Stun
Like with Health, every character in The King of Fighters XIII has the same amount of stun points. Unlike Life and Guard, Stun is a hidden meter, and you have to keep track of it well to capitalize on it. Every character has exactly 120 stun points. If these stun points deplete, the character will go into stun state. If a character is stunned, the character becomes instantly unhittable and drops to the floor out of any combo. To avoid wasting precious meter in a combo as an opponent becomes stunned, it is quite important to keep track of the stun.
- While harder to induce a stun than in The King of Fighters '98, stuns are still important in The King of Fighters XIII. Certain characters (e.g. Kula, Takuma, Joe) can even land 100% stun combos under the right conditions.
- After a character is stunned, the combo counter will continue to go up, and damage scaling will not be reset.
- Someone who is stunned cannot be stunned again for quite some time, as the character does not take any stun damage for the next 10 seconds or so. This is different from older KOF games and also different from Street Fighter IV, where you would not take stun damage from the combo after stun, but as soon as that combo is over you would take stun again. In The King of Fighters XIII, you will not be taking stun damage for some time regardless of when the combo ends. With a long enough combo, it is actually possible to start taking stun damage again before the combo has ended.