INTRODUCTION While he isn't nearly as powerful as he was in previous titles, Future Trunks is still useable this time around so I felt that he deserved a worth while guide. The dvds are easy to come by if you want any background story, this is a guide to learn how to effectively use Future Trunks. I'll be covering combat tactics and techniques and other information that will be useful to both beginners and vets. Before we begin, I have to say that while Future Trunks is a very stylish character, it takes a lot of effort before he can fight at a competitive level. Quick cancels are a must if you want to be good with Future Trunks. Now for those still interested, on with the guide. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ UPDATE HISTORY 2/3/09 - Finished and submitted first draft, will complete advanced combo section in the future ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ TABLE OF CONTENTS Simply search the IW number with ctrl+Z to quickly jump to the desired section SECTION IW01: Trunk's Advantages SECTION IW02: Trunk's Disadvantages SECTION IW03: Basic Techniques SECTION IW04: General Strategy SECTION IW05: Charge Cancels SECTION IW06: Trunk's Main Strategy SECTION IW07: Combo Section SECTION IW08: Trunk Special Move Ratings SECTION IW09: Frequently Asked Questions SECTION IW10: Contact Information SECTION IW11: Special Thanks SECTOIN IW12: Legal Info ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SECTION IW01: ADVANTAGES - Trunks has a solid set of slam attacks. All three of his slam attacks, his P+K, >P+K, and P thrust can zone most of the cast, it can even compete with some of LSSJ Broly's melee strings in terms of reach. When canceled either normally or with a Shining Slash cancel, >P becomes an unpunishable poke. - Trunks has a solid set of death moves. Finish Buster is a great ki blast for beginners while Shining Slash, on top of being a great physical death move, can be used as a cancel point for more advanced players. Unlike other saiyans, Trunks doesn't need to transform to use all of his death moves so he can fight with them even in base form. - Trunk's two transformations give him some flexibility in battle. Since transformation stuns can be used both defensively as a guard break or offensively as a combo extension with an attack boost, they are always good to have. - Trunk's >KKP and >KKKP strings guard breaks which makes it hard to turtle against him. Trunk's heavy slam is also fast enough to catch an opponent after a guard break which can lead into a free combo. Trunks is a stylish fighter who really shines when played defensively. His slam attacks work best when used to interrupt the opponent's rush down and his >PPPP melee string is ideal for zoning. Since all of his death moves are available to him from base form, there isn't as big of an incentive to transform early on in the match when compared to other characters who need the transformaiton to access their key moves. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SECTION IW02: DISADVANTAGES - Trunks doesn't have a reliable way to string together a damaging combo. His cancels are extremely limited and he needs either a transformation stun or a Shining Slash cancel to get any decent damage from his combo. Relying on transformation stuns means that he'll only be able to extend his combos twice in-between fatigues. Shining Slash costs 2 ki bars and it doesn't even do any damage when canceled so it isn't a viable option unless Trunks has the ki advantage. - Trunk's best starter, his PPPP- string, has to be canceled extremely fast even by quick cancel standards. This means that Trunk's rush down game has a high learning curve. In order to do something with Trunks that comes naturally with most characters, you have to spend a much greater deal of time practicing. Trunks has trouble mounting a good offense. His best combo starter comes at a high learning curve and his damage is very situation. Trunks needs a lot of time invested from practicing and a good deal of ki for a rush down game that is only a little above average. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SECTION IW03: BASIC TECHNIQUES Since there is no clear explanation of the battle system in the instruction booklet or even in the game itself, I'll briefly go over all of the basic techniques. Charge Ki (L1) This is pretty self explanitory, press L1 to charge your ki. Throw (punch + guard or ki + guard) Again self explanatory, the punch version of throw is your standard throw while the ki version has more range but leaves you open to attack afterwards. Aura Dash (R1) Aura dash is a quick burst of movement. Aura dash can move freely to and from the opponent but it doesn't allow you to ascend or descend. Aura dash is the best way to create some distance between you and the opponent but it can also be used to launch a quick sneak attack or even get behind the opponent. Blow Back Attack/Heavy Slam (punch + kick or R2) Blow back attacks nullify one attack so they will connect even if the opponent is still attacking. When blow back attacks are fully charged they become unblockable and can nullify more attacks. When done from an aura dash, blow back attacks turn into heavy slams which leave the opponent stunned for a prolonged period of time. Unlike blow back attacks, heavy slams do not nullify incoming attacks. One key attribute of heavy slams is that they are the only attack that allow you to continue a combo from