1.1. Beginner Mechanics
• Vertical Angles
◦ Looking up while using massive goes through up block.
◦ Looking down while using massive goes through down block.
◦ Looking up while using slash goes through up block.
◦ Looking down while using slash goes through down block.
◦ Looking up while using block stuns down massive/slash.
◦ Looking down while using block stuns up massive/slash.

• Slash -> Block Cancel
◦ Slash animation can be cancelled by blocking.

• Dash -> Slash Cancel
◦ Dash animation can be cancelled by slashing.

• Dash Momentum
◦ Dashing while being massive’d adds dash momentum to stun animation.

• Uppercut -> Block Cancel
◦ Block cancels the uppercut animation.

1.1. Beginner Moves
• Combo Cancelling
◦ Slash(1-4) -> Block

• Block Tapping
◦ Block -> Block

• Butterfly
◦ Jump -> Dash -> Slash -> Block

• Block Dash
◦ Dash -> Uppercut -> Block -> (Jump)

1.1. Beginner Strategies
• States
◦ Neutral is where neither player has an advantage.
◦ Advantage is where you have more options than the enemy.
◦ Defensive is where the enemy has more options than you.

• Rushing
◦ Attacking rapidly to create an advantage state.
◦ Butterfly
◦ Combo Cancelling
◦ Block Dash

• Turtling
◦ Blocking rapidly to create an advantage state.
◦ Block Tap
◦ Block Dash

• Lag
◦ Strategies that involve dealing with lag.
◦ Butterfly
◦ Block Dash

1.2. Intermediate Mechanics
• Phase Slash
◦ Turning while slashing can avoid/ignore block.

• Tip Slash
◦ Slash has a tip zone that can’t be block stunned.

• Charge Cancel
◦ Charging cancels the reset animation on a slash.

• Silent Dash
◦ You can dash immediately after a slash.

1.2. Intermediate Moves
• Phase Butterfly
◦ Applying phase slash to butterfly.

• Phase Combo Cancelling
◦ Applying phase slash to ground combos.

• Void Slash
◦ Repeatedly charge cancelling.

• Light Step
◦ Jump -> Dash -> Slash -> Dash

• Double Butterfly
◦ Jump -> Slash -> Block -> Dash -> Slash -> Block

1.2. Intermediate Strategies
• Spacing
◦ Strategies that use slashing as a spacing tool.
◦ Butterfly
◦ Double Butterfly
◦ Light Step
◦ Feinting

• Slash Punish
◦ Strategies for when the enemy overuses slashing.
◦ Block Rush

• Block Punish
◦ Strategies for when the enemy overuses block.
◦ Phase Slash
◦ Light Step
◦ Tripping
◦ Tip Slash

• Massive Punish
◦ Strategies for when the enemy miss uses a massive attack.
◦ Butterfly
◦ Void Slash
◦ Combo Cancelling

• Phase Butterfly Patterns
◦ Forward Only
◦ Side to Side
◦ Reverse

1.3. Advanced Mechanics
• Dash Evade
◦ Avoiding massives by using dash iframes.

• Slash Evade
◦ Avoiding massives by using slash iframes.

• Juggling
◦ Keeping the enemy in the air using slashes.

1.3. Advanced Moves
• Triple Butterfly
◦ Jump -> Slash -> Block -> Slash -> Block -> Slash -> Block

• Dash Evade
◦ Dashing as the enemy starts a massive.

• Slash Evade
◦ Ground slash as the enemy starts a massive.

• Jump Juggling
◦ Slashing to keep the enemy off the ground during a jump.

• Massive Juggling
◦ Slashing to keep the enemy off the ground during a jump massive.

1.3. Advanced Strategies
• Stalking

• Jump Punish

• Jump Massive Punish

The rules of gladiator are community run, and made to instill a sense of respect and fair play between ourselves to make the fights more enjoyable. These are the rules of our community.

1. Bow before fighting.
2. Use a Rusty, Lightweight, or Similar low damage sword.
3. Keep your HP/AP capped to 225 total.
4. Don’t flip


There are a few rules you should follow in gladiator to be the best you can. Gladiator is one part technical skill, and one part mental skill. Following these tenets will help you become more polished as a gladiator.

Control Yourself
The first concept is to be in control of yourself. This means you dictate what you’re going to be doing, not someone else. This is a brief list of what you need to always be in control of at all times during a fight regarding yourself. If you cannot control these, your opponent will happily do so for you.

• Your Movements
• Your Massives
• Your Slashes
• Your Zone

Control Your Opponent
Once you can control yourself, you need to learn how to control your opponent. This requires attacking and defending at the correct time. Below is a brief list of what you need to control to gain dominance in the fight.

• Your Opponents Movement
• Your Opponents Attack Range
• Your Opponents Defense

Think
It may sound obvious, however gladiator is both simple and deep at the same time. The best gladiator games you’ll experience are like a fast paced game of chess. You and your opponent will always be doing small things to try and take over the advantage. Always think about what you’re doing, or at least what you’re going to do. If you get stomped, watch and learn your opponent, and pick up on what he’s doing. Once you do that, think about how to counter it or seal it. Don’t be afraid to ask either, they’ll typically be happy to share exactly how they whipped you.


Lose The Ego
Gunz is a very egocentric game, due to its competitive nature. However no one wants to bother playing with someone with their head rammed ten feet up their rear and believe themselves to be the best. Gladiator skills are still being found, and if you don’t play nice you’ll probably find your only source of information into this niche mode to be this guide. Be friendly, and people will gladly teach you what they know, and point out places they think you can improve. Gladiators are typically very eager to expand the player base and share their knowledge. Don’t make an arse of yourself, and you’ll find that we’re fairly friendly and helpful.

Female Characters Have an Advantage
While not a tenant, I feel it’s important to note this here. Throughout every aspect of GunZ, with the exception of D-Style (And even then, they have advantages), the female model has various advantages over the male character. In gladiator specifically, their Ground Slashes come out slightly faster, they can use Slash and Jump evade, plus they have an easier time using Dash Evade. Furthermore, their ground massives also have a built in spin, making it harder to dodge their massives through easy visual means. It’s not necessary to use a female to become an amazing gladiator, but do note that you will lock yourself out of being able to utilize various glitches that will help you in a fight.

The history of gladiator is largely undocumented. So take this timeline with a grain of salt. It’s an interesting read on how it evolved, but my (Scuba’s) Memory is about as good as a goldfish with ADHD. But here’s a rough run down, as well as some notable names in the community throughout the time.

Notable Names
Cerb3rus (Zach) - Basically the godfather of modern Gladiator. He taught most of the top tier players from international and ijji, and either found or advanced many of the glitches in gladiator such as Phase, Angle, Triangle, and Juggle.
Hymnosi - Though never in the gladiator scene, responsible for finding Instant Fall, and helping create core tenants of the gladiator basics, such as triangle.
Mymomiscool (Dylan) - #1 Gladiator for a time during Ijji and Aeria. Responsible for Elbowing, and perfecting most of the core Air Patterns.
Deviok - Responsible for refining many kodachi movements to be usable at high level plays, as well as ground work in general and perfecting the Triangle Theory.
DolphinRider (Josh) - #1 Gladiator for a time during Ijji.
Lede (Colin) - Currently the #1 Gladiator as of 2020.
Monk - Found and spread TBF, and created the cult of “Mstyle”, widely looked down on by most gladiators during the time of ijji for setting the community back by a couple years skill wise.

International Gunz Era
During International Gunz (Also known as Open Beta), many glitches were slowly unearthed. At the start, we just ran around spamming ground slash. We then found out we could cancel the slash animation by blocking while still getting a slash. Then we found out we could do Bfly (Which was thought by most to be a hack), then Double Butterfly was found, and so on. Eventually, Cerb and Hymn found out how to abuse flips. This resulted in much of the gameplay regressing to nothing but turtling and massiving, waiting for the chance to 100-0 someone with a Juggle. The community then banned flips as they took the fun out of fights. Around this time, Phase slash was found, and shortly after Angle slash was found. We also began finding out how to dodge massives with the Mirror rule, and soon after how to Ghost Evade thanks to D-Stylers such as FatherPrim and Cysote. Cerb3rus ran supreme during the international days, as he was pretty much always on the front lines of cheesing gladiator with relatively unknown glitches. Around this time he began training the next wave of gladiators and spreading the knowledge.

Ijji GunZ Era
Really the Golden age of gladiators, though not skillswise. Skills and tricks were constantly being developed, and many people took an interest in playing gladiator. Massives were deciphered further, as Patterns and Combos began taking the stage, slowly developing into ́ 'Stalker Style’. Patterns were further refined within the year, and generally it was a fun time. After about a year of Ijji’s launch, Monk found TBFLY, and unleashed the cult known as M-Style, quickly taking up a large presence in the community with most people spamming TBF in most gladiator games. This resulted in most of the gladiators scorning M-Style, as we saw it as fairly low skill and relatively easy to abuse (Along with just being cheesy renames of moves that had already been around for years, minus TBFLY.). Around the same time, players like mymomiscool began gaining recognition as being the best, and gladiator slowly moved from ground and air combos to mostly air combo focused. It remained this way until Aeria games came about. Around the end of ijji began my further thoughts on Counter Style and how it could be used, as well as the idea of breaking down moves to core components to exploit weaknesses.

Aeria GunZ Era
This marked the findings of quite a few improvements to gladiator, as well as a slight return to ground combat. Dash evade was found around this time, as well as the summit of Patterns. M-Style was mostly non-existent by this time, with only a few core members including Monk standing firm. Gladiators began leaving Aeria for Private Servers around this time, such as Daemons Ring, Dark Gunz, and a few other now defunct servers.

Private Server Era
This is the current Era, where only a couple Region Locked gunz clients are still running, Such as K-Gunz. Skill Wise, it’s now at the peak. A Common gladiator would most likely trash the best gladiators of the Ijji Era, and go toe to toe with the Best from the Aeria ara. The gladiator community mostly settled in one server or another, migrating as each server was taken down. Currently the main gladiator server is Freestyle Gunz[fgunz.net] (on-line since 2007). During this time, Various moves were broken via the source code, cementing moves such as Dash Evade, Slash Evade, and Jump evade into the current skill base. The community dwindled, though still remains relatively healthy for the small community (Possibly about 50 or so gladiators remain).

