So you've picked up this neat new title and need to learn a few things that this otherwise silent game doesn't tell you? Fear not friend! I'm here to explain as much as I can of the basics all the while making sure you don't stumble in the dark. I don't cover everything and should be seen as a gateway drug guide. So sit back, sip a beverage and stress no more about those questions tumbling in your head. Although this guide goes over basic information it doesn't touch on more advanced techniques or how best to play certain characters. Without further ado let's move on to our first catagory, Moves!

This game is a 2 button fighting game. While you'll see a much more simplified breakdown than most games it still will take quite the time to get used to things. Let me start with the two buttons you are given.

The A & B buttons will be all you'll need to play this game. A covers light attacks and B covers heavy attacks. This can be edited and changed but that's up to you and your preferences. To start something that sets this game apart from the pack is the health system which might appear odd at first. This is because you'll only ever do 1 damage on a hit. Certain moves hit multiple times (grabs and super moves namely) but nothing takes away more than a bar of health at a time. Right away this poses an important question. What good is a slow dumb attack if the light one does the same damage?

Light attacks (tied to the A button) are quicker sure but these moves also have shorter, smaller hitboxes and always are going to apply less hitstun. Hitstun is how long the other character has before they can act after being hit. Done properly this allows you to combine or combo moves one after another!

These can include: A, A↓ ,A↑, (tapA)↘, (tapA)↙

Heavy attacks (tied to the B button) are the reverse. The hitboxes for these can be very large but usually are slower moves to use. If you miss one of these the big dirty player across from you will likely kick your teeth in if given the opportunity. They do have longer hitstun though but usually you're still recovering from a big swing to make much use out of this.

These can include: B, B↓, B↑, (tapB)↘, (tapB)↙

Special moves are yet another type of move these are done with diagonal and downwards movement of the joystick in addition to holding the A or B button. This means that each character has 4 special moves minimum. These vary the most in use and are not limited to just A or B diagonally down. Some characters make use of both A&B as well as other forms of buttons that you can learn. These moves are special though and will likely have some rule that doesn't follow the usual attack pattern that can be moved from character to character.

In example take the friendly bulls*** ghost June!
This move here is where she throws her own f***ing head at you. Believe it or not she's literally the only character that comes complete with a detachable throwable head. Therefore we can't call this move a light or heavy attack (in addition to some other properties that special moves have covered in the hitboxes section) so it is considered a special attack! How Unique.

Despite being unique to each character you can still catch a few similarities between special moves per character ↙B will usually result in a special that give a few frames of invicibility.

The last tidbit to drop about Special moves is that it can be frustrating for newer players to try and execute these. Often times it feels like they "Just don't work" I would know as I myself felt this way when I was learning. Then again I'm as daft as a racoon. A helpful trick though is to hold down both inputs until you see the move execute.

Special Moves: (hold) A↘, A↙, B↘, B↙ (some characters also use) →→, ←←, AB, AB↘, AB↙

Grabs are the next type of move to look at and almost all of them do 2 damage. Grabs are done by holding either → or ← and B. Your character will lovingly embrace the person across from them and hurl them like a child throwing a temper tantrum. A nice feature is that after you grab someone you can push a direction to throw them that way. This can allow some personal space if you need it.

Something to note is that missing a grab is a bit odd. Instead of having a normal recovery or executing the grab after the 2 frames of startup time (more on frame data later) the grab simply turns into a B attack for that character. This means that the punch fairy comes along and turns your grab into a pumpkin if it misses wait no I mean a heavy attack. Food for thought here is that a character with a fat slow B attack would have a much slower recovery for their grab than someone with a more sleek quick B attack. Hot potatos that's cool!

Grabs are a difficult bit to go over however as they might be the hardest thing in the game to learn to counter. Or maybe that's just how it seems to me. That being said I don't want to go over these in detail but a few helpful things to do are...
-throw tech
-jump
-use invulnerability frames
-command grab to beat their grab (situational)
-use a normal A or B to beat their grab (also situational)
-get the s*** kicked out of you

I'll be straight it seems that grabs are best fought by guessing your opponent's going to do them. Good luck and don't let em get in too close. Most grabs require you to be touching your opponent almost so leave room for Jesus.

