Combo Site: https://combotier.com/tokon

Great sales and hype in tournaments. Marvel Tokon Fighting Souls is in a healthy spot. All they need to do is keep on improving the game, especially PC and match making.

This game is fun asf. Been addicted to it lately. That’s all I wanted to say

Do you think they’ll wait until after Cyclops drops or could we get a trailer here?

Title. Come on MODs, lets liven this sub up a snooge.

What's good! Fighting games are such fabulous fun, so rewarding and also not very intuitive to get into. Many other games can be booted up and played with success immediately. You learn as you go. Learning a fighting game does have intuitive progression for sure, but it also at times feels like learning to play an instrument. It requires some deliberate practice to make progress. 

With the death of 2XKO I feel a stronger desire to invest in our community and help more players enjoy this lovely genre. This guide is my love letter to fighting games and all of you new players who keep this genre growing. I hope this guide helps it feel a little more straightforward to progress and enjoy Tokon and fighting games as a whole.

Who am I to be talking to you about fighting games? I’m fucking SwagMountains. 

There's a lot of ground to cover so I'm going to hop from one topic to another without much explanation. This word document is already 30 pages long. Also, I'm trying to give you so so so much information, so many topics will not be fully explored. If you’d like to know more about a specific topic I strongly recommend giving it a google! There are many well written guides and videos on most terms mentioned in this text. This guide will be enough to give you a basic understanding of what is going on though. 

Please feel free to take this document and add to it, alter it etc. I care so much more about helping new players than getting credit or fictitious internet points. 

Last, I’d love help in the comment section keeping up with peoples questions. If you have a good link to a guide on a topic covered in here please link it also.

This is part 3. Here is a link to Part 1 and Part 2

Training mode tips-

If you scroll down in the pause menu in training mode you'll see display settings. Here you can turn on frame data. Do this! You can learn what moves you have that are punishable, how fast your normals are and how advantaged your opponents are with some of their moves.

You can map reset to a button in training mode by going to button settings in the training essentials section. This will reset the position which can save a lot of time, for instance using the command after hitting your super so you don't have to watch the animation. Inputting a direction as well as reset will change the position. Reset +right puts you in your opponents face in the corner. Reset+up and right swaps the sides. Reset + down puts you back in the middle and the inverse is true for the other directions. Remember, practice your combos going in both directions.

You can record opponents in this mode. If you go to training essentials then button settings you can bind record and playback. Use these to practice against opponents moves and to see what you can do against them.

In the practice setting there is a section named training presets. Use these! They're prescribed to help you with situations that come up often and save you the trouble of doing the recording and setup yourself such as anti-airing and practicing your perfect reflects. 

Tips on learning combos

Don’t mash. It’s so easy to feel overwhelmed when we’re trying to hit a part of the combo that feels difficult or tight with timing. I strongly recommend trying to hit each button in your combo only once when practicing. When we tap a button multiple times we may be more likely to get our input to come out but we don’t learn the timing of it which is critical. Not to mention this also saves your hands a bit. 

Next, keep in mind that the game will slow down for you as you grow more accustomed to it. It feels like so much is happening so fast initially but the more you practice the more it feels like you have a lot of time to input each of your commands. 

Don’t be afraid to whip out a pen and a piece of paper and write down a combo you’re seeing performed. Often i’ve found myself pausing and unpausing a video to scribble an input or two down. Repeat this process until you’ve recorded the whole thing. If you’re confused about what input was made, pull up your training mode and mess around until you find that move for your character. The command list in this game is fantastic, take a look, often the missing input can be found hiding in there. 

When to mash!

There are actually good times to slam L a bunch of times. It’s important to keep the mashing to these moments rather than most of our games. When we find ourselves airborne point blank with our opponent, it’s a fabulous time to mash L. We’ll perform an auto combo that will spike the opponent down to the ground which we can follow up on by calling assist. 

Another good time to mash is when you feel your opponent has mistimed their assist call and it came to early in their block string. Mash L or M depending on the spacing! You may get a happy birthday. 

Keep mashing to the situations that call for it. Most of your inputs should be timed nicely. A good indication of mashing is sometimes checking in on how your hands and forearms feel after a match. Did ya crisp them up a bit? If so it’s probably necessary to chill out your inputs. 

Practice activity advice-

Do what feels good and react to what needs you're finding you have. If you see a player do a cool combo with your character, try and do it yourself! If you're tired of a move and don't understand the situation it puts you in, select that character, set frame data to on and use the move on the dummy set to block. See if the move is + or -. If you're feeling like your offense isn't opening people up when you get a block, look around for people playing your character and see if you can't steal some mixup ideas. If you're dropping your combos, go to practice and try to hit them 10 times in a row. If it doesn't seem possible to do your combo consistently, alter it a bit. See if you can't lose a little bit of damage but make the combo work every time. 

All this said, be hesitant to force yourself to do things. People set themselves a goal and then burn themselves out on it. This is a marathon, not a sprint. If you're getting annoyed at a combo, take a break and play a different game mode. Same goes for every other activity, ranked grind, long sets etc. 

Productive Challenges List-

Sometimes we progress by taking on a challenge. Here are some ideas for you.

1. Try playing each of your characters you'll be using on point for a whole day.
2. Find a cool looking combo for one of your characters and try to learn it! Start by writing down what you think the sequence of moves is. Sometimes people are nice enough to list the moves on their combo videos, we can also pause and rewind combos to get it all right on our paper.
3. Play a long set with someone. A first to ten for instance.
4. Learn a combo that ends with Tokon Assemble for each of your characters.
5. Learn a mixup for your character.
6. Watch a professional player play your character.
7. Try to win a casual game without blocking. 
8. Try to win a casual game where you allow your opponent to hit your block right away. Try and block all their nasty mix. 