While this isn’t exactly a “Don’t ever do this list” as most of these have a time and place, these are things you should try to avoid if you want to further your skill in gladiator and not piss off your opponent.

2.3.1. Pedaling
Pedaling refers to using a combination of Lag, Tip Slash, and spam to keep your distance from the opponent and earn cheap shots. Pedaling is typically bad since it doesn’t force you to get in the proper zone to control your opponent, leaving you open to attacks from a knowledgeable gladiator. It will typically just stun your overall skill level. There’s 2 main types of Pedal to look at

Back pedaling - This refers to mostly relying on the S key to keep your distance, trying to force your opponent into your slashes while not allowing them to get close.

Side Pedaling - This refers to mostly relying on the A and D keys to circle your opponent, while staying 1 to 3 bodies away from even tip slash distance.

2.3.2. Tip Slashing
Tip slashing is mostly frowned upon when used in excess, since it’s only 1 step shy of pedaling. Like Pedaling, it doesn’t force you in close to control and dominate your opponent, relying on their mistakes instead to let you win.

2.3.4. Flipping
Flipping is largely frowned upon in serious gladiator matches. The reason for this is that flipping is an extremely low effort way to simply get free hits. It’s extremely easy to flip someone after a stun and 100 - 0 them. For that reason, it’s been deemed cheesy and virtually no skill to accomplish. Most gladiators would prefer to get their hits in with well timed and aimed slashes at your weak spots.

2.3.5. Spamming
In general, the most important thing in gladiator is to remain in control of yourself. Once you lose control over yourself, your opponent gains control over you. So ideally, everything you do is with purpose, and you can put the brakes on everything you try to do.

Massive Control - Simply put, learn how to hold your massives. If you throw them all over, you open yourself up to multiple free hits from your opponent. If you learn nothing else from this guide, it's the need to control your massives.

Overusing Moves - Try not to use the same move over and over. There’s plenty to choose from to mix it up. Using the same move over and over again means your opponent; so long as they have a working brain between their ears, knows what you’re going to do next.

Overusing Patterns - Like moves, try to avoid using the same pattern over and over again. If you do this, your opponent knows where to block to dodge your damage, or recoil you. Mix it up as much as you can here. If you find yourself always going front to back, learn how to add side dashes into your pattern. This not only makes you harder to predict, it makes you more effective and adaptable.

Here you’ll find the various isolated cancel glitches used in gladiator, along with a brief description. Each of these cancels make up various parts of the game. A move can consist of one or multiple Cancels/Glitch. For example, A Bfly uses the Slash Block and Dash Slash cancels.

2.4.1. Slash Block Cancel
Slash Animations can be overwritten by Block animations. See Bfly in "2.5. Move List".

2.4.2. Dash Slash Cancel
Dash Animations can be overwritten by Slash Animations. See Bfly in "2.5. Move List".

2.4.3. Uppercut Block Cancel
Uppercut Animations can be overwritten by Blocks. See Insta Fall (For letting the uppercut actually hit) and Block Rush (For using the animation only to instantly overwrite the block) in "2.5. Move List".

2.4.4. Dash Uppercut Cancel
Dashes can be overwritten by Uppercuts. See Block Rush in "2.5. Move List".

2.4.5. Slash Massive Charge Cancel
You can charge a massive to instantly reset your animation. See Void Slash in "2.5. Move List".

2.4.5. Momentum Slash Cancel
When dashing on the ground, you can slash to instantly stop your movement.

2.4.6. Invincibility Frames
Using various iFrames to dodge damage. See IFrames in the Advanced Gladiator Section.

2.4.7. Animation Lock
Achieving the fastest speed in gunz for various moves, corrupting what your opponents client will visually display to them. See Animation Locking in the Gladiator Basics Section.

In here you’ll find every move in gladiator. Learn them all as they all have a time and place. Except TBFLY. That move’s fairly worthless outside of smashing noobs or the occasional one off. I’ve included the full name and common Acronym next to it.

2.5.1. Butterfly (Bfly/BF)
Jump > Dash > Slash > Block

2.5.2. Double Butterfly (DBF/DBfly)
Jump > Slash > Block > Dash > Slash > Block

2.5.3. Triple Butterfly (TBF)
Jump > Slash > Block > Slash > Block > Dash > Slash > Block

2.5.4. Ground Slash (GS)
Slash > Block

2.5.5. Double Ground Slash
Slash > Slash > Block

2.5.6. Void Slash (VS)
Slash (Hold) > Slash (Hold) > ...

2.5.7. Void Block
Block > Block > Block….

2.5.8. Block Rush
Dash > Uppercut + Block

2.5.9. Block Launch
Dash (Hold Optional) > Uppercut + Block > Jump

2.5.10. Sword Launch
Slash > Dash exactly when the slash reaches furthest point and begins to go back to initial spot. - Will cause you to slide instantly. Optionally Jump after Dash.

2.5.11. Light Step (LS)
Jump > Dash > Slash > Dash

2.5.12. Double Light Step (DLS)
Jump > Slash > Dash > (Dash) > Slash > Dash

2.5.13. YoYo Butterfly
Yoyo (Dash at the top of your jump when your leg kicks your butt) > Block

2.5.14. Static Movements
Any movement that has a dash in it, you can remove the dash and it will become a Static Variant of the movement. I.E. A Static Butterfly is Jump > Slash > Block.

2.5.15. Gear Movements (Add G before acronym. I.e GBF = Gear BF)
Any movement with a dash in it, move it past the slash to create a Gear variant of the movement. I.E. A Gear Butterfly is Jump > Slash > Block > Dash or Jump > Slash > Dash > Block.

Being able to move where you need to be is a core mechanic of gladiator. By controlling your momentum, you can control where your opponent is.


3.1.1.1. Full Drift
A full drift is the most movement you can attain in the air. To execute this, simply hold the Dash button down.

• Full Drift Light Step Example : Jump > Slash > D > D (Hold) > Jump

3.1.1.2. Half Drift
A half drift goes roughly half as far as a full drift does distance wise. You’ll typically use this when you don’t believe your target will move too far, which will allow you to stick to them easier.

• Half Drift Light Step Example : Jump > Slash > D > D > Jump

3.1.1.3. Zero Drift (Aka Momentum Cancel)
A zero drift is canceling all motion from your previous movement, which will make you jump straight up into the air. You’ll typically use this to either trick the opponent into a bad position, or when you think your opponent might get out of your range in the opposite direction.

• Zero Drift Light Step Example : Jump > Slash > D > D > A (Hold) > Jump

3.1.1.4. Mouse Variant Drifts
You can also accomplish these drifts by utilizing your mouse, and changing the key you use. The easiest one of these would be the Zero Drift, and the hardest would be the full drift.

• Full Drift Example : Jump > W > W > Slash > Spin Mouse 180 > S (Hold) > Jump
• Half Drift Example : Jump > W > W > Slash > Spin mouse 180 > Jump
• Zero Drift Example : Jump > W > W (Hold) > Slash > Spin mouse 180 > Jump


3.1.2.1. Full Drift
Like above, this gains you the most movement you can obtain. The main use of this is to cover distance quickly from the ground, typically to let you set up your positioning better for the next movement.

• Full Drift Block Launch Example : D > D (Hold) + Uppercut + Block > Jump

3.1.2.2. Half Drift
The main purpose of a half drift is to position yourself to place your current attack into a different spot than where you currently are.

• Half Drift Butterfly Example : W (Hold) > Jump > S > S > Slash > Block

3.1.2.3. Zero Drift
Typically, you’ll use Zero Drift on the ground for static movements or whenever you need to stay in the same position as you currently are, or to trick the opponent.

• Zero Drift Static Butterfly Example : Jump > Slash > Block

Angles are an important part of gladiator, possibly even the life blood of gladiator as a whole. These concepts extend into both Phase Slash and Angle Slash.


To say it in simplest terms, imagine yourself looking at a mirror. If you end up in a mirrored image situation, the attacker will be at a disadvantage. If you slash someone looking directly at you without changing your angle, you’ll be recoiled. If the enemy turns 180 and blocks, then you turn 180 and throw a massive, you’ll miss your massive. These are but a couple basic examples of how the mirror rule applies to gladiator as a whole.

How your Sword Shape and Block Shapes interact
Your sword shape and a Block shape have a simple interaction. Do note that a sword shape and the actual slash are two different entities. You can read more about this in the Phase Slash section. To put it simply, if you create a mirrored situation and slash while the opponent is blocking, the shapes will collide and you will become recoiled.

It’s further important to know that your sword shape has an effective range of about -40 to 40 on both the vertical and horizontal axis, and the block shape also has a range of about -40 to 40 on both the vertical and horizontal axis.


Vertical Angles are the set of angles in the up and down spectrum. You can imagine that looking straight forward is 0 degrees, looking straight up is 90 degrees, and looking straight down is -90 degrees.

3.2.2.1. Sky Angles
Sky Angles begin at 3, and end at 90. There’s no true counter to a full sky angle while in the air, however it’s very awkward to use, and as a further con you lose all vision of your opponent, so it’s not particularly useful. If you use a sky angle, you’re probably just trolling a bit, since you can only really use it to look quickly up, then back down again.

3.2.2.2. Ground Angles
Ground Angles begin at -3, and end at -90. While on the ground, there’s no real counter to a full ground angle. It’s also worth noting that while up close and personal during an air combo, most people will naturally tend to add a ground angle to their attacks, since it helps keep the opponent in view.

3.2.2.3. Zero Vertical Angle
Zero Vertical angle is an angle that begins at 3, and ends at -3. It’s performed by looking straight ahead with very little room for error - about 6 degrees total. Assuming default FOV, On males, it begins halfway up the right calf, and ends around a quarter way up the left calf. On females, it begins about a third way up the right calf, and ends slightly above the top of your heel (Assuming you have no shoes equipped)

The reason Zero Vertical Angle is particularly important is because it negates the need to pay attention to Sky and Ground angles when avoiding massives. It’s important to try making Zero Angle muscle memory for whenever you want to dodge a massive.