Grabs: B→, B← (Subject 11 has grabs for each special move as well)

Blocking is done simply by holding away from your opponent either directly away as ← or → or diagonally away from ↙ them ↘. Blocking stops damage but if a special move hits a block it will warn you by beeping. If a short time after another special move hits you'll take "chip damage" or damage that bleeds through. Keep this in mind when fighting people who like to toss out plenty of special moves. That being said it's still better to block now and retaliate right after rather than get hit by the whole thing!

Blocking is handy dandy great but it has one fatal flaw! Crabs...ʷᵃᶦᵗ ᶰᵒ ᵗʰᵃᵗ'ˢ ᶰᵒᵗ ʳᶦᵍʰᵗ...Grabs! If your smelly dumb opponent decides to grab atcha you'll be saddened to find that they get to wail on you for trying to block their move. This goes both ways though and if anyone is playing super defensively you can teach them to come out of their shell.

This section is a bit more advanced so if you don't really care about how quickly moves happen then you can skip this bit or come back to it later. I dunno man you decide if this craps important.
Frame data is how long a move takes to start happen and end. Moves that take longer periods of time to happen use more frames. Here's someone talking about Street Fighter 5 and how frame data works. He covers more than you need but does a good job describing the idea.


(lordofultima does plenty of good videos so check those out if you're at all interested.)

For the purpose of figuring out your moves in Pocket Rumble you can just use these numbers to experiment. Something that is immediately nice though is that in Pocket Rumble frame data is always available to you. It can be found just below your health bar! Exact numbers are however available in training mode along with hitbox information which I'll cover later.



How neato is that? This way you can always figure out how long your move lasts and activates and when to que up combo attacks and more. Something to note is that Pocket Rumble runs at 60 frames. A move that takes 30 frames to happen takes 1/2 a second to occur! Also, to allow you to use a move the second you're characters ready this game has a system in place to activate a held move the moment frame data is allowed. I will say though that I haven't tested this out too much and just know that it does work.

What do the colors mean though? There are plenty of scary colors to watch out for when learning frame data but worry not! All of these colors are pretty simple to understand and apparently are used across several fighting games.


So that's what they are but you might still be a little confused. Lets hit these in a bit more detail. Starting with...


Startup:
Startup is as it sounds the time it takes for a move to begin. After you press the button the startup frames will pass before a move becomes active. A long startup might mean that a faster move will "hitstun" you before your action gets out there.

Active:
This is going to be how long your move will be dangerous. A hitbox will appear for as long as you are seeing red in the framrate bar. Generally moves aren't active long but don't need to be to hit hard. Meatier or longer moves however will have more active frames and can be a dangerous threat if used correctly. They can allow moves with invincibility frames to take a hit after the move ends. Longer active times can also create a window of protection that can punish more aggressive characters and players.

Recovery:
This is simply how long it'll take your character to be able to act again after a move was active. Better moves in general have longer recovery although this rule can be bent and shaped. Bottom line recovery will determine how fast you can attack after a move.

Hitstun:
Hitstun happens when your move hits the opponent. They won't be able to fight back for as long as the hitstun is in effect. This potentially can allow you to "juggle" or combo other moves! In addition to this hitstun does in fact "stun" an opponent out of what ever they were doing. If a player was going through startup frames to get to a move, they stop. Were they using a special? They stop. In the middle of pooping? They stop....you monster.

Knockdown:
Heavy moves will often hit an opponent hard enough to drop them to the floor yeowch! They won't be able to get up or move as long as the Knockdown frames are in effect. Be warned though during the Knockdown you also cannot land hits on a character who has yet to get up but you can warm up a move to land when they are first up if you are good at timing.

Although camping bodies might be dangerous. Because the game allows you to hold an input until the first available frames if you're waiting over someone's lifeless body they might get a "wake up attack" in on you. This is a move that happens before you're able to attack them, these moves generally allow some breathing space to someone who might have gotten pummeled. The good news is they protect you too if you can remember to use them!

