Movement and Neutral Options
Keepaway Tools
When on point, Dante's greatest strength is his ability to play a strong, consistent, and frustrating zoning game. He has a selection of heavily disjointed attacks, several projectile options, and good mobility. Below are some of Dante's notable keepaway tools.
Air Play
Air Play (j.236M) is Dante's most generically useful projectile. The orb travels at a shallow down-forward angle that makes it very difficult for the opponent to approach Dante. Most characters that want to jump at an airborne Dante to pressure or aithrow him will have to pass through Air Play's coverage, unless they are already directly underneath Dante (in which case using Air Play is much more dangerous).
Uncharged Air Play is very fast, at only 15f startup and 14f recovery. It is safe on block even at point-blank range, and only gets better frame advantage as Dante moves farther away from the opponent. Dante can use this frame advantage to either airdash in and start an offense, or to airdash away and gain more distance from the opponent. A common Dante tactic is to throw out an air-to-air j.M pre-emptively, then autopilot cancel into j.236M. Air Play is fast enough that this tactic is hard to punish even if it completely whiffs, creates some solid pressure on block, and can even be hit-confirmed into a full combo if it hits.
Fully charged Air Play is significantly slower, and so aggressive opponents will have an easier time avoiding and punishing it. However, it is much more threatening once the projectile is active. Charged Air Play has enough projectile durability to blow through almost any other non-hyper projectile, and so it can give Dante an edge in long-range projectile battles. For example, against Morrigan, Charged Air Play is a good answer to Soul Fist spam. Dante can sit at superjump height, above the bullet hell, and charge up a shot. Once live, it can plow through several Soul Fists and hit Morrigan, forcing her to abandon her fireball pattern to either block or avoid it, and giving Dante some breathing room.
Sword Normals
2M - Probably Dante's best neutral tool for when both he and the opponent are on the ground. Has very long range, is decently fast, hits Low, and lowers Dante's hurtbox. You can buffer 2M~6H, and Dante will automatically chain 2M into Stinger on hit or block, but will not cancel on whiff. This lets you confirm into either some block pressure or go into your standard BnB combo (just be careful not to roll the stick, or you will get 236H). On block or whiff, you can also cancel 2M into basically any of Dante's keepaway/projectile options in order to keep up pressure. Crystal (236M), Hysteric (236H) and Drive (236S) are all respectable cancel options.
5M - A very frustrating anti-air to pair with 2M's effectiveness against grounded opponents. Can be useful to check opponents that like to approach from regular jump height, especially box-jump characters like Nova or Dante himself. An anti-air 5M will chain 5M 5H 5S > H into a standard Clay Pidgeon combo for good damage, so opponents need to respect it.
j.M - Incredible air-to-air. It is hard to chase down Dante if he repeatedly does backwards Box Dashes into falling j.M. Can also be canceled or kara-canceled into Air Play in order to confirm an air-to-air hit, add some extra coverage, or just to alter Dante's jump arc.
5H - Has almost identical horizontal range to 2M, but is slower and does not hit Low. It hits above (and behind!) Dante, so it can be used as an anti-air, but again it is slower than 5M and thus needs to be used more predictively. 5H's most notable use is giving Dante access to Weasel Shot (5H > 4H) and Scat Shot (5H > 5H). Weasel Shot in particular is a great ranged harassment tool. 5H > 4H on block is airtight, gives some free chip damage, and is significantly plus frames. It is possible, although the timing is fairly tight, to kara-cancel 5H into Weasel Shot on whiff. This can be a great surprise option against opponents who are used to Dante's fullscreen options being much slower and easier to react against. Since Weasel Shot and Scat Shot are considered Command Normals and not Specials, Dante can call assists during them. Weasel Shot into a lockdown assist is a great way to pile on chip damage, reset to neutral, or even confirm into a full combo depending on the assist.
Helm Breaker and Hammer
Dante's "Helm Breaker" j.5S is not as powerful as his brother Vergil's - it starts up slower (and does not fall immediately), doesn't Option Select an airthrow, and is less likely to cross up. However, it is still a powerful tool in neutral due to its large hitbox, forced Hard Knockdown on hit, and ability to manipulate Dante's aerial trajectory.
