brionac
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I like to remind some players that we really didn't write a guide dedicated to this simple yet powerful glitch on the forum until now, but others like @StevieWonderDownUnder did mention it in passing in his Force Guide (WIP) post a couple months ago while @admiralpit mentioned a shorter version for FOmars back in 2016. Props to both of them for bringing it up sooner than later. Here are a few examples of what it's like to take advantage of some ranged attacks in this game. For better results on hunters and forces, equip a Smartlink unit before practicing.
For starters, this glitch works with ranged attacks, and it's effectiveness also depends on when and where it's done relative to what ranged attack is used. I'll explain how this goes for slicers and mechguns since these weapons are easy examples to explain for now. Other weapons like cards, handguns, rifles, etc. can work too, but slicers and mechguns are better weapons to demonstrate this glitch more easily.
0. Types of Attacks
If you're not sure what SNS means, they are initials for Special, Normal, & Special attacks in a three hit combo. Other people might use Weak, Strong, and Special attacks like WStSp, but that's not what I'm going to use for this guide. This game restricts combos to three attacks per combo, and H is short for Hard. So watch out for other combos like NHS, NHH, etc. Also, S3 means that the third attack is a special attack; also, N1 means that the first attack is a normal attack. Okay, so let's move on to the actual explanation of the glitch already.
1. Slicers
The beginner's combo to practice this glitch is the SNS combo, so let's see how easy this really is on paper. It's not necessary to be as far away from monsters as possible, but it does require that the attacks are used promptly. Assuming that you have timed your combos well, you start with S1 followed by N2 as soon as possible before S1 damages some monsters, but S3 is not really necessary to use since the point of the glitch is to hit monsters with S1 as if it has the ATA of N1 except that S1 uses N2's ATA as its input. In fact, if you keep pressing the buttons too fast while keeping the combo up you can negate the effectiveness of N2 by forcing it to be as accurate as S2 by using this glitch to initiate S3 before N2 even hit some monsters too soon by accident. Fortunately, this glitch has no effect on how accurate the third attack will be since it has not fourth attack's ATA to mooch from. Most people don't really sweat this minor detail about N2's attack inheriting S3's ATA; simply delay pressing the button for S3 by a millisecond since this technicality is too much information anyways.
For simplicity's sake, ignore S3 and stick to SN combos to see how S1 keeps hitting monsters so easily to get to the point of this glitch. It's not supposed to do hit the monsters at all if the game's working out the ATA/EVP calculations correctly. Eventually, you can hit monsters with S3 without messing up N2 by delaying the button to initiate S3 anyways. Also, if S3 normally doesn't hit the monsters because your ATA is too low, then settle for H3 or even N3 until gaining more ATA because the glitch won't help in the third attack if ATA is low enough to have a 0% chance for S3 or even H3.
If you want to step it up with another combo like SHS, then performing H2 instead of N2 so that S1 will be as accurate as H2 while attempting to keep H2 as accurate as, well, H2 by slightly delaying the third attack as mentioned above can be a good exercise too. Heck, if you want to see how hard this can be, attempt to glitch both S1 and S2 in an SSS combo where S1 will be as accurate as S2 while S2 will be as accurate as S3 if done correctly. Essentially, these are homework problems, and may require some more insight into how much ATA you really need to land some of these combos, so I'll hand these ATA calculators as a few references or two, or even three.
2. Mechguns
Attempting to perform the SNS combo with a mechgun requires more attention in locating where to start the combo more so than with the slicer. Anticipate where the monster will be located before shooting; if this inital step is done correctly, begin the combo with S1 followed by N2 immediately afterwards to get a head start in killing that monster. If all goes well, you can land one or two hits for S1, and if you have the ATA to use S3, finish it off if possible. Again, you can take it easy and stick to SN combos since timing S3 may be annoying, but I haven't had any problem with mechguns when it comes to this side effect really.
If you prefer to do SHS or SSS combos, rinse and repeat what was mentioned above concerning slicers with the instructions on how to do this glitch with mechguns for more practice.
3. Et Cetera
I can go on about using this glitch for the cards, handguns, rifles, etc, but I'll leave that up for somebody else that wants to volunteer in giving any specific information on those types of weapons since such details are not very far from what I have said here.
I noticed that @Bagarozy has volunteered this sort of information on this website for a very long time, so I'll copy and paste it in a spoiler so that nobody will have to Ctrl + F Attack Glitches that often.
As for a good place to practice using the SNS glitch with any set of weapons, you can make this easier to test against monsters like Monests/Mothvists or Recoboxes since those kinds of enemies do not attack you at all. For Recoboxes, you can run West Tower where there are three Recoboxes that don't spawn Recons while three other Recoboxes do spawn recons. Simply kill the Recoboxes that do spawn Recons, and start practicing. For Monests/Mothvists, run Respective Tomorrow and go to the first hallway after clearing the first room. Of course, there are Mothmants/Mothverts that are going to be in the way, so eliminate those pests before practicing. In the next section, I show a video of myself in Sandbox mode fighting Recoboxes in Ultimate mode as a HUnewearl, and it's not solo mode. Stay tuned for other characters doing similar tests like HUcast and HUcaseal since she has unique animations for daggers and twin sabers.