Blockstun:
When a move hits an opponent who manages to block it they will be stunned for a different amount of time. This is shown as blue and might allow them an easy break to try and counter you if the frames are much less than the hitstun would otherwise be. Blocking won't always give you less stunned time but sometimes this can be the turning point. If you math out how long blockstun is compared to an enemy moves recovery time you can create a counter that should work every time. A totally fabricated example might be [12 frames of blockstun/opponent has 4 active frames and 30 frames of recovery, therefore you have 34-12= 22 frames to react. Toss in a move with maybe a 8 frame startup and this can guarantee a counter!] in theory

This is all for frame data! If you want to learn more there is a whole science to it but don't feel pressured to memorize every little frame out there. This is more to look at mathematical ways around certain character moves. So if you had a pain trying to douse a pesky Hector combo then you might look at how long he takes to recover or potentially if you have a faster move that could best his swift blade!

Hitboxes are simply how big either your character is or the punch that they throw out. It's what the game literally registers to understand if a move has hit or not. There are a couple different types of Hitboxes but don't be frightened! We're going to go over right now which ones do what and more importantly which ones beat what. Get ready!



The green hitboxes that you can see in training are simply the space your character occupies. Larger green hitboxes are easier to punch grab or kick. Damage occurs when a pink red or blue hitbox should touch your green one. (Red hitboxes in a sense extend your green one but more on that later)

These green character hitboxes can change shape and will differ depending on what you're doing. In some cases they can be wider or taller than others. In this image we can see the left green hitbox is smaller than the one on the right because of a crouch. Manipulating your own hitbox can really throw off an opponent when done correctly.



A white hitbox is only available when a character is unhittable or invincible. This can be due to a move, grab, knockdown, Parker deciding to show off his dodge roll or a handful of other things. Try and punch a white hitbox and you'll be whiffing. Go ahead, do your worst but nothing will damage someone who has Invincibility frames. If you want to be a cheeky f*** you can use knowledge about your character's invincibility frames to dodge through a barrage of attacks.



Red hitboxes are light or heavy attacks that are currently active. June overcompensates in the photo above with some impressive size and we can see just how powerful her range can be on this move in particular. Poor Naomi will have to get crafty to avoid some poke like this! Hitbox data gives you a good idea of exactly how far you can reach, how wide an attack allows for and maybe calms a fear that otherwise isn't needed.

Red boxes occur with both light and heavy attacks. Although move priority plays into effect so certain moves cancel others out. If you toss out a light or heavy attack you're actually in a way extending your own hitbox. Should someone be able to punch your red hitbox one of several things can happen. You can take damage upon hitting their hitbox, you can both take damage and bounce away from each other, your attack will trump them and they will take damage. This is based off move priority

Light attacks < Heavy Attacks < Special attacks [Grabs are off in their own little corner]

Below you can see another one of June's moves. This time though there is a bit of a surprise! The hitbox is only at the end of the move! this is an opening and shows a weakness in a scary characters otherwise broken overpowered unbeatable godlike ridiculous perfect moveset.























Special moves apply a fancy fashionable pink hitbox. These hitboxes are powerhouses and can strong arm their way through any old regular red hitbox but are otherwise intangible untouchable moves. These hitboxes can't even be touched by other peoples red hitboxes and can be very strong because of this. You'll see these hitboxes almost always with a special move and occasionally with a couple other weird things such as Hectors dash.



Grabs are shown off with a blue hue. These can't be punched or kicked and don't grab on to any other hitbox but green. Should they connect with a green hitbox they will initiate a grab or a command grab and usually deal 2 damage. Show above however is Subject 11 a character who has some grabs that deal 3 or 4 damage.

Pocket Rumble is a great game for it's simplicity, characters for the most part use similar controls to do similar things and never require strings of moves to do something (i.e. you'll never have to press a then ab to do a roundhouse kick or punch of some kind etc.) This means that migrating from one character to another will likely be a much less painful experience. It's because of this that I won't really be listing every control per character or the frame data to go with each person or what have you. Take this more as a way to earn a rough summary of each character to allow you to chose a "main" more effectively or be less surprised by what a character has. Well let us get to it kiddos!

Tenchi is a fairly standard character to play compared to most the other cast. He's not got anything weird or bizarre that would create a steeper learning curve or break any standard that's been set. Instead Tenchi acts as a nice starting spot to learn the general flow of play in addition to how characters work. His special meter is something that builds 6 points to eventually allow him to fire off a "Rumble Fireball" a crazy 4 hit damage move that can act as almost a ticking time bomb for your opponent to worry about or to turn a regular combo into a devastating one. The problem is that missing can be catastrophic. Should someone block you only get 2 points of chip damage as opposed to the fat amount of damage that a clean hit will grant. Worse yet your opponent will jump clean over and ruin an otherwise game turning event.



