Understanding Floorhugging

Doing the community a service in dispelling misinformation, and providing an easy-to-consume guide to being able to not only understand what Floorhugging is, and what it isn't.

What is Floorhugging?

Floorhugging is a controversial defensive technique that has existed in other platform fighters such as Super Smash Bros Melee, and Project M, that has made its introduction in Rivals of Aether 2.

Before I explain what Floorhugging is, I will first explain what it isnt:

Crouch Cancelling

Crouch Cancelling (CC) is a defensive technique that reduces the amount of knockback you will take from an attack by crouching. It can be used to quickly retaliate with offense of your own after your opponent lazily approaches you with a weak attack. Think of CC as trading your own percent (HP) in exchange for advantage. It contributes to the high-skill ceiling & dynamic interactions in platform fighters such as Super Smash Bros.

Crouch Cancelling is NOT Floorhugging.

SDI & ASDI

SDI (Smash Directional Influence) and ASDI (Automatic Smash Directional Influence) are two unique mechanics in Rivals of Aether 2.

DI

SDI and ASDI are different from DI (Directional Influence), which is used to affect the trajectory of knockback from an attack. (These often get confused.)

SDI vs ASDI

Both of these techniques allow the player to shift their character after being struck by an attack, and during & after hitlag.

Hitlag is the brief period of time your character freezes in place after being hit by an attack.

The key difference between these, is:

SDI happens DURING Hitlag, while inputting a direction.
ASDI happens AFTER Hitlag, while holding a direction.

EDIT: I have been corrected. The correct term is Hitlag, not Hitstun.

Hitlag is the time you are spent "frozen" after being hit by an attack
(You SDI and ASDI during HITLAG, not Hitstun.)
Hitstun is the amount of time AFTER you are hit by an attack where you can DI and/or tech.

Floorhugging

With all of that being said, Floorhugging is when you ASDI Down when you are being hit by an attack, and collide with the floor of a stage, negating a great amount of knockback. This allows players to survive many attacks that would have KOed them otherwise.

In addition, Floorhugging, while providing similar benefits as Crouch Cancelling, is without the commitment nor risk of spending time to crouch, which is largely telegraphed.

Amsah Tech

You do not need to Tech for a Floorhug to be a Floorhug, but the technique for teching after a Floorhug is what is widely called an Amsah Tech. This was popularized by a Super Smash Bros. Melee Player Amsah.

Misinformation

With a mechanic with controversy such as Floorhugging, there WILL be misinformation, and people who WILL misrepresent with those they disagree with. Prominent community members have already done BOTH in regard to this subject, which is disappointing.

I cannot control other people's actions, but what I can do, is suggest you consume educational content, and form your opinions without someone shoving their biases down your throat.

Rescources

I did not come to these conclusions alone. I took the time to educate myself on these topics before I came to speak about them today.

I wish to share with you, a few things I watched/read to better my understanding of advanced mechanics such as these:

Credits to these creators, among others.

Conclusion

While this guide is not perfect, and is a brief summary of incredibly complex mechanics, I hope this helps dispel any confusion & misinfo about this mechanic.

Any questions & corrections is appreciated.

[Lanceps]

"rescources"

great guide though, enjoyed beetle infographics

[Just Ice]

actually a good guide on steam? take the updoot

[HAZELNUT]

This is great! Ty :)

[Ruffie]

Thank you hafwit for the correction !

I misspoke, and I'll be editing the guide shortly.

[hafwit]

Hitstun ≠ hitlag.

Hitlag is the freeze frames. SDI-able.
Hitstun is the inactionable state during launch. DI-able.

[Llama]

"This was popularized by a Super Smash Bros. Melee Player Amsah" I was pretty confused about this sentence untill I figured out that Amsah is someone entirely diffrent than AMSA lol.

[Clobohne]

I wish this was higher in the community tab, because I feel like floorhugging (not crouch cancelling) will negatively impact the game in the long run, as it really diminishes actually hitting your opponent after they already lost neutral (what a wild concept)

Here is hoping they'll patch floorhugging out, cc'ing I dont mind currently as much since its actually a commitment, but could maybe use some adjustment for how long its viable