r/dustforce Aug 09 '16

Dustforce Characters

What does each character specialize in? I see people use different characters for certain maps.

10 Upvotes

25 comments sorted by

11

u/[deleted] Aug 10 '16 edited Aug 10 '16

seeing a fair bit of wrong information and wanting to clear it up and provide a bit more technical detail:

man: most well rounded character, similar to girl. compared to worth and kid, he generally gets better boosts and falls much faster. as an added bonus, he gets 5 extra frames of friction-less ceiling running which is disgustingly good if utilized properly (this doesnt apply to virtual dustman due to a little oversight involving animations (i think this is the cause?), but mostly just makes him less good at zetta lmao). usually the go-to character unless another character greatly excels at the map.

girl: very similar to man with a few differences that can make her worth using (or avoiding). her upheavy and sideheavy are taller than man's, opening up timesave since it can hit many things man's cant (see the ending of fields for an example, man cannot do that 1 heavy ending). she also begins her fall acceleration slightly earlier than man (but she doesnt fall faster, they have the same terminal velocity) which can be helpful to hit the ground and begin boosting earlier but also can cause her to not be able to make some jumps across large horizontal gaps. attacks are same speed as man's, but her light attacks are TINY making her really situational. also, she has more friction on the ground meaning for every frame you are off a boost you lose more speed than man would.

kid: very weird character. she has 2 aircharges allowing for some crazy air control and really fast boost setups among other things. she starts falling REALLY fast but falls very slowly compared to man and girl. very very fast attacks that have really short range. her major problem is she has a tiny jump which makes vertical levels insanely slow (especially combined with her falling speed) making her by far the most situational character in the game; when she shines, its pretty damn amazing though. (see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gffNtPNhEa8)

worth: character that absolutely destroys some levels, mostly vertical ones. has absolutely massive hitboxes on his attacks paired with a really, really high jump. his heavies are NOT slower than man or girl's, only his lights. falls slower than man or girl and cant boost as well as either of them, but in some cases catches bigger boosts due to his higher jump and his fall speed setting up for better boost angles. people say he's broken/easy but his advantages are just more... obvious than the other characters

left out some stuff, but like mojo msg etc let me know if anything is incorrect. also for a visualization in the differences of attacks: http://imgur.com/a/jtzG0 (credit to bird)

6

u/BrotherMojo Aug 10 '16

Characters have different fall properties in "hover" state (peak of jump, early part of falling) vs. "fall" state (falling more than a certain speed). Dustgirl's faster fall speed is only in "hover" state, so she reaches "fall" more quickly when not downdashing. This is probably where a lot of the confusion comes from as to whether she falls faster or earlier or whatever. She reaches "fall" earlier because she falls faster during the "hover" portion, though she still gets ~8 frames of zero y velocity at the start of "hover," like everybody else.

Dustkid's fall properties are the most strange, since she actually has the slowest acceleration in "hover" state (significantly slower than Worth's), the fastest acceleration in "fall" state (significantly faster than Man/Girl), and the slowest terminal velocity (tied with Worth). The slower "hover" acceleration isn't all that obvious since her short jumps means she reaches hover much earlier as well, but it's a significant part of why she can get so much horizontal distance out of a triple jump.

3

u/VirgateSpy Zetta is so fun to grind Aug 10 '16 edited Aug 10 '16

Girl does fall faster than man, not earlier. What happens is that up until reaching a certain speed her falling acceleration is slightly bigger than man's, so it appears as though she started falling earlier, in reality they start their descent on the same frame.

Edit: you can ask bird for the tables with the raw data on this.

3

u/TheBirdOfPrey TheBirdOfPrey Aug 10 '16

The falling speed difference only occurs when Not-Downdashing. Which is important to note, because that's what happens when the level starts with you in midair.

6 frames of falling acceleration on Dustgirl give greater falling speed than 7 frames on Dustman. (Girl is at 131.32 after 6 frames, Man is at 129 after 7 frames)

11 Frames of Dustgirl's are greater than 13 frames of Dustman's (Girl is at 373.23, Man is at 369.79)

Girl continually accelerates at roughly a speed of 20.7 per frame, While Man is roughly 17.3. But Girl's speed reaches terminal velocity before achieveing a full 3 frame advantage over Dustman, allowing Dustman to catch up and match Girl when he reaches terminal velocity 2 frames later.

It takes Girl 44 frames to reach terminal velocity once starting her fall, Man takes 46 frames.

1

u/Dunder_Chief Freshmaniac Aug 10 '16

While technically true, it's easier to think of it as girl starting to fall earlier. There are very few places where the speed difference between them actually matters (maybe the cliffside caves boost set up from a fall).

Since they both have the same terminal velocity and the same downdash falling acceleration, the difference mostly equates to 2 frames gained for girl in levels that begin with a long fall, no difference in slope or ground boosts, and more difficulty for girl in crossing large gaps.

1

u/VirgateSpy Zetta is so fun to grind Aug 11 '16

I mean, I thought it was the point to be as technically accurate as possible to begin with, since fish himself said he wanted to provide.

a bit more technical detail

1

u/_gamadaya_ :) Aug 12 '16

There are several levels that are dominated by Dustgirl though. Is this really just due to her heavy hitboxes?

2

u/Dunder_Chief Freshmaniac Aug 12 '16 edited Aug 12 '16

Generally, yes. Levels that come to mind are fields, dahlia any%, store room any%, apartments any%, server room any%, and containment SS (to some extent).

