Vampire Savior/Esoterics

Reversals

You get one frame to reverse off blockstun or on wakeup. On that frame you can't do a normal or Dark Force. Press too soon and the reversal won't come out, unless you repeat the whole command. Press too soon and you can't even do a non-reversal without repeating the command. The reversal can be done with buttonup but you still get only one chance. Thus, reversals must be input as accurately as possible (frame-perfect/just-frame).

Dashing

Character	Forward dash	F.Cancel	Backdash	B.Cancel
Victor	Ground	s.	Ground	s.
Bulleta	Ground	s.	Ground	s.
Lilith	Ground	s.	Ground	s.
Bishamon	Ground	s.	Hop	j.
Anakaris	Ground	s. c.	Ground	s. c.
Lei-Lei	Teleport	s. c.	Ground	s. c.
Q-bee	Glide	s.	Glide	s.
Zabel	Glide	c.	Glide	c.
Aulbath	Glide	c.	Hop	none
Felicia	Hop	j.	Hop	j.
Gallon	Hop	j.	Hop	j.
Sasquatch	Hop	j.	Hop	j.
Morrigan	Fly	j.	Fly	j.
Jedah	Fly	j.	Fly	j.
Demitri	Teleport	special	Teleport	special

• s. = standing
• c. = crouching
• j. = jumping
• You cannot chain during any kind of dash attack.
• You can do specials but cannot cancel.
• Demitri's teleports are special/super cancelable and will modify the way his Demon Cradle (623P) behaves.

Airdashing

Character	Forward	Backward
Zabel	yes	yes
Lei-Lei	yes	yes
Q-bee	yes	no
Jedah	yes	no

• Lei-Lei's air backdash will turn and face her the other way (causing attacks to point backwards).
• Q-Bee's is unique in that it will automatically target the opponent's position.
• Jedah's contains it's own attack box and can hit the opponent. This attack will knock down airborne opponents. After airdashing, Jedah is given the ability to special-cancel his air normals.

Blocking

Techs and GC

Tech hits and GC's are not necessarily mutually exclusive. It is possible to first tech hit a move and GC immediately afterwords. The HUD will show the Guard Reversal message since it overwrites the Tech Hit message, but it is clear that both have occurred since the opponent will be pushed back and the defender will begin their GC move.

Tech hits are done by pressing multiple buttons during blockstop. Simultaneous inputs are not counted as multiple inputs, but rather only as a single input. In other words LP+MK+HP is counted as one single input where as LP~MK~HP is counted as three since there was some small delay between the three inputs. This is why sliding/pianoing is necessary for tech hitting.

The amount of pushback a tech hit causes is relative to the button used when the tech hit occurs, light (jab/short) will cause minimal pushback, medium (strong/forward) will cause moderate pushback, heavy (fierce/roundhouse) will cause large pushback.

Tech hits lessen the amount of blockstop and blockstun duration that will occur on a move. They will also push an opponent if the player tech hits a projectile. If the attacker has their back to the corner then tech hits will neutralize pushback and neither player will be pushed anywhere.

The occurrence of teching is % chance based and increases in chance per number of inputs. It starts at 0% for the first two inputs and becomes 25% on the third input, each additional input raises it by 25% until it caps at 100% at 6 inputs, so you get the following:

1 input	2 inputs	3 inputs	4 inputs	5 inputs	6 inputs
0%	0%	25%	50%	75%	100%

Prebuffering

• It is possible to prebuffer a GC input prior to entering blockstop or blockstun. The window for execution is 8 frames between the last direction input and the attack input necessary for the GC. A common technique is to do HCB, confirm the block, then DF+attack. In other words: 63214 3+P/K. Because 6(3)2(14)3 = 623 = DP. This allows for relatively easy 1hit GC's.

• Prebuffering does not work for Tech (pushblock) though.

Fuzzy Guard

• Fuzzy Guard is handled a bit differently in VSav from most games. In VSav you can switch your guard position at any time during blockstun, but you are unable to switch your guard or guard position during blockstop. Some moves have greater blockstop than others, for example Bulleta j.HK has quite a lot of blockstop where as Lei-Lei j.HP has very little (almost none).
• What this means is that if a character is currently blocking a projectile high they will be unable to block low for the blockstop duration, likewise if they are blocking it low they will be unable to block high for the blockstop duration. That allows some characters to perform situational unblockables, since the opponent isn't able to switch their guard position.
• An example would be with Lilith at max range doing 236PP then j.LK c.LK, the j.LK forces the opponent to block high and then they are stuck in blockstop until the fireball connects and are then stuck in blockstop from the fireball, this makes the c.LK from Lilith unblockable since they are unable to switch to a low block. However, there are many much more practical applications to this, where as Lilith's application is nearly useless.

Common Unblockables

• Bishamon ES Fireball:

• Range dependent. Generally the range Bishamon is pushed to after a blocked close HK will set the distance for an unblockable ES Fireball. This allows Bishamon to do a loop because his fireball Runpast followup is untechable, and therefor he is able to reset the distance before the opponent wakes up and do a meaty unblockable ES Fireball, looping the technique until he runs out of meter.

• Bulleta j.HK:

• Bulleta's j.HK can be blocked low or high (either direction), however it puts the opponent in a substantial amount of blockstop (roughly 10 to 13 frames) which allows Bulleta to land and perform another attack while the opponent is unable to switch their guard. If the opponent blocks a very deep j.HK high then Bulleta's c.LK will become unblockable, since the opponent won't be able to switch to a low block during blockstop. If the opponent blocks low then they can block the c.LK, however Bulleta can jump and do an immediate j.MP on tall crouching characters like Victor and it will be unblockable since the opponent will be unable to switch to a high block.

