A combo is an inescapable sequence of moves that cannot be defended against with any option available to the opponent.
In Tekken 7 and Tekken 8, combos are mostly based on air combos, a.k.a juggles. A combo begins with a launcher, a move that puts the opponent in an airborne state on hit or on counterhit. When airborne, the opponent cannot block, allowing follow-up hits to connect. There exist on-land combos which are much rarer and mostly exist as parts of strings. There are also "fake" combos, so called because they increment the in-game counter, but can be defended with a defensive option, usually by holding back to guard (and not neutral guarding).
Combos are a very important part of Tekken. The damage done from most staple combos far exceeds that done from almost any move, changing the risk-reward on launchers significantly. An important aspect of combos is wall-carry, the distance that a combo pushes an opponent towards a wall. Having an opponent at the wall is a significant strategic advantage, so optimizing the wall-carry of a combo is important as well.
A typical combo follows this pattern: launcher - 3-5 aerial "filler" hits - combo extender - ender (- wall combo)
Launcher
A launcher is a move that puts the opponent into an airborne state on hit or on counterhit. Usually, it refers specifically to moves that allow for a full combo into a combo extension like tornado (Tekken 8) or tailspin (Tekken 7). Certain moves might allow for specific, guaranteed follow-ups without allowing for a full combo. The initial move used to launch doesn't add to the mid-air combo scaling counter. However, there may be one or several combo hits on land before the opponent is put into airborne.
Launchers are divided into several categories:
- Normal launch - puts them in the air for the standard BnB combo to work.
- High launch - puts them very high in the air potentially allowing for a better damage combo, and a high wall splat.
- Crumple stun - makes the opponent crumple, often not allowing for the BnB combo, but potentially allowing for a slow high damage first hit in the combo.
- Instant screw - Makes the opponent instantly go into the tail spin animation, wasting the screw.
- Double hit - in some strings the move before last briefly puts opponent into the white airborne state, and the last hit visually looks like the launcher. Nevertheless, the last hit of the string is the first airborne hit, and adds to the counter, requiring to shorten the combo.
- Backturn launch - flips opponent so their head is towards the player, and requires much more inconsistent or just weaker combo to work on most characters, it also limits some moves from their extensions. BT launch also happens when a normal launcher connects on a BT opponent
Optionally, there may be one or several combo hits on land before the launch, in the end or at any point opponent might hit the wall, allowing for the wall combo, if wall is breakable, it allows for a break, which allows for post-break follow-up. Floor break placement in a combo depends on the character and the base combo.
Filler
Filler hits refer to the sequence of hits landed upon an airborne opponent after the launcher, but before the combo extender. They're used to add damage to the combo, or alter the combo's wall-carry. Every hit in a combo adds to to the player's mid-air hit counter, increasing the pushback that the move does. The pushback mostly depends on this mid-air hit counter rather than the move itself. If the current best damage combo has 6 air hits, and the new one has 5, that means it's likely possible to squeeze in another hit to optimize damage. The number of hits in a combo is relevant post-stage gimmick, since the players get to a set distance, meaning there might be specific combos depending on the number of prior hits.
Combo Extender
A combo extender refers to a move that causes the opponent to enter a game-specific animation (tornado in Tekken 8, tailspin in Tekken 7), that allows further extending a combo. Without combo extenders, most combos would end after 4-5 hits due to the pushback from subsequent hits, and not allow for very long wall carry (look at Tekken 5). Some combo extenders realign opponents, which is helpful in backturned combos.
There is only one combo extender available to any given combo. In Tekken 7, some Rage Drives put the opponent into an animation similar to a tailspin, yet it isn't, it's often called blue screw, specifically because it doesn't spend the tailspin.
Ender
An ender refers to a sequence of moves used to close out a combo. Usually, a character has a number of enders to choose from to optimize either damage or wall carry. Enders are frequently altered in order to achieve a desirable wall splat, and thus land a wall combo. Enders may also be altered to trigger an interaction with a stage hazard.
Wall Combo
When an airborne opponent hits the wall, when a knockdown move has a specific kind of animation and hits near wall, when a move with ballerina spin hits near wall, the opponent gets into the wall splat. Wall splat allows for several (2-4) hits with opponent slowly going down. Wall splat also has a counter for the total wall hits, with each hit opponent slumps down more and more quickly. Each wall hit adds up to the mid-air hit counter as well.
The initial wall splat doesn't add to the wall hit counter, thus if you're able to get the opponent away from the wall and hit the wall again - you are still able to do the same wall combo. When that happens it's called resplat.
Wall slump is a unique part of a combo. It doesn't add to the wall hit counter. If the move that hits in a wall slump has a break property - it can't break. It can resplat and thus some characters' wall combos deal so much damage and have so many hits because of the wall slump mechanic. Wall slump also occurs after a wall break.
Wall splats are sometimes divided into:
- Normal splat - allows for BnB wall combo
- High splat - allows for an extra hit in the BnB combo
- Low splat - doesn't allow for the full wall combo, doesn't allow wall slump properly.
Depending on the character splats may be subdivided into more categories.
After a floor break often you can use an extra move to resplat the opponent, that's an extension of other information on the page, and isn't specifically a mechanic.
Break
See also: Stage break
Balcony break occurs when a wall break move hits the opponent at the wall, mostly in combos, but not in wall slumps or grounded. When activated the player and the opponent are put at the same perpendicular to the broken wall coordinate as the opponent was before the break, at a set distance from each other, with a set amount of frame advantage no matter the combo beforehand, and always realigned to be perpendicular to the broken wall. The opponent after balcony break is slightly higher than after a typical launcher, sometimes allowing for a better damage hit.
