Welcome to the movement chapter of the tutorial series (other chapters listed below if interested). Good movement is probably the most important part of playing Blade Symphony well simply because of the fact that swords have limited range. Here we will take a closer look at 'basic' movement and then build on these for some more advance movement. There's a lot here so lets press on.

So overall there are 6 unique ways to move your character in Blade Symphony. Some of this you will have seen before if you looked at the beginner's guide but here we also cover some usage and extra details. Understandably, all this detail can be boring, especially if you are new, so I would say look at whatever interests you, play the game and you can always come back later. However, I would recommend having at least a quick look at shuffles and shuffle jumping so you understand why some people move so quickly in game.

Types of Movement:

1. WASD,
   
2. Jumping [SPACEBAR],
   
3. Roll/Wall Climbing [CTRL],
   
4. Charge Dashing [CTRL when attack is tier 2],
   
5. Attacking [LMB] and
   
6. Shuffling [SHIFT]

I guess you could technically say that getting knockback from hitting or getting hit, along with getting grabbed is 'movement' too but since they aren't directly under your control, I will ignore them here.


If you've ever played PC games before, chances are you're familiar with this control scheme. Press W/A/S/D to move. Press either A/D with either W/S to move diagonally.

Now for a bit more detail.

• W is faster than S for moving. So turning around might be useful in some situations.
  
• But even better than that, moving back diagonally moves as fast as W. This means turning/angling your camera to move backwards diagonally is very useful as you can keep an eye on your opponent.
  
• Diagonal backwards movement is also useful for maintaining distance when having a 'charging attacks stand-off'.

Press [SPACEBAR] to jump, same as most games out there.

A bit more detail on this.

• You can control where you land while in the air e.g. jumping forward and then holding S right after will make you land back where you were. You can even 'trace a curve' with your jump.
  
• In the above point, the former is good for baiting, especially with air attacks, while the latter is very useful for weaving in some dodging/repositioning while poking.
  
• You make your hitbox higher. This gives you a chance of only being grazed attacks which would otherwise normally hit you fully while standingl, thus allowing you to recover faster. However, it can also lead to you getting hit for more damage and being 'juggled' while mid air.

While rolling [CTRL] by itself is generally not recommended due to the long animation time, wall climbing (press [CTRL] and W next to a wall and so on) is very useful for escaping being cornered. Additionally, rolling away while knocked down can help dodge some attacks.

More details.

• You can only jump and 'stick' to walls about 6 times before you are no longer spider-man. You can use this to wait out a charged attack that caught you at a bad timing. Just watch out for shuris.
  
• Allowing yourself to glide on a wall before jumping gives a boost in jump distance and speed. This is useful for dodging shurikens and avoiding getting hit on landing.

Press [CTRL] anytime after an attack has reached tier 2 to dash. This movement mechanic is versatile but also risky as you will take 50% extra damage and no longer autoblock shuris for 4 seconds, indicated by the flashing your character.

More details... again.

• You can change your attack to another stance, from the current stance of the charged attack, by pressing a stance before dashing.
  
• If you let go of your attack at the correct time mid-dash, you do not need to perform an attack at all.

Some attack animations will move you, just look at Phalanx's fast attacks, Ryoku's F4T1 or most exaggeratedly Pure's BRT1 combined with Katana's feint. While this gets rather complicated quickly with all the different possibilities, here are some main points.

Some points on this.

• Sometimes consider using an attack just for the movement or even baiting. I mean if you aren't charging it and there is no opportunity for a hit, the attack string will just reset anyway. Maybe your opponent will take the bait and try to hit you.
  
• Ryoku's F4T1 can be used to go behind people if aimed up, especially during block. So too can Phalanx F3T2 when aimed up but much more situational - get creative with attack usage.
  
• Beware of long movement animations that can get you shuri'd or even hit e.g. Phalanx F4 or Ryoku's last fast attack.
  
• Some attacks cause the player to move forward slightly, such as heavy attacks. Starting these attacks turned the other way, or to the side, then turning back around, can be used to deal with this and is generally safer i.e. Judgements heavy attacks.

Shuffling leads to more advanced movement and is looked at much more closely below. It gets its own section, that's how important it is.

Shuffle – Press the shuffle key [shift]. The player travels a short distance. Useful for quickly moving small distances for attacking/evasion (or wasting time in FFA when there's nothing to do).

Have a movement key [WASD] held down while pressing [SHIFT] to change the direction of the shuffle.

Travels a distance greater than a normal shuffle but charges an attack also.

• Press a movement key [W,A,S,D] and shuffle.
  
• Anytime before the the shuffle ends, hold down the attack key.

Extra Details

• After the shuffle, one is charging an attack like normal. An air cancel attack can
  be performed immediately by pressing space and releasing the attack right after,
  as was outlined in the air cancel section for air cancelling a charged attack.
  
  
• Shuffling to the side is very common with this mechanic. To charge a frontal attack instead of a side attack, which is what would happen if one holds down the side movement key, one must release the directional key right after pressing shuffle and before holding down the attack button.
  
  
• Travels a different distance for each side (based on the WASD key held at the beginning).

• Start as you would for the shuffle charge above (keep holding side keys for extra distance but no forward attack)
  
• After holding attack press space to jump at the correct time (beginners can repeatedly tap jump after
  
• holding down the attack button and transition to single jump as they get more used to
  
• the timing).
  
• The attack button is held down for the entire duration.

Extra Details

• After pressing space at the correct time, if the player lets go of the attack button any time after the pinnacle of their jump, they will perform an air attack. This is useful for many characters.
  
  
• Shuffle jumping to the right side travels the most distance. The front and back travel less and the left side even less than that.

And that is the shuffle jump covered. Hope this helped.

If you are new, you may want to consider starting here and check out the other guide for air cancelling if you haven’t already.