Now Dragon Ball FighterZ, the wonderful fighting game from Arc System Works based on the famous anime, has been out for a few weeks, advanced players are coming up with some stunning combos. The latest challenge is to Touch of Death solo.
A Touch of Death combo is one that kills an opponent outright - in other words it does 10,000 points of damage. Players discovered a raft of Touch of Death combos shortly after the game came out, but those early efforts involved using each character in a three-person team. Now, players are nailing Touch of Death combos that do not require character swapping at all.
Players have found Cell one of the more useful characters in the game for solo Touch of Death combos, because he's particularly hard hitting and high damage. This tweet from a Japanese player showed off an eye-catching Cell solo Touch of Death combo that, as a Dragon Ball FighterZ enthusiast, blows my mind.
10067出たのでセルゲームはオシマイです。
#PS4share#DBFZ pic.twitter.com/qk1vVgkdvS
Dragon Ball FighterZ combo specialist Clayton Chapman created a video, below, showing off a raft of cool Cell combos. Skip to 2:43 to see a Touch of Death solo Cell combo.
And then we have this combo video, below, from redditor robro, who lands a 99-hit Touch of Death solo Cell combo off of a practical starter - that is, the combo begins from the kind of move that's realistic to use in an actual fight against a real opponent, rather than the training dummy.
This combo begins with 5M, 2M or 6H, which is anime fighting game notation with the Light, Medium, Heavy and Special attack buttons Dragon Ball FighterZ uses. So, you can start this combo with something as simple as pressing medium attack, or down and medium attack, or forward and heavy attack.
As robro explains in a post on the Dragon Ball fighterZ subreddit, you can nail this combo with Sparking level one, but you need at least level two to get the full damage. Sparking refers to Dragon Ball FighterZ' comeback mechanic. The later you leave it, the more it boosts the damage of your characters - but you can use it just once per match.
"I wanted to see if it was possible to get a ToD from a more practical starter," robro said.
"It took almost two days of trial and error, but eventually I got there."
The idea is this combo is a Hail Mary when you have just one character left alive and you've got all seven bars of super meter available. The entire thing looks spectacular, but what I love most about it is how Cell deliberately drops to the ground after a Vanish attack, allowing his juggled opponent to fall so that he switches to Cell's front, thus allowing the continuation of the combo in the corner. Seconds later, there's another Vanish attack to keep the opponent in the corner. Vanish is one of my favourite mechanics in Dragon Ball FighterZ (I expect the pros to do amazing things with it in upcoming tournaments). And, as you'd expect, there's a big level three super combo finish.
It's still early days in the life of Dragon Ball FighterZ, and like all the best fighting games, it'll take months and even years for players to fulfil its true potential. It should be a wild ride.
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