Dead or Alive 5 Last Round/System

The Triangle System

Just like in the previous Dead or Alive games, the Triangle System is present in Dead or Alive 5 Last Round as well. This system is the core of DOA5LR's gameplay and anyone who wishes to learn the game should be familiar with it. In the Triangle System, the 3 types of attacks players can perform will beat each other in an RPS fashion.
and will always beat , which will beat , which will beat and .

This, of course, is a bit more deep and complicated at higher levels of play and will be explained in more detail below.

Strikes

Strikes in DOA5LR are performed with the and buttons, or a combination of multiple buttons, such as or . Strikes are the most common way of damaging and pressuring your opponent in DOA5LR, and combined with movement serve as the primary way of navigating neutral. Strikes can very often extend into strings performed by inputting a sequence of buttons in a specific order. Strikes will ALWAYS beat throws, as long as you can get one out. You cannot be thrown as long as your strike is in it's startup or active frames, but can be thrown during the recovery. Striking someone during their throw animation will inflict Hi Counter, which will grant your strike 50% more damage and possibly additional properties, such as more frame advantage or a juggle opportunity.

Throws

Throws can be performed by inputting or the macro, which can be set in the button config. Each character will have multiple throws that can be performed by inputting a throw with a directional button or a combination of directional buttons. Aside from the neutral throw (5) throws in DOA5LR cannot be broken and are guaranteed the moment they connect. Throws also have differing startup, with the neutral throw having 5 frames of startup (4 frames for grappler characters). Every character will have at least a 5f throw, a 7f throw, a 10f throw and a 12f throw. Because most throws are faster than strikes, and because they cannot be broken, they are usually used to punish opponents who are at frame disadvantage. Landing a throw on an opponent attempting a hold will inflict Hi Counter and grant your throw 50% more damage. Throws can be crouched under for a whiff punish, but every character has access to at least a few low throws in order to counter that, as well as to punish opponents who recover while crouching. Low throws cannot connect on standing opponents.

Holds and blocking

The button, if held down, will make your character assume a blocking stance and block the incoming strikes, save for low strikes, which can be blocked by holding down 2, exposing you to mid strikes instead. Because lows in DOA5LR are usually slower and less threatening than mids, standing block should be the default method of blocking. For those who aren't used to blocking by holding a button, Dead or Alive 5 Last Round offers the standard method of blocking by holding back or downback. The other defensive option the button is used for are holds. If a strike connects with a hold, the hold will act as a parry, usually granting some damage and a knockdown, although sometimes it can open up a juggle opportunity or put you at enough frame advantage to start a combo. To parry an incoming strike, you will need to input a hold corresponding to the type of strike your opponent is performing. These inputs look as follows:

• 4 - Mid punch strikes.
• 6 - Mid kick strikes.
• 7 - All high strikes.
• 1 - All low strikes.

If you manage to hold the incoming strike with proper timing, the game will reward you with a Counter Hold or a Hi Counter Hold, depending on how on point your timing was, granting either 25% or 50% more damage respectively. Some characters, usually the defense oriented ones, will have access to special holds. These are performed with character-specific inputs and usually open up a combo or a juggle opportunity but require better reads, as many will counter - for example - specifically only high punches or high kicks. Other types of special holds can be holds that cover even more options, parrying - for example - all mid punches and high punches, but will usually only put you at frame advantage without starting a combo.

Offensive Holds

Abbreviated as OH, offensive hold is a special type of attack that combines the properties of a throw with the properties of a hold. Usually possessed by grappler or defense oriented characters, offensive holds are strong options both offensively and defensively. These attacks mostly look and function as throws, but will also hold strikes, allowing you to beat both blocking and striking. However, because most offensive holds are slower than normal throws, they can be thrown before they connect, and because they count as holds, throwing them will inflict Hi Counter. Just like normal throws, OHs are also divided into low and high OHs, meaning you can crouch under high OHs and then punish them as they recover.

Freecanceling and Delaying Strings

Dead or Alive 5 Last Round, like many other games, offers a buffer mechanic which allows you to buffer a sequence of button presses while other things are happening, such as being in blockstun, performing actions and so on. This makes it so that the sequence you buffered will come out on the first frame possible. The game is known for it's buffer window being extremely large, as well as some strings having large delay windows. Because of this, you might sometimes end up delaying a string by accident when you wanted to instead stop the first string short and start a new one. To work around this, you should learn how to freecancel your strings.

