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I don't think the forum has a buffering guide yet, which is a shame, because buffering affects gameplay on a fundamental level - the way we're allowed to give our characters inputs. In light of that, I decided to do research on Brawl's buffering system and put a guide together.
What IS buffering?
Buffering is a feature found in many fighting games. It allows you to enter a command before your character is done with its current action (within a certain time frame, of course,) and the command will execute as soon as your character can perform that action. In other words, it lets you enter commands early. Now that you know what buffering is, let's take a look at how Brawl handles buffering.
General Rules
- The game will retain inputs for slightly more than 1/5th of a second (~13 frames). I tested this in Training Mode, by setting the speed to 1/4 timing how late I can buffer a move with a stopwatch (and obviously, dividing that time by 4.)
- Inputs are handled in the same order they're received. For example, if you're landing from an air dodge and input {Y, Y, Forward + A} shortly before you land, your character will jump, then immediately double jump, and immediately start a forward air.
Buffering on the ground
- If you're holding Back, Forward, Down, or Shield at the time that your character becomes able to act, it'll simply start to walk, crouch, or put up its shield and "forget" to do any action you might've buffered. So if you plan on buffering a Forward Smash or Down Smash using the Analog Stick, don't forget to return it to its initial position. Unfortunately, this also means that buffering a dash is a pain in the *** - you have to buffer the dash, return the stick to neutral, and then hold forward after your character's dash comes out if you want to continue running.
- The above rule has a minor exception - if you buffer a move after a Down Tilt, holding down won't cancel the buffer because your character is already crouching anyways.
Buffering in the air
- There are no commands that'll cancel buffering while in the air.
- Like in Melee, you can buffer a mid-air jump or a Meteor Cancel while stunned. (Careful, though, hitting the Jump button too early will prevent you from Meteor Canceling with the Jump button. However, there's no penalty for using the analog stick.)
- You can't buffer early air dodges, aerials, or Z Button tethers while stunned from an attack.
- Landing during an air dodge has the same lag as landing normally, so you can air dodge before you land to buffer your next move without doing any aerials.
Buffering while in Shield Hit Lag
- You can't buffer rolls during hit lag; the game just interprets it as Smash DI. Can't buffer sidesteps either. You have to wait for hit lag to be over and buffer them during shield stun instead.
NOTE: Buffering while in shield hit lag is a little bit weird...the game seems to handle it differently when an attack has a very large amount of Hit Lag. I've noticed that the game will retain inputs made during the hit lag from shielding far longer than the usual time frame (for example, inputting a shieldgrab while shielding the Halberd's beam, or while shielding two of Samus's Charge Shots back to back.) Putting two and two together, maybe the game handles the commands differently because you're inputting them outside the time frame for "real" buffering? In any case...
- If the attack has a very large amount of hit lag (e.g. Samus's fully charged Charge Shot, Dedede's F-Smash), only Jump and Shieldgrab inputs can be buffered. If a Shieldgrab is buffered, it always takes precedence over jumping, even if you input the jump first. To buffer other actions, you have to wait until hit lag is over and your character enters the shield stun + knockback phase.
- If the attack has "normal" amounts of hit lag (i.e. most attacks would fall into this category), buffering seems to behave as it normally would.
Buffering while in Shield Stun
- Unlike buffering during hit lag, I didn't find any quirks in the buffering system in this phase.
- If you aren't holding the shield button when your character comes out of stun, any buffered commands will be forgotten and your character will simply drop its shield. (You can, however, buffer a move during those few frames of lag you get from dropping your shield.) You can also override buffered commands with a roll or sidestep as soon as your character becomes unstunned, but the timing makes it impractical.
Examples/Applications
- Buffering an attack during the landing lag of an aerial.
- Buffering an attack during the lag time from dropping your shield.
- Buffering JC'd Up Smashes, Up Bs, or aerials out of the shield.
- Buffering dash-grabs during Dedede's chaingrab.
- Buffering shines during Fox's reflector semi-infinite wall combos for greater precision.
- Buffering a shine when performing "jump-canceled" shines with Fox.
- Buffering the next attack in a combo (e.g. buffering an up-tilt after Fox's d-air, or an up-tilt after ZSS's dash attack.)
- Buffering a Dash Attack and Up Smash while your character is lagging from something else to perform Smash Boosting easily.
- Buffering an Air Dodge during the start-up frames of your ground jump to air dodge immediately.
Glossary of Terms
- Hit Lag/Shield Hit Lag: The frames after you get hit, or shield an attack, during which your character (and usually the opponent as well) remain "frozen." Very obvious with powerful attacks like Samus's Charge Shot. For reference, these are the frames during which you use Smash DI.
- Hit Stun: The frames that come after the Hit Lag frames; your character isn't "frozen" any more (and is usually flying in some direction,) but you can't perform actions yet.
- Shield Stun: The same thing as Hit Stun, except when shielding. I.e. The frames after Shield Hit Lag during which your character is sliding from the attack, but you can't perform actions yet.
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I hope this guide is of some use in understanding why the game behaves the way it does sometimes!
what happens if you get hit while on the ledge, can you first SDI up then buffer a jump>a little forward DI>airdodge to return to the stage? If so then this is freaking awesome as I can stall on a ledge until
a) someone hits me off and I jump on the ledge
b) my ultimate timer goes off and I must fall
which allows me to do the float-aerial-thingy(you know where you walk off the stage for just long enough to do an aerial and return back)when I land to catch the person who got me off the edge right as soon as they run out of armor frames(w/ Jiggz as my character at least). Or even better Jiggz specific option is to SDI up>rising pound. I'm either sounding like a n00b, not making sense, not understanding the concept, getting ahead of myself, or not making sense right now.
