Player-VS-Player Tutorial

## Introduction

Welcome to the PVP tutorial. The following is a guide to player-vs-player (PVP) engagements on Galaxite. This will cover any game in which there is conventional Minecraft combat with normal movement and swords; it does not cover hyper racers, tnt tag, dodgeball, or other special game modes. The structure is as follows: basics, applications, situational awareness, mythbusting, and advanced tech.

This page is currently under creation/edit. When it is finalized, this notice will be removed.

## The basics

So you're flying in the air above your opponent and you're not sure why it looks like they're hitting you from the next continent. You've come to the right place. Here is a basic rundown of bedrock edition PVP mechanics:

### Hitboxes

Anything that exists physically in the game world (an entity) has a hitbox. These hitboxes perform a variety of functions. The most well-known is the player hitbox. This hitbox is an invisible rectangle that is approximately 1.8 blocks tall and just under the width of the default Steve's arms. Using the "attack" button while within range will damage the play and cause knockback, but only if you are clicking on this hitbox.

Projectiles also have hitboxes. The  snowball's hitbox is approximately 0.25 blocks cubed. That of an  arrow is 0.5 blocks cubed. For projectiles, a successful attack occurs when the server sees this hitbox contact the player hitbox, to which effects are then applied.

Even items dropped on the ground have hitboxes, though these only exist for the purpose of picking them up.

### Attack

The basic attack function uses what is called a hitscan attack. The game engine draws an invisible line out three blocks from the attacker's camera. If that line contacts a hitbox, the attack is successful, and the opponent has the effects of the attack, such as damage and knockback, applied to them. The attack range is 3 blocks.

### Use

The "use" function occurs when any item is used with the use button in game, such as a throwable item, a  bow, a token,  leap feather,  time capsule, or other such item. While it seems simple, the use function has a number of strange mechanics that can impair usage of it if you are not careful. These are all worth beating in mind:

The use function will fail if you use the item too fast after switching to it from another slot. From testing, this effect occurs 100% of the time at 33ms or below, and then get exponentially less likely to occur the slower you are, being impossible about 125ms after the switch is performed. As such, it's important to not press the use button too quickly after using an item. In this case, the item is usually "eaten" by the game, being consumed and nothing happens. The game often, but not always, returns the item to you upon realizing this a few seconds later.

The use function is disabled for approximately 180 miliseconds (ms) after clicking any hitbox while within range, regardless of if this attack caused I-frames or landed during I-frames and did nothing (more on I-frames below). As such, attempting to use an item in combat requires patience and slow hands as well as timing the usage of the item during the enemy I-frames so you do not waste hits on them. This is not commonly known. Similar to above, the use function gets exponentially less likely to complete the less time between the attack and the use, with 180ms being the 0% failure rate in 500 tests. 170ms had a failure rate of approximately 2%, 75ms failed about 40% of the time, and below 50ms failed 100% of the time.

### Movement

In Bedrock edition, players can move in any 360-degree direction if playing on controller, or eight directions if using a keyboard or touchscreen. It is important, when in combat, to move towards your opponent, but as always exceptions apply. Why this is important will be covered in the combos section, but if you are backing away from your opponent yet they are moving towards you, they will be able to hit you, but not you them. This is due to our next topic. The basic player moves at a speed of 5.6 blocks per second when sprinting, and approximately 7 when sprinting while jumping. This is why players often sprint-jump to cover more ground.