Psychological Tips-

The way you view these games really shapes your experience of them. I don't think people have a naturally peaceful and enjoyable time of learning difficult things. Some tips that helped me-

1. Try not to get too exasperated when your opponent uses one of their options and it works out poorly for you, for instance doing a game winning wake up super. It's something they could do in that moment, account for this, make your decision. It's exhausting to get pissed off at every little decision that your opponents make. No crying at the casino feels a little harsh here but it’s also not too far off. 
2. Sleep on your combos. Literally. You'd be surprised how much better you are at a new combo after you wake up the next day. Be patient and let muscle memory develop.
3. View losses as learning opportunities if possible. What happened here, how can I prevent this in the future etc.
4. Try to view opponent combos as cool movies. When we're too engaged with winning and losing, watching a long combo happen to us feels like a bad experience with every hit. You're going to hit cool stuff, cool stuff is going to happen to your face. Try to enjoy it all. When I see a really good combo it’s a celebration of the genre ya know?
5. It's not a team game. People are very comfortable in team settings. There is always a circumstance or teammate to blame. Try and get more comfortable being honest with yourself about your shortcomings. It doesn't have to be a nuclear meltdown bad experience everytime. I'm pretty decent at this point being like “oooops shouldn't have dropped that combo” and moving on. This is a more necessary headspace to be in when everything is your fault all the time. It can’t be cataclysmic to make a mistake, but also it’s not productive to ignore deficiencies that we can improve upon. 
6. The more you play the better you'll get. Sometimes we can be really in our head trying to implement specific ideas in our match. Occasionally release yourself to play a bunch of casual games mindlessly, you'll naturally improve simply because your body has played more. An additional note, I personally struggled to play a good amount when I was getting too pissed off at each game. You sort of have to have a fun or chill time to keep on playing as much as you need to get as good as you're shooting for.
7. Be patient while you learn matchups. A lot of characters have strong gimmicks such as Spiderman web-slinging to your face from across the screen or Ms.Marvel jumping back and doing her diagonal air fist dunk or whatever. There are a ton of really strong moves in this game and you're going to have to be on the receiving end of these new situations a few times before you understand your strategy to prevent them.
8. Training mode is part of the game. Too long I viewed training mode as a cumbersome chore that prevented me from playing. Now I love it. It’s so zen. It’s a beautiful place of discovery where you can improve as a player without having to face an opponent. Yeah the quicker your view training mode as enjoyable the faster you unburden yourself emotionally and get on route to become much better much faster.

Conclusion-

Tokon is fabulous. I love this game so much, I love the community so much and I hope this guide helped you enjoy what this genre has to offer. Fighting games can be so hard but also so rewarding and satisfying. I’ve grown a lot as a person and a competitor through them but mostly I’ve had a ton of fun. 

Much Love-

SwagMountains. 

so for context, i’ve played a bunch of mortal kombat. at least 60 hours of UMK3 and then around 500 hours of MK11. i’ve always watched games like MVC2 and DBFZ and thought they looked way too overwhelming.

when i saw this game though, i knew i had to buy it. the marvel IP is just way too fun to not jump into.
i’m not flying through the ranks or anything, but i’ve been able to get from bronze 3 to gold 1 while experimenting with different teams and strategies. i lose a decent amount, but i win a decent amount too! i’m not an FGC pro by any means, but i’m also not a complete newbie, and i can definitely feel my experience with MK helping with the learning curve.

one thing i did differently this time was spend WAY more time in practice than matches at first. in mortal kombat i basically grinded ranked and learned by being burned alive. this time i’ve actually been labbing, watching replays, figuring out what i did wrong, then trying again.
i’ve also realized you really don’t need anything crazy at first. knowing one simple combo you can land over and over > knowing some insane optimal combo you drop half the time.

and the more i play, the more that “battle sense” from MK starts to kick in. understanding neutral, getting a read on what someone wants to do, and positioning myself BEFORE i start trying to run offense. obviously the actual mechanics of this game are completely different, but that part feels familiar. if i can out position my opponent, i’ve earned the right to offense.

which brings me to iron man.
i started playing him recently and finally landed this combo in a real match and deleted a huge chunk of my opponent’s health bar 😭

i know this probably isn’t anything crazy to people who are actually good at tag fighters, but the joy i felt watching this actually connect made up for every dropped combo and mistake in neutral.

anyway. gold 1. still learning the quirks of this game, still losing plenty, but i can feel things starting to click and i’m having a ton of fun

What's good! Fighting games are such fabulous fun, so rewarding and also not very intuitive to get into. Many other games can be booted up and played with success immediately. You learn as you go. Learning a fighting game does have intuitive progression for sure, but it also at times feels like learning to play an instrument. It requires some deliberate practice to make progress. 

With the death of 2XKO I feel a stronger desire to invest in our community and help more players enjoy this lovely genre. This guide is my love letter to fighting games and all of you new players who keep this genre growing. I hope this guide helps it feel a little more straightforward to progress and enjoy Tokon and fighting games as a whole.

Who am I to be talking to you about fighting games? I’m fucking SwagMountains. 

There's a lot of ground to cover so I'm going to hop from one topic to another without much explanation. This word document is already 30 pages long. Also, I'm trying to give you so so so much information, so many topics will not be fully explored. If you’d like to know more about a specific topic I strongly recommend giving it a google! There are many well written guides and videos on most terms mentioned in this text. This guide will be enough to give you a basic understanding of what is going on though. 

Please feel free to take this document and add to it, alter it etc. I care so much more about helping new players than getting credit or fictitious internet points. 

Last, I’d love help in the comment section keeping up with peoples questions. If you have a good link to a guide on a topic covered in here please link it also. 

Here are links to Part 2 and Part 3

Can I start playing fighting games with Tokon?

Yeah dawg. There are auto combos, easy input supers, you can learn pretty chill combos that look SICK. The non-begginer aspects are how far you can take the tag mechanic and how potent the offense can be. You're going at times to feel like you're drowning when your opponent is trying to open you up. Fighting games are typically best of 3 rounds, this is a best of 5 round game. The implication is that the offense is expected to be killer. That being said, you're going to wield crazy offense yourself as well.

Some people worry about getting into a tag fighter to start. This is a team game, but the wonderful thing is that you don’t have to tag into any of your teammates if you don’t want to. You can effectively play this game with one character that has assists backing them up and do perfectly fine. 

Interest is always the greatest factor. If Tokon looks cool to you and fighting games have gotten your interest, this is the right game to start with.

Controllers- Do I need an Arcade Stick? What can I play with?

