Landing long destructive combos in fighting games is so satisfying! Dragon Ball FighterZ opens excellent opportunities for this — thanks to auto combos, even beginners to the fighting genre can easily experience this joy. Still, auto combos are rather kids toys; they significantly limit your possibilities in fighting matches. When you step into the multiplayer fights and start facing more-less experienced opponents, only extended manual combos give you a chance to succeed.
So, let’s start learning those DBFZ combos! For sure, no guide can replace your fighting practice and brave experiments. Still, it’s nice to understand the combo principles in this game and have a solid basis for chaining various attacks and moves.
Auto Combos — a Beginner’s Joy
I would still prefer starting this Dragon Ball FighterZ guide by explaining auto combos. They give an awesome effect at starting stages for so many players, and it’s better to know them deeper than just “press this button repeatedly, and your character will do something cool.”
L Auto Combo. You press the Light Attack button, and your character performs three unique attacks (first three pressings), launches the opponent (most fighters), and performs Super Dash with following Jumping Light, Medium, and Heavy attacks.
M Auto Combo. When you press the Medium Attack button three times, most characters perform their standing Medium Attack, crouching Medium, and a Special Move (with consuming one bar of Ki energy)
H Auto Combo. A typical auto combo for the Heavy Attack button is Super Dash, following the first Heavy hit, and then jumping Heavy attack.
The first two attacks of the L Auto Combo are pretty significant for manual combos, many of which start from the second hit 5LL. You can link Medium Attack into it.
If you are ready to move beyond the auto combos, the game itself will provide you with enough tips (tutorials of the story mode; combo challenge of the practice mode). One of them will be the general sequence for chaining normal attacks:
L > M > H (it can be then followed by S)
For most characters, you cannot change this direction and move from H to M and to L (Adult Gohan can do this on his Level 5). It is possible to mix crouching and standing attacks. Heavy attacks often cause wall bouncing, so you can extend them with a Super Dash (H+S) and the repetition of the L>M>H pattern.
Unlike the Street Fighter combo system, Dragon Ball FighterZ doesn’t require being very precise in activating the next attack/move in such chains. The game recommends doing that when the current attack lands. In practice, you can often just press buttons one after another and enjoy the spectacular show. Head to the practice mode and dedicate enough time to training basic combo patterns — you need to develop muscle memory and just press buttons at the right moments with no thinking whatsoever.
DBFZ Combo Extensions
The simplest chain is good and everything, but have you ever watched professionals landing Dragon Ball FighterZ combos? They find an opening, and then the series of attacks seems to be endless.
The more hits you can deliver in your manual combo, the more damage it will deal to your opponent. The question is — how to extend a combo? Here we have a few tricks that allow you to connect chains of normal attacks, special moves, and super moves in DBFZ.
The very core of combos in fighting games is to not allow the opponent to recover and activate block, escape, or counterattack. Successful combos keep the victim busy, so your character can perform their next attack/move before getting any response. Combo extensions give precisely such a tool.
There are a few extensions you can use. It would be better to understand their features, bring them into your practice mode lab, and use them to create your own most effective combos in Dragon Ball FighterZ.
Jump Cancel (JC)
It’s a very useful thing to add to combos. Almost any normal attack in DBFZ can be canceled into a jump. That means you skip the recovery animation for your character and start the next action immediately (jump in this case or forward jump to keep closer to the opponent). Then, the jump itself can be canceled into a normal air attack, so you continue your combo.
Of course, your attack should launch the opponent into the air to be followed by Jump Cancel. Crouching Medium + Medium — it’s a good choice for this:
It is totally possible to use Jump Cancel twice in a combo. The second one can be performed in the air, for example, after 2H in the air that launches the opponent even higher.
Vanish
This is one of the unique mechanics in DBFZ. You press M+H, and your character “teleports” to appear behind the opponent and attack them. Most Vanish attacks launch the victim and make them bounce from the wall. You can use this time to get prepared for the next part of your combo and catch the opponent with a new series of attacks.
Vanish consumes one bar of Ki energy. Usually, you can activate it after Heavy Attacks or Special Moves. Some good follow-ups after Vanish are Super Dash and the simplest L > M > H chain, M with JC, Super Moves, or Z Assist / Tag.
Vanish allows players to add another wall bounce to their combos (normally, you can have only one after your Heavy or Special).
Smash
With Heavy attacks, your character implies Smash Effect:
5H launches the opponent horizontally;
2H launches them vertically;
j.2H is a downward strike.
Smash prolongs the recovery period for the victim, so you have a chance to use Super Dash and then land the next attack. Some Special Moves in DBFZ also have the Smash effect.
The simplest way to get the thing in practice is to land the L auto combo — you’ll see Smash written on the screen.
Z Assists
This great feature of 3v3 team fights can be used to deal extra damage and extend combos. You summon support from one of the inactive team members and use their power to let your current fighter prepare the next series of attacks.