When speaking about Horizontal Angles, they’re to be spoken of in relation to your opponents current direction from you. It’s a continuation of the mirror rule along the horizontal axis. These are the three most common angles, and will be expounded upon throughout this guide in their proper sections, such as Phasing, Avoiding Massives, and Patterns.

3.2.3.1. Zero Horizontal Angle
Zero Horizontal angle is looking directly at where your opponent is. Obviously, this is typically the most important angle to attempt when trying to create a mirror situation to either recoil your enemy or dodge a frontal massive.

3.2.3.2. 90 Angle
90 Angle is when you are looking 90 degrees to the left or right of your opponent's position. This is particularly important because this is considered a safe angle to phase to, as well as during ghost evade.

3.2.3.3. 180 Angle
180 Angle is when you look completely away from the direction your opponent is in. It’s particularly important when setting up Angle Slashes, and dodging reverse massives, as well as typical Sacrificial Blocks.


As stated above, both the sword shape and block shape have an area of effect to both. If these areas of effect overlap, the attacker is recoiled for a slash, or misses their massive with the assumption an evade isn’t used.

3.2.4.1. Concerning Blocks - On the vertical scale, looking up or down 50 degrees will register as a full Sky or Ground block, thanks to both the sword and block having 40 degrees of range. This means even looking fully down when jumping, a 50 degree block will recoil the attacker. Likewise, assuming you position yourself right, blocking on the horizontal scale at 40 degrees in relation to an attack will also count as if you’re in a mirrored position.

3.2.4.2. Horizontal Block Example - Assume your opponent passes you on the left with a butterfly, and does a phase slash 180 degrees to their left (Looking at you as they turn), if you look at them when they look at you (By turning 90 degrees), you create a mirror situation and will recoil them and block their slash damage. This relies on the fact that the slash and sword shape will collide between the intersecting 40 degrees of both shapes.

Massives are the highest risk, highest reward moves in gladiator. If you throw one and miss, you open yourself up to multiple free hits from your opponent. That said, the opposite is also true. If you hit a massive, you automatically gain the upper hand, and put your opponent on defense.


Throwing a massive can be done multiple ways. You want to mix up your Angles; both vertical and horizontal, when throwing. Typically the safest time to attempt throwing a massive is if you manage to recoil your opponent and pick up a massive charge.

3.3.1.1. Sky/Ground Massive - Look up/down at least 50 degrees, and throw your massive. Sky massive beats Sky block, and Ground Massive beats Ground Block. Zero angle will render these massives useless, so not really worth using on experienced gladiators.

3.3.1.2. Front Massive - Throw your massive while looking at your opponent. Beats a 180 block.

3.3.1.3. Side Massive - Throw your massive between 90 and 125. Beats a block in the same direction you turn to.

3.3.1.4. Reverse Massive - Look 175 to 195 away from your opponent. Beats a block that’s facing your character.

3.3.1.5. Ground Massive - This massive has a windup before actually firing, but the recovery is faster. Furthermore, if you miss and the opponent can hit you, you’ll only take 1 to 3 free hits, depending on if they were recoiled.

3.3.1.6. Air Massive - This massive will fire nearly instantly, but you’re locked into a Massive Throw animation until you fully land. This is extremely dangerous as if you miss, and the opponent is fast enough, they can initiate a ground juggle on you. It’s important to know that you will continuously repeat the Massive Throw animation every time you’re hit until you fully land. You cannot block, slash, or dash, and it’s possible to 100 - 0 you if the opponent is good enough at ground juggle.

3.3.1.7. Dash Massive - By dashing and then throwing your massive, you displace where your massive actually hits. You can combine this with any of the above massives, as well as using dash evades to set this up. It’s also worth mentioning that this can also be combined with Elbowing.

3.3.1.8. Walk Animation Leads to Double Massive - Your massive inputs should be timed with the first frame of walking animation to sucessfully do this move. It's the first registration of this move.


As stated in bad habits, it’s IMPERATIVE to control your massives and not throw them wildly. This single act will be your biggest weakness in gladiator, since it’s guaranteed free hits on you if your opponent is anywhere near you. You should always try thinking about when your opponent will hit you. Doing so and developing either the foresight or gut feeling of when you’ll pick up a massive charge should be one of the first things you really focus on in gladiator.

Due to the sheer amount of ways to avoid a massive, it’s sometimes better to simply never throw a massive, and learn the exact timing when a massive charge will wear off, opting to slash instead. Take note of how your opponent avoids any massives you throw. If they know how to properly evade, you should avoid throwing a massive at all costs, since at that point you might as well be throwing a wild massive.


3.3.3.1. Important Note (1) - Under Normal Circumstances without using a Ghost Evade, you MUST have a block fully up to avoid a massive when in the damage range. Furthermore, the timing of all of these avoids change depending on if it’s a Ground Massive (Which has a delay), and an Air Massive (Which has no delay).

3.3.3.2. Using The Mirror Rule - As stated both above, and also in the Angles section, utilizing the mirror rule is the most basic form of avoiding a massive. At higher level plays, this is seldomly used outside of using Patterns.

3.3.3.3. Using Ghost Evade - The concept of ghost evade is utilizing an animation to avoid a massive, due to massives being unable to land a hit on an animation.

3.3.3.4. Important Note (2) - When performing one of these Evades, you cannot slash (With the obvious exception being Slash Evade) or block until after the massive hit registers. Doing so will force you to use the Mirror Rule to avoid the massive.

3.3.3.5. Dash Evade - By using a forward dash at the right time, you can bypass any massive. This is thanks to a forward dash having iFrames. This is the easiest and safest Evade to use in most cases. Another note, females have an easier time with this particular Evade. The first half of the dash for the females triggers the Ghost Evade, while on males the Ghost Evade is delayed by a few frames, forcing you to dash evade earlier than a female to pull off successfully.

3.3.3.6. Recoil Evade - Recoil itself is an animation. Furthermore, the animation itself according to GunZ is repeated every frame when you turn. So if you’re turning between 90 and 270 degrees when the massive actually hits, you’ll evade the massive.

3.3.3.7. Slash Evade - This evade is limited to both the Female model, and only while wielding a sword. Male models and Kodachis cannot perform this evade. If you turn at least 90 degrees and slash at the same time that you see the white charge of the opponents massive disappears, you’ll evade the massive. The first slash will never be able to hit the player throwing the massive, due to the first half of the massive throw being an iFrame. That said, the second slash and beyond can hit your opponent, so it’s useful to do a triple ground slash here.

3.3.3.8. Jump Evade - If you jump at the same time that the white charge disappears, you can evade a massive, and set yourself up for a pattern.

3.3.3.9. Using Distance - Massives by nature have a damage zone. If you’re simply far enough away, you cannot be hit. The main trick of using distance is to be on the edge of the massive, so you can proceed to attack your opponent while he’s defenseless.

3.3.3.10. Using Tip Slash - Similar to using Distance, you can utilize tip slash to knock the opponent back slightly to knock the massive damage zone away from you. This can only be done to an Air Massive.

3.3.3.11. Using Patterns - By utilizing a pattern, you can continuously keep up the damage on an opponent. However to properly pull this off, you must rely on a combination of distance, tip slash, and/or holding a block up and using the mirror rule when the massive is fired.

3.3.3.12. Using Massives - Massive throws have a few natural iFrames on the ground at the start of your throw, so it’s possible to simply throw a massive when the opponents massive damage is fired off. No angles are required, as this is an iFrame.

Phase slash is one of the bread and butter moves of gladiator, along with angle slash. It is an essential move to learn and master.


By turning after you slash at least 90 degrees, you can send your slash in front of you, while avoiding a block. A phase slash will land in roughly the same direction that you begin throwing it at unless you turn at very high speeds.


The slash and your sword shape are actually two separate entities. While they begin at the same time, the slash will set in a direction about a quarter of the way after you begin your slash animation. The sword shape itself will be recoilable starting halfway through the animation until the end of the swing animation.

The slash animation itself can be considered to have three parts.

3.4.1.1. The Swing Animation - This is the first part of a slash. It begins when you fire the slash, and ends when your sword begins returning to an inactive state. You can be recoiled roughly halfway into this animation a few frames before the slash lands, until the beginning of the return animation.

3.4.1.2. The Slash - The slash itself separates from the slash animation shortly after you fire the slash. The slash will separate from the swing animation about a quarter way through the Swing animation.

3.4.1.3. The Return Animation - Once your slash reaches the apex of your swing, it will begin returning to an inactive state. You cannot be recoiled during this animation.

Knowing these three parts, you can understand that to phase slash you have to be fast, but slow at the same time. If you turn too fast, you’ll send the slash away from your intended target, as the slash doesn’t settle in a direction for a brief moment. Furthermore, if you turn too slow, you’ll get stunned.

The best way to practice phase slash is to simply get a friend to hold a block, and practice a few swings. You should be able to pick this up relatively quickly. If you don’t give your target a massive charge or flinch them, you’re turning too fast. If you get recoiled, you’re turning too slow or not enough. Practice phasing to 90 and 180. Don’t attempt to make a full 360, as you’ll likely get recoiled by spinning too fast and landing your swing animation on the block.

Building upon the concepts above, we can arrive at Twitch Phase. This is a name I coined myself, as I’m not sure if there’s a proper name for this. If I’m made aware of a proper term, I’ll change it to that.

The idea is simple, but hard to execute properly. Regular phasing is sending your slash roughly in front of you, but also utilizing the separation of the sword slash and the sword shape to avoid a recoil by angling away from the block. Twitch Phase, however, is almost the opposite. It’s turning faster than you normally would, displacing the slashes initial direction and doing a phase slash while executing up to a 270 degree turn, either by going to 180 then back to 90, or doing a full arch to 270 degrees from where you started.

Keep in mind, this is a fairly advanced tactic outside of simple ground slashing, but can open up your ability to attack pinpoint areas in a very different way than normal. While ground slashing is more lenient, doing a slash in the air requires much faster mouse movement.

As a concrete example of this, and to get a feel for it, have a friend stand directly behind you and hold a block, while you face in the same direction they are - With your back to them. Begin your slash facing away from them, and then try to slash in such a way that you have your slash land on their block while over extending your angle to avoid getting recoiled. Here’s 2 simple ways to get a feel for it, do it with both a ground slash and a static butterfly to get the proper feel.