• Zabel j.LK:

• The last couple active hitframes for Zabel's j.LK is unblockable. Normally there's no special setup for this, it is simply unblockable on the last frame or two. However, his ES GC can not be ground rolled on the second hit, therefor giving the appropriate setup unless the opponent successfully reversals.

• Lei-Lei 236HP:

• This move hits high on the way down, and since it's so delayed she can be hitting low simultaneously as the overhead. Such as c.LK/c.MK/c.HP at the same time as the 236HP hits, creating an unblockable since you can't block high and low at the same time.

• Gallon 623PP:

• There is a special glitch where if Gallon uses 623PP to fly into the corner against a cornered opponent, then uses 2P to push the opponent out of the corner, the next hit of the ES move will be unblockable (such as 4P or 7P). Regardless of which direction the opponent blocks on the ground or in the air, it can not be blocked.

Kara and Meter

• In VSav the karacancel mechanic is a bit different from modern games. Normal moves that can be special canceled can also be whiff canceled at any time during the startup or active hithrames. For example, Lei-Lei's c.MK can be canceled into Gong at any time during the c.MK startup or hitframes even if it whiffs. Though, a much more common (and effective) way for Lei-Lei to build meter is j.HK kara to 623P, cancel with K, then kara another j.HK into 623P, cancel with K, then kara yet another j.HK with j.214P (resulting in three kara j.HK's, two canceled by Senpuubu and the last canceled by Gong).
• However, all moves can be special/super canceled within the first few frames of the move, regardless of it's cancelability, which includes air moves. For example, even though Lei-Lei's HK is not special cancelable and can not be whiff canceled mid-way through the move, the first couple frames of the move can be canceled.
• It should be noted that this does not apply to chaining or cmd super cancels since chains lose their special cancel properties.
• This is important because normal moves reward meter build as soon as the move begins, rather than when the move is completed. Therefor when you karacancel a heavy attack into a special move you are rewarded meter from both the normal and special, rather than just the special, as [seen here].
• There aren't many normal moves that move a character forwards on the first few frames, so kara-throwing isn't as common or rewarding in VSav as other games. However, it can provide a useful option select in some situations. For example, karacancelling Q-Bee's LP into her 624MP cmd throw results in her performing the throw if she is within range, or doing a standing/crouching LP if she is not in range, which is useful because whiffing a LP is faster than whiffing a MP.
• There are, however, some moves that move the character a great distance after the initial startup. For example Lei-Lei's c.HK can be canceled mid-way through the animation into Tenraiha, which results in a range boost since the c.HK moves her forwards a noticeable amount.

Glitches

• Backwards Pushback Trigger:

• Being hit the wrong way/backwards enables backwards jab infinites. Seen [here].

Chains

• Chain Breaking:

• Chaining to a frame advantage normal, then linking into a cancelable normal. Example: Bulleta c.LP c.LK c.MP, +c.MP xx 214P. Linking during a chain enables you to cancel the normal move into a special or super, because while chained normals are uncancellable, linked normals are cancelable.

• Renda Linking:

• Because some light attacks gain added advantage when chained into themselves, certain links become possible when normally they would not be possible. For example, Victor is normally unable to link c.LP to c.MP, but he is able to chain two c.LP's together for the renda bonus, making c.LP c.LP, +c.MP xx [4]6P possible. And of course, chaining into the c.MP from c.LP would not allow Victor to cancel the c.MP into the head-rush.

Defense Ratings

• Lowest

• Lei-Lei
• Lilith
• Morrigan

• Low

• Gallon
• Q-Bee
• Zabel

• Average

• Anakaris
• Aulbath
• Bulleta
• Demitri
• Felicia
• Jedah

• High

• Bishamon
• Sasquatch

• Highest

• Victor

Walk Speeds

• Slowest

• Anakaris
• Lei-Lei
• Victor

• Average

• Aubath
• Bishamon
• Bulleta
• Demitri
• Jedah
• Sasquatch

• Fastest

• Felicia
• Gallon
• Lilith
• Morrigan
• Q-Bee
• Zabel

Wakeup Speeds

Forward/Neutral/Back tech roll

• Slowest:

• Anakaris 57 38 57
• Q-Bee 58 26 51
• Lilith 58 38 58
• Morrigan 58 38 58
• Sasquatch 58 34 58
• Felicia 66 40 66

• Slow:

• Zabel 49 33 49
• Jedah 50 35 50
• Aulbath 44 39 44

• Average:

• Lei-Lei 40 41 40
• Bishamon 41 34 41
• Victor 41 41 41
• Gallon 42 40 42
• Bulleta 42 44 42

• Fast:

• Demitri 37 39 37

Character Heights

Standing Height

• Short:

• Aulbath
• Felicia
• Gallon
• Lei-Lei

• Average:

• Bulleta
• Demitri
• Lilith
• Morrigan
• Q-Bee
• Sasquatch
• Zabel

• Tall:

• Anakaris
• Bishamon
• Jedah
• Victor

Crouching Height

• Shortest:

• Q-Bee

• Short:

• Bulleta
• Felicia
• Gallon
• Lei-Lei
• Lilith
• Morrigan
• Sasquatch
• Zabel

• Medium

• Aulbath

• Tall

• Anakaris
• Demitri
• Jedah

• Tallest

• Bishamon
• Victor