For people who have no idea what "15 frame launcher" or "-2 on block" means. It will only teach you the necessities to interpret frame data statistics. Intro When you watch videos or read guides about Tekken, people often talk about frame data. Startup frames and frame advantage are important properties of a move/attack, just like whether it has armour or is a low or high attack. But how do you interpret this information? What are frames? All you need to know is that in Tekken, frames are used as a measurement of time. Just like how a minute is divided into 60 seconds, 1 second is divided into 60 frames. (60 frames per second/60FPS) So a duration of 60 frames means a duration of 1 second. In order to wait 30 frames, you would wait half a second. Punching The Air Let's look at the 'Generic 1-Jab'. While just standing around, pressing the 'Left Punch' button will result in a jab that is identical for most characters. We will use that move as an example. Once the game registers your input, the startup animation of the jab will begin. This is the amount of time between activating the attack and the attack doing damage. For the generic jab, this is 10 frames long (one sixth of a second) Since it takes 10 frames for the attack to hit, we can call it a '10 frame move'. Once your startup has finished and the attack hits (or misses) you will begin to return to a neutral state. This is called recovery. After the attack hits or misses, you must wait for the recovery time before you can control your character normally again. For the generic jab, this is 17 frames long (about 283 milliseconds). The longer this recovery time is, the easier it is for your opponent to 'punish' if you miss. This means that once your input is registered, it will take 27 frames before you can start another attack or move. (10 to start, 17 to finish). https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1613968092976000879/074FBD882A9A8145B31AC4AD16CD8FD6805EBB35/?imw=256 Frame Advantage (on hit) So that's just punching the air. But Tekken is a 2-Player game. What happens when you use your attack on an opponent? Using the generic Jab as an example again, let's say I hit Heihachi with it. https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1613968092975790787/F96A3762CAAD9DEE957F5157C9733EFDDB733245/ After hitting him, I still have that same 17 frame recovery time. However, he needs 25 frames before he can recover from being hit from that jab, because the jab causes 25 frames of hitstun. Since my recovery time is 8 frames faster than his recovery time, I will recover 8 frames before he does. You could therefore say that I have an 8 frame advantage, or that I'm +8. This jab is '+8 on hit'. Now, let's be cheeky and use that exact same move again, the moment we recover. If Heihachi retaliated the exact moment HE recovers, his attack would start 8 frames later than our follow-up jab. Since he doesn't have any attack 8 frames or more faster than the 10 frame jab, he would simply get hit again 2 frames into his startup animation (since you are vulnerable during startup). When you play the game, you will often find yourself in Heihachi's shoes. Being attacked, panicking, and trying to counter-attack. But it didn't work because he was at a big frame disadvantage. A lot of attacks give the attacker frame advantage when it hits, so it's not a good idea to retaliate immediately after being hit. Fortunately, Heihachi would be able to block the follow-up, since he recovered before my attack startup finished, and blocking is instant once you recover. If I started with a move that gives a 15 frame advantage on hit, he would be unable to block any follow-up faster than 15 frames. Frame Advantage (on block) - Safe and Unsafe Attacks will often give different frame advantages/disadvantages when the opponent blocks vs when they get hit. Our generic Jab takes 17 frames to recover, and causes 25 frames of hitstun on hit. However, when the jab is blocked, it only causes 18 frames of blockstun. This means that when the jab is blocked, the blocker (Heihachi) must wait 18 frames to leave the block and retaliate. Since the he is able to recover faster than on hit, we have less frame advantage than before. His recovery is 1 frame slower than ours, so we have a 1 frame advantage. We are +1. The jab is +1 on block You'll notice that Heihachi is still at a frame disadvantage, even though he blocked. This makes it still difficult for him to retaliate against us. Attacks with this kind of frame data are called "safe on block" or simply "safe". If the generic jab is a 'safe' move, Kazuya's infamous 'Hellsweep' attack (called 'Spinning Demon' ingame) is 'unsafe'. When blocked, the blocker recovers from blockstun 23 frames before Kazuya recovers from being blocked. It is -23 on block. If you block a hellsweep, any attack you do faster than 23 frames will hit (assuming it doesn't just go over Kazuya's head). A decent amount of powerful combo-starters fit under that time constraint, so a Hellsweep is 'unsafe on block'. Why? Knowing the frame data of your moves can tell you which attack is good to use at which time. If you know your opponent's attack is -16 on block, and you have a powerful attack which has 15 frames of startup, you know that you can retaliate with that 15 frame move whenever you block that attack, ALWAYS. Look out for this data when learning to use or fight against a character. How people tend to write frame data of moves. (Notation) So you've decided to look up "Leo's Best Moves" or "Jin Frame Data" to better your playing, but then you see something like this. This is from a Jin tutorial by That Blasted Salami, but this style of notation is commonplace on the internet, especially when it has to be typed. Let's break it down. ----------------------------------- WS+3: i17, -8/+11/KND ----------------------------------- WS+3 is an input notation, telling you what to press. Here's a video guide about that (first minute covers notation but it's a pretty decent beginner guide as well). i17 means it has a startup that is 17 frames long (a 17 frame startup). (If anyone knows what i17~ or 17~18 means, please tell me) -8/+11/KND is the frame advantage on block, hit and counter-hit respectively. KND means 'knockdown'. Cheat Sheet https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1613968092976012793/4D8B3414F66BE947C06388471469FDF270A93CD1/?imw=256 End If there is any problem with this guide, please tell me.