He looks so suprised because someone flashed their headlights

Other than his special there is little to say for good ol' Tenchi. This isn't to say he doesn't have notable moves but rather to say that nothing stands out immediately for a newer player to pay attention to. His specials are nice enough. Tenchi sports some nice anti air options, a charge and even a strait up hadouken. Last thing to say is that Tenchi can dash if you tap left or right twice as a gap closer.

Pick up Tenchi if you like deer and despise things you don't understand.

Goku ˢᵒʳʳʸ Naomi, I have heard called a "rushdown character". I'd have to agree quite frankly. She's fast and strong and loves to be up in your face, sporting quite a few tools to do just that. First off she's the only character that can run because everyone else is a god d*** jelly donut. Double tap towards the enemy and she'll run in out of stupidity or courage. This is great for closing the gap to some more dangerous moves but does leave you a bit open. Speaking of other moves Naomi has some specials to talk about.



Over 9000!

Her specials allow her to really excel up close. One of them dashes her diagonally and then slams down. Another has her stomp to create a beam of light that deals a damage. (these two are a pair of moves, hang on I'll explain in a moment) Her other two specials are a dash with a punch or a three punch combo. These two are another pair. Now on to her meter. Naomi uses AB to stomp her feet and go super saiyan ᵒʰ ᵍᵒᵈ ᴵ ᶜᵃᶰ'ᵗ ˢᵗᵒᵖ ᵖᶫᵉᵃˢᵉ ʰᵉᶫᵖ Gain one of 4 points for her meter. She can spend two points to combine her special moves into one move hence why I describe her moves in pairs AB↘ or AB↙ will execute those two moves. Her A↘ and B↘ become a single move when you hit the button causing her to dash and then three punch combo. Meanwhile AB↙ dashes diagonally up towards your opponent and then slams down with a big ol blast.

Pick up Naomi if you love punching s*** and hate personal space.

Hector is a weird a** samurai cowboy with less self preservation than a baby in a blender. He sports some powerful moves and great potential but ultimately fills the role of a high risk high reward character. Every special move he uses takes 1 health point to use. Calm down though, don't run for the door yet! These health points aren't lost but rather stuffed like nuts for the winter onto his meter bar. This bar can store 3 of these health points, any more are lost. Should you want them back it's as easy as pressing AB. Hector will take a moment to reach religious epiphany, gain back all these stored "nuts" and then go back to dicing people to bits.



Here we see Hector attempt to destroy a helpless kitten

His actual play is fast and efficient. The rewards are fairly strong. Almost all of his moves use the nicer pink hitboxes (special hitboxes) which allow for you to land blows on opponent hitboxes with no worry due to the highest priority. They also are quite large hitboxes with fairly fast moves. My favorite thing about him though is his dash. Double tap left or right to have Hector dash in that direction and slash at his opponent like a samurai at sundown, aaaahhh now that's poetic!

Pick up Hector if you like gimp masks and hate yourself

Keiko is the closest character to a drone operator. Q, her cat, is a remote controlled option for devastation and her biggest weapon. This can be a challenge at first to learn but once savvy Keiko might be the scariest character on this list. Being able to combo people into the dust and use Q even when Keiko herself might not be able to manage a fight back is really strong. That being said, mittens has 8 points of health and can be destroyed if you aren't ready for certain types of poke, not to mention a lengthy recovery if poor kitty is damaged.



Hector should really look behind him

All that aside she is quite strong as a character and can use Q as a threat device, as a form of defense, zoning, damage, extra hits, juggling, or if you ask nicely Q will even scratch your nose. The cat is basically a swiss army knife and arguably the best tool of any character. Which is why the death of Q can be so devastating. Keiko isn't exactly impressive herself in too many aspects so if you want to think about it in a way as Keiko you have sort of 8 health points. After someone gets the cat back in the bag they have a downhill ride so long as they play safe. Q's specials themselves are really nice too and are something you've got to go look at to really get a feel for they have quite the bite to them.

