Rumpelstilzchen's Fighting Tutorial

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ESF Fighting Tutorial for Beginners



Intro:

This guide is made for all new people and those who spam all the time because they dont know how to fight properly,
and who think that this game is boring because they always get annihilated and don't know why.
I also don't want to be called cheater anymore which im absolutely not!
It will give you a lot of info that will improve your fighting as it did mine
(if you don't know everything already).

It is strongly recommended that you read the original manual from ESForces.com before
you read this guide. And you should also have a look at the Flash Tutorial at ESF-World.com
Also do read the Stickies, you might find some more advanced tactics
in there.

And now enjoy reading.



My favourite key layout:

......................Q (Block)...W (Forward)...E (Turbo)...R (5)....T (6)

.......................A (Left).....S (Backwards..D (Right)...F (Fly)....G (Teleport)

Shift (Recharge)..Z (Ascend)..X (Descend)...C (7).......V (8)

Ctrl (Down)................Space (Jump/Up)

Mouse:...LMB: Fire
............RMB: Alternate Fire
............Mwheel scroll up/down: Teleport
............Mwheel click: 1 (Melee)
............B4: Turbo
............B5: Block



Ki = stamina needed for all actions but walking.
........If you don't use any Ki it will regenerate slowly.
........If you run out of Ki you lose the capability to fight and even to move!!
PowerLevel affects the damage you deliver and receive, your chance of random arrows,
........and how fast you trans (if high enough!!).
........If you reach Perfect PL you can trans instantly.
........You will gain PL when you inflict damage (not kills), your opponent gains PL
........when he damages you.
........The amount of PL you gain is dependant on the strength of your opponent, if you
........become stronger you gain less PL.
LifeForce: when your health is below 5 your PL(!) (and Ki) will drop over time (you regain
........your PL after you respawn) and you can't ascend any more.
........When PL or LF drops to zero, you die.
Transition: ability to Change Form (CF) to the next level (e.g. SuperSaiyanJin):
........more PL, speed, LF, extra
........abilities, Ki cost is halved. If you run out of Ki you will descend automatically (if you
........have the ability to descend).


You don't have to play the characters in the order I placed them but its often
better to take a character based on your skill level so you don't lose damage
potential, otherwise you may never get your char to the next level.
If you get pawned by someone and don't get PL to transition level, try a
character with an earlier trans.
(don't change your character in mid-game or you will lose a lot if not all of your PL!!)



Character Layout:
Character Name (Special attacks)

!!! (+) = new after trans, (-) = lost after trans !!!






Trunks (Burning Attack, Finishing Buster (+))
LF 110.....Speed 180.....StartingPowerLevel 0,65M
LF 130.....Speed 250.....TransitionPL 1,0M (x2).....PerfPL 3,0M
Special: Sword gibs victim at 20% LF
Pro: earliest trans, blinding attack, powerful blast (+), 2x PL (+)
Con: slow, low health (-), no big beams, no big blasts (-)


Trunks is very good for beginners because he is so simple to use.
His low PL and low health means less PL gain for your enemy (unattractive target for high PL
players). He also has no complicated attacks at start. His slow speed is easy to control even
transformed and he transes very early (with 2x PL multiplier) so he can take on even stronger
and faster opponents. To out-weight the lack of speed, he has his early trans and a sword that
he uses instead of any strong melee combo attack to kill the enemy in one strike if below
20%LF (which means 20-36 damage instead of 5-10, if he strikes downwards he can cut his
victim into pieces).




BASICS:

First set your mouse sensitivity as high as possible until you have problems with aiming (you
don't need long range sniping in this game, you need fast turn rates!).


Recharge your Ki every time you have breathing time! You can also auto-recharge Ki slowly
when you don't use any Ki (and don't fly). Remember that you are a glowing sitting duck
when you recharge
.
Never run out of Ki!!! If you do, all your attacks explode (worst case: in your hands), then
you fall to the ground and receive damage if you don't recharge ASAP. If you get hit when
you are out of Ki and loose consciousness you can't recover for a long period especially if
you get hit into a wall or the ground => perfect practice target for a KiBlobCombo. It will take
some time before you are able to recharge enough Ki to evade.



Movement:
Start by jumping off the ground and press F to stay in the air. Press again to drop.
Press F9 to engage your scouter. Set it to mixed mode, so you can see the PL of your enemy
when you want (aim at him).
You can also set it to radar only mode if you play a lot with radar.
The dot size on the radar depends on the players' PL, so pick the weaker targets first and stay away
from the PL monsters, they can often kill you with only one attack without taking damage.
But if you can manage it to damage them, you will gain a gigantic PL reward.


Try to move around in the air (fly upwards with Jump and downwards with the key you
assigned).
You might use Turbo (drains your Ki over time) to increase your movement (not swooping)
speed and your PL by 25% (but you will gain less PL during damage calculation).
So just don't use it for movement, only use it to boost your strong attacks more.

Learn to swoop forward (double tap forward + hold) and in all other directions.
You should get used to move around using swoop most of the time.
Get used to ForeverSwooping
(double tap in different direction while swooping).
Swooping will drain your Ki over time (and normal flying does, too).

Try to stay on the move most of the time as fast as possible, this is crucial for surviving
because you are a lot harder to hit! You should only stand still for recharging or after
you made sure that you are absolutely save, or you will be hit by attacks, in worst case
instant kill attacks.



Learn to Teleport (actually it's a super fast form of floating) in all directions for quick
movement and last second evasion.
Use it frequently!!! The after-image will add to the confusion of the enemy. Very good when
followed by an unexpected attack. The more you get under pressure the more frequently you
should use teleport evasion and recharge.
Try out combinations of teleport with swooping and recharging.
As long as you get hit, you have to work on these skills.

I strongly advise you to train with bots first!!! They are really good to develop a decent skill
before fighting human players (an average human player has about the skill of a bot set on
best, and there are stronger Bots available, and even a lot stronger human players).
I advise you to use the Bot personality editor (in the esf folder) at first to spawn a target drone
that can't fight back.

