For this guide, I'll be using Sol Badguy. He's probablly the easiest character to demonstrate and also is used throughout the majority of the campaign.

This guide will also be using Number Notation for directions labeled like this:

7 8 9
4 5 6
1 2 3

Where 8 is up, 5 is neutral, 4 is left, 6 is right, and 2 is down.

The game's in-game tutorial I think does a decent job explaining the basics... but just incase you don't know, here's the basic control layout: (This assumes Xbox 360 Controller, excludes Organ Menu Controls)

LT: Free Lock
LB: Cycle Item Left
RT: Lock On
RB: Cycle Item Right

Left Analog Stick: Move
L3: Short Dash (Lock On/Free Lock). Blast Drive. Modern Cancel.
Right Analog Stick: Rotate Camera. Change Lock On Target (Lock On)
R3: Cyclone Blast (Barrier Burst).
LT + Right Stick + R3: Send Online Quick Message.

D-Pad Up: Quick Order Advance (↑)
D-Pad Right: Quick Order Halt (!)
D-Pad Down: Quick Order Retreat (↓)
D-Pad Left: Organ Menu

Y: Special Attack
X: Normal Attack
A: Jump, Air Dash, Step.
B: Use Item/Skill, Pick Up Servant
X+A: Use Overdrive Attack (Requires Max Tension)



How Do I send Messages Online?

Hold down the Left Trigger and then move the Right Analog Stick. Hover over the message you want to send and then press R3! You can select the bottom option to cycle between Team and All player messages.

Let's start this guide off by the biggest mechanic people seem to have trouble with coming into the game: Blast Driving.

"How do you run in this game?"

Blast Driving, is basically how you are going to get around the map fast. It allows you to move at very fast speeds to get to where you need to be.

You can activate a Blast Drive by pressing in L3 while not locked on. Blast Driving will consume 10% tension upon activation, and each character has a different start up time for their Blast Drive (Valentine's being the slowest).

You should NOT rely on Blast Drive to get you out of a situation, as the start up time will leave you open for attacks. Make sure you have enough room before trying to escape! There's another short dash that we will cover in the next section

Even if you run out of tension, you can still use your Blast Drive, but it's usually a good idea that you DON'T constantly spam Blast Drive... you'll run out of tension very quickly. Always keep an eye on it.

You can also use Blast Drive to run into enemy capture units to destroy them, which will also return some tension!

You can change your speed of your Blast Drive by using the Analog Stick and can also slightly turn left using Left and Right. To stop, either hold down the Analog Stick until you slow down enough, or Hold Down on the Analog Stick and press the A Button at the same time.

You will also stop when you run into an object (obviously), or after you jump. If you crash into something at high enough speed, you will be knocked down so be careful!

You can drift by pressing left/right and pressing A at the same time. YOU CAN ALSO CHANGE THE SPEED/DIRECTION OF YOUR DRIFT! THIS GIVES YOU MORE CONTROL OVER WHERE EXACTLY YOU WANT TO GO!

While drifting you will also avoid running into enemies. Check out Mission 3 in the campaign if you want practice with this.

If you want to practice Blast Driving: Go to the free mission that has that course from the campaign. It'll give you a good way to practice. You can also just run around the maps freely and practice moving around. I reccommend getting used to this as soon as possible.

Here's an example of me running the Free Mision: Not perfect, but just as an example.

As you probablly already know: There are 2 types of attacks in GG2: Free Attacks and Lock On Attacks.

are performed by pressing the X button without holding in anything else. Free Attacks are almsot NEVER used except for some occasions to extend combos. I'm being serious here, don't use them, except for quick gimp situations.

Sol's Free XY and Izuna's Free XY are pretty much the only ones that are used as combo extenders. (If anyone wants to correct me, feel free.)

Here's an example:

https://gfycat.com/RepulsiveGranularKoalabear

Every character has what is sometimes referred to as their "Smash Attack". Otherwise known as their "Free 8X" (Or Free Forward X). These attacks are very powerful and will usually knock enemies away, into the air, and will almost always guard break the enemy.

