Buffering

Buffering is the technique of preemptively doing a move during the animation of the preceding move. This gives you more time to completely input the motion of the next attack.

The Input Buffer refers to the game engine's memory that stores recently entered inputs.

Applications

Combos

When doing combos that involve quickly canceling attack into other attacks, players can buffer the next attack before the current attack finishes.

Examples

GBVSR Katalina

> Frozen Blade

After inputting

, you don't need to wait for it to hit before you begin inputting the next move. You can even use

from the first attack as the first part of

. After the first attack hits and you finish

, press

.

BBCF Ragna

> > Carnage Scissors

After inputting

, begin inputting

even before

hits the opponent. Once the move hits the opponent, then press

While you may not finish inputting the Carnage Scissors motion before

hits the opponent, you are getting a head start on inputting the motion. There is no reason to wait for

to finish before starting the motion for Carnage Scissors.

While most players end up doing this for most attacks, most players are only really cognizant of this for complicated inputs like supers and for cancels that need to be done very quickly.

GGST Ky

c. > > Ride the Lightning

Instead of performing

and

sequentially, combine the two motions! After c.

, input

and press

during any of the downward directions, then press

at the end.

This is very similar to the Ragna example, and uses the fact that any downward direction +

will result in

.

P4U2R Yu

Heroic Bravery > Ziodyne

After inputting

, input

even before

hits the opponent.

This takes advantage of the fact that the motion

is used as part of the first and second attack. The first

is still in the input buffer and can be used as part of the second attack's motions if done fast enough. This effectively makes the inputs for this combo

>

, which is much easier to input.

P4U2R Mitsuru

Coup Droit > Myriad Arrows

Instead of doing

, input

for Coup Droit, then input

for Myriad Arrows.

This uses the same principles as the previous example, but takes advantage of the leniency allowed to

inputs to instead sneak in a

for later use.

Hit Confirming

When hit confirming a normal attack into a second attack with a complex motion (like a super), players can buffer the motion for the super before they confirm the hit. Once they confirm the hit, then they just press the button for the super.

Example

Ky hit confirming > Sacred Edge ()

Ky does

, then immediately does

. Then watch the opponent:

If

hits the opponent, then press

to finish the command for Sacred Edge

If

misses or is blocked, then don't press

and do other actions instead

This allows Ky to more easily hit confirm, since you are hitconfirming into a button instead of a motion+button.

Reversals on Defense

Buffering is used extensively when blocking or after getting knocked down.

Because defenders can not move and inputs are mostly ignored during blockstunWhen a character successfully blocks an attack while standing or crouching, the defender is forced into a stun animation for a set period of time where they are incapable of acting. This period of time is called blockstun. and Wake UpThe state and animation a character goes through when they rise from being knocked down. This animation is usually invulnerable for its duration, and usually retains invulnerability to throws for some time after it ends. , this is a prime time for the defender to begin buffering a reversal.

Input Shortcuts

When doing more complicated things like doing a dashing special/super, you can rely on the input buffer to help make the input easier.

Example
Jin wants to do a short run > Super (): Jin can input , this will cause Jin to start running. After pressing , Jin will perform the Super.; The amount of time to press the button is not very long, but allows Jin to run a short distance

Limitations

Most games only allow you to buffer the next attack and not a series of attacks.
- Ex: Quickly pressing 5A > 5B > 5C before 5A hits the opponent means only 5B will come out afterwards
Motions will persist between moves
- Ex: If you want to combo into , it's not necessary to do three times. You can do followed by another ; when you execute the second , the game will see the from the first as part of the same input, thereby ultimately outputting for the second move. This therefore means that you can't do if your character has a move.