4. Bonus: SNS and NSN Glitch Video
This video is an attempt to demonstrate how to perform the SNS Glitch for both ranged and melee weapons with a special NSN Glitch for the Twin Sword weapons, so please watch the equipment that is shown in the beginning for more information about what this HUnewearl is using. Also, please examine the Monster Reader's Target Window at the center and top portion of the screen. These instances are extreme examples with -128% native, machine, and hit weapons where the S1 and S2 attacks have 0% of hitting the Recobox, but all N2 attacks and some S3 attacks have non-zero chances of hitting it. These strict parameters are designed to examine how effective the glitch really is in each instance, here are some ATA/EVP calculations that I will demonstrate in this video below.
As one can see, it was impossible to perform the glitch in the fourth and fifth instances since glitching for the S1 attack never landed successfully due to extremely hard timing and/or bad RNG under these harsh conditions assuming that this glitch does work with melee weapons, but I highly doubt that is the case after lowering the ATA low enough to let the glitch take complete control of the experiment.
Also, in the fourth instance, I successfully attacked the Recobox with the glitch by using the S2 attack instead of the S1 attack since the berserk special drained some hit points when I used some SSN combos. The sixth instance was easier to perform because it was glitching the S2 attack smoothly. To clarify the point, the S2 attack has a higher chance of successfully striking the target from N3 attack's extremely high rate of success compared to N2 attack's mild rate of success in the fourth and fifth instances.
5. Postscript: Glitching Melee Attacks
The concept of glitching melee attacks works the same way as I mentioned earlier in this guide, but the twist is that the targets are too close to effectively take advantage of this glitch up close consistently. Therefore, I'm going to leave this link to a post below where I share my thoughts on performing this glitch using melee weapons that have more than one hit in their attacks like daggers, twin sabers, and twin swords.
For starters, this glitch works with ranged attacks, and it's effectiveness also depends on when and where it's done relative to what ranged attack is used. I'll explain how this goes for slicers and mechguns since these weapons are easy examples to explain for now. Other weapons like cards, handguns, rifles, etc. can work too, but slicers and mechguns are better weapons to demonstrate this glitch more easily.
0. Types of Attacks
If you're not sure what SNS means, they are initials for Special, Normal, & Special attacks in a three hit combo. Other people might use Weak, Strong, and Special attacks like WStSp, but that's not what I'm going to use for this guide. This game restricts combos to three attacks per combo, and H is short for Hard. So watch out for other combos like NHS, NHH, etc. Also, S3 means that the third attack is a special attack; also, N1 means that the first attack is a normal attack. Okay, so let's move on to the actual explanation of the glitch already.
1. Slicers
The beginner's combo to practice this glitch is the SNS combo, so let's see how easy this really is on paper. It's not necessary to be as far away from monsters as possible, but it does require that the attacks are used promptly. Assuming that you have timed your combos well, you start with S1 followed by N2 as soon as possible before S1 damages some monsters, but S3 is not really necessary to use since the point of the glitch is to hit monsters with S1 as if it has the ATA of N1 except that S1 uses N2's ATA as its input. In fact, if you keep pressing the buttons too fast while keeping the combo up you can negate the effectiveness of N2 by forcing it to be as accurate as S2 by using this glitch to initiate S3 before N2 even hit some monsters too soon by accident. Fortunately, this glitch has no effect on how accurate the third attack will be since it has not fourth attack's ATA to mooch from. Most people don't really sweat this minor detail about N2's attack inheriting S3's ATA; simply delay pressing the button for S3 by a millisecond since this technicality is too much information anyways.
For simplicity's sake, ignore S3 and stick to SN combos to see how S1 keeps hitting monsters so easily to get to the point of this glitch. It's not supposed to do hit the monsters at all if the game's working out the ATA/EVP calculations correctly. Eventually, you can hit monsters with S3 without messing up N2 by delaying the button to initiate S3 anyways. Also, if S3 normally doesn't hit the monsters because your ATA is too low, then settle for H3 or even N3 until gaining more ATA because the glitch won't help in the third attack if ATA is low enough to have a 0% chance for S3 or even H3.
If you want to step it up with another combo like SHS, then performing H2 instead of N2 so that S1 will be as accurate as H2 while attempting to keep H2 as accurate as, well, H2 by slightly delaying the third attack as mentioned above can be a good exercise too. Heck, if you want to see how hard this can be, attempt to glitch both S1 and S2 in an SSS combo where S1 will be as accurate as S2 while S2 will be as accurate as S3 if done correctly. Essentially, these are homework problems, and may require some more insight into how much ATA you really need to land some of these combos, so I'll hand these ATA calculators as a few references or two, or even three.
2. Mechguns
Attempting to perform the SNS combo with a mechgun requires more attention in locating where to start the combo more so than with the slicer. Anticipate where the monster will be located before shooting; if this inital step is done correctly, begin the combo with S1 followed by N2 immediately afterwards to get a head start in killing that monster. If all goes well, you can land one or two hits for S1, and if you have the ATA to use S3, finish it off if possible. Again, you can take it easy and stick to SN combos since timing S3 may be annoying, but I haven't had any problem with mechguns when it comes to this side effect really.
If you prefer to do SHS or SSS combos, rinse and repeat what was mentioned above concerning slicers with the instructions on how to do this glitch with mechguns for more practice.
