Frames

Knowing how long a move takes to start and finish is important. Even more important is knowing the frame advantage of a move, that is, who can act first after a move hits or is blocked.

(Tekken 7 runs at 60 frames per second. When we talk about time in Tekken, it’s always in terms of frames. If we used seconds or milliseconds instead, it’d be confusing and less accurate.)

Take Lee’s u/f+4 for example:

This says that the move will hit on frames 15–16, that from frame 9 Lee is in a jumping state, and that the move takes 46 frames to complete.

It says that on block, Lee is −13, meaning that his opponent will recover 13 frames earlier than he does. They can do a move that is i13 or faster and be guaranteed to hit.

It says that on hit and counter-hit, the opponent can be juggled. How to do this is explained in T7 Lee School’s page on combos.

For moves with more than 1 active frame, the frame advantage will be different depending on which frame it connects. Recovery doesn’t change, but if the move connects later, the block/hit stun will start later, making it effectively longer. So u/f+4 is −12 when it’s blocked on the 16th frame.

Moves mostly connect on frame 1 though so this isn’t too important to think about.

Stance transitions often have different frame advantage than the non-transition version, so they’re listed as separate moves. Some transitions are much better than others.

The frame advantage for transitions is for the frame you can first act. But keep in mind that you can’t block in a lot of stances.

For example, Lee can’t always block during HMS, so a move like FC d/f+4,3 that’s −12 on block is actually much riskier than it seems if you don’t cancel the stance. HMS cancelling can be done by either a well-timed qcb, or a D/F followed by a well-timed b. The cancel puts Lee into crouch, and going to standing guard from crouch takes 1 frame, so with a perfect cancel FC d/f+4,3 loses to an i13 mid but beats an i14 mid.

Tracking

Tracking is indicated by the border of a move’s box. A thicker border means better tracking. For example, Lee’s standing 3…

beats a sidewalk on his left side, and a sidestep on his right side.

This isn’t a strict definition of tracking. When people say “tracking”, it can mean it lot of things:

• Lee turns during the move to face his opponent (real tracking)
• Lee turns before the move to face his opponent
• The move’s hitbox is on one particular side, which will clip an opponent in that direction
• The move’s hitbox is big, which will clip an opponent in either direction

Each of these is interesting in its own right. However, the more simple thing we want to know is:

• Does this move clip left/right sometimes?
• Does this move beat sidestep left/right?
• Does this move beat sidewalk left/right?
• Does this move beat advanced sidewalk left/right (e.g., Lili)?

In most cases the answer is easy to get. Go into practice mode, record a bot realigning with f,F, followed by a jab, followed by the move; then try to step the move after the jab.

(With Lee, we use b+1 instead of a jab since his 1 jab turns him to the right very slightly, which can make moves after it clip to the right when they normally wouldn’t.)

For strings this is more complicated.

A move with real tracking will pass that tracking on to the next move in the string. But a move that simply has a big hitbox won’t.

A notable case is with Lee’s f+3 string. Each hit has Lee turn a bit to face his opponent. However, the hitbox on the first hit is bigger than the rest. This makes it possible for the first hit to connect and the second to whiff, making it no longer a combo. You couldn’t know that simply looking at this data, which shows its limitations.

Most strings realign between hits. Whether this ought to count as tracking is hard to decide. For example, with d/f+3,2,3, you could duck the high and step the mid, in which case the realignment doesn’t matter; or you could step them all in which case it does. For cases where a move comes after duckable hits, I’ve recorded the result of stepping it in that way. So don’t be too surprised if the last hit of d/f+3,2,3 still clips a deep SWL.

Many HMS transitions will give a move real tracking that otherwise wouldn’t. The way this works is not entirely clear. In the most notable case, b+4,3, the extra tracking only works if the 3 is input at the right time—either too early or too late and you get the regular no tracking of b+4. In cases where this is possible, the best tracking you can get with proper timing is what’s listed.

Strings

Each move in a string has its own properties. This can be confusing when, for example, 2,2,3 is listed as i21 and NH, or when d/f+3,2,3 is listed as NHc.