Very informative guide, thanks for being the first to make a guide like this. I have a question (sorry if this was covered and I missed it), what is the maximum amount of commands able to be buffered? Does it depend on the character/technique or is it just however many you can use in the timeframe?
@Sonic Wave: What's really broken is Smash DI'ing forward while shielding (especially since you can use the C-stick in conjunction with the Analog Stick to get extra Smash DI's if it's set to Smash, and the C-stick will buffer the shieldgrab for you.) Also, thanks.
@1HKO: I'm having a very hard time establishing a connection between your question, and everything that comes after "If so then..." Anyways, if you get hit while grabbing on to the edge, the same thing that'd happen when you get hit anywhere else will happen. Buffering doesn't bend the rules of DI or stun in any way, so I can't imagine how it would let you move forward, jump and air dodge onto the stage when you've just been hit. If that doesn't answer your question, please rephrase it more clearly so I can understand what you want to know.
@Orion: As far as I can tell there's no limit to the amount of commands you can buffer, but it doesn't really matter anyways - most actions take much longer than 13 frames to complete, so by the time the first action is over, the game will already have forgotten about everything else you inputed. The main exceptions are actions like jumps or dashes, since these actions execute instantly (well, near-instantly in the case of ground jumps) and don't prevent the use of other moves. The largest number of actions you could buffer and execute that I can think of is 3: jump -> double jump -> (insert action here); dash -> dash attack -> up smash for Smash Boosting; backwards dash -> roll -> throw to perform a backwards glide toss using a forward roll; or dash -> jump -> throw for an "instant" JC'd throw out of a dash.
Hmm, I pretty much do this instinctively. Nice guide for those unfamiliar with the concept. Buffering in Brawl isn't as big of a deal as in other fighters though since commands aren't as complicated.
Awesome guide, I didn't know that about having to let go of the analogue stick. That explains some stuff.
Some of the cstick's behaviour when buffering still confuses me, though. For example, pressing the c-stick set to specials or tilts very early in the buffer window seems to result in a jump. Also, try holding shield+the analogue stick in one direction, and mashing the c-stick in another direction. Crazy **** happens! :O
Buffering in Brawl isn't as big of a deal as in other fighters though since commands aren't as complicated.
This is very true, but it has far more uses than most people realize. For example, nobody in the Dedede forum realized that you can chaingrab like 10 characters far more easily and without room for mistake by buffering a dash+grab after the down throw, rather than running and doing a shield grab. The first method is practically automatic, the latter leaves room for error (and makes you travel further, too.) By buffering, Fox can also combo his dash attack after a shine, whereas you'd likely miss the timing manually.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mugwhump
Some of the cstick's behaviour when buffering still confuses me, though. For example, pressing the c-stick set to specials or tilts very early in the buffer window seems to result in a jump. Also, try holding shield+the analogue stick in one direction, and mashing the c-stick in another direction. Crazy **** happens! :O
Yes, the C-stick seems to have a jump command somewhere in there when set to Attack or Jump. I haven't the slightest friggin' clue why. It can make you jump in the air if you're mashing it more than necessary (this is especially annoying with multi-jump characters.) As long as you use it within the correct timing for buffering it shouldn't give you any problems, though. Also, if it's set to Specials and you Smash DI while shielding, it'll buffer a jump. This can be used to your advantage if you want to up smash out of the shield.
Yes, the C-stick seems to have a jump command somewhere in there when set to Attack or Jump. I haven't the slightest friggin' clue why. It can make you jump in the air if you're mashing it more than necessary (this is especially annoying with multi-jump characters.) As long as you use it within the correct timing for buffering it shouldn't give you any problems, though. Also, if it's set to Specials and you Smash DI while shielding, it'll buffer a jump. This can be used to your advantage if you want to up smash out of the shield.
*laughs* Yeah, that stupid early-buffered C-Stick jump has confounded my guide plenty. *shakes fist*
Doval, solid resource y'got here, I wonder if you could examine something for me. I've given a little look into it, but nothing thorough enough to give specific answers to when it occurs. In Special or Attack C-Stick setup, there's some peculiarity involving trying to ledge attack using the C-Stick. If you hit it too early or too late, that blasted buffered jump results in a ledgehop instead.
I'd mostly just like a fresh pair of eyes/hands to check it out, see if you can spot any more definitive "how early" or "how late" the inadvertent ledgehop occurs. *sighs* Why would they make C-Stick Specials and Attack even HAVE a jump property?
Awesome guide. I realized something odd was happening when trying to short hop double laser with Falco, but I never would have gone through the efforts to learn the details shown here. Awesome analysis that should be easier to locate than this (I wouldn't have found it if not for the Fox shine thread.. and "buffering" is not something I ever would have thought to search for on my own).
There should be some definitive Brawl Engine Rules and Physics FAQ, and this should be one of the things it points to.
If I could make a suggestion - it'd probably be easier for new players to understand if you put a quick list at the start of basic terms and their meanings (like shield stun, etc). Tournament smashers know all this stuff, but it'd be like a foreign language to a new player.
Otherwise, I really like this guide. Surprised there hasn't been as much of a response.
An in-depth look at Brawl's buffering system
Linear Mode
