When I started playing DBXv2, I got a really cold shower after my first couple of PvP matches, even unranked. Thing is: the game doesn’t really gives you any incentive to train and extend your battle skills. Actually (and it is only my own experience of course), I got 80% of the time rifts and 74% of the main story done before I started wondering about these techniques.

As a matter of facts, I wasn’t past the fifth lesson of Elder Kai and did not know anything about side steps, vanish step or rear punch (or basically any useful technique for PvP).

The results were… as expected: I got my ass handed to me… big time. But it took actually 2 fights to figure out that I couldn’t just smash that Y and X buttons. The reason is that my first fight was against a Goku Ultra Instinct and this guy has auto-dodge and I thought it was all on an OP character, nothing wrong with my skills here… Of course… However,  after the second fight… Well, when Pan literally destroys a Super Sayan 3, you have to face the fact that your skills might need some honing 😉

Anyway after some more training I can say my game has definitely improved a lot (considering where I’m coming from, regressing would have been really hard). The one thing that I found a bit unnerving during my training is that there is a lot of stuff on the internet for the PS4 but not that much for the Switch, it’s not hard to translate but I thought having everything in the same place saves some hassle. So without further ado here is the Ultimate Nintendo Switch Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 Cheat Sheet (UNSDBX2CS to make it look like a new Sayan transformation ^^).

Attributes

Dragon Ball Xenoverse has 6 basic attributes you can level up: Max Health, Max Ki, Max Stamina, Basic Attacks (strikes and ki blast power), Strikes Super (melee Super Attacks, Ultimate Attacks and Evasive Skills power) and finally Ki Blast Supers (Ki Blast Super Attacks, Ultimate Attacks and Evasive Skills intensity).

These attributes vary with your character’s race, sex (females generally have stronger Ki attacks and males hit harder), your size and weight (the heavier the stronger but also the slower), etc.

There is a lot of good articles on the internet about the attributes system and what kind of build you want to do.Here is a couple of them:

• Dragon Ball Xenoverse Wiki
• A very good guide on Steam (also read this if you have not yet created your character and are looking for an extensive description of each race’s specifics)

Honestly the one thing I keep in mind is mainly to be consistent. What I mean is: if I go for a Super Vegeta 2 as my Awoken skill, I’ll probably want to match that with a lot of points in Max Ki and Ki Blast Supers (to take advantage of the Super Vegeta 2 +17.5% bonus in Ki related attacks). If I go for SS3, I’ll probably want to put points in Stamina, and Basic Attacks (probably max it out).

In PvP battles, your main concern will be to out-stamina your opponent. So Stamina is going to be an important statistic. And cleverly use the moves that heavily deplete your Stamina is going to be the difference between wining and loosing in a lot of matches. Basically, use stamina draining evasive skills as a last resort and be clever with your Z-Vanish. Getting your stamina drained is not the only thing you’ll have to fear as stamina breaks are one shot strikes that deplete all your stamina (no matter the level) and leaves you basically defenseless. You can avoid that with Step Vanish. Please note that Stamina Breaks are not the same as Guard Breaks (although they look alike, the effect is nothing similar).

Stamina pro tips: your Stamina replenish faster when you are on the ground, floating mid air make it replenish slowly compared to ground recovery.

You can find an excellent article on Stamina Break on Amino.

As a final note on attributes, I have not yet finished the entire game but in PVE, I feel like the attributes are not as important as mastering the different game technics. I feel like wathever points distribution I am using, the game is not that hard to beat. I struggle a lot more when I have to perfect my timing (for example, Hit’s final training gave me a lot of trouble).

Movements

Moving is key in DBXv2, and you probably already know everything there is to know about it but here is a quick reminder:

Camera Lock/Unlock

Locking your camera on an opponent keeps the focus on him and allow to always have him on screen (well… most of the time) and to focus your attacks and Ki blasts.

R (press once to lock and a second time to unlock)

Now in situations were you have more than one enemy to worry about, you can circle between your enemies by tilting the right joystick.

Moving

Left joystick

One thing probably worth noting is that while in active combat the left joystick directions can have different significations. It depends on your camera lock status. If your camera is not locked directions are absolutes. On the contrary when your camera is locked on the opponent, the directions are relatives to the opponent.

That is important for one thing: every in game tutorial in-game or on the internet just assume you are locking on the opponent. Newcomers, beware of that.