Freecanceling

If you want to buffer multiple strings, you might want to learn how to use freecancels. Freecanceling can be performed by inputting after a sequence of strike buttons to make the game recognize it as you stopping that string short, after which you can start a new string. To give you an example of how to use this mechanic, let's look at Marie Rose's 5. This is a string of two kicks and one of Marie's better strings due to it's speed, range and the ability to inflict a strong sit-down stun with the second kick. It also features a large delay window, which makes it a good example. Let's say you want to do 5, followed up by 5 in anticipation of your opponent trying to hold the second kick of the first string. Now let's look at how you can input it.
5, 5 - This method doesn't use freecanceling and while it is possible to get it out properly without it by simply waiting for the first 5 to recover, you might end up accidently doing 5 if you don't wait long enough, as the game will interpret your missed inputs as a delayed string given it's large delay window.
5~5~5 - This method uses freecanceling and makes it impossible to accidently get a delayed 5, even if you don't wait for the first 5 to fully recover.
DOA5LR's pressure is often built around stopping your strings short at different points to make it harder for your opponent to know if they can punish or not. Stopping a string short and starting another one can make your opponent flinch and try to go for a throw punish with missed timing, at which point they will get hit by your another string and eat a Hi Counter. On the other hand, if they try to go for a throw punish on a read by buffering it immediately, they open themselves up to getting frametrapped, as many strings in DOA5LR feature natural frametraps or the ability to create them due to large delay windows.

Delaying your strings

Strings in DOA5LR have differing delay windows between their hits. Some might be impossible to delay, others will have extremely large delay windows, allowing you to easily delay the hits by over 10 frames. This is another method of pressuring your opponent in Dead or Alive 5 Last Round, as delaying your strings can give your opponent a false sense of security and bait them into going for a throw punish, at which point they will get hit by the delayed hit and eat a Hi Counter. Strings being delayable also makes it easier to hitconfirm them.

The Combo System

The combo system in DOA5LR operates on two mechanics called critical stun and juggles. Because of how critical stun and critical holds work, characters won't have a single combo they can always rely on. The mechanics in place instead encourage players to learn the combo theory and structure combos on the fly in order to avoid being predictable, and easy to shut down with critical holds.

Critical Stun and Critical Holds

When an attack connects with the opponent, it will cause what's called a critical stun. This is pretty similar to hitstun in other fighting games, with a few key differences. The first one is that not all attacks will inflict critical stun, some may instead launch the opponent into the air immediately or even leave you at disadvantage on hit. It's important to note that not all critical stuns will open up a combo opportunity, as some might offer as little as only 1 frame of advantage, and since the fastest strike a character can have will posses 9 frames of startup, it will be impossible to keep the combo going, forcing you to continue pressure instead. When an opponent is put into critical stun, they cannot perform any actions with two exceptions - critical holds and stagger escape. Critical holds are simply holds performed during critical stun that offer you the opportunity to steal the momentum and escape a combo, but offer less damage than a normal hold would. Whiffing a critical hold will also increase (or in rare cases decrease) the amount of frame advantage your opponent has over you, meaning they will be able to land combos they normally wouldn't be able to, while also exposing you to the dangers of getting Hi Counter thrown for a lot of damage, so this is not without risks.

Types of Stuns

Although it's not fully explained in the game, DOA5LR has a few different types of stuns, offering varying amounts of frame advantage and even some unique properties. These stuns can be identified by their differing animations and have community-given names. The stuns that can appear in the game and their properties are as follows:

• Lift stun - This stun will make your opponent jump up slightly, then stumble backwards just a little bit. The frame advantage is good, over 30 frames, and the amount of distance it creates is for the most part negligible.
• Crumple stun - When hit with a crumple stun, the opponent will hunch over and hold their stomach. The frame advantage on this stun is usually between 20 and 30 frames, and will put next to no distance between you and your opponent.
• Falling Crumple stun - This stun is very similar to the crumple stun, except it will make your opponent fall down to the ground slowly. While it offers a lot of frame advantage, the slow fall can actually make you whiff some of your following strikes, forcing you to be quick on your judgement.
• Trip stun - Usually caused by strong lows or getting a counter with a low, this stun will make your opponent trip. The amount of frame advantage it offers is usually pretty low, between 10 and 20 frames, and since your opponent trips to the ground, you will not be able to connect with high attacks, making it easier for an opponent to counter you with a critical hold, since they will now only have to guess between 3 attack types, while also having less moves to worry about due to you being restricted by low frame advantage. In fact, by properly utilizing stagger escape, your opponent can make your frame advantage even lower and completely stop you from being able to continue the combo.
• Stagger stun - This stun offers lots of frame advantage but makes your opponent quickly stagger away from you, restricting your options to moves with reach good enough to connect before they leave their stun. The amount of distance they stagger away is slightly influenced by your opponent's stance relative to yours.
• Faint stun - Called like this because it looks as if the opponent fainted, this stun makes your opponent pop up and then quickly fall to the ground. Just like with the trip stun, the falling animation can make you whiff your high attacks if you aren't fast enough.
• Limbo stun - The opponent will bend backwards, then fall down to the ground. Very similar to faint stun in how it functions but usually offers more frame advantage.
• Sit-down stun - The sit-down stun makes your opponent fall to the ground on their butt. While it makes it impossible to follow with high attacks and the frame advantage is average, sitting between 20 and 30 frames usually, the sit-down stun is special in that it's impossible to perform a critical hold out of it, leaving stagger escape as the only option available to the opponent in order to try and escape the combo.
• Slip stun - Another special kind of stun, the slip stun, as it's name implies, makes your opponent slip and is related to environmental hazards and usually happens only if you hit your opponent with a specific move while they are standing in the water (typically some kind of low).
• Face stun - This stun makes your opponent hold their face and stumble backwards slightly.
• Back-turned stand-up stun - A rare kind of stun to occur, this stun will only happen if you hit a back-turned opponent and will make them stand up, then turn towards you.

Critical Damage and Critical Burst

Hitting your opponent and putting them into a critical stun will make a part of their healthbar glow white. This glowing part indicates the critical damage threshold and is "filled" by further damaging the stunned character. Each following hit will fill up the threshold at a 1 damage to 1 critical damage ratio. If you exceed this threshold, your opponent will be blown back and immediately knocked down, shutting down your ability to continue the combo. Because of this, you want to avoid going for too long before launching your opponent. The maximum amount of critical damage you can inflict depends on what type of hit you opened up with and it looks as follows:

• Normal hit - A maximum of 24 critical damage.
• Counter hit - A maximum of 35 critical damage.
• Hi Counter hit - A maximum of 42 critical damage.

Keeping the stun going for longer not only increases the overall damage of your combo, but also makes your opponent enter higher levels of critical stun, starting at level 1. The critical stun can go up to as high as level 3. With each level, your opponent will be launched higher into the air once you launch them, opening up longer juggles to stack up even more damage for a devastating combo. At level 3 performing a critical burst also becomes possible. Critical burst is a mid punch shared between all characters, although the input varies between characters, and some can have more than one (usually stance characters). If you connect a critical burst attack on an opponent in level 3 stun, they will enter a special kind of stun which grants you tons of frame advantage and prevents your opponent from using stagger escape and critical holds. This guarantees a launch with any move you want or even a power blow, or a power launcher for easy half of your opponent's healthbar. The level of critical stun your opponent is in will be shown to you through the "Critical Stun" message that shows up on the screen. White is level 1, yellow is level 2 and red is level 3. Keeping track of this visual cue is a good habit to have, as it will make it easier to avoid exceeding level 3.

Stagger Escape

When stunned, you can hold down the button and mash directional inputs or wiggle your stick around to perform stagger escape. This will make you recover from the stun faster, lowering your opponent's frame advantage and even making continuing a combo impossible in some cases. However, when performing stagger escape, you need to be wary of resets, as an opponent who notices you trying to go for stagger escapes often might try to take advantage of you leaving the stun earlier by going in for a sneaky throw to squeeze out some more damage. This is even more deadly when going up against characters with launching throws, characters with unblockable moves or characters with guard breaks advantageous enough to guarantee another stun.

