Disclaimer: I am not anyone notable, I'm just some dude who plays Guilty Gear and considers himself somewhat knowledgeable regarding the game. I've been playing for a decent amount of time, but only recently went as far to learn the game more in depth and on a higher level. Most of what you'll find below are sources that I myself used to study and get better at the game. This guide is meant to help those who are in a similar situation as I was to find resources which will allow them to improve their play.

Purely Links: (The tl;dr version)

The very basics:


Character Overviews:


Dustloop Wiki and Forums: http://www.dustloop.com/wiki/index.php?title=Guilty_Gear:_Accent_Core_%2B_R / http://www.dustloop.com/forums/index.php/forum/153-guilty-gear-accent-corer-character-discussion/

Dustloop Mechanics Guide: http://dustloop.com/guides/ggac/index.html

Match Videos: http://horibuna.web.fc2.com/GGXX_ACPR/index.html /
https://www.youtube.com/user/Goldenrody

With that out of the way, let's get this started.

Guilty Gear is a fast-paced, high-offense 2D airdash fighting game with a wide variety of
different/interesting characters. While footsies and neutral game are present, you'll find that
gameplay typically goes in a flow of starting off at neutral, confirming into a combo and a
knockdown, and finally continuing pressure and pressing advantages during the wake-up game.
(Okizeme) Guilty Gear is highly momentum based, so coming back is always a possibility.

I'm not going to mince words: Accent Core+R is probably the most advanced game in the series regarding mechanics and is by proxy the most demanding as far as execution goes, but it's still completely doable with practice and is incredibly enjoyable once you've gotten the basics down.

Woah there, slow down. In time, but for now, it's important to understand the basics.

Input Notation: To start off, Guilty Gear, like most anime fighters/airdashers, uses numpad
notation. To get an idea how it functions, look at the numpad on your keyboard. Starting a 5, which
is neutral, imagine that it's your stick. Down is 2, forward is 6, back is 4, up is 8, etc. Example:
Quarter circle forwards + Punch would be notated as 236P in this notation. Most sources use this, so you -need- to understand it. (Here is a visual, if it's unclear.) http://dustloop.com/guides/ggac/data/conv.html

Don't look at me, I suck. However, there are plenty of people online who are much better than me,
who have done a wonderful job of compiling information and guides for newer players.

If you're completely new to Guilty Gear and Arc System Works' games in general, Klaige's IAD TV
series on Youtube is an excellent place to start. It will take you a good few hours to watch all of
it, but if you have the time and find it useful/interesting, it's one of the most thorough and
comprehensive breakdowns of Guilty Gear in video form that I've seen yet online.
https://www.youtube.com/user/klaige

If you're new to airdashers in general, Airdash Academy on Novril's Channel also offers a good
breakdown on the fundamentals. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLj34EySs1IeaAqwsVY_P43mP13AD1Pp3R

Go into training, arcade mode, whatever. Play any character that looks interesting, or heck, try
all of them. Every character in GGAC+R are viable, and incredibly different, so find who you
like. There isn't a character in this game that you can't learn by spending a decent amount of time
in training mode with them; some are harder than others, but they're all doable. The general consensus that I seem to see from others is, if you're wanting to focus on the core mechanics of the
game/fundamentals, and don't want to have to worry about learning a complicated character, characters such as Sol and Ky are a good place to start. (I'd also argue to a lesser extent Jam and May) I can't stress it enough though, if you want to play a character, play them. It's not a big deal.

If you're unsure of who you want to play, or need a general idea of how a character plays/what
buttons are good, Novriltataki's Guilty Bits series on Youtube is a great source for learning about
the essentials of each character. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfouOVyyhiM&list=PLj34EySs1Ieb8Wjnj9H2Q-G4mdPXTd_xH

Klaige also runs down the characters in his own video, which pays more attention to the "style" of the character and what they're trying to accomplish in a round. Covers moves as well, but primarily just wants to give you a feel for the character and how they play.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MvSe_zb5T0

Read guides, watch match videos, practicing in training mode and play actual matches. A little bit
of everything goes a long way.

