Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising: Best Tips & Tricks

Fighting games like Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising are always tough to learn without knowing some important tips and tricks.

This game is fairly unique too, with some things that might throw off even veteran 2D fighter fans!

In this guide, we’ll go over some important tips and tricks to help turn things in your favor in this anime fighting game.

Best Tips & Tricks for Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising

Training Mode Is Your Best Friend

Training Mode is always important when learning any new fighting game, and Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising is no exception. In fact, it’s potentially even more useful than usual for beginners!

The training mode in this game has a variety of features, with the most important being “Situational Training”.

Situational Training allows you to play through various tutorials that explain every single mechanic in the game. You can also play through trials to learn how to play as or against different characters!

Match-Up Training is also extremely useful, as it teaches you how to avoid and punish attacks from everyone on the cast.

The one big downside is if you’re playing the Free version of the game, though. You can only do Gran’s training in Character Strategy and Match-Up Training if you’re playing the free version, sadly…

Nonetheless, you should hit up the training mode as soon as possible if you wish to learn how to play this game!

Use The Guard Button

You can block by holding back anytime in this game, just like another traditional 2D fighter. Press down and back and you’ll even block crouching, as always.

But you should make it a habit to start using the Guard button instead of holding Back to block!

The main benefit is that the Guard button doesn’t require any directional inputs. You won’t accidentally walk back when trying to dodge, and you’ll always be protected from cross-ups.

You’ll still need to learn to block while either standing or crouching, though!

Additionally, pressing the Guard button and back will make your character do a dodge in place, and pressing Guard and forward will do a short dashing dodge.

In-place dodges are completely invulnerable for a brief moment, making them amazing for counterattacks.

The dashing dodge, on the other hand, allows you to shorten gaps more safely but can be punished by low attacks and grabs.

It can take some getting used to if you’re a big 2D fighter fan, but the Guard button is just better than traditional blocking!

Stick To One Character

Every character is unique in this game, despite a lot of streamlined mechanics.

We understand wanting to play as all your favorites, especially if you’re a Granblue fan! But you really should focus on learning one character at a time.

Trying to learn multiple characters at the same time as a beginner is going to throw you off more often than not, and can drastically slow down the learning progress.

So my personal recommendation here is to hit training mode, try out everyone in the roster that interests you, and pick one as your main. Stick to them and you’ll learn much faster!

Of course, you can start learning more characters later, too. But save it for when you’ve gotten more comfortable with the game.

Don’t Be Afraid of Using Your Skybound Gauge

The Skybound Gauge, also known by the universal fighting game term “meter”, allows you to perform a lot of powerful moves.

You can spend 25% to perform follow-ups after hitting a Raging Strike, 50% of it use Ultimate Skills, or 100% to use super-powerful Skybound Arts.

Generally speaking, it’s a great idea to save your meter in fighting games until you have a good opening or use for it. But meter builds up incredibly fast in this game, so you don’t need to be frugal with it.

Ultimate Skills are particularly important to use, as you get a partial refund of meter when they connect outside of combos.

Hitting a blocking opponent will refund 12%, and a whole 25% if your opponent doesn’t block.

Even just walking toward your opponent charges up your Skybound Gauge!

In short, don’t be afraid to spend your Skybound Gauge in this game.

Be Mindful Of Bravery Points

Unlike the Skybound Gauge, Bravery Points (BP) are instead meant to be preserved as much as possible. They’re the blue diamonds above your character’s health, and you start every round with 3.

You can spend BP to perform Raging Strikes by pressing M + H, which can Guard Break your opponent to create opponents or lead into powerful combos. Guard Break even takes away one of your foe’s BP, too!

Alternatively, you can use them to counter your opponent’s Raging Strike and prevent them from doing a combo. The input is the same for this counter, but it can only be done once you get hit.

The thing is, though, that you start taking more damage once you have less BP. Additionally, having no BP at all will make it easier for your opponent to do brutal combos on you.

To make matters even worse, if you become too predictable with them your opponent can just perform a dodge instead of blocking the Raging Strike. This will cause a slow-motion effect and leave you open for retaliation!

You also can’t recover BP during a round other than by landing a Skybound Art, which you’re most likely not going to be able to do more than once or twice per round.

So, while BP can be spent for some extremely powerful abilities, you’ll want to be careful with it. Wasting it can quickly lead to your defeat.

Use The Skill Button

Our last tip is going to be a quick one and is mostly aimed towards veteran fighting game players: don’t ignore the Skill button.

You can press the Skill button at any given moment to do your character’s special attacks instead of doing the traditional fighting game inputs.

The only downside is that you do 10% less damage with your Skill, but it’s a negligible downside when you consider the ease of input and consistency!

It’s especially important if you’re playing a character with tricky inputs, such as Ladiva. Nobody has the time for 360º inputs in 2023, especially in such a fast-paced fighting game.

ALSO READ: Complete Beginner’s Guide in Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising