The following non-character-specific techniques are present in this game:
Common Mechanics (Mechanics present in many other platform fighters)
- Wavedashing/Wavelanding
- Of course.
- Performed by air dashing onto the ground. Unlike some platform fighters, you can air dash in 360 degrees.
- Pivoting
- Cancels horizontal momentum, useful for more slippery characters.
- Edge-Cancelling
- Performing most attacks and landing on a stage/platform with enough horizontal momentum to carry you back off of it will allow you to immediately perform another airbourne action.
- DI
- While in hitlag, you can alter you position by jiggling the analog stick in the direction you want to go.
- Perfect Landing
- Landing on a platform with a low enough vertical speed will result in all landing-lag being cancelled, an effect will play to let you know if you got it.
- Blocking
- Blocking works similarly to a traditional fighting game. Standing block blocks all aerial attacks and projectiles. Crouching block blocks all grounded attacks and projectiles. Certain attacks that are transcendental cannot be blocked, such as TC-C016's GAD.
- Landing a block will deal blockstun to yourself, as well as pushblock to both the attacker and yourself.
- You can perform the following actions instantly out of block as long as you are not under the influence of blockstun and hitstop:
- Jump
- Any attack
- Dash
- Crouch/Crouch Block/Standing Block
- Falling (Cancels blockstun)
- If your character has a good OOB attack, use it! Otherwise, retreat and reset neutral or wait until your opponent pushes you off a platform.
- Fastfalling
- Flicking the control stick down in the air (even while in the middle of an attack) will give you a boost of downward momentum, and increase your fall acceleration and speed. Fastfall is cancelled if you manage to enter a state that puts your vertical momentum upwards, such as double jumping. Fastfalling can be performed again after cancelling.
Unique Mechanics (Mechanics unique to AFPD)
- Dash-Cancelling
- You can cancel a dash by performing any attack, as well as most other actions, and doing so will retain your horizontal momentum.
- Air-Dash Cancelling
- You can cancel an air dash by performing any attack, and you will retain the momentum from the air dash. Note that using an attack in any context removes all intangibility/invincibility from your character. You can even attack mid-wavedash!
- Plat-Cancelling
- Unique to this game, you can cancel any grounded action while on a platform by performing a plat-drop.
- Slip-Cancelling
- Similar to plat-cancelling, but this can be done on the stage as well. You can cancel a grounded action if your momentum while in that action carries you off the stage/platform.
- Auto-Perfect Landing
- By utilizing this game's neutral air-dash, you can easily perform a perfect land by perform a neutral air-dash before landing on a platform.
- Auto-Pivot
- The frame window for pivoting is normally pretty tight. However, it is greatly aided if you perform a pivot while in standing block.
- Auto-DI
- Auto-DI is a weaker form of DI that is less strenuous on controllers and hands. To activate auto-SDI, you must make one successful DI input, after which you will continue to move in the direction you input for the remainder of hitlag or until you get hit by a different hitbox.
Fundamentals (Mechanics that are simply facts of the game, rather than active things you can perform)
- Attack Clanking
- If two grounded attacks collide and their damage is within 10 of each other, both player's will reset to idle with calculated hitlag based on the average of the two damages.
- If they are not within 10 of each other, the weaker attack will be cancelled.
- Aerial attacks do not clank with grounded attacks or other aerial attacks.
- If a grounded or aerial attack collides with an active item or projectile:
- If the attacks damage is greater than or equal to the item/projectile damage, the item/projectile's hitbox is cancelled and the item bounces upwards.
- Otherwise, a different effect will play and the attack's hitbox will be cancelled.
- Certain attacks do not clank under any circumstances, acting as they would have before this update. These are called transcendental hitboxes. These include:
- Carpenter Chicken's crates (both spawn and explosion), and Carpenter Chicken's Dynamite.
- TC-C016's s GAD.
- Sputnik's GBN/ABN.
- Transcendental hitboxes are also unblockable.
- Fighter Push-Away
- When two opponents get close enough to each other, either of the two, if they are grounded, will be pushed away slightly.
- This is disabled while performing a dash or an air dash.
- Bounces
- If knockback sends you into a stage and is of high enough speed, you will bounce off of the stage with 0.8x knockback in that direction. This can happen downward via ground-bounces, horizontally via wall-bounces, and upward via ceiling bounces.
- There are no techs in this game, thus there is no way to cancel a bounce.
- Ground-bounces can also be performed on platforms.