The short answer is no, it isn't required or necessarily advantageous. Arcade sticks were popularized in part because fighting games were originally played on cabinets. Players were used to this input style and preferred sticks to pads. Different controllers have different benefits. If you feel moved to try out a new type of controller take a crack at it! Don't allow this to be a barrier to trying to play though. Too many people think they don't have the right hardware to play and let this get in the way.

The only thing I will say is required is to use the dpad on your pad (xbox controller, ps controller) rather than the stick. Dpad is significantly more precise than the thumb joystick. 

Options and their advantages-

Pad~ Great for movement. Tons of people are used to it. Accessible.

Stick~ People think some motion inputs are more natural. They like spreading out their hands. It’s a vibe. 

Leverless~ Precise. It's a bit unnatural to learn. I personally find dashing difficult on leverless in games where there isn't a dash macro. (There is a dash macro in tokon so this isn’t a factor here).

Keyboard~ Totally valid way to play. Reminiscent of leverless. Strongly recommend looking into what keybinds people use.

Others~ People get wild with their setups. There are pads with 6 buttons on the face, throw back sega pads, leverless with 20 buttons etc. Try some if they pique your interest, don't feel that you need to throw down $300 on a razer kitsune to have success.

In sum, you can learn on whatever you’ve got. I crushed a buddy in college in MKX on a H.O.T.A.S flight stick because we only had one other controller. I would recommend though , perhaps avoiding leverless until you’re more familiar with fighting games. 

Fighting Game Short-Hand ~ Notation

It becomes necessary to describe actions in a fighting game with language. Here's an explanation of that language. A popularized method of description is anime notation, sometimes also called numpad notation. It denotes the directions of input correlated with the buttons on a number pad.

7 8 9

4 5 6

1 2 3

Meaning~

1 = Down+Back
2 = Down
3 = Down+Forward
4 = Back
5 = Neutral
6 = Forward
7 = Up+Back
8 = Up
9 = Up+Forward

I personally still don't like this but if you see someone say 5M or 2H they mean Medium punch with no additional inputs and Heavy punch with a down input.

The notation I'll use is this~

L= Light punch

M= Medium punch

H= Heavy Punch

U= Unique

J= Jumping

cr= Crouching

f= Forward

,= Link

x= Cancel

L or M or H +Skill name= Input the skill using either the command input or quick skill input at said heaviness

Super, Ultimate, Tokon Assemble= Input this with either a motion command or quick skill input.

Assist= Call assist

Tag= Tag into character on screen

Terminology-

The fgc has been at it awhile. Here is some lingo to help decipher what people mean when they're talking tech. Many of these concepts have prompted the community to make guides. If you want a more complete explanation, go find these! Many are on youtube, many are written up in various places. Remember, many of these aren’t game specific concepts, meaning a street fighter 6 video about meaties would work perfectly well for your fisticuffs education. That being said you can play before you deep dive all of this. 

Normals, Buttons- Normals, sometimes called buttons are the words we use to describe hitting one of our L, M or H inputs in tokon. It's used to describe non-special moves. These are typically the “normal” punches and kicks a character has. 

Specials- Moves like a fireball. Typically these require motion inputs. In tokon the quick skill button skips the need for a motion input and gives you access to all of your specials by using this button along with a direction.

Cancel- Often a move can be "cancelled" into another move. Try hitting H and then inputting a special move. The H will end early and the special move will come out. This has a variety of uses such as combo extensions or block strings. Additionally it's worth noting that not everything can be cancelled. In every fighting game each move seems to have their own rules about if it can be cancelled and if so into what. In Tokon most normals can be cancelled into a special. Almost anything can be cancelled into a super, ultimate or Tokon assemble.

Link- A moment in which a combo is possible if the timing of the subsequent move is correct. 

Startup- The amount of frames it takes for a move to become active and be able to hit your opponent

Active- When a move is creating an active hitbox that can hurt the opponent

+ On Block- A state in which after a move lands on an opponents block you are at an advantage on your next input.

- On Block- A state in which after a move lands on your opponent's block you are at a disadvantage on your next input.

Hitstun- How long an opponent reels from being hit by your move. Opponents cannot take an action in this phase in most games and are usually susceptible to a combo extension. 

Meter- Catchall for resources used in the game.

Block String- A sequence of moves designed for moments when an opponent has blocked your first attack.

"True" Block String- A block string without a gap.

Gap- A moment in a block string in which the opponent is not in block stun, allowing for the opponent to take actions.

Jump In- Starting an offensive sequence or combo with a jumping attack.

Neutral- Parts of the match where both players are moving around and trying to get a hit on the other person.

Chip- Taking damage on block. 

Zoning- Offense at a distance. Playing keep away with projectiles and long range moves. 

Hard Knockdown- A state created by some moves such as supers where the opponent cannot roll on wakeup.

Meaty- Your move hits your opponent on either block or hit at the end of its active frames, giving you the most frame advantage possible.

Oki- Attacking an opponent right as they wake up from the ground.

Armor- Armored moves can endure some number of opponent hits before the armored characters move is interrupted.

Happy Birthday- When you hit multiple enemy characters and can convert into a very damaging combo.

Starter- The move that opens your combo.

The Quick Skill Input and Command Inputs-

In Tokon players have access to their special moves on demand with the quick skill button (QS in the command list of your character). We get every special we have access to with QS+no additional input, QS+F, QS+D, QS+B. Additionally, each skill has three different versions. Adding M or H to the input yields the other two versions of the skill. QS+F+M for instance would give you a different version of your move than just QS+F. The M version usually takes longer to startup and has a bigger effect. Sometimes this just changes the angle of the skill. The H version takes 25 meter and often has special properties.

An additional note, all of these can be inputted with motion commands. Quarter circle forward + L, M or H = Neutral QS. DP+ L, M or H = QS+ Forward. Down Down + L, M or H = QS + Down. Quarter circle back + L, M or H= QS+Back. These aren't harder for no reason, you get a 10% damage boost on the skill if you do the motion input. If you're new, don't worry about this for a while. The extra damage is nice but it's not going to be the greatest point of growth you make. I didn't know motion inputs existed in this game til I had done a decent climb of the ranks.

