Breakers
On Combos
Breakers has a very loose combo system, players have a long time to cancel into attacks or link moves together. This gives newer players leniency for pulling off combos but also opens up the possibility of very damaging and long combos. The Breaker system exists to prevent this, forcing players to tighten up their offense or risk getting punished.
On Breakers and Breakering
Upon picking up Breakers Revenge most players would not realize the existence of the breaker system. If one player knows about this system and the other player does not, it puts the knowledgeable player at a higher level. Learning how to breaker and deal with breakers is crucial to stepping your game up. What the breakers system does is that it makes having tight combos and pressure strings a necessity at high level, but it makes combos possible for newer players that cannot chain their attacks as tightly. What the breakers system does not do is force you to get hit for attacking. If this is happening to you, then you need to use different moves or strategies to make your combos unbreakerable.
Breakers are also used in punishing unsafe moves more effectively. Some moves are only punishable with breakers at the end of their stun.
How to Breaker
Learning to breaker is very important, and learning when you can breaker will help you learn what not to do when you're playing. Every single character in Breakers Revenge has at least 1 move they can breaker with.
- A good breaker is a breaker that will hit almost immediately with a small amount of invulnerability (like Tia's Rising Upper) or take your character out of danger (like Tia's backdash).
- A general rule of thumb is that is if a link looks like it is really tight, or that it shouldn't work, or involves a fireball, or if a combo or string is spacing-dependent, it can more than likely be breakered.
- Additionally, a lot of 2-hit moves such as Tia's LK+HK and LP+HP can be breakered in between.
- As a general rule, you can breaker sooner while being hit than when blocking.
What can be used as a Breaker
Essentially any move. Normals, specials, supers, throws, even taunts. Movement like backdashes and jumps also work (except Alsion III's backdash). Breaker jump can be used to escape specific strings and even meaty attacks (will become airborne on 1st frame standing and forced into air reset). However, there is no green circle shown when doing jump as a Breaker.
Punishing with Breakers
Some moves are only punishable by breakers. Easy examples of this are combos or strings that end in a fireball. On hit or block, Dao-Long's bread and butter combo, cr.A xn, cr.B, A+C, Fireball is punishable by Saizo using his Combo Super unless it is spaced really far away.
Examples of Breakering
For this example, it is Tia vs Sho. Tia has just scored a knockdown and crosses up Sho with a j.B, cr.B x2, A+C which Sho blocks. Sho can flame kick in between the 2 hits of Tia's A+C. This is an extremely basic breaker. Even if the A+C hit, Sho would still be able to breaker unless Tia canceled the first hit of A+C into Rising Upper or a super(which is her basic combo).
Continuing this example fight, Sho has just knocked down Tia with a flame kick and is pressuring Tia with a LP fireball that he is dashing quickly behind. Sho repeatedly pressures Tia with dash f.st.C xx LP Fireball. Although f.st.C xx LP Fireball, dash f.st.C will combo, it is so spacing dependent, it involves a fireball and really looks like it shouldn't work. Tia can LP Rising Upper after the fireball and smack Sho's f.st.C very easily. Sho can stop short and throw another fireball or just block as a bait in this example to stuff Tia's rising upper, but a breaker is possible if he goes for a f.st.C.
So Tia is on the offensive now and attempts to cross up again just like earlier with a j.B and does cr.B x2, A+C which is all blocked once again. Sho sees this and begins mashing out flame kick. However, the motion for flame kick is qcb + K, and if Sho mashes this then his kick super comes out. In this example, the kick super does come out and is smacked by the second hit of A+C. This is an example of a failed breaker.
Breaker Reference List
The following list of breakers is not the only moves that the character can breaker with, it is only a list of a characters best possible breakers. There may be more, but these are the most often used. This list covers breakers used to break out of strings, not breakers used for punishing. Any move can punish as a breaker, provided it will hit.
Alsion III
- Teleport Drop, qcb + K - This has invulnerability until he reappears at the top of the screen. This can really confuse people, and it leads to a combo into super.
- Anubis, qcf, qcf + P - This does have invulnerability but it isn't as good as his Combo Super for breakering.
- Combo Super, qcb, qcb + P - Invulnerable until it hits and it hits incredibly fast.
Condor
- Tamahoo, A+B+C - Not his best breaker but it works.
- Any normal throw - Only REALLY close.
- Spinning Piledriver, 360 + P - This throw was practically made for breakering. It works great because it hits so fast, but if you mash too hard you'll get his grab super. That isn't bad either though!
- Tamahoo Super, qcf, qcf + P - This does slightly less damage than the grab super, but moves Condor forward.
- Grab Super, 720 + P - Same use as SPD, does more damage. If you whiff this move, it wont take any meter at all but he will do his regular SPD whiff animation.
Dao-Long
- Senkyuutai - charge d, u + K - Either version will work, but the LK version has more invulnerability. The HK version may get you hit as it has less invulnerability.
- Backdash - Dao-Long has a decent backdash, but the lag time on the end is horrible.
Maherl
- Kadabuura - QCFx2+P - One of his only invulnerable moves! The tradeoff is that it has a pretty big startup and leaves him vulnerable afterward.
- Balloon Grab - 360+K - An excellent breaker because it hits so fast, but the range is not that good.
