know. it might be a better read that way.
There's also a really important mechanic that I don't think you mentioned anywhere, but you can parry attacks by releasing the crouch button (there's a half second cooldown after a failed attempt, but if you parry something, you can more quickly counterattack and you get some pepper meter). this is a good counter to most projectiles and you should always keep it in mind if you're using projectiles from far away.
Have you considered adding online multiplayer? Love playing this game with my friends and wish I could play this when we weren't right next to each other!
I have tried that but it's very difficult to make sadly... I don't think I will add online multiplayer anytime soon, but maybe I will one day if I have the skills for it.
This game is really fun! there is clearly a lot of passion here and im loving it, even if i don't got any friends willing to play with the admittedly kinda goofy p2 controls (on pc). I'm excited to see what is next to come as all the characters are really fun to play as. Totem monster is my favorite :)
Edit: I just noticed you also made ragdolf lol
You can play against a CPU/AI by pressing left or right on the character select screen at the "control options" section.
It looks excellent, how much do you charge to make a game like this?
Thanks!
well, I have never really made an entire game for someone, but I do make pixelart animation comissions, which of course the price depends on how many animations you want. i can also help with some of the building blocks in godot, or make a game that is a bit simpler than this. it all depends on a lot of things, like what you want to make, or what parts you will design/make yourself.
We can talk a bit further about this on discord if you have it. my tag is "weentermg"
otherwise, you can also mail me at weentertheperson@gmail.com
I send you an email
I just sent one back
This game is super cool! Dragonfish is my favorite! The animations on all the characters is stylish, appealing, and clear, and this perfectly scratches my itch for a simpler take on old fighting games! It maybe one or more moves could be added and the complexity would still be manageable for newcomers, but as it is, this game is great!
Thank you so much!
AMAZING! there seems to be a bug with totem monster though. I've played the game a bit with a friend and sometimes when we are both blocking and he tries to do his down attack nothing happens.
edit: I think it's a keyboard issue with the enter button not registering if too many other keys are pressed- is there another attack button for player 2?
hmm. no there is currently no other attack button. I will add some more ways to attack! btw, are you playing on a mechanical keyboard or a laptop (or maybe even something else?)? that would be useful information for fixing these kinds of things. you can also play the offline version with controllers btw.
oh I'm currently playing on the browser version with a laptop- this seems to happen on chromebook too. unfortunately I don't have controllers tho. custom keybinds might be nice but i'm not sure how difficult that would be to add
forgot to add that I think it's specifically keys like enter, ctrl, alt that won't register if too many other keys are pressed but I've played other fighting games on keyboard and it seems like all of the letter/symbol keys would work :)
ok thanks! I will add an option for p2 to play with . and , . not really how I usually design controls, since I often would rather have the playyer use the left hand for movement, but I think this is an ok way to fix it. custom controls might be a little annoying to make, but maybe later. thanks for the help and comments btw.
niceeee
How to launch hearts with shella snail?
It's one of her secret moves, so tbat means it need s a special motion to be inputted.
in this case, hold left or right, away from your opponent for about one second. Then quickly press forward + attack. You can see if you hold away long enough if hearts start appearing around shella snail.
You can also hold (left or right) away while crouching or attacking. This ensures that you stand your ground while charging. This also means that you will lose your heart charge once you start walking forward again.
I'm planning on simplifying this a bit in the next update. It may be a bit confusing at first, but I think you'll get the hang of it.
thx and i loved the game by the way
every characters has secret moves?
well, most of them do, and I will be adding more
Dragonfish can press down, then left/right towards the opponent to do a yellow fireball. it's a lot slower on startup, but after shooting the fireball dragonfish can move almost immediately again. This means that you can run behind it using the fireball as a sort of moving shield, or you can use it to start a combo.
Shella Snail obviously has her heart shooting attack.
Shella Snail can do a similar thing by holding down for about a second, then quickly pressing up + attack. The can shoot a lightningbolt upwards to shock opponents.
Totem monster's moves aren't really secret, as they are pretty easy to do, but he can hold down + attack while in the air to do a totem stomp. He can also double jump.
Happy and Mad don't really have secret moves. Since they are a 2 in one character they already have the most attacks out of every monster.
Lily and Orbit can press down, then left/right away from their opponent to do a yellow crystal kick (the crystal clear kick). It makes the crystal from her normal crystal kick spawn later so you can combo off it better, but honestly, it's not that good of a move in my opinion. I might remove and replace it later.
I'll probably update this list later once there are more secret moves, but hope this helps!
wow thx dude, nice. You could add like a list of moves in the game. I like the concept of secret moves but for better diversity in gameplay it would be better if everyone knew the moves
Great update as always, kinda reminds me of the Ice Climbers!
this game is one of a kind!! but i hope you'll update it into a more thrilling game like more modes or smth but still this game is awesome!!
Truly an awesome game. Would you mind to add some small tweaks for gamepad controls? I enjoyed this game with friends alot.
Thanks.
Yes I would love to hear your feedback on how to change gamepad controls. What would you change?
Maybe A to jump, B to attack, also, halfway through writing this, i realised there is a input lag on the enter button sometimes, can you maybe patch that for a future update?
I think adding more control customization options would be a good idea in general. I'm working on the next update already and that's not really within scope of the next deadline I set for myself, but I will for sure look into it. As for the input lag, that is very strange and I have not experienced it myself, but you're saying it's with the enter key on the keyboard, so it can't really be a controller issue... I can look into it, but I doubt I can find or fix it. Are you maybe confusing input lag with input buffering? (When pressing buttons quickly after another, you can press attack during the previous animation so you don't have to time every attack frame perfectly in a combo. This system might cause some problems...)
Sorry for replying this late, but i really hope that you nerf Happy And Mad's up attack, it is spammable and can ko without taking damage.
please add cooldown between down attack for dragonfish
hmm, I was not really planning on adding cooldown to moves, but I can change to attacks in different ways to make them more fair. What exactly is the problem with Dragonfish's crouching attack? For example, is it too hard to react to, too difficult to punish after you block the attack or something else?
nevermind im just ass at the game
i tried playing as Dragonfish but I'm just trash cus i lose 0-2 no damage at all
This game is great.
It's an entertaining and great game, I'm lucky to find this project well done (and by 2 people, nice)
i cant wait for more of this :D
Very cool and outstanding graphics! I love it! :)
Thank you!
Wonderful game. I could tell there was a lot of love poured into this Project. The characters were fantastic to play and the whole game felt well thought out. Great job.
Thank you so much. Hearing things like this inspire me to keep making and updating games.
Thanks♪(･ω･)ﾉ
Gamepad (any) doesn't work.
It should work on the Windows and Linux versions. Let me know if it worked.
I'll try it. Thanks.
Monster Battlegrounds Gameplay
awesome game, pls add an ai opponent
You're in luck, because there are AI opponents! On the character select screen when selecting the controls, press left or right with the opponent's controls to change the player into an EASY Ai, or a HARD Ai.
Very interesting game.
I love that dinosaur! Ha ha ha ha
(*╹▽╹*)
We are a game publishing agency. If possible, can I get the developer's email address?
Oooh
for developer related mails, contact me at weentertheperson@gmail.com
Thanks♪(･ω･)ﾉ