During the initial startup of Helm Breaker, Dante floats in place in the air. Dante can take advantage of this to stall in the air, especially at superjump height, for some extra time. Use j.S to float in place and then, before Dante begins to fall, cancel into j.236M. Air Play also holds Dante in place and can even be charged to stall longer if needed. This can be useful if the opponent has a scary assist call or install hyper active on the ground and you would prefer to stay away until it runs out.
It is unlikely to just hit raw due to its slow startup, but if Helm Breaker does connect, it forces a lengthy Hard Knockdown. This gives Dante essentially a free combo from one of his OTG tools, either 3HH (very easy confirm, but poor damage), or by jump-canceling 623M (slightly harder to confirm, but better damage).
The Hammer (j.236L~L) is similar to Helm Breaker in that it is a falling attack that slightly stalls Dante in the air (this is actually the startup of Killer Bee causing Dante to pause in place), and that forces a Hard Knockdown on hit. It has much worse range, but notably has a significant amount of invincibility (frames 11-20). This invincibility gives Hammer a very good chance at blowing through any of an opponent's close-range offense, beating many of the things that Helm Breaker would lose to. Repeated neutral jump Hammers can be used as a check against aggressive opponents, since it tends to beat dash-in or jump-in buttons very well. One trick is to buffer a 214LL input while falling with j.S. If an opponent tries to dash underneath Helm Breaker to whiff punish from behind, Dante will cancel into Hammer to protect himself on the cross-up side. If the opponent does not cross up, Dante will continue to fall with Helm Breaker, which will protect his original front side.
Other Projectiles
236M - Crystal is an annoying mid-to-long range harassment tool. The ice shards spread out for a very large total hitbox, with solid horizontal range. It can be used as an anti-air against regular jumps and box-dashes, especially if done preemptively. It is fairly plus on block and very difficult to punish even on whiff due to the wide coverage. Crystal does not have particularly strong amount of projectile durability, and so against other characters with long-range options, it will generally lose to their projectile options or their long-range assists. Conversely, it is extremely oppressive against characters with no long-range options like Haggar, who really struggle to get past the ice shards safely.
236H - Hysteric is fairly slow to start up and the spread-out nature of the projectiles makes it vulnerable to being blown through by beams. However, the tracking missiles are difficult to avoid. It works well as free chip damage and a potential teleport mixup against passive opponents, and can bait opponents into committing to a superjump to try and evade it.
236S - Drive has only okay durability as a projectile but has an incredible hitbox especially at startup. The initial swing hits not only in front of Dante, but above and behind him aswell. Drive is a great option against characters with teleport options, like Vergil, Wesker, or Dante himself. These characters may try to teleport behind Dante in order to whiff punish his other keepaway options, but Drive will beat these teleports by hitting behind Dante. It leads to a free combo when it hits this way, and is plus on block as well.
236L~L - Acid Rain is more commonly used for setplay and oncoming mixups, but can be useful as a keepaway option against opponents approaching from superjump height. Acid Rain does not go away is Dante is hit, and so it protects him similarly to a Hidden Missiles assist. Once the rain is active, the opponent has to respect it, and either block to let Dante have momentum, or retreat back to fullscreen distance where you can resume zoning.
623H - Jam Session is similar to Acid Rain in that it can be used as a niche anti-air against opponents who try to approach at superjump height. Do not use against grounded or regular jump height opponents since it is punishable on block, but opponents are unlikely to be prepared for a grounded opponent to be able to hit them at superjump height so quickly.
Devil Trigger
With Devil Trigger active, Dante's air options significantly increase. He gains an extra doublejump/airdash, can cancel his already strong j.M into that extra doublejump, gains Flight mode, and gains to extra aerial special moves. Additionally, the passive health regen can help Dante to recover chip damage he has accumulated during an extended projectile battle, making him more durable and more likely to outlast the opponent.
Air Raid (214S) is Dante's flight mode and importantly gives him the ability to use air specials an unlimited number of times in the same jump. Normally, Dante's air projectile game is limited to one use of Air Play, but activating Flight lets him freely spam Air Plays or Thunder Bolts as much as he wants until Flight duration expires.
