Some Personal Thoughts on the Guarding System

[Favmir]

I'd like to make two things clear first:
I love CrossCode and think the combat system of CrossCode is one of the best I've ever experienced out of all games. I wouldn've have poured such ridiculous amount of time into this game otherwise.

Also I'm very much certain that all of these points I'm making below wouldn't make a difference for 99% of players. I'm only experincing this because I'm a weirdo who plays a lot of CrossCode and trys to do stupid challenge runs. I just felt like typing this out somewhere where other people can see, after so many hours and thoughts I've put into this.


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Recently, I've been trying to do a [no damage/default preset/no element] run of the 2nd PvP for couple weeks, but it's been really, really hard - due to some limitations that hinders you when you're pushing the limits of the combat.

1. Perfect guarding isn't as generous as I'd like(it's fine for attacks that come from far away-such as Sun/Moon Bugs. It's the melee range attacks that are hard), and you can't block while moving. You have to actively stop moving, then press the guard button.

2. Which makes prefect guarding less about reaction time(unless you have some inhumane reaction times, or the attack is coming from a mile away) but more about memorizing attack timings. The limit of my reaction time for perfect guarding is attacks that start from about the 1.5x distance of the melee range. Any closer than that it's all prediction and muscle memory.

3. Which is again, often impossible for PvP fights because Apollo has a LOT of randomized movesets. I guess it's true to the lore at least, since you wouldn't be able to predict an actual person's movements. However since he can escape from player's attacks that should stun-lock enemies, has 100% dodging against ranged attacks, and stands still while glowing red after an attack, I'm sure devs were not going for 100% realism.


As a side note, if I could set dash to a keyboard button while Mouse2 only performing guard it'd make a lot more sense, since you don't dash into the direction of mouse while guarding does. I've already unbound melee from Mouse1 and set it to Space because you don't melee in the direction of the cursor.
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I'd also love to hear some thoughts from fellow players!

[chaosbringer42]

The only advice I could give you would be to get perfect guard gear if you are trying a run like that. With the right gear/skills set up you can almost triple the "perfect guard" timing, which allows a TON of leeway.

Edit : I tried a perfect guard build earlier on and got bored (it made the game a joke, it is literally the best easy mode build in the game).

[Favmir]

Originally posted by chaosbringer42:

The only advice I could give you would be to get perfect guard gear if you are trying a run like that. With the right gear/skills set up you can almost triple the "perfect guard" timing, which allows a TON of leeway.

Edit : I tried a perfect guard build earlier on and got bored (it made the game a joke, it is literally the best easy mode build in the game).

Using the default gear is part of the challenge :D (Default Preset part)

[chaosbringer42]

Then I would have to say, a no damage base gear run would be almost impossible, and in fact is impossible unless you have insane reflexes. There is literally no fix for not having the reflexes without changing gear or using elements. Good luck though, who knows if you try enough you might memorize every single attack -_-.

Edit : However in every duel Appy is quite easy to bait and dodge (its hard to not get hit once, but dodging is easier than trying perfect guards for most of his attacks).

[muxmeister]

At least on controller we have a dedicated button for shield, so we can keep moving right up until we need to guard. Not sure if there’s a similar setup for KB+M.

[R.Heart]

Originally posted by chaosbringer42:

The only advice I could give you would be to get perfect guard gear if you are trying a run like that. With the right gear/skills set up you can almost triple the "perfect guard" timing, which allows a TON of leeway.

Edit : I tried a perfect guard build earlier on and got bored (it made the game a joke, it is literally the best easy mode build in the game).

I don't even bother with Royal Guard modifiers, because Guard arts are so much better. Incredibly long window of opportunity plus a secondary effect, effective on 'larger' enemies that otherwise can't be impacted, just can't go wrong. I only go for perfect guards if I have no SP.

I'd say the hardest builds in the game are the focus heavy ones, with a lean on Flash step for defense modifier. Your defense stat is so low that one mis-step can be fatal. And I screw up a lot more than what Favmir shows in his video.