Juggles

Once you hit your opponent with a launcher, you will put them into an airborne juggle state. At this point, the opponent cannot perform any actions and is completely at your mercy. This is one of the rare moments in DOA5LR when whatever you might do will actually be guaranteed. You should know at least a few juggles for your character, as the height at which your opponent is launched will be influenced by multiple factors, such as the critical level, the move that launched them and their weight.

Wall Combos

Knocking a standing or crouching opponent into the wall with any move will make them bounce off of the wall, putting them airborne and allowing you to perform some simple juggle. While the max damage potential of wall combos is usually lower than that of level 3 critical stun combos, they will do more guaranteed damage on average. Knocking an airborne opponent into the wall will cause wall splat instead, at which point the opponent cannot be hit by anything. This might force you to structure your juggles differently if you are close to the wall, as some strings can cause a wall splat before they are fully finished.

Weight Classes

Each character in DOA5LR belongs to one of the 8 weight classes. Weight class will slightly influence the height at which your opponent's moves will launch you. This might either give them better or worse juggles. The weight classes present in the game, from lightest to heaviest, look like this:

• Feather - Added in Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate, feather class is exclusive to Alpha-152 and is the lightest weight class in the game. A feather class character will be launcher roughly 40% higher than the character belonging to the heaviest weight class. The difference between feather class and super light class is bigger than the difference between super light and super heavy class, making juggles performed on the feather class very devastating.
• Super Light - Super light class is the second most populated class in the game. Characters belonging to this class are: Eliot, Hitomi, Kokoro, Mila, Momiji, Sarah, Mai.
• Light - Characters belonging to the light class are: Ayane, Kasumi, Honoka, Marie Rose, Phase 4.
• Welter - Welter class is occupied by only two characters: Leifang and Pai.
• Middle - The most populated weight class in the game. Characters belonging to the middle class are: Akira, Brad Wong, Christie, Ein, Hayabusa, Hayate, Jacky, Jann Lee, La Mariposa, Naotora, Nyotengu, Rig, Tina, Zack.
• Cruiser - Occupied by only one character, the cruiser class is exclusive to Helena.
• Heavy - Just like the cruiser class, the heavy class is exclusive to only one character, Gen Fu.
• Super Heavy - Occupied by Bass, Bayman, Leon, Rachel and Raidou, the super heavy class is often used to showcase beginner-friendly juggles, as any juggle that works on these characters will work on every other character in the game. Super heavy characters will highly restrict your juggle capabilities, often making it impossible to fit any filler in your juggles without a good launcher or a high stun level.

Move Properties in Critical Stun

When your opponent is in critical stun, your moves will often gain new properties, often reflecting the properties they posses only when connecting as counter strikes. This means a strike that is usually minus on hit will now grant you frame advantage instead. The best example of this is 5 - this button is minus or at best zero on hit across the entire cast, but if you land it on an opponent who's in critical stun, it will now extend the stun and offer enough frame advantage to keep the stun going. Likewise, moves that usually don't launch on normal hit will now act as launchers. Because of this, it's important to know the properties of your moves in order to avoid dropping a combo.

Movement

Movement in DOA5LR happens in a 3D plane, meaning you can move forward, backwards, sideways and even diagonally. This section is divided into the basic movement and advanced movement. Mastering these techniques is crucial for success in DOA5LR due to it's neutral-heavy nature.

Basic Movement

• Walking (6/4) - Walking is the most basic form of movement and will make your characters slowly crawl forward or backwards. While the forward walk can differ in speed greatly between the cast, walking back by simply holding 4 will make your character assume a blocking stance as they walk backwards, making it an extremely slow form of movement.
• Dashing and backdashing (66/44) - Quickly inputting 66 or 44 will make your character perform a dash or a backdash, which will allow you to quickly close or create a small amount of distance between you and your opponent. The distance covered by dashes and backdashes differs among the cast.
• Crouch dash (33) - This type of dash can only be performed forward and is available to all characters. A crouch dash functions just as the normal dash does, except it happens while crouching, allowing you to avoid high attacks while closing or creating distance.
• Freestep (2/8) - Freestep is a form of sideways movement, it's usually very fast and can even avoid some attacks (called freestep dodge by the community) while allowing you to reposition away from the walls or environmental hazards.
• Sidestep (22/88 or 2/8) - Sidestepping will make your character perform a quick step into the background or foreground, allowing you to avoid non-tracking attacks. Every character can followup their sidestep with a punch or a kick for a counter if they avoided a strike. However, all throws in DOA5LR will track and punish a sidestep, which can be deadly due to the fact that performing a sidestep opens you up to a counter even if you don't perform any followups.