First off, learn your FRC's. Practicing in training mode is the best way. Novril also has an excellent video detailing how FRC's work and tips towards performing them successfully found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWhLjYoh03k

The Dustloop wiki is in my opinion the best source for raw data regarding character's moves. In
short, frame data, yay. As a new player, don't worry too much about frame data if you don't want to, just know what moves you have which are plus or minus on block, and maybe figure out some frame traps if you're wanting to get fancy. http://www.dustloop.com/wiki/index.php?title=Guilty_Gear:_Accent_Core_%2B_R

The Dustloop forums, likewise, can be a decent source of general BNB combo threads and match videos. http://www.dustloop.com/forums/index.php/forum/153-guilty-gear-accent-corer-character-discussion/

Last by no means least, this handy guide on Dustloop has about anything you could ever need to know about terminology and features in a Guilty Gear game. (Not sure what an FRC, RC, Jump Install, Impossible Dust or Dash Break is? This is for you.
http://dustloop.com/guides/ggac/index.html

You can "study" Guilty Gear and lab-rat yourself in training mode as much as you want, but when it
comes to real matches, nothing is better than experience. The best thing you can do is get bodied
until you learn, and make sure to contemplate on why you lost and what you can do better.

On top of that, though, it's also a good idea to study how players better than you play. For this,
we have match videos. You can learn things through watching another play in real matches that you could never hope to do so from a written guide or video tutorial. How they move, spacing, moves they use in neutral, how they jump in, what combos they use where, etc) Watching matches is always fun, but it's just as important to take the time to analyze them on a deeper level if you want to improve. There is a lot that is going on at any given time in a match, and while it may be difficult to follow everything at first, it helps tremendously to be able to do so. Klaige also has an excellent video analyzing the top 8 Evo matches, which really helped me learn to pay attention to and appreciate everything that goes on in a match. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FcBuw4stZg

I'm glad you asked, there are quite a few ways.

Youtube: There are tons of tournaments and individual matches/sets between players here.
Goldenrody's channel https://www.youtube.com/user/Goldenrody is an excellent source for them, but you can also find plenty just by searching for individual players on Youtube. (As an example: "GGAC+R Roi (SO)" will net you plenty of results for gameplay of Roi playing Sol. Found below will be a list of notable players you can look up)

Another nice source I found from Novril's Guilty Bit's Series is this site here:
http://horibuna.web.fc2.com/GGXX_ACPR/index.html It's in Japanese, but it's pretty self
explanatory and has pictures that make it easy enough to navigate if you don't understand the
language. (The first page is to search for character, while the second page searches for matches of that character VERSUS another character. So if you click May's picture, then Sol's name (ソル) in the next page, it will show May vs Sol games)

A quick translation for those who may have trouble with the names and don't want to randomly click to find it:
ソル Sol
カイ Ky
メイ May
ミリア Millia
アクセル Axl Low
ポチョムキン Potemkin
テスタメント Testament
梅喧 Baiken
紗夢 Jam
闇慈 Anji
ファウスト Faust
ジョニー Johnny
ヴェノム Venom
チップ Chip
デイズィー Dizzy
スレイヤー Slayer
ザッパ Zappa
ブリジット Bridget
ロボカイ Robo-Ky
アバ A.B.A
聖騎士団ソル Holy Order Sol
クリフ Kliff
ジャスティス Justice
その他 Other

Notable players: Use these to look up match videos. (Partially from memory, and partially taken from the Dustloop forums where I could find them. Feel free to comment and suggest additions/fix mistakes)

A.B.A: Tsubu, Moroha
Anji Mito: Domi, Taka, AGF
Axl Low: Digital Watches, 02, Ayanami
Baiken: Kuni, Karinchu, Maruken
Bridget: Ruu, Mugen
Chipp Zanuff: Samitto
Dizzy: Kazuki, Natsume
Eddie: Ogawa
Faust: Nage, OsakaB
I-No: Hasegawa, Koichi
Jam Kuradoberi: Teresa, LOX
Johnny: Satou
Justice: Mike, Tsujikawa, Hamenchu, TON
Kliff Undersn: Bob, Takuchi, Syuuto
Ky Kiske: Ain
May: LARK, Kedako
Milia Rage: JUN, Nakamura
Order-Sol: Inoue, Sanma
Potemkin: FAB, Abegen
Robo-Ky: Dogura
Slayer: Basara
Sol Badguy: Roi, VR-Raiden, Kishitaka
Testament: Dogura, Dei, Shuumatsu
Venom: Fino, HEVEN
Zappa: KBNova, Chonari

Chances are I'll add more sources as I find them, but this should hopefully be enough to allow those who wish to get into Guilty Gear and understand a bit more, to do so. If anyone has anything they think should be added, advice, criticism, etc, feel free to do so.

If for whatever reason you feel the need to contact me, (guide additions, guide/general questions, hate speech) you can do so via here on Steam or also on Youtube. I'm also frequently in the steam group chat, so if you just need something quick answered, there's that.