Don't be pissed when someone kills you without effort, just try to hit them once or twice,
before you die and you get trained in no time.
Train your movement and evasion skills and your orientation to live longer
instead of choosing
a char with more health.

If you still get hit all the time, try to use your ears, too. Listening makes orientation a lot easier,
and it often saves your live because you can spot attacks which don't come in from the front.
Train your ears and you may even be able to fight your opponent while being blinded.



Simple Melee:
Your main and most effective attack at first is simple melee (1, hold or click RMB, best while swooping).
Don't underestimate this attack, it is the most economical attack in the game and has good damage potential
(The damage can be increased significantly when you link simple melee with combos).
If you are fast enough and have good reflexes you can score 1 extra hit.
Just swoop again while holding RMB (if you are too slow use tele instead, but watch your Ki).
This attack is strong enough to hit your opponent unconsciousness. He will fly away with high speed
and can hit walls for extra damage when he doesn't recover fast enough
(only 1x extra damage, but if he bounces off you can hit again and again).

Learn to TeleMelee to hit close enemies (Tele + hold RMB). You can score one extra hit by
using telemelee again before he recovers (when your opponent starts to stand up you can't hit
him with melee until he is ready to fight again).
Always remember that swooping has a higher priority and hits when you use tele.
When using Telemelee always remember that it drains Ki rapidly.

Try to hit your enemy when he is unaware of you, when he runs low on Ki, after his swoop
stops or right at the start of a swoop, which is very hard because you need perfect timing and
when you are too late you risk a dangerous Head-on where you hit each other.
If you get into a dog fight try to confuse the enemy with sharp unexpected turns and teleports
and hit him in the back or the sides or from above or below, so he has no chance to defend himself.



Defense:
If you get hit yourself and lose consciousness, hold LMB to recover
(Jump works sometimes, too, best you hold both)
this costs a small amount of Ki, that means when you are out of Ki you can't recover until you auto-recharged some.

If you are stuck on the floor hold Jump to get up.
Hold jump before you hit the floor to land on your feet + a direction to jump/flip away.
If you are stuck to a wall or landed on your feet press Jump to jump off the surface
(if possible tele away after that and start a swoop or recharge).
This should be your standard takeoff (Jump+Tele+Swoop+Recharge).
Don't stay close to walls! They can be the reason for instant death (even with own attacks).
If you have been hit by advanced Melee (prepunches) and your opponents decided for combo mode,
try to match the arrows on the left to evade. If the attack is a fake (random arrow) try to guess.



Support Attacks
Try to get used to the first support attack, the very fast but weak KiBlasts (2).
Best used when the enemy stands still or swoops towards you (it will distract but not stop him,
so don't forget to evade afterwards) and whenever you kick an enemy away for follow-up hits.
It's the fastest non-laser attack and costs almost no Ki. They are weak but do a lot of damage
when used often or in combination with other attacks.
One of the best attacks to harass your opponent, so he can't recharge efficiently.
If you shoot enough KiBlasts in one spot, a KiBlob will form which deals constant damage
over a short period and can burst when overloaded.

Use rapid KiBlasts (RMB) when s.o. is stuck to the wall/ground or if he blocks your Kiblasts
because they may hit around the block.
Also useful at longer ranges where the coincide, but standard KiBlasts are a lot easier to aim.
Rapid KiBlasts also create a KiBlob faster which does huge damage over time if someone lies in there
(Combo: shoot s.th. into the Kiblob => overall damage radius doubles).

You can use them as a main attack when your opponent is recharging to deny him new Ki,
so he runs low on or out of Ki during evasion, which will make fighting so much easier,
because it shrinks his action radius and his ability to fight.

KiBlasts can BeamCounter a Generic Beam or other weak attacks. The beamer will lose
beam control (but is now invulnerable) and must use energy to push it quickly into an obstacle
(while you use a KiBlobCombo on him or wait for a melee hit behind his back).
Remember that KiBlasts and all other non-melee attacks can injure yourself, especially when
you are very close to a wall.


This concludes basic training. Mastering these basic skills is crucial because all your
advanced attacks are based on them. Basic attacks will always work even in the most difficult
situations and against the strongest enemy because they are simple and don't need much Ki.







ADVANCED:

With all advanced attacks you can deal a lot more damage but only when used correctly.
Use them in the wrong situation and you will often waste a lot of Ki and receive a lot of
damage. It's also not good if you spam attacks because the enemy will expect this and may
counter it, try to be creative with all attacks.


Advanced Melee:
If your enemy is weaker (less PL) you can use Advanced Melee Combos.
Just swoop without holding LMB/RMB.
Advanced Melee begins with a sequence of up to 12 very weak automatic Prepunches which
can't be blocked after the first one hits. If you don't do anything you and your opponent will
both fly away a bit after the 12th hit. All 12 together do about the damage of a basic melee hit
and use a lot more Ki. If you want to stop loosing Ki either click(!) LMB or RMB to release
the enemy or hold LMB which will engage Combo Mode to create attack series.

You get about 0.66 sec Combo Time for each of the first 5 pre-punches (stun your enemy a
bit). After that each of the remaining 7 punches will use 0.5 sec from the time. Your enemy
cannot attack during that time but he can try to dodge your attacks.

As long as you hold the LMB you stay in Combo Mode and load punches for your enemy by
pressing different direction buttons (up/down/left/right and 4x diagonal). You can increase the
strength of the punches from weak (green) to medium (blue) and strong (red) by holding a
direction longer. These do more damage and are harder to evade because the
weak/medium/strong attack has a 15/25/35% chance to appear as a random arrow (which
has 75% chance to hit if it is unpredictable). A high PL advantage/disadvantage will
increase/decrease the chance that a random arrow appears.

A medium hit will also stun the enemy so the next weak punch can't be dodged (Block Breaker).
A strong hit stuns the enemy longer and the next medium punch or the next 2 weak
punches will connect. Try use these effects to your advantage.

If the strong punch is at the end it can hit your enemy unconsciousness and send him flying
away similar to a SimpleMelee hit. Trunks has a sword strike as strong left punch and if the
strong downward punch kills s.o. Trunks cuts him to pieces.