Such a combo extension is not too straightforward. Its effectiveness strongly depends on your characters, their assists, and even opponents. Practice mode experiments are crucial for weaving Z Assists Into your DBFZ combos.
The same is true for tagging other characters and bringing them to fights to continue combos — new fighters appear with Super Dash.
Sliding
When you slam the opponent to the ground with some attacks, they slide for a while. This sliding period is perfect for activating a Super Move as a cool combo finisher.
How to Combo in Dragon Ball FighterZ
Everything in this guide so far looks a lot like Lego bricks that need to be placed into your personal construction — actual game combos. But how to connect them? How to move from theory to practice and start combo in DBFZ?
In general, there are three ways to do the magic:
Use someone’s pre-made combos;
Create combos in your lab of the practice mode;
Use the bricks of someone's combos to create yours in the lab.
Ok, it looks like the third way is the most efficient — you don’t copy something blindly, but also, you don’t spend too much time experimenting.
So, what about getting more substantial “bricks of someone’s combos?” (which are certainly just general examples and should be brought to fighting practice — you know, by you)
The basic manual combo flow is:
5L > 5M > 5H > Super Dash > 5L > 5M > 2H ...
You can use here Special to Super
5L > 5M > 5H > Super Dash > 5L > 5M > Special > Super
Heavy after 2H can replace Super Dash — this technique will be performed automatically. For example, you can perform two circles of the basic combo before using the Jump Cancel:
Vanish is an effective extension tool to use close to the end of your combos. For example, you can use it after j.236S for Goku Super Saiyan:
… j.236S > Vanish ...
Or you can use Vanis conversion after different sorts of combos:
… > Vanish > Dash 2M > 5M >...
Basic Universal Combo
The “combo bricks” we’ve described in the previous section are pretty important as they open some cool possibilities for DBFZ players. Thanks to them, you can take almost any character from the roster and have fun while being relatively effective in a fight.
Basic Universal Combo in DBFZ is a tool in your arsenal to quickly expand your active character pool. Practice is sure needed as some moves might not work the way you expect with a specific character. But in general, only a few fighters are out of this pattern, such as Master Roshi, Hit, or Beerus.
So, here is a simple universal combo — with slight variants and in its progression. It might be a good idea to practice the combo in the same sequence, from the shorter beginning to the long final version.
2M > 5M > JC > j.L > j.M > j.2H — use Forward Jump for Jump Cancel to not let the opponent move out of your reach
2M > 5M > JC > j.L > j.M > j.L > j.2H — with an extra j.L; you can add it to the further versions as well
With some experience, you will find many other possible openings. For example, you can try j.H > 5LL > 2M >, and it will be overhead into mid and into low — to make blocking much harder.
Instead of the auto combo, you can finish this universal combo with Special > Super. Such an ender obviously strongly depends on the character in use. For example, Super Saiyan Goku can do:
Another variant of the ender is to perform a Level 1 Super after landing (or while landing). A Beam Super, such as Super Kamehameha of Super Saiyan Goku:
That’s it for the universal basis. Everything else concerning combos in DBFZ depends on the character you use, their teammates, and their assists.
Here is a table with a few combo examples for different fighters. They also can be used as those bricks for your combo practice.
For a deeper dive, don’t miss character guides created by professionals. DashFight has already published videos on Janemba by Nitro and Vegito by Tyrant. You can find the whole playlist of our DBFZ character guides on our youTube channel.
Such an amount of information on combos in DBFZ might be disturbingly confusing: “I totally have no idea what are you talking about”; “I understand that expansions concept but can’t perform even Jump Cancel properly”; “I just want to have fun in the game, with no tiresome learning.”
The key to not get overwhelmed and convert the theory into practice while still enjoying the process is to take one step at a time. The game is great, and using combos in it should only boost your excitement.
First, take your time to understand the basics. It won’t be hard if you already have experience in the game.
Then, start practicing small strings. You need to develop muscle memory for such things as 5L > 2M > 5M > JC > JM. Work on such stuff in the practice mode regularly. Remember to bring them into your arcade matches. Shine with the strings in multiplayer fights.
Practice makes perfect! When you feel ready, extend the string to a simple combo. For example, use something from the list above and develop muscle memory in your lab.
Experiment! Don’t get stuck to the basics. Unleash your internal power and combine everything you know and can into deadly DBFZ combos.
Combo Challenge of the practice mode could be very helpful in this process. The game gives exercises for each character and checks how you perform combos — from auto to pretty interesting manual ones. The secret here is repetition. If you managed to perform a string after 18 attempts, it doesn’t mean you’ve learned it. Do you remember that thing about muscle memory? Return to the combo challenge and repeat those you find useful for your playing style.
Hopefully, this guide boosts your practice, and after putting in some (exciting) effort, you will combo like a pro!
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