### Lag

Lag, or ping, is integral to how PVP works, like it or not. Some functions are performed on the client, meaning in the player's device while others are performed on the server. Your connection to the server is what is called "ping". If your connection is 50ms, it takes 1/20th of a second to send information to the server and receive it back. The following actions are dependent on the server to calculate, and thus ping:

* Opening an inventory
* Using any projectile
* Dealing or receiving knockback and damage (but *not* landing the hit- this is calculated on the client)
* Use of map functions, such as launch pads and jump pads
* Anything information that has to be sent from the server or sent to the server

Since ping is a delay, an aggressive player moving forwards, all else being equal, will hit someone not moving first. This is because, on the server, they are (ping) miliseconds (ms) *behind* where they are on their client, as those inputs have not yet reached the server. However, they are closer than this on the client. As we determined, this means that since hits are calculated on the client, they are indirectly able to hit the client before the server sees them enter actual hit range. This is why players with extremely high ping are often said to have "reach" - on their client, the hits are valid, the server simply needs to catch up with that. This is also why in a pure melee it is beneficial to always move forwards. This is also why having the speed effect seems to grant easier combos, since the displacement of the client is magnified given the same amount of ping as more distance is covered. The "use" function is also delayed by (ping) miliseconds, as are projectiles.

### Hitstun

Hitstun, also known as I-frames, or invincibility frames, occurs when a player taxes a hit in close combat from an enemy or AI "attack" feature. During the hitstun (in which time the player is colored red) they are unable to take another melee attack. Projectiles, however, still function as normal. If the hitstun is triggered by a projectile, melee attacks will function normally during it until one is made. Hitstun lasts exactly half a second, or 500ms. If you wish to mix up your movement during pvp, it is advised to do so during your hitstun, as doing otherwise means you are not moving forward while you can get hit and the above lag displacement is working against you.

### Knockback

Knockback is applied when any hit is completed. A melee attack deals the same knockback every time, accounting for sprinting state. More knockback is dealt if the player is sprinting during the hit. Contrary to popular belief, on bedrock edition there is no need to "sprint reset" between hits. The only check bedrock edition makes is if the player is *currently* sprinting. W and S-tapping can be useful for spacing purposes, but more on that later. Projectiles all have different amounts of knockback specific to the projectile, set by each server. Knockback has horizontal and vertical components. On Galaxite, the knockback can best be described as "medium" in both directions.

It is worth nothing that knockback must come from one client, go to the server, then go to the next client. As such, knockback you deal is dealyed by (Your ping) + (Opponent ping) milseconds. This needs to be accounted for when fighting someone with extreme lag, or when you yourself have extreme lag.

Other mechanics exist, but these will give you a good summary of the most important to know.

## Applications

This knowledge is great, but how is it used? Some conclusions follow directly from what we have learned. For example, stopping enemy movement, such as using snowballs, blocks, arrows, or other such utility will prevent them from moving forwards, allowing you to get free hits. This comes from combining our knowledge of knockback and lag and movement as above. I cannot possibly cover all of the emergent situations in gameplay in this article. It is better that I arm you with general knowledge and allow you to go out into the game and learn. The applications of this knowledge are as varied as the situations in which you use it. Rather than listing it all here, I will allow you to experiment.

A note on aim. Since the attack function is a straight line, you need to aim at your eye level on the enemy whenever possible. Read that again. Your eye level. Not their eye level, their feet, their head, of whatever else you've heard online. Aim at whatever part of their body is at your eye level or, if they are above that, the lowest part or, if they are below that, the highest part. There are no exceptions to this rule. This will make sure you don't waste your hit range by "bending" it up or down. in the same vein, always aim for the center of the hitbox horizontally, so you don't waste reach looking "sideways".

A note on hardware. PC is easier to fight on than controller, which is easier than a phone. This is mostly undeniable. Higher refresh rates and FPS (frames per second) higher than 60 can definitely help, though there are diminishing returns. Better peripherals help, to a point. With that said, some players can still play extremely good even with a low frame rate. Take that into consideration before blaming hardware.

## Situational awareness

Knowledge is power. The player who knows the opponent's every move will win every game. However, this knowledge is limited. It is important to have game awareness in order to make good decisions. Good battle skills win fights. Good situational awareness and decision making wins games. This encompasses everything, from use of items, to predicting opponent plans, to seeing and covering opponent options, to understanding your options, to positioning, whether to fight or to wait, when to stop gathering items and start fighting, when to retreat, when to push an attack, and countless more things. Here are a quick list of tips to improve your situational awareness, also known as "gamesense".