You can also do kicks which do 1-2 extra damage (hold RMB instead of LMB after combo
time started).


After you made your last attack, your enemy's round starts. He gets the whole time from the
attacks he dodged.
If you release both buttons you will loose the rest of your time and release the enemy after his
turn (only do that if the enemy's PL is a lot more or your health is low). The same happens if
the whole time from evading is used up.
Max possible is 3 rounds for attacker and 2 for defender.

You have best chances to deal damage with a high PL advantage, it might give you double or
triple damage and you may receive half or only a third of normal damage and the chances to
send more and receive less random arrows increase.

When he starts his attacks you can dodge by matching the arrows appearing on the left (you
may have to adjust view to a dark background to see them better). Diagonal arrows can be
dodged by 2 directions.

If a random arrow appears you have to outguess your enemy (most likely up or down or where the nearest wall is).
If a lot of random arrows appear your enemy is too strong and you should quit adv. Melee ASAP.
If your enemy is stronger it is likely that he evades all your attacks easily, stealing all the combo time
from you (without paying Ki for the prepunches), and then sends a lot of randoms to you.

So it's not a good idea to engage a strong opponent with combo mode, use basic melee
instead or if your opponent runs low on Ki throw him.


There are 2 secret special combos available at the moment.
If one of the hits connect you get an extra combo for additional damage.
The first combo consists of 3 weak punches, the second 3 weak punches and a medium kick.
To find out the exact directions just ask some online players or train a bit with strong bots.
You automatically press the correct directions when evading the combo successfully.
This means they are not really useful against all players who know the combos.
But with a high PL advantage your opponent might get too many randoms to spot the combos.
Don't concentrate on these combos as its more important to test own unexpected combinations
and train on movement, awareness and aiming to get better.


The Throw is a possibility to use a lot of your Ki to throw your opponent to a
wall/ceiling/floor where he will be stuck for a second and receive extra damage.
It is also a lot easier to aim for a specific direction with a throw compared to Basic Melee.
Just hold RMB directly after the first 6 prepunches (throw earlier if you have not enough Ki
for 6 prepunches + throw). Charge longer to throw a longer distance.
Your enemy may use every spare Ki to resist the throw (LMB) (spending Ki which you have
to pay additionally), hoping that you run out of Ki.
If you do, release him ASAP (in the first stage you will be thrown back, too) or you will receive an auto-hit
when you run out of Ki.
If he is nearly out of Ki when he hits a surface he will fall to the ground and give you some
more seconds to recharge or to punish him for his foolishness. Like unlimited ceiling hitting
or ground blobbing.

But if he has a small amount of Ki left he can use it to recover and jump off the surface to
escape or counterattack.
The Throw normally works even on very strong opponents if started with full Ki and a wall
within medium range.
If you throw in a smaller angle to a wall, your victim bounces away giving you more time
for additional damage.


A Head-on with Advanced Melee is even more dangerous than with basic melee.
If your opponent uses a simple melee attack it will hit first and you can only attack him with
up to 12 prepunches (no combo time) spending a lot of Ki for doing the same damage (quit
with LMB). If you run out of Ki during prepunching, the enemy auto-scores one basic melee hit.

If he uses an Advanced Melee attack in a head-on instead, too, you both have to evade random attacks,
the one with more evaded attacks receives no damage and inflicts a special combo on the opponent.
Every time someone is in a struggle or an Adv. Melee fight he will be invulnerable to other
attacks but people outside will certainly wait for easy prey.
This time in god mode may be of good use when attacking someone who charges a high damage attack.
If you use basic melee instead, you just hurt yourself, in worst case you punch the foe away
and get his disc in the face.


Support Attacks:
The next attack is the Generic Ball (3, RMB). You should always turbo charge this and other
weak attacks to increase power and deceive your attack a bit.
You can BeamCounter even strong beams with it (but it won't slow the stronger attacks
much so don't forget to tele, if the attack is too strong the weaker attack will just disappear).
You can also use it for Melee support. You have to charge it at least to minimal charge or the
charge energy will be lost. Charge it longer for more damage, size and explosion radius
but only when you have enough time to hit your target afterwards.


The Generic Beam has the same power as the ball but you can control it to hit moving targets
and you can slowly pump more power into it (hold LMB). It needs some training to be
accurate with this attack.
If your aiming is off you can use the Remote Explosion (RMB) to hit the enemy with the
explosion radius, this will also stop any swoop and you can counterattack with melee.
Don't forget that you will be immobile after firing (and with some beams even during charge,
but you can drop to the ground (F) if you want to evade). You should prefer to switch
attacks and tele away (if you switch after you fired a beam, it will explode).
Like the ball it could also be used to counter a beam PowerStruggle) but this is very difficult
and dangerous because it's likely to drain all of your Ki to stop a stronger beam.
If your enemy runs out of Ki and/or you are able to push it to the blue section, you will win.
Use Turbo to increase your chances of winning at the cost of Ki.
In the worst case you will get hit with both beams plus the struggling energy.
and then you are left with no Ki to be finished by anyone.
You can win the PS easily when your PL is a lot higher and when the enemy's beam is not too strong.
Instead of trying to overpower the enemy, a beam can be used to channel the stronger beam
around you if done correctly. When you don't pump Ki into it and it explodes far away from
you, you may have a big Ki advantage.


Remember that every beam has the feature to Beam Jump. Hold Jump after you fired it and
when it hits a wall it will push you away with beam speed instead of exploding.
This is the fastest (not quickest) and most economic way to evade, especially when you missed
your beam attack. You will be faster than any swoop, especially when you engage Turbo.
You will also drift after the beam explodes (after releasing Jump).
Drifting is for free and you can move with high speed, but gravity will make you lose altitude rapidly.
You can charge attacks during the drift without losing speed.

A often used technique is to BeamJump in the last second so the enemy will be in the damage
radius and not you. Be careful that you have enough Ki left or the beam will explode before
you get away.



Trunks also features the Burning Attack which is mainly used as a follow up hit
(crappy damage) to blind the enemy briefly.
It might also stop a swooping foe but it's quite hard to hit with it's small explosion radius.
You will be immobile during charge so drift before charging.
(After BeamJumping or press Fly button after swooping with good timing.)
It is useless for beam counter.