3. Et Cetera
I can go on about using this glitch for the cards, handguns, rifles, etc, but I'll leave that up for somebody else that wants to volunteer in giving any specific information on those types of weapons since such details are not very far from what I have said here.
I noticed that @Bagarozy has volunteered this sort of information on this website for a very long time, so I'll copy and paste it in a spoiler so that nobody will have to Ctrl + F Attack Glitches that often.
Attack Glitches
Being able to glitch attacks will probably change your views on this game. In terms of game mechanics, glitching attacks involves making an attack that would either be impossible or unlikely to hit, to hit. This happens if you perform sequential attacks of any kind (N/H/S), where the first has not yet hit the target, and give the first attack the accuracy of the second. The game can only hold one attack accuracy value at a time. Among the most important and most frequently used weapons are the Slicer, Mechgun and Gun, which are put to use by mostly every class. Particularly Mechguns and Slicers help especially lower ATA classes hit enemies within mid fighting distance. Glitching Hard and Special Attacks is the key to handle low ATA characters. An instruction on how to perform glitches is provided in the Slicer section below.
In this section glitching refers to attacking using Hard and Special Attacks with Normal/Standard Attack accuracy by adding the Normal/Standard Attack after the attack, or to using Special Attacks with Hard/Heavy Attack accuracy. Combo structures will always be a N or H after an S for demonstration. Using the back palette (if Special Attack is there) isn't recommended as you can cancel your own attack easiest using R. Sequential S glitches (SS element) are also possible on RA but require the necessary ATA. It's all about meeting the ATA requirement to glitch and performing the attacks at the right time at an adequate range.
A lot of weapon types support the glitch: Gun, Rifle, Shot, Mechgun, Psychogun, Launcher, Slicer, J-Cutter, S-Rank Cards, Needle, Twin, Dagger and many (wind) projectile specials. The Bazooka barely has any practical use; it looks like the second attack can be glitched, but not the first. Testing this weapon does not yield any satisfying results. To me, it looks like it behaves similar to the Dagger/Twin second hit (see below and video), but worse. It remains a sacrificial SSS option against lower EVP. If it at least ignored manual evasion.. Shots, unlike Slicers, do not ignore manual evasion, but using SHS/SSS is generally viable on Rangers since they do not lose ATA over distance (more on that below). Baranz Launcher can also be glitched. Psychoguns do not support any offensive Special Attacks, which is why you can only glitch their H attacks. It also has yet to be tested whether other weapons have the ability to glitch. Twin and Dagger for example (best on female) can glitch the second hit of the first attack, but are limited vs enemies whose target boxes are different to others (e.g. Zoa and Zele: sometimes you get a target box, but you can't hit it etc.), and vs enemies that move a lot (Gibbons).
Some weapons support the glitch better than others. On some weapons it is easier to glitch attacks not using a God/Battle. Battle units are not a must have in order to glitch. Mechs, the main weapon with the smallest window, can still be glitched without one. Sword (Partisan/Scythe and others) can only 'glitch' Hard Attacks. Saber for example, on Normal, can HN at max range on many enemies; a hit to a Delsaber's back in 2C2 using HUnl is quite reliable. Male Saber HNH often are easy combo kills vs Booma/Dimenian series. Since attack animations differ from character to character it's not clear whether attack glitches can be universally applied with the other factors involved. They work in most cases though.
Slicer:
This weapon has characteristics allowing you to deal damage accurately nullifying ATA loss over distance followed by a quick Normal Attack. It is a type of weapon anyone can get easily. 50H Charge Slicer series from the weapon shop increase ATA and deal good damage. Many players call the following method the "Slicer glitch."At adequate distance, the player will perform a Special Attack followed by a Normal. You start with the Special Attack at about max distance quickly* (asap) followed by a Normal Attack. So try that: SN. The Normal Attack technically has to be performed before the Special even hits. Thus, the S Attack gets the accuracy of a N.
It is the most well-known glitch and is the easiest to perform. The first thing you have to pay attention to is the range that Slicers deal. Distance yourself from the target. For the start, you go for the (near) max distance where you can target the enemy. If the target is close to you and you try the 'trick' it will be unlikely to work. So don't forget to keep track of the range. If you delay the N until after the S physically hits, the S won't glitch. The ATA isn't too important as long as the Normal Attack of the combo can pass the ATA vs EVP check. You have to use the correct Slicer combo. As a beginner, I guess you would use a Slicer combo with a Special Attack like NHS (Normal Hard Special). But maybe, for example, you want or need the Special to be performed in a timely manner. You want the Special or Hard Attack to hit to provide the most effective combo, right? So why would you use the S or H first?
The Normal pressed quickly after the Special gives the Special the accuracy of a Normal Attack because the Special has not actually been applied yet. The Normal Attack is very important. So you can calculate whether it can hit. Let's say you use a hitless Slicer in C, do it like this. Perfect range - HN(H). Hard Normal is almost guaranteed to hit; the final Hard Attack deals the usual hit calculations because it's the end of the combo. You can go down with your ATA a lot, even to negative values according to the calculator. A Normal almost always hits (especially when part of a combo). You can replace N with H if accuracy isn't an issue so the Special Attack has the accuracy of a Hard Attack, i.e. SH combo (H-glitch). SHS on a Charge Diska would be the suggested combo against enemies whose EVP can be surpassed by the Hard Attack. Here the first S has the ATA of a second H, not a first H (read: H2 accuracy).