Wall break occurs under the same circumstances as the balcony break, but the important distinction is that it doesn't realign the characters, the advantage after is based on the move that broke the wall, and it's possible to hit a wall slump hit directly after the break. It also doesn't change the stage, but rather increases it.
Floor break occurs when a spike type move hits an airborne opponent on a breakable floor, some moves do not require opponent to be airborne. Upon break two players are moved to the next floor, and opponent ground bounces with their head towards the player, the exact advantage depends on the move that broke the floor.
All the breaks do add to the mid-air hit counter, addition to the wall hit counter depends on the move, sometimes one move can count as multiple wall hits.
Scaling
Scaling refers to a property of Tekken's combo system where the damage from subsequent hits on an airborne opponent is scaled by a certain percentage value. If the "scaling is 30%", it means the damage done by the next hit will instead be 30% of the base damage value of the move, rounded down.
The primary factor affecting scaling is the number of airborne hits inflicted upon the opponent so far, as maintained by the in-game counter. The scaling decreases after each hit, also depending on the current value of the counter:
| Hits | Scaling |
|---|---|
| 1 | 70% |
| 2 | 50% |
| 3 | 40% |
| 4+ | 30% |
For e.g., for an example combo starting with a df+2 as df+2 > df+1 > df+1 > df+1 > df+1 > df+1, the hits will be scaled as 100% > 70% > 50% > 40% > 30% > 30%. Once the opponent is forced into a different state like launching them into the air, the damage scaling will restart with its respective damage scaling counter.
Note: at low scaling values, there are observed inaccuracies with the calculation of damage after scaling. For example, Reina's f,F+3+4 has a base damage of 22. After a long combo without T! into a wall splat, into b+4 WT!, it hits at a scaling of 24%, meaning its damage should be 5 points. However, the in-game damage is 4 points.
Scaling for Wall Combos
After a wall hit, all subsequent hits are scaled by a further 80%. For example,
70% > 50% > 40% > 30% > 30% >… becomes 56% > 40% > 32% > 24% > 24% >…
Low wall slump hits scale as 50% > 30% depending on the number of hits in the low wall slump state, and irrespective of the number of prior hits in the combo. They are affected by other scaling factors from rage and stage hazards, but not from wall hit or aerial Heat Burst.
Scaling for Stage Hazards
Wall hazards (wall break, balcony break, wall bound, wall blast) scale subsequent hits by 90%. Floor hazards (floor break, floor blast) scale subsequent hits by 70%.
In a given combo, you may only trigger multiple wall (or balcony) breaks. All other stage hazards may only be triggered once in a combo, and no other hazard can be triggered after. The scaling for multiple wall breaks goes as 70% after one break, 60% after two breaks, and 50% after three or more breaks.
Scaling for Grounded Hits
The base scaling on all grounded hits is 80%, and is affected by scaling factors from rage and stage hazards, but not aerial Heat Burst.
Scaling during Rage
In Rage, all hits are further scaled by 110%. This is independent of the remaining amount of health the player has left in Rage.
Scaling after Aerial Heat Burst
After a Heat Burst in a combo, all subsequent hits are further scaled by 70%. However, the hit from the Heat Burst itself does not count towards the mid-air counter.
Geese's On land combos
Geese has a unique on land combo damage scaling, in the form of:
100% > 100% > 80% > 70% > 60% > 50% > 40% > 30% > 20% > 10% > 10% >…
This is the same damage scaling as seen in modern Street Fighter games.
In-game counter
In practice mode game will often say a thing is a combo even if it truly isn't, or not say if something is a combo if it truly is. The former is based on the way game handles recovery frames, to avoid being misdirected the dummy (cpu opponent) is set Action 2 - Full Guard. The latter does actually tell information about the combo, as according to the game combo might be finished, but according to what actions are available to the opponent, combo might continue with reset counters and damage scaling.
On land combos
On land combos, more commonly known as natural combos are inescapable sequences of moves with the opponent staying on the ground the whole time. All hits receive 100% scaling and do not add up to any of the counters that affect the gameplay. A typical example of a natural combo are the jab strings on almost every character, notable being Mishima 1,1,2, which is not just fully guaranteed after the first hit, it's also very confirmable.
Often strings being natural depends on the counter hit, and often it's confirmable as well. Example: Zafina d+4,3
Sometimes (very rarely) moves leave opponent at +10 or better, not +10g, which means one string can lead to another without cancelling. This happens very rarely, example: Lei fn1 on a crouched opponent is +11 and it combos into the jab strings
When opponent is backturned some strings become fully natural, allowing for very big damage
Grounded hit, relaunch, and guaranteed follow-up
After some knockdown moves, or after spike moves, opponent can't techroll, allowing for a guaranteed hit, even though opponent is technically in control. That isn't the only way a grounded hit can occur, that one doesn't add up to the combo counter, and allows on some characters with quick 2 hit moves to relaunch the opponent, resetting all counters and scaling. Some Rage Drives and some knockdown moves just have so much frame advantage, and they still put the opponent into the grounded state, that if you do relaunch from there, all counters do still exist.
Grounded hit refers to any 80% scaling hit, guaranteed follow up most of the time refers to what is guaranteed and inescapable, but isn't a combo.
External links
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