Supers, Ultimates and Tokon Assemble also have QS and Command inputs. Unique+QS=Super. Unique+QS+F=Ultimate. Tag+QS=Tokon Assemble. The command inputs are quarter circle forward+M+H for super. Half circle back, forward+M+H for Ultimate. Quarter circle forward+L+Tag for Tokon assemble. The command input for Ultimate is particularly tricky and Tokon seems to have a bit of a finicky or demanding input reader. I’m still working on this input and I’m in Vibranium so don’t worry too much if you have trouble with it. 

Optimally, during combos you use the command inputs for more damage, but actually quick skills have a use even at the highest levels. The quick skills come out as fast as they possibly can meaning many moves we're using to get a hit in neutral or during a mixup situation are best used as a quick skill. An example might be jump back instant H blade Uzi just above the ground. This move is great and the priority is making it happen fast. That little bit of extra damage is not worth potentially dropping your input or having it come out late. Also, if you can't input your super or ult consistently, use the quick skill version! These moves can be the difference between winning and losing a round, don't drop your combo for some damage that may be unnecessary.

If I were a new player, where would I start?

Here are a few activities I would try in order.

1. Do all the story mode runs. See what characters you vibe with. Try out their buttons and specials during the matches.
2. Try combo trials with some of the characters you like. Make sure to do the explanation section and read what they have to say. Characters in this game have very cool mechanics that do take some explaining. Don't go too far in the trials, maybe 4 or 5 trials into the 2nd page of them. Remember, if you hit pause you can play a demonstration of the combo being executed. 
3. Try the brawl mode. You'll play matches against other people but it's also mixed with other ways to win the mode. It's just nice and vibey.
4. Learn this somewhat universal combo~ M, crM, H, crH x Jump, air M, air H x jump, air H, air H x Assist ~ repeatish. Some characters have trouble connecting the crH such as Wolverine. He can do M, crM, crH, you have to leave out the H. Also, this is easily repeated in the corner, but gets a bit trickier midscreen. Some characters such as hulk have a hard time dashing after the opponent as they roll away from your assist hitting them in the midscreen. Eventually you can learn to hit tag and to continue the combo with your assisting character! Attempt to end the combo with a special cancelled into a super or ultimate! The point of learning this is that you’ll always be armed with something in your matches. 
5. Measure the spacing of all of your moves in training mode. Hit your L, M, crM etc and see how far away you can be and still have the hit register. Do the same with your special moves. 
6. Try survival mode and see if you can hit the universal combo you’ve learned. Usually players can hit a new combo in training but it takes a second to transition those skills into a live game. Playing against a computer and practicing is usually less stressful to people than playing against other players with rank points involved etc.
7. Play an itty bit of ranked. Answer the questionnaire honestly even if you want to end up with a high rank. A lot of people get weirded out losing rank initially and stop playing ranked altogether, fearing losing their points. Ranked can yield an excellent playing experience when you find people that are your skill level. Don’t get too obsessed with your points, we all have a lot to learn still. Remember, you will almost certainly get bodied in these games. The point is to see some strategies other people are using. What felt bad to go against? What are other people doing when you block? Again, play like 2 sets and get out of ranked after this.
8. Go back to trials and see if you can finish some more of them! Don't be obsessive, take a dozen cracks at the next trial in the list and then move on to the next activity. Players grind trials when it's no longer interesting or fun. I don't recommend this. There is a lot of learning to do so it's paramount that you keep it as fun as possible. Come back though! You’d be surprised how much easier trials get as you become more familiar with your character and their tools. 
9. Go to training mode and set the dummy to block all in dummy settings. Practice what you'll do to a blocking opponent. I suggest learning something like, M, crM, H x special x assist, L, M, H x special repeat. Try to time your assist call as late as possible, we get better frame advantage from this and it’s a little deceptive to the opponent, they may think the assist isn’t coming. In this game we can learn craaaaaaaazy mixups to do to blocking opponents but simple pressure like this will get you a far way if you're just starting out. This blockstring works with most characters, but some need to mix in crL or to skip the M. Experiment!
10. Go to room match and find a lobby that has a bronze or silver rank. Play some games! Spectate some games! Have patience while you learn, your body is learning to react to so many situations. Give yourself some patience and try to take losing lightly as you learn.
11. Find the highest ranked room that you can and spectate a dozen or so matches. Get inspired to learn cool shit! Do not play these players lol. 

Is this a totally perfect recipe for every new player? No. Some of you are going to have an easier time with the trials. Some are going to get crazy frustrated with the online matches. Sense what’s working for you and what isn’t and adapt your training plan to fit what's still fun for you. 

Assists-

In Tokon during the fight we can call assists to help out in neutral, to create a blockstring, to mixup our opponent or to extend a combo. We unlock our team and an assemble meter to help us when we either lose a round or when we wall break or wall splat an opponent. Assists do not use assemble meter when used in neutral when the opponent is not getting hit or blocking one of our attacks. Instead the assist goes on cooldown as noted by their portrait going black. When we use an assist on hit or block it takes an assemble meter (the green gauge under your health). Note that whenever we tap the assist button it will always call the next assist on deck. On hit this means just tapping assist keeps getting us assemble rush with each character. In neutral, mashing assist will call all of your teammates all at once. If your assist is hit before it uses its move generally this interrupts the move. If you are hit at the same time as your assist you and your teammate can eat a combo together and you may take a ton of damage. Be a bit careful to block if you have a bunch of assists out on the field.

Assists have specific timings when they can be called. Usually they can't be called when our character is in an animation if the move we're using isn't hitting the opponent. Additionally, during many specials our assists can be called at different times on hit but not at other times during the same animation. Play around with this and experiment. This feels a bit counterintuitive to people but it is for a purpose. Some characters have unblockables and being able to call an assist at any time would allow them to use these in a guaranteed way which obviously doesn't work.

Here are the different types of assists~

Assemble rush- Hitting assist when the opponent has been hit by you has your teammate charge forward a short distance. When this hits the opponent it creates a rolling state that allows a follow up attack.

Shooter assist- Hitting forward +assist calls your 1st teammate, this assist is usually a long distance attack.

Vertical assist- Hitting down + assist calls your 2nd teammate, this assist usually goes diagonally up. This can cover an opponent jumping in on you.

Assault assist- Hitting back + assist calls your 3rd teammate. This assist varies wildly amongst the cast and can be very powerful.

