Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3: How to Block and Use Advancing Guard

As with just about every fighting game, blocking in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is a fundamental ability that each and every player has to tackle learning at one point or another. As much as we’d like to contentiously rush down our opponents with Wolverine dive kicks or blast them from afar with Dr. Doom’s Plasma Beam, at some point the enemy will land a hit on you and in UMvC3 that can easily mean life or death.

UMvC3 takes many of its input patterns from other Capcom fighters such as Street Fighter. Because of this, the direction of which your character is facing will be the largest factor in blocking. In order to block, you’ll need to hold backwards on the controller’s d-pad or left thumbstick in relation to the character’s facing direction. This will cause your character to begin walking backwards, unless they are attacked, in which case it will result in a block.

Another factor in blocking is the height of the attacker’s move. There are three elevations for attacks in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3: high, medium, and low. If the opponent is standing on the ground and they attack you, it will most likely be a medium height attack, which a standard block will protect you from. This holds true if the enemy is attacking you during a jump, a high attack, as well. However, things get tricky when the opponent crouches on the ground and attacks. These are low attacks and unless you are crouching and holding back, they will hit you. If you are blocking low, you will be vulnerable to high attacks though so watch out. In essence, high and medium attacks can be blocked by a standing block, while medium and low attacks can be blocked by a crouching block.

The last thing to know about blocking is the technique Advancing Guard. Advancing Guard will not only reduce the amount of chip damage, or damage taking while blocking, but it will also push the attacking enemy backwards in order to give you some breathing room to recover. In order to perform an Advancing Guard, you’ll need to press two attack buttons while blocking an attack. If you are playing on the default control settings, you can also press R2 as well.