- Example 1 ) Look away from the opponent, Slash, and turn a full 270 degrees. If you turn to the right, you’ll end up looking directly left of where you started.

- Example 2 ) Look away from the opponent, Slash, Turn 180 degrees, then double back 90 degrees. If you turn right, you’ll end up looking directly right of where you started.

Keep in mind, you don’t have to stick to just these angles when actually utilizing this in an actual fight. Remember to use the end angle to set up your next attack.

Why should you do this instead of just turning then slashing?

Quite simply, there’s 3 main reasons to utilize this glitch.

1) Your slash will land faster than if you delay it that brief moment.

2) Sometimes you are locked into a direction due to innate GunZ Mechanics. For example, when you do a ground dash. You cannot turn when you are dashing unless you slash first.

3) This is NOT a typical mechanic used, and with practice, can make you extremely unpredictable while allowing you to place slashes in a new way.

An important part of gladiator is sending your slashes where you actually want them to land. Slashing the air is useless, and a top tier gladiator will punish you for this. In the most ideal gameplay, every one of your slashes will land on your opponent somewhere.


The core concept of delaying your slash is quite literally to slash slower than you potentially can to displace where the slash will come out compared to a natural attack. You should only send a slash when it will actually connect with your opponent. This comes in a few forms. Delayed slash is also the basis of utilizing Angle Slashes, which is a core ability in gladiator.


Just because you can perform a butterfly at full speed doesn’t mean you should. You can hold your slash during a butterfly for a few moments, allowing you to cross a larger distance before actually attacking. You can also utilize moves such as Block Launch to give yourself more air time and even further distance before attacking. This is one of the core ideas behind Counter Style and Counter Slashing using moves.


You can also utilize a delayed slash to Avoid a block and land a hit on your opponent's back or side. There’s a few ways to do this.

3.5.2.1. Using Angle Slash - By utilizing angles and delayed slashes together, you can send a slash at a designated spot on your opponent.

3.5.2.2. Using Momentum Control - By using momentum control to carry you past your opponents front, you can simply hit your opponents back or side.

3.5.2.3. Counter Slashing - By sending a pin point slash at a target when their slash is down, you can safely hit your target. This is a core idea behind Counter Style.

3.5.2.4. Delaying Timing - You can also change the timing delay between your moves, for example multiple Ground Slashes or a Double Butterfly. Changing the tempo of your movements can both confuse the enemy, and send a well timed slash into a different spot on your opponent.

Angle Slash is a core skill to learn in gladiator, like phase slash. It’s used in every fight in some way or another, and is extensively used in Patterns. It’s founded off of Delayed Slashes.


Angle slash is the opposite of Phase Slash. You turn and then slash. The entire concept of this is to change when, where, and what angle you slash at your opponent.

The most basic example of an Angle Slash is a Delayed Backwards Butterfly. By turning away from your opponent, and doing a reverse butterfly, but delaying your slash until you’re next to your opponent, you send the slash into your opponent's back or side.

The easiest way to practice this basic example is to get a friend, and have them block at your starting position, turn 180 degrees away from them, then do a backwards butterfly. If you don’t flinch them, or get stunned, you’re slashing too soon. If you flinch them, you’re doing it properly.

Tip slash is a useful move to use in certain situations, as it’s impossible to be recoiled when performed properly. As stated in the Bad Habits section, it’s not a good idea to overly rely on this, as it can become a crutch that stunts your overall skill.


In simplest terms, your slash extends slightly beyond your sword shape, resulting in a slash that cannot be recoiled. Tip slash is useful for knocking back Air Massives, hitting your opponent at the outermost range of your attack patterns to avoid attacks, and forcing your opponent into a Defensive state, among other things.

A downside of tip slash is that it allows your opponent to escape your attack range easier, as the only way to keep your target in range is by forcing yourself to go forward. Since your opponent knows where you have to go to continue the assault, they have a slight advantage over you unless you back off.

Knowing how to mix together air and ground moves allows you to become more flexible during a fight. This lets you control your distance to the opponent, change your attack tempo, and mix in different phase and angle patterns.

Simply put, this utilizes going from an air move, like bfly or dbfly, to a ground move, such as ground slash or block rush. This allows you to change your tempo and force yourself to a full stop if you ground slash. This is ideally used more for the full stop, and helping you control your distance from your opponent.

Example Typical Combos - Bfly > Ground Slash. Dbfly > Block Rush.

Going from ground to air gives you good reign on exactly how much you move, and it’s easier to accomplish this feat compared to Air to Air combos. It’s fairly easy to do a half drift from the ground and target your opponent's back for example, by simply jumping while holding a direction, then executing an angle slash.

Example Typical Combos - Double Ground Slash > Bfly, Block Rush > Dbfly

Ground juggles are what happens when you manage to catch your opponent in a mistake, mixed together with a speedy and full on rush. It’s entirely possible to 100-0 a player when you catch them in this.


To do a full on ground juggle you need to use a vertical angle of at least 0 degrees (Horizontal), and sometimes mix in sky slashes, usually around 45, and sometimes even a full 90. The closer you get to the target the higher you need to aim. A full 90 is only to be used when you’re right on top of the target.

Furthermore, you should almost never use a Double Ground Slash (Unless using kodachis) to continue the juggle, and seldomly use a ground slash unless you’re less than 1 body away from the opponent. Mostly you’ll want to use a mixture of Butterfly, Double Butterfly, and their static Variants, while moving directly at the opponent while controlling your momentum. If you end up being right next to the target, you typically want to use a ground slash, or (and much harder to continue the juggle with) a 45 degree Butterfly. If you use a Static variant right next to a target you’ll typically move yourself out of range or knock them back towards the ground.


IF you manage to Counter Slash a player without receiving a massive, you can typically get 3 to 4 good slashes on your target before they either manage to hit you with a Sacrificial Slash or block a slash to let them drop to the ground. You should continue with the offensive for one or two more hits before readying yourself to Avoid a Massive, which will almost always come.


This is the most ideal state to catch your opponent. If your opponent tries to Jump Massive you, and you manage to slash them, they’ll be in a stunned state where they continuously cycle the Massive Throw Animation every time you flinch them without being able to block or attack you. You can attempt 1 of 2 things to enter into a ground juggle.

A Double Ground Slash Evade (Slash Evade but continuing with a second slash), into a butterfly, and follow it up with Air Combos.

A Tip Slash followed immediately into two butterflies and continue from there.

Turtle is a high risk high reward strategy that you can use to make your defense into an offense. Be careful with your turtle though, as you lose mobility in exchange for attempting to recoil your opponent. Holding block for any longer than 1 or 2 seconds is NOT effective turtling. Any decent gladiator will see this and just attack your back since it’s now an open target and they know you can’t attack them with a block up.


Honestly, this is one of the worst things you can do against an experienced gladiator. If you intentionally walk for an extended period of time, you basically invite any decent gladiator free access to your back. If you ground turtle, don’t attempt to do it for any longer than 1 second.


An Air turtle is what happens when you simply hold your block for an extended time during any move. Below are a couple common examples.

3.10.2.1. Block Launch - If you do a block launch but hold the block, you perform a long range and speedy air turtle that covers quite a bit of distance.

3.10.2.2. Turtlefly - If you hold the block key after Butterfly or Double Butterfly, including Static Variants, you perform what’s called a Turtlefly. This allows you to both attack and defend at the same time, since you’re including a slash.


A Quick turtle can be an extension of an air turtle, or simply landing and holding block for no longer than 1 second - and that’s a long quick turtle. Ideally, you’ll only want to hold the block for no longer than half a second. It’s a pinpoint turtle meant to catch your opponent off guard and give them a recoil.

You can also utilize the Zero Movement principle with quick turtle, where you’ll simply stand still with your block up for a very brief moment.

Recoil is the soft stunned animation state you enter when your opponent manages to block your slash full on putting you in a vulnerable state.


When recoiled, several mechanics happen all at once. Here’s a run down.

3.11.1. You are locked into place and cannot move - This is the most obvious thing that happens. When you get recoiled, all your movement is completely halted and you freeze in place, whether you’re on the ground or in the air. This also applies to vertical motion as well. If you’re jumping upwards and get recoiled, you’ll stop rising and immediately begin falling.

3.11.2. During Recoil, block animation is fully canceled - By this, I mean that the delay is canceled due to the animation simply not registering. You can spam block all you want and it’ll basically stack on itself.

3.11.3. During Recoil, you have a ghost block - A ghost block is a block without the animation. So your opponent doesn’t see you blocking, but you still are.

3.11.3. If you hold block before getting recoiled, it will persist as a full block - If you hold block, and continue to do so through the recoil, you’ll have a full block that also registers to the opponent. As soon as you release block, it will disappear and enter into the ghost block stage.

3.11.4. Since Recoil is an animation itself, you can ghost evade - During recoil, you’re constantly using an animation, so if you angle correctly and continue turning you can easily dodge massives.

3.11.5. When Recoil ends, your block will go down no matter what - No matter what you do, there is a very brief moment where you cannot have a block up no matter what you do after recovering from a recoil. This means that there’s a brief moment (2 to 3 frames at most) where you cannot dodge from a massive or slash if the opponent throws it correctly.

3.11.6. Rarely, your directional ability will be locked - very rarely, you’ll be unable to turn during a recoil. There’s no real reason as to the why or how of it. This is a very bad place to be in.

Animation Locking is various animations taken to their extremes to produce specific results. You may sometimes hear these referred to as “Gates” or “Gating”. There’s no specific move associated with animation locks. They just happen because you’re doing these so fast that the GunZ client cannot visually replicate what you’re doing to other players.


3.12.1. TBFLY / Slash + Block - The concept is to do a Static DBFLY into a BFLY or a Static TBFLY to get this gate. This will allow you to slash 3 times in a single jump. To get this gate, you have to slash as SOON as you jump, directly before the apex of your jump, and once more about ⅓ of the way down from the apex of your jump. When you do this correctly your opponent will not see you blocking, slashing, or jumping - just your sword pointing directly to the ground.