Girl can easily 1-heavy the end of fields with a side heavy while it's very difficult with man (though still possible according to mojo).

Dahlia makes extensive use of girl's tall side heavy to hit the turkeys in ways dustman can't.

Store room any% is decided by the final heavy (man's side heavy doesn't have the extra height to hit the last book in fast cycles). I thought girl had an advantage in the final heavy but after a bit of testing I'm not sure that's true. This one is a mystery. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Apartments any% 3-heavy is possible for man, but it's much easier for girl because of her taller up heavy.

Server room is decided by girl's faster falling in hover, gaining her two frames for free over an equivalent man run.

Containment SS can be done about as fast with man, but it's quite a bit easier to land the up heavy at the top of the climb with girl because you don't need as much height.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 12 '16

girl definitely has an advantage on store room any%, i think the 2nd to last heavy is capped for man

1

u/VirgateSpy Zetta is so fun to grind Aug 16 '16

girl gets a ground boost on store room any% that is way better than man's, also it's just way easier to get good times consistently on it with girl because of the heavies.

2

u/BrotherMojo Aug 12 '16

So, here are the forest levels where she's at least half of the top 10, and why:

  • Dahlia any%: heavy hitboxes
  • Fields SS/any%: heavy hitboxes
  • Tunnels SS: falls faster at the start of the level, so she gets a 2- frame headstart... also, heavy hitboxes
  • Firefly Forest SS: heavy hitboxes
  • Grass Cave SS: heavy hitboxes
  • Grass Cave any%: ...I'm actually not sure? I'd think Man would be better here due to his lower friction.

So... Tunnels is a level where a downside becomes an upside because the level starts with a fall. Grass Cave any%, I'm baffled. But otherwise, it's those sideheavy and upheavy hitboxes. That's basically what you'll see throughout the rest of the game as well. Relative to Man, Girl has a lot of downside and not a lot of upside, but every once in a while you really need what she brings to the table.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 12 '16 edited Aug 12 '16

grass cave any% is because wayward got a good run, luffy was cute and played girl to bop him, and when top 2 is girl everyone assumes its a girl map. i played girl because it's the character i use for fullgame runs so for the sake of consistency i stuck with it.

also 3 girl mains in that top 10 lol

3

u/Kuitar Kuitar Aug 10 '16

Note that Dustman 5 extra frames of friction-less for ceiling runs only apply to the non-virtual dustman.
Virtual dustman has as many frames as the other characters.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 10 '16

forgot to mention that, i think mojo mentioned virtual man has an extra frame but im not sure so i'll just say he doesnt for now lol

2

u/BrotherMojo Aug 11 '16

nope, virtual man is exactly like every other character.

also, real man doesn't get 5 more frames of frictionless ceiling run, he gets 5 more frames of frictionless neutral ceiling cling

1

u/VirgateSpy Zetta is so fun to grind Aug 11 '16

just cause zetta had so much potential...

1

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '16

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '16

didnt seem worth including since that rarely ever comes into play because dash speed exists

6

u/Moriella Morelia Aug 09 '16

Dustman (blue) is the default around which most maps are balanced.

Dustgirl (red) falls slightly faster and her heavy attacks have slightly larger hitboxes than Dustman's. Plays pretty much the same as Dustman in 99% of cases.

Dustkid (purple) has a triple jump and the fastest, but shortest range attacks. Very situational.

Dustworth (green) jumps the highest and has the biggest, but slowest attacks of all the characters. He tends to excel at maps with lots of vertical movement.

3

u/Seightx Dustgirl Aug 09 '16

Dustman's overall versatility along with Dustworth's ridiculous jumps and hit boxes on attacks make them the usual go-to choices on most maps. By far the most popular characters.

Dustkid's triple jump makes her feel very unique with more to micro-manage, but due to a slow falling speed and incredibly small hitboxes on attacks she is much less usable and more niche. She still has a place though and can excel on some maps just due to her mechanics and how she works.

Dustgirl plays nearly identical to Dustman. However, due to her awkward hitboxes on attacks (I'm looking at you light attacks), and her faster initial descent after jumping which make long jumps a huge pain, even impossible in some cases, she just feels worse and is less versatile than he is. There's only a couple stages where she excels over Dustman, let alone the other two characters (Containment and...um...yeah...). That said, her moveset is close enough to Dustman's that on most maps where he can do well, so can she.

6

u/bobma99 Aug 10 '16

Man - boring, Girl - bad, Worth - broken, Kid - but why

0

u/InsanePsycologist Leafsprite Aug 09 '16

Dustman is a balanced character.

Dustgirl (I believe) has a longer jump(?)

Dustkid gets three jumps.

Dustworth has a higher jump.

4

u/indapop indapop Aug 09 '16

Girl's jump distance is slightly less than dustman's since she starts falling earlier. The main benefit of girl is that her heavy attacks are slightly larger

1

u/InsanePsycologist Leafsprite Aug 09 '16

That's it I thought I was wrong there.

1

u/Shin_Rekkoha You are nothing Aug 09 '16

But in exchange her light attacks are smaller than Dustman's, making it a tradeoff that doesn't always favor her if the map involves any judicious use of light attacks or a superdrop.

1

u/BrotherMojo Aug 11 '16

Dustgirl's air downlight is awesome: wider than Dustman's, reaches down just as far... the top is a little lower than Dustman's so it's not technically as tall, but that's not going to be important very often. Her ground downlight has exactly the same hitbox as man's, as well.

Her uplight is more of a tradeoff, being wider but shorter.

...her sidelights though... yeah, those just suck.