Scuba Guides source note. This lesson is based on the older Scuba Guides and the supplied source archive. It is an independent community clarity rewrite, not an official GunZ publication; mechanics are not verified for the current Steam/remaster client.
Lesson content
The single most important thing in a high level fight is fighting around your opponent’s block. Your goal is to get around this nuisance to land slashes. Simply put, the one who’s going to win the fight is the one who manages to bypass the most blocks. Here’s a few examples of how to work around it.
Elbowing
Elbowing is utilizing the one step theory and displacing your slash while on the ground to hit the side of the hitbox, bypassing the block entirely. There’s 2 main ways to do this. You will always do this with a single ground slash while holding W.
Look directly at your opponent, slash, wait to take the first step in, and turn 90 degrees away from the opponent, then repeat. The first step in will displace your slash, causing it to originate from the side of your opponent instead of in front of them. The easiest way to do this is doing a left to right elbow, doing full rotations of 180.
Dash Forward directly into or slightly to the side of your opponent, and and do a Twitch phase 90 ~ 180 Degrees
Angle Slashing
The safest way to get around your opponents block is by simply using correct angles to send a slash at a particular direction on your opponent. A simple Reverse Angle Bfly is one of the most effective things you can do to start throwing your opponent off.
Momentum Control
By utilizing momentum, you can begin really messing up your opponent. Here’s a couple examples.
Using momentum cancels : By using a momentum cancel, you can fake out or displace your slash to your will. As explained in earlier sections, people expect you to continue drifting in the direction you’re going, or by taking queues from your current direction to figure out where your next slash is going to land and preemptively blocking.
Drifting slightly past your opponent and then attacking. For example, jump past your opponent then do a reverse bfly. This will cause them to turn around to follow you, and trick them into exposing their back.
Patterns
A good mixup of phase and angle slashes is generally the best way to get around blocks in a fast manner. The main battle here is to take visual queues from where your opponent is facing and try to send a slash where you expect them NOT to be blocking. Easier said than done, but that’s the entire concept.