Advanced Movement

• Korean backdash (KBD) - Just like in the Tekken series, you can cancel your backdashes in DOA5LR, allowing for a quick succession of backdashes. There are multiple methods to performing a KBD, it can be as simple as doing 214 motions or more nuanced, such as canceling your backdashes into a block by tapping the button, then immediately performing another backdash, or doing a single backdash, holding the 4 button down and then performing 632 motions. All of these methods are viable so simply use the one you are the most comfortable with.
• Wavedash - Called like this due to it's resemblance to the wavedash technique which can be performed by Tekken's Mishima characters, wave dash is a quick succession of crouch dashes that makes your character wiggle between crouching and standing state. It can be performed by simply inputting 236 motions.
• 8-way movement - You can unlock the 8-way movement in multiple ways. One of them is to simply perform a backdash and then hold down the 4 button, which will make your character start walking backwards in a manner faster than the basic walk. This indicates that you unlocked the 8-way movement and can now move diagonally. Another way is to simply tap any diagonal direction other than 1 (as this will make you assume a crouch blocking stance) and continue holding one of the directional buttons you pressed for a moment. No matter the method used, as soon as you return to neutral or press , you will need to unlock again.

Ground Game

When knocked down, you will be presented multiple wakeup options, all of them with some advantages and disadvantages. Likewise, as you are not invincible on the ground, your opponent might opt to hit you while you are downed. While not very damaging, being hit when down on the ground will force your character to get up, on which the opponent can then capitalize by performing some sort of setup or starting a guaranteed pressure sequence. Your options while on the ground are as follows:

• Tech roll - If you input any button ( recommended) just as you hit the ground, you will perform a tech roll. This is the fastest and safest way of getting up, but doesn't threaten your opponent in any way other than them possibly whiffing a ground attack if they do go for one. This by itself can be quite good and put you at enough advantage to punish the whiff or at least steal a turn.
• Wakeup kick - If you input or 2 while on the ground, you will perform a rising mid or low kick which will grant you advantage on hit. However, both of these are punishable on block and the low wakeup kick can be low crushed with some jumping attacks. You can even be called out by a hard read hold, since in this situation your opponent has to guess only between two options instead of four and the kicks, while it's hard to react to their type, have a long, easy to react startup. Overall, this is a high risk but high reward option.
• Regular wakeup - While you're on the ground, you can input the button and hold any direction to get up in that direction. Doing a neutral will make you get up in place. This is a relatively useful option if you want to reposition away from your opponent, the wall or environmental hazards during your wakeup. It however poses no threat to the opponent and is not safe from the faster attacks your opponent might want to hit you with while you are on the ground.
  
• Character-specific options - Some characters will have access to special wakeups. If you want to find out about them, look these up on their character page or, if there isn't one yet, their command list in the game.

Ground Attacks

Ground attacks are two universal attacks every character can perform only while their opponent is on the ground and share the universal inputs of 2 or 2 and a jumping 8 attack. These have the benefit of beating out the wakeup kicks, but don't do a lot of damage, can be easily avoided and are harshly punishable on whiff, especially the jumping ground attack. It's important to note that opponents on the ground can be hit with more than just the ground attacks, usually lows or some mids, and because these are often faster or better in some other ways than the universal ground attacks, people referring to ground attacks don't necessarily mean the universal options.

Power Blow and Power Launcher

When your health depletes below 50%, your healthbar will start glowing red. This indicates that you are now able to perform a power blow or a power launcher. These act as a comeback mechanic of sorts, allowing you to either start a very damaging juggle with the power launcher or finish your stun sequence by following up with a power blow, which will initiate a cinematic super. While it is possible to land these in neutral or pressure through mind games, their long startup makes it very easy to avoid and punish your attempts, making them much better suited for combos. You are limited to landing only one successful power blow or power launcher per round. However, if they whiff or if they are blocked, they will not count as successful and you will be able to use them again until you land one on hit.

