Last time we covered the absolute basics of the DOA system, in this article.
Now we've gone back over these basics here are some of the important "Advanced Basics" that work with every character:

Advanced basics: The Stun System

In DOA, if you successfully land an attack while your opponent is attempting to attack you, such as when you hit them with a mid-height punch or kick while they're going for a low attack, they will be stunned. (This is called a Counter Blow.)

Likewise, there are some special attacks that stun, or a stun will result after a sequence of hits have landed.

Either way, you will learn to recognise the stun animation. A character may double over, crumple, or even be forced into a sitting position. These different animations communicate how "deep" the stun is, and therefore how long it takes to recover from.

The main thing to remember is, when in a stun, you cannot attack, and you cannot block. If you've stunned your opponent, you're likely going to get a free hit - a great time to use a launch attack to put your opponent into the air and connect an air combo for damage.

On offense, causing a stun is an important goal, and skillful players will keep the opponent stunned by attacking again (while avoiding counters) to re-stun the opponent.

After too many hits a stunned opponent will be knocked over, so you must read the situation and decide to try and launch the opponent in the air, or reset the stun with a light attack, such as a low jab, to avoid knocking them over and start the process again. If your opponent escapes the stun with a counter or slow escape (more on this later), you can attempt to throw them or initiate a different attack.

Getting out of stuns

It sounds like once you're stunned, you're screwed. However,there are ways out of a stun. While you cannot attack or block, you can counter/Defensive Hold out of the stun. Be careful in what direction you counter, because if you miss, their next attack may launch, or restun you!

The other main way out of a stun is the little known technique "Slow Escape". This is explored next. The idea is to perform the escape so your character recovers, allowing you to block or attack,

The last way out of stuns is part of the mindgame, if your opponent is expecting a counter or slow escape, they could be waiting to throw you. In this case, sometimes it's better to do nothing and let your character recover normally. You both wind up standing at neutral (or you fall over and can do a kick while standing up) and can size up a new attack, or they may even miss the throw, because you can't be thrown while stunned.

Tech Rolling

Simple, but effective and very important to learn. Tech rolling or "fast getup" allows you to stand up immediately after an attack that would normally knock you over. It's very straightforward - just hit any button as you hit the ground (or a moment before).

The benefit is naturally to be able to attack your opponent before he's finished his attack, or block the next attack effectively. There is also a mindgame element even to this technique - if you choose to stay on the ground, you can then force your opponent to deal with a wakeup kick.

Offensive Holds

These are a basic move each character has, but their application deserves a separate mention. These special kinds of throws change the basic Triangle system rule mentioned earlier, because unlike normal throws, they break through attacks. So if you fear an opponent that is recovering from your attack is not going to block or counter, but attack back, an Offensive Hold can shut them down.

Of course there must be a counterpoint to balance this, and the answer to an offensive hold, is the normal Throw, which will always beat an Offensive Hold. Also, like any throw, you can duck if you’re quick enough but watch out for low throws! In the character move list, look out for the throws with the Green "HOLD" signifier and practice using them to pressure an opponent when the basic three choices aren't enough.

Free Cancelling

This is an important technique to mix up your combos and force your opponent to anticipate incorrectly, or just to make the combo longer and more damaging! The basic technique is to press the (F) or Free/Guard button in between two button presses to reset your character to neutral and start a new attack.

In DOA, there are set "strings" of moves that form combos. For instance if you are Kasumi and you press FORWARD+P, then P, she will perform the set string of a mid punch following by a high jab. Opponents will learn to expect this, so you can press FORWARD+P, then (F)ree, Kasumi will be reset and you can press FORWARD+P or DOWN+P to attack at a different height without unintentially finishing the predesignated combo.

The extra options this gives you especially in combos are huge, so experiment with free cancelling next time you get "stuck" playing through a combo you don't want to finish.

Slow Escape

One of the lesser understood elements of the game, Slow Escaping in some situations is just as important as countering and blocking. If an opponent has you under pressure by getting you into a stun, performing the ironically named slow escape, will speed up your recovery, allowing you to block many slower follow up attacks and giving you the initiative.

The easiest way to perform the Slow Escape is to hold down block (F) without pushing a direction (to avoid countering by mistake), then, rotate the controller quickly to hit all 8 points. Depending on the stun and the execution of the Slow Escape, you'll recover before their next attack. Definitely one to practice - there's more than one way to do it too - for a detailed explanation check VirtuaPai's thread on DOAcentral here.

Ground attacks and Forced Wakeup

The last intermediate technique to learn today is forcing your opponent to stand up after you've knocked them down. If your opponent hasn't tech rolled, or you've landed an air juggle that lands in a strong downward attack, you will often have the chance to literally kick them while they're down.

This is different to using Up+P+K to jump on the opponent. Here, you need to learn what attacks your character has that will hit an opponent while they are laying on the ground. This generally only works when they've just been knocked flat, or are not yet otherwise rolling to get up themselves.

For example, with Hayabusa, you've just knocked your opponent over. You have a few options. You can press down+P for a normal low punch, this will hit the opponent and force them to stand up right away, a few steps away from you.

Alternatively, if they've been knocked down hard you can go for two hits. Press down+K, then down+K again, and they'll only roll up on the second hit. If you want to get fancy, you can press Down/Back+Punch for one hit, then Up/Forward+K for the second, which rolls Hayabusa forward and he's closer to them as they stand up.

From there, the opponent cannot perform the powerful wakeup kick at all, and is kept on the defensive as you have the choice of attack, throw, or best of all, Offensive Hold, as they will be at a disadvantage and your attacks will be faster. How clever you are with mixing up your follow up attacks is what really makes Forced Wakeups worth it.

Keep pushing forward

Well that's all for now! I hope that helps cover some of the mysteries for beginning players on what intermediate and advanced players are doing to give them an edge.

Dead or Alive is certainly a very deep game, as once you've mastered these, there's still advanced techniques from knowing Safe moves, recovery, and other frame data, to Fuzzy Guarding to dodge throws, wave dashing to spacing, and more. For a great index of the terms used when players discuss DOA, check out this thread at DOAcentral:

Expect to see the best players employing these techniques in the CGS this season!