DNF Duel has a lot of fighting game archetypes attached to the adventurers in the game. Ghost Blade is the rushdown character who can turn anything into big damage. However, he lacks good defensive options.
Since Ghost Blade doesn’t have an invincible reversal, you must make the most out of each hit. Not only that, but you also must know how to keep your offensive going on. Things get really bad for Ghost Blade when he is forced to block and guess what comes next.
For that reason, we decided to offer some tips and tricks on how to play Ghost Blade better. He is a fun adventurer with a lot of damage, but unlocking his full power requires a lot of work. This is where a DNF Duel Ghost Blade guide can be very useful to make you learn everything much faster.
Take Advantage of Your Range
Although Ghost Blade is not a zoner, he does have a fullscreen attack that leads into a highly damaging combo with his Dyad: Soul Cross. You can have more information on his attacks by checking the DNF Duel Frame Data.
Even Ghost Blade’s Standing A reaches really far. If you manage to start a combo with Ghost: Single Strike or his standing B, you might be able to use Ghost: Phantom Wind twice in a single combo, leading to over 400 damage.
Since Ghost Blade has so much damage potential that can start from anywhere on the screen, his defensive options are limited. For instance, he doesn’t have an invincible reversal. This is just another reason to take advantage of any potential opening you find on your opponent.
Remember that Ghost: Single Strike is pretty easy to confirm. In other words, you can use it from the other side of the screen and only press the MP Skill button again to close the gap if you see that the opponent didn’t block the ghost.
Use Ghost Blade’s Safe Jumps
Ghost Blade is a character that does not have an invincible reversal and depends on being offensive. That said, he also has to navigate a crowd of characters who have wake-up options.
For instance, when fighting Grappler or Lost Warrior, the safest way to deal with them is to hit them low as they wake up. That’s because their parry MP Skill only affects medium and high attacks.
When fighting every other character, hitting them on their wake-up might be very risky. They can just use their invincible reversal. However, Ghost Blade has some solid options when finishing a combo string that can make his life much easier.
In fighting games, safe jumps are offensive jumps that are meant to safely hit the opponent when they wake up. They are performed in a way that prevents you from being hit by an invincible reversal or other wake-up options.
Since most invulnerable attacks in this game are not instant, there are many ways to set up a safe jump when playing Ghost Blade. A very common one is to end your combos in a specific way.
Use Ghost: Phantom Wind to pick someone from the ground, run and hit them with Cross Slash right after the second hit of Phantom Wind, then juggle your opponent with Spectral Eradication, Crouching Heavy, and then Soul Strike.
Unfortunately, this might not work on every character. If you mess up the timing, you might get caught by a counter Skill such as Grappler’s, Crusader’s, or Lost Warrior’s parry.
One more thing: this setup is very powerful, but it won’t ever work on Striker the way it is described. Striker’s invincible reversal, Rising Fist, starts on frame one and makes her invulnerable for the first 9 frames. In other words, even the suggested safe jump isn’t safe when used against her.
However, you can fake a safe jump to bait her DP. You can also use different setups that will force her to block or get hit. Spacing Ghost Blade’s Aerial Skill, Cross Slash, is one of my favorites. It doesn’t deal a lot of damage as a consequence, but it catches dodges and works as an actual safe jump against her Rising Fist.
This is such a powerful technique due to Ghost Blade’s potential to win a fight against Striker by touching her twice. Suppose he starts a combo with Ghost: Single Strike and manages to bait her Rising Fist. In that case, Ghost Blade can immediately win the game even if he has only 100 mana.
Do The Trials
Some of the combos in the trials are optimized or very close to it. By learning the timing on Ghostblade’s MP Specials, you can extend your combos to two-touch-kill any character with 950 HP or less. You don’t even need extra mana or awakening to do so.
As you can see in the example above, getting the first hit and forcing a mistake is all that you need as Ghost Blade. And remember, you can capitalize on mistakes committed by characters on the other side of the screen thanks to your Ghost: Single Strike and its follow-up, Dyad: Soul Cross.
