How to read frame data

Here‘s what the text on the frame data pages means.

Move: The name of the attack you‘re using.

Startup: The number here represents how many frames of animation take place before this move is capable of hitting your opponent.

Active: Short for Active Frames. The number here shows how many frames of animation a move is capable of hitting for. For example, Ryu‘s Standing Hard Punch when used up close has 7 active frames.

Recover: Short for Recovery Frames. This number shows how long it takes you to finish off the animation for a move before you can input another command.

Total: Total number of frames before the move‘s animation is complete and you can do another action.

Frame Adv. Block: Short for Frame Advantage after Blocking. A number with a + before it means how many frames faster than your opponent you will recover if they block your attack. Negative numbers mean how much faster your opponent will recover than you after blocking it.

Frame Adv. Hit: Short for Frame Advantage after Hit. A number with a + before it means how many frames faster than your opponent you will recover after successfully hitting them with this attack. Negative numbers mean how much faster your opponent will recover than you after being hit.

Block stun: If your attack is blocked, this number shows how many frames of animation your opponent will be stunned for.

Hit stun: If your attack lands, this number shows how many frames of animation your opponent will be stunned for.

Damage: How much damage an attack does. Numbers with a * (asterisk) in front of them are the next hit of a move. For example Ken‘s Hard Punch Shoryuken is listed as doing 70* 40* 30 damage.

This means it does 70 damage on the first hit, 40 on the second and 30 on the third and final attack.

Numbers in parentheses are based on when the attack hits your opponent. For example, hitting with the early part of Ken‘s Light Punch Shoryuken does more damage (120) than hitting with it later in the animation (80).

Stun: How much stun each move does if it hits. The syntax is the same here as for damage. A * (asterisk) means the additional hits, while numbers in parentheses are how the stun can vary depend on where you hit.

Meter Gain: The Super meter you gain for having an attack that‘s block or hits.

If two numbers are listed with a / in between, the first number is how much Super you gain if the attack was blocked, the second if it hit.

Block: Indicates how you can block a move. H or High, L for Low, HL for both High and Low.

Chain, Special and Super: An X in these columns indicates the move cannot be used to Chain, cancel into a Special or Super. An O in this column indicates the move can be used to Chain, cancel into a Special or Super.

Cancel Ability: Shows which moves you can Cancel with. All of the indicators are separated with an * (asterisk).

C - Short for Chainable or Chain. Indicates that you can Chain this move into others to do a Chain combo.
Sp - Short for Special Move. Means you can Cancel this attack into a Special Move.
Su - Short for Super Move. Means you can Cancel this attack into a Super Move.

Adv Guard: how many frames + or - if they block it
Adv Hit: how many frames + or - if you hit them
Adv Counter: how many frames + or - if it‘s a counter hit
Active: how many frames the move is active and when it does hit I think

KD Adv Normal: knockdown advantage when they don‘t quick rise or roll
KD Adv Rise: knockdown advantage when they rise
KD Adv Roll: knockdown advantage when they roll

Chip Damage

When you block a special move it inflicts a small amount of damage. This is called chip damage. Unlike previous Street Fighter games, you cannot die to chip damage in Street Fighter 5, unless it’s chip damage from a Critical Art.

Safe / Unsafe

A safe or unsafe attack is determined by frame data. Similar to frame advantage and disadvantage (see above), some attacks have more recovery than others. An attack that has so much recovery that the opponent can hit your first (not just attack first, but actually hit you before you can block again) is unsafe. There are a large number of attacks in Street Fighter 5 that are unsafe if the opponent blocks. A safe attack simply means that while you have more recovery than the opponent (frame disadvantage) and can’t attack before they do, you still have time to block your opponent’s fastest attack.

Throw Tech

When you break out of a throw it’s referred to as a throw tech. To do so, you must press Light Punch + Light Kick just before an opponent tries to throw you. While you can technically throw tech as soon as you’re thrown, you do not have much time. It’s easier to throw tech if you anticipate the throw and break just before it happens.

V-Gauge

The V-Gauge is the red bar at the bottom of the screen. Different characters have V-Gauges of varying lengths. You fill your V-Gauge by using your V-Skill and taking damage (getting hit). Once the V-Gauge has at least one stock you can perform a V-Reversal. When the V-Gauge is full you can perform a V-Trigger. The V-Gauge resets after every round, so try to use your V-Gauge abilities frequently each round so it doesn’t go to waste.

V-Reversal

A V-Reversal is essentially an Alpha Counter for those familiar with the Street Fighter Alpha series. While blocking an attack, press Forward + All Three Punch Buttons. You will perform a parry-like animation and immediately follow with an attack. This is good for getting out of blocking strings or heavy block pressure.

V-Skill

Each character has a unique V-Skill that may be an attack, movement or something else entirely. Use your V-Skill to build your V-Gauge.

V-Trigger

Each character has a unique V-Trigger. Some come in the form of an attack or movement, while others may just buff the character by giving them increased attack damage or some other ability. For example, Chun-Li’s V-Trigger changes many of her attacks to hit two times instead of just once. In some cases the V-Trigger may last the duration of the round (Necalli), while others drain rapidly if you use special moves (Cammy).

What is frame advantage?

When your attack connects with your opponent, it takes time for you to recover from your move, and time for your opponent to recover from hit stun or block stun before either of you return to a neutral position. The difference in the time it takes for you to recover from your attack and the time it takes for your opponent to recover from hit stun or block stun is called frame advantage.

Frame advantage can be represented as a positive or negative number. There are also two different types of frame advantage for each move, as frame advantage is different for when a move hits and when a move is blocked. Let’s use Ryu’s crouching medium kick in Street Fighter IV again as the example for frame advantage. If you look it up in a frame data guide, it would look something like this:

What does this data mean? Let’s first interpret the frame advantage on hit column. This means that if Ryu hits his opponent with a crouching medium kick, the frame advantage is zero. In this case, Ryu and his opponent will return to a neutral state at the exact same time, leaving no room for anyone to hit the other while they are recovering. You smart cookies will point out that Ryu can combo his crouching medium kick into a fireball before his opponent can recover, but the math behind that is a bit more complicated when you’re dealing with cancels, which won’t cover it in this post. If Ryu does not cancel his crouching medium kick into another move when it hits, then both Ryu and his opponent will recover at the exact same time.

Now let’s look at the frame advantage on block. This column says that if Ryu’s crouching medium kick is blocked, then his opponent will recover three frames faster than Ryu will. Because his opponent recovers three frames faster, this number is written as a negative number. This means that when an opponent blocks Ryu’s crouching medium kick, they have three frames (or 3/60ths of a second) to attack Ryu before he recovers. In the world of Street Fighter IV, 3/60ths of a second is enough time to Ryu’s opponent to throw him or hit him with a very fast attack, assuming that the hit boxes connect.

In general, if that frame advantage number is a large positive number, you have lots of time to hit your opponent before they recover from your previous move. On the other hand, if that frame advantage number is a large negative number, then your opponent will have lots of time to hit you before you recover.

ref :

https://thirdpersonblog.wordpress.com/2012/04/18/universal-fighting-game-guide-how-to-read-frame-data/

http://www.eventhubs.com/guides/2009/feb/17/how-read-frame-data-street-fighter-4/

http://wiki.shoryuken.com/Street_Fighter_V/Ken#Frame_Data

How to read frame data （Fighting Game）