'A' is best for Normal Attack surrounded by B for Special and X for Hard. Stick to the pattern explained so it goes off your hands correctly. The Slicer doesn't deal a certain range for nothing. So if the target is pretty close to you, it is not recommended to start with S. There is a number of different N combos you can use: SN, HN, SNS, HNH, SNH, etc.
Example: I'm using my FOmar in online Ultimate attacking a Zol Gibbon (950 EVP) and it even moves. No problem for us to hit it and deal damage. Shifta/Zalure, Charge Diska 50H for 238 ATA. Attack at Slicer range using SN only. Repeat that combo and get the result. Oh and you want to use a God/Battle. That way you can increase your combo animation speed, allowing you to perform the N after the first S quicker at non-max Slicer range.
Advanced players also cancel their Normal Attack when attacking in a party to avoid dmc. The N doesn't need to hit the target in order to glitch the H/S attack, so just press and cancel using R/L. The Slicer is a very powerful weapon as it can be used anywhere, no matter if used on a single target or group. By all means, watch the range. You cannot be close to a target if you want it to work. You don't have to be at max distance for the glitch. In fact, a few units of distance to the target is all you need, especially when using the -SN combo, i.e. not starting with the first attack but with the second. The Slicer/J-Cutter has been the most prominent weapon type to properly glitch as it ignores manual evasion.
*There actually is room for a small delay depending on situation.
Mechgun:
As previously mentioned, knowing what attacks to perform is crucial. Decide which combo on what enemy at what distance on what class under which circumstances is the best. This is most crucial for Mechguns. Just like most Ranger weapon types, a Mechgun combo can be glitched using a Standard Attack quickly followed after a Hard- or Special Attack at an appropriate distance to the target. Since its range is limited and the attacks are fast, there is a good chance you will only glitch one bullet; glitching two bullets and even three however is possible. Hunters and Forces should use SNH/S most of the time, given adequate circumstances. Factors, such as level of Shifta, Zalure, EVP etc. further determine how you attack. S-Rank Demon's Mechgun for example can be very powerful if you know how to use it. HUmar and HUnewearl can SN(N/H) combo kill best at max distance to potentially connect 2 Demon's activations with what they can provide by support. Even Hell- and Arrest Mechgun have potential because you get quite a number of hits in, as long as your ATA is high enough to hit the target. Charge Mechgun series are deadly. Even one critical bullet under Shifta can take away half of an enemy's health. Glitching Charge Vulcans is extremely helpful vs ranged high EVP enemies. At max range, Mechgun can glitch 2 bullets (using God/Battle) and 3 bullets when you deal with descending enemies (see below). SH works at max range for one glitched bullet, especially on enemies that don't get knockback. Notice how the basic weapon types Gun, Mechgun, and Slicer are accessible by every character. Enemies that are low on EVP but high on HP can be killed using SHS (e.g. Charge Vulcan). Even a Hunter's SN or SH Charge Vulcan under support can kill a lot.
Example: I'm using the FOmar again for the MG scenario (H-glitch). We face a max range Ultimate Del Lily (moving head hitbox, at least 782 EVP online according to enemy data) with a G/Battle and 60H Charge Vulcan for 235 ATA (=8% chance of the first Hard Attack hit to hit the target according to calculator). You actually need to drop much more ATA because Forces lose considerably over distance. A SH combo performed asap will still be able to hit the last bullet of the Special Attack since we S attack with second Hard Attack accuracy. This is not as reliable as the N glitch. It just shows that it works. If we were attacking with only Hard Attack accuracy, we would not be able to glitch the Special Attack (remember the -8%). Glitched attacks not only ignore ATA penalty completely - given no manual evasion - but they also boost accuracy (by a lot; uses N2/N3 acc rather than N1/N2, hence the term 'overwrite').
Gun/Rifle:
The Gun is definitely a killer on any character except FOmarl. Her Gun combo speed is too slow to glitch properly most of the time. She has the Bazooka to compensate. Again, you can use quite a few different combos. At (near) max range you can easily hit stuff using NSN/H which is probably the best overall combo for the Gun on HU/FO. Time the Standard Attack correctly; it can be a bit difficult on Guns, especially since they are most vulnerable to manual evasion.
While Rangers do not suffer from an ATA penalty, HU and FO access to Rifles still can be effective at extreme distances where ATA loss is immense. They operate the same way as Gun. Glitching a Demon's Laser SN/SH is performed faster but may or may not be more effective since it's not a SSx.
Now that should give you some idea of what is possible. Attack glitches and attack range accuracy go hand in hand. Find more information below and be sure to check the videos on glitched RA and HU/FO projectiles.
Other:
S-Rank Cards are the only glitchable Cards due to the different projectiles they use (differs from ID Cards). The splash hit is a fundamental feature of S-Rank Cards; when you miss, you still get the splash. Demon's Cards are the best alternative to Demon's Slicer or J-Cutter on FOnewearl next to Mechgun. It works very similar to Slicer; it probably ignores manual evasion to the same extent and requires only little distance (though not as little as Slicers) to glitch because it doesn't use bullet projectiles.
