Terminology

The following is a list of terms and shorthand used to describe attacks, maneuvers and other gameplay in Brawlhalla.

General

Term	Definition
BMG	Blue Mammoth Games, the developers of Brawlhalla.
CC	Community Colors, a special color given away through code.
Metadev	A special skin earned as reward for meeting a dev, typically from in-person events. A new metadev skin is released every year.

Attacks

Term	Definition
Active Inputs	A unique feature to the Scythe, Battle Boots, and certain signatures. With attacks that have active inputs, holding a direction after landing the attack will result in a different outcome than not holding a direction. Examples of this are the Scythe down-light, and Fait's Orb down-signature.
Aerial Attack	An attack performed in the air. Possible attacks include aerial neutral-light (nair), aerial side-light (sair), aerial down-light (dair), aerial heavy (recovery), and aerial down-heavy (ground pound).
Chainsaw	A signature attack that has active frames while charging, such as Ulgrim's Lance down-signature.
Charging	Holding down a heavy attack for an extended period of time. Charged attacks will do slightly more damage and knockback.
Clash	When two attacks are interrupted by one another, canceling both attacks in the process.
Down Attack	A light attack or heavy attack, performed while the player is holding down. Often abbreviated as "dlight" or "dsig".
Exhausted Recovery	After performing a recovery attack, every subsequent recovery before touching the ground will be exhausted; these have less vertical travel, and count towards your total jump count in the air.
Gravity Cancel	Performing a spot dodge in the air, and then quickly using a light or heavy attack. This will perform the grounded version of the attack mid-air. Abbreviated as "GC".
Ground Pound	A heavy aerial down attack. This plummets the player downwards and has long recovery frames, making it a risky move. Abbreviated as "GP".
Heavy Attacks	Slow, but high damage and high knockback attacks that can be charged. Possible heavy attacks include signatures, recovery, ground pound and unarmed heavy attacks.
Interrupt	Cancelling an opponent's attack by attacking them during start-up frames or during charge.
Light Attack	Sometimes called "Quick Attack". Low-damaging, but fast attacks that are good for combos. Each weapon has 3 grounded and 3 aerial light attacks.
Lingering Attack	When an attack (usually a Signature) "hangs" in the air for some time after the initial attack. This can catch opponents off guard if they think the attack has finished.
Neutral Attack	A light attack or heavy attack, performed when no directional button is held down. Often abbreviated as "nlight" or "nsig".
Recovery Attack	A heavy aerial neutral attack. This attack launches the player higher than a jump, hence the name "recovery".
Side Attack	A light attack or heavy attack, performed while the player is holding left or right. Often abbreviated as "slight" or "ssig".
Signature	Performing a heavy attack while grounded and holding a weapon. Each Legend has 3 unique Signatures for each of their weapons. Abbreviated as "Sig".
Unarmed	When a player is not holding any weapon.

Movement

Term	Definition
Chase Dodge	Dodging in a direction facing your opponent after attacking them. This will perform a quick dodge that allows you to chase your opponent. Two chase dodges can be performed consecutively - both dodges don't have to be in the same direction.
Dash	A quick dashing movement, performed by pressing the dodge button left or right while grounded. This does not grant invulnerability. Dashing backwards is called a "Back Dash".
Dash Jump	Jumping immediately after dashing.
Directional Influence	If a player is stuck in a true combo and the same move is used more than once, they can change their trajectory by holding a directional input the second time they are hit by that same move. Abbreviated as "DI".
Dodge	A move that grants temporary invulnerability, and will move the play in the direction held. If dodging while grounded, the player can't dodge for another second. If dodging while airborne, the player can't dodge for another 3 seconds (this is reduced if they touch the ground afterwards). Dodging without holding a direction is called a Spot Dodge.
Fast Fall	Holding down while in the air to fall faster.