3.12.2. Double Light Step / Jump + Slash Locking - By doing a double light step and never allowing your sword to stop, to your opponent you’ll look like you’re doing nothing but squatting/Taking a dump the entire time you’re moving despite jumping, dashing, and slashing.. Not useful in any particular way, just a fun mention to explain why you see some players glitch out like this.

3.12.3. Void Slash / Ground Slash Locking - By slashing, and holding the slash until you begin charging a massive, then repeating, you’re slashing as fast as possible with a single slash. You’re only using the massive charge to instantly reset yourself so you can slash again. If you do this as fast as possible, you’ll end up looking like you’re just holding your sword straight up and down (The frame right before you start charging a massive). A key note here is that this is only a faster option while using Kodachis - See Kodachi Style in the Advanced section for more information on utilizing this.

3.12.4. Void Block / Block Locking - By timing your blocks exactly right, you can in essence never have an instance of having no block up. This is extremely useful to learn to keep yourself safe while an opponent is spamming slashes on you. Your opponent will not see you blocking at all, instead your sword will glitch out and point straight to the ground on their screen. They will see the white massive glow on your sword, but that’s it.

Without fail, the better the gladiator, the better they are at controlling and aiming every single slash. You can have the absolute fastest speed of any player in gladiator, but if you can’t place your slash exactly when and where you want it, you’re going to be the worst player in gladiator. Speed is not Skill. Aiming correctly is the biggest difference between the absolute best gladiators and the normal gladiators.

If you learn NOTHING ELSE from reading this guide, cement this in your mind. A slash that lands in some way, shape, or form on your target is better than anything else you can possibly do in gladiator.


3.13.1.1. Slow Down - You don’t typically want to go as fast as possible until you have a metric ton of practice on every angle and phase in the game. And even then going slow can still be the ideal speed. A guy who’s just standing still and throwing out the occasional swing can easily 100-0 a player who’s capable of top speed.

3.13.1.2. Learn how to use multiple Angles and Phases - A solid mixup of attacks is the best practice you can do on a normal basis. Don’t rely on the same pattern, and try your best to go free form.

3.13.1.3. Delay your slash - As stated in the previous section, learn how to delay your slash. If you need to delay your slash until the end of a jump and not get a dash out in exchange to land a hit, that’s more ideal than doing a full speed butterfly and hitting air.

3.13.1.4. Hitting a block is still landing a hit - Giving the opponent a massive charge is actually fairly ideal. A good gladiator does not want to throw a massive, as it typically leaves them open to a swift counter attack. Hitting a block is better than hitting air any day of the week.

3.13.1.5. There’s no reason to Bfly for movement - If you’re not gonna land a slash on your opponent in some way, there’s no reason to bother attacking. In fact for people like me, it’s like ringing the bell saying “Come hit me!”. Get up close and move in their zone. This will make you better in the long run anyways even if you don’t grasp it at first.

Here’s some good tried and true practice thoughts you can utilize to make yourself better at gladiator, while also challenging yourself to try new things.


“Want to get better at gladiator? Disable your S Key” - Despite it being ♥♥♥♥ talk, it actually is quite true. Quite a few of the best gladiators (myself included) have been through this step - but not to stop ourselves from backpeddling. By disabling a key or two, you force yourself into learning new angles and patterns out of necessity to win the fight. Taken to the extremes, you can disable all but one key, and learn how to fight with just that direction.

It’ll royally screw with your brain, but learning how to fully utilize every direction will help you big time overall and make your playstyle more seamless.


A past time for most gladiators is to simply butterfly on nothing while sometimes spin randomly. This is good filler practice when you’re bored and waiting for the next fight outside of duels if you have excess energy. Just pick a pattern you want to practice your mechanics on, and go to town.


An extension of the Disabling keys method, limit yourself to JUST one move. Not so great at ground slash? Do nothing BUT ground slash. Need to learn the timing of Sword Launch? Nows the time to hammer that muscle memory. Don’t expect to win doing this. The trade off is that when you seriously practice this you’ll learn exactly what limits each move has and the best timings to use them.


It’s a great idea to hammer in your Void Block and learn how to animation lock it. You can do this by taking a replay of yourself, or just have a bored friend watch you and tell you when you’re doing it right. I’ve also heard of some people learning it by setting up a metronome application to a specific BPM (The number is lost on me). The best visual way to learn this is to block as soon as you see your sword dip down to the furthest point it’ll go before starting to return to the default position.

The state of the fight is ever changing, and knowing what state both you and your opponent is in will help you understand what you can and can’t get away with. In the simplest terms, the player who manages to keep the advantage the longest is the winner of the fight.


Being in a neutral state means that neither you nor the opponent has any advantage over each other. A good example of this is when both of you are using bfly, or if you both massive each other. There’s no clear winner in your current exchange.


Holding an Advantage over someone means you can freely attack because the opponent can’t do anything outside of defending themself. The most ideal advantage state is when you manage to consistently flinch your opponent into a state of a pseudo stun.


Holding disadvantage means there’s not much you can do to the opponent outside of blocking slashes, dashing away, or trying to throw a sacrificial massive or slash. This is the place you want to keep your opponent, not find yourself. The player on disadvantage wants to get out of this state as soon as possible or attempt to gain advantage with a well timed play.

Most people don’t particularly pay attention to this until it’s pointed out, but it’s definitely a cornerstone of gladiator strategy, especially at higher levels.


The concept of the One Step Theory is one step will determine the fight. One step determines if you hit or miss, One step determines if you’re hit or dodge. One step theory applies to most everything in gladiator, from the way you move to the way your opponent moves. At the highest level of plays, utilizing the One step theory allows you to easily bypass a block by simply taking one step in a direction, and getting out of any combo by moving one step in the proper direction. Below are a few examples.

Using 1 Step to initiate a combo - Assume you stunned your opponent. Jump past them with at half drift, turn 180, and slash. You’ve displaced yourself to their back and now have full access to their side or back.

Using 1 Step to maintain a combo - Assume you’re mid combo. If you flinch your opponent, your opponent will move one step backwards. In this case you should use a full drift. The next hit your opponent manages to block your sword, taking no step back. You should use a half drift instead to stay on top of them.

Using 1 step to get out of a combo - Assume your opponent is trying to use a Triangle pattern on you. You know he’s going to dash backwards and try to hit your back. Turn 90 degrees on the side they’re passing, and take 1 step backwards, and their next slash won’t be able to reach you.



Let’s break down a ground slash into each component from the most technical aspect. Most people would simply look at ground slash, and go “Slash > Block.”. Just these two parts. In actuality it’s 3.

Deconstructed Ground Slash : Slash > 1 Step Forward > Block.

This one step forward changes the position of your next slash 1 step in front of you. You might think this is very minor, but if you’re right on top of your opponent, and apply the One Step rule, you’re now on the side of the opponent after your ground slash, which means you now have access to their front, back, and side, depending on how you angle and phase. This is the core concept of Elbowing.


As stated above, each move might shift you or your opponent. Here are some common outcomes you should be aware of.

Ground Slash - You move 1 step forward.
Double Ground Slash - You move 1.5 steps forward.
Flinch - Getting hit will make you take 1 step away from the opponent.
Block - Blocking a hit will result in you not moving outside of your own inputs.
Getting Recoiled - This will result in you stopping movement.
Getting Flinched In the Air - This will result in you taking 2 steps worth of movement.


Positioning yourself smartly is the entire point of the One Step Theory. Moving yourself to the right spot at the right time is the goal. This can be done either defensively or offensively, but the main idea is to always know where you and your opponent will be slashing at. If you know where your opponent will be, and where they’ll be looking, you know where to attack. On the opposite side, if you know where your opponent will be and where they’ll slash at, you can either step in or out of the slash, depending on what’s more ideal.

Deconstructing moves is a higher level mental application of the gunz movement system at large. While it seems obvious how to do a move, it’s a bit different to actually understand the move. If you understand the move, you know when it’s actually safe to attack or move around a move.


Butterfly is made up of 3 Separate parts. The Jump, the Dash, and the Slash + Block. The only dangerous part of a butterfly is the Slash + Block. Hence, it’s very safe to work during the Jump and Dash. Remember also, that you have a lot of control over butterfly. You can really only do a maximum of about 2 slashes a second during this move. So it’s a bit easier to control your massives as well.
Deconstructing Ground Slash

Like butterfly, a ground slash has 3 separate parts. The slash, the step in, and the block. Most people overlook the step in, and don’t realize how many more options you actually get from said step. See Elbowing and 1 Step Theory. Otherwise, there’s not too many openings in a ground slash. The only reasonable one is through the back, either through a Dash Avoid or an Angled Air move.


A triple Butterfly is made up of 4 or 5 parts, depending on the dash being present or not. It’s Jump, Slash + Block, Slash + Block, Dash, Slash + Block. The biggest advantage of a tbf is the slash spam. When you use a Tbf, you’re going to take advantage of a few things. Ping/Lag, Tip Slash, and a Void Block. So it’s nearly impossible to deal damage or pass a tbf through the front. The biggest disadvantage of a tbf is also the slash spam. You’re forced to commit to a Triple Butterfly. So if you get a massive charge while using this move, you’re going to almost always throw said massive. So it’s relatively easy to just use tip slash or a dash avoid to simply force a massive then go to town.

Counter Attacking makes use of deconstructing a movement, followed by using pin point slashes to hit someone during a movement while taking lead and ping into account.


To counter attack is simply a matter of timing. Though it’s easier said than done to do it constantly. If you want to counter attack a bfly for example, you can either use a ground slash and aim at the jump or dash, or use a Counter Bfly aiming at the same spot. The most ideal result you can get is to get a flinch, while the less ideal result would be to give your opponent a massive - meaning you attacked too late in most cases. Obviously the worst result you can get is to get flinched yourself, while the next worst result is to get a massive charge yourself.

There’s also the use of dashes and utilizing iframes to counter attack as well. The main idea is to outposition your opponent by dashing at just the right time and utilizing strategy and ping to gain the advantage. Below are a few examples.