Air assist- Calling assist while jumping yields an assist where your next teammate dives to the ground or shoots downward.

A few strategic ideas. Use your shooter assist and then dash forward and try to hit your opponent while they're forced to block your assists projectile. Try using your vertical assist and then a ranged move to cover the opponent jumping at you. Try using an assist after your opponent blocks a special and then hit L or M depending on the spacing. Often if your opponent presses a button yours will come out earlier and you can start a combo.

System Mechanics-

Tokon has auto-combo’s. If you hit a neutral normal (L, M or H) over and over your character will perform a couple of hits into a special and this will end with a super or assemble if you have the meter for it. Interestingly you can still call assists or cancel these auto combos chunks into special moves, you can veer off the auto-combo course if you wish. It’s important to add auto-combos fill up your combo guage quicker and end your combo earlier. Sometimes we use this intentionally to create a knockdown situation, but often we want to avoid auto-combos to get all of our damage. It’s worth being said that if you’re a new player feel free to rely on auto-combos for awhile, that’s exactly what they’re there for. 

The green meter under your health is the assemble gauge, it’s used for many team mechanics. 

The number at the bottom of the screen is your meter. It builds throughout the game when you hit your opponent or get hit. We use this for H special moves, super, ultimate and tokon assemble moves. 

After you get knocked down you can hold forward or back to roll. You can input nothing and get up where you are.

If you hold a button such as L during an opponents combo, you will tech out of their combo if there ever is too big a gap in it. You will tech and fly away from the combo in the direction you are holding. If your opponent's combo is blue you have missed an opportunity to tech.

Most characters can dash in the air! You can either dash or double jump once while you're airborne. We can also super jump. You can achieve this by hitting down and then up. You will jump about twice the distance you normally would and can still do your double jump or air dash. 

Assemble counter- Hit assist+L+Back and your character will do a colorful backdash. If you are hit during this animation you will perform a counter to your opponent and deal damage to them. You can choose which character comes out by using their tags direction.

Crossover counter- Hit assist+L at the same time while you're blocking your opponent. Your teammate will come on screen and blast the opponent away. This consumes one bar of assemble.  This can be countered by the other player. By inputting the same command the other player can reflect or perfect reflect this move. If they fail the timing they will lose one bar of assemble and still get blown back by the counter. If they succeed and the hit is reflected the reflecting player gets an advantaged position. If this is perfectly reflected the player that called the counter gets “disassembled” and cannot use their assists or team related moves such as crossover counter.

Assemble Smash- Hit assist+L. Your character performs a colorful attack. Costs 1 assemble. Has armor. This hits as an overhead and you can keep hitting the assist button to get a combo. You can spend 1 or 2 more assemble bars to get a medium or larger damage combo. This can be used in the air.

Tokon Assemble can only be called when your opponent has won 2 rounds, it costs all 150 meter.

When an assisting character is on screen after using their assisting move you can hit tag and become that character if they haven't been hit. There are wild possibilities with this.

Stages-

In Tokon the stages are mechanically different, it isn't just visual. Each stage has a predetermined number of scenes you can smash your opponent into by using a move that creates a wall break near the wall. This is usually each character's forward skill but some characters have more than one way to create this transition effect. Stages can end on a certain scene and create a wall splat instead of a transition when these moves are used. The wall splat is a powerful combo extending tool. The x-mansion and champions arena's have no transitions, all wall splat all the time. Knowhere never has a wall splat, it keeps transitioning in a circle.

Picking a team-

Vibes are crucial. If you love four characters, play those characters. The rule of cool reigns supreme. We need to enjoy what we’re practicing to continue on with it. That being said, different characters excel in different positions on your team. Try all of the characters you’re interested in each different assist spot. Every character has assists that are unique to them, though shooter and vertical assist are usually fairly similar. In my opinion the most important assist to be a bit finicky about is your last assist, the assault or back assist. These range so wildly. Wolverines is a little armored stab thing, Magneto’s is a giant fullscreen explosion that tracks the enemy and starts a combo on hit. These are not made equal, so test your team out and make sure you end up with a suitable back assist. A big piece of criteria on judging this back assist is how quickly it comes out and its range. 

If you want to get into the weeds, some characters feel more advantaged in different roles than others. Characters with air dashes, good buttons and quick movement speed feel better on point, or as your first character. Wolverine, Spider-Man, Magik, Storm, Star Lord, Captain America, Black Panther, Loki, Blade, Ghost Rider and Deadpool, Ms. Marvel and Peni Parker are all great point characters. Zoners also feel good on point such as Danger, Doom, Magneto and Iron-Man. This leaves out Hulk, Green Goblin and Carnage. You can totally still rock these characters first, but they may be more optimal in a role in which you tag into them after you get your first hit or block. I’m playing Wolverine on point and Carnage as shooter assist. My plan is to zoom around with Wolverine and to tag into Carnage once I get my hit to do my combos. After the opponent is knocked down I start my mixup offense with Carnage as well. 

Don’t get too upset if you really wanna play say Hulk as your point character. It’s totally viable, there are many master rank players with Hulk point. That said, have some patience as you learn how to navigate neutral and opening up your opponents with this character. It is far less intuitive than screaming around the screen throwing spears as Black Panther or Throwing out lasers as Iron Man. That said, it’s important to see how amazing Hulk can be. He’s one of the best characters to tag into and use to cash out and deal immense damage to your opponent. Carnage deals a ton of damage but also has some mix. Goblin is the tag in mix menace. 

Last bit in this section, do you need to play characters that other people think are strong? Nah. It’s easier to get going with some characters. Spider-Man is both potent and straightforward to get results with. Can you take any character in this game to a high-rank? Yes. There are many Champion mains in master rank which is probably the most difficult character to get good results with. That being said I don’t blame people that put themselves in a good position. If you want to play Spider-Man, don’t feel bad about the fact that he’s strong. Enjoy him! Also, if you’ve tried playing Carnage point for a minute and you want to have an easier time, don’t feel bad about choosing a character that you enjoy that may be easier to play on point. 

The nice thing is this is a team game! If you want to switch who you’re playing it isn’t wasted effort, you can include the new and old character on your team. My general rule of thumb is to be somewhat patient learning neutral with my character but to switch and try out someone else if I'm starting to get annoyed.