a transformation stun. This means that for characters with multiple transformations, heavy slams guarantee as many free combos as they have transformations. Aura Guard (guard + L1) Perfect guard blocks all attacks, except for throws, at the expense of ki. This means that fully charged attacks, ki blasts, death moves, transformation stuns, and even ultimate attacks will bounce right off of you while in aura guard but the longer you use it, the more ki it costs. Best to guard normally then quickly tap L1 when you see any of the aforementioned attacks heading your way to conserve ki. Remember, throws still break through aura guard so it is by no means invincible. Pursuing Teleports (L1) After you knock the opponent away, press L1 to teleport after and attack. You can do up to 3 pursuit teleports in a row but each one costs 1 ki bar. Unlike previous games where the opponent would gain back a full ki bar for each pursuit teleport, in Infinite world they only gain half of a ki bar so ending a combo with three pursuit teleports isn't as stupid as it use to be. Pursuing teleports also raise your fatigue so using too many in a match can max out your fatigue bar meaning that you'll get dizzy very easily. For the most part, I would advise against using pursuing teleports unless it will either fatigue or kill the opponent. Teleport Counters (forward + guard or back + guard) Press either forward or back together with guard right before you get hit to teleport counter. Pressing forward with guard will result in an aggressive teleport counter, you will automatically follow up with a blow back attack after the teleport. Pressing back with guard will result in a passive teleport counter, you will just teleport and be free to follow up with what ever you want. Since aggressive teleport counters can be teleport countered back, it is always best to go with a passive teleport counter. Regardless of which one you use, teleport counters cost 3 ki bars so use them wisely. Ki Burn (L2) Ki burn drains all of you ki at a fixed rate but it gives you hyper armor and temporary suspends all ki costs. This means that even if you trigger ki burn when you only have 2 ki bars, you can perform as many pursuing teleports and teleport counters as you want even though normally you wouldn't have enough ki for it. While in ki burn, you are free to rampage without fear of counter attack. While this may sound horrendously broken, it is actually a really terrible technique. Ki burn is easily beaten by aura dash, what good is the mode if you can't catch the opponent. Since ki burn allows infinite teleport counters, it's suicide to attack anyone while they have it active. Just dash away and when the mode ends, dash back in and pulverize the opponent knowing that they have no ki to defend with. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SECTION IW04: GENERAL STRATEGY *Ki management* Since everything worthwhile in the game costs ki, managing it can make or break a battle. You want to have at least 3 ki bars at all times so you can teleport counter when needed, never drop below 3 ki bars unless it is an emergency. Since most characters start with a 3 ki bars as their base line, it is relatively easy to stay at or above 3. You want to make sure that you always have more ki than your opponent, if you gain 3 more ki bars than they do you have a huge advantage since you can teleport counter one more time than they can. Ki builds the fastest when you are attacking with melee strings so stay on the offense to keep your ki reserves high. If you find your self at the ki disadvantage, you can regain it by either running away and charging ki (which does not work the vast majority of the time), or you can trick the opponent into teleporting countering an attack that they can't hit you from. This is called baiting a teleport counter, what you do is use an attack that lunges you forward (Goku's P+K for example) so if they teleport counter it, they are in no position to attack you. For characters that don't have lunging attacks, you will have to combo cancel a two hit charge attack but I'll cover that in a different section. Oh and just as a reminder, Ki Burn is a VERY stupid technique to use since you are giving the opponent the ki advantage for free. Even if the opponent triggers Ki Burn, all you have to do is run away until it wears off then rush in and kick their ass. *Fatigue management* See that little half circle bar under your character's picture, that is the fatgiue bar. When that bar maxes out, you will become fatigued at the next attack reguardless of how weak it is. Fatigue raises as you get hit but it also raises when you use teleporting techniques. This means that if you teleport too much, even if the opponent is getting hit more, you might risk raising your fatigue bar faster than theirs which is not a good thing. The fatigue guage SLOWLY decreases over time, there is nothing else you can do to lower it. With that in mind, the only real way to manage your fatigue is to make sure that the opponent's is raising faster than yours. Pummel them senseless, go on the offense, bait teleport counters, and take them out. Fatigues do reset transformations, and while that sounds pretty bad for you, it can actually work in your favor. Transformations guard break when done at point blank range so even if you get fatigued and are sent back to base form, at least you have an extra guard break. For characters like Goku, Frieza, and