Here is Sol's I'm sure you know what it is:

https://gfycat.com/SpryCheapHarvestmouse


The other attacks as you know, are Lock On Attacks. These attacks are more powerful than free attacks, lead into more combos, and what you will be using 99% of the time. By holding down RT, you can lock onto your closest target and you can switch targets with the right stick.

BUT: Did you know you can choose which targets to lock on?


Pusing Right Analog Stick UP: Lock Onto Enemy Masters or Masterghosts.
Pushing Right Analog Stick Left/Right: Lock Onto Enemy Servants.
Pushing Right Analog Stick Down: Lock Onto Enemy Capture Units and Ghosts.

This is an EXTREMLY important tool to help you lock onto the right person and not mess up by accidently locking onto a servant out of nowhere. GET USED TO THIS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE :D!

While locked on, you can also step using the Left Analog Stick + A, Jump TOWARD your locked target, and also do a short dash (L3) that uses NO TENSION, and a Super Back Dash (Back + A at the same time)


Now let's talk about Free Locking. Free Locking is a mechanic in GG2 which allows you to perform Lock On Movements and Actions while not actually locked onto a target by holding down LT. Why would you ever use this? Well, one is to short dash.

This allows you to short dash in the direction your MASTER is facing and NOT in the direction of your target. It allows you to get away in a variety of bad situations. Short dashes allow you to get some distance from your enemy, close the gap, and much more, all at the cost of no tension and smaller start up time.

https://gfycat.com/EvergreenOnlyCottonmouth

You can also aim certain lock on attacks in different ways using Free Locking. The biggest example that comes to mind is Valentine's L2X and Ky's L4/6X. Both of these moves come out very strangely if locked on normally, but can be easier aimed using Free Locking!

These are the most powerful attacks your master can perform by pressing X+A when your Tension is at MAX. Some Master's Overdrives can one shot enemy servants and you usually will use this to quickly clear out a large group of tough servants. Obviously, you are then left with no tension when you use this, so be careful.

Modern Cancelling is pretty self explanatory. After any attack is successful (and this can be on an enemy or a construction) press L3 to initiate a MC. This will use 20% tension and reset your master back to a neutral state.

Modern Cancelling is crucial for a lot of major things. It can be used for added presure, for escaping or moving faster, or to extend combos. Many of the Master's most damaging combos will utilize Modern Cancelling in some way.

Sol's L4XX and L6XX can't be followed up normally, unless you use a MC. Similarly his L2X can be MC'd to extend his air combos:


There are many many many ways to user Modern Cancelling that you can experiment with, just keep an eye on your tension.

Now what about defense? Surely there's some way to block in this game right?

Actually... no. Well not manually anyways. GG2's blocking system is AUTOMATIC. As long as you are FACING IN THE DIRECTION OF THE ATTACK. Your Master will AUTOMATICALLY block the incoming damage.

HOWEVER: If blocking long enough, your block will glow from blue to yellow to red to a sort of critical red.. When it gets far enough, eventually your guard will break. Every attack in the game has a different amount of power towards a Master's guard break.

Each Master usually has some way of performing Guard Breaks (if the enemy chooses to sit there and block the entire time). Additionaly, most character's Free 8X will cause an immediate Guard Break on impact. Here are some of Sol's Guard Break Combos:



Now, your on the defense. How do you fight back? Well, you have a number of different options to pick from. Off of each hit, you can perform what's known as a Guard Cancel. This allows you to quickly jump into a side step, a jump, or an attack.

As such, it's usually vital that you understand which attacks are safe to side step, jump, or attack to get yourself out of. IF YOU SIDE STEP DURING EVERY SINGLE HIT, YOU ARE ALMOST GUARENTEEING YOURSELF THAT YOU WILL BE HIT BY THE FOLLOW UP ATTACK.

If side stepping doesn't work out of a combo: Try either waiting the combo out, or even jumping It'll take a lot of practice to fully understand what the best strategy is against each master's guard pressure strings. I can't go over all of them in full detail, it would just take too long. (I don't even know all of them)

We've already seen Guard Cancelling, but some attacking moves can also be canclled into steps and jumps.

During certain attacks, you can cancel the attack after the hit with either a side step, forward step, or a jump, depending on the move that was used. These moves can be cancelled either on hit or on block so use them to your advantage.