The reason it’s done this way is simple: if it were said that 2,2,3 is i10 and NHc, we’d be losing information.

In the case of 2,2,3, you can see there are 20 frames for someone to duck the final move in the string, and then 30 frames to punish; and that if the second hit connects even without a counter-hit, the 3 is guaranteed.

For d/f+3,2,3, you can see that if the second hit is a counter-hit, the third is guaranteed, but the first being a counter-hit does nothing.

For 4,3,4, you can see the final move can be floated by a jab or easily stepped.

But, yes, it’s often more useful to say that 2,2,3 is i10 and NHc. So when the movelist is filtered, strings have some properties changed and coloured purple to better represent the string as a whole. The tracking is also combined, which can be misleading in some cases.

Delays and hit confirms

Some strings can be delayed, and the number of frames they can be delayed by depends on the string.

Delaying a string until confirming the previous move hits is called a hit confirm. This is important for unsafe NH strings, since if the previous hit was blocked then continuing the string could get punished.

For Lee, the relevant moves are 3,3 and f+2,1. Although not a delayable move, b+1:1,2 is also a hit confirm, where the first hit is confirmed before doing the third. For all of these, the final hit can be duck punished on block.

When talking about the number of frames in a delay or hit confirm, precision is important.

• For hit confirms, the frame count starts at the first active frame of the move being confirmed. This is because it’s shown if the move hit on that frame.

• For delays, the frame count starts after the first active frame of the previous move. This is because typical moves can be input up until that point.

These frame counts are obtained using TekkenBot’s CommandInputOverlay.

For example, take 3,3:

The yellow square is the active frame. The red frames are when the input window is closed. In this case the hit confirm window starts on frame 41 and ends on frame 54, a total of 14 frames. So this move is HC14 and DL13.

For f+2,1:

The hit confirm window starts on frame 26 and ends on frame 39, a total of 14 frames. But in this case the move is actually HC12, because if the move is done on the last two frames it’s still blockable.

Note that for delays, the number is for the input window, not the actual move itself. In some cases these are the same. For example, take 3,3:

In the fastest case, the yellow squares are 17 frames apart. In the slowest case, they are 30 frames apart. So the move is delayed by as much as the input, up to 13 frames.

On the other hand, take f+2,1:

In the fastest case, the initial yellow squares are 21 frames apart. In the slowest case, they are 32 frames apart. So despite the input being delayable by up to 13 frames the move itself is only delayable by up to 11 frames.

We say this move is DL13 rather than DL11, since the question more likely being asked is, “How long can I wait to input this?”

Legend

Inputs

Hit levels

Neutral states

Hit properties

a

Opponent will be floated during recovery and will recover grounded (“airborne”)

b

Opponent will recover back-turned

c

Opponent will recover crouching

d

Opponent will recover grounded (“downed”)

g

Opponent can guard during recovery

p

Opponent will recover at a distance (“pushback”)

Move properties

Jails

Opponent can’t act between the string; implies NH

Homing

Tracks extremely well in both directions

NH

Can’t be blocked if the previous part of the string hit (“neutral hit combo”)

NCH

Can’t be blocked if the previous part of the string was a counter-hit (“neutral counter-hit combo”)

DL{n}

Input can be delayed by up to {n} frames

HC{n}

NH if input within {n} frames from previous hit (“hit confirm”)

JF{n}

Frame pefect input has {n} frame window (“just frame”)

RC

Recovers crouching

RG

Recovers grounded

S!

Causes tailspin state on floating opponents

F!

Breaks floors

h

Hit modifier (e.g., OCh forces opponent into crouch on hit)

c

Counter-hit modifier (e.g., NHc can’t be blocked if the previous part of the string was a counter-hit)

co

Crouching opponent modifier (e.g., SLDco puts a crouching opponent into SLD on hit)

bt

Back-turn modifier (e.g., PLDob puts a backturned opponent into PLD on hit)

TODO

• Wake-up kicks
• Front-facing aerial moves