Dragon Ball FighterZ has now been out for an entire weekend, and players are already beginning to find new tricks as often as they’re getting frustrated by opponents. The game is full of combos, team strategies, and other areas to explore that pertain to certain characters, but there are a few universal tactics when it comes to all the fighters that players should look to master.
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Before ever hopping into the PvP realm, it’s strongly advised that players attempt the training area and combo challenges first in order to get a better understanding of the game. But once you’ve focused on your three go-to characters and gotten a grasp on the basics, here are five specific areas that you should look to improve in before taking the fight online.
Counter the Super Dash
The Super Dash (not to be confused with the Dragon Rush) is one of the easiest moves to pull off in Dragon Ball FighterZ, and that means that you’re going to be seeing it a lot. It’s the ability that all fighters have that’s activated by either R2 or the right trigger where an opponent goes airborne and dashes towards you while setting up a combo if the hit connects. Sure, you could always just hold guard to block their attack, but why do that when you can instead turn it into your own combo?
When it comes to counterattacking during a Super Dash, one of the easiest ways to do so is with your Down+Heavy attack. This move is one that always sends opponents flying upwards, and if you time it correctly, you’ll knock them right out of their Super Dash and into your combo.
Several Super attacks can also be used to counter the Super Dash by blasting them point blank with a massive energy attack, a move that leaves them little chance to respond when in the middle of their move. Get the timing on this counter down, and you’ll make your opponent regret spamming their Super Dash against you.
Swap Your Opponent’s Fighter
With a three-fighter team composition and the ability to swap out your own fighters to give them a breather and regain health, knowing when to tag out an injured character is essential. But did you stick through the tutorials long enough to learn that you can also bring that low-health opponent back into the fight when they’re almost downed?
Even if you did practice this in the tutorial, it’s entirely possibly you may have forgotten it when moving on to mastering your individual fighter combos. To force your opponent to swap their character out with someone else, all you have to do is hit the left bumper or L1 while in the middle of your Dragon Rush guard break. At the end of the move, instead of sending the character flying upwards, they’ll be knocked off-screen with a new fighter taking their place. This move is invaluable for finishing off opponents before they have a chance to regain their health, and it also temporarily locks your opponent from swapping so that they can’t undo your efforts.
Z Assists Are for More than Just Offense
No matter what team of fighters you’ve chosen, you should by now be comfortable with each characters combos as well as their Z Assists. If not, you can check out our recent list of which fighters to add to your team based on their Z Assists and how helpful they are in battle.
While most of these Z Assists are purely offensive except for Android 18’s energy-absorbing barrier, they don’t always have to be used to dish out more damage to your opponent. Sometimes you just need a breather or a way to get out of a corner, but other times, you’ll want to use your Z Assist to cover another move or to bait your opponent.
One of the primary ways to do this is to use a Z Assist and then quickly begin powering up your Ki bar. Powering it up in the middle of a battle usually leaves you open to a counterattack and can be risky, bot covering it with an assist will give you time to charge up. Your opponent will either be hit by the move or will block it and then launch their own counterattack, a move that’s probably going to be a Super Dash if there’s any distance between you two, the perfect time to try out that Down+Heavy Super Dash counter.
Don’t Stop Combos After Wall Bounces
Say you’ve just finished a combo of your own that sent your opponent reeling while knocking them into the air, Vanishing behind them, and finishing with a huge kick that sent them bouncing off the wall. Why should the combo end there?
If you go through the combo challenges for each character, you’ll notice that some of the more advanced combos call for landing a quick attack off of a wall bounce to transition into a Super or Meteor attack. While these combos are flashy and do tons of damage, you might find yourself struggling to get the timing right, but the fact is that you don’t have to end it with a big attack – just keep the combo going.
There’s a few options for doing so that include launching a Super attack, catching them midair with a Dragon Rush to send them flying again, or if it’s convenient for you, swap out your own fighter while they’re mid-bounce to bring some new talent into the fight and keep the tempo high. Don’t worry about hitting the major combos from the challenges if you can’t get the timing right – just don’t end the combo simply because it looks like it could be over.
Save Your Sparking Blast
If all else fails and your opponent seems to beat you at every turn, you’ve got one last tool at your disposal to help you turn a fight completely around: Sparking Blast.
This move is a one-time ability that shouldn’t be used lightly, and its payoff is greatest when you use it during those bleakest moments. By activating both right shoulder buttons at once, your character will let out a burst of energy to knock opponents back and continuously regain all of the blue health that they’ve lost during that fight. A huge power increase also comes with this move, a boost that becomes stronger the fewer fighters you have left.
With lesser numbers increasing the move’s power, saving this until the end of a fight is both a risky move as well as the only shot that losing players often have left. It can turn more than a few battles in your favor, but just be on the lookout for your opponent’s Sparking Blas as well, because you can bet they’ll use it if you start mounting a comeback and whittle them down to just one fighter.
