Kabuki Quantum Fighter Game Mechanics

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Attacking Mid-Air

When you attack on the ground, you'll be frozen in place until your attack ends (12 frames for subweapons, 18 for melee attacks). This does not happen when you attack in the air. If you want to kill an enemy that is on the ground, the fastest method is to shoot a projectile the moment you leave the ground. If you want to save chips, you can use a melee attack. Melee attacks come out too slowly to use at the start of your jump, so they must be used as you land. Note that if you are still attacking when you touch the ground, you will stay in place until the animation finishes. You'll want to minimize this by attacking as early as possible while still connecting with the enemy.

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Invincibility Frames

When you take damage, you'll be launched in a direction and lose control for a few frames. Afterwards, you'll be invincible for 84 frames (a little over a second). You can use this to pass through troublesome enemies and run on damaging floors.

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Damage Boosting

When you take a hit, you'll be launched in a direction and lose control for a few frames. The intention is for you to be launched backwards, but by positioning yourself in certain ways you can turn it into a boost forwards.

When colliding with an enemy or projectile, you'll be sent "away" from the enemy. If you want to boost right, make sure you're on the right side of the enemy when you collide, even if it's only by a single pixel, and even if you're dropping down on it from above.

The same rules apply while you're hanging, except you'll get a different type of boost. It's much faster, but also much shorter.

When damage boosting off a damaging floor, you simply want to be facing opposite the direction you want to go when you touch the floor. Similar to jumping off shifting platforms, you'll either get a slow or a fast damage boost and it's pretty much random which one you get. It probably relates to the fact that you normally move in pixel increments of 1 and 2, alternating every frame.

Damage boosting while sliding gets really weird. If you damage boost opposite way you're sliding, you'll get knocked back a pixel, then proceed forward at half regular sliding speed for about 16 frames. When you damage boost the same way you're sliding, things get really fun. It's a bit different when you're on the ground and when you're in midair (yes you can still be sliding in midair), but the end result is you go VERY FAST. You'll travel 3 pixels the first frame, 4 the 2nd, 5 the 3rd, and so on. If you're on the ground you'll stop at 88 pixels over 11 frames (for reference, at that speed you'd cross the screen in about half a second). If you're in the air, you'll keep accelerating 1 pixel per frame until you touch the ground. Sliding damage boosts are used in 3-1.

If you catch a swinger or railing while damage boosting, the boost will be cancelled and you regain control.

While standing/falling 		- 28 pixels over 14 frames
While hanging			- 18 pixels over 3 frames
By a damaging floor (slow)	- 15 pixels over 14 frames
By a damaging floor (fast)	- 28 pixels over 14 frames
Backwards on ice*		- 10 pixels over 16 frames
Forwards on ice grounded	- 88 pixels over 11 frames
Forwards on ice midair		- !

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Fastfalling

Tapping down while jumping immediately puts you into a falling state as if you just hit the peak of your jump. It is most useful in vertical stages when the only thing preventing progress is waiting to touch the ground again to jump, or more commonly, to cancel out of your somersault animation coming off a swinger so you can grab another one sooner.

Note that every frame you hold down, you stop moving forward. When you need to fastfall but continue moving left or right, tap down for as few frames as possible.

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Swinging

In general, the longer you hold A, the bigger your swing.
Hold 1-9 Frames - 16 pixel height swing (Sweet spot 8 frames)
Hold 10-11 Frames - 29 pixel height swing (Sweet spot 10 frames)
Hold 12-18 Frames - 35 pixel height swing (Sweet spot 12 frames)
Hold 19+ Frames - 56 pixel height swing (Sweet spot 19 frames)

Note there's only a 2 frame window to do a 29 height swing. There are only a few places where it saves time, but it can be worth learning how to do it consistently. There are a couple sweet spots for each swing where you get the height you need without wasting frames on the swing, but aiming for them is not recommended since they are all 1 or 2 frames away from a completely different kind of swing (usually a shorter one). Falling short on your swing can cost large amounts of time and will likely end your run.