IF THE MOVE IS WHIFFED, IT CANNOT BE CANCELLED!

What moves can and can't be cancelled depends entirely on the move and the master. Every move has its own rules and I can't list them all.

Let's just use Sol and Sin as examples here.

Sol can Step (or sometimes Jump) Cancel most of his LXX moves. He can also Jump Cancel his L2X

Sin can Side Step Cancel his L5XX moves, jump cancel his L5XXX, Step Cancel his Free 8X, and FORWARD STEP his L4X attack. \

You will mostly use step cancels to add pressure to your opponent, reposition your master, air chase, or even to kill Servants. Most master's basic Servant killing loops involve a basic step cancel combo repeated over and over.

Here's these examples as a video:

This is something that isn't taught directly in the game's tutorial but is hidden away in the menus, Cyclone Blast is GG2's version of a Barrier Burst.

The burst is triggered by pressing R3 after being hit by any attack. Once activated, you will consume about 35% tenstion and will launch vertically in the air a few feet and hover in the air. After about a second, you will release a blue burst that will knock away all enemies but deal 0 damage. Seems simple enough but there are some things you need to keep in mind:

1. Enemies can block the burst. Yes that's right. This is one of the ways you can counter a burst. How you react to bursts is just by practice and understanding when people usually try to burst during certain combos. It becomes a mind game after a certain point

2. You can Modern Cancel the burst. Yup. You can MC a burst to get away faster or to try to follow up to add more pressure to your opponent, if you think you can turn the fight around. This is a HUGE investment in tension though so be careful.

3. You can "Counter Burst" by using your burst after being hit by your enemy's burst. This usually used to keep up your pressure on your opponent. If your opponent has enough tension, they can also counter the counter burst but usually they won't have enough tension or won't want to invest into it.

Just like most fighting games, you have options for teching as well. By "Teching" I'm talking about when your character immeditly escapes out of a combo, either in the air or during knock down. You do this by pressing the A button during these situations. This gives your character a brief moment of invincibility, followed by a short movement in a particular direction.

If a combo reaches a certain point, your character will be able to tech out of it. Even long combos that send you flying, usually will allow you to tech out of them. Not all combos can be teched, so experiment in training mode to figure out if your combo is an actual combo or not.

Air Teching: Allows you to tech a combo while being in the air (I.E. during an air combo or after being knocked down). When you air tech, you can move your character in a certain direction, or tech neutral (where your character will launch straight up into the air)

Fast Recovery: Allows you to do a fast get up upoin hitting the ground after a knock back. To do this, press the A button as soon as your character hits the ground. The timing for this is pretty strict and there's ways to practice it by continousally short dashing yourself into a wall. This is a very important technique especially for when you crash from a Blast Drive.



GG2 does indeed have an IPS system, like most fighting games. (Infinite Protection System). If your combo goes beyond a certain extent, usually a certain number of hits, your enemy will either:

1. Be knocked into the air
2. Be knocked further away from you
3. Air or Ground Tech your combo.

Play around with this in training mode to understand what I mean by this. IPS applies to BOTH Masters AND Servants. IPS resets after a short duration OR after an OTG Reset.

Let's look at teching and the IPS system in action:



After being knocked down to the ground and failing a fast recovery (or after being hit by a "down" attack, I'll talk about that in a second.) Your character has a few options for getting up. After a few seconds, your character will get up and move in the direction of your analog stick. This allows you to get up in whichever direction quickly, to try to move backward, forward, or remain in place.

If an enemy performs an OTG (On The Ground) attack on you while you are knocked down (for example, Sol's L8X), then your character will take minimum damage but IMMEDITLY Get Up from the attack. This is known as a "Forced Get Up". It allows you to reset combos on enemies and servants, and to add more pressure to your opponent.

Note that when a master or a servant performs a Get Up, they will be invincible for a short duration When doing Servant Killing Loops for example, you'll need to wait a second or two after the forced get up before you are able to attack the servant again.

