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Guilty Gear Strive 1.18 patch notes - All Buffs And Nerfs

The Guilty Gear Strive 1.18 patch notes bring a host of balance changes, featuring nerfs to the likes of Sol Badguy, and buffs to Zato and Millia.

By Andrés Aquino |

First Published June 9, 2022, 01:31

Guilty Gear Strive 1.18 patch notes - All Buffs And Nerfs

Guilty Gear Strive is nearing its first anniversary, filled with incredible competitive moments, a stellar initial season of downloadable content and balance changes that aimed to make the game more interesting to play. Arc System Works has revealed the forthcoming changes coming with patch 1.18, filled to the brim with balance changes.

It's a beefy update, as it not only comes with individual changes to characters but an overhaul of almost every system within the game.

Some of the most interesting changes include a slow-down effect on certain counter hits, which opens the opportunity for more combos.

Check out the #GuiltyGearStrive Battle Balance Sneak Peek!
◤System/Universal◢
All P and K normals now trigger slow-down effect on counter hit. pic.twitter.com/xCN1xCHbjA
— ArcSystemWorks ➡️ #GuiltyGearStrive available now! (@ArcSystemWorksU) June 9, 2022

There are big balance changes, with top-tier characters such as Ramlethal, Sol Badguy, and Happy Chaos receiving some nerfs. Meanwhile, fighters like Millia, Zato, and Chipp have been buffed.

Without further ado, let's look at what patch 1.18 of Guilty Gear Strive has to offer.

Guilty Gear Strive patch 1.18 changes

We've made it more rewarding to use moves that have been under-utilized and techniques requiring challenging inputs, while also making the controls more comfortable.

System Changes

Roman Cancel Canceling into normal or special moves from a Roman Cancel now triggers a slow-down effect, and limits the Tension gauge cost.
Counter Hit Some moves such as Standing P and Crouching K now trigger a slow-down effect on counter hit, making combos not normally possible available.
Faultless Defense We looked into finding a way to improve the issue where sometimes a normal attack would come out when inputting Faultless Defense under certain conditions. However, due to the high chance of losing control responsiveness when changing the current input method, we addressed the issue by adding a Faultless Defense button.

Revised Input Mechanism

For Moves with the Same Input for the Grounded and Aerial Versions

Example: Baiken's Tatami Gaeshi (QCF + K Air OK)
As a measure to make the usage of the grounded and aerial versions distinct, for some characters, when a special move was input as a jump started, the aerial version would come out at a low height mid-air if an upwards direction was input ( Up, Up-forward, or Up-back). This resulted in strict input requirements, so we have made the grounded versions activate even when an upwards input is included.

[Note About Move Inputs]

Input Priority for and QCF and Dragon Punch Special Moves

This refers to the general input mechanism of the game, not to a change made in this patch. When an input simultaneously includes QCF and Dragon Punch, Dragon Punch is prioritized, but when HCF is input, QCF is prioritized.
This was previously implemented as a hidden mechanic, but we decided to reveal it in accordance with the above change to how move inputs are handled.

Special Moves Canceling into Overdrives Before Coming Out

This change, although it has several purposes, is mainly intended to make it easier to perform Overdrives where part of the input is the same as a special move. Example: Faust's What Could This Be? and W-W-What Could This Be?

Input Priority for Normal Moves

Under certain conditions, inputs for crouching normals and command normals will now be prioritized over standing normals. For example, previously when inputting Down+S during the hitstop of Close Standing S, if you released Down quickly, Far Standing S would come out. However, with this change, Crouching S would come out.

Other Universal Changes for Characters

Jumping Attacks

As many characters had less utility for their Jumping P compared to their other aerial attacks, we've adjusted the blowback effect on hit, making it easier to convert into a combo.

Dash Cancels

While this was previously only available to some characters, all characters with dashes can now dash cancel their Standing K and Close Standing S.

In addition to increasing the variety of offensive options, this also creates new combos if you quickly cancel the dash into a special move.

Overall Damage Adjustments

Some highly used moves with great versatility have had their damage decreased.

Overdrives that work well as counterattacks have had their attack startup, recovery, etc. revised with their damage remaining unchanged, to make it easier to punish them when blocked.

Changes

yellow rc — Roman Cancel changes will receive some interesting changes. (Picture: Arc System Works)

Roman Cancel

Now triggers a slow-down effect when canceling into a normal or special move. The slow-down effect is only triggered when in close proximity to the opponent.

Now causes the Tension gauge to gradually deplete.

Does not apply to Yellow Roman Cancel.

Blue Roman Cancel

Made the timing for canceling into a normal or special move faster.

Purple Roman Cancel

Made the timing for canceling into a normal or special move faster.

The slow-down effect from Purple Roman Cancels now ends when an attack lands.

Red Roman Cancel

No longer applies any type of scaling when the shockwave from Red Roman Cancel hits the opponent.

Blue Psych Burst

When the player inputs Psych Burst before the opponent's Overdrive activates, the Psych Burst activation will no longer be canceled.

Psych Burst

Fixed a bug where the activation of the Psych Burst's hitbox would be delayed under certain circumstances.

When activated above a certain height in the air, the speed the character rises at is now reduced.

Dash

When input using the dash button, inputting <— directly after the action begins no longer performs a back dash.

Input Priority

During hitstop, moves that require a Down input such as crouching normals and moves that require a Forward input such as command normals are now prioritized over standing normals and jumping normals.

Some Jumping Normals

Depending on the current movement speed of the attacking character, the launch and blowback of the opponent on hit now changes. This change applies to jumping normals not previously impacted by the above mechanic.

Special Moves

Can now be canceled into an Overdrive before the move comes out.

Some Overdrives

Some Overdrives are now affected by prior movement, such as dash momentum.

Faultless Defense

Added a Faultless Defense button.

Decreased amount of Tension Gauge depleted when blocking attacks.

Wall Stick

When wall stick initiates simultaneously with the super flash of certain Overdrives, the wall stick effect will now be prioritized.

Wall Break

Fixed a bug where there would be variation in the distance between the characters after the Wall Break sequence depending on conditions such as the stage when Wall Break was triggered by an Overdrive.

Throws

Fixed a bug where the R.I.S.C. level would deplete more than intended when activating Roman Cancel during a throw under certain conditions.

Aerial Direction Switch

Character now switches directions to face the opponent when canceling some jumping normals into another move late into the animation.

Jump Landing

Fixed a bug where sometimes only crouching moves could be performed under certain conditions.

Standing P