Some of the most annoying characters to fight as Ghost Blade are Inquisitor, Striker, and Kunoichi. They can keep you in block stun forever, and it’s hard to escape without an invincible reversal.
That said, they also lack HP, so you might be able to win after two combos, but you have to learn those combos first.
With time, you will learn how to connect different things, making combos that are not in the trials. However, mastering the eight combos available in the tutorial is something you should do to understand the character anyway.
Also, remember that longer combos do not necessarily mean more damage. You will have more hit-stun to work with if your combos start from your Ghost: Single Strike or from a Heavy Attack.
Learn Your Bread and Butter Combos
Bread and Butter, or BnB, is a common fighting game term for the basic stuff you will often do in a fight. BnB combos, or just BnBs, are usually the combos you use in certain situations that frequently happen when you are playing the game.
For instance, it is not unusual for Ghost Blade to start his combos from a Standing A, Crouching B, or a Neutral MP — his Ghost: Single Strike converted into Dyad: Soul Cross. For that reason, it is crucial to learn the combos that start from those buttons.
Although the combo structure of DNF Duel is very loose, Ghost Blade might need you to get used to the timing before you can go for his more damaging combos. That said, it is very unlikely that you will be able to do his combos without any practice.
The more you play with the character, the more familiar you will be with his combo structure and timings. After a while, you will be able to perform complex sequences of attacks that reset the opponent’s hit stun for more damage.
That said, remember that more prolonged and more damaging combos have strict timing. Failing to complete them might make you vulnerable to a counterattack. This is why I recommend you start with shorter combos. Yet, as mentioned, you must know at least one simple combo for each of the most common situations you face when playing this character.
Use Conversion For Strike & Throw Mix-Ups
Ghost Blade can use conversion in combos to increase his damage, but chances are he won’t even need it. However, you can use it to escape with an instant, safe teleport by using Driving Slash and conversion right after pressing the button.
You can also use conversion to close rounds with a grab after Driving Slash or Dyad: Soul Cross. This becomes even harder for others to deal with when the ghost is on the screen. It’s just too many things to pay attention to.
This is one of Ghost Blade’s best mix-ups, and after done a few times, you might take advantage of the fact that your adversary will sit still and wait for the throw. When that happens, you can try to do something else to open their defense.
Use All Kinds of Mixups
Ghost Blade is a character with a lot of damage. Two combos from a good starting point can be more than enough to finish the combat. However, DNF is a game where most mixups come from throws and guard damage.
Throws are not the most threatening thing in this game, and Ghost Blade’s guard break potential is not as good as Ranger’s or Striker’s. However, he does have some really decent mixups that can end up evolving into a guard-breaking situation.
For instance, the use of conversion allows you to cancel Ghost Blade’s specials mid animation, including the one in which he teleports through the enemy.
That simple mixup can often be followed by a throw or a throw bait after conversion. It can also be done right after you send your Ghost with your Back + MP special attack. That way, your adversary will have to choose between getting thrown or risking to tech your throw, which can lead to a full combo.
Once you get the knockdown, Ghost Blade can also go for another mixup. You have a few options when your adversary is about to get up. You can jump and hit your MP Skill button, then jump again to hit your target on your way up. You can also hit them low instead of jumping.
Another thing you can do is to hit them on your way down when they are getting up and cancel the attack into your jumping MP before hitting the ground. Then, you get to make them guess if you are going to hit them with a jumping attack or land and hit them low.
Take Advantage of Your Guard Cancel
Not All Guard Cancels Are Born Equal. Ghost Blade uses his 2B animation, Spectral Eradication, as his Guard Cancel attack. For that reason, he is able to break free from pressure exerted by characters with long buttons, such as Hitman, Vanguard, or Berserker.
That said, since he doesn’t have an invincible DP, Ghost Blade must use his Guard Cancel to stop an enemy’s pressure and reset the game to neutral, where he might have an advantage.
It is not unusual to see Ghost Blade players immediately going for a mix-up using conversion after receiving white damage from a tight block string.