Speaking of which, Thunder Bolt (j.236S) is a DT-exclusive keepaway tool that essentially acts as an improved version of Air Play. It is a beam attack that covers the same diagonal airspace as Air Play, but is faster, has improved durability (compared to uncharged Air Play), and deals improved damage. Additionally, Thunder Bolt can not be pushblocked (it doesn't just ignore the pushback, the opponent can not activate Advancing Guard at all). This means that if Dante ever is spaced correctly for Thunder Bolt to connect, he can throw them out repeatedly with little opportunity for recourse from the opponent. Activating Flight mode and rapid-firing Thunder Bolts lets Dante pile on chip damage quickly, something he struggles to do in his base form.
Vortex aka Psycho Crusher (j.623S) is Dante's other DT-exclusive move. It is not frame 1 invuln but has a huge amount of invincibility and almost no recovery. If Dante is playing keepaway in his Devil Trigger form, Psycho Crusher essentially acts as a get-out-of-jail free card, letting him escape back to fullscreen distance whenever the opponent gets too close.
Approach Tools
Box Dash Normals
"Box Dashing" means superjumping, then inputting an airdash as soon as you reach minimum airdash height, then canceling that airdash into a normal. Superjumping is important for two reasons: it reduces the amount of time needed for Dante to reach minimum airdash height (from 6 frames in a regular jump to only 3 in a superjump), and it increases the hitstun caused by his Box Jump normals, leading to easier hit-confirms.
Box Dashing with either j.M or j.H is Dante's primary way to approach and pressure the opponent. These tools have great horizontal range, are disjointed enough to beat most attempts to anti-air or air-to-air them, and can hit cross-up once Dante is close enough. j.M's advantages as a Box Dash normal include:
- Faster startup (11f versus 13f) makes it less likely to be stuffed or airthrown.
- Slightly longer horizontal range.
- Superior cross-up hitbox.
Meanwhile, j.H has these advantages as a Box Dash normal:
- Option-selects an airthrow/throw tech (keep in mind the extra startup makes you more likely to get thrown in the first place).
- Lower-angled hitbox makes it less likely to whiff when crouched against.
- Causes slightly more hitstun to make confirms easier.
Regardless of your choice of air normal, Dante's Box Dash pressure is oppressive and hard to contest. Box Dash hits against grounded opponents are usually a free hit-confirm, and it can often be confirmed against airborne opponents as well. If your box dash pressure is being pushblocked, a delay-cancel into Air Play (j.236M) can negate the pushback and keep Dante close with superior frame advantage.
Bold Cancel Stinger
Dante's Stinger (6H) is an incredible approach and punish tool. It has great range, about 2/3 of fullscreen distance. It also nullifies projectiles while active, letting it sometimes blow through beam assists and other annoyances. Since it is a command normal and not a special, Dante can call an assist alongside Stinger to make his approach even stronger. However, Stinger has very long recovery, making it minus on both hit and block, and it can not naturally be special-canceled into any move except for one.
Bold Move (X+S) is Stinger's one special-cancelable move. Bold Move is a command jump with 3 frames of pre-jump "startup" and those pre-jump frames can themselves be special-canceled. This means that Dante can effectively cancel Stinger into any of his specials or hypers by using Bold Move as a bridge, this is called a Bold Cancel.
The trick to reliable and consistent Bold Cancels is the fact that the buffer window for canceling Stinger into Bold Move is very large. Rather than trying to time a Bold Move to when Stinger connects and then scramble to input another special in the limited pre-jump window, you can input Bold Move immediately after your Stinger input, like 6H~M+S. The large buffer ensures that Dante will cancel Stinger into Bold Move as soon as it makes contact, hit or block, and gives you more time to input the special move of your choice.
On hit, Dante usually wants to Bold Cancel into 623M to start a combo, but on block, there are several options Dante has for Bold-Cancel to keep up pressure or reset to neutral.
214L (Reverb Shock) - Reliable autopilot option. Stinger into Reverb Shock is gapless and deals decent chip damage. On block, you can mash H to cancel into Fireworks, which makes the sequence plus on block while adding on even more chip damage. If Reverb Shock happens to hit, you can cancel into Devil Trigger to get a full combo. The one downside is that sometimes the opponent can pushblock Stinger to make Reverb Shock whiff, which introduces a slight possibility of being punished.