Defense:
One of the most important things is to save Ki during a close fight when you don't have time
to recharge. If you run out of Ki you are defenceless and your opponent can play basketball
with you. Tele away and recharge before this can happen.


To save Ki use drifting/falling/floating (F) after a swoop. You will regenerate Ki slowly and
you travel without speed loss. Try to combine with jump when you hit the ground, and you
won't lose any speed.
You can turn around and shoot/charge attacks while you float, and
when used with turbo
(which may be engaged before you swoop) it will look just like another swoop.


As a last resort you can use Block (which will take longer than tele but costs almost no Ki).
Block is only useful for special situations and tele is better most of the time.
Remember that you can use block while drifting but you always need good aim or it is completely useless.
Block weak attacks if you are low on Ki or want to save it.

If you block simple melee you will only receive about 25% damage and may hit right back if
you are quick enough (but you may get hit again if the enemy expects you to block).
If you block Advanced Melee you won't receive damage by the prepunches (as long as you have Ki
to block them), combo time will be halved and you can't be thrown.

So quite a good alternative when you have higher PL, as the enemy loses a lot of Ki for nothing.
If you block very weak beam/blast attacks you will throw them back or swat them away
(rapid Ki Blasts are hard to block because they hit from the side and create Kiblob).
Splash damage can't be blocked usefully.

Stronger attacks (when not detonated right in front of you) will push you away and force you
in a dangerous BlockStruggle.
If you block a strong blast, you have to overwhelm the power of the attack.
If you block a strong beam you have to overwhelm the attack and then the enemy.
Only block strong attacks if you have a lot more Ki and PL or a lot of space to break.
Evasion is much better!!

On the other side if you block the strong attacks of weaker foes you will drain their Ki and
then throw the very strong blocked attack at them. But most of the time evasion is the best
choice.
Block is often a lot more useful when you have higher PL, as you can swat away stronger
attacks, win BlockStruggles easily and have a higher chance to win in an Adv. Melee Fight.
Remember that blocking cannot stop discs or lasers!



The next level:
Transforming with Trunks is easy if you develop your skills. He can trans after the CF bar
has filled completely (at 1M PL). Keep in mind that you can be hit with every non-melee
attack during transformation.
At level 2 his speed will be higher so his teleports and swoops will be longer and his PL
doubles so he will gain less PL but inflict more and receive less damage. With the added
health and PL you are much harder to kill, but you give more PL to the enemy in one hit kills,
making you an attractive target.
His speed is not as high as other chars at lvl2 so you may have to use more teleports to make up for it.
In form 2 you will also use only half of the Ki for every action making it much harder to run out.

You should only ascend if you want to boost your stats. If you have no problems defeating
your enemies, you should descend again to gain more PL (especially if your strong attacks
are about to hit). Your opponents will also gain less PL for damaging you.
The characters with later transes are more powerful so its better to gain as much PL as you
can before they trans.
You will also trans faster when your PL gets higher. At 3M you reach PerfectTrans, so you
can trans within 1 sec if your enemy is too strong (or even trans while drifting).
That means you can switch levels often to boost your PL.

As a general rule you should trans when your health is low because you can only get in a
small amount of damage before you die.
If the enemy has higher PL try to prevent that he transes, he will become that much harder to
defeat. But when your skill is still better, you can gain PL faster when fighting vs. powerful characters.


The Finishing Buster is a new attack at level 2. It's like a very strong Generic Ball, fire and
forget. Don't forget that you are immobile during charge, when you don't float.
It's very good to stop beams (use a KiBlobCombo while he is struggling, shoot a Turbo
charged FB in the blob just before he stops struggling, tele away and recharge
while you enjoy the explosion).
A nice feature of the FB is that it is invisible during charge, so you may surprise your foes.

My favourite combo with Trunks: 2x Telemelee (+ extra hits) + min. charged Blinding Attack
+ 5 Auto Punches + Medium Kick + Large Special Combo + strong Sword Slash downwards
-> while dropping turbo-charge Finishing Buster to min. charge and release + recharge,
-> attack with KiBlasts when he changes pos. to recharge + then melee again.



As a general rule use simple attacks vs. stronger opponents and more
difficult and powerful attacks vs. weaker opponents.


Weaker attacks are often the best counter attack to stronger or advanced attacks and you often
have more Ki left for evasion.


Try to get comfortable to counter attacks with the most efficient method.
If your movement skill is getting better, increase the mouse sensitivity!
When you know all attacks like the back of your hand and develop a decent skill you don't
need to trans ASAP and I advise you to change from Trunks to Gohan soon.





Gohan (Masenko, Shield Attack, Kamehameha (+))
LF 100.....Speed 180.....StartPL 0,6M
LF 120.....Speed 280.....TransPL 1,0M (x2).....PerfPL 3,5M
Special: Shield
Pro: good speed (+), early trans, 2x PL (+), powerful beam (+)
Con: slow (-), no big beams (-), no big blasts, low health, low starting PL


Gohan has the second earliest trans and the attacks are pretty easy to use, too.
He is very similar to Trunks with lower health but faster and with stronger beams (and no sword).
This makes it a good deal easier to fight versus transed characters

You should bind new buttons for your attacks (after #4) to reach them easily!


Masenko is a stronger form of the Generic Beam but costs a lot more Ki and has about
double the charge time (immobile during charge). Best used at short-medium range with short
turbo charge and while drifting to surprise melee attackers.
Perfectly for stopping swoops or for follow up hits.
It is a nice alternative for melee support but never use it to counter another beam (PowerStruggle)
because its quick charge drains to much Ki inefficiently.


To counter beams you should take the Shield instead. It channels all damage into your Ki pool
(very strong attacks can instant kill you, shield will break when pummelled some time by
attacks and Ki is running out and then you receive damage while you can't evade).
It also makes you invulnerable to melee attacks.
If you release LMB the shield will vanish and you stay immobile for another second (but you
can tele).
If you hold RMB before releasing LMB all of the shields energy is stored in a blast
attack with a tiny blast radius but all the energy and damage of the stored Ki, so it is only
useful for BeamCounter when you run low on Ki and risk to break the shield.
Be careful Discs, Lasers and splash damage go right through your shield, drop or tele to evade.