You cannot catch a swinger while you are in your somersault animation coming off a swinger. To prevent somersaulting past a swinger, use a fastfall to cancel into a falling state.

Swingers have a magnetic property that will help you latch on to them. You can catch a swinger from 13 pixels out to the side, 13 pixels from above, or 2 pixels from below. Take advantage of this by catching swingers as early as possible and having them pull you towards them.

If you take damage while swinging, you will continue swinging and not get knocked back.

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Ice

Movement on ice behaves a little differently than you might expect. Moving left or right on it puts you into a slow slide. You can no longer control your horizontal movement until the slide ends. Jumping does not end a slide; Your horizontal speed will still be locked in the air and you can still perform a sliding damage boost if you get hit. If you jump past the edge of the ice, your slide will not end until you touch the ground. Taking damage does not end a slide.

You can avoid sliding on ice by letting off the D-Pad before touching it, jumping, and moving again once you're in the air.

You can avoid sliding off of certain ice platforms, specifically the 1-tile wide blocks of ice in 5-2, by holding the opposite direction as you reach the edge.

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Shifting Surfaces

Shifting surfaces take the form of shifting sands, rushing water, and most commonly conveyor belts. They shift your character in a direction, resulting in you moving slower or faster depending on the direction you're trying to go. Pretty standard platformer video game stuff.

You do not regain normal speed when jumping off shifting surfaces.

When jumping off surfaces shifting in the opposite direction, you will gain a bit of speed after the top of your jump, meaning you should be jumping on such surfaces whenever you can. This speed is still slower than regular movement, so be careful not to jump too close to the edge. Short hops will save you slightly more time than full jumps but it's almost completely negligible (~.057 frames per pixel); use whatever combination of short hops and full jumps gets you closest to the end of the shifting platform.

When jumping off surfaces shifting in the same direction, you will maintain an increased speed until you touch the ground. The speed boost comes in two flavors, one faster and one slower. It is probably due to the fact that you move in pixel increments of 1 and 2, alternating every frame. There is currently no known way to control which boost you get beyond frame perfect input. Some jumps can only be made with a faster boost off a shifting platform, notably the conveyor belt jumps in 5-1.

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Spawning Enemies

Kabuki Quantum Fighter only stores data for up to 4 enemies at any given time. If you scroll the screen enough to spawn a 5th enemy while these 4 enemy slots are filled, the 5th enemy simply does not spawn. This technique is used constantly in a speedrun, since avoiding enemies is usually faster than killing them, it is somewhat common for all 4 slots to be filled with the enemies you've been avoiding.

When an enemy is scrolled sufficiently off screen, they are despawned and a slot is freed for a new enemy as if they were killed.

If an enemy drops life or chips, the game will consider that enemy still alive for the purposes of spawning new ones as long as the drop is on screen.

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Stage Timers

The actions of certain enemies and hazards are based on a timer that starts when you begin a stage. These enemies are:
 - Flamethrower heads (Stage 1-1, 3-1, 5-1)
 - Retracting Needles (Stage 2-2, 5-2)
 - Spikeball Spitters (Stage 2-2, 3-1)
 - Flame jets (Stage 3-1)

What this means is if you take the same amount of time to reach these enemies in the stage, they will be in the same place, doing the same thing. The trouble comes from consistently taking the same amount of time to reach them; One mistake and your timing will be completely thrown off.

The flame jets in Stage 3 are a little different. They alternate on and off every 64 frames, and while this timer begins at the start of the stage, whether or not they are on or off is determined when they are spawned.

Note that spikeball spitters are different from the spikeballs that 'patrol' back and forth, their timing is determined when they are spawned, as most other enemies.

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Invisible Platforms

Every ladder in the game has some tiny invisible platforms. Release the D-Pad and press A while sufficiently high on a ladder, and you'll fall on to one. Unfortunately if you press left you will immediately fall off, and if you jump straight up, you'll bump your head on the one directly above you. With precise timing, you can jump and press left to get around the invisible platform, then press right to curl around and regrab the ladder. This can potentially be faster than just climbing the ladder, but the level of precision required is unreasonable for the amount of time it saves.