As I mentioned, Twins can also be glitched, although not reliably since they don't use projectiles (just like the other Hunter weapons except Slicer). Every Twin has a Special Attack that can be put to use. The combo pattern of 2-1-3 is excellent to glitch the second hit of the first attack. The second attack is only a Standard Attack hitting once, which isn't always great for damage, but perfect to glitch the second hit of the first attack in many cases. Here's the difference to the Swords combo (1-2-2) which doesn't offer room to N-glitch, but is excellent to sort of spawn-kill since you can start the combo - only losing 1 attack - and delay pretty well. Back to Twins, the final accurate 3 hits are usually Hard Attacks if you want to combo kill using a BKB on HUmar for instance. A Meteor Cudgel (unreduced Blizzard) on an android for example, which isn't that great for reliable combo kills due to high V-ATP, is a very nice weapon to occasionaly freeze stuff that's not a big threat. SNS or SSS on HUcl usually freezes stuff in one combo. You get 4-6 hits in, and getting in a lot of hits is the best way to make Blizzard work.
Though not of much use, next to performing SNS/H, Daggers can also glitch the second attack, i.e. NSN - provided that you're not attacking from as close as possible.
Hit calculators are problematic for the beginner because they only separately give the chances of hitting for every hit, neglecting the accuracy of preceding hits for combos as well as for H- and N-glitches. They can only consider the natural accuracy boosts, i.e. the final attack being more accurate (*1.69) than the second one and the second attack being more accurate (*1.3) than the first one, no matter if you delay or not. You get Hit 1 which for example has a 30% chance of hitting, but if you add Hit 2, not only becomes the second hit more accurate but also the first hit.
Why glitch? Well, glitching opens a door to experimenting with different combos. You will get a better feel for your attacks and overall controls. You can deal more damage in only little time. While Hard Attacks knock an enemy back, Special Attacks don't. This is important to know when fighting enemies at a weapon's max distance. You don't want to push an enemy outside of the weapon's target range. This is also the reason for glitching Charge Vulcan specials at max range rather than using a combo that contains H attacks (plural). If one (or two) S bullets critical-hit then that's even better. To SNN CK a Gee at max is also faster than having to wait for the enemy to get closer or to get closer yourself and use some NNH or NHH. 2 Hard Attacks are performed slower than 1 Special and 1 Normal. You get the idea.
Whether you equip a Devil/Battle, General/Battle, or no speed unit at all, you can N or H-glitch 1 MG bullet. What the two Battle units cannot do is glitch 2 bullets against normal enemies.
Here's some more data regarding accuracy and attack glitches. Using a maxed out FOnewm in ATA for example against Merikle (50H Charge Vulcan) you can SN two Special Attack bullets at max distance with a God/Battle. Using NN would result in more misses and be much less efficient than using SN; the boost to ATA cannot be ignored.
As previously mentioned, attacks become more accurate when they are part of a combo, even though your favorite calculator says otherwise. A Hunter or Force using a S-Rank Twin (216 ATA) SS combo against a Tollaw (622 EVP) can land one S hit of the first Special Attack (even though -16%). This can only work when the attack is part of a combo, i.e. you add another attack as fast as possible. A HU/RA/FO with only 188 ATA using a Spirit Twin or a Wok of Akiko's Shop vs Barble (608 EVP) can also hit the second attack of the first Special Attack in a SS combo (natural glitch), neither using the N-glitch (SN) nor the H-glitch (SH). This works at point-blank.
Another phenomenon that occurs from time to time is something Armand and I now refer to as combo-fail glitch, namely a combo with a mis-timed glitch attack. It is a button vs execution issue. After you hit the Special Attack you press the Normal- or Hard Attack button that is supposed to glitch your Special Attack, but you fail to actually execute the second attack (to combo), likely because you pressed too early. Interestingly, in some instances the game still seems to recognize the input and glitches your first attack without another even being performed. This is merely a by-product, not a strategy, and replicating this is extremely difficult. The most interesting example is FOnl using Demon's MG (206 ATA) vs a Sinow Blue (758 EVP, over -45% chance to hit), a failed SN combo was performed and it still activated. With the overwrite, i.e. N2 accuracy for the S1, given no ATA penalty since glitching, you would achieve 100% chance to hit, by the way.
Being able to glitch attacks will probably change your views on this game. In terms of game mechanics, glitching attacks involves making an attack that would either be impossible or unlikely to hit, to hit. This happens if you perform sequential attacks of any kind (N/H/S), where the first has not yet hit the target, and give the first attack the accuracy of the second. The game can only hold one attack accuracy value at a time. Among the most important and most frequently used weapons are the Slicer, Mechgun and Gun, which are put to use by mostly every class. Particularly Mechguns and Slicers help especially lower ATA classes hit enemies within mid fighting distance. Glitching Hard and Special Attacks is the key to handle low ATA characters. An instruction on how to perform glitches is provided in the Slicer section below.
In this section glitching refers to attacking using Hard and Special Attacks with Normal/Standard Attack accuracy by adding the Normal/Standard Attack after the attack, or to using Special Attacks with Hard/Heavy Attack accuracy. Combo structures will always be a N or H after an S for demonstration. Using the back palette (if Special Attack is there) isn't recommended as you can cancel your own attack easiest using R. Sequential S glitches (SS element) are also possible on RA but require the necessary ATA. It's all about meeting the ATA requirement to glitch and performing the attacks at the right time at an adequate range.