Each Tuesday we take a deep look at the top 500 players, their teams, and their CR. Then do a bunch of analysis and compare to last week.

To see full data you need to check here https://tokonteams.com/rankings/ but let's look at some snapshots! Blade has surpassed Magik in overall inclusion for the first time since I've been collecting data

Now only costs 81 bar to start. Needs full team, Gamma Rage and wallsplat.

Some wiggle room for some quick skills while still doing enough damage to kill, basically any time you see Hulk do a special and it doesn't say "Good!" on the side under the combo counter, know that that's a quick skill.

Notation:

5[H]>214M>delay A>quick dash>236M>22M>microdash 2M>delay 5H>jc>j.6H>delay j.H>2HH>j.214L>5[H]>U>A>U>A>5[H]>22H>623H>j.236H>214L>super

I put in about 60hrs (including open beta time) and I'm enjoying it. There are still gripes but what game doesn't have any? I play PC version and the second patch finally helped fix the game for me and I can finally get my ass beat in crisp 60fps online!

Game looks great but I don't like 2D fighters (former Tekken player). I grew reading Marvel though.

How does that even make sense?

They were playing well. Even won the first match of the set. But the last round of the last match they just stopped playing. It was a ranked match (Diamond) so I didn't waste time taking the free round.

For reference, I play Magneto at point most of the time. Storm/Ghost Rider/Peni for the rest.

Anyone interested can see the last match here.

What's good! Fighting games are such fabulous fun, so rewarding and also not very intuitive to get into. Many other games can be booted up and played with success immediately. You learn as you go. Learning a fighting game does have intuitive progression for sure, but it also at times feels like learning to play an instrument. It requires some deliberate practice to make progress. 

With the death of 2XKO I feel a stronger desire to invest in our community and help more players enjoy this lovely genre. This guide is my love letter to fighting games and all of you new players who keep this genre growing. I hope this guide helps it feel a little more straightforward to progress and enjoy Tokon and fighting games as a whole.

Who am I to be talking to you about fighting games? I’m fucking SwagMountains. 

There's a lot of ground to cover so I'm going to hop from one topic to another without much explanation. This word document is already 30 pages long. Also, I'm trying to give you so so so much information, so many topics will not be fully explored. If you’d like to know more about a specific topic I strongly recommend giving it a google! There are many well written guides and videos on most terms mentioned in this text. This guide will be enough to give you a basic understanding of what is going on though. 

Please feel free to take this document and add to it, alter it etc. I care so much more about helping new players than getting credit or fictitious internet points. 

Last, I’d love help in the comment section keeping up with peoples questions. If you have a good link to a guide on a topic covered in here please link it also.

This is part 2, here is a link to Part 1 and Part 3

Tokon Combo System-

Every character in the game except champion can chain normals together, but the limit is 4 normals.  For example, you can input L, M, crM, H, crH and the crH just won't come out. You can input these strings in advance. Try tinkering with how quickly you can input the whole thing vs how delayed you can input these sequences and still have them combo.

Most normals can be cancelled into specials.

Almost everything can be cancelled into assist. (timing specific)

2M or crM knocks the opponent off of their feet and leaves them airborne.

You can jump cancel in this game. This means after you hit an opponent you can jump. This is useful in all sorts of ways, maybe most commonly after 2H or crH. crH is the universal anti-air and launcher. If you work it in your combo you can often do things like crH x jump forward, air M, air H x Special. This can work with crM as well. M, crM, H x jump forward, H works for many characters.

Assist calls can create extensions that aren't possible without them. M, crH x jump, jH,jH ends in a downward heavy that ends the combo normally. We can call assist here and get a follow up.

The game has a system that limits combos. Under the hits of your combo you'll see a blue bar. When this fills it turns red and your combo ends, your opponent blows up in sparks. You get a mini spark warning before this happens that lets you know your next hit is your last. There is an additional system that ends your combo after 30 seconds though this is very uncommon to see. There is a pip system that determines how quickly the blue bar fills. You get 12 pips. Grounded hits are 1 pip, air hits are half a pip. H specials don't cost any pips making them great for combos. Some moves cost more pips than this such as auto combo'd normals.

Wall splats and assist hits both reduce the number of pips you've spent on your combos making them great for extensions.

You cannot use the same H special twice in one combo, the combo will end as if you've spent all your pips and the opponent will explode in red sparks.

Supers, Ultimates and Tokon Assemble all scale very well and do a ton of damage even after long combos.

H and M moves do more damage than L moves so we want to use these more often if possible.

Some specials deal more damage than normals

Overall, to make a good combo we want to use our assists, golden H specials, M specials and H buttons as much as possible. We want to end in a super or ultimate if necessary to get as much damage as possible. If we haven’t unlocked our team we want to end our combo in a wall break. 

Don’t get intimidated by the whole pip system. It’s more important for you to freely experiment and see what you come up with! Some of these ideas are good to know when you get confused about why your combo isn’t working. 

Frame data and you!

New players are usually intimidated by frame data but I swear it’s really not so mysterious. Frame data refers to measurable states during our games that are predetermined by our characters. You’re going to learn to flex your training mode muscles a bit in this section. 

Let’s start with punish’s first. Open up training mode and select Carnage as your point character. Set the dummy to block all. Go to the display setting and turn frame data on. Use Carnage’s B+QS. Note that the frame meter reads the recovery as -12. This move is punishable! Now hit Carnage’s L. Notice that in the attack startup section of the frame data box it says 7. This means that it takes 7 frames for the L to start creating an active hitbox. Basically his hand moves in a non-violent inconsequential way for 7 frames before it becomes a punch that can hit your opponent. The -12 on the special move we tested means that Carnage takes 12 frames before he’s out of the animation and can block again. This means our 7 frame L is guaranteed to hit and punish Carnage if we block this special move and time our L correctly. If you’d actually like to try and practice this you can map the record and replay buttons to your controller. Record an enemy Carnage doing the B+QS. Hit the playback button, block the move and try to hit L at the right time. A big PUNISH will show up on the screen if you’ve done this correctly.