4.4.1.1. Forward Dashing - Easily the safest one to do, and can catch the opponent off guard quite often. Allow the opponent to approach you, and time your forward dash directly into the opponent to land directly behind them while utilizing both the deconstruction method as well as the innate iframe from the forward dash. You’ll want to dash forward, slash, and then utilize a twitch speed turn to displace your slash from going in front of you to going in the opposite direction from where you were. This strategy requires you to meld both what you see as well as leading to varying extents. You need to time your dashes iframe as well as the deconstruction to avoid the slash, while also leading your slash to hit the enemies back.

4.4.1.2. Side Dashing - Depending on the opponent's ping, this can be quite a bit more difficult to pull off. As you have no iframe to give you the extra safety, you need to dash to the point directly outside of where the opponent aims their slash, while slashing at the right point and direction. For the best results, you’ll want to aim your slash directly after the block ends. At worst, you’ll force a massive, at best you’ll get a free hit and enable you to directly enter into a combo.

4.4.1.3. Back Dashing - The main idea of this counter is to dash just enough to displace yourself one step back, directly outside of the range of the opponent's slash range. This will typically allow you to get a cheeky tip slash on the opponent. As with side dashing, this gets harder the higher the opponent's ping is, and you want to aim directly at the opening when the block is down for those 1 or 2 frames.


As discussed in the One Step theory, you can simply take one step either into or outside of the range of the opponent's slash area, and time a slash there with a ground slash. This one requires quite a bit of prediction, as well as analyzing the opponent to apply well.

Patterns are everywhere in gladiator, whether you think about them or not. Typically, you’ll find people using patterns simply because they’re easy to execute, but the effectiveness of the pattern depends entirely on the player.

An effective pattern utilizes various angles to catch your opponent off guard with a mixture of phases, angles, feints, and timing discrepancies. Be careful not to overuse a singular pattern, or it can become a crutch and make you easily predictable. Below are some examples of the more common patterns, as well as a few examples of each. A Key note for all the patterns below is that when discussing the patterns, I am NOT saying which direction you’re dashing. All patterns are in relation to where your opponent is facing in relation to yourself. You can utilize the Front/Back by using AA > WW, WW > WW, SS > SS, etc, etc. On a similar token, this is not simply related to spamming only BFLY. You want to be mixing up double bflys, bflys, ground slashes, and anything else in your arsenal to create good mixups. A final note, you do not have to repeatedly use the same pattern. For example, you can use a V Front to Left/Right to Triangle to Circle.


There are many line patterns. They’re typically used as an offensive means to close the distance to your opponent, but could also be a mixup of alternating directions.

4.5.1.1. V Front Pattern
This pattern is a solid approach, requiring you to dash twice forwards as a gap closer. The idea is to do two dashes at either 45 or 30 degree angles, one to the left, and one to the right. The angle itself can be Acute or a Right angle, but not done in an Obtuse way. For example, you’ll aim slightly left of your opponent, then veer right to cut them off. The idea is to shorten your covered distance in a straight line - So for example instead of 2 forward dashes with no turns, when you turn you’ll land at 1.25 ~ 1.5 forward dashes.This simple approach pattern is more of a feint, while also helping you stay clear of the enemies slashes.

4.5.1.2. Front / Back Pattern
This pattern is a simple combo making use of a mixup of angles and phases. You’ll simply go past the enemy, and go back to where you started. The key with this is to not use the same attacks, while also utilizing a tossup of Angles, Phases, and Twitch Phases to displace your slashes.

4.5.1.3. Left / Right Pattern
Similar to Front back, but you’ll be going left to right. Often times, people have little to no issues blocking Front/Back patterns, but by utilizing Left/Right patterns, and mixing up alternating slashes from the sides, fronts, and back, people just can’t cope with it.



Do you remember the Circle of Death Bfly? Similar concept, though you’re not simply spamming one direction constantly. You’ll want to use this in spurts of 2 or 3, as well as to adjust for your combo and distance.


This particular one is simply the Triangle Theory. You’ll be going from point to point on the star to create the two triangles. For more information, see the Triangle Theory.

Just like any other combat oriented theme, feints are also part of Gladiator - Though most people seldomly utilize them. The entire point of a feint is to misdirect your opponent from true intentions. Do it right, and it’s an almost guaranteed free hit. The most successful feints you can use take advantage of your opponents natural reflexes. By throwing in feints, you can easily cause the opponent to open themselves up to braindead attacks, simply because they now expect a feint, but it’s not a feint. Mind games are fun.


Most gladiators are used to seeing a certain angle, and expecting a certain outcome. For example, if you pass an opponent and continue looking away, your opponent will expect you to do a reverse angle butterfly - This means they’ll have a typical response of turning AWAY from you to block your attack at their ‘back’. If you know where they’re probably going to block, you can simply change where you’re going to swing. Instead of doing a backwards dash, wait a brief moment, turn 180 to look right at them, and do a forward butterfly instead - hitting their now exposed back.

An even simpler feint is standing directly in front of your opponent while they’re stunned from a recoil, jump and turn 180 as if you’re going to dash backwards, wait a brief moment, then turn back to looking directly at them and slash their now exposed back.



As you learned in the basic part of this guide, Momentum control is an important part of positioning. It’s also a great feint to use if you get comfortable with momentum canceling. Most people expect some form of drift to accompany a bfly/dbfly. Most people expect a pattern to continue since it’s the easiest way to continue an attack pattern. They’ll naturally want to overaim their block to catch where the think you’re going. By utilizing momentum canceling, you can throw in simple feints

Another example of this is to simply walk past your opponent without attacking, jump right next to them, then quickly do a reverse angle butterfly or a twitch reverse butterfly/Turn 180 > Forward Butterfly. The former will hit the side, while the latter will hit their back. Depending on your opponent, they’ll either follow you or continue guarding their back. Pay attention to your opponents habits and thinking, and you can utilize this to create openings.

Dashes are often a very overlooked feint mechanic. By simply dashing past your opponent, then immediately dashing directly back to where you were without slashing or jumping, you can often times get a cheeky hit on their back with minimal effort. You can extend this to single dashes and switching up between elbowing, phases, and angles.

The triangle theory is the idea that the absolute tightest pathing during combos and patterns around an opponent is a simple triangle, while also being an easy to use system to setup dash and slash angles. The idea is to keep the pressure as close as possible to the opponent, while also allowing very easy tossups to your angles of attack. This closely relates to the One Step Theory, as each point of each triangle is only one step or dash away from each other.

The main essence of the triangle theory is that every point on the 2 triangles is either a good spot to aim, move along, or slash to.

Here’s a solid guide from Deviok further explaining it with visuals and basic examples : Deviok's GunZ Gladiator Guide: The Art of Triangle

A note : You are not limited to only forwards and backwards butterfly for a triangle butterfly pattern. Any pattern or movement is fine to pull of the Triangle theory. The core idea is that you will both aim and dash at various points of the “star” while traversing the points between the two triangles. Depending on where your opponent moves and where you land, you’ll be switching from triangle to triangle.

Utilizing the Triangle Theory is the easiest way to keep your patterns fast hitting and create pressure on the opponent. By mixing in different moves, angles, and feints, you can keep a skilled opponent trapped in this until you screw it up.

The idea is quite simple. STOP moving momentarily. This should be in bursts of no more than a single second when done in a fast paced fight. Zero Movement is a type of feint, but not quite a feint. It’s simply stopping and attempting to mess with the enemies thinking of what they were expecting you to do. Try throwing a couple of these into your fights. You’ll be shocked how many people will run point blank into you without phasing, or open themselves up for a counter attack. Most don’t expect this to happen - Even the best gladiators in the game will fall for this gag, just because it’s out of the norm.

A sacrificial move is simply taking a hit to create an advantageous position. A sacrificial slash will pay for itself so long as you can land at least two attacks for every one you take, or if you can get out of a disadvantage.


Sending a slash into your opponent while they’re attacking you is a good way to reset the fight. There’s 2 main outcomes.

1) You land your slash and cause a flinch, automatically turning the fight into your Advantage.

2) Giving the opponent a massive charge. This will either cause a force massive or stop them from attacking you.


When you find yourself inside of a barrage of slashes, and you know where your opponent will attack, you can simply give up a slash and cause them to recoil. Doing this strategy you IGNORE where the slash will land, and only focus on the sword shape and lead your block. The goal is to get a recoil, no matter what happens to you.

The main benefit to using this strategy correctly is you will AVOID getting a massive charge, allowing you to begin your attack the instant you see them recoiled.

The single most important thing in a high level fight is fighting around your opponent's block. Your goal is to get around this nuisance to land slashes. Simply put, the one who’s going to win the fight is the one who manages to bypass the most blocks. Here’s a few examples of how to work around it.


Elbowing is utilizing the one step theory and displacing your slash while on the ground to hit the side of the hitbox, bypassing the block entirely. There’s 2 main ways to do this. You will always do this with a single ground slash while holding W.

1) Look directly at your opponent, slash, wait to take the first step in, and turn 90 degrees away from the opponent, then repeat. The first step in will displace your slash, causing it to originate from the side of your opponent instead of in front of them. The easiest way to do this is doing a left to right elbow, doing full rotations of 180.

2) Dash Forward directly into or slightly to the side of your opponent, and and do a Twitch phase 90 ~ 180 Degrees


The safest way to get around your opponents block is by simply using correct angles to send a slash at a particular direction on your opponent. A simple Reverse Angle Bfly is one of the most effective things you can do to start throwing your opponent off.


By utilizing momentum, you can begin really messing up your opponent. Here’s a couple examples.

1) Using momentum cancels : By using a momentum cancel, you can fake out or displace your slash to your will. As explained in earlier sections, people expect you to continue drifting in the direction you’re going, or by taking queues from your current direction to figure out where your next slash is going to land and preemptively blocking.

2) Drifting slightly past your opponent and then attacking. For example, jump past your opponent then do a reverse bfly. This will cause them to turn around to follow you, and trick them into exposing their back.


A good mixup of phase and angle slashes is generally the best way to get around blocks in a fast manner. The main battle here is to take visual queues from where your opponent is facing and try to send a slash where you expect them NOT to be blocking. Easier said than done, but that’s the entire concept.