If you reach 1M PL and decide to trans him you will get nearly the same boons as Trunks.
He will get a better speed boon to boost his melee capability and instead of the Finishing
Buster you'll get the Kamehameha, one of the most powerful beams in the game. It is like a
Generic Beam, with about 5x charge time and power and even more Ki usage (but you are
SSJ now so Ki is not so problematic). It is slow and hard to control but it's explosion radius
makes it possible to hit even at long range and makes it very hard to evade, but with the right
technique it is not too hard to counter. Remember that you commit instant suicide if you don't
handle this attack carefully.
Only use the minimal charge when fighting at medium range where quick charge is more
important than power, or use a Masenko instead.
Remember that you are very vulnerable while using this attack so watch your surroundings and radar.

Nearly every blast can PowerStruggle a Kame(hameha). After that you will have lost a lot
of Ki making it hard to evade counterattacks when you come out of god mode.
If someone PowerStruggles you with a beam you have to reach him before you run out of Ki,
so don't overcharge the beam too much at the beginning.
A longer charge means longer range when you want to hit the enemy because of explosion
radius but in a PS explosion radius and extra damage is wasted energy. When getting into a
PS your max time decreases the longer you charged the beam because you wasted Ki for explosion
radius and damage. Damage is not important in a PS because you usually hit with 2 beams
plus the added energy from the struggle. If the beams are going to explode behind you,
it might be a good idea to save some Ki for some emergency teleports, instead of wasting
your last Ki into explosion radius that may hit you.

It is very easy with Gohan's Kame to PS when you start with full Ki because you can charge
it to the max and have enough Ki left for struggling after trans. Only struggle with other
transformed characters if your PL is higher.
If your PL is lower you have best chances to win when your beam has more power and you
hit your opponent directly. As this will drain your Ki more don't even try to struggle at longer
ranges, because you will run out of Ki first.
In a short PowerStruggle use Turbo to increase your chances of winning.
But when you are out of Ki and your opponent isn't he will very soon overpower you, and the
nuke comes back to you.
When you or your opponent is about to die consider to descend to boost your PL/deny him PL.

Discs can also be a problem because they are faster than the beam and they are hard to spot
through the trail. Fall down to evade efficiently.
Your opponent can also try to block it if he's strong enough, he will try to make you run low
on Ki (if you are really going to lose quit early, it's not good to run out of Ki when the blast
comes back).


After you mastered the beam training, you can go on with the next character.





Piccolo (Scatter Shot, Eye Laser, Special Beam Cannon, Masenko)
LF 120.....Speed 180.....StartPL 0,65M
LF 140.....Speed 250.....TransPL 1,65M (x1,5).....PerfPL 3,975M
Pro: good health, laser, fast and powerful blast
Con: slow, no big beams


Piccolo is harder to play because of his slow speed, his lack of long range attacks, his later
trans and perfect trans and he only has a 1,5x PL multiplier. However, he has good health and
can be devastating when you master his melee support attacks (which you all have from the
start). Piccolo is good choice when you want to train your skill because you have to develop
some creativeness to make use of his unique attacks.

You can use every attack at the end of a melee hit and they are best used after a swoop
followed by a drift, while you (charge the) attack. This will ensure that you are close enough
to hit.
Use drift if you want to save Ki after a swoop or be mobile while charging an attack!
If you drift with turbo (and charge an attack) it will look like a swoop!


When your enemy is rolling over the floor or is charging a beam charge a Special Beam
Cannon
(SBC). It is powerful enough to stop beams and has a good blast radius. It also looks
like a beam and is more likely to be power-struggled than any other blast. It is similar
to the Finishing Buster but a bit weaker, it charges faster and you can use it on the move.
Very deadly attack when combined with throw (e.g. throw to ceiling, drop while turbo charging SBC).


Piccolos next impressive attack the Eyelaser is an alternative to the standard Kiblast with
better damage. It will instantly hit the enemy through any block or shield at medium range
causing good damage for massive Ki cost if you don't shoot in small bursts.
Use it every time some enemy stops while being in range or if he moves directly towards or
away from you.


The Scatter Shots are a nice alternative to the KiBlasts. They are stronger and have no point
of coincidence but you can set it yourself by clicking RMB instead. They also form no Kiblob
so you mainly use them when the enemy is rolling over the floor or blocks (hit him from behind).
You can also use them to create a defensive shield (even vs. stronger attacks)
by shooting a lot of them at the enemy while rapidly refreshing with RMB.


Don't forget the Masenko, it's Piccolo's strongest beam.


If you feel comfortable with melee, support attacks and drifting, you can move on to the next
character. This is crucial because you need to save Ki to fight vs. transed characters, which
you will likely have to fight because of his later trans. Piccolo's 1.5x multiplier is not really a
disadvantage because he deals damage frequently and he rarely struggles.
But you should be careful with advanced melee.
At level 2 the effectiveness of Piccolo's Eye Laser doubles because of the halved Ki cost and
the SBC is normally instant kill even at low charges.





Goku (Kamehameha, Spirit Bomb (-), Kame Torpedos)
LF 110.....Speed 216.....StartPL 0,75M
LF 120.....Speed 280.....TransPL 1,75M(x2).....PerfPL 5,0M
Special: Solar Flare, Tele while charging beams (+), quick blocking anim
Pro: good speed, powerful beam, most powerful blast (-), best homing blast, blinding attack,
2x PL (+)
Con: low health


The main difference between Goku and the preceding characters is that his trans and perfect
trans are even later and that he lacks medium range attacks, so you often have to use his
powerful long range (and slow charge) attacks to keep the enemy away. On the other side he
has good speed and powerful attacks. It's the first character you can use defensively from the
start every time you want. That means to charge attacks to weaken your foes at long range
and then finish them off with melee. You can also use his attacks when disengaging from
a melee fight, e.g. while drifting away.
His speed makes it easier to switch from offense to defense and vice versa.


