Question Concerning DI

[MilkMan93216]

I've always had some trouble figuring out exactly how to DI in different situations, especially because of all the acronyms. What I'd like is for somebody to walk me through the specific inputs I need in a given situation, say, I'm trying to live (I think this is called survival DI?), or maybe there's a big compilation of all this knowledge somewhere I haven't found.

This is how I think survival DI, for example, is supposed to work:

- Get hit by an opponent's powerful attack such that your trajectory will be, say, to the left
- Smash DI by rolling the control stick and/or C-stick in the upper right corner during the initial frames of hitstun
- Begin moving rapidly to the left
- Hold the control stick and/or C-Stick in the upper right corner
- Attempt to end tumbling animation as quickly as possible by performing and aerial attack (using the C-stick?)
- Start moving right, back towards the stage, and attempt to recover


I think Magus had a guide on this somewhere at some point, but I can't find it.

 

[Bones0]

Doraki's DI Guide

The biggest thing people get confused by is the C-stick. ALL the C-stick does is allow you to do a different ASDI input than the direction you are trying to trajectory DI. It doesn't add any extra element of DI, so you should never be holding both sticks in the same direction because that's just redundant.

The first thing you input is SDI, which basically just transposes (right word I think) your character on the screen. Pressing the stick during hitlag will make you SDI. Since hitlag lasts multiple frames, you can SDI multiple times. The easiest way to to do this is to roll the stick from one angle to another. I think you can only SDI in 8 directions (the 8 notches on the controller), but I could be wrong about that. The point is that you have to roll the stick far enough for it to count as another input. Protip: you can't reduce knockback; you can only alter your character's coordinates before KB begins.

At the end of hitlag, the game checks the direction of your stick and uses that to determine which direction you ASDI. ASDI transposes you the same way as SDI, it's just a shorter distance. The direction of your stick on this frame also influences your trajectory. To influence your trajectory as much as possible, you will want to input a direction perpendicular to the move's default trajectory. If you get hit by a move that sends you 45 degrees into the upper-right hand corner, you will want to DI up and left or down and right. Your trajectory will be in between the default trajectory and your DI input, so you can think of it that way to decide which perpendicular you want to hold your stick towards for your preferred trajectory. If you want to go higher than the default trajectory to survive, you'll obviously want to DI up and left. If you wanted to ground tech, you would DI down and right. I think the most you can influence your DI is by 22 degrees or something, but you'll get a feel for how much you can change it. What's important to know is that inputting perpendicular to the default trajectory will not SEND you perpendicular to the default trajectory.

 

[Double Helix]

Also know that eventually you will just understand DI to the point that it comes naturally. Like...you can recognize that you can DI a move better, you may not know how though. I usually don't think about it at all, I just do it.