DNF Duel is a 2.5D fighting game witha varied and dynamic cast of fighters. The game is complex to master yet easy to pick up, with its straightforward controls and deep mechanics. If you’re looking to get into the action, you’ll have access to a rich tutorial explaining all the basics of the game, and even how characters' moves work. It’s definitely recommended to give it a look.
RELATED:Best PS1 Fighting Games, Ranked
The tutorial is great, but there are some tidbits and pieces of information that could be expanded upon better. Though improvement will come with practise, there are some fundamental tips that will prove helpful for newcomers.
10Map Your Buttons To Your Preference
As previously mentioned, the controls are rather simple, with only four buttons used for attacks. Despite their simplicity, they can be a bit difficult to get used to as the scheme differs from other fighting games. What makes it harder is that some moves, like grabbing, are done by pressing two attack buttons simultaneously.
The game addresses this by mapping those types of actions to a specific shoulder button. However, it’s possible that this might not be comfortable or convenient for you. Once you get a basic understanding of the controls, make sure to map them in a way that suits your style of play and convenience. It’s a small thing that goes a long way in helping you play better.
9Get Used To The Fundamentals First
Combos are a major factor in this game. Every character has some impressive strings of moves that can deal incredible amounts of damage (the mighty Strikeris particularly great at this). This all sounds appealing, so you probably want to learn how to pull off flashy combos right away, but you have to start out small instead.
Lengthy, high-damaging combos are great, but you’ll need to get used to your basic attacks and how they work separately first. This gives you a feel for how your attacks interact with your opponent in terms of damage and hitstun. In turn, this will assist you in figuring out which moves combo well with each other in the long run. There’s also the fact that lengthy combos aren’t always readily available to you, as will be touched on later.
8Positioning Is Important For Combos
Continuing the topic of combos, you’ll learn some in the game’s tutorial for each character. However, a great deal of these combos aren’t as simple as pressing the button that shows up on the screen. This is because some of the moves require being in the right place at the right time to keep a combo going.
This means you’ll sometimes have to utilize your movement and get in the right place to start or a combo or keep it going. While you can see that positioning in the preview for combos, you’ll want to get the hang of figuring this out on your own. It will help out when you eventually learn how to do more powerful combos in the training room.
7The Purpose Of MP Skills
One of the four buttons used for attacking is the MP Skill button. This is your special move button. Every character’s MP Skills will be different, but the direction of each MP Skill is tied to a specific input across most characters.
This is easiest to see in the Down+MP Skill attack. For each character, this will be a defensive option, either in the form of a reversal (an attack that gives you invulnerability on startup) or a counterattack. The Back+MP Skill attack will usually leave you stationary, allowing you to control space or apply pressure to shielding opponents. This makes it less of a strain to pick up a variety of characters.
6Understand How Exhaustion Affects You
When using an MP Skill, it will deplete your MP gauge. Each MP Skill costs a set amount of MP and using a move that costs more MP than you have will leave you in a state of Exhaustion, where your MP won’t recover for a while.
RELATED:Most Iconic Fighting Game Characters Of All Time
You can lose out on your high-damaging tools for a while, and even your defensive options. Depending on the character, though, it may not matter too much. Their standard attacks and movement options can be enough to get them by. Familiarizing yourself with how your character’s Exhaustion state affects your gameplay can help you decide if exceeding your MP usage is worth it.
5Don’t Be Pressured By Motion Inputs
There are two ways to perform MP Skills. The first is the simple version, which only requires you moving the control stick in a direction while pressing the button. The other is the traditional method, motion inputs (which will cause GOOD to pop up on the screen). Motion inputs are typically better because they have the benefit of making your MP gauge start regenerating faster. A new player might feel pressured to commit to motion inputs, but you shouldn’t worry about that.
The benefit you get from them isn’t significant. There are also some cases where the time to perform motion inputs can be a hindrance, like during certain combos or when you want a quick reversal. They’re almost entirely optional.
4Know When To Use Conversion
When you’re attacked, you will be dealt two different types of damage: unrecoverable red damage and white damage that’s recovered by not being attacked.Conversion is a highly important mechanic that trades your white damage for MP. The main benefit of this move is the ability to cancel out of most actions. This can help by either allowing you to continue combos or block strings safely, or make your neutral tools much better.
The amount of MP you receive from Conversion depends on the amount of white damage you’ve received. In a scenario where you’ve burned all your MP, it’ll be good to convert a lot of your white health. But you’ll get much better use out of this mechanic thanks to its canceling properties. In that sense, you’ll want to have as little white damage on you as possible.
3Play A Grounded Game
Lots of characters have very large hitboxes that are hard to avoid with pure movement alone. While you’re able to also avoid damage by blocking, you’re unable to block while you’re in the air, making aerial movement and defensive options restrictive.
RELATED:Dragon Ball Fighting Games Need Less Sweat & More Anime
You’ll want to stay grounded a majority of the time, jumping mostly for avoiding laggier attacks and command grabs. Some characters do have aerial options that can benefit them, whether it be movement options or a far-reaching attack of their own, so jumping will prove to be useful in those cases. However, the defensive and movement options you get on the ground are usually be better for closing the distance.
2Use Both Types Of Guards
There are two ways to block attacks: by holding the control stick backwards and by using the guard button. When using the guard button, you’ll be stuck in position, with your only options out of it to crouch and jump until you let go of the button. There’s no wrong way to block attacks, but both ways have their specific uses.
Holding the guard button allows you to block attacks from any direction, as long as you’re crouching to block lows and standing to block highs. This is especially useful against characters that have cross-up potential, and it’s easier to Guard Cancel with it. Blocking while moving backwards allows you to gain distance from your opponent between each attack, which is helpful for characters with long pokes or projectiles.
1Make Use Of Awakening’s Buffs
Once your character’s health gets below a certain point, they’ll enter a state called Awakening. This state provides character-dependent buffs called Awakening Effects that can help turn the tide of battle. They also gain access to an Awakening Skill that deals massive damage. This skill is usable once each round, but it comes at a cost of getting rid of your Awakening Effects, whether the move lands or not.
It’s very important to use the Awakening Skill when you know it’ll land, but more importantly, you should use it when you know that the move will kill the opponent. If you don’t, you’re not only left easily punishable if the skill misses, but stuck in a worse situation than before with the loss of your Awakening Effects.