With the Kamehameha right at the beginning you can instant kill and PS weaker enemies
(but don't charge it too much for struggling or you run out of Ki) and increase your PL on
stronger opponents with remote explosion. When your opponent is hit attack with melee or
quick blasts while he is vulnerable. You can charge this attack every time you have breathing
space, ideally while drifting at high speed. Charge longer when you want to use it at longer
range but watch your Ki bar!


His next attack is the Small Spirit Bomb which is just a strong blast similar to FB (but you
have it before trans). It has no Ki cost and is perfect to slow other powerful attacks followed
by an additional Kamehameha, or a KiBlobCombo or a melee attack while your enemy is low
on Ki. Charge it whenever you have enough breathing time, it is for free.
After you throw it you should instantly attack with melee, your enemy will have lost more Ki
during evasion or struggling.
You can also use it after you and your opponent lost a lot of Ki (e.g. after a throw), while he
recharges you charge the sSB. Remember that you can charge it while drifting, e.g. while you
fall down to the level of the enemy. But the charge takes so long that its nearly impossible
to finish minimal charge while drifting, so be careful while being a sitting duck.
Although turbo cannot increase the power of this attack, it is still useful for deceiving it a bit.


If you have a lot of breathing time charge its larger brother the Spirit Bomb. It has the
slowest charge but is the most powerful attack in the game. Even transed characters will have
problems to struggle it. It takes the energy of all life forms on the planet so it costs absolutely
no Ki.
You may want to start the charge during a drift do get a bit away from the big shining ball,
or some funny guy shoots a KiBlob around it and you kill yourself. Drop or switch attacks to avoid that.

Because of the long immobile charge time, the bad overhead attack position and its big size
you will use it very rarely. Your opponents are likely to attack you ASAP (you can only evade
by falling). You can use it at medium range and tele away after you throw it to get out of the
huge blast radius.
If you see that a beamer has problems to struggle against a strong blast you can throw one or
two spirit bombs to kill the beamer. The big size will make a channelling in a PowerStruggle nearly impossible.


Another good use of your spare time is to charge a set of Kame Torpedos. These powerful
blasts are best used in groups as you can charge up to 6 Torpedos before launching them.
They will home in (start with RMB) on an enemy of their choice and he will have to evade and
tele several times or block (struggle) them. They are very fast and are much more likely to hit
when the enemy is unaware. You can move, recharge and teleport without loosing the
Torpedos, if you don't switch attacks.
A nice technique is to charge weaker ones first to have a defensive stock vs melee attackers,
then charge some to the max.
Move forward every time you start a new one to have a clear field of view, or place them on top
of each other to deceive the number of torpedos.
The one you are charging is for emergency beam struggling. If a beam is shot at you throw
your whole stock at it and finish with a (small) spirit bomb or Kamehameha.
They are also very nice to have around when you are pursued, just drift and turbo charge a
nasty homing surprise. Unluckily the torpedos don't choose the target with the highest priority,
so don't be surprised if they try to hunt down a fresh corpse or fly somewhere else.


If an enemy comes into short range you need a good melee skill. You should use Goku's
speed to your advantage to fight at the range you prefer.
Use KiBlasts and Generic attacks frequently to get extra damage.
Try to save Ki (e.g. with drifting, low Ki attacks) instead of recharging to keep the enemy
under pressure, so he can't recharge. Soak him empty with a throw. Hit him in a wall and
finish with a small spirit bomb while he lies on the floor.


When you have a lot of Ki and the enemy is at melee range, you can use the Solar Flare. It
blinds all foes at close range for a long time but uses almost all of your Ki instantly. You also
blind yourself for a second, in which you should recharge and evade.
Skilled enemies can still hit you by ear so best create a height difference by dropping.
To ensure a hit use it while blocking simple melee hits.
Combo mode is always funny vs. blind opponents. I suggest loads of weak kicks or the special combos
with a strong wall-kick at the end. And don't underestimate the Ki cost or you will regret it.


It takes quite some time to reach trans with Goku especially because your enemy can see him
across the whole map when he is transforming. His perfect PL is so far away that you
shouldn't switch levels too often. Luckily Goku's speed is high enough to fight the earlier
transed characters. The Spirit Bombs' power is determined from the server's average PL so
when your PL is low these attacks can hurt high PL targets a lot.
Goku loses the sSB and SB at level 2 but the Kame Torpedos are now powerful enough and he
has enough Ki.
The Kamehameha can be used at full power for PS at medium-long range.
At level 2 Goku gains the ability to teleport with a beam in his hand so his beams can be used
at closer ranges and for defensive channelling PS (tele to the side and deflect opponent's stronger beam
with minimal Ki usage, only works with lot of free space).





Freeza (Freeza Disc, Finger Laser, Telekinesis, Death Ball (+))
LF 150.....Speed 180.....StartPL 0,8M
LF 170.....Speed 275.....TransPL 1,8M (x1,5).....PerfPL 2,5M
Special: no Ki burn while flying (+), Telekinesis (hardly detectable)
Pro: #2 LF, good speed (+), laser, controllable disc, powerful blastww
Con: slow (-), no big beams, no big blasts (-), big model (adjust camera!)


Freeza is quite similar to Piccolo with even more health and speed (still very slow) and with a
very close perfect trans level. He equips a lot of stealthy attacks but lacks beams.


The Fingerlaser is one of the best melee support attacks. It costs a lot of Ki and you have to
aim carefully but it will hit instantly even at medium – long range and if you shoot a lot of
them (RMB) they will finish even strong (and fast) opponents (when they are already
damaged). They can't be stopped by block or shield. This should be your favourite support
attack with Freeza and makes up for his speed.