* Look around a lot. Toggle perspective exists for a reason. Mobile players, you've got a harder fight here.
* Use corners and map geometry to your advantage
* Seek to maximize your options. A worse position that has many options is better than an excellent position with only one.

Use knowledge from one fight with a player to attempt to determine their intent and plan. No person is free from the curse of having habits.

Learn from your mistakes and admit them. Who will be the better player in a month: The one who loses and flames the winner in chat, then refuses to play games with them for eternity, or the one who gets flawlessed six times and starts taking notes and actively seeks out better competition?

## Mythbusting

There are a number of myths in PVP in Bedrock edition. Before we get into advanced tech, let's dispel some of those:

* Sprint resetting, as covered, has no impact on knockback on any bedrock edition server save cubecraft
* looking at an opponent's feet does not help combos. See above.
* Click speed has diminishing returns above approximately 12. You don't lose fights to click speed if you can click 12 or more, that is an excuse.

## Advanced tech

Alright, I know that half of you are just here to learn how to make people fly and put combo montages on youtube. So let's just start the advanced tech section with that, shall we?

### Combos

Combos exist as an emergent property of many of the things we have discussed, such as aim, movement, knockback, and more. Fundamentally, a combo is when you can hit someone, but they cannot hit you. This is often due to them being above you, you using a snowball or block to cancel their movement briefly, or many other things. The methods of starting a combo are varied. Snowballs are the most well known, as they deal direct knockback, which I will refer to from here on out as KB. Blocks are also a method of stopping movement. Once movement is stopped, you must do 2 things to start a combo:

1. Hit them
2. Space yourself out properly so that they are just at the end of your reach

Much effort is spent thinking you are starting combos wrong when in reality you are not spaced properly. You need to keep your own hitbox out of their reach, so you want them right on the edge of yours. This takes time and practice. Recall that reach is 3 blocks. Multiple methods of slowing yourself down and speeding yourself up are required to continue to hold combos. If you are too close, you can let go of forward, tap backwards, strafe, or many other methods to slow yourself down. If you are too far, you can stop strafing, sprint jump, or many other methods to stay in range. What spacing is needed depends on opponent movement and terrain.

### Combo Escapes

If you are being made to fly yourself, there are many ways to escape it. Here are some:

1. Wiggle back and forth with your movement randomly while attempting to hit them. This will cause them to need very precise spacing to keep you in the combo
2. Hit them with a projectile
3. Place blocks in front of them
4. Many more

Which one you will use depends on the situation and your experience doing many of the same.

### Jump resets

As jumping moves you forward faster, jumping when you take knockback can counteract it. Simple as that. However, this is an extremely precise window and is functionally impossible to perform in any environment except for pure fist sumo, as projectiles and blocks exist. A good player can also exploit it. As such, it is not recommended to waste your time practicing this.

### Glider bombing

This is a community term for shooting someone immediately before landing on them from an dropship, then switching to your sword and hitting them with your sword. It is extremely lethal, though high level mechanic that requires aim, prediction, and fast fingers. This is worth practicing if your primary minigame has dropships (Chronos or Rush).

More advanced tech will be added over time. There are many more pieces of advanced tech that, one again, are emergent properties of the info discussed in basics.

## Conclusion

None of this knowledge will instantly make you better. It will give you the tools you need to improve. Get out there and practice. For best practicing, try Playground as it has the same combat as all Galaxite minigames and refer to this guide when needed. More importantly, refer to your own performance, take responsibility for your losses and for your wins, have fun, and don't forget to stretch.

See you on the battlefield.

1. ↑ https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Hitbox
2. ↑ https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Snowball
3. ↑ https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Arrow
4. ↑ https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Damage#Knockback
5. ↑ "[...] video transmission standards in North America, Japan, and South Korea are still based on 60 [...] images per second."https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frame\_rate#Modern\_video\_standards