Power Blow

The power blow input varies between characters and some might even have access to multiple power blow inputs. No matter what the input is, the power blow is always a mid punch or a mid kick. You can technically perform these attacks even if your health is above 50% or if you already used one, but it won't initiate the cinematic super and will instead just knock your opponent down. Power blows can be charged by holding down the buttons and their startup can be canceled into a sidestep during the charge to bait your opponent into trying to interrupt you. Even though you can always perform and charge this attack, the charge will only gain additional properties when your healthbar is glowing red and the animation will look different, gaining additional visual and sound effects. If you land a charged power blow while your healthbar is glowing red, you will go into a cinematic super that will send your opponent flying across the stage. Just before the final hit of your power blow, time will slow down and you can then press directional buttons to influence the direction in which your opponent will be sent flying. This can be used to knock them into environmental hazards for even more damage. Power blows are usually safe on block at -7 (grappler characters can punish it due to having faster throws) and a charged power blow, if your healthbar is glowing red, will actually guard break your opponent and put you at least at +15 frame advantage, making it possible to start a combo with moves that have 14 frames or less of startup.

Power Launcher

A power launcher, just like the power blow, is a mid kick or a mid punch attack that can be charged. On block it's always -12, meaning you can be punished by every character and unlike power blow, the frame advantage won't change even if charged when your healthbar is glowing red. Also unlike the power blow, the charge cannot be canceled into sidestep, making power launcher exclusively a move to be used in combos. If you land a charged power launcher while your healthbar is glowing red, you will send your opponent flying extremely high into the air. This guarantees some power launcher exclusive juggles that will do a lot of damage. Because these juggles are obviously always harder than simply landing a power blow and because they offer only a slight damage increase over using a power blow, the only advantage power launcher combos offer is the ability to get better okizeme, since your opponent won't be sent to the other end of the stage.

Tag Matches

Tag matches are an additional mode in DOA5LR and, as the name implies, are 2-on-2 matches fought with two characters on each team. The tag matches feature some additional mechanics and can be played with as many as four players, each controlling one character. In tag matches, some moves will launch your opponents higher than they do in solo matches, enabling some tag match exclusive combos. Because of how broken this mode is considered by the community, offering touch of death combos or the ability to deplete over half of your opponent's health from a standalone launcher through tag combos, the tag matches are a for fun casual mode that rarely sees competitive play. Nonetheless, because of the ability to play with 4 players, it can be an interesting and fun experience if you have multiple players. Below you will find a description for all tag-exclusive mechanics.

Tagging

You can tag in your other character in a multitude of ways during the match, some tags having unique properties. In tag matches, characters will generate recoverable red health when they are hit. Once tagged out, the recoverable health will start slowly recovering.

• Normal Tag (5) - Normal tag can be performed in neutral and will make one of your characters leave the stage by going out of the screen, then the other character will come in from the same side.
• Quick Tag (5) - Quick tag is performed with the same input as the normal tag, however, it will only happen when your opponent is in critical stun or a juggle state. Quick tag makes your characters switch places much faster than a regular tag to make tag combos possible.
• Burst Tag (214) - Burst tag makes your characters switch places, then the character that comes in immediately performs their critical burst attack. Mostly used in combos to initiate a critical burst combo with other character, this can also be used in neutral and if it connects, it will stun the opponent.
• Force Out (236) - Just like with the burst tag, your characters will switch places and the one that comes in will perform a special attack. This attack will send the opponent flying out of the screen and force their partner to tag in, while also taking the ability to tag away from them for a brief moment.
• Tag Throw (66) - Tag throw will have your characters perform a combination throw, then switch places. Certain combinations of characters will have special tag throw animations.
• Tag Ground Attack (8) - This tag will make your character leave the screen, then their partner will come down from above and land on top of the downed opponent. It can only be performed if your opponent is knocked down.
• Tag Power Blow () - To initiate a tag power blow, you will need to first hit your opponent with the regular power blow. Then, just before the last hit of the cinematic super, press the tag power blow input to have your other character come in for the last hit. This will do more damage than the regular power blow.