Players who loved the beat ’em up are taking the MMORPG genre Dungeon and Fighter Online can finally see their action anime dreams come true with DNF duel. After all, this 2.5D action game takes the visually stunning skill components of DFO and convert them into intense combat situations. For those who are used to the fighting game genre, DNF duel seems like a fun way to see how the game’s classes compete against each other. But pros in the genre may want to look at the game’s technical components.
For example, players who want to dominate DNF duelThe PVP component may want to look beyond improving their offensive capabilities. Instead, players may want to check how to defend themselves against the game’s fiercest attacks. How can players ensure their safety in this 2.5D fighting game?
Remember the hold button
Unlike other fighting games, DNF duel does have a special Guard button. This means there is a way for players to actively prevent strikes from causing damage to them, aside from the game’s usual “back-to-block” mechanics. However, there are certain intricacies around this button that players should remember:
- Neutral Protects Neutral: Without pressing anything in particular, a neutral standing guard protects the players from attacks from both the right and left.
- Itinerary gets specific: When guarding with a certain direction, the guard is tuned for specific attacks. Standing guard cannot defend from hows, while Crouching Guard cannot defend from heights. Forgetting direction specific guards can become a terrible mistake for DNF duel players on the defensive.
Pain is power
Defensive players are likely to experience penalties that just break through their protection, especially from hitting heavily DNF duel characters like the Berserker. As a result, they can get huge chunks of their health out of them. However, players should remember two things that happen in these kinds of adverse situations:
- Excess MP: First, losing HP is equivalent to overfilling the MP gauge. This basically gives players more room to dish out their MP Specials and punish opponents as a way of tipping the scales in their favor.
- Awakening: At 30 percent HP, players activate Awakening and get a buff exclusive to their character. When used with their fighting style, players can take advantage of Awakening and even perform a super move called the Awakening Skill once per round.
- White damage: Players who take a lot of damage gain some of that lost HP as white damage, which regenerates over time. Pressing B+Skill skips this healing process instead of Conversion and converts that white damage (and 5% of the player’s remaining HP) into MP. In addition, this cancels the player’s move, leaving them in neutral and ready to launch new attacks.
Consider the Dodge
Rather than relying heavily on Guards for defense, players may want to consider using the clever thing mechanic instead. By pressing Down+Guard, players can shoot to the side of the opponent and move to the other side. This essentially acts as a handy dodge mechanic to prevent attacks.
However, players should remember that the Dodge makes players vulnerable to throws during and a little after the move, similar to how Guilty Gear punishes defense with wrestling. Only the sorceress skips this caveat. Players, in turn, must decide whether it is worth risking a Guard Crush or a Throw.
Counter stops in combos
As with other fighting games, DNF duel mechanics do give players room for Counters. This essentially appears in the HUD as soon as players attack just as their opponent is attacking, hitting them both and pushing them back a bit. Technically, this means that the opponent has more hittuns than the player.
However, this hittun gives players an opening to launch attacks much faster. Due to the nature of Counters as mini-cancellations similar to the Roman Cancellation of Guilty Gearplayers can use a counter to jump into a quick combo sequence, be it through Standard Attacks in Skills, then Skills in an MP Special.
Skip counters for cancellations
Players can also skip Counters right away and just opt for the classic block mechanics. While Guarding does indeed force players to risk getting a Guard Crush situation, getting more damage from sustained attacks works to their advantage.
Remember that if you get damaged during a block, players will still have access to white damage that restores health over time. However, white damage can be “converted” into both a cancellation and an extra MP – a unique feature of DNF duel similar to that of Roman Cancels of Guilty Gear. Players can immediately use Conversion to return to a neutral state, potentially bypass the opponent’s move, and then launch a counter-attack complete with a deadly MP Special.
Find openings to punish
Apart from Counters, defensive players can also watch a DNF duel mechanic called To punish. If done correctly, “Punish” will appear in the HUD, and this happens when players block an attack and then hit the opponent during their attack recovery phase. This is a similar penalty technique used in other games such as Guilty Gear.
Most attacks are punishable after blocking, especially if players know in which frame to counter-hit. However, players may need to study how each opponent performs certain moves and analyze their recovery frames. That way, players not only know which move to use as a counter, but also to ensure that the range of their counters is enough to even hit the opponent during recovery.
In a very bad round it is very likely that new DNF duel players will not be fast enough to perform a counter on an opponent and cannot enter a button fast enough to punish the attack. This should leave them on the floor, about to get up with an animation that can leave them vulnerable to other movements. In these worst-case scenarios, players of DNF duel must try a . to be carried out Reversal once they have room to recover.
As with other fighting games, Reversals refer to a player making an entry on the first possible frame after a perceived recovery. This means you have to act as soon as players recover from knockdowns, hittuns, blocktuns or even startup invincibles. When done correctly, a defending character can interrupt an opponent’s attack by dodging it, giving them room to counter-attack.
Watch out for the guard
Despite the Guard button’s attractive nature as a defensive mechanic, relying too much on this button can result in the player’s disadvantage. At its core, using Guard to absorb attacks will not affect health, but rather a Surveillance Meter. This can take a while to wear out, which can give defensive players a chance to withstand fierce combos – even extremely fast combo strings similar to Guilty Gear Endeavor.
However, using the last of the Guard Meter to defend against attacks will put players in a vulnerable Guard Break state that lasts 60 frames. Players should be wary of characters with toolkits built around multi-hit combos, such as Vanguard, as they are usually built to quickly deplete Guard Meters for that Guard Crush.
Stop Violation with Guard Cancel
Instead of risking Guard Crushes, defending players can consider interrupting the enemy’s attack with a Guard Cancel. For 100 MP, players can press Forward+B+Skill while blocking to push enemies away.
Besides being a primary “shoving” tool, the Guard Cancel is also literally a cancellation. Doing so will stop the player’s block and place the players in a neutral position while the opponent gets a few seconds of Hitstun. This allows players to immediately hand out their normal while waiting for their MP to return – perfect for getting normal penalties before finishing with a skill or an MP Special, similar to Guilty Gear Endeavor‘s combo-dependent Giovanna.
Skip waking up with awakening skills
In many fighting games, defending players can make a surprising comeback with a super move, just as their characters rise from a knockdown. This seems extremely awesome, as an overconfident enemy standing over a seemingly powerless player faces a barrage of colorful attacks. These moves often happen thanks to invincible frames at the beginning of super moves, which are similar to super moves like Nagoriyuki in e.g. Guilty Gear Endeavor.
Unfortunately, DNF duel and his Awakening Skills have no invincibility frames. This means “waking up” with an Awakening Skill or using one while under attack means not only getting damaged but also wasting the attack for the round. What players could do instead is see if the Awakening Skill’s frames can “bypass” an attack. For example, the Hitman’s Awakening Skill opens with a sword thrust that goes through a crusader’s lightning ball.
DNF duel is available on PC, PS4 and PS5.
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