236M (Crystal) - Stinger into Crystal frame traps, beating mashed buttons including very fast ones, but losing to frame1 invuln mashed hypers. Deals some nice free chip damage and is significantly plus on block. If the opponent pushblocks Stinger, Crystal's hitbox is large and active enough that Dante is unlikely to be punished from behind it.
236S (Drive) - Like Crystal, Stinger into Drive is a frame trap that is plus on block and relatively safe. The opponent can pushblock Stinger and superjump out of the projectile's path, but outright punishing Dante is unlikely.
22S (Teleport) - Mainly a knowledge check. Raw teleport without assist coverage can always be airthrown on reaction. Even with assist coverage, a well-timed pushblock on Stinger will negate the Left/Right mixup that Teleport is supposed to give, and Dante can't counter this by varying the teleport timing either due to how Bold Cancels work. It can be used rarely as a way to get in, but shouldn't be relied on.
236L~L (Acid Rain) - Fairly gimmicky, there is a long gap after Stinger where Dante can be hit out of Acid Rain's startup, but with a good lockdown assist or if you are very confident they will pushblock Stinger, you can get an Acid Rain off. Once the rain is live, you can either reset to fullscreen neutral or dash in for an Acid Rain mixup.
Glitches/Niche Tools
It is fairly easy to use Bold Move's (X+S) 3 pre-jump frames to cancel into other Special Moves. However, it is also possible to block attacks during those three startup frames. Dante can not block during the airborne part of Bold Move's animation, but the grounded part does give him a small window to block, and thus gives Dante a situational way to cancel certain attacks into blocking.
The main use for Bold Block is if an opponent attempts to whiff-punish one of Dante's long-range grounded normals, like 2M or 5H, with a hyper or projectile. You can attempt to cancel those normals on whiff into Bold Move in order to block the punish attempt. It doesn't cost anything to attempt, so if you find yourself in this situation, you might as well try.
Helm Breaker (j.S) is normally -6 when blocked by a standing opponent, as it has a 20f recovery window upon Dante reaching the ground. However, there is a small window (~4 frames?) where Dante has landed from Helm Breaker and can cancel his recovery into a grounded dash. He can also cancel the landing frames of Helm Breaker into Bold Move with similar timing.
Dante can cancel both his grounded dash and Bold Move into specials, so Helm Breaker can effectively be canceled into grounded specials this way, if you get the timing down consistently.
Similar to Dash/Bold cancelling, Helm Breaker (j.S) can be super cancelled into any 3 of Dante's super by simply buffering the super input and 2 buttons (Dash) pre-landing/on landing to get an instant cancel like Vergil's Helm Breaker. Timing follows Dash/Bold cancelling (~4 frames)
Crazy Dance is the S follow-up to Dante's 214X special moves. It is intended to be used as a situational combo ender, dealing decent damage and using its capture/hitgrab effect to juke assist hits. It likely is not supposed to be able to be accessed on block or on whiff. However, it is possible to cancel Reverb Shock into Crazy Dance on block or on whiff. Hold down-forward (technically any diagonal direction is fine, and you can do it without a direction too) and mash S while Reverb Shock is active. If you hit the timing, Dante will flash as he cancels into the first hit of Crazy Dance. This "hit" consists of Dante stepping forward a short distance, placing the opponent in a respectable amount of blockstun.
If you can do it consistently, Ve-Canceling is a strong alternative to Fireworks (214L > H) in blockstrings. The Crazy Dance hit does not deal as much chip damage as Fireworks, but it is significantly better on block (best estimate is about +10, as opposed to +2 for Fireworks), and it leaves Dante close to the opponent rather than pushing them fullscreen. This lets Dante keep pressure up and possibly even loop back into another Ve-Cancel.
Multi-Lock (236L) and its cousin Acid Rain (236L~L) have a unique quirk. Because of their delayed nature, they can make contact with the opponent while Dante is acting independently, and if they do, then any other attack Dante is performing at the same time will also be considered to be making contact.
This is notable because many of Dante's moves have properties that are only applicable on hit or block, but not on whiff. For example, Dante can not normally Bold Cancel Stinger (6H) on whiff, only if it makes contact. If Dante throws out Multi-Lock or Acid Rain, and then does 6H as those projectiles make contact, he will be able to Bold Cancel even if Stinger itself whiffed.