As a side note, I find myself sometime unlocking the opponent (particularly in 1vs 3+ situations) when I start to get chained combo and can’t really get any room to start my comeback. I unlock the camera and use Vanish Step to get away – mostly – unharmed (ok: to survive).

Side Step

ZL (hold) + Left Joystick (just a tilt)

Side step is really useful to avoid big damages and get out of the combo way. However, at first I had trouble to execute it because I did not understand that I needed to tilt the joystick and let it go after, not hold it. When I finally got it, it changed a lot of things!

Dragon Rush

ZL (hold) + Left Joystick (hold in the direction you want to go to)

Well, that’s what I was doing instead of the side step 😉

Fly

To go up:

B (hold)

And down:

Left joystick (press it like a button and hold it down, no directions needed) OR L + B

You can go down quicker by double pressing B.

These are the same whether you fly in Toki Toki City or in fight.

Note: If you just press and release B (no hold), you are just going to jump.

Commands

Basics

This article is not a tutorial on the game itself. however, here is a quick reminder of the basics for the super attacks and ultimate.

Pressing ZR bring the Super Attacks menu and, depending on your choices, you’ll see the different powers you configured. ZR+B is always going to be the Ki charge.

Pressing ZL+ZR will bring the ultimates menu to screen. The same thing apply, it will mostly depend on what you chose as your powers. The ZL+ZR+B combination will always be your evasive skill.

Knockback Attack

Fly in your opponent’s face and send him flying.

X + A

If you follow by:

Left joystick to the left or right + B

You are going to follow with a Dragon Rush and be behind your opponent.

Dragon Rush

This is both an offensive and defensive move, it closes the distance with your opponent and allow for strikes.

Y + B

If you hit B during the Dragon Rush you will Z-Vanish behind your opponent.

Guard Break/Heavy punch

This is a heavy strike that breaks your opponent’s guard, making an opening for you to punish him!

X or Y (hold)

Loading your punch exposes you to counter attack. Please note that as an Awoken Sayan (Super Sayan and up), your charged strikes have an auto-teleport feature. That’s pretty cool!

Rear punch:

Rear Punch is used to hit someone in your back. Usually, someone that Z-Vanish on you.

Left joystick down + Y or X

This is absolutely crucial to get that right. It will help break your opponent’s combos and also helps to prevent you from being hit by a stamina break combo/move that would expose you to some serious damages.

Z-Vanish:

This is your basic teleport in the back. It is both an offensive and defensive move. However, you have to be very cautious in using it as it is draining 2 stamina bars everytime you use it.

B button

You have to be extremely careful with that as it drains 2 bars of stamina, and going on stamina break means being defenseless.

Just Guard

L (press just before being hit by ki or physical attacks)

That one is powerful but tricky to master. Get it right and you got yourselves an amazing combo breaker. Do it to late and you got yourselves a fistful of strikes in the face… My advice: if you absolutely have to miss the Just Guard, be too early instead of too late 😉

Stamina Break

Left Joystick up + Y or X

When it lands it puts your opponent on stamina break. Be wary of being too trigger happy with that move as failing to land the blow leaves you wide open.

Vanishing Step

ZL (hold) + Left joystick tilt in any direction + B

This one is really important to master. Moving is key in PvP battles and not being predictable has a biiiiiig importance in you winning or loosing. Vanishing step as many benefits: on top of allowing you to move quickly and being unpredictable, it also makes you invulnerable during the step itself. That is obviously an excellent way of getting out of harm’s way.

Grab

Grab moves are a decent counter attack when you just blocked some incoming strikes.

L (Hold) + B

Beware that, as all techniques it comes with a price. If you miss you are exposed to counter attack for a small period of time.

 

Conclusion

DBXv2 is a fun and nice game, even if it is a bit repetitive. But PvP can really pour cold water on your motivation. Particularly in the beginning. This game is fairly far from what I would call a “traditional” fighting game (like the Street Fighter franchise) and sometimes it feels like you cannot do anything to prevent your opponent from toying with you. That is just a feeling, DBXv2 is easy to get in but hard to master.

Hopefully this article, and the extensive use of training mode, will help you to master the game mechanics quicker.

If you think I missed anything, or if you think I should add key resources to this article, please tell me either in the comments or on social medias.