Next let’s cover being minus. Select Doctor doom as your point character in training mode. Input H x QS. He’ll do a big punch and then a laser. Notice that in the recovery section it says he’s -3. That means he’s putting his laser hand away for three frames while his opponent is already free to move. The implication is that if doom and his opponent each hit a move with the same exact startup as quickly as they can after the laser, the enemy will hit doom first every time. Doom will start his next attack 3 frames after his opponent has. 

Last scenario we’ll cover, being plus on block. Use dooms forward+QS+M. He winds up and shoots green sparkles. Notice in the recovery section that this is a positive number! He’s +5. That means that afterward if he and his opponent hit a button with the same startup he’d beat theirs out by a few frames and get the hit. Raw + on block moves are uncommon and always come with a downside. In dooms case if he does say, M, crM, H x M Sparkles you can interrupt between the H and the sparkles with say a light or something. There is a gap where he is vulnerable. The most common + on block situation is after you cancel a move into assist on an opponent that's blocking you. Try H x QS x Assist as doom and cancel it as late as you can. You’ve succeeded if you use a green bar. He’s +20 which is pretty crazy. He can kinda do whatever he wants after. Be careful of this, it’s not your turn after an opponent calls assist on your block after their special. Note though, hit H x assist. It’s only like +1. The special x assist makes a huge difference. 

I recommend you look at the data on each of your moves. Make sure to note any move that is -6 or more. These moves are punishable! We want to avoid ending our blockstrings with these moves. Also see which moves you have that are the fastest to startup and the slowest to startup. It helps make our decisions in the game a bit more measurable. 

Typically Supers, Ultimates and Tokon assembles are all punishable on block. 

When is it my turn?

It can feel confusing to know when your opponent has exhausted themselves on offense and when you’re safe to begin your own. Generally speaking, after your opponent's special move and if they don’t have any assemble meter you’re safe to hit a button. There are exceptions such as Dooms M sparkles. Additionally, if your opponent has mistimed their assist and aren’t as + as they were trying to be we can take our turn. After an opponent blocks an assist of ours generally it’s our turn. Don’t be too fearful about trying to take your turn. You’re going to be wrong about it sometimes and that’s part of the strategy of the game. To trick your opponent into hitting a button at the wrong time is a great way to open them up. Be willing to throw a button out there even if you could get blown up. We have to make mistakes to understand what’s possible. 

Mixups-

In fighting games a mixup is a devious attempt at opening up your opponents defense and beginning a combo. The two common types of mixup are left right and overhead and low.

Overhead and Low- Overhead attacks must be blocked by holding back. If you block holding back and down the attack will still hit you. Low attacks must be blocked by holding back and down, if you are only holding back the attack will still hit. Many characters have an overhead low mixup such as ghost rider. Ghost riders back +QS can be followed up with either forward M or forward H. The M is a low and the H is an overhead, meaning the initial chain hit creates a mixup situation. We can find out which of our moves are overheads and lows by testing them in training mode. A big OVERHEAD or LOW script animation appears when we use these moves. 

Left Right Mixups- Blocking is directional in Tokon. Sometimes we can open opponents up by getting them to block on the wrong side. Take Blade’s assault assist (his back assist). After hitting your opponent on block he ends up on the other side of your opponent. You can tag into Blade and this can be difficult to block for your opponent as they have to switch what side they're blocking on. This type of mixup can be achieved with jump in's, with Dooms dash, all sorts of things. Watch out for your opponent to use these options.

A relatively global mixup is to jump at your opponent and either not hit a button in the air and use your crL or to air dash at the last second and hit an air button. This is an overhead low mixup. Characters without an airdash do not have access to this. This mixup is kinda reactable, but it opens even the best players up every so often. Some characters with a diagonal dash have a more potent version of this (Magneto).

An additional offensive idea that's a bit more difficult to implement is to do a block string, call assist, have the character you're playing do a long multi-hitting special and then to tag into the assist that's still on screen to do a mixup. A specific example might be using Hulk and trying this sequence to a training dummy set to block all. QS+D x assist, crL, H x QS+D x Tag. Hulk will be swinging a boulder around and you're free to be your assist character. You can airdash to the other side of the opponent, you can throw a low or overhead if you have one. The world is your oyster. Some characters have better moves for this than others.

Neutral-

GOOD OLE FASHIONED FOOTSIES. Neutral is the period in the match in which neither player is blocking or getting hit. Each player is seeking a hit on the opponent.

Tag fighters have a different neutral game to navigate than games like streetfighter. Dashes can be cancelled into normals. Assists can be called, combos can be made from fireballs, doom has a fullscreen combo starting teleport. Neutral can be a bit more high octane, here are just a few tips.

Don't be afraid to hit a button! In different games you're more rewarded for blocking. In this game, blocking a jump in can end up with you eating a bunch of mix ups. Blocking as a reflexive option isn't as good in this game as say, streetfighter.

That being said, try not to whiff a button. When we misspace our normals our opponent gains initiative at best, meaning they can feel safe and dash up to attack us. At worst, we get "whiff punished." This means that in the frames in which your character is still, say, retracting their leg from a missed kick, our opponent hits us and we are incapable of blocking. Watch for when your opponent whiffs something! This can be an excellent opportunity for us.

Make sure to move. We don't want to be a sitting target. Back dash, jump forward and back air dash, super jump and then either jump again or air dash in a direction. Use your movement in neutral!

Remember, we can hold block while we’re flying around as a good habit. We can jump, airdash and hold back, then input our air attacking button when it’s time to hit the opponent. If our opponent was going to clip us with something on the way in our character has a chance to block it. 

Additionally, be aware of your opponent's point character. Many characters in this game have a "neutral skip." This means they have a move that ignores footsies that they may try and use. A good example is Blade’s medium gun special in the air. He can use his unique stake attack after he confirms that he's gotten a hit using this gun move and he can convert a stray bullet into a combo. When we play against blade we want to jump when he jumps or dash when he jumps so we aren't in that diagonal line of fire from his uzi. Neutral in this game can sometimes feel a bit like a bullet hell where you're rewarded for weaving in and out of the projectiles your opponent has populated on the screen. We get better at this as we learn our opponents characters.

Some assist ideas to try in neutral~

Try using your shooter assist and then dashing in at your opponent with your assist covering your approach.

Try shooting a fireball after you call your vertical assist.