A lot of weapon types support the glitch: Gun, Rifle, Shot, Mechgun, Psychogun, Launcher, Slicer, J-Cutter, S-Rank Cards, Needle, Twin, Dagger and many (wind) projectile specials. The Bazooka barely has any practical use; it looks like the second attack can be glitched, but not the first. Testing this weapon does not yield any satisfying results. To me, it looks like it behaves similar to the Dagger/Twin second hit (see below and video), but worse. It remains a sacrificial SSS option against lower EVP. If it at least ignored manual evasion.. Shots, unlike Slicers, do not ignore manual evasion, but using SHS/SSS is generally viable on Rangers since they do not lose ATA over distance (more on that below). Baranz Launcher can also be glitched. Psychoguns do not support any offensive Special Attacks, which is why you can only glitch their H attacks. It also has yet to be tested whether other weapons have the ability to glitch. Twin and Dagger for example (best on female) can glitch the second hit of the first attack, but are limited vs enemies whose target boxes are different to others (e.g. Zoa and Zele: sometimes you get a target box, but you can't hit it etc.), and vs enemies that move a lot (Gibbons).
Some weapons support the glitch better than others. On some weapons it is easier to glitch attacks not using a God/Battle. Battle units are not a must have in order to glitch. Mechs, the main weapon with the smallest window, can still be glitched without one. Sword (Partisan/Scythe and others) can only 'glitch' Hard Attacks. Saber for example, on Normal, can HN at max range on many enemies; a hit to a Delsaber's back in 2C2 using HUnl is quite reliable. Male Saber HNH often are easy combo kills vs Booma/Dimenian series. Since attack animations differ from character to character it's not clear whether attack glitches can be universally applied with the other factors involved. They work in most cases though.
Slicer:
This weapon has characteristics allowing you to deal damage accurately nullifying ATA loss over distance followed by a quick Normal Attack. It is a type of weapon anyone can get easily. 50H Charge Slicer series from the weapon shop increase ATA and deal good damage. Many players call the following method the "Slicer glitch."At adequate distance, the player will perform a Special Attack followed by a Normal. You start with the Special Attack at about max distance quickly* (asap) followed by a Normal Attack. So try that: SN. The Normal Attack technically has to be performed before the Special even hits. Thus, the S Attack gets the accuracy of a N.
It is the most well-known glitch and is the easiest to perform. The first thing you have to pay attention to is the range that Slicers deal. Distance yourself from the target. For the start, you go for the (near) max distance where you can target the enemy. If the target is close to you and you try the 'trick' it will be unlikely to work. So don't forget to keep track of the range. If you delay the N until after the S physically hits, the S won't glitch. The ATA isn't too important as long as the Normal Attack of the combo can pass the ATA vs EVP check. You have to use the correct Slicer combo. As a beginner, I guess you would use a Slicer combo with a Special Attack like NHS (Normal Hard Special). But maybe, for example, you want or need the Special to be performed in a timely manner. You want the Special or Hard Attack to hit to provide the most effective combo, right? So why would you use the S or H first?
The Normal pressed quickly after the Special gives the Special the accuracy of a Normal Attack because the Special has not actually been applied yet. The Normal Attack is very important. So you can calculate whether it can hit. Let's say you use a hitless Slicer in C, do it like this. Perfect range - HN(H). Hard Normal is almost guaranteed to hit; the final Hard Attack deals the usual hit calculations because it's the end of the combo. You can go down with your ATA a lot, even to negative values according to the calculator. A Normal almost always hits (especially when part of a combo). You can replace N with H if accuracy isn't an issue so the Special Attack has the accuracy of a Hard Attack, i.e. SH combo (H-glitch). SHS on a Charge Diska would be the suggested combo against enemies whose EVP can be surpassed by the Hard Attack. Here the first S has the ATA of a second H, not a first H (read: H2 accuracy).
'A' is best for Normal Attack surrounded by B for Special and X for Hard. Stick to the pattern explained so it goes off your hands correctly. The Slicer doesn't deal a certain range for nothing. So if the target is pretty close to you, it is not recommended to start with S. There is a number of different N combos you can use: SN, HN, SNS, HNH, SNH, etc.
Example: I'm using my FOmar in online Ultimate attacking a Zol Gibbon (950 EVP) and it even moves. No problem for us to hit it and deal damage. Shifta/Zalure, Charge Diska 50H for 238 ATA. Attack at Slicer range using SN only. Repeat that combo and get the result. Oh and you want to use a God/Battle. That way you can increase your combo animation speed, allowing you to perform the N after the first S quicker at non-max Slicer range.
Advanced players also cancel their Normal Attack when attacking in a party to avoid dmc. The N doesn't need to hit the target in order to glitch the H/S attack, so just press and cancel using R/L. The Slicer is a very powerful weapon as it can be used anywhere, no matter if used on a single target or group. By all means, watch the range. You cannot be close to a target if you want it to work. You don't have to be at max distance for the glitch. In fact, a few units of distance to the target is all you need, especially when using the -SN combo, i.e. not starting with the first attack but with the second. The Slicer/J-Cutter has been the most prominent weapon type to properly glitch as it ignores manual evasion.
*There actually is room for a small delay depending on situation.