The deadliest attack in this game is Freeza's disc. You can use it very good at melee range
because it has no explosion and can be evaded easily at longer ranges. It will instagib
everything it hits and is unstoppable. It's Ki cost is very variable, depending on the size. It is
controllable like a beam and can return to you (RMB).
You will be immobile after the throw until you either switch attacks to be able to teleport or
retrieve the disc to be able to move again (best turbo move). You will also get only a small
amount of PL for a disc kill.
Use it to kill someone after a struggle instead of the KiBlobCombo. Use it to stop an enemy who
slows down to charge a strong attack or when he swoops directly at you (you can shoot it and
retrieve it several times quickly). It also denies your enemy to use Simple Melee as he may kill
himself with your disc. You can also use it when a slow beam is shot at you but you have to
switch attacks and teleport quickly. The disc is fast and hard to see. It is also sometimes useful
when you have to fight several foes to kill one quickly or at least stop him attacking.
Best used while (turbo-)drifting after a swoop to kill annoying chasers or just to surprise
someone after a forward offensive swoop. You should use them against enemies who are too
strong or very weak, when you can't really increase your PL.
When you can't hit with the disc, try to throw your opponent to the ceiling and kill him
when he falls on you.


When you kick an enemy to the floor or whenever you want to stop him to charge medium
attacks use your Telekinesis to charge rocks from the floor and throw it at the enemy.
It is used similar to the disc but you are immobile during charge. It has a quick charge with
almost no Ki cost and medium damage. You can release the rocks before they reach your hand
if your enemy is directly below or above you (try a throw to the ceiling).
If you want to shoot forward drop a bit first to have a better view.
If the enemy is swooping at you this attack won't stop him so tele in time.
It's a good idea to change position after you throw the rocks so that enemies concentrate on
you and don't check your old position for incoming rocks.
With the spirit bomb it's the only attack that can't be used while drifting, because its stationary.


After transing Freeza, a nice addition to his arsenal is one of the best beam counters,
the Deathball. It's nearly as strong as the Spirit Bomb but you can move during charge which
needs a lot of Ki for faster charge speed . Explosion radius and size are good enough to hit
frequently and to instant kill often. It's somewhat hard to aim the Deathball and it can be seen
from far away when you charge it to long. But during a fight it is much more handy compared to the spirit bomb.


Freeza will reach Perfect Transition PL very soon, so use frequent ascending/descending to
boost his PL and make up for his 1,5x PL. In his second form he does not burn Ki while
flying and because of the halved Ki burn on level 2 his Laser attack becomes awesome
(nail your opponents to death after a melee hit).





Cell (Kamehameha (-), Freeza Disc, Gallit Gun (+), Special Beam Cannon)
LF 120.....Speed 220.....StartPL 0,9M
LF 140.....Speed 290.....TransPL 1,9M (x1,5)
Special: no Ki burn while flying (+), Solar Flare, fast animations, stays transed
Pro: very good speed, good health, starting PL #2, powerful beam, controllable disc, blinding
attack, fast and powerful blast



Cell is the best allround character because of his high speed and because he has copied the best
first level attacks of all characters, that means you have a huge attack arsenal but
you should be used to all attacks, or you will use them in the wrong situation.
His Special Beam Cannon can only be equipped if you press #4 twice, so it's not as good as
Piccolo's SBC for melee support.

His speed is very good especially after transing. He transes earlier than Vegeta but has a 1,5x
multiplier only. You can't descend with him again, so think twice before transing. This can be
an advantage as you don't descend automatically if you run out of Ki and don't have to trans
after you died. I only advise to trans when fighting against transed chars.


The only new attack after transing is the Gallit Gun you get in change for the Kamehameha.
With the higher PL it has about the same damage as the Kame before, but charges and travels
a lot faster. Cell can use it for PS, when he has the higher PL.
So you have to fight with his power boon at first and with his agility advantage after trans.
Don't forget Cell's Solar Flare, he has the best ability to kill a blinded victim (try the disc).





Vegeta (Gallit Gun, Big Bang (+), Final Flash (+))
LF 110.....Speed 216.....StartPL 0,7M
LF 130.....Speed 280.....TransPL 2,0M (x2).....PerfPL 5,0M
Special: quickest close melee button reaction, can fire a bunch of weak #2 Ki blasts after
charging instead of his #2 Ki blasts (Zenzoken), his mouse buttons for KiBlasts are switched
Pro: good speed, most powerful beam (+), powerful blast (+), 2x PL (+)
Con: low health (-), no big beams (-), no big blasts (-)



Vegeta is similar to Goku, but is very weak when you are not transed.
You have to rely on your melee skill most of the time and either have a good skill or a lot of time,
or you will never get him transed.

He has a special fast Ki-blast attack to surprise the enemy which can be used even at medium range.
It is not that good for creating KiBlobs quickly but better when someone is rolling over the floor.


His strongest support attack at first is the Gallit Gun which is not easy to use correctly but
very nice for melee support. It is similar to the Masenko but more powerful and has an awful aura.
Best used while drifting. You can't use it as a strong Beam like Cell (e.g for PS) until you CF
and then you have one that is much more powerful.


SSJ Vegeta is a lot stronger. Because of his late trans he will likely have the highest PL after
transing. He also gets very powerful and dangerous new attacks.


The Big Bang is similar to the Finishing Buster, it will likely kill in one hit and is very good
for stopping beams. With the huge explosion radius you can even use it at long range.
Every noob can have monster kills with it while staying near the ceiling and spamming, but it is
much more useful when used during a melee fight (don't forget to tele out of the radius).


If you want even bigger explosions you can use the Final Flash. It is the most powerful beam
in the game but also has the highest Ki cost so it's crappy for PS at longer ranges, use the
Gallit Gun instead (only when transformed).
It is very likely that the explosion of the Beam will kill its user, too, if he
is not careful.
The Beam has a surprisingly quick charge compared to its power, try a minimal
charged
turbo drift attack, hard to spot, huge damage.
Longer charges are for explosion radius only because damage is high enough even at medium charges.
Remember that it is very likely that you commit involuntary suicide with this attack.