The concept of distance to your opponent is different for each person and based around their style and learned patterns and the state of the fight. Someone that’s hyper aggressive will prefer to be closer, someone who’s more interested in countering will want to be slightly further. Here’s a quick rule of thumb breakdown that you’ll want to modify to your liking. While a hyper aggressive pro wants ½ a step distance at any given time, a noob wants 1½ maps between you and them. This concept takes time, testing, and overall experience to master.

As a note, when I say 1 move, I mean at most a Single standing Bfly distance away from your opponent. The distance itself will change depending on the move you plan on doing - A Ground slash has less distance than a full momentum butterfly for example.


As stated above, the ideal distance will change from person to person and moment to moment, depending on the state of the fight. If you’re Neutral, you want to be directly outside of the tip slash zone. This offers you the ability to retain control of the fight through skill, and seamlessly transition into an offensive advantage.

If you have the advantage in a fight, you don’t want to get outside of ½ a move from an opponent. By sticking as close as possible with full control, you keep the opponent pinned into a disadvantage. This opens up your attacking possibilities during the offense, and is actually about the safest thing you can do, especially if you learn how to dodge massives properly either through the mirror rule or iframes.

If you have the disadvantage in a fight, you want to create 1½ moves (If you don’t have a massive) or 2 moves (if you have a massive) distance from you and the opponent. This will allow you to get out of the disadvantage and return it to a neutral fight, while also slightly putting you in a more advantageous position, since your opponent will have to open themselves up to counters to keep you at a disadvantage.


Counter to what you might think, the danger distance in a gladiator fight is anything over 1 move. The reasons are simple.

1) You lose control of the fight. Any time you lose control, the fight is a tossup of whoever hits first, and typically isn’t so much skill based as luck based - unless you specifically aim for counters.

2) By being more than 1 move away from your opponent, you open yourself up to being tip slashed by virtue of ping delay.

iFrames come in three flavors in GunZ. You have True iFrames, Semi Massive Conditional, and Massive Conditional iFrames. In Gladiator, these are mostly used to dodge massives. You CAN use dash evade to dodge slashes with relative safety, but Massive Throws are much less safe to utilize.

Dash Evade, Massive Throw, and Dagger lunge are all True iFrames - You can’t slash it, you can’t shoot it, and you can’t massive it.

Stun and Recoil animations are Semi Massive Conditional. This means you can Slash and Shoot them, but they act like a block is up so you can utilize angles to dodge massives.

The Slash and Jump animations are Massive conditional iFrames. You can slash and Shoot them, but you CANNOT Massive them no matter where you throw the massive.


To make the most of these iFrames, it’s important to discuss the two timings of when a massive is actually thrown. You’ll see mention of white constantly below. This refers to the white charge on the melee weapon signifying a massive is charged and ready to throw. As soon as the white disappears the massive is actually launched at that direction and the hit will land. Similar to how the Slash and Sword are separate, the Massive and Massive windup are separate as well.

When launching a massive on the ground there’s a good half second delay from initial launch to actually landing.

When launching mid air the massive comes out almost instantly and actually has the iFrame trigger timing a little longer. It’s actually easier to dodge mid air massives compared to a ground massive for this reason in most cases.


Dash evade utilizes a True iFrame on the forward dash. There is NO IFRAME on any other direction of your dash. Simply Dash Forwards and you’ll have 2 or 3 frames of iFrames. This particular iFrame is fairly lenient and easy to learn. For females, it’s towards the start of your dash. For Males, it starts about halfway through the dash. Basically, you need to dash earlier to get the iFrame on a male compared to a Female.

Key note : A front dash only has an iFrame on it when you hear the dash sound. If you slash then dash, the dash DOES NOT have an iFrame.


About ¼ of the way after you throw a massive until the white disappears on a massive and it’s thrown, you have a true iFrame on both males and females.


If you’re facing a dagger, the entire lunge animation is basically an iFrame. The iFrame starts just before forward momentum happens and doesn’t end until the dagger starts being retracted to its initial default position.


This is the particular animation you receive when you get massived. During the entire animation, the game treats you as if you have a block up concerning massives. There’s no real trigger telling the game that your block is being held, meaning you can overspam the block button, getting even more blocks than even Block Animation Locking can get you.


This behaves exactly like the Stun animation, only you can also turn. The biggest note here is that any time you’re turning while in the recoil animation you cannot get massived. You do NOT need to rely on the Mirror rule when in a Recoil animation, you just have to be in the process of turning when the white disappears on your opponents massive to trigger this iFrame.


By starting a slash EXACTLY when you see the white disappear from your opponents massive and turning at least 90 degrees, you enter into an iFrame. There is no angle or position you can throw a massive to that breaks this iFrame. NOTE : Due to the Massive iFrame, even though you’re slashing at the opponent, they will NOT take any damage nor get flinched. KEY NOTE : This is ONLY available on a female character WITH a Katana. Males (Regardless of weapon), Greatswords, Kodachis, and Daggers CANNOT use this iFrame.


By far the hardest iFrame to master. You need to jump EXACTLY when you see the white disappear from your opponents massive. DO NOT SLASH OR BLOCK as this will overwrite the animation of the jump that the iFrame is associated with. This is ONLY available on a female character WITH a Katana. Males (Regardless of weapon), Greatswords, Kodachis, and Daggers CANNOT use this iFrame.


You’ll notice that some highly skilled players will utilize these various iFrames to take advantage of you. Really the only way to work around someone abusing iFrames is to not throw a massive, delay slightly, or utilize feints to screw up their timings. Below are a few examples - Note : These examples are only concerning when to throw your massive.

4.12.9.1. Dash Evade : Simply throw your massive as soon as you see them dashing. The ping delay will typically let your massive land outside of the iFrame timings.

4.12.9.2. Massive Throw : Simply put, whoever manages to throw the massive first is going to win this exchange typically. They’ll see themselves with the iFrame while you won’t see yourself with the iFrame. The slower one gets smacked 9 times out of 10. The safest option is to utilize another iFrame to dodge their massive and immediately throw your own, as they’ll be momentarily defenseless.

4.12.9.3. Stun/Recoil : You want to time your massive to land JUST as they come out of this animation. At the exact point someone is no longer Stunned or Recoiled, their block is down no matter what. This means it’s next to impossible to dodge a massive or a slash. You have a very brief moment (1 to 3 frames) where your opponent cannot do anything to stop whatever damage you want to throw. The only thing they can do is Jump or Slash evade if you’re throwing a massive, and they can’t do anything at all if you time a slash for it.

4.12.9.4. Slash / Jump : You really don’t want to try working around these, as you’ll be taking sacrificial damage to land a massive at best in this scenario which will just reset the fight back to a neutral state. Not to mention, the iFrame itself works off of the users reflex and what they see, not what you see. Your best course of action is to not throw any kind of massive unless they’re in another animation or movement.

This particular tactic requires you to utilize both foresight and the single step theory. The main idea is to force an enemy to attack or move in a specific direction that you force them into in order to maintain their offense. This means that it’s going to be harder for the opponent to safely land an attack, and increases the potential for you to recoil them.


The core concept of this theory is that people like to go in the path of least resistance, as well as favoring certain patterns or directions typically.

To force an angle, your goal is to utilize your block shapes AOE angle and dictate where the opponent will attack you by moving a single step in any direction.

For example : If you know the opponent likes to pass on your left and phase to your right, simply take a step to your right, and turn 90 degrees to the left. This will typically force them to pass directly in front of where you step to, and they’ll end up slamming directly into your block and getting recoiled.

Another example is moving one step in such a way that they’ll naturally want to move where you want them to, otherwise they will not be able to continue attacking you. Forcing angles is 100% about how you position yourself.

Knowing when to attack is fairly crucial if you plan on setting up a proper counter opportunity. There’s a right time and a wrong for any type of attack. Almost every move in the game has a natural opening. By combining the concepts of Deconstructing Movements, Distances, and other elements described so far in this guide, we can look further into opportune times to take advantage of an unwitting mistake made by your opponent. Below are a couple examples to take note of. This is not an exhaustive list, but these are the two things to really focus on going after.


As discussed in the iFrames segment, a massive has a full on iFrame starting about ¼ of the way into the initial massive, and will continue until just after the white charge disappears. Anything outside of those is an opportunity. That said, an opponent that throws a massive is an amazing target to take advantage of. It’s practically free hits or an easy setup into a flinch lock.

4.14.1.1. When not to attack - When the opponent begins windup and just after the white disappears. The reason you don’t want to attack these spots is because of the iFrame and the damage that’s coming. The reason you don’t want to attack during any of the entry swing is becuase while you see yourself hitting them outside of the iFrame, they see you hitting them during the iFrame due to the latency is GunZ. The reason you don’t want to attack directly after the charge disappears is because that’s when the damage is coming. While you certainly CAN attack right here and get your hit in, you have to also compensate with an evade of some sort to prevent getting damaged.

4.14.1.2. When to attack - RIGHT before initial windup is the absolute best time to attack. This will be the safest time to try attacking an opponent throwing a massive. The reason for this is simple. They’ll already begin throwing it by the time you attack this point, despite you not seeing it, and by attacking this window you’ll be able to potentially stun lock their animation depending on if they jumped or not. By the time you get your second slash ready to go, you’ll also have a natural block in place to evade the massive damage, if the AOE didn’t get flung outside of your hitbox to begin with. The next safest spot to attack is directly after the white disappears. By the time you land you’re next to them, the AOE will have already triggered, meaning that it’s impossible for them to fight back, meaning at least one free hit.


Players constantly dash in Gladiator, and by nature of the game, it’s a giant free zone. Remember that in deconstructing movements, the only dangerous part of a Bfly is the slash and block portion only.

4.14.2.1. When not to attack - Counter intuitively, you DO NOT attack the dash itself. Like I mentioned above, by the time your opponents client registers your slash, it’ll actually be on their block. This means they’ll attack you for free, and your slash will typically end up passing them completely.

4.14.2.2. When to attack - You want to aim for hitting their jump if they’re a bit slow, or if they’re quite fast, you want to actually aim to hit them just after their slash + Block shows on your client. Depending on the ping, this will hit them anywhere from when they land to just before they slash.

Maintaining your combo while your opponent does their best to escape it is utilizing multiple things at once. Here’s several tips to pay close attention to in order to maintain a steady offense.