Try super jumping and calling an air assist and air dash after it.

Try calling your shooter assist, air dash at your opponent and block. If they try to anti-air you your assist may hit them and then you can get a combo!

Navigating Zoning and Fireballs-

New players often struggle with an opponent fullscreen hucking projectiles at them. Here are some strategies to navigate zoning in this game. 

We can block in the air! Remember we can super jump (input down then up) and then air dash, and we can hold back through all of this. After we block our opponents projectile we’re usually safe to dash our jump again, just remember to hold back during your forward movement. 

Remember, blocking is your friend. You can’t die to chip in this game. Usually zoning players get frustrated after we block a decent amount, they get edgy and move forward. A little bit of patience goes a long way. 

A note, there are some zoning blockstrings we need to be aware of. Iron Man for instance can shoot little sparkles at you and then cancel this into a big chest laser. We could take this further and have him call doom assist for his laser and then he could sparkle x chest laser again. It’s important to keep track of our opponents resources and not get too hasty with our movement and eat damage needlessly. 

Ideas about hitting your buttons-

A few core concepts about how to use our normals. Often, we should hit the button that comes out fastest in the range we're in with our opponent. When I say come out, I mean the move that hits the opponent fastest after we press our button. There will be a frame data section somewhere in here.

So, for example, if you're right next to your opponent you should either hit L, crL or throw. Each of these are your fastest options you have available. If you're a bit further away your light likely won't reach anymore. In this range a medium is likely more appropriate for your character. Last, when we're a good distance from our opponent we should use a heavy or a special that covers distance, or even a shooter or assault assist.

Generally speaking if we hit the button that can hit our opponent fastest given the range that we're in, good things tend to happen. A note, when we start hitting heavier buttons they tend to carry more risk. Our opponent can jump while they're in H range for instance. If we hit this button sometimes it punches empty air under their feet before they kick us in the face and start a combo. Be a bit more careful with the bigger buttons you hit. 

Anti-Airs-

In fighting games an anti-air is a move you use to blast your opponent out of the sky. In streetfighter we use the iconic dragon punch. In this game anti-airing is a bit more straightforward. crH or 2H is the universal anti-air move, meaning you should use this when your opponent jumps at you. This move has invulnerable frames on airborne moves, meaning you don't get hit by air moves that are coming in if this is timed right. A few notes here.  Sometimes your character gets confused when the opponent airdashes over your head. You can whiff this and it feels bad. Additionally when you hit a raw crH it creates a mini cinematic and you fly into the air after the opponent you’ve launched. If you press nothing your character will spike the enemy into the ground and they'll bounce off of it allowing a follow up combo. Alternatively you can learn a combo up there such as M,Hx jump, H,H. If you just keep hitting H you'll end in the ground bounce state which I recommend. We don't get the ground bounce if our combo while they're high in the air doesn't end with an air 2H or crH. This is the move that creates the spike effect. 2H starter combos are deliberately kept short. You start with half your blue combo limit bar filled. Last thing, your opponent can block in the air! A blocked crH is punishable. Remember, we can cancel this into a special move or H, make sure to get in the habit of doing this when you see a block to prevent yourself from getting got.

Defense-

Remember, to block all you have to do is hold the direction away from your opponent. 

After you get knocked down you can hold forward or back to roll. You can input nothing and get up where you are.

Crossover counter is great to use in both lower ranks and also when your opponent doesn't have any assemble gauge. A note here, because they don't have assemble gauge they are at their offensive weakest. Sometimes trying to get through that last mixup can save us our meter.

The assemble counter is great on wakeup and after you've been thrown through a wall. Don't over use this, you can get blown up.

Late assist calls after an opponent's special move are usually super plus. Don’t hit a button here. Also, don't get baited into hitting a button when the assist only feels kinda late. Our opponent should time their assist call as late as possible to blow us up for hitting a button and to get as much advantage on block as possible. If your opponent seems to have accidentally called the assist a little too early HIT A BUTTON. GET EM! A huge part of defense is hitting buttons at opportune times. 

Overheads are less common than lows. Generally speaking we want to hold down+back to avoid the low attacks that our opponent will very easily mix in to their block strings. Block jumping characters with just back, remember, jumping attacks hit overhead. Additionally, many characters have “reactable” overheads meaning you can see and recognize the animation and adjust your block to only back to block these on reaction. Even pro players get opened up by these supposedly reactable moves. Just remember to play more, we need to familiarize ourselves with our opponents tools and when it seems players usually mix in their overheads and lows. 

There is a technique called “fuzzying” which is a predetermined blocking pattern for a particular circumstance in which you execute a low and overhead block at certain timings to cover your opponents options. I don’t recommend trying to learn this until you’re in at least platinum, but specifically spider-man has an example of a fuzziable mixup with his overhead hitting H and his ability to mix in his golden low move. Even with practice every pro player is still going to get blown up by this mixup, it’s a very difficult timing to attempt. Interesting to learn about though. 

The best defense is a good offense in this game. When we block one M in neutral it can lead to us eating 3 mixups in a row without much to say about it. Play neutral well, don't be overly cautious streetfighter style and hold block out of caution. We can die after blocking something benign.

add nightwatch

My own team (Loki/Peni/Hulk/Magik) is one I've had locked-in since day 1 but if they drop a character like Cypher/Warlock or Venom I'll probably be cutting Magik for them. Her gameplay is the only one I don't vibe with too much and her install is cool but rarely useful for more than just combos.

If you like this stuff check out this:
https://www.youtube.com/@Tensatrics

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I know this has been a spoken about topic but I want to buy the game, I really want to play but don't have a PS5, it's 60GBP so I'm not in a rush to buy a game that expensive that isn't even satisfactory to play. I've got a 2070 super and my CPU is fine, what's the verdict now?

I'm new in tokon. I love fighting games but never had an online experience for some reasons. Is my little combo good? It has 2M starter, relatively good poke, costs no meter while building 39, deals 32140 damage (32400 if you do knuckle with motion input), uses only one universal assist so you can pull this combo at the start of the match with no problems at all and gives you wallbreak. I didn't watch any guides yet, just got my hands on the game, but this mrs. Marvel combo came out super naturally. Is she even a good character? She feels kinda mid-tierish