Different attacks will leave your character knocked down for different durations. Two big examples are Valentine's L8X and Izuna's L2XX combos. Both of these have the property of leaving a character downed for longer periods of time. These are commonly referred to as "Down Attacks":



This is the act of attempting to immeditly follow up on your opponent's tech movement, which will reset the combo and the IPS entirely allowing you to deal extra damage and usually go for a kill. Since an opponent has a slight delay when they tech, you can attempt to chase them down and immeditly follow up for a reset.

You can do this by either attempting to air chase them as soon as their air tech by predicting their movements. Certain characters have ways of doing this, such as Sol's jump attacks and Sin's L5X (but there are others as well). Or you can attempt to attack them as soon as they land and attack them from behind.

Tech chasing is extremly important to keep your pressure on your opponent. It'll take some practice to fully understand this, so practice either in training mode or against another player. There's a few videos out there that demonstrate some tech chase situations with different characters.

Items in Guilty Gear 2 play a vital role in turning the tides of a fight and there are certain items that are designed specifically for master fighting. In this section, I'll be going over those items and some combos you can do with them with Sol.

Rapid Fire: This item sends out a rapid firing ranged attack that will keep your opponent either under hit stun or block stun as well as push them back. This item can function in many ways: To either add block pressure, to push your enemy back to escape or keep them at bay, or to prevent your opponent from escaping.

Seal: This item will seal your opponents item slots for a short duration. This can really mess up their day if they were relying on using a particular skill or item and can really turn the tide of a fight.

Heavy Feet: This item will cause your opponent to be dramatically slowed for a short duration. The perfect item for prevent your opponent for getting away, or from just throwing them off by their slowed movement. This effect also applies to their side step and dashing speeds. Heavy feet comes out slower than Seal and also has different properties when it hits the enemy Master.

Bombs: Beleive it or not, bombs can actually be used for tech chasing, as well as for just added pressure. Bomb is pretty self explanatory so I won't go over it in super detail, but you can throw it to confuse your opponent and try to prevent them from getting away.

Stun Grenades: See bombs, except they stun opponents instead and deal minimum damage.

When should you buy these items? Well the best answer is when you need them. Usually, if you want to be more aggressive in fights, or if you need to make some sort of dent in a Master Fight, these items will help turn the tide of battle. This applies to all items not just these ones.

Remmeber that items you can purchase depends on the time of day you are playing on.

Here is an extensive list of all of the Buffs and Debuffs associated with Guilty Gear 2. There's a lot of them so let's get started:

Movement Speed: Change of Movement Speed. Either Higher or Lower.

Attack Speed: Change of Basic Attack Speed. Either Higher or Lower.

Attack Power: Change of Attack Power. Either Higher or Lower.

Defense: Change of overall Defense and Knockback Resistance. Higher or Lower.

Resitances: Indicates overall resistance against a specified unit type.

Sealed: This unit cannot use any skills or items.

Recovering: This unit is being healed over time.

Poison: This unit is being damaged over time. They also cannot be healed from capture units.

Fear: This unit cannot act and is being forced to retreat to the nearest friendly Ghost. (Does not apply to Masters)

Ghost Buff: Indicates a defense bonus given from claimed Ghosts and Master Ghosts.

Curse: Inidcates a unit is unable to perform attacks. However, they may still use items and skills.

Induced Explosion: This unit, upon being hit by a fire attack, will explode and be dealt additional damage to himself and units around him.

Alright, you made it this far. Now let's talk about actually fighting.

The first thing we need to touch on is Servant Fighting. IMO, this is one of the most major aspects of the game that is overlooked by new players. "Pfft" they say "Servants are easy" until they get into a match and try to take a Ghost against a group of 5 or 6+ servants head on.

Servants can usually be taken out very effectively by most masters by utilizing some simple aspect of their kit. This can be either a loop combo or some hard hitting attack. The goal is to eliminate servants as fast as possible, while also minimizing your use of tension.

REMEMBER: WHEN YOU KILL A SERVANT, YOU WILL EARN BACK ABOUT 15-20% TENSION!

For Sol, he has some of the most effective servant killing techniques, as well as the most straight forward.

The first his is basic loopL: L4XX -> Step -> L4XX -> Repeat.