Pielle
- Thunder Riser - QCBx2+P - Great if done up close, this is Pielle's only decent breaker attack.
Rila
- Wild Saber, charge d, u + K - Use the LK version mainly due to its invulnerability until it hits, but only when the enemy's close. The HK version has invulnerability as it starts, but loses its lower-body invulnerability by the time it hits--it has better horizontal range, though.
- Backdash - Not the best backdash for breakering, but it is kind of fast.
- Shine Beast, charge b, f, b, f + P (hold P to delay) - This move is fairly quick and will trigger if the opponent touches Rila, so if you Breaker it while they're moving in or recovering, you'll be able to catch them off guard.
Saizo
- Hair, qcb + P - This move is unsafe on block but allows for combo options no matter what state the opponent is in while they get hit. It has invulnerability on start and huge range.
- Backdash - One of the better backdashes for breakering, it is only vulnerable at the very end.
Sho
- Kurenai Sandan Keri, QCB+K - Mainly use the LK version, and if blocked, don't continue mashing kicks.
- Backdash - This can be pretty safe
- Kurenai Gansai Shuu/Seiken Shouha, QCBx2+K/QCFx2+P - These supers have strange invulnerability and are very situational. You can be hit out of both of these if done at the wrong time.
Tia
- Rising Upper - DP+P - Great all-around breaker. Full invulnerability until it hits and deceptively massive range.
- Backdash - Fast backdash where Tia travels pretty far.
Dealing with Breakering - Throws
Learning how to deal with breakers can be extremely hard. At first, it may seem that throws as a mixup are completely ruined by the breaker system. This assumption may be true on a low level of play, but throws can still be an excellent mixup once you've learned to bait and punish failed breakers. If your opponent is leery of mashing out breakers then you can begin to mixup with throws. Making throws work is all about baiting.
An example of a throw setup belongs to Tia. Tia has a really obnoxious pressure string with cr.A and st.A and repeated dashes. With some characters it is extremely difficult to get out of, but anyone with an uppercut that they time correctly can breaker free. Tia, however, can change up the timing on her cr.A's and st.A's to make the timing difficult for her opponent's breaker, and also block at any time during her dash. Dashing in and chicken blocking, then immediately throwing can be extremely good.
Basic strike vs throw mixups are very possible in this game. Saizo simply doing cr.A, waiting, and cr.A again or doing cr.A, walking and throwing, is the same mixup as it is in every fighting game. Breakering does not change this base mixup, but the defensive player does have slightly more options in Breakers Revenge than in other fighting games. Be careful on how often you use throws and vary your setups or you'll get breakered.
Dealing with Breakering - High/Low
In most 2-d fighting games, high/low/throw mixups exist. In Breakers, this mixup of high/low/throw exists but not every character has great overheads. In fact, a lot of command overheads are 2-hit moves that are breakerable. Setups for overheads mid-blockstring are typically extremely telegraphed and not the best idea.
Still, doing overheads as a mixup can be great. Pielle can use his Butt attack with B+D to effectively mix up, but it has a pretty long startup. Jamming it inside of a string is asking to get breakered, and doing it on an opponent just getting up is probably the best bet. Spacing and timing are key for using overheads right. As long as you use you don't use your overheads really often or really obviously then you will mostly avoid getting breakered.
But still, 2-hit overheads should rarely be used, if ever. The fact that most 2-hit overheads are breakerable in between or completely lack combo options after the overhead hits makes them wholly worthless.
Just like with throws, the mixup with overheads is still existent in Breakers Revenge, but the defensive player has a larger advantage. You can't use overheads the same way as in other games, but used very sparingly they can dish out some extra damage and catch your opponent off guard.
Tips & Tricks
Late Super Cancel
The end of many Special Moves can be cancelled into Super Moves, making some normally punishable moves a mixup situation with meter. Timing windows vary by Special Move.
Better punishes
Take advantage of the juggle system to get more consistent punishes. This will prevent opponents without air supers from using a Late Super Cancel. If you are going to use a grounded punish, you typically want to use the punish as a Breaker (make sure you are doing it early enough, the most common reason for new players to drop punishes is simply not inputting as a Breaker).
Throw OS
If your character has a good anti-air standing C, using 4C or 6C instead of 5C can open up throw OS that will catch jumping opponents or do a throw. Try buffering in a special to juggle if the normal comes out.
If your character does not have a good standing C, try using button priority (D > C > B > A) to get a stronger OS.
Breaker Throw
Universal Throws are instant, using a throw as a breaker when in range is very strong. Situations where this usually comes up are: on wake-up and after a shallow jump attack. This applies to command throws as well.
Tech Roll
Prevents OTG combos and escapes a lot of standard pressure. Use tech roll to escape setups like meaty fireballs or meaty crossups, often backash or jump on wakeup can be used in combination if your character has a good dash. Vary the timing and you can punish meaty attempts by making them whiff or using wakeup throw to defeat them.
Crouch Block
Crouch blocking has significantly less pushback than stand blocking. This can open up better punishes.
Aim for stun early
Amount of stun it takes to dizzy the oppponent goes up after you win a round or dizzy them. Focus on using your stun specials as much as possible in the first round to get that dizzy. Once you have won a round or gotten the dizzy, focus on hitting damage more. Against some opponents with higher stun modifiers you may want to skip trying for dizzy entirely.