Pick up Keiko if you like tentacle porn and can't stand fighting someone yourself

Quinn isn't done yet! AHHH, at the time of this writing he's still in the works but is as of now technically playable but has no meter yet. That being said he is an incredibly mobile fighter that has the ability to leap away and towards his enemy. Anti air might be dangerous if the enemy has some good ways to knock you out of the sky but other than that Quinn is a great option for hit and run play. Jump in, b**** slap, your people need you, repeat.



Parker is sick of Quinn scratching up the wallpaper when he does this

I can't wait to see what Quinn's meter will be, something I'm sure we'll all see soon, for now I think I'll leave these area open for construction and will come back when Quinn is more fleshed out!

Subject 11 is a weird character to play. All of his specials are grabs of some kind (or rather I should refer to them as "command grabs"), he can crawl on his back to change his hitbox, he has both a bizarrely long and heavy standing B attack and then a light attack as short quick and nimble as everyone else. One of his specials is an air grab which is a little weird to see and then bigger yet is that one of his moves is a f***ing 4 hit combo! (Although this is a big risk of a move so don't expect to be pulling the rug out from your opponent with it all the time)



Here our favorite crazy homeless person attempts to summon the dark lord

His special bar allows him to charge up blocked attacks, after 5 blocks you can press AB to gain a shield that absorbs one hit. This might not seem like much but if that 1 hit is what you need to tank to get off the 4 hit grab it's totally worth it! Subject 11 can use his shield as an unstoppable force to take on an opponent and force them into some very scary situations where they can try and fight the shield but it just wouldn't matter. Not to mention that his crawl can get under many many attacks, unless the enemy has good floor sweeping moves they might be in for trouble on your approach. You can even use moves from the position of crawling around.

(As a Final note I think it's something to point out thematically that his "hands" are closer to a telekinetic force than actual hands, and his name is Subject 11 [images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com])

Pick up Subject 11 if you have to hold things in your arms and dislike being presentable

Agent Parker is a defensive zoning character that can set up for some real neat combos. His main bread and butter is his ability to toss out balls of lighting which can preempt combos. These lightning balls can be placed at your hip or above you and have a hitbox that can allow for them to be slapped around to reposition them. Upon setting down a second one the two create a line of lighting and give a fairly hefty stun and a point of damage on his opponent. Should they be able to block it somehow though it could be quite bad as setting up your lightning balls is quite some work. I can easily imagine how a more aggressive character could cause trouble if you tried to set up shop when they were in your face.



Don't taze me bro

A stun gun isn't all our 007 has brought in his kit though. Parker has the quite unique and powerful ability to dodge roll. This does give a moment of invincibility as well as allow for a quick advance. The dodge roll even passes through characters allowing you to throw off an opponent who forgets about the 3rd dimension occasionally.

Last large mechanic to mention is the most mindgame-y and that's his ability to parry away attacks. Should you see an attack coming at you pressing AB will stop all damage of the attack and allow you a moment to potentially counterattack. Should you mess up though a point of his meter will disappear forever. If damage was blocked you get to keep on parrying the whole match.

Pick up Agent Parker if you enjoy a good taze off and don't like your opponent being able to play

June is a long range character that has some nice options for anti air, harass and comboing. To start something to go and test out right now is June's really incredible range. Her moves allow for plenty of safety when doing something like taking out Q when fighting Kieko, beating on a Tenchi who tries to play defensively or crushing that Hector who seems to really want to die anyway. Her versatility doesn't stop there. June's got some nice range she can toss into the mix with her floating head move that can be used for harass. Also her cannon shot is a meaty anti air move that can discourage would be jet planes from flying ahead although it has a longer recovery. Something to note however is that June breaks down with aggressive in your face characters that try to hug and punch a lot coughnaomicough



Tenchi literally just caught this buzzsaw with his teeth

June's meter is actually quite fun to build up. Landing a hit tosses out a small flame, collecting 5 of these creates a mirror image that copies the last special you performed when you press AB. This will allow for extra combos that otherwise wouldn't be possible. With the ability to happen during one of your recoveries or startups you can double up to really lay down the pressure, and then hit them more to gain more bits of flame. Geez ain't that brutal? Also it can simply be used as a deterrent. Maybe you leave it out just to have them sweating bullets? Who knows!? MIND GAMES!!! oooooohhhhhhh spoooooooooky!

Pick up June if you like ghosts and only want to touch your opponent with 10 foot pole

This section will be on the different commonly used terms for pocket rumble and other fighting games.