You can usually do this loop about 3-4 times before the IPS will kick in. (Around 8-10 hits) which will then push the Servant backwards or knock them into the air. You can usually finish off the loop with a delayed Free 8X, or by using Volcanic Viper (2Y)

You can also use L4X -> L6X -> Step -> Repeat for dealing with multiple servants.

Reset knocked down servants by using your L8X, then continue to finish them off.

Sol's Free 8X is also amazing for both dealing heavy damage to Servants and also knocking them away. It will deal 150 flat damage and send the enemy flying back a good ways. Use this to deal heavy damage to finish off a servant quickly, or to knock away a powerful servant to make a fight easier.

Now remember that servants will also get a Ghost buff after they've been near a Ghost or Masterghost and that buff will remain for a short duration. The speed at which you can kill Servants is entirely dependent on if they have this buff. (Hint hint)

There's other ways to help you take out Servants quickly: You can use items such as bombs or anti rods, you can counter servant types to help make a push easier, or use a skill to get rid of a high priority group of servants (such as a large armor unit pushing towards your melee units at an important point on the map)

The best way to practice fighting against each servant type: Is to practice vs CPU and also practice in training mode and free missions. It's really all up to you at this point.

Fighting Enemy Masters

Now what about Masters? When should I fight them? Do I need to know how to fight? Should I put priority on them or on the Servants?

I'll try to answer these as best as I can:

1. You should attempt to fight enemy masters when you need to contest an important position on the map. I.E.: When an enemy is trying to make placements or make a push to an important Ghost. It's a good idea to try to catch Master's off guard, as it will DELAY their next action. HOWEVER: WHEN YOU ARE IN A FIGHT YOU ARE ALSO DELAYING YOURSELF! The key thing in GG2 is to learn WHEN and HOW to contest the enemy Master, and always having the AWARENESS of WHERE the enemy Master is and ALWAYS be prepared for a fight.

2. YES. YOU ABSOLUTELY NEED TO HAVE AT LEAST A BASIC UNDERSTANDING ON HOW TO FIGHT. That's what this guide I hope helped with. If you get a critical down it can be a HUGE loss of time for yourself and also for your map control. While not every critical down means the end of the game, being over aggressive will get yourself killed over and over again and end up you loosing the match as a whole.

3. This depends on the situation. You should always try to keep an eye on the enemy master, to ensure he's not going to attack you with a full combo. BUT, you ALSO need to keep an eye on the servants, ESPECIALLY if it's a big push and there are Elites around. Try to deal damage to BOTH if possible, but dealing with the Master can make the fight a lot easier. For example: If you choose to contest a placement, if you manage to knock away the master, or you are free to, attack the servant! This will damage his placement and make the job for your own servants that much easier.

• Don't be over aggresive! Commiting to a combo with long recovery is a sure way of being hit. Mix it up, don't do the same thing over and over.
  
• Don't step after every hit! This will almost ensure you will get hit
  
• IF POSSIBLE AVOID AIR DASHING WHILE TECHING. See the section on Teching for more info
  
• WATCH YOUR TENSION! Some Masters with no tension is a sure way of getting yourself killed.
  
• Conversely: Watch your enemy's tension. Do they have enough to burst? If so, be ready for it.
  
• Who owns the Ghost? If the enemy is about to claim a Ghost, STOP IT! Don't let them get that buff. If YOU own the Ghost, be more aggressive! Use the Ghost Buff to your advantage!
  
• Use items to help! See the items section, trust me if you need them, use them!
  
• Always be aware of where the Master is: catch them off guard, contest them if need be, whatever you need to do to delay their time.
  
• Go for what works, not what looks cool. Practice your combos and learn what you can pull off consistently.
  
• PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE!

Thanks for reading and I hope this guide helps!!

I will update this guide if necessarry and if anything is unclear or I made any mistakes PLEASE message me or leave a comment!!

I plan on making 2 more guides in the future: Both of which will take an unknown amount of time to appear:

1. A guide to everything RTS Layer including servant types and the like.

2. A guide to Map Strategies and Overall Gameflow/ "Meta" If you wanna call it that. I'm not expert on this but I'll try to explain it as best as I can.

Thanks everyone!

-DJ.Metals