Mixup Theory
Dante is reasonably likely to get a cross-up hit from repeated use of Box Dash j.M or j.H pressure if he keeps it up for long enough, either from the sword normal itself hitting cross-up or from one of Dante's assists hitting as he jumps over the opponent. However, Dante does have a few basic mixup options available if he gets close and wants to play aggressive.
5M > 22S or 2M > 22S can set up a basic Left/Right mixup when paired with an assist call. Normals canceled into teleport without assist coverage are airthrow bait, but an assist can make the maneuver unpunishable, and lead to a simple mixup depending on whether Dante's teleport switches sides before or after the assist hits. Bold Canceling Stinger into Teleport is tempting, but the narrow cancel window means that opponents can consistently beat the Left/Right mixup with a practiced pushblock timing. In comparison, Dante can cancel his M normals into Teleport at a variety of timings to throw off the opponent's pushblock attempt and make the Left/Right mixup more deadly.
Dante can use TK Air Play (j.2369M) to set up a basic High/Low mixup when at close range. Air Play done at Tiger Knee height leaves Dante at plus frames and at the correct height where a falling j.L can hit Overhead and be comboed afterwards. Alternatively, Dante can land and quickly throw out 2L for a "fast" Low instead. Dante can approach with Box Dash j.M/Box Dash j.H, then land and rejump with TK Air Play to set up the mixup, or he can cancel his airdash normal directly into Air Play. If Dante's approach is pushblocked, the extra distance leads to Air Play being even better on block, and Dante can just dash in and resume his pressure.
TK Hammer (j.2369L~L) cancels Dante's upward momentum and sends him back down towards the ground, so Dante can fakeout a jump, quickly return to the ground and attack with a surprise Low.
Reset and Mixup Examples by Yipes
Reset and Mixup Examples
Resets and Mixups with Magneto assist
Grapple Resets
Grapple (236H > H) places the opponent in a capture state, which Dante can combo after with a normal attack. However, if Dante chooses to let the opponent instead fall to the ground, they lose their ability to tech roll and will always wake up in a fixed location slightly ahead of where they fell. This allows Dante to set up meaty reset situations that can not be escaped by teching into an unexpected direction the way a normal reset can. However, Grapple has fairly long startup and so comboing into it is difficult. The main ways to end a combo with Grapple and set up a reset are:
- Level 2 Stinger's Wall Bounce Bold Canceled into Grapple,
3HH 6H~M+S > 236H > H - Use the relatively high Ground Bounce and short recovery of Revolver
214M, 236H > H - Cancel OTG Million Karats into Devil Trigger to recover faster and then juggle into Grapple
236M~M > 214XX, 236H > H
Grapple Reset Examples
Grapple Resets with Wesker assist into High/Low Unblockables
Grapple Resets with Strider assist
Oncoming Mixups
Acid Rain 236L~L greatly improves Dante's oncoming mixup potential. You need about 60 frames in order to set the rain up, but if you do, the falling projectiles will shut down most of your oncoming opponent's defensive options. The falling rain will stuff any airdash attempt, jail them out of double-jumping, and punish any attempt to mash an attack on incoming like Footdive or Helm Breaker. Dante's basic Oncoming mixup is to set up Acid Rain and mix up Left/Right by repeatedly dashing underneath the oncoming opponent or attacking with his various cross-up attacks. 5H and 236S are both notable attacks that can hit cross-up underneath an oncoming opponent.
Oncoming Mixup examples with Dante/Spencer/Shuma
Oncoming mixup examples with Dante/Vergil
Mixup examples with Dante/Strider
Counterplay
- If Dante attempts to teleport without assist coverage, you can punish with up-back -> airthrow.
- Dante canceling his long-range normals into Teleport with assist coverage can be an annoying mixup, but you can pushblock the normal hit with a specific timing to negate the Left/Right aspect and send Dante back in front of you. If Dante always autopilots the same teleport timing, you can autopilot the same pushblock timing.
- Dante's throw conversions are very poor. Most characters can Chicken Block or retreat to superjump height and not be particularly afraid of Dante trying to punish them with an airthrow.
