What determines when a shadow move gets snuffed?

A Tusk player just snuffed out a normal or a special move of mine as Arbiter with a shadow move. I got up and tried to do it to him but he snuffed it out on the ground, i got up and did the other special move and he snuffed it out on his way down from a jump with a kick. I have this confusion a lot about these collisions. I guess its all move specific from char to char?

Each move is unique, some have invincibility and beat everything, some only have projectile invincibility, some only have throw invincibility, some only have upper body invincibility, and some only have lower body invincibility. Go into practice mode and turn on attack data to see which shadow move gives you which type of invincibility.

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Like @SithLordEDP said, each Shadow move has it’s special properties, including various forms of invincibility or lack thereof.

There is also, however, another important variable in their properties; frame data. Each attack has a few different important things to look for in regards to frame data, spread throughout the 3 major phases of any given attack. These would be your start up frames, active frames, and recovery frames.
Start Up Frames detail the part of the animation before the attack. This is usually the part with the special properties in most attacks, be they shadow or otherwise.
Active Frames are the portion of the animation that actually has a hurt box attached to it. This is the part that has the damage attached to it, but it also often has the special properties given to the move like Projectile Invulnerability etc. On most Shadow Moves, this is the part that’s either difficult or impossible to stuff with buttons or other attacks, since Shadows tend to have priority when they’re actually hitting the opponent.
Finally, Recovery Frames occur after the action is completed. Regardless of what it is you’re doing, whether you’re throwing out a Shadow Move or trying to throw or even jumping, these recovery frames are when you are vulnerable. This is where punishments on either block or whiff (or a failed counter breaker) come into play. Often moves with special properties come with the price of higher recovery frames based on risk vs reward. Example: Jabs are quick and safe, but don’t do much damage and cam be overpowered by other moves in certain situations, while an Invincible Reversal Shadow DP crushes anything your opponent does, has great damage, but will leave you wide open to basically any attack your foe can think of if it goes blocked or whiffed.

While frame data is important, you don’t necessarily need to count frames to learn to spot things that you can either stuff or punish. For example, uppercuts are almost universally unsafe in almost every situation, and moves with a long wind up can be beaten out pretty easily. Also note that air attacks hold less priority than grounded ones, which is why Shadow attacks that either send you airborne or happen during flight (S. Leaping Slash, S.Trailblazer, S.Truth-Seeker, etc) can be stuffed by normals or weaker specials.

Also take special care when playing The Arbiter. Most of his specials have a really long startup compared to other characters, shadow or no. Be careful when using them, as a few of them have really bad recovery, too.
Same goes for Tusk.


I’m not an expert, but I hope this helps. :blush:

Frame data and hitboxes are 99% of it. In most cases, whomever’s move makes contact with an active hitbox first will win. That means you want your move to start up before your opponent’s (either because it’s a move with faster startup, or because block disadvantage or wakeup means your opponent isn’t able to start up their move until some time after you start up yours), and you want your move to actually connect, which can come down to looking at things with hitbox display switched on.

There is a priority system that says something like light < medium < heavy < special < shadow or something, with air moves losing some priority, but priority only comes into effect if both moves hit on the same frame. Not getting hit because you were starting up a move thats more badass is not how it works, unless your badass move has some sort of relevant invincibility like a dragon punch.

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