Cell who have multiple transformations, fatique actually works in their favor since thats another 4 or 5 guard breaks the opponent has to worry about. Since Heavy Slams can guarantee a combo after a guard break, a single transformation stun can turn the match around. *Dealing with Real Time Ultimates* Real Time Ultimates are hands down the most over rated attacks in the game. While they are powerful, they are nowhere near as game breaking as people make them out to be. Each one is blockable, and thanks to aura dash, they are easy to dodge even at close range. Real time ultimates may be scary the first time you encounter them, but once you see their weaknesses, you realize that they aren't anything special. There are only a few Real Time Ultimates in the game so lets take a closer look at them. Broly's Gigantic Slam This is the easiest real time ultimate to get around, it is close range only and the second attack can miss if the first doesn't connect properly. This ultimate isn't too damaging nor does it hit for that much fatigue so even if you do get caught by this one, it isn't a big deal. Just aura guard or dash away if you feel that this one is coming. In any case, this attack is only slightly better than Broly's normal death moves. Goten, Kid Trunks, and Cooler's Rapid Ki Barrage High damage, massive fatigue build, and harder to dodge due to the number of hits but each ki blast from this ultimate can be teleport countered. So unless you have less than 3 ki bars and utterly ignored everything I said about ki management earlier, this attack should never pose a huge threat. Piccolo's Special Beam Cannon Good damage, decent fatigue, and it is the quickest ki blast in the game so what is it's down fall? It came at a huge trade off to Piccolo, Piccolo has NO good combo starters or combo cancels. This means that Piccolo has poor ki building and trouble fighting at close range, which is where you should stay at all times. This isn't so much a flaw of the Real Time Ultimate as it is the character, SBC is the only good attack Piccolo has on him. Considering that most characters can get over 1000 damage easy off of a combo cancel, Piccolo's lack of good cancels far offsets any benefits he gains from having a real time ultimate. Unless Piccolo ends a combo cancel in SBC, he isn't going to get any real high numbers for damage. Even then, he has to waste 4 ki bars to get in an area of damage that most other characters can reach in just 2. Teen Gohan's Super Kamehameha Scary damage, 100% fatigue, very fast, and only 4 ki bars, this is the ONLY real time ultimate worth a look at. Unlike Piccolo, Teen Gohan has amazing combo cancels and even a physical death move on par with Goku's Dragon Fist making him an extremely dangerous character to go up against. So how do you avoid it? Well thats it, you just dodge it. Aura Dash is fast enough to dodge Super Kamehameha unless it is done at point blank range in which case you just block it. Even if Teen Gohan tries to land Super Kamehameha through a transformation stun, you can aura guard the stun making a follow up Super Kamehameha pointless. The only way Teen Gohan can land a guaranteed Super Kamehameha is if he combos into it and you can teleport counter the strikes before the Super Kamehameha connects. Super Kamehameha is just a really powerful blast, there is nothing really game breaking about it. If you were to take Super Kamehameha away from Teen Gohan, he would still be able to pulverize you and take away well over 2 bars of health in a single combo since his Soaring Dragon Strike can be looped into an infinite much like Goku's Dragon Fist can. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SECTION IW05: CHARGE CANCELS Charge cancels are what separates the novices from the experts, once you know how to charge cancel you will be able to stomp the A.I. senseless without any stat boosting capsules or recovery items even on Z difficulty. Charge cancels can chain together combos that do well over 2 health bars of life, easily surpassing ultimates in terms of damage and ki costs. Charge cancels are the pivot point of which all advance tactics in the Budokai series stem from, they add tremendous amounts of depth to the fighting engine. Okay so how do you charge cancel? Just charge an attack in a melee string and then guard. Only a few attacks can be held down and charged up so be sure to check through the command list to find them. When you combo cancel you return the character to their neutral state which means that they can follow up with any attack that they want. Once an attack is charging, it can be canceled at any point, even at the beginning of the charge so an immediate follow up is possible when you get fast enough. This is important for several reasons. First, the vast majority of melee strings in the game are unsafe on block meaning that you are open to attack immediately afterwards. By canceling an attack before the combo ends, you remove the recovery time and make it so that the opponent can no longer punish you. Take Goku's KKKK for example. Normally if the opponent blocks Goku's KKKK they can land a free combo once the final K ends. By canceling it at the forth K, Goku can block any counter attack that he would have normally be hit by. Even a teleport counter at the third K will be blocked by a cancel at the forth K. Second, charge cancels allow you to string multiple melee strings. When a charge cancel is used strictly to chain combos together, it is referred to as a combo cancel. Aside from damage, combo cancels build ki at a phenominal rate. It isn't hard to max out all 7 ki bars from just combo canceling. Since blocking adds to the fatigue bar, combo canceling also ramps up the opponent's fatigue. Combo cancels are invaluable to ki and fatigue management. Finally, combo cancels give you a guaranteed way to connect death moves and ultimate attacks. Given the cost of death moves and ultimates, it is too risky to use them on their own against a skilled opponent unless they happen to be fatigued at the the time. With combo cancels, any punch can lead into any death move or ultimate. Nothing sucks more than to go for an ultimate only to have the opponent avoid it and see 5 of your ki bars go down the drain. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SECTION IW06: MAIN STRATEGY *Zoning and rush down* While Trunks can rush down the opponent, he does so with a lot of constraints. Trunk's PPPP- string is the only string he has that he can use to rush down the opponent. PPPP- can link into PPPPKKP or >KKKP. Both strings guard break and Trunk's heavy slam is fast enough to start a combo from either string. After the heavy slam you can string together a quick PPP>E for decent damage. If you can quick cancel PPP-, you can continue off of the string for more damage, otherwise you are limited to short combos. No matter how you choose to play Trunks, remember that his options in battle rely heavily on his PPP- quick cancel and his Shining Slash cancels. Damage aside, both cancels make him much more flexible in combat. Without them, he loses all of his viable combo starters and safe pokes. *Punishing and defending* While Trunks is only average when on the offense, he really excells when played defensively. His slam strings have a ton of priority and ki building which makes them great for interrupting the opponent's rush down game. His PP- string is great for poking and baiting teleport counters while his slam attacks can take care of his ki building. Trunks already needed to build a large amount of ki before he could go on the offense, being at the ki disadvantage just means that he has to play defensively a little bit longer and he is already built for it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SECIONT IW07: COMBO SECTION *Super Quick Guide to Combo Canceling* All combo cancels are done by holding down punch or kick in a regular combo string then tapping guard to cancel the animation. When done fast enough, the character returns to their neutral state and can immediately start another combo string. Once mastered, the charge on the attack doesn't show and the full combo looks fluid without any noticeable breaks or pauses. Side Step canceling can be done by tapping down or up with guard but only works with certain combo strings. The advantage to side step canceling is that if done properly, the combo continues from the opponent's back where damage is greater. Since heavy slams also connect from the opponent's back when done close enough, a side step cancel could simply be replaced by a point blank heavy slam from a cancel. *The Golden Rule of Combo Canceling* NEVER under any circumstances attempt a combo that puts the opponent in ki advantage. That means that no combo should EVER go over 2.5 bars worth of ki gain for the opponent since it leaves you open for a teleport counter (which can be canceled into a combo). That also means that no combo should end in an attack that can be recovered from quickly leaving endless possibilities for a counter attack. The only time the Golden Rule doesn't apply is if the opponent is a fatigue infinite that you can continue looping until they die. Legend: P = Punch K = Kick E = Energy Button HS = Heavy Slam > = Towards opponent < = Away from opponent ^ = Up on the D-pad v = Down on the D-pad >> = Dash - = Cancel * = Stun ~ = Side Step Cancel ' = Fully charge upcoming move Best Combo Starters: PPPP- >PPK* PPK*, PPP>E [Buster Cannon] 7 Hits, 586 damage 3) >PPP>E [Buster Cannon], L1, L1, L1 8 Hits, 867 damage 4) KKKK>E [Buster Cannon] 7 Hits, 605 damage 5) KK*, PPPKE [Buster Cannon] 8 Hits, 764 damage 3) PPE [Buster Cannon] 12 Hits, 729 damage 4) >PPE [Buster Cannon] 15 Hits, 912 damage 5) >PPKKKK>E [Buster Cannon] 18 Hits, 1020 damage Advanced Section Coming Soon... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SECTION IW08: SPECIAL MOVE RATINGS Buster Cannon: 7/10 As with most default ki blasts, Buster Cannon is fairly solid all around. When you don't have enough ki to use one of Trunk's stronger death moves without giving the opponent the ki advantage, Buster Cannon makes for a good attack for just a single ki bar. Finish Buster: 6/10 While this move is Trunk's strongest death move, the ki cost weighs heavily on its usefulness. Finish Buster may be stronger that the typical ki blast, but it lacks any special attributes that would justify the 2 bar ki cost. Shining Slash: 8/10 Since Shining Slash is both a powerful physical death move and a potential cancel point, this move should be equipped at all times. While it doesn't hit as hard as Finish Buster, Shining Slash is much harder to dodge at close to mid range and it greatly expands Trunk's rush down game when he has the ki advantage. The only down side is that the cancel point is before the actual slash so it doesn't cause any damage when used as a combo extension but the rush down options he gains from Shining Slash cancels are worth the cost. Burning Slash: 6/10 Definately stylish but ultimately not that useful. There are better ways to spend 5 ki bars than to gamble with a cinematic ultimate. Unless you are fighting Frieza, there isn't any incentive to go for this attack. On a side note, this marks yet another game where Dimps didn't give Trunks a functional Burning Attack. At the very least they could have set Burning Attack as the failed scenario for Burning Slash but I guess that would have been too much to ask for... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SECTION IW09: FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS Q: Story mode sucks, why can't I play as anyone other than Goku? A: You are only limited to Goku the first time through story mode, after you beat it once everyone else's fights open up. Q: How do I unlock Fighter's Road? A: Beat story mode once then go to the skill shop and buy the fighter's road capsule. Q: How do I get _____ capsule? A: All capsules are unlocked by fully completing story and fighter's road. This means going back to story mode after you have beaten it with Goku and completing every map on fighter's road. Once the capsules are unlocked, you have to buy them in the shop. There is really nothing else to it, just play the game and everything will be unlocked. There are no difficult special conditions that have to be met. Q: Is there any point to finding all of the Dragon Balls? A: No, unlike previous games finding all of the Dragon Balls in Infinite World doesn't unlock anything special. The only things you can wish for are capsules that can be bought normally from the shop. It is possible to get 100% completion on the capsule list without using the Dragon Balls. Q: The computer keeps kicking my ass even on Very Easy, why is it so unfair? A: This time around Dimps set the A.I. so it uses every technique available in the game, even combo cancels, so the A.I. is much harder than any previous DBZ title to date. While it seems overwhelming at first, one thing to keep in mind is that the A.I. doesn't use anything that you can't use also. If your attacks and specials bounce off the A.I., it isn't because they are cheating, it is because they are triggering Aura Guard at the last second. If the A.I. is teleporting before they have 3 ki bars, it isn't because the game hates you, it is because they are using capsules that you can also buy from the shop. If you see the A.I. do an unreasonably long combo that isn't listed anywhere in the command list, it is because they are combo canceling. If you want to beat the A.I., you will have to learn the fighting system, don't expect to win by just mashing punch and throwing out Kamehamehas. Also take advantage of the capsule shop, specifically the fighter's body capsule, which increases your number of health bars, and sensu beans. Once you learn the system and use capsules, the A.I. isn't very hard at all. Q: What is the quickest way to earn zenny? A: The fastest way to earn zenny is to purchase the WE GOT POWER! capsule from the capsule shop and play on Z difficulty. WE GOT POWER! is a zenny multiplier and Z difficulty gives more than double the zenny that normal does. WE GOT POWER! is available early in story mode but you can't unlock the highest level of it until you clear the first map of fighters road. Once you max it out, WE GOT POWER! doubles the amount of zenny you win from fights so when paired with Z difficulty, you get at least 4x the amount of zenny per match. For best results, go to fighters mode and start rampaging. On average you'll get 200,000+ zenny per match so you can max out your zenny in just 4 matches. Q: Okay that sounded like a royal pain in the ass, what is the easiest way to earn zenny? A: In the Buu saga in story mode, there is a battle where you have to lose against Hercule at the world martial arts tournament as Andriod 18. Just play that match at Z difficulty (you have to lose anyway) with WE GOT POWER! equipped for easy zenny. Q: I can't win ultimate struggles, what am I doing wrong? A: To win ultimate struggles, you have to tap X when the bar at the bottom is close to full. You have to do this 3 times and this fills the bar at the top of the screen. The point is to have your bar filled more than the opponent's. You have a lot of time so don't panic, the bars won't fill unless you tap X so you can watch them pass by once or twice to get down the timing. The speed of the bars is determined by how much fatigue you have so if you have a maxed out fatigue bar the ultimate guage is going to move extremely fast. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SECTION IW10: CONTACT INFORMATION QUESTIONS? COMMENTS? ADVICE? You can email me at vyers72@yahoo.com if you have any questions or comments regarding this guide. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SECTION IW11: SPECIAL THANKS Dimps and Atari - For caring enough to improve the series with each game. Nnamz, Azuro, Zejitox, philff138, cml64, Brogeta, Goryus, Sjsman, vegeta1, kekken5, EVIL CAPTIAN AMERICA, SuperShinySonic, superior13, kevinlim123, 1ssj4gogeta1, Dizlord, DS_Aneila and all of the other vets on the Gamefaqs and Dragonball Competitive message boards who know how to play the game and contribute to the community. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SECTION IW12: LEGAL INFO This may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. Copyright 2009 DrunkenPilot72