Buu (Candy Attack, Mouth Blast)
LF 160.....Speed 220.....StartPL 1,5M
LF 180.....Speed 320.....TransPL 3,0M (x1.5)
Special: no Ki burn while flying (+), Regeneration, Candies, stays transed
Pro: speed #1/#2, starting PL #1, LF #1, fast and powerful beam, laser
Con: no big blasts, cannot use senzu beans, late trans, fat and ugly model


Fighting with Buu is very easy in the early game, because he starts with more than twice the
PL of the weaker characters, is fast and has a high LF. This will also make him the most attractive
target most of the time for raising PL (trunks and gohan may reach trans PL after killing him once).
Additionally he can recharge his health slowly (and can't use senzu beans).
But his transition is so far away that your opponents will have an advantage when they trans.
With a 2x PL multiplier they could overpower you and when their instant kill attacks hit on 160 LF
while they descend before the impact means PL jumps for all attackers.
Soon Buu will also be the slowest character (after all are transed) and if you get him transed
you may not be ready for his speed.
In the hands of the unskilled Buu's fat butt will be kicked around, but with a decent skill
Buu is the strongest character in the game.

A good indicator is his PL, if it falls back in the ranking, you are not fit enough for Buu.



To counter the late trans you can use his Candy Laser Attack to boost your PL.
It's range is very short and it does a constant small amount of damage, but it is special because
it transforms all people it kills into candy. The donut will bring you 100,000(!!) extra PL, the
chocolate 50,000 PL and 40 LF, the cookie full LF, so you can reach transition PL in time,
when you use the laser frequently and whenever sob's PL is dropping.
If you are very careful, know how much damage you've dealt to each enemy, and use your
Candy Attack to finish them, you might reach your trans PL after 10 kills.
You can use the candies later on to make up for his 1.5x PL but they become weaker if your PL is too high.


His main support attack is the Mouth Blast. It's a stronger form of the Gallit Gun and
powerful enough to use it for PS (especially in the beginning when your PL is higher).
It travels very fast for a strong beam which makes it quit versatile and easy to hit with.
Because it is created in Buu's mouth it is hard to spot which makes it perfect for drift attacks.


After you are able to reach his transition and master Buu's 320 speed you may try the last character.





Krillin (Kamehameha, Destructo Disc, Scatter Beam)
LF 100.....Speed 180.....StartPL 0,6M
LF 150.....Speed 350.....TransPL 3,0M (x2).....PerfPL 8,0M
Special: Solar Flare, stays transed
Pro: speed #1 (+), good health (+), disc, powerful beam, homing blast,
blinding attack, 2x PL (+), the only human ;-)
Con: slow (-), low health (-), low starting PL, trans very far away, speed hard to control


Krillin is very hard to play with and only suggested for experts.
His transition is so far away that it's very likely you won't reach it ever.
It is very difficult to score even basic hits with him against faster characters and he dies quickly.
Your melee skills needs to be excellent to play with him efficiently and you have to save and recharge
Ki often and use dirty tricks (e.g. suicide bombing).
In short: he is the worst character to play and the best character to train with!
His Trans is not so far away when you own all the other transed characters.
When you can kill with melee even when suffering a high PL disadvantage (Buu transes earlier)
you will gain PL in no time.
So whenever you own all the other players on the server try again with Krillin.



As his Destructo Disc (which is fire and forget and not controllable) and Solar Flare are used
in very rare situations (but blinded foes are always simple to defeat) you will use double
Telecombos with weak blast support and rare Kamehameha support most of the time.
His disc is rather useful to get a better score until you trans, or later when you don't need PL any more.
Best used while drifting to surprise your enemy.


A nice feature has the Scatter Beam, Krillin's strong blast. While it is not as powerful as
other strong blasts it can split medium homing blasts to several enemies making it possible to
counter more than one beam at a time. This function is often used to spot new targets and to
unnerve the enemy. Compared to the Kame Torpedos they can be evaded rather easily and not
very good at slowing beams but they do nice damage. Be careful as this attack can use up all
your Ki in no time.


After you reach his transition PL with your excellent fighting skills, Krillin will become (one
of) the most powerful character(s) in the game. His speed gets so high that he's likely to
evade all attacks besides lasers but it gets hard to control swooping (almost the speed of a
generic beam). You will score swoop hits less often because you are likely to miss targets
when they stop and your mouse sensitivity is not high enough.
His teleport range becomes excellent, making his TeleMelee capability the best of all characters.
His speed and health will make you die a lot less now, also because his PL is likely to be the best
on the server after he transes.
This will also boost his Scatter Beam and Kamehameha to a level where you score multiple kills frequently,
especially when you use them while drifting.
Remember when you are floating with Mystic Krillin it is like swooping.
With this advantages it should be possible to boost your lousy score to the top of the scoreboard
in the long run (before the map changes).






Outro:

If you finished the tutorial and mastered all techniques so you can withstand the bots on skill
'best' your skill should be high enough to fight against human players.
If you need further in-depth information you should study my ESF characters and newbie guide.


Thanks a lot for reading.

And now go online and pwn them, gl hf.


Credits:

Thx to: Rumpelstilzchen
Me, yes me, because spending so much time for this guide in my spare time although it was
very funny to do and I think I can be proud of the work.


Special Thx to:
all those people I took information from but can't remember their names


Very Special Thx to:
The ESF Team for creating such a great game in their spare time for free
 
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Nice guide.

For a new player I would recommand trunks too.
Noobs tend to go with beams only and will just fly to eachother and prepunch.
Trunks is fast melee will work out nice for new players.

To learn the game and get better. Main attack should be simple melee. Base ki blast and generic around them. With some unexpected throws.
Adv. melee is basicly a luck system and the fast combo bug makes me dislike it more then ever. Big blasts kame,sbc,etc are cheap but good for frags.

Krillin can be very effective in a 12/16 player DM for pure frags.
Scatter lame + turbo beamjumps and youre all set.
Considered lame, yet it is very effective. You can trans fast.

Best all round player Cell? he would be second.
Buu is overpowered. And when used right hes a nightmare.

Overall good guide.
 
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And what makes you think a n00b is gonna read all that if they don't even want to bother to read the manual?

For whoever does read it, it's a good, detailed tut.
 
Lost in space
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that's a nice guide there , but it's gonna get shot down by people when they go to esf-world and read chakra-x's flash Guides
 
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Yeah, another good guide here from Rumpelstilzchen! Makes me wanna play some esf after reading the indepth facts heh.
 

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