Combat Mechanics

Term	Definition
Active Frames	The duration of your attack’s hitbox (i.e. the number of game frames during which the attack can hurt you).
Cooldown	Additional delay between using the same attack twice or more in a row.
Force	The amount of force taken after an attack. Variable knockback means the player takes more after they've taken lots of damage, while fixed knockback means the same amount of knockback will always be applied. This is also sometimes referred to as "impulse" or "knockback".
Hitbox	An invisible area produced by attacks which will hurt opponents if they touch it. Hitboxes can be previewed in Training mode.
Hurtbox	An invisible area surrounding each character, which defines where an attack must land for them to take damage. Hurtboxes can be previewed in Training mode.
Recovery Frames	The time it takes for an attack to end after it has been performed. The player can not move and is vulnerable during recovery frames.
Start-up Frames	The time it takes for an attack to land after pressing the attack button.
Stun	Period of time after being attacked where an enemy can not move.

Combat Techniques

Term	Definition
Combo	Landing multiple attacks in quick succession on an opponent.
Ledge Cancel	Approaching a soft platform and holding down as soon as you're on top of it to “land” immediately.
Slide Charge	Charging an attack while running off a platform, typically with a dash. The player's momentum will allow them to move forward in air while still charging their attack. This doesn't work with all signatures, as some make the player float off the platform or lose momentum upon charging.
True Combo	A combo that the opponent has no chance to dodge out of. This occurs when the stun of the first attack is longer than the recovery frames of the first attack and the startup frames of the second attack, allowing the player to quickly dish out both attacks.
Wall Hugging	Staying on the side of the stage for an extended period of time.
Wall Slip	If a player performs 9 air jumps, wall jumps or recovery attacks without hitting an opponent, being hit or touching the ground, they will not be able to perform air jumps, recoveries or dodges until they touch the ground.
X-Pivot	An advanced technique where the player's momentum is cancelled out by an attack going in the other direction, allowing for a quick and surprising attack.

Tournament

Term	Definition
BCX	The Brawlhalla World Championship; a major competitive tournament held each year. The acronym comes from the original name "Brawlhalla World Championship Exposition."
Championship	A competitive tournament, one is held for each season of the year (Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall).
Esports	The competitive division of the game, where professional players compete for money prizes.
Game	The instance of combat where the outcome is determined by a team/player losing all their stocks.
Match	The set or collection of sets wherein a team/player has officially lost and the winning team/player advances to the next round of the Tournament.
Set	The best-of-3 or best-of-5 games that are played until a team/player has won a majority of the set. (Multiple sets are only played in the case of the lower seed team/player winning a set in the Grand Finals.)

Slang

Term	Definition
Barbecue Sauce	Describes the color of the health bar when a player is in really deep-red.
Black Hole	A combo executed by two players to juggle a third player back and forth between them continually. If spaced correctly, the trapped player has no opportunity to dodge or move away between the hits and continues to accumulate damage until a final strike knocks the doomed victim off the stage. This technique has been made more difficult with the introduction of Directional Influence.
Bonk	Hitting the bottom of the stage when trying to recover, making it drastically more difficult to make it back to the stage.
Calculated	An exceptionally precise (and often lucky) attack, generally involving throwing a weapon/Gadget from a far distance. Some players may use the Calculated emote to gloat after this event.
Gimp	Knocking an opponent off the stage by interrupting their recovery, generally while they are still at high health.
Punish	Attacking/comboing an opponent after they performed a mistake or a bad dodge.
Read	To "read" an opponent is to predict their movement/dodges, allowing the player to properly position their attacks. Some players may use The Reads emote to gloat after an exceptional read.
Salt	Frustration and anger caused by gameplay or gameplay events. This term has its own emote, which tends to induce this emotion in many players.
SD	Short for "Self-destruction," which in itself is slang for Accident.
Snuff	To "interrupt" a recovery attack in particular. Some may call it a "snuffed recovery."
Spam	Using the same combo or move (generally signatures) repeatedly. Spamming is a mocked strategy as it can become predictable and leave you open for attacks. Sometimes losing players will accuse their opponents of spamming.
Stomp	Nickname for Hammer's Down-Light attack.
Tilt	When a player enters a continual losing streak, caused by impatience, frustration and anger. This is self-perpetuating, and will most likely lead to more losses if a player continues to play while tilted.
Wake-up Attack	Attacking immediately after getting stunned.
Weapon Starving	Purposefully throwing away weapons drops so the opponent can't pick them up, essentially "starving" them of a weapon.
Whiff	To miss an attack.