Frame Data

What are all these numbers everwhere? It’s simple: think of a film, a movie, a cartoon, a smartphone video: it’s all captured in frames – a video is a collection of frames.  One still image is a frame.  Some videos are 15 frames a second while others are 120.  KOFXIV is made in 60fps (frames per second).

The first column of numbers represents the Startup – the amount of frames before a move is active – before it hits (otherwise known as OH – On hit).  This tells you how fast a move is – the animation (how it looks) is irrelevant, it’s how many frames must pass before it can actually hit that is critically important.  These have been tested and recorded for you.

The second column is the On Block or On Guard,  this tells you how many frames you will be vulnerable, if this move is blocked.

Example: First player (1P) Iori uses a close standing HP, it is 4 frames on hit and -5 on block.  So if 2P Iori blocks this, he can punish him with his own close standing HP.  If 2P Iori tries to punish with far HP (9 frames) it will not work because after 5 frames 1P Iori can block again!
After this simple math, the problem is push back: the further away the opponent is, they more they need to move closer, and that takes frames of animation…

If Iori attacks a blocking Iori with crouch LK it is +2 on block which means 2P Iori would need 11 frames (9+2) to punish.  Apart from EX moves which are mainly positive, normal positive moves are few and far between and give the player an advantage, use these to fool the opponent into thinking they can attack!

There are two ways to look at Frame Data:

1. Get the app 

2. Look at the Frame Data supplied with each character on the last tab of the guide pages here!
Now go check out those character guides (back to top and go through the tabs) and learn about their specific strengths and strategies!