Mechgun:
As previously mentioned, knowing what attacks to perform is crucial. Decide which combo on what enemy at what distance on what class under which circumstances is the best. This is most crucial for Mechguns. Just like most Ranger weapon types, a Mechgun combo can be glitched using a Standard Attack quickly followed after a Hard- or Special Attack at an appropriate distance to the target. Since its range is limited and the attacks are fast, there is a good chance you will only glitch one bullet; glitching two bullets and even three however is possible. Hunters and Forces should use SNH/S most of the time, given adequate circumstances. Factors, such as level of Shifta, Zalure, EVP etc. further determine how you attack. S-Rank Demon's Mechgun for example can be very powerful if you know how to use it. HUmar and HUnewearl can SN(N/H) combo kill best at max distance to potentially connect 2 Demon's activations with what they can provide by support. Even Hell- and Arrest Mechgun have potential because you get quite a number of hits in, as long as your ATA is high enough to hit the target. Charge Mechgun series are deadly. Even one critical bullet under Shifta can take away half of an enemy's health. Glitching Charge Vulcans is extremely helpful vs ranged high EVP enemies. At max range, Mechgun can glitch 2 bullets (using God/Battle) and 3 bullets when you deal with descending enemies (see below). SH works at max range for one glitched bullet, especially on enemies that don't get knockback. Notice how the basic weapon types Gun, Mechgun, and Slicer are accessible by every character. Enemies that are low on EVP but high on HP can be killed using SHS (e.g. Charge Vulcan). Even a Hunter's SN or SH Charge Vulcan under support can kill a lot.
Example: I'm using the FOmar again for the MG scenario (H-glitch). We face a max range Ultimate Del Lily (moving head hitbox, at least 782 EVP online according to enemy data) with a G/Battle and 60H Charge Vulcan for 235 ATA (=8% chance of the first Hard Attack hit to hit the target according to calculator). You actually need to drop much more ATA because Forces lose considerably over distance. A SH combo performed asap will still be able to hit the last bullet of the Special Attack since we S attack with second Hard Attack accuracy. This is not as reliable as the N glitch. It just shows that it works. If we were attacking with only Hard Attack accuracy, we would not be able to glitch the Special Attack (remember the -8%). Glitched attacks not only ignore ATA penalty completely - given no manual evasion - but they also boost accuracy (by a lot; uses N2/N3 acc rather than N1/N2, hence the term 'overwrite').
Gun/Rifle:
The Gun is definitely a killer on any character except FOmarl. Her Gun combo speed is too slow to glitch properly most of the time. She has the Bazooka to compensate. Again, you can use quite a few different combos. At (near) max range you can easily hit stuff using NSN/H which is probably the best overall combo for the Gun on HU/FO. Time the Standard Attack correctly; it can be a bit difficult on Guns, especially since they are most vulnerable to manual evasion.
While Rangers do not suffer from an ATA penalty, HU and FO access to Rifles still can be effective at extreme distances where ATA loss is immense. They operate the same way as Gun. Glitching a Demon's Laser SN/SH is performed faster but may or may not be more effective since it's not a SSx.
Now that should give you some idea of what is possible. Attack glitches and attack range accuracy go hand in hand. Find more information below and be sure to check the videos on glitched RA and HU/FO projectiles.
Other:
S-Rank Cards are the only glitchable Cards due to the different projectiles they use (differs from ID Cards). The splash hit is a fundamental feature of S-Rank Cards; when you miss, you still get the splash. Demon's Cards are the best alternative to Demon's Slicer or J-Cutter on FOnewearl next to Mechgun. It works very similar to Slicer; it probably ignores manual evasion to the same extent and requires only little distance (though not as little as Slicers) to glitch because it doesn't use bullet projectiles.
As I mentioned, Twins can also be glitched, although not reliably since they don't use projectiles (just like the other Hunter weapons except Slicer). Every Twin has a Special Attack that can be put to use. The combo pattern of 2-1-3 is excellent to glitch the second hit of the first attack. The second attack is only a Standard Attack hitting once, which isn't always great for damage, but perfect to glitch the second hit of the first attack in many cases. Here's the difference to the Swords combo (1-2-2) which doesn't offer room to N-glitch, but is excellent to sort of spawn-kill since you can start the combo - only losing 1 attack - and delay pretty well. Back to Twins, the final accurate 3 hits are usually Hard Attacks if you want to combo kill using a BKB on HUmar for instance. A Meteor Cudgel (unreduced Blizzard) on an android for example, which isn't that great for reliable combo kills due to high V-ATP, is a very nice weapon to occasionaly freeze stuff that's not a big threat. SNS or SSS on HUcl usually freezes stuff in one combo. You get 4-6 hits in, and getting in a lot of hits is the best way to make Blizzard work.
Though not of much use, next to performing SNS/H, Daggers can also glitch the second attack, i.e. NSN - provided that you're not attacking from as close as possible.
Hit calculators are problematic for the beginner because they only separately give the chances of hitting for every hit, neglecting the accuracy of preceding hits for combos as well as for H- and N-glitches. They can only consider the natural accuracy boosts, i.e. the final attack being more accurate (*1.69) than the second one and the second attack being more accurate (*1.3) than the first one, no matter if you delay or not. You get Hit 1 which for example has a 30% chance of hitting, but if you add Hit 2, not only becomes the second hit more accurate but also the first hit.