We all know the Triangle patterns, COD patterns, Back and forths. You want to create multiple variations at the start of several patterns you can seamlessly move to and from, that attack multiple areas on your opponent. Don’t focus on just the front and back, aim for the left and right as well. Your goal is to be able to hit any part of the opponent at any time and be able to transition from any move to another at will and comfortably.


As stated in the One Step theory, A flinch will cause your opponent to move 1 step in the direction you hit them in. This can and will cause your Combos focus point to change. Knowing when you will or won’t hit a block will help you immensely when keeping on the pressure. If you know they’re going to get flinched, you need to plan for the extra distance.



Switching between Full Drifts to No drifts will also help you immensely for controlling the distance and keeping your target in your strike zone. If you know or see that they’re a bit further, delay your slash a bit and use your momentum to carry you into the opponent before attacking.


If you know you’ll be right on top of the opponent, you might want to consider throwing in some ground combat. Whether this is just to maintain proper distance and not let yourself get carried too far away or sneaking in a couple elbows, or even just to help reset the timer on their massive charge.

Only use a ground combo when you know you’ll be damn near kissing your opponent on your screen when you land. Too much further away and by the time you do your next move, you’ll be too far away due to latency to continue carrying on your attacks.


Air Combos are more ideal for quickly changing your attack directions and maintaining a more mid range for your attacks during a combo. Remember that you want to be constantly changing your angles and phases as described above.


Flinch locking is the holy grail of a combo. By attacking at just the right consistent speed, you can actually prevent your opponent from doing anything at all because they’re in a constant state of flinching. They can’t slash, they can’t block, they can’t jump, and they can’t dash. It takes practically frame perfect slash timings to make this happen. The attacks are neither fast nor slow, but a steady tempo. If you’re too fast, you’ll land your slash during their flinch animation, which will cause damage but not another flinch. Too slow, and they’ll be able to get out if it in one way or another.

To figure out the right tempo, watch yourself get flinched multiple times in a row and try figuring out the timing from when you get flinched to the exact moment you can do something again. You want to be doing your combo at exactly that speed.

In gladiator, you will get caught in a deluge of slashes when facing any decent gladiator. Here’s a few ways to get out of it.


This is the bread and butter. You’ll want to perfect your void block and utilize the one step theory to walk out of the attacks. The idea is to use the void block and predict where you’ll get slashed at to simply walk out of a combo.

For example, If you know they’ll go past you, walk into where they are, turn around, and continue walking backwards. This will create at least 2 steps between you and your opponent, and at the very least open up the options below to you.

The reason this example works so well is because the normal reflex is to try walking away from your opponent to get out of a combo. This means that most people will simply expect you to try going away from them, and can easily overextend their distances.


If you have the time to do get a block held up for a brief moment, this can also be a viable option. Aim for getting a recoil mid combo, and just turn the tables on the opponent. It’s one of the riskiest options to get out of a combo however.


Another viable option is to simply block rush out of the combo in practically any direction. This requires either very tight timing, or a decent gap in the combo to pull off however.


You can utilize the natural iFrame of a forward dash to escape a combo as well. Like turtle, this is fairly risky however since you’ll be leaving yourself open for quite a bit of time, and the dashes iFrame is very short. You only want to utilize this option if you’re very comfortable with the actual timing of your iFrame.


If you don’t have a massive charged, another option to get out of a combo is simply doing a ground slash instead of void blocking. This is seldomly seen, and really only good on opponents who aren’t going at high speeds or leave you with just enough of a window.. If you can get a single slash out on an opponent, it’ll automatically end their combo for better or worse.

In the optimal situations - You’ll smack them off of you, leading to an opportunity to instantly begin a counter combo, or they’ll be forced into throwing or holding a massive which will also end their combo.

In the bad situations - You’ll get smacked for trying to be cheeky, or their force massive will smack you upside the head, leading you right back into the situation you were trying to escape.


You can also let them hit you once in exchange for either a boost of speed out of their combo or with a counter slash. If you choose to try utilizing their slash to throw you out of their combo, the easiest thing to do is to try jumping into them when you know an angle slash is coming at your back, and letting the flinch itself throw you out of the fight.


Finally, we have about the most sub-optimal thing you can do against an experienced gladiator that’s mid combo on you. Throw a massive and hope for the best. Most of the time, the opponent will have very natural massive evades going for them, or simply get out of the AOE range of the massive then continue their assault on you. If you choose this route, you want to throw a ground massive, as during a combo people will naturally look towards the ground, meaning that almost every player has a pre built sky massive evade going for them.

Fighting on the ground is a different beast compared to fighting in the air. You have less easy access points for angling, and need to rely more on countering and outplaying your opponent by timing your slashes and dashes correctly. The main trade off for a ground centric style is there are little to no openings when done correctly. There’s simply not much to exploit.


The bread and butter of ground fighting. A BIG tip for ground slashing, make sure that you hold alternate movement directions when ground slashing. By doing this, you activate a step animation, which will actually reset your block animation a bit quicker, allowing you to attack even faster. When you do this correctly, you’ll practically be in a state of Void block while also attacking. This can be done either from the air or while on the ground.

Example : W > Slash + Block > A(hold) > Slash + Block > S(hold) > Slash + Block....


When weaving in ground combat from air combat, going from a Bfly to a Ground slash acts as a very easy momentum cancel for you. This is ideal for helping control the distance between you and your opponent.


Utilizing dashes to displace your slashes is a great way to both confuse your opponent, and open you up to some fast paced ground play. A dash is a fairly potent tool that’s pretty much ignored in the current Gladiator scene. Here’s a few ways to mix dashes into your ground style.

4.17.3.1. Dash > Dash > Slash : Dash past your opponent, then back to where you were and attack. They’ll typically follow you with their mouse expecting you to try hitting their back, but you’re slashing from where you started off, hitting where their back is now.

4.17.3.2. Dash > Slash : Remember that on the ground, when you slash you actually cancel your dash. This means you can use the dash to attack from wherever you want on the dashes movement.

4.17.3.3. Back Dash > Slash : You can use dash to take one rapid step backwards, and counter slash your opponent. This will displace you just outside of their slash zone, and they’ll run directly into your slash. Highly cheeky, immensely hilarious.

4.17.3.4. Sword Launch : Sword launching yourself is extremely disorienting for the opponent if you have them pinned with more orthodox moves. Most players expect the animation of a sword launch to lead into a double ground slash. By Sword Launching yourself, you practically warp to your next position.


Remember that during ground combat you can easily mix in some Elbowing tactics. You don’t want to exclusively rely on elbowing, as players can simply block to the proper side and outright stop the slash or cause you to get recoiled if they take a step in the right direction.

While mechanically mostly the same, the style you’ll implement with kodachis requires a fairly different mindset to pull off compared to a sword. Here’s a quick dirt list.


The most obvious difference between a Sword and a Kodachi is quite simply the slash timing. That said, the timings are actually a LOT tighter with a kodachi compared to a sword. A kodachi requires you to time things vastly different than you would with a sword. They actually excel more in the counter play department compared to a sword, while focusing on changing up your slash tempo above all else. A very big part of the absolute best kodachi play is learning how to Void Slash effectively.


4.18.2.1. Pros
1) Faster - The obvious thing.
2) Tempo Variance - It’s very easy to go from slow to hyper fast.
3) Movement Speed Variance.
4) Faster and more varied ground attack speed variances.
5) Faster Sword Launches.
6) Harder to visually see massive direction.
7) More lenient on sneaking in slashes utilizing Double Ground Slash.
8) Able to Void Slash and Void Butterfly effectively.

4.18.2.2. Cons
1) Easy to land 2 slashes on a single block.
2) Shorter step in range (Hence why most people think shorter range).
3) Unable to Slash or Jump evade.
4) Heavier Weight.
5) Completely different ground timings compared to a sword.
6) Hard to master both Sword and Kodachi. Pick one or get crippled.
7) Easy to lock yourself into the vulnerable Slash > Block animation slide glitch.


To be completely blunt, there’s ZERO difference between swords and kodachis while in the air. Everything acts exactly the same for all aerial moves (Bfly, Dbfly, LS, etc)


The double slash of the kodachi is really a double edged blade. One one hand, you have greater leniency when trying to sneak in counter slashes or aiming at specific animation breaks. On the other, the timing of the 2 slashes is so close together that you can easily land both slashes on a single block. If you do it right, you just got 2 slashes for one. If you do it wrong, you just hit a single block and wasted your time. Another fact is that you step in half as far on the ground compared to using a sword, meaning your attack range is a touch shorter while on the ground.


This is the Kodachis Bread and Butter if you plan on getting serious with it. You need to learn how to execute void slashes and mix them in constantly if you want to really master the kodachi. A void slash gives you full control over your slash tempo. You want to learn how to mix in fast void slashes, slow void slashes, ground slashes, and double ground slashes, and juggle them all over the place to really throw your opponent off.


An extension of the above. By doing a Void Slash, and immediately butterflying as soon as you reset your animation with the massive charge, you can basically get the effect of a full speed Void slash leading you directly into a double butterfly.

Key Combo : Slash (hold) > Jump + Slash > Block > Air Movement.


By using Void Slash, then immediately dashing, you’re actually able to chain together a stream of iFrames and change up your tempo and position however you want. The reason this works is because as soon as you begin charging a massive, the moment you release the trigger the game thinks you’re actually in a neutral standing state. This means you can keep a combo going of nothing but ground slashes for however long you please and there’s practically nothing the opponent can do to you if he has a massive charge. Mind, this is a very high level tactic to utilize. That said, this REQUIRES you to full void slash and release your fire button to execute. If you dash too early, you’ll be sword launching, not straight dashing.

Key combo : Void Slash > Release LMB as soon as you start charging massive > Dash

I Published this guide to make the whole information accessible to the public without needing to send any files, providing new players to apply some skills that veterans only may know. I do not own any of these informations, Credits goes to Scuba

Also, i invite you to help me improve it, taking in consideration any item that private servers have (such as Large Swords mechanics).

I hope you enjoyed reading, please comment below mentioning any item that its description doesn't fit to its title.

Come play with us. Freestyle Gunz[fgunz.net]
FGunz Discord Server[discord.gg]

Same Guide on Freestylers World Forum[freestylersworld.com]