Why glitch? Well, glitching opens a door to experimenting with different combos. You will get a better feel for your attacks and overall controls. You can deal more damage in only little time. While Hard Attacks knock an enemy back, Special Attacks don't. This is important to know when fighting enemies at a weapon's max distance. You don't want to push an enemy outside of the weapon's target range. This is also the reason for glitching Charge Vulcan specials at max range rather than using a combo that contains H attacks (plural). If one (or two) S bullets critical-hit then that's even better. To SNN CK a Gee at max is also faster than having to wait for the enemy to get closer or to get closer yourself and use some NNH or NHH. 2 Hard Attacks are performed slower than 1 Special and 1 Normal. You get the idea.
Whether you equip a Devil/Battle, General/Battle, or no speed unit at all, you can N or H-glitch 1 MG bullet. What the two Battle units cannot do is glitch 2 bullets against normal enemies.
Here's some more data regarding accuracy and attack glitches. Using a maxed out FOnewm in ATA for example against Merikle (50H Charge Vulcan) you can SN two Special Attack bullets at max distance with a God/Battle. Using NN would result in more misses and be much less efficient than using SN; the boost to ATA cannot be ignored.
As previously mentioned, attacks become more accurate when they are part of a combo, even though your favorite calculator says otherwise. A Hunter or Force using a S-Rank Twin (216 ATA) SS combo against a Tollaw (622 EVP) can land one S hit of the first Special Attack (even though -16%). This can only work when the attack is part of a combo, i.e. you add another attack as fast as possible. A HU/RA/FO with only 188 ATA using a Spirit Twin or a Wok of Akiko's Shop vs Barble (608 EVP) can also hit the second attack of the first Special Attack in a SS combo (natural glitch), neither using the N-glitch (SN) nor the H-glitch (SH). This works at point-blank.
Another phenomenon that occurs from time to time is something Armand and I now refer to as combo-fail glitch, namely a combo with a mis-timed glitch attack. It is a button vs execution issue. After you hit the Special Attack you press the Normal- or Hard Attack button that is supposed to glitch your Special Attack, but you fail to actually execute the second attack (to combo), likely because you pressed too early. Interestingly, in some instances the game still seems to recognize the input and glitches your first attack without another even being performed. This is merely a by-product, not a strategy, and replicating this is extremely difficult. The most interesting example is FOnl using Demon's MG (206 ATA) vs a Sinow Blue (758 EVP, over -45% chance to hit), a failed SN combo was performed and it still activated. With the overwrite, i.e. N2 accuracy for the S1, given no ATA penalty since glitching, you would achieve 100% chance to hit, by the way.
As for a good place to practice using the SNS glitch with any set of weapons, you can make this easier to test against monsters like Monests/Mothvists or Recoboxes since those kinds of enemies do not attack you at all. For Recoboxes, you can run West Tower where there are three Recoboxes that don't spawn Recons while three other Recoboxes do spawn recons. Simply kill the Recoboxes that do spawn Recons, and start practicing. For Monests/Mothvists, run Respective Tomorrow and go to the first hallway after clearing the first room. Of course, there are Mothmants/Mothverts that are going to be in the way, so eliminate those pests before practicing. In the next section, I show a video of myself in Sandbox mode fighting Recoboxes in Ultimate mode as a HUnewearl, and it's not solo mode. Stay tuned for other characters doing similar tests like HUcast and HUcaseal since she has unique animations for daggers and twin sabers.
4. Bonus: SNS and NSN Glitch Video
This video is an attempt to demonstrate how to perform the SNS Glitch for both ranged and melee weapons with a special NSN Glitch for the Twin Sword weapons, so please watch the equipment that is shown in the beginning for more information about what this HUnewearl is using. Also, please examine the Monster Reader's Target Window at the center and top portion of the screen. These instances are extreme examples with -128% native, machine, and hit weapons where the S1 and S2 attacks have 0% of hitting the Recobox, but all N2 attacks and some S3 attacks have non-zero chances of hitting it. These strict parameters are designed to examine how effective the glitch really is in each instance, here are some ATA/EVP calculations that I will demonstrate in this video below.
- 1. Berserk Vulcan
- 2. Berserk Diska
- 3. Last Swan
- 4. Daylight Scar
- 5. Vivienne
- 6. Sange & Yasha
As one can see, it was impossible to perform the glitch in the fourth and fifth instances since glitching for the S1 attack never landed successfully due to extremely hard timing and/or bad RNG under these harsh conditions assuming that this glitch does work with melee weapons, but I highly doubt that is the case after lowering the ATA low enough to let the glitch take complete control of the experiment.
Also, in the fourth instance, I successfully attacked the Recobox with the glitch by using the S2 attack instead of the S1 attack since the berserk special drained some hit points when I used some SSN combos. The sixth instance was easier to perform because it was glitching the S2 attack smoothly. To clarify the point, the S2 attack has a higher chance of successfully striking the target from N3 attack's extremely high rate of success compared to N2 attack's mild rate of success in the fourth and fifth instances.
5. Postscript: Glitching Melee Attacks
The concept of glitching melee attacks works the same way as I mentioned earlier in this guide, but the twist is that the targets are too close to effectively take advantage of this glitch up close consistently. Therefore, I'm going to leave this link to a post below where I share my thoughts on performing this glitch using melee weapons that have more than one hit in their attacks like daggers, twin sabers, and twin swords.
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